On this coming Wednesday I will have been in Ghana for one month.

And of course I'm just starting this blog. Due to a lot of pressure from home (coughmomcough), I'm planning on blogging for the rest of this semester to keep everyone at home updated on my African adventures. While I do think this is a great idea, I've put off starting it because 1. I'm the biggest flake ever and 2. I only get free internet in a building that's a half an hour walk away from my dorm. I'll definitely try to update this often, but "often" will probably mean once, maybe twice, a week.

I guess the best place this to start is by explaining the title of the blog. This semester I'm taking a class in Twi (pronounced like "trwee" or "tchwee") and "oburuni" is a Twi word that basically translates to "white person." Of all of the Twi words that I'll encounter, "oburuni" is definitely the one that I least need to take a class to learn: while I'm walking down the street, little kids will yell "OBURUNI, OBURUNI, OBURUNI;" when I'm at a market, someone will say "Oburuni! I'll give you a good price!" when they know you'll pay way more than a native would; when I'm on a bus, when I order pizza, and virtually whenever anyone wants my attention, I take on my new identity, "oburuni." The word isn't derogatory in anyway at all, and it's not entirely about race, either. A friend of mine from my program has parents who are originally Ghanaian so he definitely fits in looks-wise, but as soon as a native Ghanaian hears him talk, he too becomes an "oburuni." The whole title "#OburuniProblems" comes from the pop-culture reference (I guess that's what you'd call it?) to Twitter's common hashtag, "#WhiteGirlProblems."

Despite the title of the blog, my problems here have been very minimal! Hooray! I am having such a fantastic time and I can't believe that it's already going by so fast. Problems so far have been limited to some expected discomforts like food that makes my body hate me and zero hope of ever not standing out in a crowd; and of course to some unexpected problems, too, like an inability to hand wash all of my clothes well and a lack of toilet paper in public restrooms. Overall, though, I've been extremely happy with my choice to come to Ghana. A lot of the past month has been consumed by my American program's orientation so I'm sure I have yet to encounter the real challenges of studying abroad, since thus far I haven't really felt much culture shock at all.

To be honest, I guess the lack of culture shock is something that I actually find problematic. I want to branch out as much as possible and get to know what another culture really feels like, but so far I've made friends mostly with other Americans and Canadians who are studying abroad here, too. Well, there are some Ghanaian students that my program employs to be our friends, but despite how awesome they are I feel like I they don't really count as "branching out" to make friends. The good news is that I have only been here for one month so I've got plenty of time, but hopefully later I'll be writing about challenges that truly have pushed me to grow. After all, learning about another part of the world and consequently about myself is why I'm here willing to endure toilet paper shortages.

I'll try to write a lot over the next week to catch up to where I am at the end of month one, but my mosquito-netted bed is calling me to take a nap before Twi class at 3:30. Hopefully I'll be able to put pictures up soon too, but I forgot to bring the cord that connects my camera to my computer. #UnsurprisingDisorganizedMaddieProblem