EIL Intercultural Learning

Hello! Today I'm celabrating my little aniversary - two weeks in most beautiful African country Ghana. I could not update my blog earlier as i had sever cultural shock and did not want to be too negative. Just kidding:) I have experienced some cultural shock, such as homesicness and some aspects certantly irratated my.  Most irritating aspects of my experience so far is  that local people call europeans 'oburoni' (twi language) or 'jawu' (ewe language), which means 'white person'. I've heard this word about 20 million times in different situations eg. in market, street, at orphanage.  This term is not offensive and is ussually used to attract attention.

Another irritating experience was realisation that europiens pay double or triple price for everything comparing to local people.  This is due to the fact that 'oburoni's' are perceived as rich people and can affard to pay much more.  I was made aware about this fact so it helped me and made things easier.

I have realised many things in two weeks period. For example, now I can see how rich we are and how many things we tend to take for granted.  Running water, washing mashines, dishwashers, hoovers and so on are parts of everydat life in Ireland and we do not thing that they are luxuries, which they really are.  Especually running water:) Most interestuing fact is that people in Ghana do not look deprived or unhappy not having all those luxuries, more so they look happier than Irish paople.

Running water is perticularly painful issue for me personally, as in the house, where other volunteers and I live, has been no running water for the last 4 days.  We have to bring water from the orphanage where we volunteer.  It is not far but still a bit to walk with buckets full of water.

I have done some travelling already and fell in love with Ghana.  It is extremelly beautifull!

I think this is enough for my first entry. I promise that I will update my blog early next week and tell about my volunteering experience both in the orphanage and school.