Spiders are GROSS.

Well, it’s the last day of February. Happy Leap Year! It’s crazy to think that we have been in Ghana for over a month already!! It is going fast, and I know that it will go even quicker as we get closer to the end. I need to learn to cherish each day that I have because I am going to really miss it here when I have to leave.

Petra and I walked to town to do some photocopying for our classes this morning and then Petra went to have her hair finished. They didn’t quite get done yesterday. 

Finishing her Hair

I had a lot of prep to do for my business’ classes, so I spent the afternoon working on lesson plans, and flashcards and exercises for Anita and Cynthia. I also had to look into applying for scholarships at Redeemer which is difficult since I am away. It takes a while to get that all organized while figuring out online courses for this summer and next year as well.

LOOK AT THIS SPIDER!!

OHMYGOODNESS. There was the world’s largest and most disgusting looking spider in the hallway outside of our kitchen today. It is the same one that was in the shower in the hallway the other day too, and the reason why I have not gone into that bathroom for the last 2 days. I freaked out and asked Yaa to kill it. She just laughed at me as I stood back and squealed like a pansy.

We had class this afternoon. We had more women again today which was nice and Auntie Julie was back. Petra and I were already at the school and talking to some of the women with Kujo when we heard a big squeal of tires and a crash. A car had come down the hill towards the school and around the bend and lost control and flew off the road and into the ditch...6 feet from where Auntie Julie and Uncle Ernest were walking...we all ran out of the school to go see if everyone was okay, and thankfully no one was hurt. Then I took a picture...But it was scary! That is why it is dangerous to walk in Africa...

Car Accident

I had a really good time in class today; Vida brought her two BEAUTIFUL children, Emelia’s son came, and Kate (Anita’s daughter) was there as well. Emelia’s son actually fell asleep face down on the floor halfway through class. Must have been bored haha.

Colouring in Class

We gave the other kids paper, colouring pages, and stuff to draw with and they put some stickers on their faces. Super cute!

Emelia's son, sleeping

The ladies were asking to learn some of the days of the week and months of the year since those are things they can use on a regular basis, so I got to go through them with them; helping them sound them out, read them out, and write them in order in their books. They did a great job! I love that they are asking to learn certain things so that they get all that they want out of these classes; they ARE for them after all.

At the end of class, the women wanted to learn the song “You are Mighty” and Petra and I said that we would lead. Halfway through the song, we forgot the words. FAIL. We attempted to remember, and tried again. FAIL. We sang a different song after the third try...

Enoch and his friend, cutting the grass

My Machete and I :)

When we had walked home after class, William and Enoch were cutting the grass out front. Now, this may seem like something uninteresting and normal...not here.

Ghanaians cut their grass with their machete. In bare feet. WE DON’T EVEN WHIPPERSNIP IN SHORTS! It was nuts. I was wearing this high-waisted skirt and collared shirt from class and they asked me if I wanted to try. OF COURSE I DID, I just probably shouldn’t have in nice clothes. Didn’t let that stop me. I am not very good. I told Auntie Joe that she should hire me to cut her grass and pay me by the hour because it would take me forever. I would be a rich woman!

Eventually, people had gathered to watch and were laughing at me. Petra, unfortunately, took a video of this event so if anyone wants to see it when I get back home they are welcome to ask to humiliate me.  

And we're one month in!!!

Apparently the power outage we had on Sunday during class was nationwide; all of Ghana had no power for about 4 hours!

Monday morning I had to go back to Accra to do some banking that couldn’t happen on the weekend. I was supposed to go by myself while Petra got her hair braided, but the salon was busy so she came with. Samson was going to Accra to go back to school after being in Asamankese for the weekend, so he offered to drive us so that we didn’t have to go on the trotro.

He dropped us off and we did our banking and then took the trotro home. Traffic was INSANE, to say the least, leaving Accra that afternoon. It took nearly 2 hours just to get out of the city and then another 2 to get home.

Driving to Accra

We almost hit a pack of sheep that were crossing the road...twice...it was hilarious to watch them get rattled and then scramble around the street. Everyone on the trotro was laughing pretty hard. Our driver got in trouble with the police too while trying to avoid traffic leaving Accra. He tried to take a shortcut and go through the median, which was just fine with me, but there were police nearby and they made him stop and get out for a little chat.

I saw a couple motorcycles with 4 people on them...yes, 4 people on one motorbike. They also had little goggles and puffy winter jackets on...pretty amusing.

I took my lovely braids out last night. It took 5 long and tedious hours to do. I had to cut the end off of each braid (since they had been set by hot water) and then take a bobby pin to unbraid and feed through each one. The braids were too tightly wound to use my fingers to unbraid them until the part that was super close to my scalp. I watched a movie and listened to music to try and pass the time but my fingers were so cramped by the end. BIG thank you to Petra for helping me.

My hair after taking out the braids

My hair afterwards was insane. It was so crimped and looked hilarious (see picture if you don’t believe me). My shower that night felt glorious, but I lost a ton of my hair doing this!

Today, PETRA got her hair braided. I should have kept mine in one day longer so that we could get a picture of us with our braids together, but oh well. She got cornrows to a certain point on her head and then Rasta for the rest like my braids. It looks nice, and really suits her, but the lady couldn’t get it all done in time before class today, so she will have to go back to finish tomorrow morning.

Petra getting her hair braided

I went to town this morning to see some of the ladies, and I walked around with Cynthia while she was selling. That was a lot of fun. I am really starting to build a good relationship with her and it is always a joy to spend time with her! I am so proud that she only speaks English around me, and is always looking for opportunities to practice it.

In class today, we had a smaller number; 13 ladies came. Auntie Julie was gone traveling somewhere today so she couldn’t make it. I led the level 1 class with Kujo helping to translate. They memorized and learned to read Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” And I have noticed that many of the women are getting faster at writing and putting together sentences in English. It is beautiful to see their progress.

The rains started as we walked home so this nice man gave us a ride home in his truck. It started to pour just as we got back and the power went off for about an hour. 

I spy with my little eye...more white people!!

I hope this blog doesn’t end up being too long, but I will fill you in on my weekend in Accra:

We were supposed to leave Thursday evening, but it poured rain like crazy making traveling ridiculous and the power went off from 3 in the afternoon til like 10am the next morning so that was just awesome too.

Instead, we spent time with Auntie Joe’s son, Samson and his friend Fiifi. They say “really?”/”are you suuure?”/ “am I clear?”/ “do you understand?” A LOT. It’s hilarious, and I realized that after making fun of it so much, I have started saying them too.

Friday we caught the trotro in the morning to Accra and got there around 9am. It was nice and cool in the morning from all the rain the night before, but the roads were worse and the potholes were all filled with water and the rivers were much higher. I am starting to wonder how ANY traveling gets done during the rainy season since it apparently rains for 4 days straight, stops for 2 and rains for 3 days again. Not looking forward to that...goodbye tan!

Belinda had some things to do in Accra this weekend, so she got off the trotro at Circle and told us to stay on until Accra. So we said goodbye and we were officially on our own.

We got off at “last stop” in Accra Central and we were lost for the first time. We walked around aimlessly for a bit to see if we could find our way, but no such luck. We called Akua for backup, and she talked to the taxi driver to tell him how to take us to the bank. For some reason, no one in Accra seems to know where the CalBank (our bank) is, so we have to tell them it is beside the ADB (Agricultural Development Bank) which I never remember the name of. Getting there is always a challenge.

The taxi driver was playing Top 40 music in English and he must have noticed that I was singing along (despite trying to cover up my awful voice), because he turned the music up real loud for me.

After the bank, we made our way with trotros back to Mummy Biney’s house. We had to do a bit of walking in between and we realized how nice it was to walk with just the two of us because we get places much quicker when we don’t have to go at a Ghanaian pace haha.

Mummy’s husband greeted us with a huge hug when we got there and Michael and Kwadwo were on their midterm break so they weren’t at school which was exciting! It was so good to see them again and Michael gave me a running and jump hug which made me smile real big. He was my bud all weekend long again.

Heart Shaped Cake for Petra's Birthday

In the afternoon, Petra and I decided to go to La Beach. It is just down the coast, but much nicer than Tawala Beach. We decided to go for Petra’s birthday since she couldn’t really do much for it in Asamankese. We got a free taxi ride to the beach, which was a plus. Most parents would frown upon it, but a taxi driver and his friend needed change for a 20 and we gave it to them. They asked where we were going so we told them, La Beach. They offered us a free ride, and against our better judgment, we jumped in. They asked us for our number, and I decided that it was rude to refuse it if they had given us a free ride, so instead I gave them the wrong number.

Things I found at the beach:

-there is still quite a bit of garbage at the beach. Samson told us not to go up to our waist in the water here because we would get a UTI...very comforting...I went in to my knees.

-the sand is white and BEAUTIFUL

-LOTS of white people go to this beach. It was very comforting not being the only white people

-as a foreigner, there is no such thing as relaxing on the beach. People come up to you like crazy selling fruit, paintings (they ALL claim to be artists here), beads, bracelets, etc.

-a guy did a “show” like a tiny busker performance on the beach. He was a gazillion-jointed and twisted his body in ways that a body should never go. I had to look away. It was gross.

-I got proposed to 4 times in 3 hours

-I got offered to ride this guys horse down the beach like 3 times

-one of the lifeguards wanted me to take him back to Canada with him

-I realized that Ghanaians think that Canada is in Europe (even Kujo, the supervisor from school thought that, and he`s a TEACHER)

-I saw a dead snake in the water...ew...

Beach

Depending on who was asking, there was a variety of responses that we gave to the men who approached us that day:

-we are students in Canada, we are married and have no children, Petra was married for a year and a half at one point, I had been married since I was 20, I don`t want to get married because I am way too young

We realized we could tell whatever stories we wanted to these guys and they would believe us. So we just had fun with it and told different stories to everyone.

The power went off in Accra too that night...maybe we are bad luck?

Saturday morning we hung out with the boys for a bit. Their cousins were over for the weekend, so that was fun. Lots of kids to play with.

We went to the Accra Mall to get some comfort food, and checked out Osu for fun in the afternoon. They have a lot of cool shops with African jewellery and masks and things. It also has a food court with Chicken Inn. Mmm.

We saw a TON of white people on Saturday. There was a white couple in Asamankese the other day, but we didn’t have a chance to stop to talk to them. We saw them in Accra of all places and introduced ourselves. Their names are Kjerstin and Carl, they have been married for 3 years and have been living in Ghana for 2 years. They are from Missouri. We exchanged contact information and we are going to meet up in Asamankese sometime. Exciting.

Osu

We also met a couple of people from Germany on the trotro to Osu. Believe it or not, we told THEM where to go. It felt nice to be less new than someone else and definitely gave us Ghanaian confidence.

They have KFC in Osu. It’s really expensive here, so we didn’t get it, but it was fun to see a familiar restaurant. It also has amazing A/C pumping in it.

When we got home, Michael and Kwadwo wanted to go to Tawala Beach before dinner, so we took them for a bit. We saw a guy from the States who we had seen at the bank a couple weeks earlier too. I think it was “white people in Ghana” day.

Tawala Beach with Michael :)

That evening, Awu and Serwa and their friend Fiifi (different Fiifi), took us out. We went to this really ritzy hotel (nicer than any hotel I’ve ever been to in Canada before) and we had milkshakes on the patio outside by the palm trees and the huge and beautiful pool. It was really nice to get out with people around our age and just have a night out; it was a lot of fun!

Afua, Petra, Me, Awu

This morning we got up and went to church with the Biney’s. It was in English, but honestly most of the time, I couldn’t tell. A lot of Ghanaians talk SO loudly into their mics and their accents are so strong that most of the service was spent trying to figure out whether they were speaking English or Twi. We couldn’t tell. I definitely get the most homesick during church services. So much so this time, that I literally prayed that I would hear ONE familiar song in English before the service was over...The last song I could sing every word!

We took the trotro back to Asamankese after church because I had to get back to teach my Business class. I was worried I would be late, but when we got to the trotro station in Accra, Anita was there too. Half my class was also trying to get back to Asamankese...haha...

The class went well, minus the fact that the power went off halfway through and we had to finish by lantern.

Teaching Class without Power

All in all, a great and refreshing weekend.

Accra for the Weekend

This morning we woke up to a beautiful day again. I am loving the cool mornings, but we definitely pay for it with the super hot afternoons!

This morning we were outside with Auntie Joe since we didn’t see her much yesterday, and Auntie Julie came to visit too. We were all chatting and it was nice to talk with Auntie Julie outside of the classroom; she is the level 1 facilitator. (We appreciate her so much since many of the women in level 1 need to be taught in Twi first since they don’t know any English).

We went to the market to visit Anita and Cynthia. Anita was extremely excited to see us and Cynthia, as always, has lots to talk about. She said that her name “Cynthia” meant “brave” and that her name was known worldwide. Then she asked us if we thought that ALL Cynthia’s around the world were brave too? We smiled and said, “not as brave as you!”

My braids are SUPER itchy today. Almost time to take them out. I really want to wash my hair underneath!! I am, however, excited for the low maintenance that they will be this weekend when we go away. We are going to Accra this weekend to visit the Biney’s! We are both really excited. We are going to meet up with Awu (the girl who showed us around the first week; we miss her), we have to do some banking stuff, and WE GET TO GO TO CHURCH IN ENGLISH. You cannot begin to understand how exciting that is for us.

Church is one of the things I miss most about Canada right now. The familiarity of the songs, understanding the message, worshipping with the people in my home church. Definitely something I will look forward to when I get home. The Biney’s go to a Pentecost church near their home that is similar to the Pentecost churches that we have been attending in Asamankese, but it is in English. We are excited that they have allowed us to visit them and stay in their home, and that they have invited us to go to church with them.

I am also SUPER excited to see Michael and Kwadwo again!

Pray for safe travels as we go (trotro accidents are the most common cause of death in Ghana...haha...I guess I shouldn’t be laughing about that, but it IS a little ironic that my mom freaks out about taking Malaria pills when road accidents are more common). 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETRA!

Today is Petra’s birthday. She is 22 on the 22^nd! So everyone back home should be thinking of her and sending lots of lovely birthday wishes her way! She hates birthdays, and doesn’t like when people do things for them apparently, so naturally, I HAD to do something!

Happy Birthday Petra!!

I got up early before she had woken up and blew up a couple of balloons. I made her a nice birthday card with the limited markers, pens, and highlighters that I have and stuck those both on the chair that she sits on every day at the table. Yup. We have silently claimed certain chairs.

Then, I made these little poster things that said cute birthday messages on them, and scattered them all over the house on the wall with balloons too.

Belinda made her pancakes for breakfast, and Auntie Joe gave her Ghanaian chocolate and biscuits.

Hopefully all of this will help her enjoy her birthday even though she is away from her family and her boyfriend.

Yesterday we had class, and again our attendance was high. The women are showing up more and more on time every time that we hold class which is nice to see, and we can see progress already which is great! I stuck with level 1 again, and Petra with level 2. It is nice to see a good range of experience and ability with English among the women; I am finding that those who know a little bit more are fantastic for helping out the women who know hardly any at all.

I had a bit of a culture shock day, yesterday. I missed home quite a bit, but it was nice to have Petra around to talk things out and just process our thoughts together. Every once in a while you just have these moments where you miss the familiarity of home, the people you left behind, and just wish for an easy English conversation that doesn’t require you to speak much slower than usual, or speak in simpler terms for understanding.

But, with these few hard days, come many that I just love being here. So that definitely makes up for it! Just have to keep remembering why I am here, and looking at the lovely faces of the women who are so appreciative of us coming to Asamankese to get to know them.

We are at day 25. A quarter of the way in. It’s funny, because there are days when it feels like our time is just flying by, and there are other days where it seems like we just arrived. There is so much more that I feel we need to do here before we leave and I know that the days are go by more and more quickly as time goes on.

This morning was nice and cool. With the rainy season coming, I think the weather is slowly starting to change. Now, don’t get me wrong, it is still hot. When I say cool, I mean it’s 25 with a breeze. But I was even able to wear pants in the morning without sweating through them! That was exciting.

We walked to town today to see Cynthia. She wasn’t feeling well yesterday but she was back to work today which was good news. She had lots of new pawpaws from the farm, ready to wash and sell. When we got there, she was eating lunch; a rice and beans mixture that she was clumping up into balls with her fingers and eating them with her hands. As good as that mixture may taste with a fork or a spoon; it was hard for me to stomach watching her eat it with her hands. Might be something I will have to get used to though, because a favourite food of many Ghanaians is fou fou and that is eaten with your hands as well.

We saw Jacklyn in town today as well and she took us around and we looked at a couple fabric stores; the African fabric and patterns here are beautiful! I always stare at them as I walk by, so today we decided to look at a couple of the shops just to get some ideas for the ones we might like.

OH. A good laugh for the day...the sense of style (other than that traditional African wear) is pretty funny around here. Today, keeping in mind that it was pushing 30 degrees in the afternoon, a man was wearing one of those Argyle sweater vests that are supposed to be more formal and worn over collared dress shirts, as a tank top. Haha! It was knitted and thick and looked like you would just sweat right through it...but don’t worry, if it has no sleeves, why wouldn’t you wear it in the summer time right?

We had class again today, and there were 23 women!! We are getting more and more each time we have class which is exciting. I know I say this a lot, but the last time when Melissa ran this program there were so few women, so it makes us more excited than you can understand when we have more women than we have desks!!!

Level 1

If I have ever mentioned having a thunderstorm before, multiply that by 100 and you will have the thunderstorm we had while we were in class. It was POURRING! It was thundering and lightning, and it was so loud that we had to stop teaching for a while; you couldn’t hear anything. It was such a hot afternoon so the rain brought lots of humidity with it, but it smelled fantastic!

There was a woman out on the porch of the school, drying her corn, and all the other women rushed out to help her put it back into bags when it started raining. It just goes to show how helpful everyone here is. They are always willing to lend a hand.

A couple of the women bring their kids to class with them, so it’s fun to see the same smiling kids every week. It definitely can be distracting to the other women in the class but I think it is something that they are used to, and I will have to get used to the fact that having a child cry during class, or having a woman breastfeed her child in the middle of class is completely acceptable.

This little guy comes to class everyday

I think Belinda and Auntie Joe plan to give Petra cake tonight for her birthday, so that is exciting. Auntie Joe was in Accra all day today with her son, Samson, so when she returns she wants to celebrate with us.

Oh. You know the saying in Canada, “beggars can’t be choosers?” Today Kujo used that expression, but they say it like this: “a beggar can’t make a choice.” That was a new one, and kind of funny. Auntie Julie talked about the whiteboard marker that had dried out and said, “it has finished.” (Just a few Ghanaian sayings for you).

Apparently I have acne...

This morning we woke up and Belinda had made us CREPES! YUM. Then we went to go say good morning to Auntie Jo. She asked me how my braids were doing and I said that “they weren’t paining me as much anymore,” which is what you have to say, because if I say they don’t hurt anymore, she has no idea what I am talking about. I am really starting to catch on to some of the strange things that people say here, and just as a warning, I am starting to say them without realizing...I may talk weird when I get back.

(If you want to take a picture of someone, you say, “Can I snap you?” and if something is gone or done, or they want to close something, they say, “it is finished, or can you finish that?” For example, if there is water in a bucket, and then we dump it out, they ask “is it finished?” ...makes no sense)

Auntie Jo took off my bandana and asked to look at the braids, and noticed that because they pull so tightly on my hairs at the back of my head, it was starting to get red and have a rash-like thing on it. Sounds gross, I know. But when she says rash, she means redness. She calls my pimples rashes. She calls cuts bruises. I don’t actually have a disease on the back of my neck.

Anyways, so she grabbed something she calls “TCP” which is basically a liquid antiseptic. She rubbed it all over my scalp and at the back of my neck as well. It felt fantastic. The itching is gone now, and the pain is gone for now too. She starting talking about how this ointment was good for anything, including pimples...and then she proceeded to put the ointment on whatever she thought was a pimple...I must have the world’s worst acne because she was rubbing that stuff all over my face, on my neck, on my shoulders...I think she thought that the peeling from my sunburns was a disease on my skin.

It was hilarious, but the cooling effect felt amazing, so I just let her go at it.

Today is Monday, so it’s a market day. Cynthia was out buying her pawpaw at the farm, but Anita was at the market selling her tomatoes and onions, so we went down to visit with her.

Anita and her onions

Honestly, I think it was “see everyone you know” day today because on the way to the market alone, we saw:

-Smart at his store

-Felicia was working at her office today

-Kujo drove by on his motorcycle and stopped to walk with us to Anita’s

-We went to Anita’s stand

-Auntie Julie was over at Auntie Jo’s

-Isaac drove by in his taxi

Everyone was so shocked that we were walking to the market and back today. It was a HOT day. Really hot. And if Ghanaians are sweating buckets and telling us it’s hot? It’s hot. But we did it; Belinda is feeding us both so well that we are both starting to gain weight. We decided that exercise would be good for us. Those hills are killer in this heat!

Anita had her youngest daughter with her at work today, Kate. She is 4 and is super cute. Her Auntie had music playing on her cell phone and Kate was just dancing like crazy. She had SO much energy and never stopped. As does everyone around here, she had amazing dance moves and had me laughing. I am starting to join in on the dancing, and find myself moving my body to music whenever it’s playing. I am definitely not dancing in the streets, but it is so easy start moving to the beat, especially since there is ALWAYS music playing somewhere.

Kate and I

She was teaching us Twi words for different fruits that they have here. I don’t know how to spell them for you, but she taught us banana, apple, orange, and pineapple. Staple fruits here.

Anita gave us a bag full of tomatoes and onions to take home...our favourite...she also brought us bananas to class yesterday which was awesome!

Before we left her to go home, she stopped me and said thank you for the lesson yesterday and that she really enjoyed it. It was so nice to hear that she was learning and that our work is appreciated and needed here. Definitely helps us keep going!

OH! I successfully told a guy that I was married today when he asked! And he believed me. Progress!

Yay for family!

Well, I am 3 weeks, 22 days, and 2 packs of Malaria pills into my trip and I am loving it so far!

I had a better sleep last night than I did yesterday; I think I am adjusting to these braids being on my head.

You can definitely tell that March is coming up. It is starting to rain.

Think about all those nights when you are camping, and you are sleeping in a tent or a trailer (my favourite is just a little tent) and it starts to pour while you are lying there. The rain is pounding down over your head and the warm summer night makes the rain smell delicious!! Last night I woke up to the best thunderstorm we’ve had yet. Petra slept right through it which is unfortunate.

It’s funny, I knew that Ghana had a dry season and a rainy season, but I never really thought about the fact that they wouldn’t have Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring. I always find myself talking about those seasons and people get really confused.

Side Note: I have been spelling “obroni” wrong through my entire blog. Apparently it’s spelt “obruni.” Whoops. And boafruit is actually spelt “bo froot” but that one I am excusing myself of because I saw a big sign that said “boafruit” in town.

So church. We intended to go to a different Pentecost church today. One where a bunch of our students attend, but through a couple miscommunications, that didn’t end up happening. We went with Belinda to the Pentecost church that we had attended the first week we were in Asamankese. It was raining a mist while we walked there which felt fantastic. I was just thinking about how much cooler that would make the service; that’s all I really think about sometimes...ways to make myself feel cooler, relieve myself from the heat.

It was pretty perfect timing though, because just as we stepped inside the church it started to rain much harder. It looked really pretty though because this church is in a little valley, and it doesn’t have walls. It is just pillars and a roof, so you can see outside completely around you. That, with the rain and the cassava trees looked beautiful.

As usual, church for 3 hours in another language always gives you a good opportunity to observe, people watch and just pick up on hilarious and interesting cultural differences:

-Our Professor told us that we could take our journals to church to help pass the time, and that the people would just think we were taking notes on the sermon. So. Sermon time comes around, and I grab my journal from the floor. I start writing down some of the funny details that I want to remember, when I hear, “Eh. Eh.” And then some Twi. Everyone looked at me. At first I had no idea what was happening, and I realized that the Pastor was calling me out on writing in my journal. I sluggishly closed it and put it on the ground, trying to be as subtle as possible. The girl beside me said, “No, no, he is telling you what his name is so that you can write it in your book with your sermon notes.” Ohhh. I continued to journal the rest of the sermon long. The girl beside me kept trying to read what I was writing though, and I didn’t want her to realize that none of what I was writing was Biblical, so I wrote REAL messy, and in cursive to make it illegible.

-the floor in the church is on a downward sloping angle (because the church is at the bottom of a hill). It is actually super hard to balance and it is really difficult to walk back up to your seat after you get up to give your offering in the bowl. It’s a little embarrassing at times because I am trying really hard to get back to my chair, but I just can’t manage to do it in a straight line.

-the clock at the front of the church wasn’t working today. Oh no. Somehow, watching the clock is something that helps me get through the service. Thankfully someone noticed and changed the batteries halfway through church. We got out by 12:30pm today, so that wasn’t too bad

-church starts at 9:30am, and we left the house at 10am. That is something that I will never get used to, nor understand

-children play the drums and piano in this church. They are fantastic! I only wish that I could play the piano as good as these kids, and they don’t even have books in front of them. I am jealous.

-At one point during the service a little boy came and sat in the chair beside me. He had this adorable plaid shirt on and brand new little black shoes. He just stared at me for a good 30 minutes. I don’t think he took his eyes off of me once. Maybe it was the braids?

-The front of the churches here all have these fake flowers as decorations. They are everywhere and all inside the alter. They are tacky if you ask me, but I think they think they are really really pretty

-Petra’s skirt was inside out today. I noticed while sitting in church, so a little bit too late to change it. It was pretty funny. I actually started laughing in the middle of the service because I noticed that she had figured it out as well and was trying to hide it. I think it may have been because I was tired, but I couldn’t stop giggling. She looked embarrassed, and I guess now we have both had an embarrassing wardrobe mishap in church.

-Everyone uses their cell phones in church. Apparently it’s not allowed, but they are all looking at them and they ring quite often. This morning the PASTOR’s phone rang and he left to answer it.

-I will never get used to how disrupted the church services are here. I feel bad for the people speaking because someone is always getting up, people are always talking at the same time, and the children are always yelling and playing at the back of the church. It doesn’t bother me because I can’t understand what they are saying anyway, but I just always feel bad for the person who wants everyone’s attention.

-When the pastor says, “Praise God,” we say, “Hallelujah.” When the pastor says, “Hallelujah,” we say, “Amen.” When they say “Amen,” we are supposed to say, “Amen.” These are the only English words throughout entire services, so I feel like I HAVE to say them, but I can never get them straight and end up saying Amen no matter what haha.

-They say “Amen” A LOT!  Usually that is how I tell that a sermon is over...not here. They say it every few sentences.

After church, I had my business class in the afternoon. We were meeting at 2pm. One of the ladies came at 3, and the other came at 3:15. When I asked if 3 was a better time for them to meet, they said, “oh no, if you make it 3 o’clock, we will get here at 4!” haha...oh well, I will just tell them 2pm and assume 3pm. We will have a lesson on punctuality in the workplace later =P

The class went SO well!! They were so receptive to the way I was teaching and having such a small number is actually working out great for them learning! Hopefully in the future the classes will get larger, but from a starting standpoint, this is awesome! I made flashcards with lots of business terms on them, and we slowly went through them, learning their definitions and relating them to what each of the women sells in the market. They were participating and writing things down like crazy and they even asked for homework! It is wonderful to have such enthusiastic students.

Our Bible verse for each of the lessons that we are learning is Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” I decided that it would be nice to have a Bible verse be the beginning of every lesson so that they keep in mind that although they are working to earn a profit and to support their families, everything we do must be for the Glory of God, and not for ourselves. They really enjoyed that idea and are excited to learn it before the final ceremony.

I GOT TO SKYPE WITH MY FAMILY TODAY! My whole family :) It worked perfectly and wasn’t choppy. It was wonderful to catch up and see all of their lovely faces.

When I got off of Skype, Belinda’s friends Patricia and Mercy were over, so we hung out for a bit. It was a lot of fun. They were teaching me Twi and laughing at me. And I was teaching them English and laughing at them. It was nice to hang out with people my age! Isaac came over after a while too and he thought it was hilarious that we were trying to learn Twi. I have never noticed how many English sounds and words that many Ghanaians can’t say. It was pretty funny and I definitely had a good time. I think I actually learned quite a bit too, which is always a plus...

This girl I love; Safua

For the past 3 nights, there has been a crusade in town and we can hear the singing from our bedroom which is a 20min walk away from where they were holding it. Last night we decided to go and check it out and see what it was all about. It was insane; it was in a huge field, there were countless people, and a huge stage with an awesome sound system setup. No wonder the sound reached our guest house!

We saw Cynthia there, a couple of the kids who live down the road, and one of the girls we met the first day we went to church here in Asamankese. It’s kinda nice to see familiar faces wherever you go. The doctors from the crusade are staying with us tonight.

Last night, I got about 2 hours of sleep thanks to these lovely braids that don’t even look lovely. They really hurt to lie on, and unfortunately since they are on my head, there is no getting around that one. Oh well, I will stick it out.

I decided to wear my African skirt today; why not with all my braids? Apparently the lady who sewed it, did it wrong and Auntie Jo was set on trying to fix it on me. Unfortunately she chose to do it outside in the compound and I was most certainly not wearing shorts underneath in this heat. I almost forgot to warn her as she started to undress me right then and there.

African Skirt and Braids

I wore this same skirt last Sunday to her church, and apparently some ladies in the church mentioned that it was done wrong. They told her that they should show me how to dress properly. She told them to shutup. Petra and I laughed at that one because she is such a sweet old lady. She responded to us laughing at her with, “What? If you don’t tell them to shutup and mind their own business, they will keep prying. They always pry.” Haha, oooh Auntie Jo, how we love you. That was the day we went to the front of their church to be introduced too. I’m not the least bit embarrassed.

Kujo, the supervisor for the school, wanted us to come and visit him at his home and meet his family today. So, this morning, Belinda showed us where it was and we took a taxi. We noticed that Belinda had called the taxi (this isn’t normal here) and when we asked about it, she said that it was her friend who was driving and charged less for the drop. (I will explain transportation in just a moment). Anyways, we got to Kujo’s and met his wife and his mother, but he wasn’t there yet. We were told to come back in the afternoon, and that his wife would be making us lunch. I was a little worried about that one.

We walked home and I got a ton of compliments on my braids from everyone on the street. They all asked me if it was my natural hair and said that I looked BEAUTIFUL. At least someone likes it right? The girl that we always buy FanMilk from really liked it too.

Me, Kujo's wife, Kujo's mother, Kujo, Petra

So. Transportation. I will explain so that it makes more sense when I talk about this.

-There is the trotro. It costs 50 pesawas to take in Asamankese. You just hiss at the driver and they will stop and you get on, and get off whenever and wherever you want. It is a fixed price. (And when I say hiss, yes, I mean hiss. It was really hard to get used to because it sounds super rude, but that’s actually how people get each other’s attention around here! They won’t respond if you are yelling at them, because they are actually listening for the hiss. I am completely used to it now though, and you just turn and look for where the hiss came from and know that they want your attention. It is VERY rude to ignore it. So ya, when you want a car or a trotro, you just hiss at them, and they will stop. The drivers are listening for it from their cars.)

-There is a passenger taxi. They just drive up one road, and cost 50 pesawas and you just get off where you need to on the road that they are driving. You can’t take it to specific places off the main roads.

-There is a drop taxi. You can take that anywhere and tell them to drop you off in a specific place, but that costs 2 cedis. You just get a drop. (That’s what they call it here).

So now that THAT makes more sense, in order to get to Kujo’s house, you need a drop. Belinda gave us Isaac’s number (the taxi driver) and he said that we can call him and he will bring us wherever we want for just 50 pesawas. Sweeett!

So while we were there this morning, a lady came up and wanted to meet us. She asked our names, and when I told her mine she struggled over the ‘r’ and ‘l’ and then said she would go drink tea and try again. Ha. Everyone has such a hard time with it.

When we were walking home, we told Belinda that we wanted scarves for our heads; especially to get these braids out of my face. She said she knew of a place and I thought she meant she would take us to some shop. Nope. We followed her through this old back alley to a complex and into someone’s house. I guess the lady sells bandanas and scarves in a bucket on her head usually, so now we know where to go if we want more! Belinda helped us tie them on our heads properly too. It feels so good to get my hair out of my face.

We went back to Kujo’s house for lunch and his wife served us Jalof rice. That is basically really spicy rice with vegetables in it. Not such a fan, and my mouth was on FIRE, but we were pretty much out of water. So I did something bad. I drank the bagged water that they sell here. I read in our Ghana book that it is okay, but I was advised against it from someone else. Oh well, my mouth was about to die from the spices. So I downed the whole thing.

I am still fine now...

These are some of the children from Kujo's compound

There are a ton of children that live in Kujo’s complex. His kids are all grown up, but he and his wife had ‘adopted’ some of the kids from around there as their own if the parenting situation wasn’t the greatest. They were adorable.

One little girl, Safua, just stole my heart. Her mother died at the end of last year, so she and her little brother Kujo were left with their dad, but they pretty much spend all their time with Kujo and his wife. Such a sweet little girl.

Safua and I

We taught the kids lots of English songs; Old MacDonald had a Farm, Ring around the Rosie, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. And they taught us a few new ones of their own.

Kujo taught us a board game; it was called “Luto.” It is the exact same as the game “Sorry” back home if any of you have ever played that.

Thunderstorm <3

The sky started getting really dark as we left Kujo’s house, and as soon as we got home we had a beautiful, African thunderstorm. 

And the hair is braided...only in Africa

Today I got my hair braided. I have always hated the way it looks on white people and have always said I would never get it done. Well...I am in Africa one time, so why not right? Because I look like a naked mole rat, that’s why not! Too bad it’s already done...

It took a very long time. We walked to town at 9am to buy the extensions for my hair (which cost 3 Ghana cedis...super cheap!) The lightest blonde they had was this brownish blonde which makes my hair look a lot darker...kind of a yucky colour to be honest...

I sat down in the hairdressers chair at 10:45. And by chair, I mean a little wooden stool on the front porch of her little shop. And there I sat until...wait for it...5 o’clock. Yup, I sat there for 6 hours. I was hurting. Everywhere.

The pain that I experienced getting my hair braided cannot be explained in words. You will have to ask Petra what my face looked like as I got it done, because it scared her out of doing it today. My head was tilted in extremely uncomfortable positions for long periods of time, and on top of that, my natural hair felt like it was being ripped out of my scalp. Yup. Felt nice.

The ladies were making fun of me as I grimaced, closed my eyes, complained to Petra...anything to distract myself.

A lot of things happened in those 5 hours while I was sitting there:

-a woman walked by with a whole sewing machine on her head

-whole crowds of people would stop to talk while I sat there which was nice and entertaining

-a man tried to propose to me from his car on the street...he was too lazy to get out though so what that says about me, I don’t know...

-OH! I got to hold babies, TWIN babies while I got my hair braided. Yes, I got to hold two adorable black babies, one girl, one boy, to distract myself from the pain. They were adorable and I was loving life for about an hour! I was holding the girl, and didn’t realize the lady had twins. All of a sudden she popped another baby out from behind her back and I was PRETTY excited. She let me hold them both at once for a long time.

-the little kids from across the street came over to chat with me

-countless people laughed AND complimented me from the street; walking, from taxis, and from trotros

-I had boafruit. Yum.

-I wanted to fall asleep, but couldn’t because my head was pulsing

-there was a funeral procession of people dressed in the cultural red and black. Trotro after trotro blaring music

-I watched Auntie Jo take 5 minutes to cross the street

-my hair is now 2 lbs heavier

-our friend Jaclyn came up and said I looked “fresh” haha...She has the same braids, only thicker and red...

So after she pulled and twisted and braided every last strand of those extensions into my hair, she cut the frizzes off and set them with hot water. I now do not have to deal with my frizzy, impossible hair until I choose to take them out.

The pressure that I feel on my head is unbearable, but Auntie Jo said it would only feel like that for 3 days, so that’s not too bad. Here’s hoping I can sleep tonight? Haha.

And without further ado, I give you ugly, braided, African Carolyn:

This is the lovely lady who did my hair

BUURP.

This morning it was cool until 10am. That was unusually wonderful.

Petra and I decided it was time to wash our bed sheets this morning. You should’ve seen them. Any mom out there would look at them and puke because they were so DIRTY. We sweat nonstop and while we are sleeping is no exception. You could see the shape of where we sleep compared to the rest of the sheet. It was a brownish spot the size of our bodies. Apparently washing your sheets every week is a must in Ghana. Mummy Biney had said that to us when we were in Accra, but nothing could convince me more than seeing it for myself.

So, after doing laundry again, my knuckles are raw and in pain.

We went to the market this afternoon. We have a bunch of students who have shops or sell in the market now, so it is always a good time to go and visit them and watch them work! We saw Anita, who had all her tomatoes out today, and Cynthia and her pawpaw’s. Felicia works at an NGO office in town as well.

Watching them at work is giving me so many ideas about what and how to teach them in the business classes!

I accidentally burped SUPER loud when Auntie Jo was in the room...a couple times...uncontrollable, really. I had no idea what she would do, but when Petra yelled, “Carolyn, Gross!” (so that Auntie Jo would know it was me), she just giggled and said, “Oh Caro.” Is that my green light for burping whenever I want?

Oh. And people make a HUGE deal about crossing the road here. The other day, we walked home with the ladies from class. When we got to the guest house, I was talking to them as I crossed the road and saying goodbye. I obviously saw the taxi coming from one direction and the trotro coming from the other, but they were honestly a pretty good distance away yet. There was enough time for me to slowly walk across the street and finish my conversation as well. But no, as I crossed, all of the women on one side of the road, and Auntie Jo and Auntie Julie on the other, yelled “AAAAH!” It was hilarious. And I was completely safe...

They give themselves SO much time to cross the street, and I think it may be because they walk so slow, but it’s hilarious.

When we were walking back from the market, lots of the kids were getting out of school. We were going up the hill towards the guest house when I heard, “Sister Carolyn!”

THE KIDS KNOW MY NAME!!!!! This is honestly the best feeling in the world. I am not “Melissa” anymore, I am not “obroni” anymore. No; to at least SOME of the kids, I am Carolyn. And that makes me smile bigger than I have this whole trip so far.

You may call me "Caro"

These past few days have been pretty busy, and to add to that, it has been INSANE hot here! We have been in Asamankese for a little over 2 weeks now, and we’ve almost gone through 2 whole cases of 24 water bottles for the two of us. We drink a ton, and sweat a whole lot more!

We are, for the most part, feeling better; Pepto Bismal has been my best friend the past couple days.

Okay, so to recap the past couple days:

Tuesday:

So first of all, Happy Love Day to everyone from Africa, yesterday. I don’t think you could ask for a more beautiful place to spend Valentine’s Day than in Asamankese, Ghana. Seriously.

We woke up and Belinda treated us to boafruit for breakfast, so I am really glad that my stomach was feeling up to it! Yum!

I went for a walk by myself in the morning before Petra was awake. I just needed some fresh air and alone time. I decided to have a quiet walk, so I headed away from the town and in the direction of the school in the country. The mountains are beautiful and the landscape as I walked down the road was breathtaking in the morning! It was a good opportunity to just take time to think and reflect on everything we are doing, and just process all my thoughts.

The morning here is my favourite time of day. The sun hasn’t completely come up yet and it is nice and cool. The clouds are still hanging over the mountains, and there is a fog in the air that is so natural, it just makes you thankful for everything around you.

But, walks in Asamankese when you are one of the only obroni’s in town are never uneventful:

-on the way back, I had a whole pack of school children walking with me (literally 23 kids)

-a man with dreadlocks down his back smiled real big at me to say hello...holding a machete...in Canada that would have been creepy. Here, it is completely normal.

-following that note, there was also a woman sharpening her machete on the rocks in front of her shop...first woman that I have seen with a machete so far.

-almost all of the taxi’s here have a Christian slogan on the back window: “Holy God” or “Jesus is Lord” etc. This morning one passed me that said “Lil Wayne” on the back...haha

-a bird crapped on a little girl’s dress as she was walking to school. Her mom tried to wash it off...hopefully it all came off?

-I realized that I walk super fast here. 1. Because I naturally DO walk really fast, 2. Because Ghanaians actually do walk SUPER slow, and 3. Because as the children were walking behind me, I started to notice that they were breathing really heavily. I turned around and asked them if I was walking to fast, and they sighed and exclaimed, “yessss.” Whoops. I will have to learn to slow down.

I was JUST about in the gate at Auntie Jo’s again, when a guy called me over. Shucks. He said his name was Ben, gave me his fist to pound it and asked if he could be my friend. I, being awful at this lying about being married thing, said, “what do you mean by that?” He must have known what I was questioning, because he answered, “I don’t mean what you think I mean.” Oh geez. He asked for my contact information, and I continued with the lie about having no phone saying, “oh no! You won’t be able to reach me because I don’t have a number to call!” It has worked well so far. Ben walks in front of our house quite often now. Great.

I got back and William, the guy who works at the restaurant at our guest house, was playing praise and worship songs that we have back home. He always blasts English music and it is probably my favourite thing about staying there. Gives me a little sense of home every day.

Everyone here calls my Caro. I have realized it is much easier for them to pronounce as well as remember. So that is now my name.

For lunch, since Belinda knew we loved boafruit, we had it again. With Coke. Healthiest lunch ever? Nope. Most delicious lunch ever? YUP!

Petra called her leggings, “knickers” today...either it is the heat, or I am just crazy, but I thought it was the most hilarious thing ever and laughed for a long time. Long enough to find it worth putting in my blog I guess?

We did some lesson planning outside in the sun, and then walked to town. We needed to do some photocopying, so we went to Smart’s shop. (Yes, we have a friend!! And yes, his name is actually “Smart”). It is so nice to walk to town and see familiar faces now that we are becoming more accustomed to living here.

We went to see Cynthia since she was at the pawpaw farm the day before. We found her in her hiding place, cutting up pawpaw and putting them in bags to sell that afternoon. We watched in awe at how quickly she could peel, remove seeds, and cut up the pieces of fruit; all without cutting her finger off. She gave us some pawpaw to try; tastes kind of like melon, but not as juicy. People love it here...it’s not bad. As she cut, we talked about her business, she taught us Twi words for some animals that they have here, and she taught us her theory of how to tell which body parts your fruits are good for.

         -she says that mango’s are good for your ears, because they are    shaped like ears

-pawpaw is good for your stomach; just because. And it is good for your veins, because when you open them up, they have little pulp-like strings in them that look like veins.

Hmm, it’s a theory alright. She is SUCH a fun lady! We walked around with her for a bit after she had cleaned and finished cutting all of the pawpaw and watched at how quickly she sold them.

Cynthia and I

That afternoon, we taught literacy classes again. WE HAD 20 WOMEN!! Thank you for all your prayers. This is VERY exciting for us. There were 7 women in level 1, and 13 women in level 2. That sure beats the 5 women in total that we had had before!!!

We went over an English song that Melissa had taught some of them before she left. (“Blessed be the Name of the Lord”). Not everyone knew the words, or the tune for that matter, so guess who Auntie Julie picked to lead the song? Yup. Me.

Okay, for anyone who knows me...you know why this would be the worst decision Auntie Julie could ever make. I make people cringe when I sing. I am tone deaf and have THE worst singing voice of all time. And I had to lead the song. I did it though, and well enough I suppose because the women caught on and enjoyed singing it. I added clapping so that it would cover my voice a little more.

After class, we walked home with the women. This has become a great opportunity to chat with them outside of a classroom setting, and they definitely open up to us and we have been learning more and more about their lives and their families. They have started to teach us some Twi words as well, and a couple of them want to help me get my hair braided. Still unsure about that one yet.

When we got back to the house, we had company. I will explain. It was Valentine’s Day, and Auntie Jo helped organize a HUGE celebration for everyone that was being held in town at the Presby Church. The main attraction was this super famous singer who is really well known in Ghana (like songs on the radio, people screaming when she went on stage, filming her with their cellphones kind of famous! Seriously, google her...she’s everywhere). Her backup dancers were staying at our house.

Us with a couple of the backup dancers as they were getting ready

It is actually really funny because normally people would be really excited to see and meet the singer (Akosua Agyepong) and her dancers, but they were all excited to meet us and have Canadian friends and get our numbers and add us on Facebook.

We had hotdogs for supper. Belinda overheard us saying that we missed them, and the next day they appeared on our plate. We love her.

William played country music from the restaurant after class. I was in my happy place. It’s the first time I have heard it this whole trip; they don’t really listen to country here.

The Valentine’s Night was called “Night of Love” and apparently, little to Petra and my knowledge, we were invited guests. We were seated in chairs right by Akosua, and handed water bottles and Ghanaian chocolate.

Ghanaians love their holidays and celebrations, and this night was no exception:

LOOK HOW PACKED IT WAS!!!

-there were dancers, singers, performers

-the place was PACKED. People were in pews, in chairs, in the aisles, standing higherup at the back, looking through the windows...it was insane!

-the kids did a choreographed routine which was amazing!

-and it keeps coming up, but black people can MOVE to music, wow! Whenever another song would come on, everyone in the place would move to the front and dance like crazy.

-they waved their handkerchiefs during the songs

-the decorations were insane. Red and white balloons, streamers; it was beautiful! Everyone else wore red and white and we never thought about it. We definitely should have.

-it was SO loud. We sat right by a speaker. Ghanaians are loud all the time, but add a microphone with huge speakers and you have to plug your ears sometimes.

-it was mostly in Twi, so at one point Smart came up to me to tell me to take a video of the next dance routine. I couldn’t hear him, so I leaned in closer and he did the same. We clocked heads and I felt super bad.

-at one point Auntie Jo was out dancing and came over and put her hands out. We had no choice but to go out and dance with her. IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. Auntie Jo was holding my one arm, and some guy grabbed the other so I imagine I looked even more ridiculous than I normally would when dancing in front of a crowd?

-the program was super long; we were there until midnight and couldn’t leave early because Auntie Jo was a chair person. I think I may have fallen asleep at one point accidentally. Whoops. I also got hungry by the end, so I ate all of my chocolate.

-there was a professional photographer there and a bunch of people wanted pictures with us at the end of the program. I had no idea who any of them were haha

This morning, we woke up early to say goodbye to all the dancers who were leaving to go back to Accra.

We had class again this afternoon and again we had a large group! I taught level 1 and Petra taught level 2 today. I was starting with the alphabets; first we had to teach the Twi alphabet (which yes, it is different) and then we moved on to introducing the English ABC’s.  I am realizing how important it is to make sure that I am writing everything correctly and how easily it is to slip into bad habits that I have with how I print my letters. These women are learning quickly, and it is amazing to see progress already after only a few classes!

Part of what the classroom looks like

Okay, sorry about the rambling, there may very well be lots of spelling mistakes in here since I typed it up pretty quickly. It has been a busy couple days. And with that, I am going to bed.

haha...Petra took a picture of me looking for the Lizard

OH! PS! We had our first lizard in our house! EW! I thought I was used to lizards by now, but apparently that was only because they stayed outside. It was a baby one and it was behind our toilet. I am now afraid to go in there because we can’t find it back. I think it climbed in the back of tank in the toilet. I’m scared it will crawl on my butt when I sit on the toilet. Yuck yuck yuck! I go in and look for it every morning haha.