Second Week In Accra

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Prince ended up winning Mentor II, with Joe coming in second place. I was quite disappointed, but that didn't stop me from enjoying my birthday. For my birthday, I got some awesome chocolate spread that we had at Fr. Paul's. It was really quite exciting. We visited our friend Kofi who was really surprised that we actually found his place, because he really didn't think we could. We hung out and listened to some gospel radio, his favourite. Then we went off to the arts centre to spend the evening with some of our friends there. On our way there--wow I'm really getting distracted by this kid playing Need for Speed on the computer beside me--we passed by Gina's Mini Mart. We pass by Gina's everyday and she's a very sweet lady. We told her it was my birthday and she gave us these "pastries" that resemble croutons. Then we caught a shared taxi to central Accra and the guys that we shared it with told us not to worry about the fare! We met up with Alhassan and his friend Razak. We met Razak the other day when he brought over a watermelon and shared it with us. We thought he was another guy that worked at the arts centre, but it turns out he was, and now he works for a research company in Holland. We are some food and then Alhassan made a fire and some people drummed around it. They even sang the "Yesterday Eveningtime" song that's quite the hit over here. On Wednesday we went to this reggae beah party, which I think we snuck into...oops. We saw these Spanish guys I'd met a few days earlier at a chop bar I was getting breakfast at, who sell African art on the beach. Kofi Annan came back to Ghana on Tuesday, and we were thinking about joining the crowd that welcomed him back at the airport, but we didn't go. There are a bunch of huge billboards that are welcoming him back. On Wednesday I had to go to Somanya for monitoring, and when I got there these kids told me to turn around because nobody was at the school. So I turned around and I asked some teachers about hte workshop and they told me to go to the school. So I walked all the way back to the school and there was nobody there, it was completely vacant! Then I went back to Accra, called the people whose workshop I was supposed to go to on Thursday and they said it was cancelled. On Friday, I had to go to Senchi, and I didn't have a clue of how to get there. Someone told me to get on a trotro to Akosombo and get off at teh Senchi junction, so that's what I did. I ended up falling asleep on the trotro, waking up thinking I've missed the stop, and before I knew it people were shouting, "Obruni! Senchi!" They stopped the trotro, I got off, and got this guy off the side of the road to walk me to Senchi. On Friday night we heard the news that the King of Accra had died, so everyone was wearing this red cloth. The person who told us ripped some off of his and tied it around our heads. On Saturday nothing was open because there was a gigantic funeral for Nii Amugi. Bad news: Max, the puppy, DISAPPEARED! We think someone stole him... :( Proposals: 47.

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