Accra Mall

This morning we woke up at 8am, the planned time to leave for the UN AIDS building. Somewhere around 10:30 we actually left. This is why I chose to wake up at 8am and not a minute sooner... I'm learning quickly.

Anyway, we went to UN AIDS via taxi. About 10 miles; cost was about 5 cedis. It's nice to pay a flat rate, no matter how bad traffic is, which is usually awful. (Taxis = A bunch of old old old old old cars that smell old, putzing around town.) We arrived at this beautiful white building, guarded, with a small park. It is the Ghanaian office of the UN AIDS effort. It is not huge by any means, but very nice. We spent some time in the library learning about AIDS and then proceeded to create easy quiz questions for the students. Very basic stuff, but important to teach. Baffour, our project director and someone I consider a true friend, explained that public schools here are not that great and that these kids need any information that we can give to them.

After UN AIDS we traveled to the Accra Mall and I felt like I was in America again. The mall was like any average small mall in New Jersey, Ohio, California, whatever. Air conditioning, food court with pizza, fast food, etc; movie theater and fashion clothing. We went to see Avatar even! Something else I added to my list of things I never thought I would do in Ghana...

It such a strange feeling to walk around the mall and then walk outside and realize where you are. People selling anything they have, poverty, Africa. I felt incredibly uncomfortable spending so much money on the movie and dinner (and at the super market at the mall which also looks like any average American grocery store... just a lot more expensive!! So much so, that I didnt even take a picture.) Some people here have nothing, but there I was seeing a brand new movie, sitting in A/C, munching on popcorn. I don't know how to explain it, but I already feel a distance from western culture and the extreme waste we seem to have.

For dinner we had pizza and it was surprisingly tasty. It is such a juxtaposition (correct word?) of life here. Tin shacks and people selling things from trays on their head, to movie theaters and a mall. Its like someone dropped electricity on an ancient society. Stone roads and open air gutters, but cell phones. It all doesn't quite make sense to me.

Tonight we chatted about religion. Most Ghanaians are Roman Catholic. They are very religious, believe in creationism and don't really know much about Buddhism or Judaism. It was interesting to hear different points of view. Separately, we also discussed relations between China and Taiwan. I'm learning almost as much about Asian culture as Ghanaian culture. There are 8 Chinese, 2 Taiwanese, me, 1 Brazilian and 1 Dutch guy from Holland. I am also becoming very close with the local AIESEC members. About 12 non-interns live here (with another 8 or so that show up once and while) and in just one week I know so much about them. They are extremely kind to us, and I have learned so much from them.

Tomorrow we leave for some of the schools in the program. We are going to meet some kids and teachers. Baffour said I can check out the schools and possibly work here on the off days teaching anything that is in need. That could be fun if the project doesn't fill most of the week.