So we went shopping. And we ran into a bunch of Rasta shops with really cool stuff. I bought presents for everyone, or at least as many as I could. I still have to find a few things. But I loved just looking around and talking to the people who owned the shops. I wish I had insane amounts of money because some of the art work here is incredible. Everything is carved by hand and painted and made Batik style. All hand made! Its so cool and such beautiful art with all of these deep meanings. This one man had abstract feminist paintings of African women in chains and with snakes coming down around their legs while they were carrying bowls on their heads. The elephants here are carved out of ebony. I just can’t handle it! I want one so badly but even the small ones are too expensive for the size that they are. I just don’t have the money because of course I want a big one.
We also went shopping for fabric which was insanely difficult because all of it is so vibrant and beautiful! This day was such a good day though. We ate at a restaurant named Baobab which is a vegan restaurant and guest house. A lot of tourists stay there. I got pancakes with chocolate spread and bananas. It was the most incredible thing I’ve ever tasted. I felt like I was in France. They were like crepes. So moist in the best way and rolled up chocolate all over and bananas in the middle. I’m going to make them when I get home, for real. It was so amazing. I wish I could bring them home and make you all taste them right now. And it was also a really nice day because me and Kate and Drew and some other friends were all together just socializing and having such a fun, silly day. I felt like I was with my friends. I didn’t feel weird at all, just so happy and comfortable in every way possible.
Then Kate and I came home and talked for hours about our lives and I just keep realizing here how much I love everyone back home. I was ranting and raving about how incredible my parents are and how much I love them and how they’re the coolest nicest people that you would always want to hang out with. And the same about my siblings and my friends and my boyfriend. Just kept telling her all of the best things. I am just oozing with love over here. I can’t wait to see you all and just enjoy the love. We all need to just sit down and be together. I don’t want to rush or go anywhere or do anything. I just want to sit together and look around at the beautiful world that we live in and be so happy, all together. I just stopped typing for about 5 minutes and looked distantly through my computer screen thinking about all of you and how much I love having you in my life and thinking about the time we are going to spend together.
Cultural fact of the day: women wear long strands of thin beads around their waste in order to make their shape. They believe that doing this gives them hips. They even put beads like this around babies wrists and neck and stomachs to form the shape of their body in those places.
But for us, it is also really cool to wrap them up a bunch of times around your ankle and wear them like that. So I got some of those for my friends at school to wear. And I am going to buy a bunch of them to keep wearing, always keeping Ghana close to me, to remind me of my time here, what I have learned and the wonderful culture and people who live here.
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