We meet again! Another 2 weeks has passed so I am tippity tapping my way through BLOG NUMBER 4! A respectable number considering the fact that only 6 blogs are required and the halfway point has passed :)
The weeks go quickly here...maybe it's because we have all reached such a comfortable routine with school, home and weekly visits to the internet or the post office that just makes it fly by. I thought I would have a lot more free time here, but at the start of the week I actually have to plan how I'm going to fit it all in! Washing is a weekly duty - and has to happen straight after work otherwise you'll be stuck with wet clothes for a few days. Every Wednesday we have Obruni meeting, which is where all us white folk of Swedru meet up for soft drink and weekend organisation :) And when you factor in blogging and letter writing and going to the river with ya host brother... and pocahontus nights at Katie's house... it all kind of crams in and before you know it it's Friday afternoon and you're on a trotro off to the beach!
Speaking of the beach ;) (what a good segway) we headed back to KOKROBITE for a nice weekend of relaxation. And relax we did! It was sooo nice to go somewhere close and familiar, and buy some things at the markets that we were too hesitant to buy the first time around. Happy pants, necklaces, beads, paintings, coconuts = everyone's smiling faces. OH AND THE BON BONS they were the cause of the most smiling that weekend - we discovered these amazing little bundles of joy... little chocolates with creamy filling for 50 pesewa. life complete. but yeah - we smashed out the Italian restaurant again (main reason why we came back) and ordered the best pizzas, and mixed juices and bruschettas... you probably don't want to know the details of our orders (renee got an olive pizza) but food is on my mind at the moment as I am really hungry. Fun fact for you all at home. Not that I'm always hungry here.. it's actually quite the opposite! We have huuuge breakfasts and huge lunches... that we try to eat as late as possible so it can double as a dinner.
Anyway back to Kokrobite.. the sun was so intense.. last time we were there it was slightly overcastingly dim/sad (that made sense) but this time the sun was scorching and the sky was blue and our souls were smiling.
And once again this last week went really quickly because dear Seth (bless his cotton socks) was jolly enough to take us to his house for a tie-dying session! The great thing about tie-dying is that no matter what you do they always turn out cool. Now we all have a nice little GHANA 2011 (or something of the likes) momento to take home with us :) Things have changed so much at the orphange! We also got to see everyone all together last Thursday because it was time to paint the classroom that I used my donation money to build! Maddie's furniture should be arriving sometime this week and then the classroom will be put to use. Turns out even with 8 people and 2 flashy extendo-brushes (paint brushes nailed to sticks) painting the inside/outside/doors/window ledges of a room is quite the hefty job and we couldn't finish in one day. Perhaps we'll have to recruit the crew in for another session this Thursday.. (yes I am already planning my week because there's just SO MUCH TO DO)
Last weekend we ventured into the Eastern region to check out the Aburi Gardens, and I can safely say it was my favourite weekend of all. It was such a nice change to mix it up a bit from your classic beach weekend and chuck some botanical gardens on ya tasting platter! Every weekend I feel like we just get closer and closer. When we're not finding trotros or trying to book accomodation, we'll just be chilling in someone's dodgy room, everyone sprawled over the beds and floor and just talking about anything and everything. One time I decided to jot down all the topics we cycled through in a night .. that was quite the extensive list :)
Anyway so on the Saturday 5 of us (Bardie, Harriet, Gina, Lauren and myself) decided to brave the 24km bikeride over Ghanian jungle-infused countryside. And we all agreed it was the best decision we ever made! Not only did we find our mountain biking legs but we got a nice little tour around a cocoa forest, we stopped off for some palm wine under a tree, we visited our guide (Ben)'s brother also his coach called Lesley, who is a half-Ghanian half-British man who has a lot of nameless cats. After bonding over a waterfall and an extreme rapping sesh, we became so close to Ben (or should I say STONZY BEE) that he bought us a pineapple and he promised to take us out for a real experience of Ghanian nightlife. Little did we know this would also include a chill out in his recording studio, in which we were encouraged to "show us your stuff". We made a pathetic little chorus about palm wine and it's effects on bike riding.. but stonzy found this so exciting that he burnt it to a cd to take home. That's one for the ipods! The rest of the night was spent dancing on the side of the road in the rain in a town called 'tutu'... not being 18 yet I can say that was a strange 'first clubbing experience'... :D
I am now typing this half for the second time as I had a lovely little run-in with unreliable internet and as soon as I hit send the web decided to crash! So hopefully I can remember what I typed. Honestly I don't think you're missing much, a lot of this is just ramblin' good times from ansy gray.
But reading back over this it looks like all I talk about is the weekends! I suppose the weekdays have just turned into such a routine that it's kind of strange to say well, today Georgina urinated on the floor! Or - hey Australia, our class drew pigs today! They were really nice pigs. And nobody chose pink when colouring them! There were brown pigs, and orange/green pigs, and red pigs.. a plethora of piggity joy. Sorry my head is in a strange place! I am utterly exhausted from a long afternoon of painting my classroom. So. Much. Surface. Area. I must look a little kooky covered in sweat and red and blue paint :) :) But we're all very happy with our kids' progresses. Even though it may be small, every little difference means so much from our point of view.
I'm quite glad the internet crashed actually because we had a classic Ghana experience just where I left you yesterday. Hari, Gina and I were in Melcom (a supermarket) and a woman from across the street smiled at us and decided to cross. Things got a little strange when she accompanied us through the checkout and started kissing us and calling us her mother. But that wasn't the end of the strangeness. She decided to follow "her daughters" all the way to the next shop.. all the way up a side street.. all the way to Katie's house... will she come inside? Oh. Wow. Okay she's in Katie's house. What do we do... we can just leave her in the hall. Oh ok, she's in the lounge room now and kissing all our friends.. annnd... settling in for a nice view of the Tuesday movie. Luckily we had Linda (Katie's host sister) to coax her out of their property. Oh Ghana.
There are so many times you just have to smile and go along with it. I was buying deodorant (hair minimising deodorant .. just for fun) and a woman stopped me and told me I was buying hairspray. "But it says anti-perspirant deodorant.." "NO. It's for the hair." "Ok.. thank you!" :) wheeee.
Well I can't really remember what else I wrote but this is getting quite lengthy so I might leave you there. It's a scary though that next time I write to you all we'll be in our last week of teaching and saying goodbye to our host families!! Time has gone so unbelievably quickly. This weekend we're off to the Wli waterfalls in the Volta region!
I'll be sure to give you the low down in Blog number 5... Until then, adios!
We send our love and our smiling hearts :) <3
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