top ten favorites... and some not so favorites...

Ok, maybe this will be an occasional feature as I come up with more favorites... I realize I have been here for less than a fourth of my stay, so these are likely to change every so often.

But, I thought I would make a list of my top ten favorite things here... times when I feel normal and like I could do this forever. And then to be fair and balanced (but not TOO balanced...) I will list a few things that are.... ummm.... NOT my favorite things.

Favorites:

10. Sucking Fan Ice (a soft vanilla ice cream) out of its plastic pouch while sitting in the shade to escape the hot tropical sun. (to suck it out of the pouch, you bite the corner off of the pouch, and squeeze the ice cream into your mouth.... other things you suck instead of eat or drink in Ghana: oranges, water, mangoes, cooked rice out of plastic baggies)

9. listening to the choir at my church sing. Amazing harmonies and incredible drumming.

8. watching my Ghanaian mama dance at the front of the church while the choir sings... i love to watch all of the women dance around in a circle, but my mama takes the cake with her enthusiasm and the way she twirls her white scarf around.

7. watching Nigerian movies with my sister and brother, or watching French-dubbed Chuck Norris movies with my neighbors... I won't comment on which type of movie has the better quality in terms of script, dialogue, action, and production values... I'll just say that Chuck Norris never looked so amazing... Though it could be the fact that I can't understand a word he is saying makes him seem a much better actor. What makes it in my list of top ten is not so much the movies themselves, but how fun it is to watch my neighbors or my sister and brother get so in to what is happening in the movies. Their reactions are a hoot.

6. Eating a warm bowl of Fufu, palmnut soup, and grasscutter made for me by my mama and sister; especially appreciated on a day when I would rather go without eating than cook for myself. The Proverbs talk about a sluggard being too lazy to lift his hand from the bowl to his mouth... I definitely end up being too lazy to cook sometimes, but not to lift my hand to my mouth when my mama and sister feed me fufu! (No, I am not starving - I have found clever and lazy ways around cooking.)

5. laying in my bed in the cool early mornings of harmatan. It actually gets cold enough that I have to cover up with two sheets and a sweater... almost cool enough for me to try to imagine all of the snow my family and friends have been hit with in Colorado.

4. Sitting with my favorite boys as they play Ludo, which is a Ghanaian board game. Watching them is too much fun. The point is to move four of your pieces around the board and get them safe at home. Just like in Sorry, other players can boot you off the board and back to the starting place. When one of the boys does this to another, the mock arguments and teasing it sets off always makes me laugh, even though it is in Ewe and I don't understand a word they are saying. Sitting and watching these boys always makes me happy. They kind of remind me of when I would visit my cousins growing up.

3. Bargaining in Ewe at the market. For some reason, this is the thing I can do best in the language, and I have greetings and bargaining down so well that I can often go through a whole exchange with a person entirely in Ewe, and occasionally leave them thinking I am fluent... that NEVER happens in any other situation.

2. Watching one of the many animals (goats, cats, dogs, chickens, sheep, lizards, etc.) that roam around the village. What can I say? I have always been a sucker for watching animals.

1. My absolute favorite... Riding for a couple of hours in the back of a small bus (Tro tro) near an open window while listening to my music. I can just retreat into myself and not have to be anything but... myself. Of course, if the ride is TOO long, it loses its charm, but for a couple of hours, it is the best thing in the world... even when the small bus is CRAMMED with people.


Ok, so those are my favorites. At least for now.
I won't make a top ten for my LEAST favorite things, but here are a few:

-the flies..... THE FLIES!!!!!!!!

-having someone read my emails over my shoulder in an internet cafe...

-people yelling or hissing at me as I walk down the street - not a threatening or even rude thing to do in Ghana, they are just trying to get my attention and want to make friends, but as an American, it is very hard to get used to.

-trying to decide whether I have to greet the person I am passing on the street or whether I can get away with pretending not to notice them.

-whatever it is in my room that keeps making noises at night just when I am about to get to sleep.


... I guess if you asked me at a different time each day, I would have another to put on this list, but I am not going to bother trying to come up with any more. They are brief and easily forgotten, and pale in comparison to everything on my top ten FAVORITES.

hope you enjoyed!