The Marleys Come to Accra

Okay so these past couple of days have been soooooo crazy intense. I'm not sure where to begin. Last weekend I can't even remember what I did but I definitely had fun. This weekend, my lifestyle caught up with me a bit but didn't exactly slow me down. I would say that on average, I go out about 4 nights a week and one of those nights I "take it easy." It still doesn't feel like I'm in school even though I've been going to classes and I've started my community service (more on that later). On the weekends, a group of us go out to the pool and end up going out for dinner at night. It's a very surreal experience and I'm wondering when it will start to become difficult.

Okay, so this weekend...just craziness. Tuesday I went out with some of the girls to...somewhere, I don't remember...and had fun then Wednesday I went to Labadi Beach where they have a beach party every Wednesday and this Wednesday a friend of mine was performing so we went to see him. Then Thursday night was half price margarita night at this place Champs that also has good Mexican food so I went out there then Friday I felt the cold coming on so I stayed home because I knew that Saturday and Sunday were going to be busy. So Saturday I woke up and felt fine but then I suddenly felt really nauseous and got cold and clammy and it turned out I had a fever. But before I get into that, the day before on Friday, 7 other students went to the hospital with the same symptoms: fever, chills, stomach pains...and other people were coming down with the same symptoms. And none of us knew what was going on. So anyway, Saturday I had a fever and chills and I end up sleeping most of the day so that I could be better for the night. I normally would not have gone out but this past weekend there was a HUGE concert...the Bob Marley concert celebrating his 61st birthday. And the concert moves every year around to different countries in Africa and this year it happened to be in Ghana. So on Saturday night the Marley sons were supposed to be at this club Boomerang and it was going to be a big night. So a group of us got in for free and went and saw them in VIP. It was cool...the area where they were reeked of weed though. And then on Sunday, all of the students had been invited to some guy's wedding so I decided to go and experience a Ghanaian wedding, despite only having 2 1/2 hours of sleep. Well about 10 minutes into the wedding, I got really really nauseous again and had to go home and mm...yeah, it wasn't pretty. Then I passed out and slept most of the day again then around 8pm I went to the concert.

So the concert had a VIP section and a regular section and VIP was 100,000 cedis, which is about $11-12 so all of the NYU people who went got it because it was a once in a lifetime experience and it wasn't that expensive. And we all work our way up to the front and the air literally IS weed smoke. There is so much around that it was impossible to breathe pure air. So we're in the front and a group of the girls were passing around this joint that some random man gave to them and all of a sudden one of my friends gets really dizzy and has to be taken away and then another girl falls to the floor and starts seizing. So we put her in an ambulance and it turns out the weed was obviously laced with something because it affected everyone who smoked it, depending on the amount they had. So after that traumatic event, most of us stayed until almost the end and saw Rita Marley (Bob Marley's wife) and most of his sons perform. Damien Marley did Welcome to Jamrock...it was soooooo good. And Chaka Demus performed, the guy who did the Murder She Wrote song. Overall, the concert was absolutely amazing. Despite the one crazy moment with the girl, it was so great. I'm glad I got to experience it, despite my up and down sick moments. And next year it goes to South Africa. I didn't bring in my camera b/c there are a lot of pickpocketers there but my friend took great pictures.

So that's all I can write for now. Just an update email. It sounds like life has been crazy and it definitely has but I'm still having the time of my life.

P.S.- my community service is wonderful. I'm a teacher's assistant at a school, The Morning Star School, for Auntie Catherine's kindergarten class. and they call me Auntie Tausha and they're all soooo adorable. I've only been there 2 days so far but I've kind of got an idea about everyone's role. As of right now, I know who the bully is, the tattletale, the troublemaker, the hitter, etc. So yeah, that's it! Peace out.