find your way home

Yesterday on our schedule from 1:30-5:00 is said "find your way home/shopping". None of us really knew what it meant but we soon found out. We were escorted to the market by the student guides in the afternoon and were supposed to find our way home afterward. Luckily the guides ended up staying with us the whole time (maybe they didn't think we could do it ourselves?).

The market we went to was called Medina Market. I wish I could show you all a video of walking through it because I feel like it is too hard to describe in words, but I will try: crowded, people, hot, trash, food, fabric, music, honking, sewage, people, flies, fish, balancing, buying, selling, bargaining, noisy, hectic, confusing, exciting, and foreign. The aisles of the market are very small and people are traveling both ways on them with no logic. It is amazing to me how the women can balance really heavy things on their heads flawlessly while walking through the crowd. There are children all around yelling "Obruni" which means white person, but here that is a friendly term. I made a mistake and left the house without water and almost fainted from hunger, dehydration, and sensory overload. The women at the fabric stand were very friendly and gave me water and a place to sit until I felt better. They said I looked white as a sheet. That's the last time I forget water.

I made another mistake as well. You are never supposed to greet people, take something from them, or give something to them with your left hand. A man walking past wanted to shake my hand but my camera was in my right so I shook with my left. He took his hand back and started shouting "Why? Why did you do that?". I apologized, shook with my right and kept walking, feeling terrible. From now on I am going to clench my left hand so I won't be tempted to use it.

After the market we took a tro-tro to the Accra Mall. Tro-tros are equivalent to mini vans but they seat 15 people, I'm sure you can imagine how crowded that is. The driver was very friendly and no one mentioned that the speedometer didn't work so the first tro-tro trip was a success. It was crazy to go from Medina Market to the Accra Mall because it was the starkest contrast I have ever experienced. The mall had a Nike store, a Puma store, cosmetic stores, a food court, cell phone stores, and so much more. It easily could have been anywhere in America. It really was telling of how much more intense the difference between rural and urban and high class and middle class is. I have so much to learn.

Today I stayed in bed all day for feeling sick, much worse than yesterday. It is no fun to be sick in an unfamiliar place. But everyone here is really thoughtful and helpful. I still am having stomach pains, but I hope it will be better tomorrow because we are going to a funeral then have a five hour bus ride to Kumasi.

Until Monday...