We have finished our second of four weeks of instruction,
and many of the students are touching bottom on the typical pattern of students
abroad. A bit of the stress is due to the fact that this weekend they are
having midterms (I gave a take home midterm that should be pretty straightforward,
but will still require my three students to block out four hours to get it
done.
Our one male student, Klaeb, is handling things very well.
He is the friendly sort, so by now has made quite a few friends among the
Ghanaian students staying at his dorm. He started by bribing some of the
students with an invitation to share a cup of coffee, and by now every time he
arrives his many friends holler a welcome just at the sound of his steps.
Some of the girls, on the other hand, are getting homesick
and have been sick. They are all pretty gregarious, but misery loves company so
they have formed a pretty tight group with not many other connections. I
realize this is a broad statement, and I must point out that there are some
glorious exceptions. One of our female students had an introduction to a
Ghanaian family, and from day two she was happily spending time with them,
formed an attachment with the son of the family, and is having a great time
visiting schools and attending community events.
Two of our very outgoing African-American students have been
struck by intestinal disease, and are now afraid of trying any new food
(fortunately they have not lost their good humor). The paranoia has extended to
the rest of the clan, so the girls are now tired of just eating rice, and are
beginning to dream about steaks, French fries, and Italian pasta. Unfortunately
they have strange eating habits, and eat like birds anyway, so I can see that
American foods are by now some sort of unattainable Nirvana.
After class I suggested to my students that we could go to
the mall and catch a movie. Wonder Woman was showing at 4:30 pm, so we had time
to go have lunch before the movie. As it turns out, the girls had already seen
it (When? I thought it had just come out this summer?), but they jumped at the
chance to go have a hamburger at the mall. So we got there by trotro and made a beeline for the
hamburger place (I forget the name, but one of the girls said they had this
same chain in New York ).
The hamburgers looked great, but the price was a bit steep (about US$ 20
including fries and soda). What the heck, you only live once. I had the old
traditional fat patty, medium rare, with cheese, lettuce and tomato, with sweet
potato fries, and had to refrain myself not to gobble it up. I needed to enjoy
this meal. Kaleb had a barbecue hamburger with French fries that he also
enjoyed tremendously. But our enjoyment was nothing like that of the girls, who
were enraptured by their own hamburgers, fries, and lots and lots of ketchup. I
think it was the right medicine for the midterm blues! (but, alas, a couple of
them eat only half of their hamburgers and had their plates removed before I
could ask them “Are you going to finish that?”).
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