Am I Really in Ghana?

So waking up this morning, I still can't believe I'm here, somebody pinch me! The journey has just begun and I'm ready to do it all over again. Thank you Jesus. We had our first Ghanaian meal today at Headlines Hospitality in Labone. The food was great, curry chicken, kelewele (fried sweet plantains), joloff rice, and spinach. I tried small portions, as I didn't want to be wasteful, but no worries, I definitely went back for seconds! We also had a class introduction, where Anita and Karen spoke briefly about class assignments and expectations. We returned to the hotel and had the rest of the evening off.

So after returning to the hotel with the evening off, we all decided it was time for our first night out. Wow! So much fun! We ended up going to this place called, "Rockstone's Office." Which is a nightclub opened by Reggie Rockstone, a famous Ghanaian rapper, one of the founders of HipLife music. I was surprised to see how of an influence the US has had on much of the people at the nightclub, for example, there were women wearing revealing clothing and tabletop dancing behind a translucent screen. This is uncommon for women in Ghana, but nightlife and is totally different culture.

As we approached the club we found that it was situated on a dirt road behind a hospital, but to much of my surprise was very nicely decorated! Once we were inside, we found that it was pretty much empty, probably because it was a Wednesday evening, so we decided to make our own party! We sat at a table in what looked like V.I.P. and viewed a drinking menu, before we knew it we were being approached by Ghana's own "Reggie Rockstone!" He was so happy to see us and offered to buy us all (a group of 6 or 7) mocktails to enjoy at his club. Little did we know that these drinks would spell DISASTER for us in the morning.

Reggie tooks us around his club, explaining how he started his music career and how he reflects upon HipLife today. Currently he resides in Brooklyn and makes frequent trips to Ghana to visit his family. In his V.I.P. area, we watched his music videos and concert performances while joking and laughing with him about various topics. We danced the entire night until we decided it was time to go around 2am, and as we were leaving we could see the party was just getting started. People began trickling into the club as we rushed out for fear that we would not get a taxi home. Before leaving, Reggie insists that we visit the upstairs portion of his club, where there was a sand rooftop and a bar, absolutely stunning. We didn't want to leave! Here's our last picture in front of the club before heading down to the road to fetch a taxi....

Definitely looking forward to more nights like this one!