Another week, another update. I’ll try to keep this one shorter.

Time grows shorter and shorter. I have just under a month left in Ghana, and next week marks the beginning of the holiday vacation.

My teaching adventure continues on. This past week was especially fun to be teaching because the practical activities were taking place. All of the students had to plan and run a small scale business of their choice for four hours. Each morning when I arrived Ebow and I would head out to the HND Courtyard with the video-camera, my digital camera, and a list of student names and businesses. The students did a great job, and employed a lot of creativity. They sold food, candy, water, phone credit, chewing gum… some of my favourites were the group who dyed their own batik, the shoe shine group, the group selling personal products (I couldn’t help but crack up at how hard they were pushing those packages of Always sanitary pads, even the guy in the group!) and the one with freshly made orange-pineapple juice at 30 pesewas for a martini glass full (I was sad instructors weren’t allowed to be patrons, and I couldn’t time it to sneak away and get some before it was gone). Some students marketed their products with choreographed songs and dance, some lashed the water cooler to the back of a bike and rode around campus… it was great to see, and even better to hear how positive they were in the reflection class.

T-Poly pays me in Coke. Part of Ghanaian culture is that with a meeting or function, they always offer refreshment; depending on the meeting/function it can be anything from a sachet of water to a full blown meal. Teaching the Entrepreneurship Curriculum is no exception. After each class we instructors retire to the DREP office, settle in for a bottle of pop, and a discussion of the class. The other instructors do a lot of eye rolling at me in the office. Since I have only been teaching for 3 weeks and they’ve been teaching much longer, I’m still in my honeymoon stage, excited about everything, enthusiastic about the students…and, well, they’re used to it. I also think the students are better behaved for me, partly because of the novelty of having an obruni for an instructor, but even more so, I think, because of the fire and brimstone lecture Ebow gives them everyday about behaving OR ELSE in my class. I’m in very good company with the entrepreneurship instructors: three heads of departments and the acting rector pops into curriculum activities every once in awhile.

I have become the local photocopier expert, able to troubleshoot any photocopier related problem, and am happy to lend my expertise, gained through “on the job training” to anyone who comes in. By “on the job training” I refer to the 800-3500 copies I make just about every weekday. Speaking of photocopying…I had the most ridiculous experience the other day. When I woke up one morning my arms were really sore, and I was trying to think back on what I had done to make them so sore. The answer completely eluded me until I was in the office preparing the handouts for the day’s class and I realized my arms were sore because of stapling together 500 evaluations the day before! With that in mind, I was careful to staple an equal amount of evaluations with each hand to balance out the work out. Who needs a gym?

I had my two month “Ghan-iversary” on Friday. I celebrated by going out for supper at Gariba Lodge (one of the fanciest hotels in Tamale) with a group of students from Trent. It was crazy to be in such a big group of ‘obruni’ (there were about 30). Being here this long I’ve definitely become really comfortable and at home. It’s hard to imagine with how intimidated and shell-shocked I felt on arrival that I could be this at home in Tamale. I’m really learning how things work and growing completely used to areas that are different from home. One of those areas is bargaining. In the open air markets (Central Market, Old Market, Art Market) you bargain over prices. I didn’t really have any experience with bargaining when I first came, but now I am a master negotiator! The Art Market is at the Centre for National Culture, and most of the stands are run by young men (early to mid twenties). Young white women are VERY popular in Ghana, and besides perfecting my “negotiating skills” I have perfected my “blow off” skills (well, except in special circumstances, like picking up your passport from immigration where one thinks perhaps this is an instance to “grin and bear it,” at least until the passport is handed back, and THEN bolt). It was at the Art Market I was told my freckles aren’t from the sun, rather they are angels’ kisses. (at least that one had some originality to it… I get lots of “lay in my bed with me”) This should give you an idea of what being at the art market is like… well, today I decided: fine, you want to play that game, I’ll play that game. I was bargaining over a pair of earrings. I asked the price, and the young man told me 5 cedis. I acted shocked, and then pouted. I suggested 3 cedis with a “sweet” little smile. He asked me if I was only buying one pair, and I said I wanted 2 pairs. I suggested 5 cedis for the two pair together. He said he would sell the two for 6 cedis total. I pouted again, tried to look vulnerable and argued that if I paid 5 cedis he wouldn’t have to go look for change. He agreed to the 5 cedis. Maybe I paid too much for them, but when I arrived I would have paid the 5 cedis per pair, and today was the first time that I really made a big effort to banter over the price and get into “the game.” While I feel that perhaps my technique didn’t really contribute to gender equality, I decided that if I have to be ‘disturbed’ (as my Ghanaian friends call it) by the boys all of the time, I might as well get something out of it. Hahaha, if only NSAC had known what kind of monster they were unleashing on Tamale!

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