Monday, June 30, 2014

AFRICA. Part one.

This year I had the most amazing opportunity:  I got to travel to Ghana for a month.  And it was incredible!!! The people, the scenery, the way of life so different from my own, it was amazing!



From my letter to Derek May 5th
The traffic on the streets is crazy.  It reminds me of what you said about New York driving how the rule is to do whatever you want except hit someone.  Because drivers will merge in and out, create new lanes, anything possible besides make an accident.  One of my favorite things to see as we drive are the sellers who walk between cars trying to get us to buy from them.  They walk with gigantic loads on their heads, sometimes carrying more in their hands.  They stare into the cars, holding up their sunglasses, fruits, water, candies, whatever they have to sell.  


One of my absolute favorite experiences has been at the fish market.  These were some of the happiest and friendliest people I have ever met.  Our cute little guide (whose name is literally “Nice-one”) made sure that we knew we could talk comfortably with all the people there.  When the children came running to us, we were to pick them up.  “Everybody here in Jamestown is family” he would tell us. 

And the children really did come running.  The cute little black children with big bellies and big eyes came as fast as they could, trying to vie for attention from us. (Being white people in Africa is the closest to celebrity-dom we’ll ever get.)   I picked one up and he just stared at me in wonder.  Other children pushed and shoved in order to be able to be in a picture in order to see what they look like.  These children are literally the most beautiful kids I’ve ever seen. 



The babies here are beautiful.  All of us are diagnosably baby-hungry.  They are to die for.




We’ve all had a painting class and they all turned out pretty well actually!   In proper Kaylie-fashion, mine’s probably the messiest, but I still love it so much. 

One night at our hostel we had a cooking lesson.  Oh, it smelled so heavenly as we put the smooshed tomatoes, onions, peppers, etc. all together in a pot for soup.  We all were amazed at how good food could smell. What’s more is, for this meal, we ate it WITH OUR HANDS!!!  A pretty fun cultural experience actually We took cooked yams in our hand and then scooped up the soup into it and into our mouth it went.  

[insert picture of us eating with hands.]

Our driver here is named Yaw.  (Pronounced like “ouch” with a y at the beginning and without the ch.)  Oh my heavens, he’s such a wonderful and good man to us.  We have so much fun with him.  Also, he has the cutest laugh. 

We were able to the temple!  Six of us did a session, six did baptisms.  The temple was absolutely beautiful.  

After our temple day we left the next morning for Abomusu.  It was about a 3 hour drive all squished in the car.  Not only was it fun but oh my goodness it was one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever had in my entire life.  The sky was dark, deep blue.  And on both sides we had rolling hills of jungle trees and plants.  Think the trees in the Lion King.  It was just beautiful.
We drove and drove until we arrived in Abomosu.  It smells so clean, and it’s so beautiful everywhere I look.  There are still lots and lots of little places selling things so that’s fun.

It’s pretty funny.  A lot of the kids look soooo much younger than they are.  We’ll look at them and think they’re like five years old, but they’ll be nine or ten.  Some of them look six, but they’re like twelve.  But it goes both ways.  They think we look young.  Last night after playing a little bit of soccer with them (they’re so good!) I asked them how old they thought I was and their guesses were:  14, 9, 17, and 16.  So funny!



We went to church today.  Towards the end in the middle of the prayer, I opened my eyes to a little girl standing right in front of me.  “Will you please be my friend?” she whispered to me!  Awwwww!!!!  Okay so cute.  She took my notebook and started coloring and wrote her name which is Precious.  (precious, right? ;) )  For the rest of the church day and the baptisms that took place after church, we were besties. 


No comments:

Post a Comment