Days 66-71

It’s been a little slow around here since the last time I wrote, but thought I should update everyone so that you all know that I’m still alive & all is still going very well.

Thursday morning I had 7:30 class so I left my hostel around 6:30 am to get some coffee & oatmeal before class started. I’ve started to have this as my breakfast everyday because it keeps me full for a long time & gives me an excuse to get out of the hostel & go for a little walk. The place is called Coffee Cue & it’s about 20 minutes or so from the hostel. I always take a book with me & order the same thing every day – 2 iced coffees with milk & sugar and a bowl of oatmeal. Once I am either full or the oatmeal has made me too hot to eat any more of it I set off to start the rest of my day. Class was pretty simple on this day. We split up into groups to work on case studies. Normally I am pretty good about giving my input & even presenting the information to the class but here I honestly don’t know what anyone is saying through the accents so I just sat back & let everyone else figure it out. I normally hate doing this, but being the only exchange student in the class gives me an excuse, I think anyways. After class I went back to the hostel until lunch, then I got a cab to the good restaurant near the orphanage. I go there pretty often now so I’ve started making friends with the waitress that always seems to serve me. I would say she’s about my age, but everyone here looks so young it’s hard to say. Her name is Hannah & she is always very nice to me. After lunch I walked down to the orphanage & spent a few hours with the kiddos. I was starting to wonder what kind of an impact I was actually making on the kids when one of my favorite little dudes, Silas, came running up to me, gave me a hug, & hopped up on my lap. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing. He’s only 1 so he is pretty easy to entertain.

Friday morning I woke up around 5:30 am & waited until Coffee Cue opened at 7. I got some breakfast & read some more. I had finished an entire book before 10 am so I figured I had earned a nap & went back to the hostel. That night 6 of us girls went to a little restaurant called Chix & Ribs. It’s owned by a man from Chicago & definitely has some of the best food I’ve had here in Ghana. We sat around & talked for a while before going back to the hostel & gong off to sleep.

Saturday I slept in & actually slept in. I didn’t wake up until 9 & it was awesome. I got my usual breakfast & then went to the mall to search for earplugs & an eye mask with one of my friends. I knew living with a Ghanaian would be a little difficult, but I didn’t realize how much it would rob me of sleep. She stays up a lot later than I like to & likes to leave the light on. She also has a very old, loud, fuzzy TV that she leaves on until past midnight most nights. She likes to sleep half a night at night & the other half in the middle of the afternoon I’ve noticed. I can’t really do that so I thought these things might help me at night, but unfortunately they don’t sell them in Ghana so I’m going to have to figure something else out, or just wait another 60 days to get a good night of sleep. But if that’s my only complaint about her as a roommate then I think I’m doing pretty well! As babies they all spent their days on their mom’s back doing whatever it is she does for work. I don’t think that loud noises & other distractions really bother them because they are used to it. So I guess as part of adjusting to the culture, I need to get used to it too. Anyways, after my search failed we went and saw another movie. We saw Mr. Peabody & Sherman. It was a little cartoon movie but it was cute & I learned a little world history. I also got some air conditioning & had popcorn for lunch so it was a good Saturday!

Sunday I was up really early again so I went for a run & took a cold shower. I set out across campus to try to find somewhere open for breakfast, but everything is closed on Sundays I came to find out. I haven’t spent a lot of Sundays on campus because I’m usually traveling so this was news to me. Luckily I had a couple eggs left so I just made myself breakfast back in the kitchen at the hostel. There really isn’t anything open at all on Sundays so they are extremely boring. I found myself reading some more & watching 2 movies. I watched When Harry Met Sally because it is a great movie & then I watched the Parent Trap. I hadn’t seen that movie for years but it was always one of my favorites growing up. I thought about my Grandma the whole time I was watching it because we went to see it in theaters twice together when I was little. I think I must have been 5 or 6 when it first came out but I still enjoyed it just as much that day.

Monday I slept until 7:45 so I got a little extra sleep twice in the last week! I had class at 11:30 so I took my time to get ready & out of bed that morning, stopping at Coffee Cue for breakfast on my way to class again. My mom called me in a panic at what would have been about 4 am her time. She was half asleep & had the news on. She heard something about an accident in Africa & something from Montana so she was all freaked out but not to worry because I’m still alive & breathing & all is going perfectly fine here :) Nice to know she still worries about me though. It was incredibly hot yesterday so I was thankful for only having one class. I had a notification to go the post office on campus this time & they are much more pleasant there than at the one across town. I didn’t have to pay for my package & they didn’t look through it. I got a card from one set of grandparents & a couple of books from the other. I really have the best family ever! I finished another book last night & then went to bed early again.

This morning I got up for drumming & then spent the afternoon at the orphanage. We took them down for swimming lessons again & it started to cool off a little this afternoon. I started reading one of the books from my Grandma & I have a trip set up for this weekend with 7 hours of travel each way so I’m sure both books she sent will be well read by the end of the weekend. We’re going to a village that is built on stilts in the middle of a lake. When I first heard “stilt village” I assumed that all the people living in it walked around on stilts, so I’m glad I got that cleared up before I got there or else I was have been very disappointed.

It sounds like spring had sprung back home so I hope everyone is enjoying it while it lasts :) Love to you all,

Kasey