Accra: Days 1-4 Overview

Students arrived at Kotoka International Airport on Thursday, June 7. After collecting our bags and passing customs, we traveled to the Suma Hotel which was to be our home for the beginning days of the program. We were welcomed at the Suma Hotel and enjoyed mixing it up with the hotel staff, who shared with us delicious Ghanaian food (if a bit spicy for some at the beginning!), showed us some new dance moves, and humored us as we attemped to speak a few words of Twi, Ghana's lingua franca. We also learned from program staff the correct way to greet people in Ghana, cultural do's/dont's, and discussed the ambitious schedule.

Friday June 8 was a day packed with sessions - lectures on health in Ghana, the history of Ghana, and Ghana's economy. These lectures were offered by Professors of note from the University of Ghana, Legon. The day ended with a trip to the Madina market (a topic to be taken up in a future post) - we have seen markets before, but we found the market experience in Ghana to be fascinating . . . if intense!

Our last day in Accra was reseved for an introductory, field-based assignment. In one of our Poughkeepsie-based seminars, we had talked about the theory of "experiential education," or the idea that one can learn from active reflection upon experiences. Students were randomly divided up into teams of four, and given (sealed) envelopes with instructions to investigate (using primary data collected through observation, participant observation, and informal interviews/discussion) key topics, including market culture, fashion, and tourism. Groups were dropped off at particular points in Accra to investigate their topics for 2-3 hours, and then to take "tro tro" taxis back to the meeting point for debriefing. The assignment challenged participants to learn as much as possible on the topic, to "get out there" talking to Ghanaians, so as to push beyond "tourist mode," and to further develop self-confidence, life-, and cultural skills in a new environment.