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Published: June 23rd 2006
Well, we decided last night that today would not be a good day to head to the north because of the Ghana, US game so we're delaying it a day. Last night was crazy! The game started around 2 pm so people were partying in the streets all afternoon and night. It started to pour down rain (the hardest we've had so far) about an hour after the game was over and there were people just running and yelling up and down the streets in the rain. Some very nice gentlemen decided to stand outside our windows and set up their homemade drums, which they proceeded to bang on ALL NIGHT. We were very grateful. It is amazing though that they can make pots and pans sound like a full drum section of a band.
Since we have the day off, Lisa and I decided to come into town before it gets too hot and walk around in the market for a while. I, of course, looked at fabric for a while and stopped and talked to my favorite fabric lady for a bit. She ended up inviting us to her house and wanted to come pick us up tomorrow! We werent really sure what to say so we just had to politely decline and say that we were going to be out of town for a while.
The funniest thing in the market is when people start talking to us in Twi and think they're carrying on a conversation. We, of course, only know a few phrases so we smile and nod and say things in english that probably don't match up at all. The older women LOVE IT and just keep on talking. I've started telling people my name is Gloria because that's what gets repeated back to me WHENEVER I say my name. I don't think a single person has called me by the right name on the first try. Frank is the best at it but it took some practice.
There's this lady in the market who sells the oddest things (I think I've talked about her before selling string and dried iguanas) and we've decided we think she may be a witch doctor. Everytime I go to see her she shows me some new creepy thing and is very mysterious about what it's used for. Today she had balls of hairy/furry stuff and said that it's used for the stomach. What a ball of hair would do for the stomach I can't imagine. All the ladies stand around and listen to her talk and laugh every once in a while so I'm pretty sure she's full of crap. She's very entertaining though so I always stop by to see her and see what she's got.
I stopped by to see Mama Rose at her sewing shop and everytime I go there's this old man who stops me to talk to me. He's always smiling and sweet so I always talk to him for a bit before moving on. Today he stepped right in front of me to block my path, grabbed both of my arms and said he had something very serious to tell me. You never know what's coming so I braced myself....he said, "I need to tell you...that I love you." I kinda smiled and didn't say anything and he was very upset. He kept saying, "but I LOVE YOU! What do you have to say to that?" All I could get out was, "thank you." This wasn't good enough and he wanted to know if I loved him too. I eventually said that I thought he was very nice and that I would come see him again, but that's the best I could do. He accepted that and let me pass and said he would be waiting...Lisa took pictures. What the crap...the man is probably old enough to be my grandad.
Lisa was snapping pictures all over the place for her thesis and we were walking in the food section and found this lady selling live snails. She had three huge baskets of different varieties and they were all crawling around and trying to escape. It was very interesting so Lisa asked if she could take a picture. The lady said yes and I talked to her while Lisa got her shots. She said that they gather the snails in the forest and bring them in the market to sell. People eat them in stews and things and sometimes just plain with salt. I didn't really like it when I tried it, it was really chewy. Anyway, Lisa was done so we thanked her and started walking away and the lady started asking for money for the pictures. This sometimes happen and you can usually get out of it by talking to them for a while or buying something REALLY small from them. Well, this lady wasn't having it. She demanded that we buy some snails for her or she would "die of hunger in the next few days and the pictures would be all that were left." So dramatic. I thought for sure that we were going to have some snails to take home to Hannah. Lisa handled it very well and said that she would tell everyone she knew to come by snails from her so she would get some business from us. We eventually just kinda walked off with the lady yelling after us...it was funny.
Well, that's all I've for the today. I thought I would post one since I have the time...I've read over them and realize how many errors there are...please just ignore them, it's always really hectic in the internet cafe and I'm trying to hurry and type everything out cause we get charged by the minute. Anyway, just overlook what a horrible typist I am.
If we leave for Kumasi tomorrow (who knows what's going to happen) Lisa and I will probably not be going to Larabunga because we still have work to do here and would like to come back and finish up our projects before we have to leave. We're planning on spending the last week traveling around so we'll only have one more week to work in Oda. Two weeks total left!!! I come home on July 9. It's gone by so fast, I'm looking forward to coming home but will miss it when I'm leave.
Have a great weekend and take care.
man in the market
witch doctor
fabric lady
snails
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Abby
non-member comment
HAHA!
Can i just say that your posts are some of the funniest things i have read...you always have a good story to tell...i can't wait to see you and hear about the stories you didn't have time to post. love ya bunches!