A fine mess of contradictions

Pythons and some culture shock

I know I just wrote only over a day ago-I'm now on day 4 of my stay here, but I also dont know how reliable the internet access is so I want to write whenever I can. We had a twelve hour power outage last night that is now going to happen every 3 days so its hard to say when we will have power. That means no fans, which means, I woke up at 3am because I was sweating myself awake. Sounds disgusting, but its a reality. My bug net keeps falling on me because its precariously tied to the bunk bed above me and its completely not working. So I had about 3 hours of sleep last night because someone got really sick and I could hear them, and then a preacher came by at literally 4am, and started singing and playing a tambourine and yelling at the top of his lungs outside our house for over a half an hour. Everyone was awake and swearing under their breath, praying he would leave. It was kind of funny, and if it hadn't been so hot it would have been a lot more funny, but seriously it was the middle of the night. It is a loud place all the time, Kersten told us, and that we live in a quiet area. Roosters woke me up as well, who seem to all talk to each other and extremely loudly. haha, I hope I get used to it or I'm going to come home a basketcase.

Other than my tiring but interesting night, things are actually amazing. The town is so cool, and the people I've met are just so great. We went to a beach yesterday to clean up some garbage- it was everywhere- but people don't get it. They told us to leave it there- because you have to pay to have your garbage picked up- so I guess people just dump it down there. But we cleaned up as much as we could, it took about 5 minutes to fill tons of bags. Then we went home to clean up, and headed to Labadi beach, a pay beach that is a lot cleaner and was full of foreigners. We saw lots of performers, went swimming in the water that was kind of garbage free and had an awesome day in the sun. Every time a garbage bag or piece of floating "something" hit my leg in the water, I screamed, haha. There were a lot of very forward Ghanaians at the water, which we hadn't really encountered who wanted to "show us around" but I pulled the whole, "sorry I'm married and my husband wouldn't like that" line. We did get our picture taken by some random guys who jumped in with us and asked, and took one even when we said no. So me and some Dutch girls are probably floating around the internet somewhere in bikinis with guys we dont know, hahaha. I also put a python on my neck. Yes I know, what was I thinking? It was kind of asleep and it only cost a dollar to take a picture so one of the Canadian journalists convinced me, and I have the pic to prove it, haha. It tightened on my neck a little, but I managed to get out alive.

We went out last night with Kersten and some of her Ghanaian friends to Lizzy's, a local bar. It was so much fun, drank a Ghanaian beer that was pretty good- they come in huge bottles, and talked to some of her friends. One of them is the most amazing artist. They are getting a website and I will post a link because he does the greatest stuff and I'm definitely bringing some home. He has had no formal training and I've never seen art like it. So good. His name is Adams and he is part of a local cultural centre dance group. The other friend, Junior , also does woodworking so I'm going to get some from them instead of getting ripped off at a market. Junior had 15 brothers and sisters that he has to support. His dad got married 5 times so he has tons of different younger siblings and because he is the oldest he has to support all of them and his mother. He told me that he wasn't going to be with lots of women like his father did, and that the practise of marrying a women and then moving on is not as common anymore, but it has happened. It was interesting to hear how he lived his life, trying to support so many people. Literally, it was just amazing, and I really admire the talent and tenacity of the people I met. He gave money to begging children when he barely had any himself. We are going to see them all dance today at the cultural centre.

And now for a little sidebar about cultural difference that we got to experience first-hand. I wasn't sure how long I could have avoided this but we got thrown right in. Last night at the bar, me and Linsey another girl from Holland had to go to the bathroom. So Junior took us to the back and we just looked at each other. It was so dark and it was outdoors and we didnt even know where the hole was. A few girls went in ahead of us, and I got out my flashlight. After debating for a few minutes, we decided just to go for it, and it was quite intimidating because it was sooo dark and so um, scented? hahah but we survived and figured we'd have to do it sometime so thankfully we went through it together, haha. Thought people would think that was entertaining that I'm braving African toilets and blogging about it.

This morning we had dancing lessons and drumming. I'm not bad at the dancing, but the drumming was a lot harder. I want to bring home some music from here, I love it. I could never move my body the way our dance teacher did, but I can work on it. I'm also working on my Twi and whenever I say something people look surprised and then start speaking to me and I'm forced to just stare blankly at them, ahah. Anyways, might not have power again soon, so I don't know when I'll blog next, but I hope everyone at home is doing well. I miss all of you, and thanks for any advice I have gotten so far... much love for now.

posted by Kate @ 5:35 AM