Days 49-56

After a week back in the swing of classes & a weekend trip to another part of Ghana my homesick stage has worn off again! I had learned it was normal to go through stages where you would get frustrated & miss home but so far the only 2 little downfalls I’ve had here have been quick & painless. In fact, now that I’m so settled here I get a little terrified at times to go back home. It’s a place that is supposed to be so comfortable & familiar but I feel like everything will be so different when I get there. None the less, I will be very excited to see the beautiful faces of all my friends & family back home :)

Monday was a pretty ordinary day. I had class & had some hangout time in the hostel. I had forgotten it was St. Patrick’s Day until my mom texted me to have a happy one. I feel so unfamiliar with all American things. I see on social media that March Madness has begun & honestly I still don’t even know who won the Olympics. When I first decided to go on this trip I almost forgot that life is still happening back at home even though I’m not there. Sometimes it’s weird to let that sink in, not that I would ever think the world was supposed to stop & wait for me, it’s just weird to think about what will have changed that I didn’t keep up on while I am over here. Anyways, a few of us took a trip to a different mall that day that we hadn’t been to yet. It was in the most upscale part of Accra so definitely a little more westernized. It’s always kind of nice to get back to that, even if it’s just for an hour or two.

Tuesday morning I sat through 2 hours of drumming outside in the heat. I swear it gets hotter & hotter here each day. I even sweat walking to class at 6:30 in the morning. They say the rainy season is supposed to pick up within the next month & I’m pretty excited for that! I love rainy days & it will certainly help cool things off here. I spent the afternoon at the orphanage. The kids swim on Tuesdays so took up most of the afternoon. Then I had to run back to campus to make it for my night class. 

 Wednesday morning the kids had chapel at the American International School. It’s great that they get to go & be involved there but I also feel bad for them. All the teachers know every kid there by name & our kids are just the Beacon House kids. This week they had some musical guests come sing & rap some gospel music. All the students were up in the front dancing & having a good time while all of the orphanage kids just sat in the back quietly watching everyone else. We tried to get them to go up & dance, a few did but most weren’t up to it. It made me sad to watch but also motivated me to teach them so that they can reach the level required to start attending a regular school. The performers that were there started with an R&B rendition of the “Jesus loves me, this I know” song. I love R&B so my heart melted a little listening to them sing in the microphone & all the kids singing along in the background. After chapel we went back to the house for school. Today the kids worked on writing a new story & doing some math problems. We all broke for lunch & I ended up at a little outdoor restaurant where I got some tea & finished a book I had been reading. I made it back for campus in time to get to my night class. We were there for about 20 minutes before the power went out & we were set free to return to the hostel. 

Thursday was my early class. I began my walk there not long after 6:30 that morning, sweating head to toe by the time I made to the classroom. Class was set to start at 7:30 but this is Africa, so naturally it started at 8. After class I had a little time to kill back at the hostel so I re-showered & got ready for an afternoon at the orphanage. When I arrived the kids were all napping so I was really glad I brought my iPad that day. While they slept I read another book that my mom had suggested for me that morning. Once they woke up I colored with a few of them in the books my Auntie sent for them. I ended up at the same outdoor restaurant for dinner since it’s close to the orphanage & has some decent food – a place that isn’t all carbs & fried food. I talked to my mom & sister on the phone that night for me, morning for them. Mid conversation my mom says, “Hold on a second, I’m ordering coffee.” This killed me just a little bit. I really miss real coffee. Everything here is Nescafe instant coffee. I am used to it by now, but I still had to live a little bit vicariously through them so when she put Sydney on the phone I had to ask where they were & what they were ordering. It was nice to talk to them on the phone. I haven’t done a great job of keeping in touch with everyone back home. In fact I think that was only my third or fourth time actually talking to my mom on the phone, not just sending quick messages back & fourth. She’s the one I’ve talked with the most as well. I think I start to miss home the more I talk to people from home so I’ve held off on it probably more than I should. I do love getting messages & emails from friends & family back home though! Always makes my day a little brighter.

After we ended our chat on the phone I packed up for my weekend trip & began to watch It’s a Wonderful Life. I’ve never actually seen the movie but have heard it’s a classic & a Christmas movie (my favorite) so I thought it might be time to watch. Unfortunately I only got about 45 minutes into the movie before my internet froze up & the movie wouldn’t load. I’ll have to try again another day or save it for a rainy day back home.

Friday morning we took off for Kumasi at 7 am. It was about 5 hours in the car so traveling took up most of the morning. When we arrived at lunch I got a call from my dad, which was another pleasant surprise. I enjoyed a little chat with him while he drove to work in the snow & I tried not to melt sitting outside of a little restaurant. We started the afternoon by visiting the palace for the Asante people. I could Google a bunch of facts for you about the palace, but honestly I don’t remember that much about it. I know that every chair the ruler ever sat on was brought to the palace & no one else could sit in it again. The “touristy” things aren’t as exciting now that I’ve been here for 2 months, but of course it’s all interesting to see. After that we went the cultural center, a little market outside of Kumasi’s giant open-air market. The big one is actually the biggest market in West Africa. After a little window-shopping there we went to our hotel & had some dinner. We ended the night sitting outside listening to my friend Micah play guitar while we all sang along to the songs we knew.

Saturday morning we got up for some more touring. Nearly everything that is sold in markets in Ghana comes from Kumasi. We got to go to one village & see how they weave all the fabrics & materials. On our way out there we got stuck in the middle of a funeral parade. As I’ve said in earlier posts, the funerals here are a big party. All the little kids would wave & dance for us through the windows & laugh when we danced back. When the adults came through things got a little more interesting. Farther outside of the city there isn’t a lot of diversity so they go a little crazy when the see white people. They were yelling at us through the windows, banging on them with their hands, not in a violent way but I actually felt like the fish that were in a tank at my doctor’s office when I was little. Kids would always do the exact same thing to them & now I understand why there was always a little note asking us not to. It started to feel like we were just a little display for them, which gets uncomfortable but it's manageable. Then we got to go to the village where they stamp different fabrics with cultural symbols. 

The dye comes from tree bark. It is crushed in a bucket with a big wooden rod. After it’s all mushed, they melt it over a fire. After a day or 2 it turns a dark red color, then a brown, & then after about it a week it becomes a solid black. The stamps are carved out of wood & then printed on the fabrics by hand. 

The people here love Obama so there's his face on a lot of things.

The kids living in the village saw I was taking pictures & wanted me to snap a few of them.

 These are the houses that people in the village live in. 

It amazes me how self-sufficient the people are here. Next we went the woodcarving village. There were many beautiful things but I don’t think I’d ever get any of them home in one piece so I just looked around. Afterwards we went back to the cultural center & I bought some beautiful paintings. We were supposed to go to the open-air market next but it was pouring rain so we weren’t able to go. When we arrived back at the hotel we got some pizza from the restaurant & relaxed. Our director who is originally from the states claimed the hotel had the best pizza she’d ever had. I must say it’s not the best I’ve had in my whole life, but definitely takes the prize for Ghana. Following pizza we had an accidental girl’s night in the room I was sharing with my friend Jade. People stopped by for all sorts of random reasons but all ended up staying so we talked & laughed into the night until eventually we all made our way to our beds.

This morning we got up for breakfast & then got ready for a journey back home. Since I tend to wake up so early here I was awake in time to check out some more artwork outside of the hotel. I ended up buying a lot from one guy who signed all his work “BA”- which he claims stands for Best Artist. He made me laugh & I liked his stuff so I picked out quite a few that looked like good gifts for my family members back home. I told my mom she’s have to help my decided which grandparents, aunts, & uncles get which piece. She’s good at decorating & interior design type things so I figure she would know better than I would.

We packed up the bus & headed out for Bosomtwe Lake. We took a boat ride around in the lake, which made me ache for a Montana summer. 

There was a little monkey named Issac on a leash at the lake. He was so cute!

Then we went to a little restaurant for lunch to learn that it hadn’t opened yet. We were the first costumers & it’s all set to open tomorrow. The guy opening it is from Tennessee. He came to Ghana on a study abroad trip in 2006 & moved here for good that same year. It was very cool & we got to test out his delicious food. This was hands down the best food I’ve had since I’ve been in Ghana. We just arrived back from about 6 hours in the bus. I was thinking a lot about how I’ve probably changed quite a bit here but haven’t recognized it yet. Then I was reading my newest novel and stumbled across an Elf reference. I’m sure everyone who knows me is aware that this is my all-time favorite movie, but there was a problem in the text. The author referred to Steve Carrell in an elf costume but the actor is Will Ferrell in the movie. I tried to keep reading on but this bothered me so much I looked up the author online, found her website, & began typing her an email about how she was mistaken in the book. Then I realized how ridiculous this was & never actually sent out the message, but it’s nice to see I have some defining qualities that haven’t changed :)

I wrote all of this last night & then fell asleep waiting for the pictures to upload. But I spoke too soon about the rain because I woke up to the pouring rain this morning! Finally the air has cooled just a little bit.

Hope all is well back home & that spring in Montana starts acting like a real spring soon! Love to you all,

Kasey