Akwaaba Means Welcome

I finally arrived in Africa on Saturday night- 24 hours after scheduled. Long story short- my flight from Duluth to Chicago was canceled and pushed back a day, therefore pushing other flights back a day. After I passed through customs in the airport I heard shouts of Monica and Julie yelling my name before I could see them and I was immediately filled with relief. I made it to Africa. With all my bags. Through customs. On time.. sort of. Now I can breathe. The hour drive to Kasoa from Accra was filled with near accidents, horn honking, and pedestrians crossing highways, which frightened Monica and Julie but only reminded me of Argentina. Interesting.

I met Sister Esther- headmistress of Our Lady of the Holy Cross School and quick as a whip, Sister Lillian and Sister Evelyn, who have a great sense of humor. Our house is FANTASTIC. We each have our own room and bathroom- which lets face it, has happened NEVER before. And the floor tiles are super slippery which is good because snakes don’t like slippery surfaces, and my socks do.

I went to Mass Sunday morning. We walked there at 6:30am, to make it by 6:45. Sister Esther sure can MOVE for her age. I basically went for a 6:30am jog .The Mass lasted until 8:30 complete with tons of singing, dancing, clapping, a language I don’t know, an offering of toilet paper and laundry detergent, and many insanely happy people. It was a joyous occasion. Afterwards they had an auction to fundraise for something, I’m not sure what, and after an hour Sister Esther told Robert to walk me home. I was the first to leave. The sisters came home about 2 hours later. Robert is an adorable 4^th grader and I can’t wait to spend more time with him this year.

I don’t want to bore you with the details so here’s the rest of my first day in Africa in bullet points.

·      Took pictures of the school

·      Nuns have wifi

·      peanut soup is delightful

·      posho looks like mashed potatoes but its actually smashed corn fluff

·      I chose the rhinoceros as my napkin holder for the rest of all eternity

·      Sister Esther smashed a scorpion

·      I found 2 lizards in my bathroom and named them Calvin and Hobbes. I later found Calvin playing dead in the doorway, but alas, the joke was on me.

·      Ended the night perfectly- singing the Salve Regina, Latin style.

Stay tuned for more African Adventures!

Twi words of the day:

Akwaaba [ah-kwab-ah] --welcome

Madaase [meh-dah-say] --- thank you

Ete-sen [eh-tay- zane] --- how are you

aye [A- yay] I’m fine

Obruni [oh-brew-knee]- foreigner, or white person.. but in a non-offensive, more like blatantly stating the obvious, sort of way