Maakye(goodmorning),

Another week down... time is going by very quickly here...

It's Friday morning and I was supposed to be on a bus headed to northern Ghana right now, but the bus broke down so this weekend will be a more local one and we will head north in October instead. I don't really mind because had we gone we would have traveled three weeks in a row(we have another trip to Kumasi next weekend) and that was a bit much. Also, they say that there is a higher chance of seeing elephants in October than September up north, and we all are hoping on elephants.

Plans for the weekend currently include going to a Karoake bar for somebodies birthday tonight, going back to Cape Coast tomorrow for a festival happening there, and hopefully going to church Sunday morning. I have yet to go to church and am hoping it is more encouraging than the frequent evangelists who come into class before the lecturers arrive and preach fire and brimstone at us... religion is everywhere in Ghana in a way we Americans are not used to so used to instead the highly political dance of separation of church and state that America practices... Taxis and tro-tros carry religious messages on their windows, shops have names like God is good fruit stand and on Sunday the world largely shuts down as stores close so their owners can attend church...

This afternoon I am going to the market with friends which is always fun. Medina, located fairly close to our campus, is the second biggest market in Accra(I believe). I have yet to go to Markola which is the biggest, but Medina is an experience in itself. It sprawls over blocks and blocks and carries everything from electrical appliances to shoes and all sorts of food from the stalls with packaged everything to the produce and fish vendors with their wares piled high in cascading towers. One of my favorite things to see are the snails(apparently people eat them) but they are in the market still alive and easily the size of my fist. I don't generally buy food there because there is a little market, we call it the Night Market because it is open late into the night(a girl said until midnight or one) just by our hostels and it is by far the best place to eat, or at least the cheapest, on campus. I can get rice, sauce, cabbage stew and fried plantains all for less than a cedi(about the equivalent of an American dollar) and it definitely fills you up. Medina though is the place to go when you want to get off campus and is a good place to buy fabrics. Ghana has beautiful fabrics and it is relatively inexpensive to buy some and then have a seamstress sew something for you; I got a dress made the other day... Medina is also the place to go for pots and silverware or radios; I bought a radio the other day and can now listen to the BBC world news and don't feel nearly so cut off from the rest of the world.

Well, I have probably rambled on enough for one post and will save some random reflections for the next one... I would say goodbye in Twi, but I don't remember how:)