Ghana Update III

Busy Internet strikes again. Internet here is 12,000 cedis per hour. The exchange rate is (very roughly) 10,000 cedis per dollar. (It’s actually more like 9k and change) So that’s around $1.25/hour, which isn’t so bad and certinaly doesn’t seem so punishing that it’s keeping locals away – this place is busy and provides Internet, so no false advertising there. The bills start at 1000 cedis, or about ten cents; this means that when you get a $20 changed for a stack of 5000-cedi bills you feel RICH, which is fun; I’ll be kinda sad to not walking around with a huge fistful of money. 🙂

We start the camp tomorrow; I’m excited. We’ve finally got the basics of our curriculum picked out and we grabbed some more volunteers from church (yeah, I was the only non-black person attending), so we’re up to around 20 volunteers for 100 kids. Pravda and BoingBoing have posted our press release, and we’ve got interest from several other news organizations – more press will definitely help us out with fundraising and finding volunteers for next year.

I definitely get the sense that Ghana is a very entrepreneurial country – there are almost more startups than in Silicon Valley! Everyone has a little hut-business. The cultural intermix here is pretty funny, too. Korean trucks driving by Indian restaurants blasting American hiphop – and trashy English-redubbed Spanish soap operas are all the rage, despite the fact that there are basically no hispanics here. If there are one or two, they’re good at hiding.

Had goat for lunch; I guess I can check off another animal. My favorite is still moosemeat, which I had in Quebec; tasty stuff, that. It’s odd, because the smells from the cooking are actually not that pleasant, but I find the meals quite tasty.

Driving, or being driven, is basically an exercise in your faith in God. Everyone drives very quickly, doesn’t pay attention to vagaries such as “the correct side of the road” or “stop signs” and the roads themselves are full of fun surprises like giant potholes. Only the most major of roads are paved and street addresses basically don’t mean anything – people use PO Boxes for everything.

Getting out the camera was very funny; a crew of soccer players getting out from practice spotted me riding in the back of a truck with my camera and started cheering and posing when they saw me taking pictures of them. It was getting dark, though, so I’m not sure the picture came out.

Anyhow, all is well, I’m off to prep the last parts of the lesson plan for tomorrow. Please wish me luck! Hugs to all!