2:30 a.m.—”First Awakening” Wake up and check phone, engage in 15 minute conversation with someone back home (Midwest is 5 hours behind). Maybe pee?
2:45 a.m.—Back to sleep because this habit is unhealthy.
7:15 a.m.—”Second Awakening” Wake up, hit snooze, sleep again.
7:24 a.m.—”Third (and final) Awakening” Wake up, throw on clothes. 7:25 a.m.—Take antimalarial. Can’t forget that sh*t.
7:26 a.m.—Greet my host mother and sit at dining room table.
7:30 a.m.—Breakfast is served. My host mother is an excellent cook and often over estimates my ability to eat large quantities. Breakfast of 3 egg omelet, avocado toast, sausage, and pineapple. My host siblings, Naa Dromo and Joel join me.
8:00 a.m.—SO FULL. Dress in business casual because everyone here dresses very nice.
8:10 a.m.—Begin walk to Ecomog Laststop and say good morning to construction workers across the street. Listen to Chance’s Acid Rap because it is one of the few playlists I have downloaded from Spotify. 8:15 a.m.—Cram into packed trotro (Ghanaian minibus) towards Haatcho. Practice my Twi with people sitting around me.
8:25 a.m.—Arrive at West Africa Aids Foundation for internship. Do a lot of sitting around and maybe some work? Take advantage of the Wi-Fi. On Wednesdays, I travel with a local nurse to do outreach about family planning.
12:30 p.m.—Walk to Haatso. Grab trotro headed towards Accra central. 12:50 p.m.—Get off early because I think I found a shortcut. Rarely is it actually a shortcut. Grab lunch of jollof rice and chicken along the way.
1:30 p.m.—Arrive at Twi class extremely sweaty and winded. Lie and say I spilled water on myself, and that’s why I am dripping. Eat lunch in class and learn Twi with Ceci Bergman ’19, Raayon Robinson ’19, and Tyler Williamson ’19. 3:00 p.m.- Kill time and search for air conditioning and Wi-Fi.
5:30 p.m.—International Conflict, Conflict Resolution, and Human Rights. Professor uses America for 95 percent of his examples of international conflicts. Interesting.
7:20 p.m.—Walk to main gate of campus and take trotro towards Madina Market. Get off at Atomic Junction and catch a shared taxi towards Ecomog last stop. Get off at Cedars Medical Center and say good evening to construction workers across the street.
7:45p.m.—Dinner is served. Almost always contains yams, i.e. Yam balls, yam fries, boiled yam soup, yam meatballs, yam and stew, etc. I <3 yams
8:00 p.m.—Take cold shower. It’s feels extremely refreshing after a long and hot day.
8:10 p.m.—Watch “Ghana’s Most Beautiful” with host mom and sister. Discuss who we think will be kicked off in the weeks to come.
9:00 p.m.—Go back to my room and watch whatever show my host brother was able to acquire through questionable practices and download onto a flash drive. I’m not picky. I love television in all its forms.
10:30 p.m.—Sadly, run out of television to watch. Close laptop, get under my sheet, and pop in my headphones to listen to yesterday’s episode of “This American Life.” Fall asleep halfway through and have sweet, sweet, dreams.