To all those who want to see some of my photos, I'm sorry, but you'll just have to be patient- as patient as we are all being with dial-up speed internet that crashes unexpectedly. The only place with fast enough internet to download photos is at the Accra Mall - which is a story in itself. Thus, when I have the strength of will to go back to the mall, my photos will be up. For now though, ya'll will have to be content with imagining. Sometimes its better- like when you first graduate to chapter books. When imagining, please make sure to add more dust, more men in nicely pressed slacks and ties, and more burning piles of trash in the least expected places than you would have otherwise imagined on a university campus. When I do put up photos, I'll also put up some of the surrounding areas, as well as photos from the bus ride to Kumasi, Cape Coast and of course... the legendary canopy walk. For now I'll say that I now feel settled, like I have a sense of place and habit. There is a market right across the road from the International Students Hostel that provides most of my meals. Women, as in most markets in Ghana, run the show and most of the food vendors are women, many with children playing with each other around or behind the market. I believe that most of the people who run the market also live there, either sleeping in their stalls or in a camp right behind it. The contrast between their sleeping arrangements and the ISH students, with our large, 2-person rooms, constant running water and ceiling fans (as opposed to other halls on campus...), is unnerving and uncomfortable whenever I remember it. This same dichotomy exists in a larger scale everywhere in Accra, particularly along the tro-tro ride back to Legon (campus) from downtown Accra, where one passes mansions surrounded by razor-wire rimmed walls with camps of people in shacks built up in the bushes across the street. Many of the roads that the tro-tros take are bumpy dirt road shortcuts to avoid the horrendous traffic along the Legon/Media road out of the city. This takes the tro-tros right by many such camps, and when on one of these routes, it feels as if the city is very far away though it is not. This is the biggest difference I've noticed in the asthetics of a US urban area vs. Accra: the process of city/infrastructure building is very noticeable. Huge piles of sediment and/or gravel line the sides of roads or rise up in the middle of an empty field. There are usually groups of little kids climbing all over them, with construction work often stagnant beside. All over the region (as well as Kumasi) are half-built skeletons of apartment buildings - often with camps for families self-constructed inside. Roads are also often half-build, such as the road to Kumasi, which changes in placs from a genuine freeway to a trecherously bumpy 2 lane dirt road. This is not to say that the environment is not extremely beautiful and tropical looking- with banana trees lining the roads and the colors of deep green and bright red dirt overpowering everything else. Photos will definitely help this description. I'll call it a day for now, but next time I'll talk more about people. On to lunch - and the decision between rice and beans or soup and banku. Always the hardest decision of the day. Love to all.