Today was your average Thursday: I ate my usual Luna bar for
breakfast, walked up the dusty red road to the research center with Hannah and
Erin, said our usual 20+ good morning/good afternoon/hellos throughout the
course of the day, and left the research center around five to head to Auntie
Esther’s house. Here’s where our typical
Thursday ended, however, and where quite the fun evening started! We made a quick stop at home to pick up the
chocolate fudge cooked the night before (another story for another time-let’s
just say that at one point we were trying to melt the chocolate with an
iron-desperate times, desperate measures) as well as the leftover party
supplies from Erin’s surprise birthday party almost two weeks ago. You see, we had long been planning with
Lovelyn and Ema that tonight we would celebrate both Lovelyn and Erin’s
birthdays-Erin’s because it occurred while we were here, and Lovelyn’s because
her birthday was recent but she didn’t have a very fun one because the
president of Ghana had recently passed away.
It also worked out perfectly that tonight was a good-bye party of sorts,
because Lovelyn leaves to go to school this coming Monday. As we approached their house, Ema ran to meet
us by the road, in what is quickly becoming his daily routine. He had eagerly listened yesterday when I told
him about the party hats, masks, noise-makers, and birthday banner we were
bringing. As soon as we walked on to the
patio, out came all of the exciting supplies we brought, and on they went to
Ema, Elvis, and Ema’s friends Bernhard, Sandy, and Quako. What ensued was a raucous band of boys
playing their noisemakers with deafening skill, and comparing differently
colored masks as they excitedly saw themselves in the pictures we were taking. While this all was going on, Lovelyn was
absent, which is terribly unusual, as she holds a lot of responsibility in the
household for a sixteen-year-old, and is often helping with dinner and other
chores while the younger boys can play.
(Our requests to help out around the house are often met with a chuckle
and shake of the head from Charity, as though such a ridiculous request was out
of the question, although we have gotten her to let us do dishes some nights!) Soon, however, Ema ran back from the house
reporting that we could not go back yet, so we knew something was up. After we had occupied ourselves playing games
and taking pictures with the boys, we finally we permitted to head back in for
dinner, and saw that our Happy Birthday sign had been nicely taped up to the
outside wall where we usually eat, and our jollof rice was sitting out ready
for us to dig in. Tonight, it was really
spicy, but so so tasty, as always! We
soon realized that the surprises were going to keep on coming. Auntie Esther slipped away at one point and
came back laden with cold drinks, such as sprite, Fanta, and malt, which
basically tastes like non-alcoholic beer.
Everyone had one as Valentina played some upbeat music on her phone, and
soon all of the kids (and the three of us) were up and dancing! All of the kids have their own little dance
move that they do, even Elvis! Lovelyn
attempted to teach us some easy ones, and we were having quite the African
dance party when the lights went out, because the power had been shut off. That must have put an end to our fun,
right? Wrong! As though it were planned, Lovelyn suddenly
ran to light some sparklers that they had taped to the wall earlier, and passed
more out to the kids and to us. And as
the last sparkler fizzled out, back on came the lights! We capped off the night with everyone digging
into the chocolate fudge we had brought over, and took many more pictures on
all of our cameras. We got our usual big
hug, multiple kisses, and “I’ll miss you” from Elvis, had hugs from Ema and all
of his friends with promises to be back on Monday, and said our goodbyes to our
“little sister” Lovelyn as she promised to come back for certain weekends and
Halloween and before we leave in December.
As we walked back to the main road and waved goodbye to six kids
standing under the dark sky littered with stars, I couldn’t have felt
happier. Right before we left, I had a
conversation with Valentina, in which I told her how I tell my family at home
that I have a family here. She, who is
often very reserved and quiet, beamed with happiness when I expressed my
gratitude for how they take care of us and make us feel like we are a part of
the family. That they went through a
little extra trouble to get special drinks and sparklers and make it a special
night for everyone means the world to me.
I feel like it probably sounds too
good to be true when I express how happy I am here and how everyone is so nice,
but it really is the case. Even before
we left work today, we stopped in to say goodbye to Sheila and Irene, and Oti
as well as Dr. Gyapong were also in the same room. Oti is like our older brother here, in that
he always makes sure we get to our travel destinations safely or asks about our
daily plans so he can know we are ok.
And Sheila, Irene, and Dr. Gyapong (or MG, as her research center
abbreviation is) are like our three “moms” at work. We loved getting to talk to all of them for a
little bit about our time here so far, and MG even joked that she was going to
tell Dr. Liese (the head of the international health department at Georgetown)
that we weren’t coming back because we liked it here so much! Sheila also found it very funny when I told
her that my favorite food here was rock buns-we often buy them for lunch-they
are delicious! Some other newly-tried
foods that I haven’t mentioned on here include boiled plantains, Fan Ice, and
kenke. So far, everything is tasting
good! The main challenge is that things
are starting to get spicier and spicier when we eat dinner! On an unrelated note I realized I need to
start taking pictures of the food I have here, since I want to be able to have
a photo to go with my most likely inadequate descriptions. So stayed tuned for pictures of yams, egg
stew, plantains, kele wele, banku, okra, kenke, rock buns, and jollof
rice. Until then, moon daiye! (Good night!)
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