My first full day in Ghana. I'm sick with a cold and jet lagged beyond belief. it's 32 degrees in the shade and my air conditioned hostel keeps my room at 18. Which would be nice, except for that fact that I'm sick as a dog, and it really dosent help. We're spending our first few days in the capital, Accra before bussing to our lovely little soon to be village on the coast, Otuam. I've just heard that my host family is a sister and brother who live together. The sister dosent speak english and so far, my Twi consists if "Medase-thank you" and "Obruni-white person" (because to Ghanaian standards, I'm white. It's like the inuttitut word Qallunaaq, it's pretty much equivalent... you dont have to be white to be qallunaaq, you just need to not be Inuk.)
Anyway, My amazing counterpart took me to the market with her sister this afternoon after a short orientation. I'm so incredibly lucky to have been paired with this person, so far I'm pretty sure were the best CPs.
The market was intennnssse!! holy! It was sensory overload to the MAX. Imagine, jet lagged after a 2 day journey with no sleep, having a horrific cold, not knowing what time or day it is and walking through an African market in the middle of the afternoon. My CP (Linda) was holding my hand (literally and figuratively)the whole way as I stumbled around confused and overwhelmed, glaring at women with babies on their back and plates of Mangoes or Bananas on their heads, weaving through human traffic like Only the global south could generate, CD vendors blasting reggae tunes in languages I've never heard, aggressive cloth salesmen hissing to get my attention, children running around weaving through the maze that was Makola Market, the smell of smoked fish, live crabs and GIANT snails just hanging out in big metal bowls, waiting for someone to come along and bargin for them, "Obruni BUY!" , "Obruni 1 Cedi!" and "Beautiful Obruni, I'll be your boyfriend" from all directions... did I mention it was 32 degrees out? and the fact that there literally no rules on the road, We were almost hit by a Taxi as we made our way out of the market, and the countless motorcycles and trotros honking to get through... Linda and her sister took me to a coconut vendor and bought me a fresh coconut, that a tiny woman in a bright blue shirt devastated with a GIANT machete, I drank the water and it was the most amazing thing I've ever consumed. Sweet, fresh, cool coconut! straight from the pod (or whatever they're called)... then she bought me mangoes... oh wow. completely orgasmic.. she would only let me have two because she said we dont know how my body will react to it :(. I could have eaten 10. They were about the size of an apple and so yellow and soft.. I'll never eat a mango in north america again. ever.
it was a crazy fucking day. I'm going to go take a shower, nurse my horrible cold and pretend that it's not actually 29 degrees outside.
better get used to it though... cause this is Africa.
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