I just had lunch of Peanut Butter M&Ms, canned peaches, and Pringles. Afternoon snack might be Cinnamon Toast Crunch, does life get any better?
The last few weeks have been very refreshing. The night before Meg flew in Amber and I went to see the new Harry Potter at the only theatre in Ghana. If you don’t know I’m that jock that loves musicals and Harry Potter (and still somehow has cool friends). A year alone in a village is great but you forget certain things, like how it is to laugh for real. Amber and I are very different people and we hadn’t seen each other in 2 months but during one funny scene we started laughing and just couldn’t stop, like heads on each others shoulders cracking up. My description really doesn’t do it justice but I’ll never forget how good it felt to laugh that hard.
Having a friend from home was awesome but it was also just great to have someone to talk to. Like 90% of my thoughts never leave my head here, I used to never shut up. I can tell people what it’s like here but it’s cool that someone knows. We talked about how it is here vs. back home and old friends. I don’t get to do that. Meg’s parents also covered EVERY travel expense which let us do some really cool stuff. Most of our meals would’ve cost me over a day’s salary. Very interesting to see how I’ve adjusted to things here. Also amazing is the real food I have now! It’d been months since I’d picked up packages and Meg brought suitcases (one packed expertly by my mother) full of stuff for the kids and I. So many volunteers have already benefited from the goods. Thanks to everyone.
Site is still busy but that’s a good thing. Might not break last month’s attendance record (59) this month (45 so far) but we’ve already sold more. The rubbish bins are up, being used, and emptied. We are starting to work on a tour, pricing of the tour, placement for billboards, and the location of our visitors centre, all very big projects. Also our annual Kente Festival begins on Sunday. Speed weaving competitions, street jamborees, Ms. Kente Pageant, and the VP of Ghana at the closing ceremonies, you know you want to come! We had our press conference last weekend and I’ve been using the projects that the GVSU International Marketing Class sent me to advertise.
Perhaps the biggest thing that I’ve been part of happened just yesterday. There is one guidebook that almost every tourist/volunteer in Ghana uses, Bradt, I have 2 actually. Like we live and breathe by this guide. My supervisor called and said they’d be coming last Monday. They came a week late but it was still huge.
I didn’t warn my weavers because our strengths are our quality, prices, and laid back..ness. Turns out our prices were almost half of their last kente village and if you’ve seen pictures you know the quality is there. After visiting one of the guesthouses they mentioned they hadn’t had breakfast so I offered them some. Talk about pressure cooking! I don’t cook much well but luckily what I do I do well. My bacon, egg, and Laughing Cow (“cheese”) sandwich is the best this side of the Volta. Mostly it’s because it’s the only one with bacon. Between that, M&Ms, and cashews they were extremely happy. I used packages to brown nose guidebook writers but I don’t feel bad about it at all. As they were leaving I asked if they could put the TV hut in the next edition and she wrote down their info, if they make it I will freak out. Our shopkeepers were amazing and I’d say we got a great write-up. The most important thing I’ve done here for my project only took 3 hours.
I continue to be awed by the support from home. Letters, occasional texts/calls, and packages are extremely generous and appreciated. My relatives and friends do more and even more for me. I’ll miss a name if I list them so I’ll just say relatives got together and held a garage sale for the basketball court. They spent days prepping and had a great sale raising somewhere around $1,000. All I could say to my mom when she told me was “awesome, simply awesome.” If you look at any successes I’ve had here you can tie them directly back to someone back home, speaks volumes about the quality of people in the States.
I should have written tons more about Meg’s visit and the garage sale but then this entry would never end so I’ll just say…
HAPPY 4 MONTHS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!