So here is a picture of solider ants… they’re crazy scary. I’ve actually been fortunate to never get bitten by one or many before, but I’m pretty sure its not pleasant. Here is my little story regarding soldier ants… so Major used to call me lazy every Saturday because the family would go to farm, but I wouldn’t go with them because I had training. So one Saturday when I didn’t have training I decided to go with them to farm, and I kind of wished that I just sat around being that lazy American, because farm was farrrr, hot, and hard work. The trek to farm was a good two hour journey in the hot sun, passing the paths of several soldier ants and through a small stream. Then after I’m already beat from the trek, the actual work begins! They go to their farm and cut down plantains, weeds, gather contumere, and whatever else. (I think they actually felt bad for me because they could tell that I was tired and not used to the work, so they let me rest at their farm house while they finished the work) Then after all that work, they have to carry back a whole bunch of plantains, contumere, cassava, and whatever else that they needed from the farm. So I got to carry back the lightest bag of them all, but I was still dying on the trek back. I seriously don’t know how they do that every Saturday, but at least at the end of the day when we were back at the house, Major said I did well. (Ghanaians like to say “you’ve done well” or “you are trying”) Now she can no longer call me lazy, even if I didn’t do much at farm.
So you know, having electricity isn’t all that bad… somehow I’ve sort of adjusted to being in the dark. The only thing that I hate about not having electricity is when I come home and start searching for things in the dark and then somehow can’t find it so I have to use my flashlight (I have one on my phone, its awesome!) and then I find some huge spider by near where I’m searching. NOT COOL. The other day I found a scorpion near the shower room… my first scorpion ever! Now every time I got to the shower or walk outside at night, I’m so scared I’ll step on one. I really hope we’ll get some electricity soon.
This past week was basically the best week of my life here in Ghana. Who would’ve thought that a whole week of training would be fun, but it was awesome. It was like Christmas in March!! Minus the snow (which doesn’t even matter cause it doesn’t snow in Hawaii), carols, trees, lights, and everything… okay, so maybe it was like Packages Galore in March! So basically since a lot of people live far away from the Accra office where our packages get sent, they brought all our packages to the training we had this past week! It was like amazing goodness overload!! Someone got sent Joe Joes and they were pretty much the best thing that has been inside my mouth… well, besides bacon wrapped hot dogs. Joe Joes are like oreos with little candy cane pieces inside the filling… reminded me of Thin Mints! (I’m salivating right now thinking about how amazing those were.) Not only did we have all these snacks to munch on, but the catering that they have during training is pretty much awesome. During training in Kukurantumi I would look forward to Thursday and Friday lunch because it was catered. I think I must’ve gained at least ten pounds this week just gorging myself on all the tasty food.
So training was good, got a lot of useful information… got to talk with other pcvs and hear about their stories about their site and what else not. Everyone seems to be doing really well at site, so that awesome. It was also just nice to be away from my site, site can get a little overwhelming at times, so it was perfect timing. Because as much as I liked being away from site, now that I’m finally back its like ahhh relief. Kind of like that feeling when you finally get home after a trip. Only bad thing is that I got home and Junji was flea infested!! ): Not happy about that at all, and now for some reason he likes to roll around in dead things. ): My friend said that he is a hunter dog, so they roll around in dead things because it hides his scent? I don’t really understand, but hes so smelly now. ): I even gave him a bath this morning, and it lasted like an hour and hes a smelly Junji again.
But anyways, I’m going to continue talking about food, because well… I’m a fatty! So after training it was my friends birthday so we went up to this place called Sunyani, which is so out of place in Ghana because its like an American town. Went to this amazing hotel and ate sausage pizza. Mmmmm. It was amaaaazing. Then went to this bar and his friend in Sunyani had been marinating meat for the past two days, so they barbequed the meat… it like melted in my mouth. (okay, so it wasn’t a DKs/Ruth Chris or anything, but after eating shitty/questionable meat since coming to Ghana, it was basically like eating at one of those places.) It was actually kind of funny because we were like vultures around the meat stand, just waiting for the next piece of meat to be taken off the grill. I told my friend to go and check to see if the meat was ready, and then like five seconds later he texted me saying “Now…!” hahaha. I basically pushed everyone out of my way, kind of like that Seinfield episode where George pushes everyone out of the way to get out of the burning building. Joking.
two of my favorite people in peace corps. julie and i are in the same sector, and since we are asian they call us ping and pong. and they play that gong asian tune any time they see us. so culturally sensitive these peace corps people. anyways.Then the eating frenzy continued when we decided to order double cheeseburgers with french fries the next night for dinner. But well, now I’m back at site, so its just Ghanaian food all day every day. Which is good, I think I must’ve ate a months worth of food in a week. But now the snacking frenzy will start because I got amazing packages filled with goodies. (: Pork grinds, cheez-its, arare, cheetos, oreos, bacon bits… Thank you!!!!
here is the picture that wasn't letting me post last time. intense huh the three rocks with the fire burning underneath!Twi Word of the day: Mame! (I’m satisfied)
"What I hear, I keep"
symbol of wisdom, knowledge and prudence
The implied meaning of the phrase "mate masie" is "I understand". Understanding means wisdom and knowledge, but it also represents the prudence of taking into consideration what another person has said.
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