Dubai and Ghana: First Impressions

After a 15.5 hour flight from SFO, I arrived in Dubai. We had only 12 hours there, which included the many hours it took sorting out our issues with the hotel. Most of the students going to Ghana arranged to take the group flights, which included stay at a 4 star hotel in Dubai. Unfortunately, we had no information on where to go, where the hotel really was, or how we should go about checking into our rooms. Needless to say, the first hours off of the plane were pretty stressful.

If I had to describe Dubai in one phrase, I think it would be, “A life sized version of a plastic, Barbie world.” Everything is extravagant, excessive, and somewhat ridiculous. For example, the airport’s giant, Grecian pillars were painted with glitter. The buildings look completely unreal. They’re ginormous, with brilliant lights, and they all look like they’re about to topple over at any moment.

Many of us wanted to go out around town and I went with a group of CSU students to check out a part of downtown near the tallest building in the world.

I learned a valuable traveling lesson in Dubai…greedy, immoral taxi drivers and naive student travelers do NOT mix well. Our taxi was on a meter, so we figured it would be hard for the driver to screw us over (“No tricks,” we told him. “No tricks, no tricks,” he responded). Wrong. First, he stopped at a gas station without asking while the meter was still running, then he drove us the long way to our destination, then he tried to drive us in circles, and THEN he tried to add $10 to the meter price! We basically told him that he was out of his mind and refused to pay the extra $10 and the money that was accumulated at the gas station. Regardless, our direct drive back cost a whole $13 less.

When I returned from my brief night out, I had 4 hours to sleep before it was time to head back to the Dubai airport. In comparison to the 15.5 hour flight to Dubai, the 8.5 hour flight to Ghana felt like nothing.

So much has happened since I’ve arrived in Ghana and I have absolutely no idea where to begin describing this incredible place. First of all, most of the students going knew that the dorm rooms were not going to be nearly as comfortable as those at our campuses in the United States…but it’s a bit more extreme than we initially expected.

There is no hot water, which means we take some pretty chilly showers. There is no toilet paper in any of the bathrooms. There are lizards everywhere (seriously, everywhere). The girls in my neighboring dorm room found a dead cockroach by their sink. The mattresses are thin and have definitely seen better days. My room didn’t appear to have been serviced before we arrived, as there was Christmas wrapping paper covering part of the closet surfaces, there are pictures of turtles tacked to one of our walls, and nothing appears to be clean. The showers flood with every use (although, in all honesty, this is no different than many IV apartments).

The campus is really lush. Although some of the buildings are run down, there are a few areas that look somewhat like junkyards, and nothing is quite as clean as America, it is absolutely gorgeous.

The food is spicy, but delicious. There are plenty options for vegetarians and, as a person who doesn’t eat red meat, I won’t have any problems. However, I’m starting to see my mild gluten allergy as an issue in the future.

Being in Ghana is incredibly surreal. After months of planning, weeks of packing, and days of traveling, I’m finally here. Even though I went through endless preparation for this trip and talked about Africa non-stop in the days leading up to my departure, it still hasn’t hit me that this will be my home for the next 5 months. I’m incredibly excited to become comfortable and, somewhat surprisingly, I find the challenges and discomforts somewhat thrilling. If one thing is for certain, I’ll be one tough cookie when I go back to the U.S.

One Response to “Dubai and Ghana: First Impressions”

1. Jaci Casillas says:

   July 28, 2009 at 10:46 am

   I’m so happy you’re doing this blog! My boyfriend Marlon is with you right now and the most I can get out of him is that its “nice” and “tropical” and I guess he’s taking bucket showers so its great to have detailed descriptions. I’m going to show this blog to his mom because I don’t think he’s told her much more than he’s told me. Good luck with everything I hope its the best 5 months you’ve had so far.