Day 69

I woke up around 7 so I could leave and be in Wiamoase early. They prepared the same feast for me as they did yesterday. I ate with Sister and Rita on stools around a small plastic table. After breakfast we talked in the kitchen with Akwia. She doesn’t want to go to school but she wants me to teach her English. I said I would if she would teach me Twi. She told me to count to 20, which I did only after messing up the number that left everyone laughing so hard they were crying. Apparently I said ten ten by saying aduado instead of aduano (20). We had a few more laughs waiting around for the taxi driver. He finally came around 10. I said goodbye and thanked them for the hospitality they showed me this weekend. They really did treat me like a queen this whole weekend. Mama got in the taxi with me but only stayed in for 20 minutes before paying the taxi driver to take me to Wiamoase. The whole time in the car I wrote up notes and did some coursework. I got into Wiamoase around 12 and walked into our gate surprised to see Jackie and Lauren eating watermelon with Cassie. I gave them a quick sparks note version of my weekend. They were totally jealous of my feasts and comfortable living situation the past couple of days. I ate a slice of watermelon and went to go lie down but we had to leave to the cultural event. It “starts” at 1 so we left at 1 knowing we wouldn’t get there until 1:45. Once we got to the school half of the chairs and tents weren’t even set up. We are trying so hard to adjust to Africa time but it’s so sporadic. Sometimes you wait 20 minutes; other times you wait 2 hours. Today was a 2-hour kind of wait because they didn’t plan for anything to happen until 3. Cassie works at this school so she knew her way around. We got some homemade shortbread and sat around waiting for the event to start. Every time we get together we laugh so hard tears are rolling down my cheek. Once the cultural event at three we took our seats and waited what seemed like forever for anything exciting to happen. I wasn’t feeling too great so I tried to sleep but the schoolgirl next to me kept telling me to wake up and pay attention. We didn’t leave until 5:40 and got home right before it got dark. Cassie and I heated up our groundnut we made the other night and ate it for dinner. We ate our dinner and talked about how perfect it worked out for us to be roommates. My dad had called while I was gone at Rita’s so I called him back and we talked for about 15 minutes. I hear most everything about the family through our weekly emails but just having a short phone conversation is the best. I know that God gave my dad three daughters for a reason. He is very good with words and expressing his love to us. I can’t wait to go home and spend time with the fam!