March 25

On Thursday night we went to a place to hear high life music but instead it was more jazz music, but it was still really fun and they had amazing musicians. On Friday night we went to the Pan-African Orchestra concert. They had about 30 musicians and I even knew one of them through a friend! They are going on tour this year around West Africa and will come to the United States sometime next year. On Saturday we went to Makola Market - the biggest market in Accra - there was so much to see and so many people. People hiss and touch us a lot walking through the markets and little children have tried wiping my skin to see if the white would come off - that was entertaining. The men selling men’s jeans I have found to be are the most aggressive and persistent. The men say they would look good on you, I always say I don’t wear men’s jeans, thanks - but apparently they don‘t think that is a good enough reason not to buy them. They sell everything at these markets - we passed a woman selling snails the size of my foot! They were trying to crawl away and she had to keep grabbing them and putting them back on the mat - it was disgusting! Some people believe that if a woman eats a snail if she is pregnant the baby will drool a lot. Some also believe that if a baby eats eggs they will become a thief. At the market I bought more fabric, I justify buying so much fabric because it is only 1 cedi (dollar) a yard and who knows when I will be in Africa again! My dad went to high school with a girl who’s sister is now living in Ghana so I spent Saturday night with her and her husband. It is such a small world! They work for the US Embassy so they live in Embassy housing which means air conditioning and hot water! Spending an evening with them in a Western style house eating tacos and cheese was amazing!
There has been no electricity in my home stay from Friday night to Tuesday morning but it came on this morning! The nights are hard to sleep with no fan but we get used to it. The sun goes down around 6:30 so the past couple of nights we would just sit outside and Auntie Vicky would tell us stories, it was really nice.
My parents sent me a package and it finally arrived yesterday so I will try and teach the kids about snow with the children’s book I received.
This weekend our program is bringing us to the Ashanti Region and we are going to a museum and a market - the largest in West Africa apparently- and then we will have the option to go to a Black Stars football game, it is a qualifying game for the World Cup.
Driving has been another thing to get used to here. There are no speed limits or stop signs only speed bumps to control the speed and very few stop lights. There are driving ‘rules’ that are completely different for me to get used to - if you are taking a left hand turn the oncoming traffic stops for you. People sell things on the side of the road and then when traffic is stopped they rush in between the cars with baskets on top of their heads full of anything from TV antennas to men’s ties to huge paintings of the Virgin Mary. Anything you can find at a gas station is on people’s heads weaving in between cars!