Soriania Hotel Accra

... all in the same garbage filled grass field behind the concrete wall.
No one should ever.
Ever.
even attempt to justify that.

Every time I visit this family the kids all run up and give me hugs while the man and woman repeatedly say “You are welcome”
They are all so happy; smiling and laughing every time I come around.

The youngest boy’s name is Steven. He does not know much English at all so it is really hard to communicate with him ...

... she was really cute and seemed really excited. so, we ate the waakye (black-eyed peas and rice...with fishy/tomato/pepper sauce and hardboiled egg) with our bare hands. She just opened the bag and we both ate out of it together--the way ghanaians do. It was really good, too. And i was super excited because as an obroni they never give you everything that they usually put in waakye. ive always wanted it served the ghanaian way, but they only give obronis the ...

... here which in my opinion is much cooler) and the teacher may momentarily stop lecturing to buy some.

4. Speaking of plantain chips. Plantain chips are my all time favorite and apparently they have a lot of fiber (so I am going to try and bring some home for you mom)

5. There is never.
Ever.
A dull day in Ghana.
(for example you may be leaving your drumming class and be introduced to a man who tells you his musical name is Fire. Fire will then ...

... you youtube there, you can find them and listen to them

1. Igwe
--> this was played EVERY morning at the night market on repeat for that first week. since my room faced the market, it woke me up every day. also the night we went to asonko local (a restaurant and dance club) literally every ghanaian in the restaurant stood up and ran to the dancefloor when this came on. theres a dance that goes with it--parts of it ...

... which we eat all the time), water, soda, etc.

Even transportation is relatively cheap—but it is intimidating at first. You have a few options:

Tro tro: tro meant 3 cents in old Ghanaian money. It referred to cost once, but now is just the name still standing for the vehicle. These are vans that can fit about 15 people that are always crowded, but very cheap-about 40 pesuwa a ride. They are usually beat up but you get what you pay for. There is a driver ...

... I came to Ghana for.
After classes on Thursday, a few of the students went to a highlife (Ghanaian pop) concert in Accra. Getting downtown was a little bit of an adventure (switching from between tro-tros, the public buses, and then eventually taking a taxi) but we made it. It was great to finally see some live music in Ghana.
Initially, our plan for the weekend was to go to Cape Coast (to a historic slave castle and a rainforest), but we had to make a last ...

... s.

When we got to the gate, we found out that the lady with the evil eye worked some magic; not only were we sitting together but we were in Business Class. Now that’s the way to fly! The plane was new and the service was excellent. We had those great big fancy seats and lots of room. The seats would even lay down. The movie selection was greater and the food and booze were definitely superior to Economy Class ...

... by hand. And now I have cuts on my knuckles from rubbing them against each other while doing my laundry. My knuckles sting so much. Uncle Sulley talked to Adam while we were eating our egg sandwiches. Apparently, Adam had a gig. He said there was a wedding he was performing at, and that we could come and check it out if we wanted to. He said that he could come over after the wedding to give me a lesson. So we went. Uncle said that I should wear my new dress that his sister gave me, so ...

... it's not actually outside, it's just a little building away from the house), which has a huge spider on the wall and it's eggs in the corner of the room. Since the water tank was also blown over, he had his household assistant bring a couple of buckets of water for me. So I took a bucket bath. Brittany was right, and I totally knew she would be. Once you take a bucket bath, you really notice how much water you waste when you take your normal shower. And now I'm here, in a ...

... everywhere and every Ghanaian child wishes to be the next Michael Essian. As we already worked with a number of schools it was fairly straight forward to set up. Our volunteers would work at 4 schools coaching 5 times a week developing football at grass routes. As well as coaching football I wanted our football volunteers to do more than that so I established something called the Travellers Football Tournaments that would allow our football coaches at the end of their ...