Updates Upon Updates

Tomorrow is March 1^st, which means I have been living in Ghana for almost two months already. In the grand scheme of things my journey here is flying by but day to day seems to be moving rather laggardly. I have too many things to write about so I'll keep it quick

Day to Day Life:

Since classes are only once a week for two hours I find myself with lots of free time, this is made better/worse (depends what kind of person you are) by the fact that professors do not assign homework. The only grades in my classes are my midterm exam grade and my final exam grade. Here's a run down of my classes... I have an introduction history class on Monday, Tuesday I don't have a university of Ghana class, but I do have two night classes with our Calvin professor, Wednesday I go to Intro to African Studies (this is my African dance class, no the dance portion hasn't started and no I will not allow recording of such dances). Now Thursdays are my favorite days, I don't have class until 3:30 pm so I don't have to set an alarm and the class I attend is my favorite. I'm taking Tropical Biogeography where I am able to geek out about rainforests and Savannah Plains and all the animal/environmental facts that come with that! Definitely in my element when it comes to that subject! Now what do I do with all the free time? Honestly, I spend most of it trying to escape the heat by lying around with friends and hanging out. We have watched a significant amount of the show Homeland, we spend time eating meals together (we have a weekly meal with Tracy and her family), and we also have been able to explore campus and the surrounding city.

Weekend in Adenkrobi:

Many people in Grand Rapids don't realize that we have sister cities across the globe. Luckily for us studying in Ghana, there is a sister city of G-Rap called Adenkrobi, just an hour from Accra. Years ago the Calvin College program got connected with Daniel Okwabi who lives in Adenkrobi and ever since the groups have been able to do homestays with Daniel and his family. This past weekend Abby, Krista, Olivia, Kallie and I were able to stay there. Unfortunately, Kallie broke a small bone in her foot while playing a game of volleyball with teachers from the local school...prayers for dulled pain and quick healing would be great. Kallie and Olivia left early so the three of us experienced most of the weekend by ourselves. Considering Daniel is an incredibly busy man, his friend Ataaba was in charge of showing us around town. Ataaba is by far the best part of the weekend; he has such a gentle and genuine soul! On Friday we went out into the community and visited the chief, the oldest man in the village and the local school. We were able to engage the kids through volleyball. We started a volleyball game with some of the teachers and this is where Kallie hurt herself. We took a brief break to handle that situation. That afternoon much to our surprise it rained. Yes, ladies and gents, it rained. In the middle of the dry season there was around 15 mins of rain! I can't describe the elation Krista, Abby and I felt. We stood in the rain with Daniel's two youngest daughters and just soaked it in. There was even thunder! Once the rain ended Ataaba took us around the community again to meet people and watch them cook food. We were able to pound cassava root (used for fou-fou), stir/whip banku, taste kenke, pound palm fruit and stir many other things. It's deceptively hard to stir and mix these different things and I can assure you that we gave many people quite the laugh when we tried. Having the chance to walk around the community to learn and participate in how they live every day was such a blessing. Ataaba topped off the night with a walk to the ridge of the mountain to see the entirety of Accra. The view was breathtaking. The four of us stood at the top of the ridge in silence. I'm not sure what the others were pondering, but I was pondering the magnitude of life. I was standing in that one place looking down on a huge city where life was occurring just as mine was. After the cleansing rain and the refreshing view I can say that God put me in my place in that He showed me once again how small I am and how gigantic and powerful He is. 

Saturday day morning we were able to go to a craft market where traditional crafts from all over Ghana and even neighboring countries are made and sold. I purchased a smock that is traditionally worn in Northern Ghana then I modeled it and other Northern fashion items for Daniel. Daniel also borrowed other clothes from venders so that we could model them for him on Sunday. Boy was that an experience. We dressed up and modeled for a solid hour and a half in the midday sun. We laughed and goofed off and made quite the fools of ourselves, but hey, it was a ton of fun! I desperately needed this weekend of thoughtfulness, rest and time spent off campus. Being with a family does more for the heart than you would think. I am recharged and ready to continuing taking on life here at the University. 

Clarification: (Feel free to ask me questions if any come up)

Amongst my group members we've had many discussions about what our role is here in Ghana. I am first and foremost an international student at the University of Ghana. I want to clarify that I am not doing missions work in this country. While this has been a difficult transition for me I believe it is much healthier for me and for people I interact with here. I am not here because I think I have the solutions to Ghana's development issues. I don't have those answers and I probably never will. I am here in Ghana to learn from them. I know my friends and professors here will teach me so much more than I will teach them. I want to break the stereotype of Americans. I am not here to change their way of life and force our Western values, ideas and attitudes on them. On the other hand, I am not here to mess around, party every night and get into trouble. It is about time to bring light to the fact that Africa has been stereotypically and poorly portrayed to many Westerners. Africa is not a land of despair whose people cannot change their circumstances. Africa is not a desert wasteland with hut villages. Yes, there are areas that look like this BUT there is so much more to this continent and it's people. I live in the middle of an urban city where people drive cars, have the same technology that I have and not to mention running water, electricity and wifi. I have classes with people who far exceed my level of knowledge. All that to say I am not in Ghana to "save" it, I am not a missionary here and I certainly not here to reinforce American stereotypes or to add to Westerners misconceptions of Africa. Rant over. 

On a lighter note...

Letters:

I love letters and cards so here's my address if you feel inclined to write me :) 

McKinley Lewandowski

c/o Calvin College Programme

Institute of African Studies

University of Ghana

P.O. Box LG73

Legon, Ghana

This could be considered a bribe, but if you write me you will get a postcard from me! 

Registration Frustration

As a student at Calvin, who has registered five different time each with its own set of terribly annoying problems I can now say that I am incredibly thankful for our registration process.
At the university this past week we had to go through orientation and registration, welcome back to being a freshman, except as an international student. Anyway, here's how it worked.

Step one of registration was to figure out what classes you wanted to take. This was done by going online and looking at the course catalog, the classes had to be level 200-400 and needed to end with an even number. I was able to find classes that looked cool and fulfilled Calvin core requirements or requirements for my major/minors.
Step two, walk to all of the departments of the classes you wanted to take to see if the list of second semester classes was available. Keep in mind that Calvin is tiny and it takes 5 mins to walk anywhere on campus, whereas at the Univeristy of Ghana is a massive school and walking takes about 30 mins in the least. One of the frustrating things about registration was that not all departments had the list of classes being offered this semester up. We registered on Wednesday at 11:30 and very few departments had their lists up.
Step three is when I actually registered online in the computer lab of the International Programs Office. That was simple and pretty straight forward process, however, you sign up for as many classes as you can because you can add/drop later.
Step four was to walk around to the departments again to see if the table tables for the classes had been posted, hoping and praying none of the classes you wanted to take conflicted with each other. These lists were not all up until the day before the first day of class.

I am thankful for the process because it forced myself and many of my group members to let go of the reigns and to just go with the flow. It was frustrating and nerve-wracking, but full of patience and grace as well. On to the actual going to class part.
We were warned many times that the first day of school/classes is not as important here as it is in the States. One of the professors helping us during our time here said that many professors do not show up to the first class. That's inconceivable for us students from Calvin. I show up 15 mins early to my first day of classes at Calvin. Today, four of us went to one of the classes we signed up for only to wander around trying to find the lecture hall which we did. We were the only students waiting for that class and the professor never showed up. We left and headed back to our dorms.
If anyone is curious, I am taking five classes total this semester. Two of these classes are being taught by Tracy Kuperus the Calvin professor who is here with us and three are U of G classes. As a group we are taking an Intro to African Studies class which is comprised of 3 week intro to African history, 3 week overview of gender in Ghana and the last 6 weeks is an elective of choice. Most of us chose the African dance class. The other two classes I enrolled in are History 112 which is selected historical topics and the second class is Climatology which I am incredibly excited about!