Obama Country

We are starting to just tell people we are from Obama country because everyone here loves Obama and the minute you say US they get so excited and say ohhh Obama Country!

Monday after breakfast/lunch we got in a taxi to go the Accra mall to buy Sim cards, get money from ATMs and some groceries. We stopped at some local shops on the street and saw people selling tons of shoes, someone grilling cow intestines, and some entertaining signs on vans. We went to Shop Rite and bought bottled water, snacks and beer. Amy, Kristen and I took a cab back to the hotel while Señora and Lisa left to explore taking a tro tro. A tro tro is a very crowded van that for very cheap drops you off places. They finally made it back to the hotel much later than us and we all found out it gets dark here around 6pm. Señora and Lisa apparently found a local market, the cultural center...where they met many people who sang for them, took them places and Rosemary even gave them a necklace. Once all back at the hotel we ate at the Tribes restaurant again. We each fish, banku, akrokro, beans, and Star beer which is very tasty. Everything was great.

We actually slept until around 10am today. I guess we are still tired. We got up and had coffee and free toast for breakfast and then followed Lisa and señora to the market they went to. What an experience this was! The minute you get there people want to pull you in every direction and show you their store and good. They say no pressure but they don't mean it. It was hot and sweaty and Amy was told she looked like a sweating pregnant fish....this is apparently not an insult. People played drums for us, dragged us all around. We each bout our share of things. Kristen Amy and I met David who makes drums, he gave us a free drum lesson and showed us his drums which he can engage especially for us. We will definitely be going back to David since he really helped us out. I made friend with Moses who showed me this instrument that is two shakers tied together by a string....they are so fun to play with and learn...I bought a set and have been entertaining myself. I know my lunch bunch will love to play with them. We saw beautiful paintings, baskets, jewelry, etc. We met señora dn Lisa back at the hotel, rested for a few then got in a cab to go to Osu. In Osu we ate at Country Kitchen, reccommended by Nadae's mom Melissa. It was delicious, here we had Fufu, ground nut soup, chicken, fish (all the fish has skin, and eyes and lots of bones) then we walked Osu, found a dress maker named Esther, visited Global Mamas and set up our dance class for tomorrow. Three hours of drumming and dance at 10am tomorrow. We made friends with an artist named Alex and he had a beer with us at a bar and told us about cooking foods here.Señora is now known as Nana...as in grandma and often refers to herself as Nana in the 3rd person. We just piled 5 of us in a cab and are now back at the Afia. I know we have many more stories to tell that I am forgetting. We will make sure to add them in. We miss everyone at home. I know you all can't wait to hear aBout us dancing and drumming tomorrow!

Bridget :-)