A Day on the Town

Today felt like 3 days packed into one! By 8 am, I felt like I had a ½ day behind me already! I woke up at 5 am, which is now early for me since I discovered that the wonderful eye covering contraption that they gave me on the airplane allows me to sleep past the sunrise! However, this morning I was up before the sunrise. I felt, once again, like I had gone back in time about 100 years! I lit my candle so I could see and hung my flashlight on the door as I took a shower.

Then, Mama Carolyn and I traveled to the train station just down the road about a mile and a half in Kotaku. We rounded the corner of the train station (that looks in such tough shape that in the US it would be condemned) to find many ladies dressed in their bright colored dresses with babies slung on their back and with big, huge bowls of greens and different produce that they’d sell for the day. We took a seat to wait for the train which was scheduled to arrive at 6 am. Sure enough it came, we got on, and enjoyed about an hour and a half ride to Accra. I would say it was neat to be able to watch the world wake up, but the truth is that when I sleep until 6:30 am each morning, I am in the extreme minority. Ghana seems to wake up with the sun, and by 6:00, people are out and about selling, stores are open, women are cooking and doing laundry, children are taking “baths”…their world is very much alive as I crawl out of bed! Nevertheless, it was neat to witness a piece of their everyday lives as I gazed out the windows of the train.

When we got to Accra we met up with Abby, who helped us do the shopping for the kids, which is the reason we went into town. We still had about 20 pairs of shoes left to buy and also needed to get socks and undies for all 50 kids! What a task that is…where are Wal-Mart and Target when you need them?!? We finished our shopping by about 11:30, and the highlight for me was finding a bunch of empty shoeboxes outside one of the shops. I asked if they were going to use them and they said no, so I snatched them up…not quite sure what I’ll do with them, but I’m really getting into this being resourceful thing, and I’m starting to save everything from my tin cans to toilet paper rolls to water bags!!!

After our shopping excursion, we headed to the mall by taxi to meet up with Papa Jim who’d drove into town separately. Since I didn’t have much shopping to do at the mall, I decided to hop on the internet, which was a real treat. Since it’s faster than my internet connection at home, I was able to chat with some friends and students in Hong Kong! Although 30 minutes wasn’t long enough to manage all those conversations, it was a good ‘lil dose of love. I miss them all so much!

Then, we had to treat ourselves to some good ol’ Chinese food and ice cream before heading home! We got home about 5 pm, and I was just beat! I must be getting old or something!

P.S. The picture is random, but one important thing about going to town is rationing the amount of liquid you consume, because there are never public restrooms!!! Or so we thought...although we had to pay, we were so relieved to see this "urination station"! On another random note, when asking to go to the bathroom, the students say, "Ms. Dana...please...I'm going to urinate." That one took me a little while to get use to! I'm still trying (most likely in vain) to train them to ask, "May I please use the bathroom?" Wish me luck! :)