Short Stories

Hello all! :) This morning my brain woke me up at 5:30am. This would be normal, except for the fact that it is a SUNDAY. Boooo. So I thought instead of trying to fall back to sleep I would use this time to blog! :) I just have a few short stories that I thought would be interesting to share.

Ada
A few weeks back my friend and I took a weekend to go to my favorite beach, which I've talked about before, in Ada, a place called Maranatha. It looks like this:



She had not yet been there so I was pumped to show her around. We arrived after a long tro-tro ride and it was dark. Usually when we arrive in the main town of Ada-Foah Maranatha has a boat ready to send when you call. So I called when we arrived and they said, please wait at the gas station. Strange. Usually they instruct us to go down to the river to meet the boat-man. Well, we decided to listen and stay at the gas station. A few minutes later a guy showed up and we expected for him to take us to the river. He said, "We're going to wait small for the moto." Liz and I immediately looked at each other and grinned. Now I can't be sure exactly what she was thinking, but we sort of had one of those mental conversations that went something like this. "DUDE!!!" "SWEET!!!!" We confirmed before we got too excited, "Does this mean we will be riding a moto to the beach?" "yes." This was when we had our out-loud conversation...in unison we said, "SWEET!" Normally, if you pick up TWO people on a motorbike, with TWO bags, you have to take TWO bikes. Not in Ghana!! The man grabbed my backpack and sat it on his lap between his steering arms, I was instructed to sit behind him. Then Liz with her bag was instructed to sit behind me. No this was not an abnormally large motorbike...Liz and I just became very close with this mystery man on his bike. This is a situation where I would have wanted a video camera because when we took off driving, we stayed on the main road until it ran out and he hopped his bike up onto the sand where we began to drive through villages. These are fishing villages close to the river where the only places to pass through on a motorbike are the 4 foot spaces between huts. It was a great adventure, especially the few times the moto threatened to fall over from the strain of the thick sand. When we were dropped off we had about 20 more minutes of walking time in the sand before we arrived at a pitch-black camp. To me this was unusual because usually this is the only area with a generator and a SMALL but significant amount of electricity. However, apparently we were the only guests for the evening. What I did not think about when planning this trip was that it was still Hamartan Season. These are the two months-ish around Christmastime where the dust from the Sahara Desert blows down into the Atlantic covering the sun so we are unable to see it for those two months. If you look again at the picture of the camp you can see how the sky is brownish-grey. This explains the fact that we were the only guests for the evening. Why would people go to the beach when there is no sun? Aside from the mouse that woke us up SEVEN times that first evening, trying to break-into our bags, and our friend telling us the next day, "Oh, I should have told you, I can keep your food so the mice don't bother you!", the weekend was relaxing and fabulous. We actually did have a bit of sun on Saturday, and we were both able to finish a huge chunk in our books. Here's a picture of the culprits footprints in our hut:



6 New Friends
This next story makes me look a little bit obsessive, so if you would like to keep your good opinion of me, maybe skip over this section. :) It all started a few months ago, when a few friends and I went to the movie theater. I hope I've told you that the only mall in Ghana just acquired a movie theater a few months ago and it has been an AMAZING addition to our happiness! Well, anyway, I was at the theater, and the first movie I chose to see at our new theater? HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3!!!! Even though I had already seen it at home in the theater, everyone needs to see High School Musical 3 in the theater at LEAST twice don't they?? Well, if a movie theater is showing High School Musical 3, it's important that they have the life-size cardboard cutouts of the cast right? When I saw it, and took a picture kissing Zac Efron, I said to my friends, I'm going to bring that life-size cardboard cutout home! They laughed and we went to see the movie, WHICH WAS AMAZING AGAIN FOR THE SECOND TIME!!! Throughout the movie I'm thinking, normally in the states, don't the movie-theater workers just get to take those things home? Now, which Ghanaian movie-theater worker do you think would want to take home a cardboard cut-out of 6 High School Musicalers?? I couldn't picture someone wanting them! So immediately after the show, I talked to a few guys behind the counter and I told them that I would pay for that cardboard cutout when they were finished showing HSM in the theater. They took my number and said they would call. They didn't call...but I kept going to the movies, and when it was HSM3's last week in the theater I asked again. THEY REMEMBERED ME! They said they lost my number and I could come for the cutout tomorrow!!!! I DID come. I took those six-people-folded-in-thirds and lugged them through the parking lot to the biggest taxi I could find! Laughing, the driver allowed me to be obsessive when carefully placing the crew in the back, making sure no one's head would be shut in the trunk door. We arrived home and Daniel helped me to get my new 6 friends inside:



Now they are permanent guests at our dinner table and get daily gasps of fright when my housemates come around the corner to six people staring them in the face. I'm so glad they love me enough to deal happily with me!




International Day
The last story is just a short one. Each year our school has an International Day in February! On this day, staff and students are instructed to wear traditional clothing from their home country. Some of these students are third culture kids and can never decide where they would like to be from because they've lived in MANY countries throughout their lives. Whichever they chose, they are also asked to bring a dish that is typical from their home country. In the morning the kids stay in their classrooms while the teachers rotate every half hour to tell the next group of students about a country they have researched. I chose Costa Rica and was able to share a few stories from when I lived there a few years ago. Around lunchtime we all head outside to eat and show off our country's dress (parents come in to school too!). It was AWESOME to see everyone out of their uniform sameness and into clothes that show how wonderfully different each of our backgrounds really are. Of course I chose to wear my Detroit Tigers cap and t-shirt, with jeans! Totally traditionally American! :) Unfortunately I did NOT bring my camera to school because I'm a LOSER, but I was able to take a picture with a few of my students using my computer's little webcam thingy.



Thanks for reading!! I hope your Valentines Day was full of love from friends and family!!