It's hard to believe that tomorrow it will be December- the month I head back to America. Our remaining three weekends are quickly filling up with all the stuff we want to get in before we leave!
This past weekend we headed into Accra to get some shopping done at the market. Anytime we go into the city we take these vans called Trotros. They are these rickety old vans that are crammed with wayyyy too many people. The nice thing about them is that a ride costs only 40 peswas, which is right around 20 cents in America. It normally takes only two trotros to get into the city, so it's quite the deal. The drivers are extremely reckless though and some of the vans look like they could crumble to the ground any minute. I've learned to just calmly look out the side windows as we ride because looking at how they drive could bring on a minor heart attack.
Anyways, after safely making it into Accra we looked around at some sights like the U.S Embassy, Independence Square (home to Ghana's Independence Day celebration each March), and the Soccer stadium. Then we headed to the market where we spent a few hours. It was a little overwhelming because EVERYONE wanted us to come to their stand since we looked like tourists. Auntie had already let us in on the fact that you can always get the price down to about half of what they originally say. I got good at holding my ground and got some pretty good bargains if I do say so myself.
School went very smooth this week. It was only a four day week of teaching for me because today was Open Day, which is basically parent-teacher conferences. Going into it I wasn't sure how much I would understand because I didn't know if parents would prefer to speak in English or Twi. Luckily for me most used English so I was able to understand what was going on. The parents were free to come in at any point during the day an look through their child's workbooks. Then they had a short chat with the teacher about how the student was performing. I had to laugh because at least five different parents told me that their child goes home after school and pretends to talk like me! Apparently the way I say "boys and girls" is entertaining to them. Since we were there over lunch, the teachers all went to the canteen for lunch and they were serving Kenke, which is a very common dish in Ghana. It's this lump of dough that is primarily maze, and you dip it in a pepper sauce that's really spicy. My teachers got a kick out of watching me eat because you eat it with your hands and I was really struggling. They make it look so easy but the dough is so sticky I had clumps all over my hand. One of my teachers got a call as we were eating and she told the person on the other end, "I'm eating Kenke with a white lady you should come see!" I think I'll stick to forks from now on.
In other news, Sara and I have discovered two wall geckos living in our room this week. We had the kids come in and hunt for them since we were too scared. One has now moved on to a better place, and the other is still MIA. As long as I wake up alone in my bed every morning, I guess I'm okay with giving him a home.
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