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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Day 68



This morning I woke up at 6 to Rita talking on her phone while lying in bed. I fell in and out of sleep for the next couple of hours until Rita asked me if I wanted to take my bath. I didn’t really have anything with me but I felt gross so I told her I would before breakfast. As Rita got a big pot of water hot for my bath we went out on the porch for fresh air and talked to Mama. Once the pot was hot enough she put it in a big plastic bucket in the bath and said I could dilute it with as much cold water as I wanted. There was a smaller bucket for me to dip into and pour over myself for a nice WARM bucket shower. I never wanted to get out. I was in heaven pouring the warm water over my body. I can’t wait to get home and take warm showers every single day. Since Day 1 I have wanted a warm shower so I am very anxious to return home to get one. Sister told me she had some clothes for me to wear once I was finished. So I reluctantly got out and grabbed the clothes that Sister had for me. It was this beautiful long dress made out of African fabric. She told me I could keep it! The hospitality of this family blew me away. The zipper was a little messed up so it took about 20 minutes to get the dress on but Akwia put some oil on the zipper and it zipped up nicely. Rita let me borrow some nice flip-flops to wear. This was the nicest I have looked in the last couple of months. I went to breakfast not ready for the feast they had ready for me. They microwaved 3 slices of bread, fried an egg, cooked baked beans, and had oatmeal with brown sugar and milk. As I was eating I just thought how I never ever wanted to leave her house. Once I finished breakfast we went into the family room and watched Big Brother Africa. They too were just waking up so it was pretty boring. Sister wants to be a fashion designer so we changed to the style network and watched How Do I Look, Extreme Home-Makeover, and a couple cooking shows. I didn’t mind being completely lazy and sitting around watching TV. I actually miss being able to relax comfortably. Rita told me she was preparing groundnut for dinner, my favorite. She told me to eat a goat kidney, which I did. I could name a few structures on the kidney, which only reminded me of my days in the cadaver lab. It was not tasty at all but I will try anything once. It tasted very metallic like and was very crunchy. I went back to watching the TV until the power went out. Sister’s friend had just come over so they were both upset they couldn’t see the ending of their favorite show. With no power to watch TV, we all went on a nice walk around the neighborhood. It was nice to get out and look at the neighborhood. Some houses were so beautiful they would have been in rich neighborhoods in Houston. We spent about an hour talking about our future homes and lives. We came home and the power was back on so we finished the episode and then ate our dinner. It was groundnut with rice balls. The groundnut didn’t look anything like the one I prepare. This was the traditional dish so it had a lot of oil and red pepper in it. With rice balls you eat it with your hands. I’m sure my brother would love Ghana because most dishes are actually eaten without utensils. There was a bowl of goat intestine, face, liver, and other meat that I didn’t eat too much of. After dinner Rita wanted to go out and introduce me to some of her friends and boyfriend. She gave me earrings to wear and did my hair before we went out. I was supposed to leave tonight to go back to Wiamoase, but her mom had already left for work so I agreed to stay tonight also and leave early in the morning. The first friend of Rita’s was this 300-pound women sitting outside of her clothing store. Rita gave her the rundown of me which is I’m from America, 20 years old, I want to be a doctor, and I’m here to do research. This naturally led into her telling me she is pregnant and wanted me to tell her what foods she should eat. She said that she is gaining weight and doesn’t want to. Based on her size I was surprised that she was able to get pregnant in the first place. She seemed pretty unaware of even the basics of prenatal care so I told her a few of the basics and told her to attend a clinic for more care. After 45 minutes we left to meet Rita’s boyfriend Gideon. We talked for half an hour or so to Gideon, a very nice looking respectful man. He is the youngest of 8 children and works as a school tutor. We discussed how he is currently renovating his house before leaving to go back to Rita’s. She wanted to go to church tonight from 10 pm- 4 am so she wanted to get some sleep in before she left. We came home, watched some TV, and then went to bed.
XOXO

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