Kojo Jeff

Today I learned that if you are born on a Monday your name would be "Kojo". So I would be Kojo Jeff.

Today was much better than previous days. Two more Chinese interns arrived...I think they now outnumber the locals, and me of course. We had a quick meeting about my project today, what was done and where we need to go. We are starting with fundraising and learning (teaching the students) before we move into "expansion" where we will try to go to other schools. Currently, we are in 2 schools and they are going to battle for which ever school learns the most about HIV and how to prevent it. The project probably will not start until Monday.

Tomorrow there is a pool party. The whole LC (local committee, committee=chapter) plus all the interns are going. I think it costs 5 cedis (1 USD = 1.43 cedi). It's amazing how fast I am getting comfortable with the culture and food. Tonight we had banku, which is a sort of stew. You eat it with this bread made from corn and you dip it in the soup to eat the liquid. No utensils for that dish. 

Things are fairly cheap here. Dinner was 1.5 cedis, a coke is 80 pesewas (just like American cents). So dinner was 2.30. However, I usually dont get a coke and just bring a 500 ml bag of water. Yes, a bag but they call it a sachel. You can buy a pack of 30 little bags for 1 cedi. About 80 cents for the equivalent of 30 bottles of 16oz bottles. Very cheap and safe to drink. Strange because the bag looks like a bean bag but clear. You bite one corner of it to drink. It's funny because everyone walks around with the pouch of water hanging from their mouths.

Also, today I got a phone. The process to do this was insane -- so many people and buses and food and used crap that no one wants to buy. For my phone, it's about 15 cents per minute to call internationally and 5 cents per text message. It will be handy to keep in contact with people, especially for meeting up. My number is 054 534 8708. Not sure of the country code. Anyone can text me, and its about 20 cents from USA.

We still need to always walk around with a local to make sure we don't receive the "obruni price" (obruni = white person). It's not an offensive word, just something people on the street call you.

I will try to post some pictures soon.