Today marks one month in Ghana for me. Not surprisingly, I still
haven't mastered the language. The most popular language is Twi, and I
am living in a Twi-speaking region. But the language at my site is
Fante, which is confusingly similar to Twi (and is the native language
of Kofi Annan). So I have classes in Fante and am getting by in
Twiland with a few key phrases and just talking Fante, since it's so
similar (not that I really know much Fante either). Fante is only
spoken in Ghana, and only in about 15% of the country. No clicking
noises (in case you were wondering), but there is a quasi-whistle
sound). Luckily English is the official language anyway, and most
people speak some small-small English (that's a bit of Ghanaian
English there).

In New York, I can walk for miles and not talk to anyone. Not so in
Ghana. Partially because I'm white and partially because it's part of
the culture, I have to greet people. And people greet me. This all
happens in Twi, and luckily for me it's the same conversation over and
over again. I could literally have the following conversation 20 times
in a single day (translated from the original Twi):

Me: Greetings.
Ghanaian: Greetings.
M: How are you?
G: I am very fine. And you?
M: Also, I am fine.
G: What is your name?
A: My name is Ari. And you?
G: Also, my name is ______. Where are you going?
A: I am going to ______. We will meet again.
G: Yo (elongated).

There are about 5 other questions I can respond to, but I'm learning.
Luckily, the schools are all in English and using the native language
is discouraged.

The computer here is frustratingly slow, so that's all for now. I just
tried to upgrade my flickr account so i could upload more pictures but
was told I was in the United Arab Emirates (I'm not).

¶ 11:23 AM