Spring Break
Acclimatizing to the endless Ghana summer
Luci Storelli-Castro
Issue date: 8/29/07 Section: Opinion
Dear Mates,
Some of you are probably wondering why I am referring to you as a "mate." Somehow you missed the part where Fort Collins is an expansive outback with kangaroos diddling about and boomerangs swerving ahead.
In my quest for finding a non-exclusionary, all-encompassing and welcoming term to address you by, I was caught between using mate and comrade. However, the latter, although benign in meaning (it means buddy, pal or friend), can hardly be divorced from communism or its more diluted counterpart, socialism. To avoid opening each letter with what could be misconstrued as an unintended political statement, mate won out in the end.
Logistics aside, let's get to the kernel of this article: acclimatizing to what is surely going to be an endless summer. Goodbye snow, hello year-long tan.
It has been an interesting couple of weeks, as one might imagine. After months of nightmarish medical consultations on all the possible ways you can kick the bucket in Africa, plus all the typical amusements that come with preparing for a 10-month trip, I arrived in Accra on Aug. 12.
Flying overhead, I was enthralled by the vast greenness of the landscape. It is what is to be expected since Ghana is currently in its rainy season. As locals have explained to me, there aren't four seasons in Ghana.
There are only two: the rainy season and the dry season.
During the rainy season, the landscape will maintain its vibrant greenness and temperatures will remain around the mid to upper 80s, with temperatures dropping by nightfall in some locations. It will also constantly rain or, more accurately, drizzle. This increases the humidity, which at the moment is at 83 percent.
Then comes the dry season, where it will cease to rain for months at a time. The lush green grass will gradually die off and turn yellow, whilst the temperatures will intensify into the upper 90s degrees Fahrenheit and above.
The international students are in for some suffering during the dry season, considering we are in one of the coolest months in Ghana and there are already complaints about how hot it is and how uncomfortable it is to be sticky from sweat all the time.
Some of you are probably wondering why I am referring to you as a "mate." Somehow you missed the part where Fort Collins is an expansive outback with kangaroos diddling about and boomerangs swerving ahead.
In my quest for finding a non-exclusionary, all-encompassing and welcoming term to address you by, I was caught between using mate and comrade. However, the latter, although benign in meaning (it means buddy, pal or friend), can hardly be divorced from communism or its more diluted counterpart, socialism. To avoid opening each letter with what could be misconstrued as an unintended political statement, mate won out in the end.
Logistics aside, let's get to the kernel of this article: acclimatizing to what is surely going to be an endless summer. Goodbye snow, hello year-long tan.
It has been an interesting couple of weeks, as one might imagine. After months of nightmarish medical consultations on all the possible ways you can kick the bucket in Africa, plus all the typical amusements that come with preparing for a 10-month trip, I arrived in Accra on Aug. 12.
Flying overhead, I was enthralled by the vast greenness of the landscape. It is what is to be expected since Ghana is currently in its rainy season. As locals have explained to me, there aren't four seasons in Ghana.
There are only two: the rainy season and the dry season.
During the rainy season, the landscape will maintain its vibrant greenness and temperatures will remain around the mid to upper 80s, with temperatures dropping by nightfall in some locations. It will also constantly rain or, more accurately, drizzle. This increases the humidity, which at the moment is at 83 percent.
Then comes the dry season, where it will cease to rain for months at a time. The lush green grass will gradually die off and turn yellow, whilst the temperatures will intensify into the upper 90s degrees Fahrenheit and above.
The international students are in for some suffering during the dry season, considering we are in one of the coolest months in Ghana and there are already complaints about how hot it is and how uncomfortable it is to be sticky from sweat all the time.
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