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!