Easter Weekend

I hope everyone had a very nice Easter weekend. It was one of the nicer weekends I’ve had. My roommate was out of town for a church thing, so I had a room to myself for a few days, which was very relaxing. Friday and Saturday were quiet without much worth noting, except the fact that it was nice to be with friends without anything to worry about.
Sunday was such a nice morning though. A few friends and I took advantage of the empty building (everyone was either traveling or at church all day) and made a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, pastries bought the night before, coffee, juice and milk (made from milk powder of course, which is actually quite good after being without milk for 3 months). We then boiled some eggs and spent the afternoon painting them and playing cards. One of my friends had brought a bag of jelly beans from home that she had saved until now, so we enjoyed a little sugar-fix which none of us has had since January.
Monday was also fun. (The University of Ghana does not hold lectures Good Friday or Easter Monday, so it was a very long weekend.) A few of us volunteer at an orphanage a little ways from campus called M’adamfo Paa, and we went to help with an Easter party there on Monday. We helped chop vegetables to make a giant pot of jollof rice, and as it was cooking, it began to rain so much. The rain made everything muddy and wet, but also cooled the air. After we served lunch to the 30 children, and ate some ourselves, everyone began dancing in the rain and the puddles to music blasting from a stereo in one of the buildings. It was so fun. I’m not much of a dancer, but you wouldn’t believe how these children can move. Ghanaians just grow up dancing and you can’t stop them from moving whenever there’s music on. It was so cool to be a part of the group. I definitely feel that the Ghanaians on campus are much different than Ghanaians I’ve met anywhere else. On campus, they do not talk to me and are not nearly as welcoming and friendly and warm as everywhere else. Everyone at the M’adamfo Paa was so nice and such a joy to be around… I feel alienated on campus. For anyone planning to study abroad here: don’t get discouraged if the students on campus don’t welcome you with open arms… but make sure to find something to do off campus so you can meet some really awesome people. They are out there, you just have to go find them.

I suppose I should wrap this up, but I will say that this is my last week of classes. Then we have a “revision week” and then 3 weeks for finals. That means I only have 5 weeks left. I feel like I’ve come a long way since January and I will be so happy to go home, but I will be a little sad to leave Ghana. It was sometimes rough getting to this point, but I’m so glad I came.