They Have Lost My Buisness!

Date: 17/01/2010
Time: 22:10
Location: Accra, Ghana

So, orientation has been over for about 3 solid days now. Can I just say- thank goodness! I will say though that it really wasn’t that bad. It kept us all from crying about missing family, boyfriends/girlfriends, and friends. It was full of memorable moments and a way for us to understand the lovely cultural do’s and don’ts. Did you know that you always have to use your right hand, and if you ever use your left hand it is disrespectful and you must apologize straight away. Not sure how many times I have disrespected people already as I always forget I can’t use my left hand. Oh and if you ever think about calling an elderly person just by the last name- be warned- again disrespectful. You must call them Uncle _______ or auntie _________. For example one of our securities guards at my residence is called, Uncle Eugene- Love him by the way- ask him what he does when there is an intruder in the residence.
Food is a different story here; it is no fast McDonalds service that one finds in Europe or America. It is something of the opposite. And a place has already lost my business! This place The Coffee Shop- not only does it have horrendous service but the food is not even that good in the first place. We spent 3.5 hours for lunch because they do not believe in bringing all food out at the same time. They bring it in pairs. First 2 people would get their meal, and then about 30 minutes later the next 2 came and it kept going in this pattern- and with a group of 20 people that is not the way to go. I was literally fuming, I even turned to Doug who’s lunch didn’t show up long after all of ours and said, “I am angry for you, like where is your food!?” Doug finally asked the waitress where his food was and she said, “What did you get again?” (we all know that, that is the sign of…shit I forgot to put the order in!) But anyway Doug said, “ Red Red with Plantains” and she said, “Right yes, it will be just a minute.” She leaves and comes back in literally a minutes time and says, “I think I mixed it up with another order, do you mind eating that” pointing to someone else’s dish. In the USA if you ever got such bad service one would not have to pay for the dish- but here… as us Krieger-Redwood’s would say, “Alles Easy!”

The other night Doug, Sara H, Liza, Heather, and myself ordered Churcheese- which may I add was the most insane experience of all time. Not only was the pizza just epic, but the great phone call leading up the the pizza was a story. Do not ever expect fast service in Ghana as everything is done at the slowest pace possible. So our first churcheese experience was me ringing up, “Hi, I wanted to order some pizzas and was wandering if you do indeed deliver” churcheese, “yes we do!” Me, “Great, thank you I will ring back in just a few minutes.” Doug, Sara H, liza, Heather, and myself sat there wandering how many large pizzas we should order as we were HUNGRY! We had made the mistake before ordering a large somewhere else and realizing it was not a big fat American size large but a personal pizza where I could eat like 3 of them! So we decided we had to ask the Churcheese people how large the large actually was. I rang back, “Hi, I want to order 4 large pizzas, but was wandering how large the large was.” Churcheese, “The large is large!” me, “okay, soo how many pieces are in the large?” churchesse- this is where I started to get very annoyed as I had no idea what she was saying. So me being the smart person I am I say, “so is it like 8 inches, or 12 inches?.. .How many pieces?” she still did not understand. .and then she hung up on me. This is where I got very angry, and I rang straight back, “umm. Hi you guys just hung up on me.” “Oh, is your name sophie” “Yes, yes it is and I wanted the 4 large pizzas” “so, you want 8 pizzas?” “nooo, I just want 4 large pizzas” At this point I was beyond annoyed, and people getting in the way of my food will be executed! Anyway after like a 15 min phone call, it took another 2 hours for our food to actually arrive. I made someone else ring to ask when the pizza was coming. Needless to say they also almost lost my business- but you know the pizza was great so I have let them off and will order from them again.

With food just note- I am pretty sure in the kitchen they must make something then take a break, and then make half a dish then take a break. At Churcheese they have a play area- perhaps they go and play in the play area after every pizza they have made- I would!

Enough about food, shall we talk about the almighty Christa? I think so. She has just made this experience even more exciting. For those of you who did not read my first blog Christa is the Director for NYU in Ghana on the Ghana end. She is basically Tyra Banks. Here is a story to start off. So in one of the other groups that have passed through this program, one of the students decided to take across to Togo. This girl had lost her passport in Togo thereby meaning she would not be able to get back into Ghana. The girl was told she had to stay in Togo until she was reissued another passport. Christa was informed about the situation and went up to the boarder of Togo and Ghana where this girl was and negotiated with the boarder control people to allow her to come back over without a passport. This girl was “smuggled” back into the country by Christa, and the embassy was not informed and was never told! Crazy right? Gotta love the bizaz that she has. “Do you want to be on top?” Pretty sure Christa is the boss of Ghana thereby Tyra Bank’s slogan is answered by the queen of Ghana, “I am on top!”
So I have only given you story after story so far, I have done some educational things since I have been here don’t you worry. It is not all just fun and games. Although Sandals beach resort is pretty much where we live. Orientation even had us on a bus tour with the former Mayer of Accra. Everyone say, “ooooo”. Yea pretty cool right… he even is one of the teachers for a class here at the NYU center in Ghana. But anyway, I will say I felt like a real tourist. I hated it. I want to be a Ghanaian, and being stuck on a white bus was the ultimate way to make me feel white! – Kind of surprising right? When we went into the poorest of towns Jamestown, we definitely were very unwelcome, people were practically eye sniping us. But do not worry all; because before I leave here I will be a Ghanaian! I have a bet with a Ghanaian where he said I better be leaving Ghana being as black as a fellow Ghanaian. Challenge- Marky Mark would you challenge this? Not only did we do a tour with the mayer we also managed to go to the market to check out what it was all about. I will say London and New York City have nothing against Accra Markets. You have to hustle and bustle your way around. I was so overwhelmed by the fabric I wanted to buy every single piece. But I only bought 2, and with those 2 pieces I am making a dress and a skirt. Be ready people- another step to Sophie becoming Ghanaian.
Overall, Orientation was a blast. But I am ready for some good old fashioned school work lovin’! Two classes at the NYU center and 2 classes at a small private Ghanaian University. One class of which is African Music and Dance. Be prepared for some African dance moves to be pulled out on the dance floor.

Medarse,