This morning it was still raining so my clothes
still had yet to dry. I wore the exact outfit I wore yesterday and went to the
clinic. Today I spent the whole day in the dispensary with my friend Gideon. He
is a nice looking young man that wanted to teach me everything about the
dispensary. He told me that the girls last year helped him record everything
and dispense and that he wanted me to help him out too. I started out first
just recording the patient name, insurance number, and drugs prescribed. I
quickly learned that and he let me move onto fetching the right drugs for him
to dispense. There are over 200 drugs there that are not alphabetized or even
grouped into categories so it took me a lot longer to figure out where the
right drugs were. I did learn pretty quickly where they were and then Gideon
let me start actually dispensing them to the patients. He translated for those
who didn’t speak English but still let me dispense them. I was really nervous
at first but once I did a few, I shook out all the nerves and loved keeping
busy all day. It was around 2 and I didn’t want to leave but I had to go the
bathroom and there was no way I was going to use the clinic bathroom so I went
home and told Gideon I would be back tomorrow. As I was walking home, every man
in Wiamoase wanted me to stop and talk with him but I really had to use the
bathroom so I told them I would be back later to talk. I was almost home before
I ran into Cassie at our friend Steven’s Coco shed. She invited me up to talk
to them and they gave me corn to take home. I walked home with Cassie and
finally got to use the bathroom. We really wanted to go to the town park to see
what events were happening so we ate a few of our delicious Obama biscuits and
went into town. Cassie’s friend Baron was on the way to the town park so we stopped
and talked to him. He told us the town park sports events were over for the
week so we stayed and talked to him for a bit. Baron looks like a Ghanaian
version of Barney from the Flintstones. He can’t be any taller than me and has
a stocky build. He told Cassie to wait on the porch while he went into his coco
shed and retrieved a present wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper with Cassie’s
name on it. Cassie unwrapped it and it was a customized kente strip of fabric
that said “From Asante Baron to Cassie”. I couldn’t believe how sweet of a gift
that was. He asked me to write down my name so he could have one made for me
too. Cassie was so shocked at his gift but he acted very bashful. We left his
shop and went home. I don’t know what was different about today but almost
every drunk man in Wiamoase decided to follow us home. If you ignore them long
enough they’ll leave you alone except for one man. He would follow us back to
America if he could. He just shouts at us until we finally turn around and tell
him he has to leave us alone right now. We usually end up going into a shop so
the shopkeeper can shoo him away. Once we got rid of him, we went home so I
could workout and take a shower. For dinner we had our tomato stew over rice
with avocado. It tasted like we were eating red sauce over rice since we didn’t
cook them together. We have plenty of the sauce left over for tomorrow’s dinner
so hopefully it’ll be much better. It started to pour again but I got half of
my clothes off the line so I at least had different clothes to wear tomorrow.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Day 60
This morning I woke up and it was pouring down
rain. It has been raining ever since last night. I had to wait till the rain
stopped to go to the clinic so I allowed myself to sleep in a bit before
getting ready to go to the clinic. Well I hadn’t figured it out till later that
yesterday I had washed ALL of my clothes and had nothing to wear to the clinic.
So I opted to not go to the clinic today and spend it catching up on my
coursework. I did notes, read my scriptures, read the hunger games, watched a
few episodes of friends, and read a lot of my coursework assignments. It didn’t
rain for a few hours so I had a skirt and shirt that weren’t too wet but still
a bit damp. They were the driest things I had, so I put them on so I could get
out of my pajamas. I got them right in time too because less than 10 minutes
later it began to pour for half an hour. Once that round of rain stopped,
Cassie and I had to get out of the room before going crazy. We put our rain
jackets on and headed out into the town. It was barely drizzling while we
walked to buy some water and a card for our phone. We saw Matilda hanging out
in front of the police station with a few friends. She is really like our older
sister here teasing us about our bright ridiculous looking rain jackets. It’s
like the typical older sister to be embarrassed by what their younger siblings
do in public. We went to the market to buy some onion, bell pepper, and spices.
We are always hungry in between meals with nothing to snack on so we bought a
huge satchel of “Obama Biscuits”. Cassie got one yesterday and they taste just
like Graham Crackers. We thought it would be funny at first but they are really
good especially with my nutella on them. We walked home from the market to make
our tomato stew for dinner. We wanted to make enough to last us until Saturday
night. We sort of experiment when we cook here just adding different spices
here and there and using a lot of water to extend our meals to last longer.
While we were making dinner Grace told us the game of Germany vs Italy was on
so we quickly made some pasta and poured our red sauce over it. I was rooting
for Germany but sadly they lost and Italy became the other competitor for the
world cup. Once the game was over we went back in and did notes and our
coursework. I feel so blessed to have such an accommodating host family with
such lovely girls to spend time with. I’m just sad Grace wasn’t here earlier
for us to hang out with.
XOXO
Ama
Day 59
Today was my first day back at the clinic in a long
time. As I was walking to the clinic today I ran into Kwame with his three
daughters as they were walking to the clinic. They all had upset stomachs so I
walked with him to the clinic talking about the differences between Ghana and
America. I decided that I would stay with Kwame the whole day from the records
office to dispensary. I first sat with him at the records office thinking of
all of the questions to ask him during our interview. It took almost half an
hour for him to figure out the situation with the records. His three daughters
are 5, 7, and 10. They are absolutely crazy. When he told me they were sick I
thought he was joking because they were running around dancing and singing.
Once we got all of their records we went to the O.P.D., which took another half
hour. We finally got into the consulting room with the chief where he brought
all of the kids in and sat them down at the chair one by one for the doctor to
examine them. He was much more thorough on the first kid than on the other two
but he spent only a couple of minutes on. The youngest girl was acting out a
little bit and got yelled at for acting silly in front of the doctor. Once they
were all checked out we went to the dispensary to pick up the medication. The
doctor prescribed two of them to get injections, which brought instant tear to
their eyes. The older sister was being a brat and basking in the fact that she
wouldn’t need one. The other two went into the injection room literally kicking
and screaming. It took two nurses and her dad to hold her down while they gave
her the shot. While the 7 year old laid on the bed still screaming about her
shot, it only made it that much worse for the 5 year old. She was beyond
terrified to get her shot. She was even squirmier than the older one but the
nurse surprisingly got the shot in without any problems. Once they were finally
finished with everything I asked to take Kwame aside to do my interview with
him. The nurses room was filled up with the patients from the overflowing wards
so I just opted to give the Interview in the hallway. It was quiet enough that
my recorder would pick up all the sound. He consented to participate and I
began my questions. It only lasted about 15 minutes but I learned so much from
him that has become critical for my research. A few of the questions were new
and really helped me understand why parents bring their children to clinics. I
spent the rest of the day in the dispensary talking to Rita and Edmund. I went
home later than normal and Cassie told me she was going to go to the Town Park
if I wanted to join her. I hadn’t eaten lunch so I bought some peanuts to snack
on while we walked. The best part about eating the peanuts is being able toss
the shells to the ground wherever you are. We walked down to the park and saw a
man with a wooden box labeled icecream on his head. He was handing out cones
with white and pink icecream over them. Cassie and I each got a cone for 50
pesewas that was absolutely divine. It was more of a sample size and melted if
you didn’t eat it right away but so good we couldn’t stop thinking about it.
The town park is just a huge soccer field where people come to watch the school
kids play. School was actually canceled this week due to the sports activities going
on. Today was football (soccer) and tomorrow is track and field evens. Football
is the favorite sport of Ghana so there were close to 300 people there
surrounding the field. Cassie and I walked around the park for twenty minutes
running into friends here and there. Our friend Mamaya gave us some shortbread
that melts in your mouth. We met up with one the teachers at the School where
Cassie observes. George is a nice looking young man that is very chivalrous. In
Ghana when you say you like something, it doesn’t mean the same thing like it
would in America. If you say you like something in Ghana it means you want that
right now. So when we mentioned that we love the sweet bread here George
literally ran after the sweet bread lady and bought us a few rolls. He wasn’t
even going to eat any himself until we told him if he bought them he has to eat
at least one. Only moments after we finished our sweet bread we met a new guy
that goes by 50 cent. Original. He even tattooed his nickname on his arm. It
looked so awful, you could tell he did it at home free hand. We had been
waiting all day to buy ourselves a fan-milk and I guess he the seller had just
passed us while we were talking to 50 cent because one second he was behind us
and the next he was no where to be found. 50 cent heard us talking about it and
sent a little kid standing around to go and get the fan-milk seller for us.
While we waited for him to come he told us he was a motorbike driver and he
dreams to go to America. The little boy came back and 50 cent paid for our
fan-milks. Cassie and I felt so spoiled during this we could hardly believe it.
We joked about how if we really were awful people we could get our groceries
paid for all the time by the love struck men. We could tell them how much we
loved onions and we would get a ton of them. We watched the game for about half
an hour before we remembered that Portugal vs Spain was playing tonight. I
never pass on a moment to watch Ronaldo so I was looking forward to this game.
We asked George if there was a place in town we could go to watch the game. He
told us there wasn’t but we should go to his place to watch it. We agreed but
decided to go home and cook dinner before going to his house. We had a bit of
time to kill so I did a quick 30-minute workout and took a shower. We were
thinking about how it was going to be too dark once the game ended so we would
just stay and watch the game with Grace. The game was supposedly supposed to
start at 6:30 but we couldn’t find it yet but Grace said sometimes even the TV
shows are on Africa time. She told us it might be on later so we just waited
and wrote our notes inside until she could find it. It was close to 8 before
she found it but it was already over and they were going over the highlights.
Spain had won, but there’s still one more game between Italy and Germany to
decide who plays in the final game. I am loving my time here and can’t believe
how many different activities I get to experience everyday. I have found that
on the days that I just agree to be apart of something I have the most fun. I
was tired from the clinic so I could have stayed home and slept but instead I
had such a wonderful day and met so many new people. Out of the many lessons
I’ve learned from living here it’s to truly have a sense of adventure.
XOXO
AMA
Day 58
This morning I was exhausted from traveling
yesterday so I slept until around 9. I made hot Milo and oatmeal for breakfast
and did my notes and blog posts until 12. We were all meeting in Agona at 12:30
so I started to walk to the station until I ran into Cassie and Sammy about
half way there so I turned around with them and walked back to the house.
Cassie had to grab a couple things before we walked back again. We got into a
taxi with two other passengers already and left. One of the passengers Prince
was very friendly and talked to us most of the ride. About halfway there, the
taxi started smoking and it broke down. We pulled over on the side of the road
while the driver got out and checked what was wrong. He got it fixed, or so we
thought, so we drove off. About 2 minutes later we started to really slow down.
The bikers were going faster than us. The third time he pulled over another
taxi pulled over too and let us all get in the taxi while his passenger waited
with the broken down car while the taxi driver got in ours. We finally got to
Agona, got our fried rice and went to the Gentle Spot. Jackie and Lauren had
already eaten but waited for us. We each got an Alvaro, ate our food quickly
and went to the Internet Café. We went to the newer one where the Internet is
so much faster. I didn’t have much
to do so I only spent a couple hours. Jackie and I finished around the same
time so we walked back together to the taxi station. I got a fan milk and went
home. The rest of the day I spent reading the Hunger Games, working out, and
doing coursework.
Day 57
This morning we woke up at 6 and packed up our
stuff before walking to the bus station. The bus was full so we had to wait
about an hour for the next one. We got on the bus at 7 and I sat in the aisle
seat with Jackie in the middle and Cassie on the window. Lauren sat in the same
row as us but on the other side next to a fat lady. I sat in the bus and waited
for us to leave. I didn’t want to sleep until we were actually driving so I
tried really hard to stay awake even though I was exhausted. This man stepped
on the bus and gave a very exuberant prayer before we were off around 8. I
tried to sleep most of the way but it was too bumpy I just rested my eyes for
the two hours. We took a few pit stops along the way where people just went to
the bathroom in the open. We reached our halfway pit stop point around 11 and I
got off with Cassie while Jackie and Lauren stayed on the bus to watch the
bags. Cassie had to go to the bathroom so I walked over to guard the view of
her while the women just went to the bathroom with no barrier. Cassie was
walking behind a tree but she slipped a fell getting her whole entire backside
muddy. We walked back to the bus to find food but there wasn’t anything
appealing. I ended up buying half a loaf of bread to split. Jackie had bought a
small bunch of bananas and shared them with the rest of us. I decided sleeping
was useless so I got out my scriptures and read a lot in Alma. Once we finally
arrived in Kumasi I got off and carried all of my stuff to the LONG journey to
Barclays. I had 2 heavy backpacks that might have weigh as much as me, and a
very heavy stuffed purse. We walked for at least 30 minutes through the
hospital and to the bank. I was falling behind most of the walk just struggling
to keep walking. Once we finally arrived to the bank I was tired, sore, and
hungry. I pulled out money, went to the bathroom, and made our way to the
immigration office. This was another 20-minute walk that I wasn’t up for. Once
we got to the small stuffy immigration office we heard that they were on break
so we had to wait until 2. As we sat and waited there was a ratio of about 4
workers to customers. They were about just 40 different workers just standing
outside 7 or 8 offices. A man gave us our VISA renewal forms that we filled out
and waited for the break to finally finish. Around 2:00 Jackie and Cassie went
into the office first but came back out saying that we needed to go to the
Internet Café to print out our flight itinerary. We were all on edge because we
hadn’t had food all day and didn’t get much sleep last night. We made the
10-minute walk with King to the Internet café just next to the post office. The
place was so busy but we did run into a lot of missionaries there. The
computers were too congested so we had to wait to use one of the open
computers. While we waited we talked to the missionaries. They were from New
Zealand, Colorado, and Nigeria. We walked back to the VISA office and waited
for 20 minutes to be seen again. I walked into the room and the VISA office
lady was a total brat and refused to actually speak to me. She would only speak
through her partner and was being such a brat I didn’t even have time for her.
We had to get photo copies made of our VISA forms and sweet King could see that
we weren’t up to do any of it so he made them for us. We got our 30-day
extension for 40 cedi like we originally planned. So after talking about where
to eat we decided that we wanted actual food so we went to Vic Baboos. I
ordered a chicken sandwich and an orange mango gingerale juice. I read Hunger
Games while I waited for my dinner. When I got my dinner it was literally a
chicken nugget on a huge piece of bread with a small tomatoe and piece of
lettuce. I didn’t like what I had just ordered so I re-ordered the grilled
cheese omelet that Jackie got. I have had the worst luck with sandwiches on
this trip. We walked to the tro tro station and got on without any troubles. We
only waited less than 10 minutes before we were off. Jackie and I sat next to
eachother and got to talk about our Southern roots. We talked about rodeo,
cowgirl boots, hats, country music, and even switched some music between us.
This was one of the few bonding moments I’ve had with Jackie that makes me love
her. The rest of the time I read my scriptures and tried to sleep for the ride.
We were in Agona before I knew it. King grabbed Cassie’s and my arm to sweetly
thank us for the trip. As soon as we got home we greeted Grace and Matilda came
out to give me a big hug. I am going to miss Matilda so much. I made hot Milo
once I unpacked and typed notes.
8 Weeks!
Cape Coast Trip Day 4
This morning we woke up at 8 with a lot of energy
despite staying up till almost 3 last night. We were all pretty sore from so
much dancing last night. We left to eat another delicious breakfast at Baobobs.
We waited for almost an hour and half for our pancakes but in Africa time
that’s nothing. We got two orders of banana pancakes and two orders of
pineapple honey pancakes to split. The waiter came out an hour after we placed
our order and said he didn’t have any bananas. We told him that they’re fruit
stands everywhere; can’t he go out and buy bananas? So he went about 50 ft away
to a fruit stand and bought a bunch of bananas. Our food came about 10 minutes
later. We had church soon so ate our pancakes really fast and walked to church.
The church building felt like more of a church building than ours in Asamang
with classrooms, bishop’s office, and nice chapel hall. The most peaceful
feeling overwhelmed me. I know that it doesn’t matter what the building looks
like, it still made a bit of difference for me to walk into such a familiar
setting. We walked to the second floor where the chapel was located but Sunday
School from the first ward was still going on so we just sat down and waited. A
lot of members came into greet us, even some handsome missionaries with
matching Kente ties. Every time I see missionaries I can’t help but get so
excited for them and The Church. To see the church spreading to so many corners
of the earth is joyous. Sacrament meeting was typical here with us not
understanding most of what was going on. Although, the first talk was in
Twi-nglish so we understood a bit of her talk. I read my scriptures for most of
the time because I am still very behind on scripture reading. At the conclusion
of Sacrament we said goodbye to the missionaries and walked back to the hotel
to change our clothes. We got an extra sheet from the hotel to spread out while
we had our group meeting. We went over how in life we make choices that are
good, better, and best. We all made the decision to be here and now we need to
make sure that we make our time the best it can be. We discussed how in Provo
we would have had a good summer but why choosing to travel to Ghana was the
best. We reflected on the past two months and what expectations we had for the
third month. We went over what the top 2 things we have learned since being
here and it was unanimous that spiritual growth was the biggest. We all learned
so much about ourselves that we might have never learned without this trip. It
started to drizzle and we were hungry anyways so we went to Chic-Hebs to get a
small snack before dinner since it was already 3. We met the cook Henrietta but
she told us to call her Hetta. She asked us questions all about us and insisted
we ordered veggie burgers. We told her we only wanted a small snack so we
ordered drinks and fries instead. I got a pepsi to drink while we just sat and
laughed about everything. We were all in such a good mood that we laughed at
pretty much everything said for the next hour. Our food came and it was
absolutely disgusting. The fries tasted like old tofu and the side was coleslaw
with fry sauce on it. We paid a whopping 5 cedi for it thankful we didn’t order
the veggie burgers. We went back to the hotel to have our packing party and
listen to some Beyoncé. It took a little longer than we planned to pack so it
was around dinnertime by the time we were finished thankfully. We were still
hungry because our snack was so gross. We went to the Castle rooftop for diner
and I ordered curry rice with chicken. I figured our food wasn’t going to be
there for a while so I went downstairs to take a shower. The water was freezing
as usual. I can’t wait till I can finally have a warm shower. When I came back
onto the rooftop they were in the middle of a game of skip-bo. We waited almost
an hour and half for our food but it’s a good thing we’re such a funny group
because the time passed by pretty quickly. I had a fanta with my delicious
dinner. We finished with talking to each other for the next couple of hours
about our time at BYU and telling funny stories. The other girls left to go back
to the room but I just stayed on the roof enjoying the quiet and reflecting on
the past few weeks here. The time spent here has been such a steep learning
curve for me. I have learned so much about myself and others that I might not
have otherwise. I have been happier here than ever before. In college it’s easy
to get caught up in the day to day tasks and assignments that I forget to take
a second and breathe in all the beauty around me and realize how truly blessed
I am. I’m sad this trip has come to an end but so grateful we did it. Tomorrows
going to be another travel day, which are never good, but I’m hoping it won’t
be too awful!
XOXO
Natalie
Day 55
Cape Coast Trip Day 3
Today was one of the best days I’ve ever had. This
day could not have been more perfect. I never ever want to leave here. We woke
up early around 6:30 and so we could leave early for Carcum Canopy walk. We met
Innica on the rooftop around 7 and could already smell breakfast. I ordered
pancakes and an orange juice. We waited for Esther, Tina, Carl, and Sarah to
meet us for breakfast. The pancakes were seriously so delicious. We brought
bananas and cut them up in our pancakes. The other group ordered their food and
we all finished around the same time. We went downstairs and saw our taxis
waiting for us. The other group decided to take a taxi the whole way there for
60 cedi but we took our taxi to the tro tro station. Once at the tro tro
station we didn’t have to wait long at all to leave. The taxi ride wasn’t too
uncomfortable and only cost us 2 cedi. We saved so much money by just taking a
tro tro to the park. In the tro tro we talked to Innica where she told us that
she was so grateful that she ran into us in the lobby last night. She said she
was in her room crying and praying to God that she would have a better
experience in Ghana because she missed her boyfriend and didn’t feel very safe
there. Then she came downstairs and we invited her to come with us and she said
that it was no coincidence we were all there at the same time. That got us
talking about religion and our beliefs. She agreed with everything we talked
about especially the word of wisdom and chastity. Innica told us that she
believes there is a God but doesn’t go to church. We invited her to church if
she’s still in Cape Coast tomorrow. We got dropped off at the entrance of the
park and had to pay 1 cedi to enter. We had to walk down a dirt road to the
canopy site. It wasn’t even 10 when we arrived to the park but it still wasn’t
busy. We had our student ID’s so we paid 15 cedi to enter the park. We saw the
other groups there of tourists and they were way too cute to look like they
were about to do a nature walk. The girls were dressed in nice silk shirts,
skinny jeans, makeup, and hair nicely done. We were in our long shorts and
dirty shirts but we didn’t care one bit. Our group had 16 people in all.
Jackie, Lauren, Cassie, Me, King, Innica, Esther, Tina, Carl, Sarah, 4 Medical students,
and this weird couple. Carl stayed back with King Innica and us while the rest
of the group quickly hiked up the hill. We took our time taking pictures
looking at the nature around us and having a really good time. We stopped a few
times to look at millipedes, worms, and ants. We started the walk off with an
intro to the park and what was there. They had lots of animals there but it was
unlikely that we would see them during this time of the day. We would get 120
feet up in the air and go over 7 different walkways. We were the last people on
the canopy walk with only Carl and the tour guides behind us. We were going
slowly on the first walkway so they told us to hurry up. We told the tour guide
we don’t want to be rushed and he’s going to have to pass us if he wants to go
any faster. The rest of the group was already on the second walkway by the time
we were barely half way on the first. We just kept looking over the edge and
all around us. We weren’t even that high up yet but we were already amazed at
how far we could see. In between each walkway was a platform where we spent
even more time taking pictures and videos. After awhile the Ghanaian tour guide
passed us leaving only the German tour guide to watch over us. He had been
doing an intern with the park for the past 10 months and spoke rough English.
Over the next hour we were completely out of sight from the rest of the group.
We had the best time jumping up and down and taking pictures. Only Carl stuck
with us and seemed to have a great time with us. It must be the American bond
or something. By the time we were finished the rest of the group had been
waiting what looked like a long time for us to finish. We didn’t even care if
they had to wait a long time, we definitely got our 15 cedi out of this trip.
We began the trek back with the rest of the group to the main park site. I
think the other girls were wishing they hadn’t worn their cute gold sandals and
fancy clothes as we hiked back in the deep mud. When we got back there were so
many people. There were hundreds of little kids and tourists everywhere. We
went out to try to find a tro tro or taxi to take us to Hans Cottage. The only
taxi there would only do it for 25 cedi. The place was only 20 minutes away so
we declined and waited across the street to find a tro tro or different taxi.
We waited for about 20 minutes without any luck while the taxi driver laughed
at us getting rejected by every tro tro because they were all too full for 6
more. Then a taxi with only 1 passenger stopped and agreed to take all 6 of us
for 6 cedi. I sat on top of Innica the whole time and my legs were dead asleep
by the time we got there. The first thing we saw when we entered Hans Cottage
was this alligator with its mouth open looking very fake. We took some pictures
of the other alligators swimming around in the lake surrounding the restaurant.
Then we saw a crowd of people surrounding another crocodile and taking pictures
almost sitting on them. Cassie and I were the only ones to pay to take the
pictures. Cassie was first and got tons of pictures on the alligator just
hovering over it. I was next. The alligator started moving right when I
crouched over it and then I realized how scary this actually was. I got to feel
it breathing and made paying the 2 cedi totally worth it. It took another 45
minutes or so for our food to actually get there. I ordered a papaya drink that
was also heavenly along with the spring rolls. They were loaded with ginger and
veggies, so delicious. We finished and watched school kids and adults freak out
as they tried to take pictures with the alligator. One woman wanted a picture
with the alligator so badly but looked like she was going to cry every time she
even went near it. We left the cottage and took another taxi about a 30 min
ride. There was a lot of traffic so it took a lot longer than normal. The
traffic is the same everywhere in Ghana, just absolutely insane and very
aggressive. Once at our hotel we rested for about 45 minutes then went souvenir
shopping. This was the best 2 ½ hours of shopping ever. I got the best presents
for myself and family ever. It was hard to contain my excitement at some stores
but I was so happy with all of my purchases I could hardly believe it. I got an
amazing deal for the present I am giving to my parents and couldn’t believe how
perfect it is. Then we went back to the stores that line the coast with all the
Rastafarian men. I got a few more gifts and then we dropped our stuff off at
the hotel and spent an hour relaxing there before going to dinner. We met up
with Innica and walked to dinner. Lauren and Cassie went ahead to buy some more
gifts so when we met up with them they were watching this really cool dance
performance. Everyone was danced in traditional African wear and there were 5
huge drums behind them. The dancing was really cool and each one was so
talented. King told us that one of them was deaf and dumb and just feels the
beat and knows what to do. It gave me goose bumps watching him. We walked to
Baobobs but it was closed so we went to Coast 2 Coast but it took too long and
was more expensive so we actually ended up at the castle restaurant like we
originally planned. I ordered sprite and shrimp with fried rice. The Italy vs
Spain game was on so it kept us distracted from how starving we were. Once it
came I practically inhaled it. They put red sauce on the side which made it
that much more delicious. We paid and started walking down the road to go
dancing at La Hacienda. We ran into a man named Lafiya that was one of the
professional dancers we watched earlier. I don’t know how it happened but we
ended up learning how to dance in the middle of the road from him. We practiced
our new moves with these little kids and each other. Then he started doing
tricks with this little boy until he told me to do one with him. I was so
scared at what he was going to do but he just grabbed onto my forearms as I
jumped on his thighs. I put my other hand behind me while Cassie snapped a
photo of us. It is one of the funniest pictures I have ever seen, I look like a
little kid. We continued walking to La Hacienda where Lafiya was also going. We
walked into the bar but no one was dancing. We continued our dance classes from
Lafiya for about half an hour before the other group showed up with Carl. We
danced for the longest time enjoying every single second of it. At one point
one man did try to dirty dance with me but sweet King quickly got him away from
me and told him to find somewhere else to dance. This other lady in a white
shirt was going absolutely crazy so I danced with her too for a little bit.
Cassie also snapped a great one of that one. We had King David, King, and
Lafiya who are some of the best dancers with us. We learned a few more dances
from Lafiya as the night went on. The other girls left Carl to hang out with us
but he didn’t seem to mind at all. He even did a bit of awkward Azonto dancing
himself. We left the bar around 12 and got fan-milks before going to The Oasis
for round 2! We walked into what looked like a real American party. All of the
white girls were so high and just standing around. The second that our favorite
song ‘Chop My Money’ came on we were up on the dance floor going absolutely
crazy. Most of the music was American but a few Ghanaian songs were played
throughout. We were running around the dance floor going absolutely wild and
I’m sure everyone was wondering what drug we were on and where to get it. We
went down to the beach and walked in to our ankles. We wanted to go in so we
asked Innica to watch our stuff while we went swimming. She basically flipped
out. She said it was a very bad idea and wouldn’t let us do it even though King
David and King said it was ok. We agreed we wouldn’t go past our knees. We sat
down in the really shallow water and let it wash over us and get us completely
soaked. We looked at the time and we couldn’t believe it was already 1. We walked
back to the hotel as a group and took pictures with Innica and Carl. In the
middle of Lauren’s shower the water shut off so we ventured downstairs for
another shower party. During this talk we talked about how much as changed in
the past few weeks and how much of a better person we all have become because
of it. We talked about how excited we were for the fall and how many times it
is affirmed to us that we are supposed to be at this place in this time to do
what we need to and learn. Six months ago I wouldn’t believe anyone if they had
told me I was going to be in Africa for the whole entire summer and now here I
am. Having one of the best days ever with the most fun people and learning so
much along the way. The Lord has blessed me in ways I will never understand.
XOXO
Natalie
Natalie
 |
| Our Rasta Friend from DC |
 |
| Hike to Canopy Walk |
 |
| Canopy Walk! |
 |
| Hans Cottage |
 |
| Lafiya! |
 |
| We went swimming in the Atlantic Ocean |
 |
| Innica, King David, King, Cassie, Jackie, Me, and Lauren |
 |
| Our new friend Carl! |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)