obruni

One day soon I will write a serious, economics-related post about how the research is going. The short answer is pretty well but not without several annoying issues. I know that once I am surveying things will be routine and somewhat easier, but there are quite a few steps before I get to that point, and every other step seems to be "panic".

In general, things are going well, though. I like Kumasi and am slowly learning my way around. Mel and Al are great to have around, and Al is a fun roommate. I tried some goat the other day and it was pretty good. Mostly I eat chicken, rice, bits of salad, and random street food (my favorites include a hardboiled egg, fried pastry filled with egg, baked pastry filled with a thin layer of mystery meat, some weird but good half-frozen vanilla yogurt that comes in a bag, or an ear of boiled corn). They have something called jollof rice that is a bit like spanish rice and is pretty yummy. I've learned a few words of Twe (pronounced kind of like "tree") and people seem to always crack up when I say "medasi" (thank you) as thought it is incomprehensible that an obruni would know that word ("obruni" means white person, and we get it quite a bit).

For some reason I miss people a lot this trip: family, friends, dwe, etc. I don't miss the comforts or modernity of the US very much (especially since the heat here is very bearable), but I miss the US insofar as it is my home. I suppose that's a good thing. Anyway, I have many pictures, and will try to upload them this weekend while I'm in Cape Coast with a (hopefully) faster connection.