Oops we forgot to publish this one!

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Hey guys, its Rachel. As always, don’t know where to start. I made makeshift french toast today for breakfast and it actually turned out, although just after I’d started Ralph returned with more oil for cooking and said “no! what you put on top of the toast is salt not sugar!!” after I’d sprinkled it with what I swear looked and smelled like powdered sugar haha. We saved them though and no one was horribly surprised by a plate full of salt drenched french toast. I seem to have been chosen as the cook, I think maybe because I volunteered to help him when we first got here. We’re trying to take turns now though so Wren and Anna get to help as well. It’s actually kind of fun to do, although it sucks to get up at 7am to start cooking. Ralph said he actually likes cooking and helping sometimes with what most would consider “women’s work” but I’m sure it’s nice to have a break with being fully responsible for all of it. I like cooking with him because we have great conversations. We’ve talked about so much, from relationships, marriage in Africa vs. the U.S., opinions on having children, to religion, politics, and values. Ralph and I have many similar opinions but also some drastically different ones so it’s cool to compare and learn about each other. We did laundry today in buckets of water with a soap bar and a clothesline, which actually felt totally natural and easy. Ralph really opened up to us last night after we came back for a drink at the local little place. I suggested we go there for a soda or something to have opportunities to get to know the people in the village here, but Ralph seems to be more introverted. We met a family there who got so excited about meeting us white people that they sent for the village photographer to take pictures of us all together. Then Ralph told us that we need to be more careful with letting people take pictures of us because if they know our names and have our pictures they can take them to someone who can work voodoo to make us do whatever the person wants. This lead to a huge discussion of everything from cultural beliefs and myths to Ralph’s life growing up to the history of Liberia in general. Ralph has undergone SO many hardships. I can’t even begin to imagine enduring some of the things he told us. He grew up in Monrovia until he was 7 and then moved to his grandfather’s village where he learned more about life in the bush. His village was attacked and as he was escaping was separated from his family and had to try to survive in the wild for two weeks! He ate raw cassava and sand to stay alive and slept in trees to escape danger. He walked for over a month to get to Ivory Coast. He was once beaten by a group of kids his own age. He started living on his own when he was 12 years old! He has gone through so much but can still laugh about it and is such a sweet and caring guy. We traded songs and games a little bit today, which was fun, but when he said he couldn’t remember many because he never really had time to play it brought home again the fact that he’s had an unimaginably harder life than we have. He had to start working when he should have still been playing and not worrying. We leave for Cape coast tomorrow and Ralph is coming with us so I look forward to more deep talks as well as lighthearted jokes. Today we met one of Ralph’s friends as he was working by the roadside and a bunch of other guys wanted to meet us and after we had walked away a bit one of the guys actually came up and rubbed my leg in fascination (I think at how much more white it was than what he’d ever seen and maybe that it was shaved as well). People stare at us everywhere, but many are very friendly as well, and try to talk to us which is nice. Anyway, more stories soon!


From Wren: Greetings from Ghana!! We are continuing our adventures here and have learned so much about Africa in just these few days. We’ve even learned some words of the Ashanti language called Tri (pronounced tree). Here are a few that are most likely spelled wrong, but you’ll get the idea: medase (may-dah-say) - thank you, eye (ay-yay) - fine/good, nyame (nya-may) - God, bluni (blue-knee, at least this is what Ralph thinks it is) - white person. Some other phrases we hear quite often are: “hellohowahyou” (hello, how are you) and “good (rhymes with food) eefning.” Here, we are a constant source of amusement and intrigue, getting many curious looks, shy smiles, waves, and flat out stares. Many men and women (especially older ones) see us and, with a big friendly grin, begin a long, animated welcome speech, none of which, unfortunately, we can understand. A little about daily life: we do have electricity most of the time, but since water only comes at around 11 or 12 in the night, we fill up big barrels with water to take showers and wash clothes and dishes with. We usually cook breakfast and lunch and then are too full to eat a whole dinner so we eat some leftovers. Rachel has been made the designated cook by Ralph and I have been made the designated dishwasher, although we switched roles today at lunch. We did laundry today and when it was dry, we took it off the lines the African way and put it on our heads. Ralph is going to school and doing an internship to learn video editing so he is very interested in films. So the computer playing movies and also the fact that we are very strange, interesting creatures, attracts lots of visitors to our little apartment. We have made friends with five little boys who come over and play soccer (they could probably beat any of you Americans that have played all your life) and play solitaire on Ralph’s computer. We also had a visit from Ralph’s friend Sam today who is a very patriotic Ghanaian and offered to show us all of the wonderful things in the area, including the whispering rocks, the British arms museum, and the sword that no one can pull out of the ground. This sparked a friendly argument because Ralph said the whispering rocks were “never true, never true” and Sam didn’t believe the Liberian legends that Ralph talked about. They also argued about Liberian and Ghanaian soccer players very animatedly. It was pretty fun.

Also, forgot to add that we went to see George’s sister on Sunday and she cooked us the traditional Liberian food banku which is a sort of doughy texture and tastes similar to sour dough bread (not cooked though). We ate the banku (with our fingers) with okra soup which is okra, palm oil, fish, and cow skin (which is rather chewy).

At the end of the day, we fall asleep, listening to the sounds of the crickets, dogs, cars, and Ralph playing spider solitaire on his computer, satisfied and ready for our next adventure!

From Sam:

Bee collecting is a bit slow, met a biology teacher and may give a talk to his high school class later in the week. I am kicking back and enjoying visiting with everyone, and have learned a bit of visual basic programming....so there!

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Comments

[Renee]

Cooking and Ralph
Girls, I am glad Ralph is doing most of the cooking - he is good at it. In Liberia most boys and men learn to cook and many professional cooks are men. When in Ghana I cook mostly but I beg Ralph to cook once a week to give me a break. He is very handy in the kitchen though and never complains. I hope he is frying lots of plantain for you and making our favorite fried chicken! Chicken is eaten a lot in Liberia and food is very different there than in Ghana...and banku is a ghana food! I don't think Ralph can get use to it although I love it. I hope you have had fufu too! It is my fav...One of my sons in Liberia is an amazing cook but he thinks it is women's work, but I have often dreamed of opening up a bakery with him. He learned to bake from a German couple when we lived in Cape and is very good at it too. Some people are just naturals at cooking and baking. I hope you taught him a few dishes so he can practice them on me when I go home!