An Ode to Sandra

Dear Sandra,

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you. No matter how hot the Ghanian air becomes, no matter how many cow feet are tried to be passed off as lunch, no matter how tired the rest of the world is, I know you will always be there for me. 

You have gotten me through the most trying times during this transitionary period. I don’t know how I would have done this without discovering you. 

You, Sandra, are the queen of the ice cream bars. 

When I return to the states I will be petitioning every local grocery store to carry this delicious brand.

Other important discoveries:

My roommate is a fantastic cook. Score.

The first menu I’ve seen with this category! Happy day!

I’m also learning really important non-food related life skills. Like how to braid my hair while upside down. You can have all this too, all you have to do is move to Africa!

You Asked For It

I've had quite a few people ask me what an average day is like here. Really we've just been in orientation for 2 weeks so it has been nothing but guest lectures. We were babysat from 8 am to 9 pm every day. But that ended. So today I tried to figure out what exactly a normal day is. It's incredibly boring. Brace yourself.

In the morning I leave my room. Crazy! This is the market right outside my building.

 This is my building. Woooow.

This is what the inside of the market looks like. Sometimes it gets slippery and I trip.

A lovely man named Henry sells these lovely egg sandwiches.

They cost 60 American cents. 

Then I enter campus. It's kind of ridiculously beautiful. 

There was no class today so I went on a tro tro adventure to the city.

My roommate caught me trying to sneak away, and was all "You can not go by yourself!" So she came along to keep me safe.

We found the temple!! It was so wonderful.

So beautiful. I was so giddy.

Taste the happy!

Everything was just so clean. It blew our minds. 

While walking along this tree lined path some giant butterflies flew in front of us and birds led the way.

We were like, where in the world are we.

It took all our self control not to roll on the lawn.

I stood in the same place to take both these pictures. One was in the direction of the temple. The other was in the direction of Accra. Hurray for temples!

Attempting to read a map. Yeah, we don't stand out at all.

My roommate fell in the gutter. Not this one. But a very similar one.

They call them obruni traps.

An obruni is a white person.

The bug life here is AWESOME. 

These are the things that entertain me.

This was some other market. Not entirely positive where we were, but they had vegetables so we were way pumped.

Get this, a huge mango, a pineapple, 14 bananas, 4 huge carrots- $2.70

We love the market. 

This is what waiting for a tro tro back to campus looks like. 

Cute, right?

I'm writing this post while we make dinner. Stir fry and a fruit salad! 

By the end of every day we are both just too exhausted to do anything remotely resembling fun.

So we listen to music and tell stories and laugh.

And despite exhaustion, go to bed at incredibly late hours. 

I am sitting at the kitchen table for the floor. 

That's my roommate washing dishes. 

And me being creepy.

The end!

Rain

I am trying to write about my weekend in Kumasi, partying with the Ashanti, but bigger things just happened. As in RAIN. Sweet sweet rain. It was such a beautiful sight. I just sat on the wall of my balcony and stared at it. The air is breathable again!

My friend and I were discussing how long we felt cold each day. Having gotten use to the showers, they only feel cold for the first ten seconds tops. Then they just feel luke warm for the rest of the time. We also average like two sodas a day, because they are safe to drink and refrigerated. But it's just so hot here that they only stay cold for like two and half seconds. You literally take one sip and then it's no longer cold.

So that's 15 seconds a day.

I'm afraid I'll forget what cold is. Which is actually pretty fine by me.

It's so beautiful I could cry