Hey, y'all, I'm in Ghana and roughing it! That is, I'm done with my volunteering organization, and am going it alone. I'm entering phase two of Operation Ghana. My plane ticket was scheduled for today, but I canceled it and am staying on here until I get sick of it or just get miserably sick. Hopefully, the first will happen before the second.
I'm back in the town of Menkassim, which I briefly mentioned in a previous post. I'm here to take drumming lessons with Francis, but when I arrived here today, he was nowhere to be found. I don't blame him, I told him I would be coming in the morning and didn't actually arrive until 6 p.m. Still, though, I was a little nervous. Of his whole family and everybody else who stays at the compound where I was to stay as well, he is the only one who seems to speak any English. My fears were ill founded, however. One young girl here seems to have taken a bit of a fancy for me, and enjoys mothering and caring for me, the helpless obroni. Last time I was here, she scrupulously washed and cleaned my sores. Today, as soon as I entered the compound, she commanded me to sit in a chair, brought me a foot stool and some porridge, and brushed my hair. Very nice!
The rest of the family was excited to see me, and everybody gathered in the courtyard of the little compound and made a fuss over me. What they were saying, I don't know, but they all remembered me as the obroni with the funny hair and who loves dancing. One of the boys put the stereo on his room, and I entertained the family by dancing with all the small children. Dancing with the kids here is great, they do a move and then you imitate it, or you do a move and then they do it. I'm not kidding, small kids here have made me the accomplished dancer I am today.
When I was sweaty, my little mommy found a bucket for me and some soap and a washcloth. I went to the compound of the queen mother of this part of town, the grandmother of my francis, my drumming instructor, and got my suds and bucket shower on. Now I am clean, happy, and slightly hungry. Francis has just arrived at the internet cafe, and we will probably go for killy willy, small sliced spicy fried plantain. My mom here has put up a mosquito net on the clothes lines, and I'll be sleeping outside with the rest of the family, who forego the net. Ok, nighty night!