I just selected four photos to post, and they disappeared. Hopefully they may be with this posting on October 24. Two months down, two months to go on my commitment to the American International School in Accra, Ghana. It has been an awesome adventure, and perhaps a greater personal challenge than initially imagined. Most of my adjustments are not to the heat or language, but realizing I both enjoy my age and grow weary of my body's limitations.
This past week has been the first my back has bothered me, but by the grace of God and help from ibuprofen it has not really incapacitated me. Monday and Tuesday were half days of classes and half days of parent conferences. Normally parents never bother visiting the art teacher, but I was involved with several group conferences with the special needs students (mostly learning disabilities or language adjustment students). Then on Wednesday there was a bad rain storm that shifted our schedules around for two days. On Thursday a very large "container" of school supplies finally arrived from the States and most of the teachers stayed to unpack and inventory the many boxes. By the grace of God I left the school around 15 minutes before news of the containers release was announced; I'd gone to the pharmacy to get some medicines then went home to be totally horizontal for several hours to rest my back. I was asleep before my housemates got home, so didn't even know I seemingly played hookie.
Some of my friends e-mailed they had seen "The Amazing Race" and the most recent episodes were in Accra. Never believe what you see in pseudo reality shows. Ghana is a very different place than anything in America, the culture expects different things, delays happen for no reason, government is full of kick-backs and payoffs, and even basic Christianity has superstitions and customs not recognizable to mainline denominations. But the people are friendly, the country landscapes are unique and beautiful, and the flowers exquisitely colorful. That being said. the TV show did portray the markets like in Madina as the madhouse of street vendors and makeshift booths crowded with customers. The photos I've posted are of a busy marketplace very early in the morning (we got there around 7:45 and left by 9am). There is one picture of me with a friend in the back of a tro-tro going to the bigger market place, Madina. The show had its people use taxi ( theirs were far superior to the one I've been in) instead of the tro-tros (local bus transportation of sorts) and the city roads were far better than the suburban pothole infested pathways found more commonly.
I had hoped to take a lot more pictures. but learned some Ghanaians feel that taking a photo steal some of their soul, so you should ask them first. I did that with the girls in the photo of the fish for sale in one of the booths: well, they said yes, but after I took the photo they expected to be paid. That squelched my photo for a while. Then I saw a woman with her pre-toddler strapped / tied to her back the way so many women here do. I tried to not hold the camera up to focus, but aim it in the general direction and snap it non-chalantly. Most of those shots didn't work either, but at least I got one back view of the baby strapping. You wouldn't believe how the native Ghanaians carry big stuff on their heads without using their hands at all. The market place was full of them, but again I couldn't get any photos. Hopefully the few pictures will speak better than my explanations, and can show some of the cultural differences even in a big city.
Well, that's all for this posting. I hope you find as many blessings in your day as God as provided in mine.
Love to all,
Diann
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