to Twi or not to Twi

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Today I got what I asked for, the hottest of hot muggy weather. I am covered in sweat and feel like all my pores are working over time. I am drinking a lot of fluid and trying to stay in doors.

That said,

Yesterday I went with Anna on a mad hunt for salami. One girl in the group got a frozen salami and it was the greatest thing. I had been thinking about it for days and after walking in the rain for an hour I was extremely dissapointed to not find any. We did find some cheese, which is a rarety here because of the inabiblity to process. Most Ghanaians eat/drink very little dairy and I'm dying for it. Last night I tried Guinea Fowl. It was pretty god but we eat under a black light and it made the dark meat look blue. It was a little strange.

I went to the art center today and bought a painting. I bargained really well, I don't know what came over me. We went to eat at this restaurant named Sparkle. There is this young guy named Muhummad who is 13 and is always showing up everywhere. He never smiles and he's always showing us this letter from school, listing the things he needs to attend. He's always saying he doesn't want the money, he'll show us where we can buy the things he needs. I want to help him but I feel weird about reinforcing his stereotypes about Americans(wealthy wealthy wealthy) and rewarding his rude behavior. Today he just walked up to us while we were eating and stood there. It's awkward, I almost paid him to leave.

There are an insane amount of bikers in this city. On both sides of the street there are large sectioned off pavement paths for the bikers and walkers. It's amazing but scary. I've been riding one and it's a great thing to feel the wind on me pedaling down the huge hill on the way to the hotel.

I had running waitr for 2 hours last night and took a shower. yessssssss...

I went to a Shea butter colony yesterday and saw how shea butter is produced. It was one of the best things I have done so far. The women churn the substance by hand and the entire community lives off the money brought in by this product. The houses were huts and a little village was arranged in a cute circle. I dont want to say cute because of how it sounds, but i mean it in the best way.

The quality of life was exteremly low there and the people seemed sad and distant. In othe places I have been the children were excited to see me. The childen there just sort of had blank stares. A lot of them also had these infected belly buttons. The growth is in th shape of a cone and is sometimes 4 or five inches long. I think it's an infection caused by improper care of the tissue there.

My Twi classes are going well but I am having a hard time here becase people in the North don't speak twi. Something else about the North that;'s interesting is that at certain times of the day if you go into someones shop, they won't serve you because they will be praying on their mats and all. We work in small Twi groups and my teacher stares at me the entire time. It makes me self conscious and I can't always perform under those circumstances.

Making great connections every day -- people and ideas. Miss everyone so much.

I'm going to the villages on Monday and will most likely be unable to write for two weeks. I'll keep a journal and post as often as I can of course.

Lovelovelove

Becca

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Comments

[russ]

on bellybuttons...
(hi! i'm one of kate o'donnell's friends) those Ghanian children with the long belly buttons--they're that way because they cut the umbilical cord much longer when they are born than we do in the u.s. (when i was in mali doing research i saw the same thing and asked.) good luck with the culture shock!