Accra = BEST PLACE IN ALL GHANA

I don't even know where to start, but Accra is cool....prolly because it's like America and Ghana together. Also, Dela's parents have a nice house with a guard and a driver and guard dogs and air conditioning and hot water (shower for me tomorrow YES). And nice cars with air conditioning. And her sisters are so cool and friendly and outgoing and I adore them. Their names are Enyosam and Esinam. I think I spelled that right. Anyway, it's great here. There's food from all over, just like in America. Sushi and Italian and Indian and KFC! The KFC was soooo good. Not like in the states. Way better. That's what I had yesterday.

Last night we went to Bella Roma, this Italian bar and restaurant. We went to the fancy, upscale, bar/dance/club side and it was so fun! I met the owner who is an expat from Italy and he said his wife is from Maryland. Anyway, he gave us our drinks for free and even brought over an appetizer to welcome us. The place got crazy fun and they played great music and Dela, Esinam and I had a great time. Oh, and I ordered us chocolate lava cake and almost died from yummyness. They loved it as well.

Me, Esinam and Dela

Today I went back to Bella Roma for lunch because the menu was like, legit, amazing, straight from Italy - Italian food. Expensive, but who cares, I'M HUNGRY. I had a seafood pasta with tomato/wine/olive oil sauce. AMAZING. And a lobster tail. Oh, AND the most amazing incredible bruschetta of my life. Olive and tomato and stuff....nomnomnonmonmnonmonm. I nearly died of happiness and delight. My stomach was so overjoyed.

bruschetta

And then I got sushi for dinner, which I'm about to go eat. It's made by actual Japanese dudes too, so it has to be good.

Ghanian Traditional Wedding

SO, I went to a wedding today in Accra with Dela. It was a Ghanian Traditional Wedding, but it turns out it was the "engagement," not the wedding...I'll explain.

So first what happens here in Ghana is the guy proposes to the girl. When she says yes, he goes and asks her parent's permission. When they say okay, they start planning. The family of the girl gives the guys family a list, called an "engagement list" of stuff they want for their daughter....like the ring, a bible, money, cattle (depends on where the people are from, of course), and other things. Then they plan the engagement ceremony (which is what we went to) and then the guy's parents bring all the stuff for the girl's parents (neither bride nor groom are present for this part) and see if it is enough for the son to marry the daughter. Sometimes, it is not enough. The whole thing is a negotiation. Perhaps the family wants more money or something, that is to be negotiated at the ceremony. Everyone else sits outside and enjoys drinks and things while this goes on. Which is what we did. When the bargaining is done, the bride and groom come and then people eat and party. We stayed for a bit but not the whole time because it was a tad boring and it was hot and we were hungry.

THE COOLEST PART, though, was that the immediate ex-president of Ghana was AT the engagement ceremony. John Kufuor. This guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kufuor

Or, this guy:

 

Also, here is Dela and I at the wedding! The dress I am wearing is the one I had made here in Ghana.

Kumasi Photos

I took some pictures of the LC people and the visitors. Here they are!

Someone's weave. Not even joking.

LC house living room (unfurnished cause they just barely moved in)

men do laundry here! (sometimes)

LC People:

Kakum National Park

We went to Kakum National Park in Cape Coast last weekend! We did the canopy walk which was fun and crazy and SUPER HIGH UP in the air. This one dude in the group we were with was terrified. He made everybody back up on the first canopy thing and then he finally went. I laughed. Anyway, here's some pics!

La Casa #2

The mother has requested more pictures of the house, so here are some. I also plan to take my professional camera out into the village soon and take some pictures of the school, kids, and friendly villagers.

books for the library

my bed and my mess

our huge fridge.....for 8 people...

our "kitchen"...fyi, we have 7 spoons and one fork. there has yet to be an all-out brawl for the fork but I foresee it in the near future.

The yard and Queen Mother's yard

This is growing in our house. Like, IN our house.

The long road to work.

Trotro Tip #1

THIS is a Trotro!

Trotro tip #1: Never pick your nose in a Trotro, unless you want your finger to end up in your brain.

Not that I pick my nose in Trotros........but I feel I must share my important observations!

Not an AIESEC house.

Regarding this post: there are going to be a lot of AIESEC terms you might not get, but the message will probably get through anyway.

Our house, as I, as well as our one-night German visitor, have observed, is not an AIESEC house. The values are missing. Technically, it is, because we are all in AIESEC or are EPs (6/8 are in AIESEC). The thing is, people are not sharing stories and hanging out and spending time together and doing roll-call dances like AIESECers should be. It's quite disappointing. The 3 asian girls are very friendly and nice and I like them a lot, but they always just go hang out in their room and don't converse with us more than at breakfast or dinner. The guy from Japan barely talks to us at all. It's basically just Janelle and I. It's lame. We should all be hanging out and going on weekend trips together and playing games and all that, but we don't. David, the Ghanaian roommate tries to spread his friendship around, so that's good, but he is somewhat like the others as well. We should be getting a girl from Canada this weekend and maybe a girl from Brazil, so maybe that will help things, but I am not sure.

Either way, it's a bummer. At the AIESEC house in Kumasi we taught them the American roll-call we do at conferences, and they taught us 3 Ghana roll-calls (dances). We haven't done that at all in our house.

SO LAME.

Oh well.