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.