Days 1292-1293: Actually Getting to Hang Out With Ruth

On Sunday, we all went to Coco Beach.

I'd missed going to La with the family due to work (see my Mom's guest post for details on it), but I'd read that Coco Beach was a great spot, cleaner and quieter than La beach.

Unfortunately, that turned out to not be entirely true.  Apparently La beach had recently been subject to a major clean-up, while Coco had gone downhill a bit.  So, it was more than a bit trashy.  But we still had a good time with Ruth.  Coco had a lot more shells - we had fun finding a zillion tiny spiral shells.  Ruth played in the surf with a couple of the local kids, and I held her so we could feel the waves crash against us a bit (while being very careful not to let - heavens forbid - a single drop of water touch her face).

Afterwards, we headed back through the Radisson and grabbed some lunch at their restaurant.  Mostly, it was a chance to hang out near the beach a bit longer and for Ruth to play on their playground (the advantage of very slow service at almost any restaurant here is plenty of time to play around!).

We had been hoping to see the coffin makers at work, and we thought we'd cleared that they would be around on Sunday with Mr. Lartey, but it turns out that they were not.  So we just drove back to campus.

That evening (at least I think it was that evening) I'd promised my Mom that I would get her "authentic" Ghanaian food from Basement Plus, a small restaurant on campus.  We did indeed have an authentic experience - I was going to get her banku and okro stew, but they were out... as they were out of a lot of things.  We settled on just asking what they did have, and ended up with some fried fish and some palava sauce with yams for me.  The other part of "authentic" is that - as promised - everything was flavored with smoked fish (even the palava sauce).  Ruth, of course, had pizza.  As actually did I - the smoked fish is really starting to disagree with me, for some reason.

Monday, my parents went down into Accra for the day and Ruth and I hung out.  We'd decided to go to Madina Market - she had been playing pretend all week on the stoop at the side of the Fulbright House that we would get on the tro-tro (we would have to wait for one going our way) and then go to Makola Market. When we would get there, we would have to go "whoa!" and talk about all the different things people were selling - "look, there's a big pile of toothbrushes!" and we'd always end up buying some rice and beans while we were there.  Makola is actually a bit of a trip, so I sold her on going to Madina instead.  Our misson: coconuts to drink and some blue fabric to make a dress for Ruth's friend Sasha.

I hadn't been before, and I think I misinterpreted Melissa's instructions, because we got pretty lost.  The first time I asked someone where we might find fabric sellers, she brought me way outside the main market to what I can only assume was a friend of hers - and who was very overpriced (10 cedis/yard for mediocre fabric?  Saa?).

Fortunately, next we found a coconut seller.  One guy seemed to be a bit drunk, and also to be poking gentle fun at the obrunis, but his English was pretty sketchy.  I felt bad, but I wanted to say, "it can't be that funny because no one else is laughing, and it's lost on me since I have no idea what you're talking about."  We got a coconut with a lot of juice, and then squatted down under a tree to drink it - if you think that I probably ended up drinking most of it, you'd be very wrong, Ruth can put it away (and loves them - it's a shame it's the sort of thing you don't find back in the US).  She got a kick out of how the guy then split it open for us and hacked off a piece of shell to use as a scoop to get the meat out - she got pretty good at it!

Grimy from dust and sticky coconut juice, we soldiered on to find fabric.  And on... and on... Finally I came to a large yellow building, with a sort of courtyard inside (and strangely, much emptier than the rest of the market) where I found some fabric sellers.  I got a bolt of green to make a surprise dress for Melissa (you'll have to wait for her to upload a photo) and we did in fact find some blue for Sasha:

Then, home on the MMT bus, and a bouncy bouncy nap.  I'm pretty sure that shock absorbers are illegal in Ghana.

Back at Grammy and Grampy's flat, we made dirt cups and then had a proper nap.

(As my Mom warned me, Ruth much preferred making the dirt cups to eating them.  Weird kid.)

After the nap - what else?  Grammy and Grampy were still on their adventure in Accra, so Ruth and I got pizza from the Guest Center and watched Ratatouille (my goal when I get home is to get her to eat actual ratatouille - I even have a mandoline, so I can make it the way they do in the movie, probably).

NEXT: Not getting to hang out with Ruth!

Days 1279 - 1283: Grammy and Grampy Arrive! Melissa leaves!

Folks, I'll be honest.  The almost-week that all of my parents, Ruth, and Melissa were in town was a little bit of a blur.  I was focused on hanging out with everyone, and Melissa and I were spending some much-needed and little-gotten time together, so things may be short on the details here, and will definitely be short on the pictures.

I know my Mom takes notes on what she does on vacation, and my Dad is much more of a shutterbug, so I will ask them to write a guest post on the time they spent here from their perspective when they are settled in at home.

With that out of the way...

Monday night I took my parents - and, finally, Melissa - to the Nigerian restaurant on campus.  The Nigerian restaurant is, hands-down, my favorite place to eat.  We got a feast of yams, boiled plantains, chicken, rice, bitter greens with egussi, and spicy tomato sauce - and while they didn't have fan-favorite Alvaro for Ruth (I'm serious, the kid is going to go through Alvaro withdrawal when she gets home), they had a reasonable facsimile.  For my parents, who had been eating at the Guest Center while we were away, it was finally some good African food.

Tuesday and Wednesday were teaching days for me.  Tuesday morning, the sister of one of the folks who works at the Guest Center came by to measure everybody for some clothes (which turned out to be a disaster, but more on that later).  And, during the day, Ruth picked up her bird dress from Miss Gloria down at Bush Canteen - it would be several days before she would consent to taking it off.

 Wednesday I got out a bit early (canceled meeting, yay!) and Melissa and I took a "date night" into Accra while Ruth stayed over at Grammy and Grampy's flat in the Guest Center.  We stopped in at The Loom art gallery and browsed - mostly contemporary art by Ghanaian artists, and we ended up going home with two pieces.  Then, since it was still early, we headed over to the White Bell, which had been - accurately - recommended by the guide as a good place for a beer in Adabraka. So we hung out, chatted about light topics like the fate of the state of Maryland's IMD waiver, and had a few Stars in the open-walled second-storey bar.  It was late afternoon, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves, which was nice, actually.

I then had the bright idea that we would walk down past Makola Market and out along 25 January Road (past the Nkrumah Mausoleum) to dinner. This was, in theory, a good plan.  But then I left our paintings at the ATM - fortunately, they were still there after we doubled back, but by then it was very dark and neither of us were really in the mood for another click of walking, so we hailed a cab.

We had dinner at the restaurant at the place I stayed the first time I was in Ghana, the Afia African Village.  Though their nice little gallery - composed of pieces the owners have picked up on travels through West Africa was already closed - the restaurant was still as good as I'd remembered it being (maybe not quite as good as the food at the Mountain Paradise, though!).  And it was nice to sit in the open air and listen to the surf.

Then back to the flat, but this is a family blog.

Anyway, Thursday... what the heck did we do Thursday?  I know we went back - at my Mom's insistence - to the Nigerian place, and had another lovely meal.

Friday we met up with the seamstress who had come to measure us... and it didn't go that well.  Ruth loved the two dresses she made for her, and they were in fact great.  Well, I'd picked out the green material as a surprise, since earlier in the week Ruth had seen a woman walking with a green and black dress and said, "ooooh!  Her dress is so pretty!  I want a green and black dress like that." It didn't hold a candle to the pink one made from fabric Ruth had chosen at Makola.  These photos aren't from that day, but show off the two of them:

But she charged us twice what Miss Gloria did, made me a shirt out of the fabric for Melissa's dress, made Melissa a dress (that didn't fit right) out of the fabric for my shirt, and claimed that there were no fabric remnants (we were going to make a couple skirts for Ruth) - despite the suspicious presence of bolts of fabric pieced together from remnants (not ours) for sale among the cloth she'd brought the first time.  When we made motions towards perhaps that we were unsatisfied, she was very sorry but didn't offer to, say, refund our money or fix anything.  So, when in Legon - go to Miss Gloria at Culture Touch!

And, unfortunately, Friday it was time for Melissa to head home.  I was glad she was going to have a chance to rest, but of course sorry to see her go for what would be two months.