Makola Market (this is negligent of chronology, so it doesn't get a cool "number" label)

I want to describe the Makola market in intricate, mind-blowing detail. I’m going to fall short, but I really want to paint a picture of what this place is like. Critiques, questions and comments (as always) are welcome.

First step is getting out of the vehicle – no easy feat considering the crowds of people pulsating down the street and sidewalk, spilling into the open stands, pushing and shuffling to move towards their destination. It smells like fish, spices, sewer and auto fumes  - these all blend together to remind you that this is a market, not some clean, wax-floored shopping mall or fluorescently lit grocery store. There is a parking lot on the right with small groups of people selling mostly food – some are frying horizontally cut plantains on chicken-wire covered charcoal grills, others are sitting with jars of unlabled groundnut (peanut) butter and still others are selling shoes or scrap pieces of material. There are people standing as you walk down the street to enter the market – they have neon colored mesh material for sale, power outlets, toothbrushes, cans of soup, flip-flops in dingy looking plastic wrap all for sale. Women are caring loads of these goods on their heads – so
me selling to you, some transporting goods from one site to another.  As we get closer to the market, there is a space by the sidewalk that is full of food – people preparing it to sell immediately and openly behind where they are selling it. Chunks of meat lie on wooden boards, metal buckets with live, sand-dollar silvery gray crabs crawling and struggling up the slick sides for escape and whole pigs’ feet stacked for sale. Smoked, whole fish are neatly and efficiently shoved into buckets, with their brownish, grey, metallic skin that Is just darker than the bucket they occupy. 

Passing under the strung banner that reads “Makola”, it becomes a little more organized, though no less alive. Upon entry, there are a few women selling miscellaneous food items, rice, beans, simple spices and groundnut butter, but these goods will be more plentiful further in.  On the main path in on the left hand side, huge metal pans are stacked literally eight or nine feet high. Any cooking utensil imaginable is for sale – bundles of silverware, five gallon cooking pots, serving spoons, measuring cups, skillets – it’s all there, mostly oversize.  On the right, in addition to silverware, Tupperware and other kitchen supplies, there are clothes. All sorts of clothes, from baby bibs to men’s undershirts, bras, stacks of underwear for little boys and cute, pastel colored shirts of adolescent girls are found stacked high on tables. Further ahead, there are shoes. Mostly manufactured looking, pleathery sandals and shoes, these are stacked one on top of another about three feet
 deep. There are about six consecutive stalls of this sort, taking the first right hand side path deeper into the market. Somehow, we’re under cover now. It’s dark and we ‘ve passed the shoes, and the pather is narrower – barely single file. On either side, there is material. Small stalls absolutely full of beautiful fabric. Organized usually by price and set up for ideal and maximized display, the women selling are eager to show and sell. A print catches your eye;  you go and ask to see it. She pulls it out, and unfolds it so you can see the full, vibrant color of it and then asks how much you want. It is a bartering system – a give and take, a back and forth, an exchange of expectations and demands. The fabrics come in every conceivable color, pattern and combination. Blues, yellows, oranges, golds, purples, blacks, whites, metallic; traditional patterns, stripes, circular swirls, symbols and everything in between. Each stall has a different selection – it’s impossible to s
ee it all, so weaving back through the darkest part of the market, you must force yourself to continue moving. 

Emerging from the fabrics, directly ahead on the main path is the food. More fresh meat (chicken, beef, pork, pig parts), vegetables, rice, beans, fish and spices. They measure the rice from an old coffee can, and the vegetables are being cleaned as you walk by. The meat is cool and freshly butchered (for the most part) and the spices are haphazardly bagged and tossed in a bucket. Stands upon stands, people selling tomatoes, carrots, string beans, every imaginable kind of rice and bean – making a left turn, more stands are to be found with more obscure looking foods for sale. 

Passing potatoes, yams literally the size of footballs and tubs of hot peppers that will burn your skin, all of a sudden you’re on the street again. There was no loop, and you’ve certainly not seen the whole market, but all of a sudden it’s cars zooming past avoiding the people selling toiletries, underwear and hosiery from the tubs upon their heads. 

Full of flavors, tradition, and livelihood, the market is teeming with the vibrant essence of trade and survival – it’s nearly indescribable, and nothing but experience can do it justice – but being able to fully absorb all that takes place is just as impossible.

Number Three or So

So, two way cool things this weekend.

1) Worked a Haiti Benefit concert. Within a week, this good-size event was organized and promoted around the greater Accra area, with major stars lined up to perform, t-shirts featuring a prominent artist, and the joint efforts of community leaders. One of these leaders happens to be the associate director of the NYU in Ghana program, and she had us volunteer at the show. I worked with merchandise table with two great ladies, and then helped collect more money from the crowd, and then counted and recorded the totals. We made at LEAST $3,000 Ghana Cedis – this is an unofficial number, but still – it was a lot of money. It all went straight to the Red Cross fund for Haiti. This is the first of many events that will be going on – for all of you IN Ghana right now (we’ve established that in our program, more than several of us are blogging) text HIATI to 1962 – this will donate 1GhanaCedi from your phone card to the Red Cross. Talk about accessibly donating! So that was cool thi
ng number one.                 

2) This is cool thing number two. So, my roommate Nisha and I were walking to the local spot where we usually watch football games (think soccer, folks)   and this car pulls up alongside us. You’re thinking this isn’t going to end well, right? Wrong. The guy on the passenger side (side note: they drive on the same sides of the road as Americans, which I find just a little bit weird, since it was a british colony, and most things are spelled with a British tint) asked us if we liked soccer. We said yes, and he said we should go to this bar, Rockstone’s Office – we then realized (actually, Nisha realized) that the guy was actually Reggie Rockstone, promoting is own place. Reggie Rockstone also happens to be way famous in Ghanaian Hip Life culture. Wikipedia that (I’ve done it for you…click the link! [the wiki link was also Nisha’s idea. I’m definitely hijacking it]), and then realize how cool it is. But it gets better. It really does. He drives about ten feet away from us, stops again, and says he “forgot his gentlemanness” and offers us a ride there.  We took it. So we rolled into Rockstone’s Office with Reggie Rockstone. Yeah. It was cool. And THEN we got interviewed for live radio covering the match from the Office – Nisha knew way more about the game than I did, but still. It was quite an eventful afternoon, to say the least.

3) This is also cool – I just forgot about it during the intro. We had family dinner tonight! We all contributed food, and helped to cook/eat/clean! We made rice (a lot of rice), French fries, guacamole, plantain chips, a fruit salad/soup, and then had beans that weren’t quite ready for dinner, but they’re in the fridge and should be included. It was remarkably unplanned and surprisingly good. I’m impressed with us, and I have high hopes for our future endeavors. We were able to cook so much food because we have 3 stoves, 3 sinks and a ton of counter space. Believe me, we used it all. 

So, those are the highlights.

In other news, we have figured out our a/c situation. It was working SO well that we kept waking up in the middle of the night absolutely frozen. We are in Ghana. There is no reason for that! We finally figured out how to set it so it keeps it at one temperature by itself. Like I said. That’s just other news.

 As always, feel free to comment or drop me a line – I’d love to hear from you. If anyone knows anyone (at NYU or otherwise) who is thinking of studying abroad, send them this way – I’d be more than happy to talk to anyone!

Pay Attention, America

So, this was pretty cool. Today we went to the beach as a group - along with about a billion other people - Ghanaians and tourists alike. After the usual nap and cool down swim, we started to play. When I say we,  I mean it started slowly with a few girls playing with some kids. Then a football showed up. Then a disc. For about an hour, we had people aged 5 or 6 all the way to probably 36 or so throwing footballs, discs, running, tackling, diving in the surf and sand. Serious joy happening right there. Little girls, mothers, hyper boys of all ages, young ladies and men were having a great time. The games intertwined, players swapped, people got tackled for no apparent reason and joining was welcome as could be.

Pretty cool image, right? Don't forget to add the sunshine, bar music playing in the backround, waves crashing and the members of our group who for some reason were sitting right down in the middle of all this flying chaos.

Now for the part everyone should pay attention to. I was trying to catch a wayward disc, and low and behold, some young ladies head caught it for me. It wasn't a hard hit, just sorta slightly bounced before dropping to the sand. I rushed to her and started apologizing profusely, saying I'm sorry over and over, just trying to make sure she wasn't mad. In New York when this happens, I get yelled at, told to go somewhere else and to watch it. On the Delaware beaches, people throw me dirty looks the entire time it takes me to go retrieve the disc. As I was apologizing, the man that was with her just smiled at me and said, "Hey, we're at the beach! Stop apologizng; it's the beach! You're just making it hard on yourself!". I was amazed. No one had ever been really gracious about being hit in the head before (not that he had been hit, but she didn't seem too upset either), and NEVER has anyone told me NOT to apologize. I mean, our game did bonk her on the noodle; I feel I should make some sort of reparation, but according to this guy with the big smile, I had nothin' to be sorry for.

Can we learn from this? Yep. Take it easy. Relax. Let kids be kids, and if there's no harm done, let it go. A public place is just that - public. I place for communal, spontaneous and uproarious fun and sport. Yes, respect is of course important - I'm not denying that - but accidents happen. And instead of me feeling guilty and ashamed because of a wayward piece of plastic, I felt like I was living life as it was meant to be lived.

And to get a little more tangible, this is also really indicative of the Ghanaian way, based on what I saw today. Because we were playing in a squarish area with people EVERYWHERE, and not all of us were expert players, we had some mishaps. But every time a passerby caught or picked up a disc, they tossed it to somebody playing, or joined in for a few tosses. Great. Absolutely awesome. Made me feel welcome, and as if there was nothing else I should have been doing in that moment. I'm also impressed - graciousness and fluid generosity of patience is not something I'm familiar with in America.

Thanks, Ghana. America, take heed.

Number Two (we see creativity isn't my strong point)

So orientation week in Ghana is exactly like orientation week in New York - completely scheduled, full to the brink of exhaustion. We've been going over safety, health, academic procedures, introductions, and cultural briefings for FOUR DAYS straight. Not so fun, but mostly interesting and I suppose necessary.

A few highlights
Our house went to a bar (it's legal, thank you very much) on Monday night (that IS a plus on orientation week, at least), and got lost. Well, not really lost (and not even misplaced) - we just couldn't find the place that was recommended to us, so we just picked a different one. It was fun, super cheap, really loud, and a great, relaxing first night in Accra.

I lit a gas stove, all by myself. (this is big news...really, it is) Yesterday morning I went to a little shop (First Choice) down the street, bought two eggs, came home and cooked them. They were remarkably good, and it was really cool buying food immediately before cooking it.

Gallery - today we went to a gallery in Accra with both historical artifacts and modern art. First of all, it was an amazing gallery. It sat right on the ocean, overlooking the surf, and had it's paintings well spaced and organized. The art itself was a mixture of carvings, textiles, sculptures, oils, and acrylics, in addition to jewelry.  I love modern art - this was a real treat.

Last night our CRAs (Community Resident Assistants) took us around to show us all of the cool nightlife spots - some looked pretty awesome, and some seemed more like places to eat. We wound up at this outdoor bar/club kind of place with live music. We stayed and danced legitimately under the stars for a few hours before returning home to fall asleep.

In all of these expeditions, I've gotten to meet people. I'm getting to know the great group of people from NYU, but also meeting locals and other international students. I'm really excited for classes to start and to develop a set routine, or at least one that's semi-predictable. Going out is a part of the cultural experience, so I'm glad I'm getting a chance to participate in that as well.

Beach trip this weekend. Yes!

Drop a line, email me or whatever, ESPECIALLY if you're looking for a piece of mail in the near future (once I figure out how to mail stuff, I will).

Number One

First of all – the house is amazing. I’m staying in a house with about fifteen students and 2 staff members. We’re all in doubles, with a private bathroom for each room, closets and a bed. I have a ton of room, which is an admittedly nice change from New York. The view is green – something I’m not especially used to, coming from wintry PA, and before that the wonderful concrete cityscape. Solomon (the name of the house) has a large kitchen with three sinks, three stoves, fridges, etc – what you may (or may not) expect for this many people living under one roof. So far, I’m impressed and excited.

We had our first day of orientation, complete with some seriously amazing food and juice. Juice? Yes. Fresh fruit juice – I’m talking fresh squeezed watermelon, pineapple and orange juices, plus sweet, natural blends like pineapple/coconut and plain guava and mango juices. That’s right – I’m abroad in the TROPICS. J

The food was great – we had a buffet lunch sampling all sorts of Ghanian (Guh-nay-en) dishes. Of special note – peanut and chicken soup, kenke (crushed maise (corn)), and a lot of really great vegetable blends. It’s going to be awesome.

We went over a lot of safety stuff today, but we’re all getting really excited to start exploring – beaches, music, dancing, pubs to watch “football” in, churches, restaurants – it’s all here, and just waiting for us to experience it.

This week is going to be packed – they have a ton of stuff scheduled for us to do and learn, just about the culture and our surrounding area – so I’ll update when I can, but internet has proven fairly unreliable.

Honestly, it feels great to be unplugged. J

Gotta Start Somewhere

Hello, Everyone!

I'm going to attempt to keep a blog about my experiences while studying at the NYU in Ghana Study Abroad site in Accra, Ghana. For info on Ghana check this out.

I say "attempt", because although I want to keep everyone updated on the adventure I'm about to embark on, I don't want to spend a ton of time on the computer. So forgive me if it winds up a little sparse, and trust that I'll reward your patience with a really great, detailed, account when I get back in the summer.

For now, the only update I have is that I'm leaving on SATURDAY!!! (yeah, that's two days away!)

I also have the address of where mail can be sent. Packages are discouraged (expense, time, etc), but letters are welcome:

Elizabeth Fritz
PMB CT 84
Cantoments, Accra
Ghana

That said, most of you know I love to write and send letters. If you want a postcard or letter, or something, email me your address (use this address, please)  and I will do my best to get something on its way to you.

I'll keep in touch, and thanks for all of your thoughts. Feel free to leave comments, and I'll put pictures up as I can.