Bucket baths and Madina Market

Hi family and friends,

I've been here for seven days now and time is already flying by. A few updates on my life:

1. Still don't have a roommate. But classes are supposed to start tomorrow, so hopefully she will be getting here soon!

2. We have been without running water in our hostel for the past 48 hours, which means no flushing toilets or flowing showers. Let me tell you, it is getting smelllly in those bathrooms! This morning I decided I couldn't wait much longer for a shower, so took my first bucket bath. There is a water reserve tank in the back of our hostel that has a spigot on the ground floor, so I filled a large bucket, dragged it upstairs to the showers, and used a bowl to pour water from it. Overall it went really well and I think I enjoyed it better than the other showers I've taken here! The water wasn't quite as cold since it is able to be heated by the sun, and I even got to shave my legs. I might become a bucket bather for life.

3. Classes start tomorrow morning, and my first one is at 7:30 am, which means I'll have to leave the hostel around 6:45 or so to get there in time for a seat. My first class is English in Ghana, which is more of a linguistic course. I hope it will be interesting! Also tomorrow I have to find time to reigster for my other classes, get my student ID, figure out when my other lectures are meeting, and figure out how to feed myself! I think it will be a busy day!

4. We went to the Madina Market today. The young woman who has been leading us around all week for orientation, Faustina, took us for our first Tro-Tro ride to Madina. It cost 25 pesewas, which is equal to about 15 cents to take the Tro-Tro to the next town over from Legon. Very cheap! The driving is CRAZY here. I would never EVER drive in Ghana. The drivers seem to be very good at weaving in and out of the traffic though. The market itself was a bit overwhelming. We walked down aisle after aisle of little shops selling vegetables, fish, snails, cloth, shoes, bags, etc. Faustina told us that it wasn't very busy because it was a Sunday and most of the shops weren't open, but to us, it was ridiculously busy! They kept calling us "obruni" which means white person to get our attention. It's a friendly nickname and Faustina told us to respond by yelling "obibini" (meaing black person) right back. Mostly, I just say hello with a smile though. While I know they're not meaning offense to me, it goes against my natural instincts to call someone "black person." I'll have to work on it... The children in the market were so funny. They seemed so shocked and excited to see white people. "Obruni, obruni!" they called when they saw us. When we say hello back, they give us shy little smiles and waves. One little girl came up to me to shake my hand and was so happy. It is a little incentive to keep putting on the sunscreen!