In an occurance even more suprising than the appearance of Hershey’s syrup in Tamale, the other day, I bought two grapefruits. Let’s be clear here: never before has anyone heard of there being grapefruit in Ghana (except maybe in grocery stores in Accra). But. Andy and I were buying vegetables from one of the vegetable ladies on the main road in Tamale, and the woman who I usually buy fruit from came up to me and said “Oh, my friend, my friend. I have something for you. Grapefruit.” I was incredulous, but, lo, behold, the were actually grapefruits. Small and green, yes, but legit. I got two for one cedi. And they were delicious. Ghana = always suprising.
You may be wondering why I haven’t really written anything very ‘official’ in a while. I’ll tell you – it’s because school is still out and nothing really ‘official’ has happened. Last week, I went to a girls’ leadership camp that four of the Northern Region Volunteers organized. It took place at a senior high school in Tolon (village about 45 minutes outside of Tamale) and about 45 junior high girls attended. The theme was leadership, but they had sessions on a variety of topics: HIV/AIDS (ubiquitous), personal hygeine, nutrition, assertiveness, goal-setting, and more. The girls were organized into family groups, with each one being led my a senior high girl. Four women from Ghana Education Service were the main leaders, with the Volunteers working more on logistics, dealing with money and food and helping to lead sessions. It really worked out, and I think it was really beneficial for the girls. Camp was new and really different experience for them, they got to meet other girls their age and they got to eat really good food for a week. And use toilet paper! Schwow. So that was a fun week. Now I’m currently working on writing up a “living and working at a deaf school in Ghana” manual for the next group of deaf ed Volunteers and am cooking a lot. Issah (of the sweet letter writing skillz) came and visited Andy and me last Sunday. It was cute. We made collages and tacos. Also in there, a bunch of Volunteers went to the wedding of a Volunteer and a Ghanaian man in Kumbungu (also outside of Tamale). It was a Christian wedding and was really nice. It’s so refreshing how totally uninhibited people are here. People will dance and sing and just look silly without any worries. They want to dance, and so they do. This was mostly all during the offering part of the service/wedding. There is none of this “pass the offering plate” boringness in Ghanaian churches. No, you dance in a conga line up to the bowl at the front of the church. It’s fun. I like it. During the sermon part, the preacher was talking about how it’s good to have only one wife (as opposed to the typical practice of taking multiple wives, especially prevalent in the Muslim north) and was using himself as an example. He questioned why he would even look at another woman, because anything he would be looking at or for, his wife would have more of. Everyone cheered. It was sweet. Hmm, what else has been going on? I’ve been studying for the GRE more seriously now that I’ve registered – Dec. 6. I still hate maths as much as ever, thank you for asking. Okay, it’s dinner cookin’ time. obrunicookingshow.wordpress.com!
ps – Oh! I just remembered. I was walking in Tamale when I ran into one of my students! Well, he ran into me. He saw me and then chased me down. It was Yin, one of my favs in JSS2. He lives in Tongo, but he comes here on the breaks to make money as a porter, pulling/carrying people stuff. I love random encounters with my students 
Ghana <3s you.
