Wednesday July 21, 2010
I have finally become self sufficient in terms of breakfast. Yesterday, I bought bananas, apples, bread, tea, powder milk, peanuts, crackers, and popcorn. I put these in my guestroom with the hopes of consuming them in the mornings before I leave to go to the school. This morning I had some tea bread and the guesthouse owner brought me a thermos of hot water at 6:45am (sure enough, I ask him from a deep sleep, to leave it outside the door and I brought it in around 8:15). With the hot water I made tea with powdered milk. Here in Ghana, everyone takes their tea with milk and sugar. I also had two bananas for breakfast. The bananas here are small only the length of a finger.
I went to the school but I wasn't there long. Juliana took me to meet the Mayor of the district. He was excited to hear of the exchange program that Juliana and I have been planning. He said that if we need district support he will provide it. Upon leaving the office, one of Juliana's old students was there. Juliana was happy to see her but sad to hear her story. The girl was very smart and good in school but had recently been dropped from her secondary school because she could not pay her fees. Her father died a week ago and he was the main provider for her family. Juliana ask the girl to come see her on Friday. She said she would help her if she could. Juliana's big heart for the welfare of the children in her village became apparent to me again.
On our way back to the school, Juliana and I stopped in the market and I bought cloth for my aunt and grandmother in Ohio who are seamstresses. It was very busy. People everywhere carrying their goods on their heads, wooden shop stands set up sporadically everywhere with a variety of items hanging from the doors, girls yelling "pure water"as they try to get rid of the satchels of water from the bowls they are carrying, and all the tro tros were in a traffic jam. I got many pieces of cloth: some with eye-lets, some batik, some wax print, and some with a Kente pattern. I wanted to get all of my cloth shopping done so that I would not have to return to the busy market. It is like the times-square of Odumase.
I dropped my bags of cloth at the guesthouse and ate the red red (fried plantains and beans) I bought from the market. When I returned to the school, Juliana and I gave out the Williamsburg Prep pencils that my high school had donated. I had a box of 275. We only got through year 1,2,and 3 before we ran out. I will have to send 3 more boxes for grades 4, 5, 6, the junior high, and kindergarten. Every student said thank you as Juliana and I handed out the neon colored pencils. They all cheered and waved as I left each classroom.
At the end of the school day, Juliana and I went over to the school mother, Ernestine (Ma)'s house to sit and relax before taking the tro tro home. Ernestine gave us beer with Alvaro mixed in (a sparkling pear flavored malt drink, kind of like a cream soda). We shared a plate of ground nuts as the 3 of us talked about Ernestine's website for the Krobo bead festival and exchange programs. Upon leaving I told Juliana I would just go back to my guesthouse without dinner tonight. My stomach was full and bulging still from the red red, peanuts, and beer.
I've spent the past 3 hours reading a few different books and I tried to go to sleep but I'm not tired. So finally, I got up and thought maybe I should eat some of that popcorn, brush my teeth and try to go to sleep again. I am half way through eating my small bag of popcorn I got from a street side shop and I notice these minuscule-sized ants on my bed next to where I'm sitting. (They are nothing new, they are all over my room but I have been spraying bug spray daily to get rid of them...According to locals they are common during the rainy season which we are in now.) I brush the ants of the bed. I eat another bite of popcorn. And sure enough on the bed next to me are 3 more ants. I brush them off. I chew the popcorn that is still in my mouth, I look down again, more ants...and then I look at the bag in my hand and there are 10 ants frantically crawling all over my hand. and sure enough there are many in the bottom of the bag crawling all over my popcorn. Disappointed I throw the bag of popcorn away and spray bug spray in the trash. I am disappointed not by the fact that I probably just consumed a few ants, but disappointed because the popcorn tasted so good. Way better than the movie theater stuff we have in the states.
Anyway, I am going to school early tomorrow to observe some teachers teaching. I'll try again to go to bed.
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