Adventures with Fufu, and other meanderings of thought :)

Hello family and friends!
I am again on another computer (have not yet managed a good strategy for keeping my laptop charged. Will work on that tonight,) and today has been good... we had our first official Fante class today, which was interesting, then had yet another good meal at Sasakawa on campus. Akwasi (just found out his name was spelled with an A.... Fanti's spell it with an I, but he's Asante, so that's probably why,) says that it was founded by a Chinese guy, though you'd never guess it by the food, which is from everywhere, and I wonder whether he was actually Japanese, as the name sounds more like that to me. Then, we tried to go to the bank to open our accounts here, but the manager wasn't there today, so no-can-do. Ah well ;) I'm still doing fine as I transferred a good bit of cash in the beginning and have been doing relatively little that requires money.
Random note of interest to a few people: I bought "The Pheonix Guards" by Steven Brust while in Dulles Airport, and thank you so very much, Brock, for the suggestion. I *love* it. And now Khaavren is one of my favorite names. I think I incidentally impressed a few professors when I was reading on campus the other day, though they may have also simply been perplexed that I was sitting on the ground, which is apparently uncommon... I'm just glad I have free time to do so. I'm about 2/3 of the way through it at the moment, and I heartily recommend it to anyone and everyone, especially Matt Fisher *ahem* ;).
Major events of yesterday (Sunday):
My mother insisted that I wait till next week to attend the 6am service at the seminary on sunday, so I agreed. But it practically didn't matter, as at about that time I was awoken by some seriously loud, hearty singing with African drums. It was amazing... I was struck by how fervent and excited they could be at 6am... and again, I know that this happens at churches in other parts of America, but not at anyplace I've ever lived ;) and maybe still not at 6am. It continued all day. All day you could hear singing and music from different parts of the city. I did go to a different Anglican church (St. Monica's) with my family at 9am, and that was a particularly strange experience because I wasn't sitting with anyone from my family, and the church service was almost entirely in Fante. Occasionally people would use English to emphasize a point, and towards the end of the service there were English hymns (the Fante ones came first & continued throughout) and English was used around communion, which I took. A friend from the seminary preached, though I didn't know the guy with whom he shared the service. For me, it felt like a mix of what I'd expect from an AME church (loud singing, call & response, various times of calling for offerings) and what I'd expect from an Anglican church (communion wafers, incense, processions). Very interesting and good. I think I might wait till I understand a little more Fante to go back, though. In the meantime, I have my seminary, the Methodist church down the street, and I'm sure several others to try out.
And my final comment for the day involves fufu ;) This food is the most quintessential one of the Cape Coast region... and the thing is, it tastes fine. But traditionally, you're not supposed to taste it- you're supposed to just swallow it. Imagine trying to swallow a walnut sized blob of doughy goo, slick from the soup it's in... apparently all the Fante folk manage it just fine, and it doesn't bother your digestion, nor cause any problems in your throat... But I can't. I tried really hard, but was unable to swallow any amount larger than a pill without gagging... so, I'll be back to chewing for a while. Chewing is just such a hard thing to put aside when you've been doing it all your life, and generally it makes tons of sense: many things would harm you if you swallowed them whole. My tongue, being connected to my brain, which knows this, and having 21 years of practice at shoving unchewed food towards my teeth, simply kept going about its business and generally not allowing me to swallow. Ah well. In theory, fufu is a brilliant idea if you have some especially bad tasting thing that is especially good for you. Just think- there's much less effort for the eater if all you have to do is swallow once for a relatively big glob of energy-giving stuff. It would be awesome if only I could do it. By the by, fufu is made of cassava and plantains that have been pounded & folded, pounded & folded. You eat it in a reddish-orange soup with a hunk of fish, and you're supposed to eat all of this with your fingers, a method for which I have no reservations, but my family keeps insisting on giving me utensils ;) C'est la vie.
That's all the time I've got for today... but thank you, lovely people who are doing my recommendations for me... please send them in if you haven't already. Adam, you rock. Someone tell Jim I'm grateful for the Yachting newsletter. And Chelsea, if you'd like to send me the acidophilus, just check and see how much it'll cost you first, k? ;)
I love you all. I miss you very much, and I'm doing fine.
*hugs*
-Rachel Rose

I'm in Ghana! (actually here....)

So, Katie and I must have misunderstood... we were led to think that accessing the internet would be easy in Ghana.... but this is only true if you know where to go. But now I've found internet cafe heaven! And thus I get to post (from my own laptop!) instead of staring at blank loading screens. Yay! :)
So hello family and friends!
I’m alive, and in Ghana, precisely where I’m supposed to be with my family at the St. Nicholas Anglican Seminary at Cape Coast. I’ve already learned and experienced so much that I don’t know where to begin ;)
To start, I suppose, I’ll give you what we’ve done so far:
Monday we arrived in Accra with no real trouble, and were met at the airport by Akwesi, who's one of the main conductors of the program, doing everything from taking us to get cell phones to major trips across the country (both later ;)). Akwesi promptly established himself as my hero for the day, being the only trustworthy person around and knowing precisely what to do at the same time ;) Amazing.
And there was a lot that we didn't know. It's amazing how much language barriers still exist even when everyone speaks English. The trick is that not everyone speaks it frequently (most people around here speak some variety of Akan, whether Twi or Fanti), and that they have such a different accent (it's 3x as hard as understanding my (marvelous) British cousins on the first day of a visit). Then there's all the cultural differences.
We experienced right off the bat the incredible feats of driving that take place here constantly. I'm sure that people drive this way (dodging people, cars, goats) in some parts of the US, like perhaps NY, but I've never experienced it and I'm glad I don't have to drive.
We stayed in a hotel on Monday night, and it was nice, then drove to Cape Coast on Tuesday, where we exchanged currency and went to our houses. At my house, the Dean (father figure) is out till next saturday, but Mother (that's her title) is home, as well as her two youngest children and her granddaughter- Maami Esi, 12, Kukua, 8, and Tracy, 9 respectively. Also, her nephew Ernest (13 or 14?) is in & out.
I stayed at home for a few days, hanging out with the kids, bagging bread (Mother bakes bread ;)), and eating food. No real Ghanaian food yet- though tomorrow I get to eat Fufu for the first time.
Some exploring also took place during this time... and we finally really went to school yesterday (Friday), met the professor Lawrence, and got somewhat oriented ;) I now know how to get around town by taxi, btw, Once, when I was coming to meet the rest of the group, Chantal mentioned to Akwesi that I might be chartering a taxi, and Akwesi said "No, she wouldn't", which is, I think, the first compliment concerning street-smarts I think I've ever received ;) Even if it was a taught skill.
Finally, today we went to the slave castles at Cape Coast and Elmina, which is just a few miles away. They were very intense, and the tours were very thorough. I learned a lot and will be pondering a lot. It's just such a different reality here. The race relations are very different, and sometimes the weirdness is just because you're a strange face, or a white face, and not necessarily a bad face. Anyway ;)
My address is/should be
St Nicholas Anglican Seminary
PO Box A 162
Cape Coast, Ghana

Family, Yachters, Dancers, and everyone in between: I miss you very much.
I'll write again asap. I'm having a great time and learning so much.

Possible future topics:
My (awesome, interesting) family
Chores at my house
The Mormon man at the Anglican seminary
Kids and cards
Fante expressions
The further joys of taxis
Ghanaian kids
Ghanaian critters
Ghanaian food
“Oh, Akwesi”
Ghanaian names
O-my-goodness-what-will-my-service-project-be

Goodnight!