It’s a comeback!

Dudez, longtime. Sorry I’ve been so anti-communication lately. Now the pain is over though, and I have several stories for you. I’ve actually got a nice little list of vignettes to share. Let’s consult that list.

- A while ago I was in Kumasi, sitting in a taxi, sitting in traffic. As always, there were scores of people threading through the lines of traffic, selling various random things. On this particular occasion, however, I saw someone selling the most random thing I’ve ever seen. Remember those white boards that were so cool when you were little? The kinds that had a little attached pen that drug up little magnetic shards to the surface of the board? And you slid the little slider at the bottom to erase it? Maybe I’ll find a picture… Okay, here is an example. Apparently it is called a Magna Doodle. Now we are on the same page. Okay, so there was a young man walking through the cars and trying to sell these. He stopped walking when he reached my taxi, looked at me, and wrote “I love U” on the board. I laughed and made an “Oh really? Oh my goodness. Giggle giggle giggle” face. (The window was up because it was spitting rain.) He slid the slider, erased the declaration of love, and then wrote “What is your name?” At that moment, traffic started moving again and we were torn apart. Who knows what kind of long term, committed relationship we could have had…

- Actually, I have, in reality, recently started dating another PCV. What? Yes. J

- I was at another PCV’s house one night a while ago, sitting outside and talking on the phone. For about the last thirty minutes of the conversation, a young neighbour girl, about twelve or thirteen, was sitting next to me, watching and listening to me talk. It sounds annoying, but it really wasn’t. She was probably just interested to hear a different sounding voice. When I got off the phone, she said “Katrine, will you sing me a song?” I asked what song she wanted to hear and she said anything. So I sang the Avett Brothers song “Swept Away.” I usually hate to sing in front of people, but it didn’t bother me this time. It was cute.

- Another singing/little girl related experience: About a week ago, I was hanging out at my new favourite hang out spot – a bunch of shaded rocks near the dam near to my school. When I got there, a little girl, probably around six or seven, was playing by herself next to a little channel of water leading. She was minding her own business, at one point she took off her dress and bathed in the water, and eventually made her was closer to me. She started singing Uri Uri, that song that I like so much. I started singing with her. She looked up, looked down and we continued singing. Double cute.

- So Steven’s family next door is now on their third dog since I’ve been here. Remember One Love (Status: eaten) and Johnny Nash (Status: MIA)? Well they are being followed by Willy Wonka. He is a very light blond, big eared Lab-looking puppy. Joyce, the materfamilias, said I could name him and I did. I came out one morning and was like “Joyce! I have a name for the dog. Its…Willy..Wonka.” And Joyce repeated “Wheely…Wahnka…” Then Lucy and Ennis repeated it in the same way. It was one of those moments in which I was internally cracking up but outwardly just smiling.

- Regarding my students’ hair: A few weeks ago, the teachers on duty told all the students that they needed to “barber the head” because their fros were growing beyond the limits deemed acceptable by public schools. (Private schooled kids can do whatever they want with their hair. Government schooled kids have to keep their hair very short.) Some of the kids complied and barbered the head; what’s funny is that a lot of them had it cut in the hint-o-mohawk style of Kevin Prince Boateng, the Black Stars player. Even some girls did. I inwardly laugh at them. Some of them, however, happen to like their fros, and didn’t comply. The teachers on duty were not about to take that insubordination, took scissors and cut chunks out of the kids’ hair. So these kids are walking around school with their big, uneven, chunks-taken-out-of-them fros. I laughed outwardly at them: “you hair why? Not like bald? Funny funny funny!”

- A week ago I had a glorious discovery – where to drink pito in Tongo. I took a different path between the station and the market and happened to pass a dimly lit little hut filled with old people drinking pito. Scorarama. I really like pito and talking to drunk old people who I can’t understand even a little bit. Fataiya and I went back the next day and drank pito with Beatrice (my friend from the market, with baby Godsbig) and my friend Julius, who also lives in Tongo. It was really fun. Julius showed up with this ridiculous bike, the likes of which are completely unknown elsewhere in Ghana. The front of it is like a regular bike, but the back of it had two wheels and a seat that two people can sit in. It was like a carriage in the back. People were really excited about this bike and we spent probably half an hour laughing at the young men who tried to ride it but couldn’t because it was really unwieldy. Mix this with delicious homemade alcohol and you had a fun afternoon. Then Julius took me and Fataiya all the way back to school on his bike. We acted like we were queens, waving to our subjects (goats) and giggling. Yay Ghana.