22.06.06
So, the big thing today was that Ghana won!! First African team ever to make it to the final 16 in the World Cup! I was kind of torn between rooting for the US and Ghana, but I’m happy that Ghana won, because they deserve it. And everyone here is happy too-cars are just riding around the streets yelling and singing and honking, and I’m certain that at least half the people here are drunk, haha. Anyway..I watched the game with Odette and Persis and the kids in Odette’s compound (Mattias, Sarah, Edmund, Accos, and a boy I don’t know) and Agnes, who’s a YCC girl doing computer training. Let me just tell you that Persis is normally very soft-spoken and sweet, and she got up and yelled "SHIT!" more times than I can count, haha. They are very into their soccer here. It was lots of fun, and afterwards, I sat in the shade and drank cold pineapple juice. It was lovely.
This morning we left early for Dabala since I had a class at 11. Grace, my health volunteer lady, never showed up, but that’s okay. The class went really well even though it was devilishly hot and awful. People asked questions and I got through all of my stuff, and even got to take some pictures! It was great. (The pictures will have to come later..tomorrow maybe?)
Also, I don’t remember if I mentioned this or not, but next Thursday I’m going up north of here to do a women’s health workshop covering all my topics and all my talks. I’ll be gone from Thursday to Sunday, and while I’m there, I’ll be touring the area and seeing cool stuff like a waterfall and the “monkey bridge,” which I suppose is covered in monkeys in the rainforest and is a rope bridge between trees..or at least that’s my understanding. It’s going to be really awesome and I’m totally excited.
Hm..so since the taxi lorry station is next to the market, Odette and I went to the market and I bought a record low of stuff-two cans of tomato paste, two apples, and three tomatoes. It was all less than 20,000 cedis, which is a little more than two dollars. So yeah..that was cool. And tonight I decided to quit being lazy and I took the hour and a half it takes to make my delicious spaghetti that I’ll be eating for the next two days, haha. But that was good too, and today has just been a great day.
John is coming back from Accra tomorrow, and then Saturday I’ve got choir practice again and a promise of a tour of the area from my landlord on his motorcycle! Should be cool.
By the way..I guess I didn’t write about choir practice yet! Well, it was interesting, for sure...it was all in Ewe, of course, and so I didn’t understand a word of it. And since printing costs so much, the way they learn songs is basically by call-and-response-the choir director sings it, and then the people with that part write down the words that they hear, and then sing it until they get it right. So, I learned two songs in Ewe last night, but I had to look at Odette’s notebook and copy the Ewe into English-looking words phonetically. But that’s okay..Ewe isn’t that different to read after all, it turns out. Although some words, like woodzufia, actually sound like “go-gifia” which makes no sense at all. So that was fun.
Um, what else? Not much, really, but that’s enough. Oh, I know. I was walking and saw a piece of trash that said “chocolate milk,” and I think when I saw it I yelled to Odette, “What??? Chocolate milk?!? Oh my god!!!” So later at the market she showed me where to buy it, and I was excited, except they freeze everything. So it tasted more like ice cream than chocolate milk, but still...real milk! And chocolate milk at that! I was so excited. I think that’s going to be my new sinful food, after peanut butter. I swear, I keep finding these random things that exist here that no one told me about, haha! It’s great! So now I have a source of dairy besides powdered milk that I don’t use unless it’s in something because it tastes so awful.
Also, I think there’s a problem with my e-mail, because I don’t have any new e-mails in my account even though the fabulous Chris Neal wrote me an LJ comment yesterday, which should have showed up. So..if you e-mail me I might not get it for a day or two? I don’t know. In the meantime I suppose you can e-mail me at carolynkulb@gmail.com, because I got that address for things like this.
Okay..well I'm going now I suppose, and I hope you all have a fabulous (Thursday!) night.
This morning we left early for Dabala since I had a class at 11. Grace, my health volunteer lady, never showed up, but that’s okay. The class went really well even though it was devilishly hot and awful. People asked questions and I got through all of my stuff, and even got to take some pictures! It was great. (The pictures will have to come later..tomorrow maybe?)
Also, I don’t remember if I mentioned this or not, but next Thursday I’m going up north of here to do a women’s health workshop covering all my topics and all my talks. I’ll be gone from Thursday to Sunday, and while I’m there, I’ll be touring the area and seeing cool stuff like a waterfall and the “monkey bridge,” which I suppose is covered in monkeys in the rainforest and is a rope bridge between trees..or at least that’s my understanding. It’s going to be really awesome and I’m totally excited.
Hm..so since the taxi lorry station is next to the market, Odette and I went to the market and I bought a record low of stuff-two cans of tomato paste, two apples, and three tomatoes. It was all less than 20,000 cedis, which is a little more than two dollars. So yeah..that was cool. And tonight I decided to quit being lazy and I took the hour and a half it takes to make my delicious spaghetti that I’ll be eating for the next two days, haha. But that was good too, and today has just been a great day.
John is coming back from Accra tomorrow, and then Saturday I’ve got choir practice again and a promise of a tour of the area from my landlord on his motorcycle! Should be cool.
By the way..I guess I didn’t write about choir practice yet! Well, it was interesting, for sure...it was all in Ewe, of course, and so I didn’t understand a word of it. And since printing costs so much, the way they learn songs is basically by call-and-response-the choir director sings it, and then the people with that part write down the words that they hear, and then sing it until they get it right. So, I learned two songs in Ewe last night, but I had to look at Odette’s notebook and copy the Ewe into English-looking words phonetically. But that’s okay..Ewe isn’t that different to read after all, it turns out. Although some words, like woodzufia, actually sound like “go-gifia” which makes no sense at all. So that was fun.
Um, what else? Not much, really, but that’s enough. Oh, I know. I was walking and saw a piece of trash that said “chocolate milk,” and I think when I saw it I yelled to Odette, “What??? Chocolate milk?!? Oh my god!!!” So later at the market she showed me where to buy it, and I was excited, except they freeze everything. So it tasted more like ice cream than chocolate milk, but still...real milk! And chocolate milk at that! I was so excited. I think that’s going to be my new sinful food, after peanut butter. I swear, I keep finding these random things that exist here that no one told me about, haha! It’s great! So now I have a source of dairy besides powdered milk that I don’t use unless it’s in something because it tastes so awful.
Also, I think there’s a problem with my e-mail, because I don’t have any new e-mails in my account even though the fabulous Chris Neal wrote me an LJ comment yesterday, which should have showed up. So..if you e-mail me I might not get it for a day or two? I don’t know. In the meantime I suppose you can e-mail me at carolynkulb@gmail.com, because I got that address for things like this.
Okay..well I'm going now I suppose, and I hope you all have a fabulous (Thursday!) night.