The Odd Couple

So my roommate Patrick moved in the other day. He's Ghanaian, but he's very cool and relaxed and easy to relate to. About a third of the residents in the Hostel are locals, I suppose to integrate the international students into Ghanaian culture. It sounds like a good idea in theory, but in practice it works a bit differently...

You see, the International Students Hostel is probably the nicest residence on campus. In a country like Ghana, where many people can influence the bureaucracy with a little backscratching, ISH is no different. Basically, from what I'm told, nobody is placed in the Hostel because of good luck. The reality is that the local students here are some of the wealthiest in Accra and that there are ways for them to get on the list.

Anyways, corruption-talk aside, Patrick is an alright fellow. He's a fourth year student, son of a doctor, very religious, and he's got the rez life down to a tee. He rearranged our furniture to maximize space, put in a new floor with a carpet, brought his own TV, playstation, fridge and microwave and even installed mood lighting. (We both are deeply in love with our girlfriends, but can you say "bachelor pad"?)

This conflicts with how I was running the show for the previous two weeks: I kept it simple, efficient and with as few frills as possible. (it looked like a seminary) So here you have two clashing archetypes: the Western exchange student who wants to live the simple African life and the wealthy African student who yearns to live the North American ideal. Not exactly the ideal paring for roommates, eh? ("I smell a sitcom!")

I've been told that there's still a few single rooms available for those who apply for it and as appealing as that would be, I'm greeting this as an opportunity. Tonight it paid off and we got some dinner from the Night Market, looked at my photo album that Maleaha made for me to remind me of home, talked about politics, the state of Africa and generally got some good male bonding time in. He also said he would help me learn some Twi, which will definitely come in handy for the next nine months. See? Things are looking up already...