Introducing, Yaa...

We woke up at 6:30 this morning; we are trying to wake up a little earlier each day so that we can eventually be ready for women to come to our house at 5:30am to bring us fruit. It is hard to wake up this early right now, but we’ll just have to go to bed earlier to get used to it.

We had oats for breakfast. It’s like oatmeal. I am not a big oatmeal fan, kinda tastes like slop, but for some reason I am always hungry when I wake up so I generally will eat anything. I am hungry at anytime during the day actually. It is probably from the heat and just being busy.

Belinda took us to the market this morning. It is crazy busy there and people are always moving. It is really cool to see all the different shops and stands and all the different foods that are being sold. I am sure that I will know that market extremely well by the time I leave Asamankese, but for now it’s a little overwhelming.

Everyone yelled “obroni” at us and it was nice because we could say “good morning” and they understood what we were saying. Auntie Jo taught us a few expressions in Twi so that we would be prepared and know what they were saying to us.

        -“me ho ye” = “I am fine”

-“wo din te sen” = “What is your name” which we can follow by saying “me de Carolyn” = “my name is Carolyn” (most people can’t say my name at all, so I either have to write it down for them or I tell them my Twi name and they all get super excited)

-“men ni sika” = “I have no money” ... Auntie Jo taught us this one because she said the children would ask us for money; hasn’t happened so far

The smell of fish in the market is going to be something I have to get used to. It just overwhelms you, especially in the heat. And oh my, the butcher. Puke. They had a whole cow head and legs and they would chop the body parts and blood was splattering a bit...I got outa there REAL quick. I couldn’t handle it. I promise I will try again though. Maybe. I don’t think any of the women that I will be teaching are butchers, so I will be just fine without that place haha.

WE BOUGHT WATERMELON AT THE MARKET!! YUM! I love it. It is so refreshing to eat fruit that has water in it too. I feel bad though, I told Belinda that my favourite fruit was watermelons, and she bought 4. We had it at lunch and supper today already. Sorry, Petra, guess you are stuck eating a lot of it too.

This afternoon we took a walk through town. We wanted to get to know the place and start meeting the people. There is a hillside behind the school on the mountain, and trails that go behind it. We wanted to check it out and started walking down the trails to go exploring when this little old man started yelling for our attention...and here’s a laugh for ya...he asked if we were going to the village and we told him we were just checking things out. He didn’t know much English, so we asked him in our limited Twi vocabulary what his name was. He told us, and then proceeded to make smacking noises with his mouth and grab each of our left boobs. Yup, we got felt up by an old guy. He then pointed us down the path and we turned and walked away laughing because we had NO idea what had just happened.

The paths up the hillside are beautiful though; definitely will have to go back. Apparently a lot of children play up there too, so that will be fun!

When we came back down the mountain, Kujo was at the school, so we stopped by to say hi. This is where the frustrating part of our day kicked in. He had brought a couple school kids with him and was going to clean up the school for registration tomorrow; they were cleaning the floor and the chairs and things. They would not let us help, but they also didn’t want us to leave. They just wanted us to sit in chairs and watch them work. This was extremely hard for me to do; we are supposed to be here to help these people, and I guess I just felt really helpless. I didn’t really know what we were supposed to do...maybe it is just because classes haven’t started yet, but it just feels like there wasn’t a whole lot for us to do this afternoon. I think I just have to be patient and wait until we get into a routine for things to pick up.

All the kids have been calling me Melissa since we have the same colour hair. They definitely remember her well. An older lady, I think she said she was Auntie Jo’s sister, did the same thing.

This is Yaa. She had never used a camera before, so I let her use mine and then she wanted a picture with me as well.

I like sitting outside of Auntie Jo’s store with Yaa (the lady who sweeps and helps clean at Auntie Jo’s guest house). She speaks French, so I am speaking that with her to practice and keep up my French. She doesn’t know much English, and is fluent in Twi so French is the easiest way for me to communicate with her. She is a hilarious lady; always so positive and happy and she loves to dance to the music that is playing in the store.

It’s nice to sit there and see all the people that pass by on the road, and I love saying hi to all the children who come by.

Some guy came up to me this morning and asked if he could buy ME from the store. I told him I was married back in Canada. That line really works! Flash them your lovely wedding band and they back off pretty quickly.

Oh. Also something I picked up on a few times today actually:

Don’t ask Ghanaians two yes or no questions, one after the other. They will respond with just one answer. For example:

Me: “Auntie Jo, is it supposed to get hotter than this, or more cold with the rainy season?”

Auntie Jo: “Yes”

Me: “Belinda, do you live with Auntie Jo or do you just live close by?”

Belinda: “Yes”

Me (to the little girls at school): “Are you girls sisters, or just friends?”

Little Girl: “Yes”

ERGH. So yup, definitely pausing between questions next time.

It didn’t rain today, and the electricity only went out once, so we are doing good! It was a really hot day today, so Petra and I are both exhausted; we’ll probably call it an early night.

And mom, yes, I wore both sunscreen and a hat today. I was being responsible...haha...