Hey Folks!
It sure has been awhile! I'm officailly done my stay in the village now and am currently in Northern Ghana in a city called Tamale. The group and I will be staying here for christmas and helping out with the massive free dinner preparation over the next few days at the Shekina Clinic. I'll blog more about this at some later point, but I want to talk a bit about the village while its still fresh in my mind!
My last four weeks in the village were amazing!!! I've become really close with my family and have officially met all th emmebers, with my two other village brothers, Francis and Richard, coming home for seperate weekends. I've included (or will be trying to include) a photo of the whole family (minus Mr Nartey) in this blog. ***Well I couldn't add the photo, so check out facebook.
Hmmm sooo... maybe I'll just go over the highlights and what comes to my mind:
The other day I got to kill and prepare a chicken from start to finish. It was really cool to be able to do. I slowly learned how to cook some of my fabvourite meals so that I can make them when I get back (I hope you like to eat with your hands... well your RIGHT hand)
I made a friend named Joseph. He's such a great guy... he's 22 and lives in Tweapease with his grandfather. It was really nice having someone to hang out with it, and on my last day he gave me 30 bananas, which was really nice... but who can eat thrity bananas in 12 hours?? I tried... (By the way, bananas here are so incredibly awesome!... all the fruit is for the matter.
Baby Denzel is 3 years old ( I think I may have mentioned him in my last post) Anyway, he used to be afraid of me, but now LOVES me!!! We hung out all the time. One day, and the greatest memory I have of him, he showed up with a CAR TIRE to my compound. Now this may not seem like such a feat, but there are practically now cars in my town, no one knows where he got it from, and, most impressively, it's bigger than him. That sheer fact that he could lift it was incredible (and very funny to watch... I have some good videos of his struggle).
I taught all the kids how to play the ukelele!!! They caught on so quicly and learned to play Knan!
I learned all about the processes to get the cocoa to market and made palm oil! I also learned how to carry water on my head! Though practically everyone was laughing at me I managed to stay pretty dry.
My family also had a tv so I was able to watch the news every once in awhile. We also watched some pretty radical ghanain films and even 'who wants to be rich!', the Ghana version of who wants to be amillionaire... very interesting.
Soon upon my return to the village, i went to a wedding in Tema with Monseigneur Paul... alot of funny stuff happened along the way, but I'll tell you some other time. The coolest (or saddest?) thing though was that I returned to a slaughtered goat!! His name was Billy aka Highjump (becuase he would jump over the half door to the Ktichen and start eating things). Anyway, he was delicious. And it was neat to watch it being prepared. Though it is strange to eat something that you have named.
Speaking of goats, my favourite goat, Belinda, got to the point where I could pick her up without a fuss and she would come around and hang out with me. Also, Mama had her twins. It was cool having two tiny goats running around!
My family was fantastic. All 3 boys surpirsed me and showed up at home for my last weekend there. We played a lot of cards (Spar, a ghanaian game, and I taught them Speed) and a game called Ludu (like Sorry!) and one called Ouare. Both very fun.
We also acquired a new child about 2 weeks ago. One of my mother's aunts died and after the funeral, the girl she was taken care of came to live with our family indefinetly. Things are different here... her name is Portia and she\s ten. She's very nice and now her and Pricilla are best friends! Also, i was very glad to not go to the funeral. Some of my group mate's have been and there are quite interesting stories.
Other than that, my day to day life consisted of alot of reading, chatting, washing my clothes by hand or going to farm. Overall, it was a very good time and I already miss it. As a going away gift they gave me a VERY nice shirt.
I guess that's my last month in a nutshell. I'm forgetting more than i remember to write, but these stories will slowly come out when I get back home.
I'll leave it a that for now.
I hope all is well back home. It's 39 degrees where I am right now during the day and only 15 at night, which belive it or not, is pretty cold. I have to wear long sleeves.
I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy new year! I wish I could be there to celebrate, but know that you are all in my thoughts! I really am missing the snow and cold right now (honest!)... it really doesn't feel like christmas, though I do hear a lot of carols and I sang to my family a killer rendition of Santa Clause is Coming to town.
Cheers,
Peace and love everyone.
Matty
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