Monday May 12, 2014
Another beautiful morning that we get to wake up to in
Ghana, Africa. We are in Africa! It is
beautiful. We journeyed out to the wood
market here in Kumasi. This place has
everything from statues to masks and giant elephants that are so giant, you
can’t get them onto the plane. It was
fun going around and watching the group get more brave with every purchase and
barter.
I was able to buy a couple of things for myself and some
friends but I loved helping the group barter.
It is so fun trying to talk to people down. It become a fun little game and I love when
you hit their bottom, the lowest price they will go. It is at the point that you either buy it and
love it, or you don’t.
As we were leaving there were some giant fruit type bowls
that some of the girls wanted. At first,
they didn’t carry them. Slowly though,
more bowls started to appear. Before we
knew it about 6 of us purchased these bowls from the window of the bus. It was crazy, hectic, and so much fun.
We left the market to head on over the the Kente clothe part
of town. While driving and talking about
our purchases and stories are bus suddenly jolted and started tipping
sideways. Yes, we drove into a ditch.
Luckily the bus rested at a decent angle and didn’t fall completely
sideways. We climbed out the windows and
assessed the damage. 3 hours later
(maybe? I lost track of time) Richard (in a dress!!!!) with the help of others
were able to get the bus free.
Not being able to really help, a bunch of us hung out on the
side watching. Slowly, kids from the
neighborhood started to emerge and wait with us. I made friends with a 12 year old boy named
Louie. He was the coolest kid. I played tag with the kids and chased after
them, often times scaring them pretty good.
The sun was baking us and we were all sweating. I didn’t care. These kids were too fun. At one point I was exhausted and laid down to
rest and get some water. Louie came over
to me and said “Get up. Run. Come run!”
I couldn’t say no. The next thing
I know, I am being tackled by 15 kids and they start to tickle me. How did they discover my one weakness?!
To explain Richard in the dress….we have curtains on the bus
that we used for the workers to lay on underneath the bus so they wouldn’t get
dirty. Because we were in a
neighborhood, a neighbor lady wanted to help and gave her dress to Richard so
that he could keep himself clean. That
is how these people are. They have very
little, yet they will give you their own garment just so you can stay
clean.
A truck stopped to help us pull the bus out. While they pulled, a bunch of us pushed on
the side of the bus to help. Even our
new friends, the little kids, and Louie joined in. The bus was free!! So exciting. All of us were excited, exhausted, and
dehydrated but we are so grateful for Richard.
It wasn’t his driving that put us in the ditch but it was his hard work
that got us out.
Cooling off in the bus continued on to our destination, the
Kente Clothe, er..place. Now this place, it makes me spend money. Kente Clothe is hand made on giant looms and
it was reserved for royalty back in the day.
As I was walking through a man comes up to me and says “Hey, my friend!!
Do you remember me? From last year?1” I did.
I had bought a giant blanket of Kente from him. Then he pulled out his phone and showed me
our video from last year!! This guy remembered! How cool!! So naturally I bought a ton of stuff…..in
fact I bought two blankets. One
consisted of a bunch of strips that they took into town and sewed together for
me.
It was amazing watching this guy sew these strips of Kente
together. The man was on a manual sewing
machine that moved with his feet. Back and
forth, back and forth. It was so neat to
watch. He was going so amazingly
fast. He added thread, changed the
bobber, and sewed like nobody I have ever seen. Impressive. And the blanket turned out awesome. So excited.
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