One love, one heart, let's get together and feel alright.

Ah, I haven't posted in quite a few days! Updates updates updates.

Lots of random stuff happened this week. My classes were good for the most part. One frustration is that here they never have our readings ready for us. We typically don't get them until the end of the week, which leaves the weekend to do them all. Our professors apparently didn't know that it was taking so long for us to get the readings, so that should change. Otherwise, classes have been fun. They are all supposed to meet for three hour blocks, but I haven't had one go for more than two and a half hours, except for my Music and Dance class, which always goes long. I'm thinking that our classes here are not going to be quite as intense as in New York, but I'm really okay with that!

My friend that I met last weekend is actually named Juliana, not Jillian. Silly me. She's quite a character. I went back to say hi to her on Tuesday with Holley and Alex. She was around the back of her house with four of her friends. She was making foufou, which meant she was pounding rice or batter or something similar. She kept pounding it with a huge wooden pole, then using her hands to scoop it into a pile. I have a picture I'll put up showing it, because it was really cool to watch. She told us she would teach us how to make it, so we have to go back sometime soon to learn. She kept laughing and saying, "This is African food!"

One of her friends, Barbara (I met her the other day too) has a one year old son named Amartin (or that's how it sounds). He was there with her again on Tuesday, so I asked if I could hold him. I held him for a moment or two, and he just was staring at my shoulder and touching it. I think he was trying to figure out why my skin was white. He then finally looked up at my face, got a little freaked out (again, I'm assuming about how white it is) and wanted to go back to his mom. I have a picture of him too--he is a little chubby boy hehe.

On Wednesday after Twi, Whitney, Alex and I went back to find her. Her daughter, Precious, found us walking into the yard and took us to Juliana's stand. She has a second-hand clothing shop right by the fruit stands that we go to. Her sister was visiting from Aburi Gardens with her one year old son, who was adorable! Parents here are much less over-protective of their children than we are back at home. The little boy was crawling around on the dirt and playing with rocks. I would have freaked out and made him play on something soft, but like I said, they give their children, even small ones, a lot more freedom. There were tons of other kids running around, including Prince and Princess, the 5 year old twins of Helena, Juliana's other sister. I'm not really sure how they are all related and if when they say sister they mean biological sibling like we do. I think they may call all relatives of similar age brother and sister, but I'm not sure yet.

We talked to Juliana and her friends for a long time. They were telling us how they want to marry white men because white men treat their wives with respect. They seemed to think that the laws we have in the US prevent any mistreatment of women. We had a discussion about it and how that is not always true. Apparently they don't have similar women's rights laws here, or as strong laws about anti-abuse...

So it was an interesting discussion. Juliana called me again last night just to say hi and that she missed us. All of the women we talked to are so cute--they get almost giddy when talking to us. They seem to really like having white friends, maybe because there just aren't very many of us? They're so sweet to us though--they gave us cokes as gifts.

We went to Reggae on the beach again on Wednesday. It is such a spot for foreign students, but so much fun! People kept asking me how I knew the words to some of the songs, even though they were mainly Bob Marley's most famous songs. There was this group of acrobatic guys who started doing a performance in the middle of the night. They're really crazy to watch (some pics below). Maybe I'll learn to do those poses while I'm here!

Food has continued to be pretty great, except for something we ate on Wednesday made all of our stomachs hurt. I have no idea what it was, but Holley, Whit and I were all not feeling good yesterday. So yesterday was a movie day after class. We watched the Breakfast Club, Save the Last Dance, and Superbad. Some people went out last night, but I watched the West Wing and went to bed early and today I've started to feel a bit better! I'm hoping that this is the hump to get over and after this I'll be able to eat everything and be fine.

In a few hours, I'm going to see the site at which I'm doing my internship! It's a fairly new organization called "City of Refuge" that works to help children who are the victims of child trafficking near Lake Volta. I can post more later about what it's like there and what I will be doing! I'm so excited.

Julianna making Foufou

Acrobats on the beach

Holley and me playing in the water at Reggae, and below, the girls before going out. Notice more Marjorie clothes!

Precious and Amartin. He's the one who was freaked out by my being white.