Culture Shock and Newfound Peanut Butter

15 January 2010
Today I had my first experience with what could possibly be called culture shock… in an American styled shopping mall. Before heading to Ghana, I was told by many that I would find this everywhere because American culture is so different from Ghana. They were right about the different bit, but what really took me aback was the similarity of Accra Mall to something found in my own hometown. After spending but a few days exploring urban Ghana in ninety-degree weather with rare air conditioned respites, experiencing an entire span of indoor air-conditioned shops took me more aback in a way that no unusual food, crazy traffic, or marriage proposal from a stranger had.
Oh, because yes—so far I have received two marriage proposals from Ghanaian men I likely will never see again. This is not terribly uncommon apparently, and after the proposal is given and laughed off, we all go on our merry way.
I had some of the most delicious food ever today. Groundnuts, I delightfully discovered, are basically peanuts and are commonly used to make soup! It’s amazing! The soup we had was a peanut broth with beef and a rice ball. Out of this world. Our orientation leader Mercy has the most fantastic food at her house and has done a wonderful job of showing us a tasty variety of traditional Ghanaian food to find easily in markets. I may however, just eat groundnut soup every meal of the day. And maybe as a snack or two.