Accra

Here are a few pictures of Accra during our group trip.

UT Bank. Just thought it was funny.




Ghanaian kids playing in the neighborhood





Accra traffic. It takes over an hour to get through traffic. It could probably take 5-10 minutes to get into Accra without traffic. There are so many vendors selling EVERYTHING on the streets (kind of reminds me of crossing the border from Mexico to America). From food, souvenirs, and clothing, to televisions, refrigerators, and tummy trimmers. Name anything and you'll probably find someone selling it there. And yes, it really does get this smoggy; it's not just bad picture quality.




The beautiful ocean



Much love from Africa.

An overdramatic event

Today was the first day of class at the University of Ghana! (and thus far, four of the five profs were no-shows.) I was looking forward to a much needed full nights of sleep, only to be woken up in the early morning by blood curdling dog barks and howls. It was extremely eerie. I've never heard anything like it. It went on for about 5 min of about 8- 10 dogs and then abruptly became silent again. Chilling.

At 4:10 I heard distant, frantic pounding and someone commanding, "Wake up! Get out of your rooms!" I was drifting in and out of sleep and wasn't sure whether or not I was dreaming. I heard the knocks growing louder and at last, two loud, demanding knocks reached my door. I could hear doors opening with confused and sleepy voices next door. Suddenly, Glenda, my roommate, jolted out of bed and shouted, "Oh my God. Joy. We have to go!" We looked outside and people were all heading out of their rooms in their PJ's in a hurry. No one knew why we were being herded outside. My first instinct was to stay INSIDE. We didn't know who wanted us out and why. The power outage made the situation 10 times spookier.

Glenda: "Ok, you stay here. I'll find out what's going on out there."
"Heck no! I'm not staying here by myself!"
After a few seconds of debate we decided to head outside.

Every scenario crossed my mind. What if it's a conspiracy? Get the foreigners out for an easy break-in to their rooms. So i grabbed my bag and laptop.
What if it's a life threatening evacuation and we have to stay overnight somewhere? So I grabbed my traveling toiletries and malaria pills.
What if the international students were being held captive and this means war!
(ok, keep in mind...it was 4AM and i had no idea what was going on. It was just confusion and adrenaline working with me here.) So I stuffed a loaf of bread and a bottle of water into my bag, grabbed my flashlight and phone and was ready to go.

Everyone was in the parking lot and no one knew what was going on. It seemed WAY too sketch. Everyone just headed out without question.

"I think it's a fire!"
"ok...what jacka** left their candle burning?"
"I think it's an earthquake drill"
"I'm from California. I eat earthquakes for breakfast. Let's go back to bed."

I personally concluded that if we weren't gonna be finished off by a surprise attack, surely the psycho dogs were lurking in the dark, smacking their salivating lips, anxiously waiting to pounce on a herd of vulnerable foreigners.

Glenda told me later she had a whole escape route planned out:
"If anything serious was gonna happen, i was gonna grab you and run off to the airport and catch the first flight back to America. I've got hella money now cause I exchanged it at the bank today. I was thinkin 'o no! what about Joy's knees! SHOOT,' I said, 'I'd just throw you on my back and get the hell outta this country!"

HAHAHA.

Anyway. The other international hostel was evacuated and a few other places as well. 20 min later, the porters finally calmed everyone down and explained that he woke up hearing (on the radio) that a massive earthquake was going to occur in approximately two minutes. It had been well past the 2 min mark and clearly nothing had happened. Apparently it was ALL over the news. The porter read from someone's phone in eerie silence that Accra has been experiencing tremors and that they should be ready for a major earthquake. EEK! We waited another 10-20 min, half anticipating to feel the ground violently shake and the buildings to crumble to dust at any second.

The porters finally confirmed that radio stations had revoked the earthquake alert and it was our decision to go back inside or stay outside.

I for one, being deathly afraid of earthquakes, hesitantly went back to bed. Glenda crawled into bed with me cause we were scared, haha, and we woke up this morning unscathed and ready for class.

You laugh now, but it was scary!

And here's what I received in my inbox today:
http://www.africanews.com/site/Earthquake_scare_hits_Ghana_but_dispelled/list_messages/29453?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Africanews-RssNews+%28AfricaNews.com+-+RSS+News%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Oh, Africa.

Some of Dubai

Thank you guys for your encouraging comments and prayers. i love hearing from you guys.

Here's a picture post of what I've been up to.

DUBAI: 12 hour layover.



The very nice airport. Complete with neon lights and large waterfalls.




Went to the Dubai Mall, the largest in the world! Yeah...that's an AQUARIUM in the middle of the mall.



...and a waterfall...



The Burj Dubai! The tallest in the world. It officially opened the day before I arrived! It's pretty ridiculous. There was even a fancy water show synchronized to music on the waterfront outside the mall, in front of the Burj. (Sportaholic, you woulda loooved it.)

I've never been to Vegas,but from the pictures and movies I've seen, Dubai reminds me of Vegas. There are SO many massive buildings with CRAZY cool architecture designs. I was also surprised by its cleanliness. Super clean. At least in the places I went.

I wanted to post all my pictures up, but it takes forever to load them. If anyone knows how to make the picture size smaller to speed up the uploading process, lemme know. Ghana pictures to come.

peace and love

Alive and, well, recovering

Akwaaba!! Welcome! to Ghana!

This'll be brief cause I've only got about 13 min left at the internet cafe.

I"M IN GHANA! and i'm alive! (barely)

I came down with some ridiculous allergic reaction, (to my malaria pills, i later found out), and got SUPER sick on the 9 hour plane ride from dubai to ghana. aka...nauseous, the Die's, puking a lot, fever. Wasn't pretty. So i arrived in Ghana...and it was SO HOT which totally made me feel a MILLION times worse. Anyway...it was basically like that for the next 2 days. Sick sick sick in a foreign country where I knew no one. I just wanted to fly back home. I was so close to just giving up. I ended up going to the hospital for an entire day (I'll write about that experience another time...). My symptoms got worse but eventually died down and the doc wrote me a prescription for a different malaria pill which is A BILLION TIMES more expensive than the ones i brought with me. It's gonna cost me a butt load. but i gotta do what i gotta do i suppose.

The two weeks before departure was jammed packed with hang outs, which was great, but it definitely left me with no time to for any mental preparation. So i gotta get past this overwhelming feeling soon!Anyway. The orientation has been stressful. Constantly on the go with lectures, tours, traveling, etc etc. There hasn't been much down time. But i discovered one night when i opted out of clubbing and had a few hours to myself, that down time = serious homesickness time. So i guess it's good that I'm being kept busy. I miss home so much and often catch myself wondering what the heck I am doing here. Did i make a mistake? Maybe I'm not as brave as i'd thought I was.

Please leave me emails, messages, videos! They make me happy. I'll be getting my phone today. You guys can buy a cheap international phone card at costco and call me on a landline if you want! Also, I'll post my address up soon. Please write me!

Prayer: My knees are dying. And i have to walk about 20 min just to get on campus. I'm super scared.

I'll keep you posted! Sorry for the rushed post. I'm running out of minutes.

MISS AND LOVE YOU ALL.

"Joy Ghana'way"

Cheesy pun formulated and requested by Edward Cheng.

It's here! It's Jan 4th, t-minus 14 hours!!!!!!! Soon I will be aboard the Emirates airline, hopefully in chatty/socializing spirits ready to embark on my crazy adventure. WHOO!

It's late and I am still up trying to do last minute backing up of photos, songs, and videos and charging ipod, camera, phone, and flip.

The last couple of days have been "MADNESS!" (Said like Phoebe Buffay when Joey was upset that he had to audition for Drake Remorez's twin. That's for you, Jo!)

But in meeting up with friends for last goodbyes I've come to realized how incredibly blessed I am for so many close buds who care for me. Thanks you guys! You da best.

I'm pretty nervous about the 15 hour flight to Dubai + overnight layover + 7 hour flight to Ghana. This is make it or break it time!!! (for the knees that is...) How my knees handle the flight will determine many many things after I arrive in Ghana. AKA, if i can walk/function without pain for the next couple of weeks! So lots of prayer for that please! I've roughed up my knee cartilage pretty good over the last few years and my PT says it's difficult for the cartilage to retain the water/fluids if I bend my knee at more than a 45 degree angle for too long, which explains why my Taiwan trip was a total knee bust. So this is my greatest concern!! Hopefully I can get some spacious leg room to straighten my legs. And to swallow my pride and do some crazy walking routine on the plane. =P Maybe bust out some yoga. haha.

My second concern is having the energy to socialize with people on my plane so I can figure out who is a Ghana EAP student. That way we can buddy up and figure out how to get to the Dubai hotel and back to the airport the next morning. I tend to get into the reserved, observe first talk later mode when I'm around new people, but they say traveling brings out the best in you. hopefully!

ANNND thirdly...please pray for my health. The malaria pills haven't been too happy with me. Side effects have been weird...aka dizziness, nausea, upset stomach. ANNND fourthly...getting past Ghana customs without trouble. I am carrying a ton of pills on me. =P Legal ones. haha. But certain over the counter US meds may require a dr's note in Ghana. Sooo...hopefully if all goes well, I'll pass with flying colors.

BED TIME.

See you lovelies in Ghana.

Back to the basics

Here I am at 12 AM writing this post. If it were up to me, i would be turning in early because it seems that I get more sleep deprived when i'm not in school than when I am there. Unfortunately the Christmas feast and my typhoid pills dictate otherwise. I suppose i could appease what few readers I have by finishing this post as I wait for my two hours of post-bingeing to run dry before I take my pill.

I have so much to share, but I'll portion my thoughts in hiccups.

So I didn't talk much about Ghana in my last post; I just whined a lot about logistics. I'm shooting for "Informative" on this one.

When I went home for Thanksgiving, I was approached by many people with seriously concerned looks on their faces as they gently placed a hand on my shoulder and asked "Why are you going to Africa??" Which eventually unraveled and translated into, "No one goes to Africa! We know nothing about it! China would be so much more practical! Where IS Ghana? Is it safe? Are you going to die from a mysterious disease? I don't understand!"

Well now, lemme tell you...

Africa makes some sense in the perspective of public health, which is what I'm studying. Public health is the science of disease/injury prevention and health promotion in communities/populations, for those of you who don't know (I didn't even really know what it was until last year). Originally (prospects have changed a bit), I was considering the pursuit of some form of global health education after school, so you can imagine why I chose Africa. Get a feel of what I was getting myself into, you know? Test the waters. Granted, I'm not going to some extremely underdeveloped area where medical accessibility is rare and people are dropping dead, left and right. In fact, the University of Ghana, where I will be staying, is surrounded by medical facilities. But it's Africa, and there is a need.

Another reason why I chose Ghana is because of my wish to escape the American bubble. (yes...i've talked about the Berean Christian High School bubble...now the bubble has expanded over all of America. ha.) The idea of venturing into a place that is so foreign to me is chilling. In a good way to be sure! I want to be rid of the convenient luxuries at home. If I wanted comfortability, I could always take a vacation. Easily.

I spent a semester studying economic and political development in third world countries. It was an eye-opening course and changed my perspective of the world entirely. It's one thing to read, listen, and talk about how the rest of the world is functioning, but to actually immerse myself into the culture of a developing nation? Now that's an entirely separate matter. To live like the majority of the population in this world without the many luxuries I take for granted in America; to wash my laundry by hand; to have inconsistent electricity and water access in the dorms; to live without wireless at a pocket's reach away; to understand patience and gratitude; to be severely humbled by the joys of simplicity...these are the main factors that have impacted my decision and I cannot wait to be surprised!


Ok. so i hear pictures are a plus on blogs.

Soooo...here is a picture of Ghana in relation to Africa. It is bordered by Cote D'ivoire to the west, Togo to the east, and Burkina Faso to the north (I've been workin' on my African geography via Sporcle. Done my roommates proud! Melissa in particular. I hear ya girl!).


















I will be staying in Legon which is about 7.5 miles north-east of Accra, Ghana's capital. The red square is Accra and the purple circle is Legon (compliments of Word drawing). It's super close to the equator, aka HOT! Woohoo! I had beautiful Cali Fall, got a taste of the brutal cold and am gonna skip on ahead to summer weather in Africa, and when I get back...it's gonna be summer again! MUAHAHA.



Alright. Time to take my typhoid pill. Third out of four.

This pathetic looking thing cost me twelve-fifty! $50 for four of em!

Merry Christmas and goodnight!

Ps: Color schemes will be changed soon enough. Too tired tonight.

OMGAWWWWWWW...

Attrace's last words to me were "Joc! Update your blog!"

SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY. I've been insanely busy this last month. I SWEAR y'all will get a 100-plus-worded blog within the next day or so...and maybe even with pictures! Also, prep your eyes for a revised color scheme. I guess yellow against red is a difficult read. Keep a look out for several posts before my departure. I have lots to share.

In the mean time, I have an urgent prayer request. My body is still breaking. Please pray for healing in my knees and hip, and wisdom in my doctor as she figures out how to fix me in such a short amount of time. Especially my hip because it's a very new injury, as in a few days old. (yeah...hate to break it to you, Mom and Dad, via blogger, that yet another injury ails me.) I'll elaborate more on prayer requests and injuries later. Heck, I'll probably dedicate an entire post titled "Why Joy will end up in a wheelchair by the time she's 30." Anyway. You shouldn't underestimate the power of prayer. Thank you!

T minus 15 days!