A fo bronye?
How was your Christmas? Much like most of you, my Christmas morning started early. Around 7am. I woke up and prepared a delicious breakfast consisting of an egg sandwich. I greet Roger and we decide to head out to go collect my woven dress. We hop on our bikes and reach the seamstress’s house in less than 20 minutes. She shows me the finished product. It’s a 2 piece dress, and I go to try it on. The top is more than difficult to get on. It has thick tank top like straps and they meet in the middle in the back and branch off into 4 different straps before meeting the rest of the dress (sorry if this sounds confusing. Hopefully I’ll get a picture up soon). I try the bottoms on. They are snug against my hips and then billow out slightly. Lovely. This dress definitely accents my curves. I go show Roger and he loves it! I change out of it, the seamstress makes a few touch ups, I pay her 20 cedis, and we head out. After leaving, we stop at Roger’s pito spot, and we each take a calabash of pito (mine was a little smaller than his). After sitting and chatting with the people there, we decide to head home.
Roger’s family traveled up from Accra for the holidays. We were all planning on attending mass service that morning, so we had to prepare. Roger thought maybe we could wear our new outfits (he had a smock made out of the same material) to church. Okay! So right when I get to the house, I put the dress back on because I know it’ll take me forever to do so. I finally finish, and a few minutes later, Roger calls and says the mass service had been cancelled in our village, so we weren’t going. Gah. So I have to change out of the dress again. I couldn’t help but laugh. I finally manage to get out of it, and Roger and I head over to his family’s house. When we get there, I am greeted with a “Happy Christmas” (yep…happy instead of merry) and hugs from everyone. I love his family (which consists of his brother Charles, Charles’ wife Lorencia, and Lorencia’s sister Elizabeth). They seriously made me feel like I was a part of their family. So we just sit and chat for a little bit while everyone is getting ready, then we decide to head into town. We reach a spot around 2pm and begin the festivities. We order some drinks and food. Round one consisted of a beer and goat meat. Round two began with another beer and beans cake (beans cake is a batter made mostly out of beans and then fried…I’m not a huge fan). Round three I shared a bottle with a friend and we feasted on guinea fowl. So. Much. Food. When the guinea fowl had arrived Lorencia shrugged her shoulders and said “Well…it’s Christmas!”. I thought it was the funniest thing ever. So basically we just sat and chatted and laughed all day long. It was fantastic.
I definitely missed the Christmas traditions from back home. The lotto tickets at Grandma Glenda’s, the pajamas and book on Christmas Eve, the breakfast casserole on Christmas morning, the marathon of A Christmas Story (how long is that marathon?), chicken and noodles at Grandma Kay’s, baked goods galore, ugly Christmas sweater parties, and constant eating and laughing and sleeping. Even though I was feeling a tad homesick, my family in Ghana helped me make the most of the holiday season. I am so grateful to have such loving and wonderful people in Ghana who treat me like family. It was definitely a Happy Christmas for me :-)
yuompaala!
Happy New Year! For New Year’s, I decided to spend some time with fellow volunteers. We went to this oasis that is owned by a Return Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) in the Upper East Region. It was beautiful! It was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a gorgeous scenery (pictures to come soon!). The sleeping quarters were modernized huts. It was amazing. From the outside it looked like a mud hut, and on the inside was 2 beds with mosquito nets, a place to hang your clothes, a dresser, and outlets! It was adorable. I loved it. There was another building nearby (that was the RPCV’s house I think) where we hung out. We could go up some stairs and sit on the roof and stargaze. It was so peaceful. And being the dry season, the bugs/mosquitoes were not plenty, so we weren’t aggravated by those.
