out and about

Ah, yes... the weekend!

After staying in Friday night and resting, I was ready for some fun on Saturday. I went to the beach with Lauren, Akrofi, and Larteh, who works in the office with us at the Institute. We had a great time relaxing, and I went swimming for a while and then went for a walk down the beach to dry off. It was exactly what I needed!

Unfortunately at the end of the week we ran out of gas for the stove, and when we replaced it, the gas started leaking. So, I had no stove for the weekend. We ended up doing most of our cooking at Laurens and having dinner/movie nights.

On Saturday after dinner I got ready and we all went out to Reggae Night at Big Milly's.... of course. As usual, we hung out, had some drinks, enjoyed the music, and danced until the night was over.

Sunday morning was perfect for sleeping in. After a breakfast of oats I did some laundry (by hand of course) and put my things out to dry. I then joined Lauren and Maame Esi for a walk into town. Lauren had decided to get extensions put in her hair, and we went on a search for the right color hair. After finding it we went to a small salon for a few hours while she had the extensions put in. They came out great!

Being at the salon convinced me to get my hair braided like the last time I was in Ghana... perhaps this upcoming weekend I will get them done! It does take all day though.... :-/ While Lauren was getting her hair done I got to play with the hairdressers baby boy Chief. He was so adorable!

After dinner and a movie that night it was time for me to pass out and get some rest for Monday- the first day of my second week of work!

off to market

After an eventful Friday night in Osu, we had a nice breakfast at Auntie's, and headed back towards Kokrobitey. We needed to get food to stock the kitchen (we have been cooking for ourselves) so on the way back we stopped at Kaneshie to buy some fresh veggies. Kaneshie is a big market on the edge of Accra and has several floors. There are stands with a huge variety of different things to buy. At Kaneshie we purchased carrots, ginger, peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, and several other vegetables. We then hopped in the tro-tro and went to Shop Rite (yes, there IS a Shop Rite in Ghana) to pick up some items that we couldn't get at Kaneshie. It was somewhat odd to walk around in a grocery store after being in the hectic market atmosphere.

We then caught a taxi and headed back to Kokrobitey. We were exhausted after unloading our groceries and got some much needed rest.

Of course, since it was a Saturday night we had to go to Big Milly's for Reggae Night. Big Milly's is a small beachside resort in Kokrobitey. There is a restaurant there as well as an outdoor bar by the beach. Every Saturday night they have live Reggae music. Almost the whole village comes out to dance and have a good time. Kokrobitey is an interesting village because it actually has more white people than most. Because it is right on the beach, our village attracts tourists. And tourists, particularly white girls, attract Rastas. There is a very large Rasta population in Kokrobitey chillin on the beach all the time. They are a funny and friendly group. We actually ran into one of our friends we hung out with in Osu while we were there. After lots of dancing, I finally headed home to the Institute and slept very well!