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Its 4 pm and another hot day in tema here. I'm sitting at the cafe with my cousin and its almost time to go home for dinner. We will be having tezert, which is the delicacy of the north. I must say I love fried yams and sauce or banku and groundnut soup, but the tezert and fufu.....i could go without that :( I'm not used to being served. When Iwake up,breakfast is served and waiting for me as soon as I get out of the shower! it has its ups and downs tho...i eat what they eat...so if they eat an omelett with big ass onions and sardines...i eat it too :( :( :( but overall I enjoy the food here and have not had any episodes occur with malaria or stomach sickness...so my immune system (and all those vaccinations) must really working hard!
I was talking about the educational reform here in the last entry...it seems that they are making primary school longer and trying to upgrade the level of education for kindergartners as well. There is a lot of talk about this reform and how it will prolly not be implemented. The problem is that the school fees are supposed to be paid for, but often u find parents are still required to pay outrageous fees and cannot afford them...so the fees are definitely not being paid for the majority of people here. And also the teachers need to be trained more to be able to teach the students the course material adequately and within the timeframes...one thing is for sure, ghanaians love politics...or maybe its more like a love-hate relationship. The only difference is when people talk about politics, it is rarely in a positive manner...and I'm sure u can understand why.
Everyone in the house wakes up at 6 or 7 am so that they can get chores things done quickly and then spend the rest of the day relaxing or going to the market. You definitely have to be careful in the market not to have ur money stolen, which I was previously aware of. But I had no idea that they would grab at u!!! the other day 2 men tried to grab my hand and I firmly let them know what I was thinking. ..it doesnt matter where u come from, u dont go about grabbing people like that.
The best thing I like about my trip so far is that there is so much emphasis put on family and doing things collectively.Me and my ex used to always talk about how africans dont go to psychiatrists like north americans do - it is probably because they talk so much with their family and even when u dont feel like talking, u are forced to spit something out. The downside of it I guess is that more people know ur business, and privacy is almost nonexistent. Maybe I have had to adapt to that...but I think it is very humbling.
As I said last time, I will be going to bole and then to wa in the northern region. I will take lots of pictures so that ppl can see the rural areas of ghana...areas that even many ghanaians have never seen! I will hopefully be buying a bike so that I can work some of that fufu off! :( If I ever thought that I might end up losing weight on my trip, that dream is slowly fading - my uncle basically told me he wants to make sure he sends me home twice as big just to show everyone how well i was treated in ghana hahahahah. well, what can u do? anyway, the purpose of going to the north is to meet my grandma and this will be a very special occasion, so I am happy that I am finally going to do it after 2 years of thinking about it. God certainly works in mysterious ways, but he has helped lead me down this path which will be an important part of my life.
Until next time...
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