In Which I Take on Anthills

Before I left, I looked up the climate region for this part of Ghana. It is tropical, but it doesn't get as much rain as a rainforest. There is a rainy season (May to September) and a dry season (November to March). For the dry season, we sure go one hell of a thunderstorm last night. There were flashes of lightning lighting up the sky. Thunder boomed and rolled. It was all very dramatic. But also kind of fun to listen to as I tried to get to sleep.
I didn't sleep well again last night, and I do not seem to be developing any particular sleeping patterns. I couldn't sleep at all the first night; I got maybe one or two hours, tops. The next night I slept like a rock, and one of the other USAC girls, Caitlyn, had to come and knock on my door to wake me up. Last night was somewhere in the middle. I have never really been jet lagged before. In Germany, when I did the exchange in high school, I basically stayed up late and slept in as much as I could, and never really adapted to the time difference. I am here for much longer for this trip. And I will be very unhappy when classes start if I am not more acclimated.
But other than the thunderstorm, the weather has been hot and humid. There is haze around the sun even during the afternoon. This might have something to do with being so close to the ocean, but it is almost surreal to see the sun fighting its way through the haze. There have been some Lion King moments when the sun is red and right on the horizon or shining tantalizingly tangible beams down through the clouds. We actually make a lot of referrences to The Lion King, which is admittedly not the best resource for information about Africa.

I have been having the biggest geek-out of my life, the last day or so. A year ago, in Dr. Kruger's Post-colonial Literature class, we read Chinua Achebe's masterful novel Anthills of the Savannah. The central metaphor of the book compares post-colonial governments to the large, strangely-shaped anthills that are common in Nigeria. They are apparently common in Ghana, too. I guess it makes sense. Ghana and Nigeria aren't all that far away and have a similar climate. I saw the first ones from the balcony of my room. It overlooks the schoolyard of the University of Ghana primary school. There is a grouping of trees maybe two hundred meters from my building with several tall, inverted conical mounds. They are the same dusty red of the dirt and dust, but almost look like coral from a long evaporated sea. The most typical rise to a point and can, from the ones I've seen, be anywhere from three to twenty feet high. I have been telling everyone I possibly can about how amazing it is that I actually get to see these in person. And it is amazing. We looked up the anthills Achebe referenced, but pictures on the internet are nothing like the real thing. I can see how these amazing structures can weather storms, wind and rain and abuse. They are natural monument dotting the West African landscape. I get excited every time I see one, no matter how small.

I don't know that I have described where I am staying in any great detail. All of the international students stay in the International Student Hostels (ISH I and II). Hostels are essentially dorms. The building is square, with white plaster walls and a red tile roof--like all the buildings on campus; the molding on the doors and windows is painted black. There is a courtyard in the center of the building with grass and a few trees and flowers. Earlier this afternoon I saw a huge lizard skittering along the path that leads through it. The lizard had to be at least ten inches, maybe a foot, long. The building plan is open around the courtyard, with hallways with views of the courtyard. I am on the third floor, although they use the European system for naming floors, so my room number is a 200. I am all the way at the end of the hall furthest from the entrance to the building. My room is not terribly large nor terribly luxurious. I have a bed, a desk, a chair, a bookshelf, a dresser, and a  table,which is all I really need. All of the furniture is wooden and has seen some wear. It was all dusty when I got here. I think that, because it is the dry season, there is more dirt and dusty sorts of particles in the air, and over the break, more settled that normally would have had there been people living here. I will have a roommate eventually, a local, since I was not assigned another international student as a roommate. I am both excited and nervous about that. All of the other students I've met have been very nice, but I have always had terrible luck with roommates.
We're off to a Rastafarian party/concert on the beach in a bit. More on that later.