Hello Again

Hello Again to all,

I have had a few days off from being at the cafe, so I will try to pick up where I left off.

The weather here has been hot, as normal, however we have a few nights of rain the past little bit, and it cools things off so nicely at night. These nights I don't have to have my fan on all night long. I actually got cool one night and had to put a sheet over me. Imagine that! haha.

I am going to try tell you a few little things I'm learning about the culture...
-Always use your right hand when handing something to someone, or taking something from someone. This is common courtesy and if you don't it will be rude to some people.

-When you enter a room and there is a few people that you are going to shake hands with, you start with the people on the right, even if it's a little child, and then you work your way to the left, greeting everyone.

-Mothers carry their babies on their backs. However they don't have them there until they are about 3 months old, so they are a little stronger to hold their heads better. They will carry them here until they are even 3-4 years old. The mothers that work have them on their backs all day.

-If you are sitting at the table eating when someone else arrives, you should invite them to your food..(ask them if they would like some) but you say "you are invited." :)

-the ladies hair here is thick and takes a long time to dry, so if it starts to rain, you will see all the women put a plastic bag over their head, or a towel or anything to keep the rain off. They would have to blowdry their hair, so most of them wait and only wash their hair every couple days.

-anything that you buy gets put into a little black bag, even if it's small and you can carry it. There are hundreds of these blowing in the streets because of that. They also call these bags, "rubbers". They will ask you if you want a rubber with that. haha.

-The food here at the Oyortey's, where I'm staying is most commonly cooked with peppers. So, they are so kind and take a little bit out for me so that I can bear it. Every meal consists of a tomato based sauce with some kind of meat in it, and then have that with either kenkey, banku, fufu( corn based dough stuff), or rice or plantain or yams... Good thing I like tomatoes :) We have also had peanut soup, which was yumm! and also pine nut soup, and it also is really good. There is floating "things" in these soups, and sometimes I don't ask. Most often it's fish, but I know we have actually had goat meat at one point too :) Some dishes have a taste of curry in them also, so makes it good.

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Okay, so enough of that for now, here's some more pics of what's happening :)
The street markets. Anything you might want to buy or can think of, someone has it and is selling it for a cheap price. One toothbrush, one tiny pack of gum with 2 pieces in it, little packs of kleenex, soap etc, it's there and for about 25-50 cents.

Shoes anyone??

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This is how the babies are carried. Sorry I don't have a good pic of it yet, but I will. Next installment of pictures, I promise :)

How about an Element to cook on, or an Iron, or a kettle or a jug. Anyone walking by just might need one of these...hahaha

All the sellers at the stoplight. They walk up and down selling all their goods while traffic is stopped.

This is the Sister workers bach. Someone has been here for the past 30 years I think.
It has a nice big yard. When conventions are on, a few little cabins are put up here for extra sleeping arrangements.

Table where we eat, and entrance to the Bach.

The kitchen facilities at the Bach...>Notice they're all outside :)

These are the Sister Workers in GHANA.

Lorpu Koiwood (Liberia), and Florence Webb (Ireland)

Getting the lights set up for the meeting, it gets dark halfway through so we need the light hooked up to the battery and ready to go :)

Our Gospel meeting mostly consisted of little kids. It was held in the school, so lots of them were still around and come listen.

The entrance to the yard where Gospel Meeting was

It gets right serious when it rains here. Nothin like it back home!!

Pouring rain

When it's raining outside, we move the meal inside. Usually we do everything outside.

This is what we had: Peanut soup and rice, with fish, also yummy.

In a taxi, On the way to the beach YAY :) :)

Fun in the Sun.....The Ocean !!!

Our Meeting group.
The Oyortey household and 3 extras

Vincent and Betty Oyortey :)

(My African Mom n Dad)

The Family...From Left, Matey (Philip's Brother), Auntie Teiko (Vincent's sister), Vincent (Philip's dad), Philip, Ernest (Vincent's cousin's son, living here to go to school in the city)

In front: Mariama (taken in to care for), Esther (lived with the family to take care of Grandma Oyortey, and stayed after she passed on. She's been with them for 6 years now). Myself, Betty (Philip's Mom) and Ami (Philip's sister)

Esther, Myself and Ami... Like sisters :)
(ps, I'm not this tall, I was wearing heels, so they look shorter than they are haha).


Little Ms. Mariama :) She's such a cutie

So they wanted a picture of us together, this was the first one they got :)

Now we got it together :)

All dressed up :)

Mr. Philip just hangin out !

This time it was tomato sauce and chicken, with a rice and bean mixture. Was Yum!

The group of us eating.

This is Ami, she took the picture of our group, so then she wanted one of her as well :) She's so cute!

Ta ta for now, Hope everyone is well. Again, thanks for all the comments. Love hearing from home. Please feel free to give me your phone number, as I don't have any numbers with me, and I can call you sometime as well.
And I'm out........ :)