Eat Some Fufu and Red Red

A picture of my neighborhood, Labone

A lady carrying fish on her head!

A menu at a local restaurant called Didi Pa

Banku at Didi Pa

My first lunch in Ghana.  My favorite was the groundnut soup with chicken and a rice ball (left).

I have arrived in Accra, Ghana and my first week has consisted entirely of orientation.  My first week here has brought many new experiences, and I admit that I have been exceedingly lazy about writing an update on my blog.  But with hardly any internet, it is easy to forget to stay connected all the time.
First, I need to explain the name of this blog.  Akwaaba means “welcome” in Twi, and it was the first thing I heard when I came to Ghana.  This is my favorite word in Twi, because I believe that it really captures the hospitality of the country and its people.  Indeed, the people here are extremely friendly and welcoming.  The NYU guards already know all our names (there are about 42 of us total in the program), and they are always helping us brush up on simple phrases in Twi:
εte sεn? How are you?
εyε  I’m good!

On day one of orientation it began to hit me that I am in an extremely new environment:  There are huge tropical trees around me, and it is constantly hot out.  Even at night I feel like I need to grab a coat or jacket to go out until I realize that I will be hot even in my light, breezy dress.  Everyone keeps warning us that this is actually their “winter” season, and that February and March is actually their hottest season. 
One day Anna (my roommate) and I found a lizard running around our room (I think we got it out though…I haven’t seen it for a few days anyways).  Mosquito repellent is a must, which I learned after being bitten up one night.  I’m proud to say that I haven’t had a bite for a while now.  We also need to be very conscious of how much electricity we use.  If I am not in my room, the air conditioning should not be on and my lamps and computer charger should be unplugged.  Why be wasteful when so many don’t have access to these things?
Anyways, I learned a lot about the foods here during my first few days.  First of all, beer is cheaper than soda, though the only brand of beer that you can really find is STAR, a decent local brew.  I tried a Diet Coke here, but it looked like it was from some Arab country and it tasted terrible (I can still find Coca-Cola light).  Though peanut butter seems really American to me, I was pleasantly surprised to find it in any grocery store, but it’s called groundnut paste.  I think it tastes way better than normal American peanut butter!
As far as the cuisine here goes, rice and plantains (usually fried) are staples.  So far, I have had rice with almost every meal.  They have special rice called Jollof rice that is heavily spiced and usually red in color from tomatoes.  For the first lunch I had during orientation we were served groundnut soup with chicken and a rice ball.  This was one of my favorite dishes I’ve had so far during my whole stay.  I need to learn how to cook this.  Luckily, our Ghanaian CRAs are going to have a cooking class for all of us next week!  Other local dishes include Red Red, a bean stew served with plantains (another favorite of mine), FuFu, cassava and plantains pounded together into a dough and dipped in a stew, Banku, cornmeal made into a ball of dough and dipped in a spicy sort of beef stew, and palmnut soup.  Unfortunately, I haven’t tried all of these yet.  I found out quickly that I couldn’t just eat only Ghanaian foods because they tend to be spicy and heavy.  People that are newer to the cuisine may find themselves getting what is termed Ghana Gut (I don’t think I’ll explain any further), so it is important to eat it intermittently with other more familiar foods.
Ghana also has some of the best fruit I have ever tasted.  There is the “Pineapple Lady” close to our academic center who has a little fruit stand.  She sells the best pineapples and will even slice it up for you right there.  The pineapples are strangely white, but are so sweet and flavorful!  She also sells wonderful bananas and avocados.