There's No "C" in Fante

Well, life certainly has its way with us, doesn't it? I've been slightly incapacitated the past couple of days because of a boil that developed on my bum. I'll leave it at that- long story short, I'm better now. When I get back if you're at all curious about the events surrounding this issue, I encourage you to ask. It's an interesting story, but there's too much else to write about and I would like those of you who are not curious about my boil to enjoy this blog as well. I digress...

I still haven't had time to figure out my pictures. I want an uninterrupted couple of hours to figure it out in case something doesn't go quite as planned, but I swear it will happen some time before I head home. I hope that's reassuring.

OK, Urban Drop Off. I was dropped in the middle of town at 9:30 am with a girl named Anna. We were charged with finding Palm Nuts, Barclay's Bank, and then getting back to the SIT building by noon. We watched the bus drive away and, with a few nervous chuckles and statements like "Well, here we are. In Ghana. On the street. Just walkin' around..." we began our search. We came upon a stand that looked like it may palm nuts, so we approached. The woman in the stall was incredibly helpful. Although she did not have any palm nuts, she was a wealth of knowledge. We were shown an example of what they looked like fresh (right), cooked, and explained how they were used. The palm tree itself is referred to as the King of Trees because it is so useful, even after its death, and the palm nut is only one part of this bountiful flora. Palm Nut soup is derived from palm nuts. Oil can be collected both from the fleshy outer part and the seed inside and then put to a number of uses. The Fante word for Palm Nut is AbE (pronounced ah-BAY). After learning all of this we thanked her, Meda ase, and found a seller half a block down the road. Not, however, before we were stopped by two young Ghanaian men that were exceedingly curious about us. Anna I chatted for a couple minutes about what we were doing here, how long we were staying, etc. The conversation ended when we insisted that we had to find Palm Nuts, but we were only released once we agreed to give them our e-mail addresses (traveler's trick- print illegibly or incorrectly if you don't want them to have your actual contact info). That finished, we made our way to check off the first item on our list. As we were leaving the stand, abE in hand, the same guys approached us again and asked us where we were going. Anna explained about the scavenger hunt, and they agreed to take us to the bank. What followed was an incredibly interesting walk through busy downtown Cape Coast. My conversation with Jeffrey ranged from the differences between American and Ghanaian education to both our countries' recent elections. Jeffrey was bursting with happiness about Obama, saying "He was my choice for President." It is one thing to know that America is the most powerful country in the world, but it is another to hear how invested people in other countries can be in our elections (to be fair, as Jeffrey himself said, this one was historical). Anna and I were successfully dropped off at the bank (we weren't even asked by our "guides" for money!) and then made our way back to our home base. Success! (p.s. Mom and Dad- I saw a sign in town for a local branch of Global Mamas, will be sure to check it out)


Curses, out of time again! One of these days I'll catch up on it all. Until then, stay safe and warm (I can't believe how much I have been sweating here... ick)!
love love love!