Friday Friday Friday

After a restless night of sleep, I woke up much later than I had planned, and quickly headed out the door for school. I took one more set of resonator bells with me today. Other than the two large Q Chords, all of the instruments I brought are now at the school. I am still on the look out for small drums and maracas, which are proving themselves surprisingly difficult to find.

I think I have solved my taxi problems. One of the other volunteers at the school told me to tell the shared taxi driver that I am heading toward Aquarium Junction. And so today, when I said Aquarium, he took me about 50 yards away from the school, and for only 1 cedi - a big success in my book.

When planning for today, I realized that most of the work I have to do to get ready for next week is taking the information I have collected this week and turning it into music activities. The only thing I had to do at the school was to drop off the bells and talk with the Preschool teacher to find out which academic and behavioral goals I can support with music. When I got to the school, Mary told me she will be out of town on Monday, and asked if we could have our first teacher meeting this morning, in about five minutes. Even though I was also planning to take a few hours this weekend to plan the meeting, I realized this was maybe the only opportunity I was going to get in the near future, and said, “Sure! That will be great.” Chuckling nervously to myself, I briefly looked through the notes and ideas I have collecting all week for the meeting, and jotted down a brief agenda. I got some of the instruments out of the locked bin and had them ready to show the teachers. I set up a few chairs in Mary’s empty classroom and rehearsed what I was going to say while I waited for Mary to return with the teachers.

Although they are all very nice, the staff intimidates me a good bit! I am still not sure just what they think of me, or just what they think about the music program. I felt some of my anxiety melting away as we exchanged greetings in Akan, and they were both smiling. It was a pretty productive meeting all things considered, and when it was over, I felt good. We established a schedule for both the music sessions and the teacher training meetings; both of which will take place twice a week. I also heard the wonderful news that they actually already have an electric keyboard, but nobody knows how to play it, so it just sits! So, it looks like in addition to working with the students, I will be putting my teaching experience to use and teaching Mary to play piano. At the end of the meeting, I passed out some of the instruments so the teachers could see just what we will be working with. Even the sternest (and oldest) teacher started going to town when I gave her a tambourine. I left school around 10:30 with a smile on my face.

Since we did not order dinner at Eli's for the weekend, I headed to Kotokuraba Market to pick up some groceries. I was in no hurry, and enjoyed meandering the busy streets, waving (with my right hand!) to everyone who stared at me, which was nearly everyone. On my way to the "supermarket" Melcom, I ran across a dress making shop. As I have already in my first week nearly run out of clothes to wear, I have been on the lookout for a dressmaker. The shop was small, lined with cloth and fashion posters, and filled with cute, young, seamstresses and sewing machines. I greeted them in Akan, which they loved. One of the girls spoke Twi, so she was able to translate from Fante to me, which I still don't hear nearly as well as I hear Twi. I picked out a bolt of material that I like (6 cedis total, or $2 per yard), and the girls set to work taking my measurements. I was turned this way and that by the girls measuring me and asked question after question by the others. In the end, I think they really enjoyed getting to talk with an American girl of their own age. I paid for the material, and will pay the 10 cedis ($6.70) for the homemade dress when I go try it on next Friday.

Melcom's was just down the street from the sewing girls, so I went in to get some tupperware containers. What a welcome sight a store with toiletries, electronics, AND even permanent markers was. Now I know that if I really need something I didn't bring from home, I can get it there for a (sort of) reasonable price.

Since I knew I would be doing a lot of walking, I wore the small knee brace that makes a band just below my knee cap, keeping it more securely in place (since I hurt my knee running last year, it has never quite been the same). At least four people must have asked me why I was wearing a black band around my knee, and many more stared at it. In all, I walked around Cape Coast for about three hours today, and my nose and neck are a little red to prove it.

I left Melcom's and got "lost," but didn't really care. I ended up walking down by the castle and on some market streets I hadn't been to before. Once of the Global Mamas girls told me that I could find a lot of food stands by the GM office, so I made my way over there. I didn't see too many food sellers, so I headed back up toward the dense market, where I was able to buy the rest of my groceries with no problem. In the end, I came home with some rice, black eyed peas, four limes, one huge avocado, a head of garlic, two small onions, some plantain chips, and an orange. I also picked up a power converter with two outlets so that Erin and I can have two things plugged in at once in our room! I am pleased to announce that I am writing from my bed with both my computer and our fan plugged in - another small victory.

After another beautiful drive home to Elmina, I boiled some rice and cut up the pineapple I didn't have time for this morning. I had another piece of toast, and started soaking some beans for dinner. While they were cooking, I took a much needed bucket shower. I really do enjoy each one more than the previous one. I'm sure my family won't be surprised that it still takes me forever (Tom once nicknamed me Pippi Longshower), but there's just something so relaxing about it.

Dinner ended up being plain rice and beans with onions. The spices I found in the kitchen turned out to be fuzzy with mold, so I was left with salt and a bit of sage. It wasn't terrible, but I had to snicker and think, "How American," when I couldn't help but put some ketchup on the side to add a bit of taste. I also made some guacamole to go with the plantain chips I bought, which was a nice way to round off the meal. I hope to take a picture of the avocados here soon. One avocado made as much guac as two or three avocados back home.

Tomorrow, a group of 7 or 8 Global Mamas volunteers and are going to Kakum National Park, which is about a 30 minute drive from Cape. We plan to spend the night in a tree house, and get up around 6am on Sunday to take a hike and do the canopy walk, a very popular tourist attraction. I hear we are also stopping at a monkey sanctuary, which should be interesting, too. I plan to take the SLR camera that I brought, so I hope to have some good pictures of our adventure. That being said, I wouldn't count on a post tomorrow. I'm pretty sure my laptop will not be one of the items that I stuff in my backpack for a night in a tree house.

I have been getting a lot of Facebook messages and comments on here from people reading the blog at home. I want to say a big thank you for the support that so many of you have given me throughout all of this. It makes me so happy to know that people actually like reading this almost as much as I like writing it! Medaase paa! (Thank you so much!)