Sorry that I have not kept up with my daily updates. The evenings have been very busy, so I have not had the opportunity to sit down and blog. Plus, yesterday the power was out most of the day, so I couldn't blog even if I wanted to :)
On Thursday and Friday, nothing of particular interested happened in the office, but both nights had office get-togethers. On Thursday, we went to Heritage Restaurant, the "better" Indian restaurant in Accra (there's only three). I thought it was pretty good, but probably because the Indian in our group ordered items not on the menu. Friday was TGIF, so everyone relaxed in the office and drank lukewarm beers and white wine. I had thought about going out, but by 10 I was so tired that I went straight to bed.
Yesterday Ato invited me to an art exhibit at the W.E.B. du Bois Center so I spent my afternoon there. The art exhibit was fantastic (and I'm not much of a painting person); the entire concept was to randomly pair artists together and have one artist start on a canvas and have the other artist finish. They could not communicate about the piece, and each artist could use whatever materials they wanted. The results were pretty varied, depending on whether the artists' styles contrasted or complemented each other. For example, one piece had started off very modern but moved towards representational by the second artist. It was very bold but came out really good. Another piece was started in charcoal and loosely depicted a crowd of Africans in the market place. The other artist finished the piece by adding people to the crowd in color; the contrast between black and color was so strong, but it looked great. Another piece had one person using acrylic and another using sand. Again, it was very cool because the painting became very textured in certain places. Any way, it was a great exhibit and I'm glad I went.
Afterwards, I walked home (about 3 miles) to explore the neighborhood a bit. It was the first day since I arrived that the sun was out, and it was insanely hot. There wasn't much to see; I think the heat makes people huddle in the shade or run inside, and I have definitely noticed more of an early morning/late evening scene. In the evening, I went with Francesca, Jens, and Ben to a bar called Duncan's. We had a few beers and then walked home. I'm liking where I live because everything is so close; reminds me of when I lived in Berkeley :)
And for the last event of the evening, we helped a car out of the gutter. Most streets in Ghana are stratified as follows: houses, sometimes a sidewalk, a gutter (sometimes small enough to hop over but sometimes so big that you can't cross unless someone built a bridge), and then the road. I had always wondered if cars can get stuck in the small gutters and it turns out that they can. A man had been trying to turn around in our very narrow street and got his back tire stuck inside the gutter. Fortunately, Jens, Francesca, and I were able to lift his car so he could get himself out. Another good deed!
