Amma:  My typical day. Get up ﷓ we stayed in the international student hostel which was an open courtyard like, floor plain so it was open to the outdoors.

I would get up in the morning and go fetch a bucket of water, heat up my bucket of water with my heating coil, hope I didn't melt another hole into the bucket, it would be like, 6:00 a.m. or so, drag the bucket back outside.

And it's freezing shivering cold, with this little robe on and this bucket of water, go into shower because they didn't have hot water and bathe, come back and that took so much energy in itself, it was just like ﷓

Then, I would have to walk all the way across campus and it was a long walk, it was really on the outskirts of the campus, they really put the international students off a ways.

Sometimes I would stop by a little side market and find something to eat, they made fried egg sandwiches, and I would grab one of those and some chocolate cookies or something like that and run to class. Classes really didn't take much time.

Then, I'd probably run into a cousin or somebody and go chill in their dorm or something before I had to go walk all the way back across campus in that hot sun. [laughs] That was pretty much my day.

Amma:  Every day I would yell down the courtyard ﷓ Nytangia. She would run out of her room because she stayed a couple of floors below me, and we would go chill out, hang out, maybe go the market, which in itself was an experience. [laughs]

Angela:  Tell us about that, too.

Amma:  First of all, Ghanaians doesn't have... They have a public transportation system but the buses are for more or less long﷓distance travel. Then you have what is called the tro﷓tro, and it's like these little mystery machine bands that just some folks get together. I guess they put some money together, and they get one.

They have a specific route but there's no predetermined schedule. So, whenever the tro﷓tro comes, you have to get on it, and it's a fight to the death. There are people pulling on you and scratching you. You've sat in line waiting for hours.

Just getting out there to the market, there are people heckling you. Of course, they know you're a foreigner. And of course me, they look at me, and they're like, "Your name is Amma Asamoah? Oh, OK, so we're going to mess with you." [laughs] Then we'd get down to the market, and it was just so much hustle and bustle.

If you're a person that is afraid of being in large crowds, you need not go. There are people reaching out to touch you. Ghanaians are very tactile people and very warm, very friendly.

Things that we consider inappropriate behavior in the United States is just like, whatever, to them. They'll grab you; touch you ﷓ "My sister, my friend, come over here. Come and see what I have to sell you."

So, you can't just go in and say, "I'm going to get this and, I'm going to go home." No, it's a full day experience. And by the time all that's over, you're just so tired you just want to get in a taxi and go home. But, even then, you're stuck in traffic for a good hour and a half.

There's maybe a chicken or goat on top of the car in front of you and diesel exhaust, and... [laughs] ... people heckling you and selling fried plantain and pure water and yogurt on the side of the road. So, there's so much going on. There's so much energy involved. But, that was a day in the life.

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