"White white person with a black beard!"

Good afternoon, everyone!

What an amazing Saturday! It's exceptionally hot today but also exceptionally breezy so it all evens out in the end. I got to sleep in today till about 8am thanks to my body's ability to adapt and overcome the noise of the roosters outside. Slowly, day by day, I am able to sleep a bit longer until finally my nemisis wins the battle and I am awoken to him. After reading over a few of my past blogs, I reailze that I have been chatting tons about tro-tros. I was determined to blog this afternoon without mentioning the condition or the happenings on my tro-tro ride here but I just can't! Something weirder and more warped happens every time! Today I was sitting in the verrrry back by the window 'cause that's a prime spot for breeze. I was leaning on the window sill with my elbow and about 10 minutes into the ride, I felt something plop down onto my arm. For some reason I didn't pay attention to it until I felt a clawing sensation. When I looked down there was a 5 inch long crab crawling up my arm! I screamed and shook my arm and the crab flew out the window but to everyone else's humor! The entire tro-tro doubled over in laughter at the Yevu that was freaked out by a crab crawling on her! How did it get there, you wonder? It's market day in Aflao so people put their goods on top of the trotro and loosly tie them down but this time, a few crabs escaped and fell off the roof as we swerved around a corner. If I'd been a little less jumpy, I could have deftly caught the crab and given it to Giffah at home - she would have made some scrumptous unidentifiable dip with it or something.

Yesterday after work at the hospital I decided I'd walk home. The other volunteer that works at the hospital and said it would be about an hour and a half if I didn't stop to say hi along the way (like that would ever happen!). The entire trip took me roughly 3 hours because every child had to come out and say hello as well as every shop keeper. I made a ton of friends along the way, all offering me bits and pieces of their scarce lunch. That's what's so amazing about the people here - with not enough food to go around their family, they're still eager to offer guests a taste. The kids get a huge kick out of coming to see you. They have this song that they all sing when I walk by that means, "white white girl with a big black beard!" I'll admit, it's somewhat funny cause they all jump around like little monkies yelling this song when you walk by and errupt in enormous laughter when you start dancing on the side of the road! Haha! I've learned the Ewe words for "black black girl with a white beard" and they almost fall off their stumps and out of their trees when I sing it back to them! Every so often they are so entertained that they dance with me down the street singing their song while I sing my song and afterwards, they come to hang out at the compoud. As I've said in other blogs, no one ever worries about their children being abducted or lost - they're all around so if they follow us home, it's okay. Children as young as 3 will dance traditionally, which involves a lot of foot stomping and arm swinging. I've had one Ghanaian dancing lesson but it hasn't made me a master of Ghanian dancing yet, as evidenced by the kid's laughter at me. The kids are so genuine, though, that they'll dance slowly for you to follow and as soon as you get the hang of it, they'll speed up and bust out some new groovy move that's really complicated. If you gather a pack of children, usually one takes the responsibiilty of "beat keeper" while the others stomp along. It's really quite amazing to watch them groove along the road together! When we finally got back to the compound, the kids next door heard all the commotion and came running out. They're funny kids but true rascals! Wonder (#1) is about 11 and causes a constant rucus with his friend Moses. Koblah is about 6 and teams up with Raymond, 5, to be as loud as they can. Maushi and Wonder (#2) are both about 3 and are "hit and miss" with their clothing. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. Yenu, 1.5, is always naked and sandy but soso excited to volunteers come home from work that there is no way to avoid a naked sandy baby from jumping on you! They usually have a clan of 5- 10 that comes with them as well but those are the "consistent 7." We hung out, played a bit of ball, and danced for a good 2 hours or so before it was time for them to head out. It was one memorable walk home, that's for sure!

As you know from reading the other blogs, the Ghanian way of life is very different from home. It's very family orientated and time-less. Shops do not open or closed at a specific time but the hours are typically between 5am and 11pm. If one of us were to own a shop at home, it would be very odd to have such long hours. We would be away from our friends and family, unable to play sports or do hobbies and since it's unethical to sleep at one's job, it would be very tiring to only have a few hours sleep between close and open. But here, the setup of life and the work mentality is completly different! Most shops are run out of the home and most homes are in a compound-like form. The shop may be open, but the person running it is usually across the street visiting his/her sister, playing soccer behind the store with a buddy, or napping on a bench. Running a shop is literally like being at home everyday with your family and friends except people come and see you for an egg or two. Shops are usually about 3meters x 4 meters (so quite small) and sell only a few products. To get a chicken, you go to the shop near the broken down trotro on the side of the road. To buy dish soap, you need to walk in past a few compounds, under a line or two of laundry and inside the small shop near the obituary pole. I can see how someone who is only here for a few weeks would have an entirely different experience than someone here for a few months. There is not a need to search for these items when the stay is shorter so learning the map and variety of shops is not needed. Until I recently was sent on a mission for toothpaste, I thought all the shops sold roughly the same things but how mistaken I was! Giffah and Ester go on missions all the time to find the items that we need to cook at our compound. For example, one evening a volunteer suggested a dish that the new volunteers had not yet experienced. It required bean flour, which we thought would be relatively simple to find. To our dismay, it required Giffah to go the market in Anloga, purchase beans, find a piece of tin and dry the beans in the sun for three days and then crush them into a very fine powder with a rounded rock and bowl. Who knows what else she had to do to create that meal but often around the compound you will find beans drying on sheets of tin, or if you're lucky to have chicken for dinner, you'll notice one less pesky chicken around. It's odd to think that making chicken and potatos for dinner requires Giffah to go to Togo (the next country over!) to purchase the potatos and then to catch and cook the chicken herself. Life is lived "day to day" here, as tasks like grocery shopping that would require 1-2 hours at home require an entire days travel and an up-to-date/valid visa. In some ways the efficiency of home is a savoir and in other ways, it lacks personality, as each tro-tro ride and each visit to the market is one more friend made and one more unique experience.

Unfortunately, the time has come that Sarah and I must catch a rickety old tro-tro home. It will weave in and out of traffic beeping it's horn for no defined reason as we travel at high speeds on really poor roads. Chances are we will nearly hit a goat or like one of the trips last week, lose a door while driving down the highway. It's always just one more thing to laugh at!

Until next time...