Nothing in particular but Ghana

So being in Ghana is quite different than being in the United States, and there are some (surprising!) things that I miss about good ol' USA. They range from the ordinary (un-potholed roads, pizza) to the not-so-surprising (air conditioning, cold drinks) to the ridiculous (on-demand food, meals where starch isn't the central colorie provider). The food is one of the biggest things. Disclosure: I love to eat. And I'll eat everything. But food here can taste the same and carries the same character (carbs with a soup or stew as a side). Pizza in the village? Nonexistent. The only time people reliably eat spaghetti or pasta is when making a variant of a Ghanaian dish, Waakye (or Watsi [wah-chi]).
Another thing I miss about the US is simple radio programming (and a radio for that matter – I guess I could buy one here) like NPR. Science Friday, This American Life, Marketplace... these mystical programs can only be descibed as exotic and are found wanting in my soul.
Sports – this one is a combination of sports on television like football and tennis and also playing sports like racquetball or disc golf. Sure, I suppose I could build a 40 ft x 20 ft x 20ft box in my village and teach people how to play, but the difficulties involved would be too easy to overcome. Since I am more of a sports guy than an endurance person (like running – ick) I can tell that part of me is getting out of shape and underused. So I started doing P90X (the X is for Xtreme!!). Then I accidentally deleted the workout videos and am currently back to square one.
Finally, I suppose interacting with people that I can relate more with than just the weather or apkoteshi is something I do miss as well. Real Conversations? They can occur, but usually it goes like this when I try and talk about something serious, like amending the school discipline techniques: "Its our culture, and we need this."
A final difference is that there are a few people who don't agree with consuming any acohol at all, and visibly show that other people shouldn't either. These people mystify my imagination. If this person has seen me drink a single beer, I am accused of 'boozing' and being drunk (after one beer? Negative). This is different than abstainers in present-day US, and reminiscent of prohibition-era teetotallers. To cope with this phenomena, outdoor bars (called 'spots') usually have a optical-blocking scheme of some kind, like vertical wooden slats (or, as is more common in my village, spots are located in someone's living room behind closed walls).
I'm not ready to go back to the US yet, but I think I will be by the end of my service here. I can tell I make a difference in people's lives, and to spread word about American culture and its differences with Ghanaian culture, but there are simply things that I want to enjoy. Why do laundry by hand when I can have a washing machine do the same thing with far less effort? It builds character.
Being a white person in a black country has its ups and downs. Case and point is attention received when I'm doing absolutely nothing interesting. Small children enjoy staring at me, so I turn it into a game: I stare at them in the eyes until they feel shy and look away. I like to think of it at practice for staring down students in the classroom environment. On the flip side, people are almost always respectful and accommodating to my needs (or, I daresay, whims).
NOTES:
There's a song here that is from Nigeria, but contains a line "It's all about the benjamins baby"... are there $100 bills in Nigeria? I didn't know 'benjamins' was a common system of currency.
People have no reservations about stating truths in a straightforward manner ("Mike! You are looking fat! Ghana is good for you!" and "You always eat groundnuts, so I will call you groundnut man").