India (Day 1 part 3)

  I just can't bring myself to cut down on photos, can I?  haha

Lunch was delicious!  There was a fried crispy thing, a rice pancake thing, shrimp, and seasoned cauliflower.  Unfortunately my already angry stomach became furious from the spice.  I felt like I was going to be torn open from my inside out.  Not good.  Luckily, I am a pro at functioning despite gut pain and other than a few inquiries about my health, I still got through the rest of the day and had lots of fun.  (It finally got better after my friend gave me a pepto later that night.)

 

After the delicious but dangerous lunch, we had some time to devote to our parasympathetic nervous systems (rest and digest) while we watched a performance of traditional bachlorette party dances.  Of course, it's not called a bachlorette party here, but it's a similar idea.  The bride's friends come together for fun and to tell her all how wonderful the groom to be is.   The dancers were ornately costumed and very precise in their movement.  The background music was complemented by the rhythmic smack of their sticks.  

After the performance, everyone else walked over to an open area and played tug-o-war with the rope we made.  I was not quite feeling up to it so I stayed behind and figured I would stare off into space.  I was rescued from this fate by the bubbly little girl who had initially greeted us when we got to the village.  I learned her name was Anna and she was very excited to be here because it was a school holiday.  We chatted about Toy Story, school, and how we liked to fold things.  She showed me how she could fold a palm leave into a snake and we took turns folding some of the paper I had into different animals.  IT was really fun!  She is one of those kids who you can just tell is bright by talking to her for a few minutes.  I was so engrossed in our conversation and folding session that my group had headed off to the bus the next time I looked up.  OOPS.  (again.)  

  Anna laughed at how worried I was and took me to meet with my group.  Along the way, she pointed out the different plants and told me what they were used for.  The small leave in my hand had a very strong smell and is used kind of like vapor rub when you have a runny nose.  With my expert tour guide, I was reunited with my group just in time.  I said goodbye to Anna and thanked her for the origami and folded palm leave gifts and hopped on the last open rickshaw.  

Now THAT was a fun ride!  The inside of the rickshaw was beautifully decorated with beads and intricately woven fabric.  The driver blasted some uppidy Indian music as we sped through the narrow village streets.  Quite an adrenaline rush!

I could have spent a few hours on that wild ride, but after about ten minutes, we were already back at our bus.  

The bus took us a short way to another side of the lake where we met with a different fishing community.  One of the families invited us into their home!  They ran a small tea shop from the back of their house, and offered us some snacks as we sat and chatted.  SO good, and thankfully not spicy!  I gobbled up more than I would like to admit.  

No big deal, but they also had a pet hawk.  

We wandered around the residential section for a while which was really cool.  I loved how there were bright colors everywhere!  I definitely am going to need a bright blue house in my future.  There was one water station where people could come get water every morning and evening.

We stopped briefly at a church which was a nice POTSie break for me.  We took our shoes off, as is customary, and I really liked walking in the church in just my socks.  I somehow felt much more connected than I usually would in a church.  

What would a trip to India be, without the terror of coming face to face with a hissing cobra?

Ok. I wasn't exactly face to face.  But I was close and I swear that thing made eye contact with me and hissed.  (Maybe it wanted to see if I spoke parseltongue.)  The snake charmer must have had nerves of steel to be within striking distance.  He barely flinched when the snakes would hiss and strike at him.  

I remembered the view of the Chinese fishing nets from Slumdog Millionaire and was really excited to get to see one up close.  They are quite rickety, but I managed to not fall into the water.  We even got to help haul the net up!  Huge rocks act as a counterweight so even I could manage to pull in the net.  

Check out our catch!

India (Day 1, Part 2)

  Oh my too many pictures!  I'm going to have to split this up.

Back to coconut processing...

After the husks were dried out, it was time to spin them into rope.  It was a really cool process.  One woman would spin a wheel which would twist the fibers into a rope.  Other women would feed more fiber into the already twisted portion to make the rope grow in length.  They made it look easy, but let me tell you, it was NOT!  I got to try it and was quite fumbly.  I had to add just the right amount of husk fiber at just the right speed or I would get a rope with lumps, or the connection would break and I'd have to go back and start again.  (Both of those things happened.  Frequently.  haha)  

While other people were talking to the women, I needed a POTSie break so a sat down out of the way for a while.  That was when I had the pleasure of meeting this adorable little guy.   He was shy at first, but then was very excited to show me his dancing and how he could throw a ball to his grandma.  I spent a few fun minutes talking to his grandma and watching him play.  

After the coconuts were all processed, it was on to the fishing pools.  The first one we went to had mud crabs in it.  

I was expecting the little crabs I see on the beach rocks at home.  I was kind of right, but thinking about 10X too small!  After much tugging on the crab traps, one of the fisherman caught one and showed it too us.  Of course, I begged to hold it, and they let me as long as I promised not to mess with the claws.  I guess these things can give quite a nasty pinch.  In case you were curious, this was a boy crab as demonstrated by the V on it's shell.  The females have a round shape on their underbelly.  

We also saw one of the men catch some fish in another pond close by.  Unfortunately, I was too far away/POTSie to get a good picture, but I did document part of the catch.  This is what is referred to as a "flatfish."  It is supposed to be very good, but difficult to eat because it is very bony.  

Also, a potter made TWO beautiful pots in the few minutes were gathered around his workspace.

The next stop was the clam cooking area.  The lake clams were boiled until they were opened, and then the mean was separated from the shell by shaking them in a basket with meat-sized holes in the bottom.  The shells were thrown into the large pile you see in the background and would later be used in cement and whitewash for the village's buildings.  Some students tried the clams, but I was already feeling a little too queasy for that.  

The final stop before lunch was to see the palm fronds being processed.  The women would take the leaves and either weave them into large sheets (I'm not sure what they were then used for.  I'm guessing roofing or baskets?) or striped down to the tough fiber and made into brooms.

This lady was such a sweetheart!  She kind of reminded me of my Auntie Di.  During a break from weaving, she came over to me, squeezed my chin affectionately, and said, "You look India!"  (A common consensus, it seems.  I've had lots of people inquire about where I'm from because I "look Indian, but dress American".)  We had a good conversation involving mostly hand gestures, smiles, and a few words.  

South Africa, back in Cape Town

    As far as epicness goes, today was almost as epic as it gets!  I fulfilled my #1 lifetime goal of petting a cheetah!   (Yep, that's right!  Petting a cheetah came before world peace and winning a nobel prize in my priorities.)  But that came this afternoon.  This morning I was up at 7:30 after 11 hours of sleep.  So yes, I went to bed really early last night and it was worth it!  I wasted some time mucking about on the ship and then headed to the Waterfront (shopping area) once Alyssa (roomie) woke up.  I was really proud of myself that I decided not to bring a wheelchair.  Yesterday was such a rotten day in terms of blood pressure and today, with being able to take midodrine, I was fine.  :0)  I got some things for future orphanage visits and found air popped popcorn at the grocery store!  I'm really addicted to popcorn and I haven't had it in weeks.   I also found some Kinder eggs at the grocery store and bought a bunch for some of the professor's kids who have never tried them.  (I was horrified when I found out that they didn't even know what they were!  I had no choice but to educate them in the wonders of Kinder.)

  As we were shopping, I started to feel a bit tired but not too bad.  Then I noticed I was slurring my speech and having trouble swallowing.  I stopped, turned to Alyssa and said, "Don't freak out, but I'm about to have one of those weakness spells.  I will probably keep slurring my words, and I will have trouble walking and will shake.  I've been told it looks scary, but don't worry, I'm fine."  She took it like  a boss, shrugged, and said, "Ok, just let me know if you need anything."  Within a few minutes I was pretty weak and doing my uncoordinated "zombie walk."  I had trouble holding my shopping bags, so Alyssa had to help me which was awesome of her.  People were staying, but not picture taking today.  haha  I did start to get worried about how I would get back though as I was rapidly loosing my ability to walk and had no chair.  I managed to make it to a taxi and they took us back to the dock.  It was still a ways to the ship (and up 5 flights of stairs!) so Alyssa ran ahead and got my wheelchair for me.  Then I could get to the base of the stairs, but there was no way I could get up.  I was starving and had a field program to go to in 20 minutes so I was a bit stressed.  After conferring Alyssa and I decided that she would go talk to the staff and ask if she could bring me out some peanut butter and bread since I couldn't get on the ship go eat lunch.  There was much confusion, but in the end she was able to get some for me and bring it down.  That girl seriously deserves a metal!  As I was waiting I got lots of erm...attention from people.  I guess I looked pretty bad because people kept trying to call the doctor.  haha  It all turned out well though.  I ate the peanut butter bread, got on the bus using my arms to get up the stairs and started to feel better during the drive.  Like always, I was exhausted after the weakness spell was done, so I dozed a bit on the way to the cheetah place.  By the time we got there I was feeling SO much better.  Only a little week, and the adrenaline from an imminent cheetah encounter took care of the sleepiness.  I still brought my wheelchair, but hardly used it.

The place we went was really interesting.  It was a winery/cheetah breeding and education program/meerkat rescue/bird rescue/dog training center.  I'll start with the dogs because they are the first ones we saw.  They were part of a really neat program where they were trained and then given to farmers to chase cheetahs away from livestock.  Since cheetahs are non-confrontational, they just run away as soon as the dog barks.  That way the farmer had a safe herd and didn't have to shoot the cheetah.  I thought that was genius!    The dogs were absolutely beautiful too.

Then came the cheetahs!  We poked around the enclosures and then Hemingway, our cheetah ambassador came to meet us.  It was 100% apparent that this was not a domesticated animal.  The handlers had to be very attentive to his signals to make sure he didn't get spooked and attack or run us over.  We had to approach from his back in groups of 1-2 and only pet him on his side.  No sudden movements or loud noises.  This was serious business.  

(I think it's clear who is leading who here.)

As I waited my turn to pet Hemingway, my heart started beating rapidly, and not because of dysautonomia.  When I was nine years old, I couldn't think of anything better than petting a cheetah and not much had changed since then.  And I was about to experience this for myself!  His coat was amazingly soft.  I knew cheetahs coats were soft from my years or obsessively researching them in grade school, but it was even softer than I imagined.  He was panting due to the heat, but otherwise very relaxed.  As I was petting him, he turned his head and looked right at me.  It was a moment.  :0)  I was one of the lucky ones to get to pet him twice before he decided he had enough of these tedious humans and dragged his keeper back to his enclosure.    Truly the best of experiences.  There really aren't even words to describe how amazing this was for me.

I thought anything else would be ending on a low note, but the other things we moved on to after saying goodbye to Hemingway were actually really fun as well.  We toured the birds of prey enclosures and ended up in a small seating area for a bird presentation.  This was nothing like I had seen in zoos back home.  The birds were really friendly and came to visit each of us so we could pet them and take a closer look.  I guess if birds are hand raised, they see themselves as more human than bird.  After the presentation, we had some time to tour the bird facilities and interact with some of their ambassador birds.  There were some birds (including a baby!) chilling on posts where we could pet them.  They really enjoyed it and made cute cooing noises and would turn their head to be scratched in the right place, just like a dog.  Someone had an ipod so we held up one of the headphones, put on Airplanes and he started rocking out!  Some owls are really sensitive to beats and they enjoy dancing.  I wish I could upload the video to show you!  I also stopped by an owl enclosure to have some of the owls land on me.  

Birds open their mouths to cool off.

(This unhappy camper was brought in today after being hit by a car.  Luckily, he only had a minor concussion and after a few hours of observation, he was slated to be released.)

Humans are genetically engineered to find this guy irresistible adorable.  

"I am not amused."

Everyone else then went wine tasting but as I can't drink and am from California where I can go wine tasting all the time, I opted to stay with the animals.  I'm sure no one is surprised there.  I hung out with the owls more and then went back to the cheetahs of course.  I watched the 9 month old sister cheetahs play for a while which was really cool.  In some ways they act just like house cats, but it is still very obvious that there are differences too.

   I reluctantly left them playing to head back to the bus.  I was supposed to meet up with the group there at 4:30 and it was 4:20.  But on the way, I was distracted by a craft center and just had to look.  And then there was a guy all set up to make pottery and I had to watch. And then he said I could make a pot so I just had to put on the apron and make one.  I was really nervous about being late, but I thought that this was something I always wanted to do, and it was worth the dock time if I was late.  I'm so glad I decided to break the rules a little for this one!  Jimmy, the pottery guy (with no relation to my sphincter of odi), showed me how to make the pot and helped guide my hands when it started to get a bit lop-sided.  He was very patient with me as a new student.  The feel of the wet clay spinning beneath my hands was new and interesting.   I could feel every part of how I was shaping the pot.  I definitely need to take this up once I get home!  Once I was done with the basic shape, Jimmy helped me make a lip to the pot and decorate it.  For my first pot, I was extremely happy with how it turned out!  I'm a little sad that it probably won't make it all the way home as I won't be able to fire it but this was more about the experience for me.  I washed the gobs of clay off of my hands (and arms) and took a closer look at my masterpiece.  Usually, the pot has to set for at least thirty minutes before it can be removed from the spinning wheel, but since I was in a hurry, Jimmy let me take the mini spinning plate with me so I didn't have to ruin the pot.  I can't even begin to describe how cool this guy was.  After I made my pot, he started helping a timid little boy and was so wonderful with him as he taught the kid how to make his pot.  He was one of many people who I knew for only a few minutes, but will remember for a long time to come.  

  I hurried back to he bus with my heart pounding because I was 12 minutes late.  I felt horrible for making everyone wait, but I had no regrets.  :0)  When I got to the bus it turned out that everyone was even later than I was, so I was the first one back!  What a relief!  

   Normally this busy and weak-spelly day would have been too much for me.  However today, I got back from the field program and went right back out with my friends for more fun!  I used the chair, but still felt very accomplished.  Hannah showed me this awesome restaurant that had burgers to die for.  The one I ordered had fried egg, bacon, and cheese on it.  SOOOO yummy!  I even almost ate the whole thing despite my shrunken stomach!  Then there was some shopping and story swapping with some other SASers we met up with as we waited for the shuttle back to the boat.  IT was quite an awesome day and now I can't wait to sleep and be ready for my last day in Cape Town tomorrow!

Om nom nom nom!

And also, Hannah and I met at the zoo in the Bahamas and we were looking back at pictures at dinner and we are wearing the exact same outfits as then!  Weird!  

Ghana (Day 3)

   Another bright and early morning!  If I keep this up, I'm not going to be allowed to sleep in until 10 and 11 anymore when I get home. haha  I have to admit I was nervous going into this field program.  It was a cultural immersion overnight where I would be going to a village and spending the night with a host family.  I had all the usual worries in this situation, plus how my host family would react to things like my neck brace and not having as much energy.  At the same time, I was very excited.  It's the mixture of feelings that is common when you know an experience is going to be challenging but rewarding.

  The trip started off better than the last one as I am now much more comfortable with all the new things here and the bus was air conditioned!   I got my usual seat near the front of the bus and spoiled myself by listening to music on my ipod on the way there.  (I usually don't like to do this because though relaxing, it is isolating me from other conversations.)  The bus ride was only about an hour and a half or so and on the way we were entertained by baboons frequently crossing the road.  A bit different than the deer I am used to having to look for!

   I spent the rest of the bus ride thinking about what I expected this experience to be like.  I knew there would be some sort of welcome ceremony and then I would spend time with my host family.  I was kind of pessimistic in that I figured it would be really hokey and touristy.  I bet that I was going to spend the day in a big house and spend the day doing the same things I would do at home.  (That's what my last homestay was like in New Zealand.  Super fun, but not really new.)  Turns out this was definitely not the case.

   

As we pulled up to the village, we were greeted by kids jumping up and down, dancing, and darting between the clay-built houses.  We waved frantically at them from the bus window and they waved frantically back.  It was a very exciting way to start things off!  As we debarked the bus, kids took us by the hand to lead us to where the welcoming ceremony would be.  Since I was one of the first people off the bus, I had primo seating in the front row.  We started the ceremony by shaking all of the elder's hands as we filed in.  Many of them were dressed beautifully in bright blue or yellow cloth and huge pieces of (possibly real) gold jewelry. Then we were called up individually to receive welcoming gifts of a handmade clay pot and painted beads.  We also were given our African name as a symbol of us becoming village members.  I know this sounds really corny, but it was actually a really nice and welcoming gesture.  My African name is Yawa Desiadenyo.  The first name I is based on the fact that I was born on a Thursday and the middle name means goodness. 

 Since the naming ceremony was so long, there would be breaks where the kids would drum and show us their dances.  Even the littlest kids had such a good grasp of the steps and movements.  I think back to how spastic I was when I took ballet at four years old and these kids are nothing like that.  The only hint that this wasn't a completely meaningful experience to the people there was that the elders were definitely bored out of their minds.  They were texting and napping for the most part.  

   After the naming ceremony, we met our homestay family head of household just to see their face and give a quick hug until we would meet back up with them after lunch.  We took a picture of our group with the elders also.  As we were getting into position for the photo, I felt a little hand slip into mine.  I looked down and there was probably the world's cutest little boy who smiled shyly and took my heart forever.  Kids weren't supposed to be in the picture, but I nudged a few people over so he could peek out.  From then until I got on the bus for lunch, he stayed right by me.  He reminded me of myself when I was little because he was very shy but enjoyed watching everything that was going on from a distance.  I hated to have to get on the bus, but figured I would see him when I got back.  (Actually, he wasn't there so I never got to meet back up with him.)  :0(   

   I was nice to get away for lunch to have some time to process everything, but it felt strange at the same time.  Like we had to leave to get better food than what was at the village.  (Every meal was provided by the tour company so we never actually ate in the village.  It was pretty disconcerting.)  I got a little bored sitting at lunch so I walked around the resort where we were eating to scout out some wildlife.  (BTW it was called a resort, but it was more like a cheap hotel with extensive grounds.)  I saw lots of really cool lizards including one that was probably two feet long!  There were also lots of what I think were ibises which was fun to see because I usually only see one at a time.  

   Back at the village, we were once again greeted by the extremely enthusiastic kiddies.  Before I was even two steps off of the bus I had an escort of two adorable little girls in matching yellow dresses with black and white checkered aprons.  They took me to where everyone was gathering to mingle for a bit.  I took out my camera to take some pictures and that was quite quickly commandeered by one of the girls.  I was  a little nervous at first, but she seemed to have a good grip on it, so I left it with her and looked on as she took some very hilarious pictures of her friends and some of the SASers.  Then she turned her camera on me with more hilarious results.  I finally got my camera back after if had changed hands several times and couldn't wait to see all of the crazy pictures I would have. 

(Some good little photographers, eh!?!)

 A group of kids and one other guy from SAS had started a game of soccer and I decided to give it a try since I was feeling pretty good that day.  Guess what.  I still go it!  I was surprised that things came back to me so quickly!  I kept up pretty well for several minutes and was able to show off some moves I thought I would have forgotten how to do.  It felt so good to play again even if it was only for a few minutes and cost me double that time to catch my breath afterward!  

    Then, my two adorable escorts were back and let me to see how the women of the village made pottery.  The lady making the pots was the one of the girl's grandmother so she was very proud to show me the pottery making.  The pots are really cool and expertly made.  I remember struggling for weeks to make a couple of tea cups out of clay, and these women were making beautiful pots like it was second nature.  In the few minutes we watched, the lump of clay took a hollow round shape and a leaf was used to make a perfectly curved out lip to the pot.  We then moved on to see how the pottery was fired.  Basically a bunch of dried pots were carefully stacked in a pile layered with palm leaves and other kindling.  The whole thing went up in  a huge blaze when lit and cooked the pottery by the end of that day.  Special clay was made into a pain and added to the outside of the pots go give them a pleasant red coloring when fired.  

   Finally it was time to go to my homestay family's house.  I went on the bus and grabbed my neck brace and larger backpack to bring with me.  The kids were extremely fascinated by my neck brace which I thought was fun.  I showed them how I put it around my neck and then helped one of the girls who had given me the tour put it on.  The kids decided it made a better had than neck brace so they proudly wore it as I ventured to my home for the day.  

  Another thing the kids found extremely entertaining were my compression stockings.  I think the kids thought it was my skin so when I showed them that I could pinch it and lift it up, their eyes got huge.  For the rest of the trip, kids kept coming up to me to ask to see my silly skin.  I loved it!

   Walking thought he village on the way to my homestay mom's house, I noticed some difference in the buildings.  Some of the houses were larger with courtyards and made out of wood or concrete blocks, while others were as small as one tiny room and made out of clay and a tarped roof.  I wondered what determined who lived where and unfortunately never got to find out.  The house I would be staying at seemed somewhere int he middle of the houses I saw.  It was partly concrete, partly clay with a small courtyard area out front.  There was another, larger building adjacent to the one room structure which I think was the main part of the house.  I walked inside and got quite a treat to see the walls were painted a beautiful bright blue.  (Mom and dad, I know what I'm painting my room when I get home!)  My homestay mom asked what I thought and I said I thought the house was beautiful.  It really was in it's own way, but at the same time I couldn't help comparing it to my home and thinking how amazingly lucky I am.  It's one of those many things I am encountering that is hard to recon with.  One one hand I was sad that they didn't have the things I had at home.  At the same time, who's to say what I have is better?  I wonder if they came to see my house if they would pity me because it isn't like their house.  Or would they wish to have a house like it?   I don't know, and I definitely didn't want to bring it up.  As a bored middle class college student, I used to want to "save the world," but I'm learning that too often the "saving" is doing things that aren't needed where genuine needs are not met because their solutions aren't as attractive to us naive kids in the states.  (We talk a lot about this in my service learning class and I will elaborate in a future post.)

   Anyway, another SASer who was staying with my homestay mom's brother and I gave some gifts as thanks.  I gave a picture I had painted and a deck of cards with pictures of San Jose on them.  That segwayed nicely into me teaching card games.  Let me tell you that this is a challenge with a significant language barrier!  I tried to teach my favorite game, kings in the corner, but that didn't go so well.  It thought back to when I was little and learning card and tried my old favorite game that my grandma taught me, concentration.  This went over much better and I feel like the family learned it well enough that they will play it in the future.  I certainly lost by an embarrassing amount!  I was never any good at that game!  haha

   I was a little worried if things would get awkward at this point, but the kids took over.  My homestay sister Sara (age 14), one of her friends (also 14), and the youngest homestay sister Kafi (8) took me and the other SASer on a fantastic tour of the town.  We first went to the river to get water that would be used for cooking, cleaning, and bathing that day.  I offered to help, so I got to carry a little bucket which I learned to do on my head.  It was a lot harder than I expected!  I got dizzy from the pressure on my neck pretty quickly, so I was doing all the lifting with my arms griping the rim over my head.  That way I could look like I was just steadying it with my hands when really I was not using my head at all.  I was pretty proud that I made it about half way back to the house (including a very steep uphill climb) before my arms and endurance gave out.  The other SASer got his chance to carry it then and he agreed that it was very difficult.  I marveled at how strong the kids were who were carrying buckets four times the size of mine with no visible effort.  

After we delivered the water, they took me back out to meet people.  I met lots of their friends and relatives including some of the siblings from the family who had moved out and gotten married.  There were seven kids in the family total and I think about 4 or 5 were still living at home.  I had the honor of meeting the chief and bowed before I shook his hand as was customary.  I think that was the first time I bowed to someone not as a joke in my life.  In general I find that kind of thing demeaning, but I kind of just accepted it in this case as being part of the honor of getting to meet the chief.  I also saw some of the various chores that people in the village were doing like weaving and crushing these yummy nut thingies.  

   We ended up back at the house so Sara could teach me how to cook botu (correct spelling pending).  She was slightly appalled when I said I didn't know how to cook it and made sure that was remedied.  The dish is made from powder from a root.  The powder can be used similarly to flour as a thickener or bread.  In this case, were were cooking it to make dough that would be dipped in a stew for dinner.  Sara expertly mixed the right proportions of powered root to water in a large cooking pot and then set it over the fire to start cooking.  I got a chance to stir it myself, but didn't last long due to smoke making my eyes tear, and the stirring being too difficult. 

 Again I marveled at how tough these kids were!  As the dough thickened, it got more difficult to stir so Kafi propped a stick against the pot and sat on it to keep it from moving.  My homestay mom, whose name is Gladys by the way, took over for the last part while the kids took a bath at the other side of the courtyard.  She offered to get me water for a bath, but the idea of stripping naked for the whole village to see terrified me far too much to accept her offer.  She gave me the look I got several times during my stay from various adults and kids that plainly showed that she thought I had strange ways.  Fresh from her bath, Kafi walked up and offered me some extremely dodgy looking dried fish.  To illustrate how dodgy I will say that there was dust and spider webs on the fish and also that it looked like that:

But thanks to many episodes of bizarre foods and a blatant disregard for anything I learned in microbiology class, I tried some.  Twice.  It was actually quite good and tasted like fish jerky.  I got to taste the meal when it was done as well.  I chickened out on trying the broth that was really spicy but I did have some of the dough that I had (kind of) helped cook.  Just like the bread made from the root powder, it had a really good flavor, kind of like sourdough toast.  

While the family was still eating, it was time for us to go to the central area where our group was having food catered.  This made me pretty uncomfortable, but I took extra helpings so I could share with Gladys and Kafi who accompanied me to dinner.  The food was fantastic!  I had a tourist friendly version of botu with broth that was not spicy and contained no fish heads.  (I would have been fine with the fish heads though.)  There was also two kinds of rice, mystery meat that was so delicious I didn't care what it was, and fish.  Part way through eating I realized I was getting full even quicker and to a greater extent than usual.  I commented on this to an SASer sitting next to me and she said that the dough literally expands in your stomach to help you feel full.  This made sense for how I was rapidly feeling like my stomach was being blown up like a balloon.  It also made me think about why that was such a staple food.  The people in the village seemed to have enough to eat, but perhaps that was not the case if their main food was made specifically to give the illusion of fullness.  It made me even happier that I could share some of my meal with them!  

Then came the dancing!  A bonfire was lit and some of the older boys started drumming to a fast beat.  Now pretty much a pro at Ghanaian dancing, I jumped right in.  (Oh and by pro, I mean complete spaz by the way.)  My homestay sisters showed me some new moves and then we all joined in a sort of conga line circle.  It was so much fun!  I spent the second part watching as opposed to dancing because I was tired after such a long day!  The family and I ended up going back to the house at around 8:00 to go to bed because we were all so tired.

I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but it wasn't what happened.  First of all, no bath, and then second of all, the whole household sat and watched me when I laid down to go to sleep!  I wasn't really sure what to do.  Finally the Gladys conveyed to me that she wondered why I was going to go to sleep with my clothes on.  She even started helping me undress until I said quite firmly that I would be keeping my clothing on.  That got me another one of those looks that showed I had strange ways.  Gladys left to go bathe and go to bed and I expected the kids to follow.  Nope!  It was a slumber party!  Sara, Derek (age 10), Kafi and I all squeezed into the one bed.  Talk about me having to get over my personal bubble in a hurry.  I was thinking that I wouldn't sleep at all but I actually fell asleep almost instantly.  I woke up a bunch of times in the night and at one point the two older kids had ended up on the floor.  I was amazed that they seemed perfectly comfortable there with no pillows or blankets.  Then I realized what I was sleeping on was about the same. The bed consisted of a few layers of fabric thrown over some crates.  I hadn't even realized there were no pillows or sheets or anything because I had been so tired.  Somehow it was still all very comfortable so I went back to sleep.  

Morning came bright and early...er well at least early.  It was 4:30 am so it wasn't bright yet.  That' when Gladys came in to get the older kids up so they could start their chores.  It was also when the many animals started waking up so there were lots of goat calls, dogs barking, and chickens clucking.  The animals have free reign here by the way.  Everywhere I've been there are goats, cows, chickens, you name it grazing on the side of the road with no fences.  I wonder how they don't run away, but this is sadly one additional question I never found the answer to.  

You know what, this is getting too long, and I'm once again tired to the point of incoherence, so I'll pick back up tomorrow.  :0)