Change your style...be like that.

I am quite pleased at the moment. In a very Julia sort of way. Which, if you don't know, means I am satisfied with my discomfort and appreciative of my little joys.

Last weekend was excellent. I was a bit worried about how the group of people would interact and how things would go, but I decided to let go and accept whatever happened. We slept in tents on the beach in this remote "resort" called the Green Turtle. It's a hotspot for volunteers wanting a cheap break, and the food was wonderful and cheap ($3 for bangers and mash! granted it was goat bangers...). I went with a girl from Alabama, one from the UK, and a guy from Germany that I also travelled with last weekend. We also met these sisters from Holland, who were coincidentally also volunteering in Kumasi. It was funny that these girls initially seemed like strangers and the others friends, when I had only known the others for 2 more days. Your mind does funny things when it's in this social survival mode. It's quite the exercise in trust, which is quite the exercise I need (although a run would also do me good). Because you have to trust that these volunteers will watch your back and not desert you, you do. Because you need to be on friendly terms with them in order to have a good time, you are. It's a funny thing, being completely alone in a place like this.

Oh, by the way, it took 8 hours to reach the Green Turtle from Kumasi. I don't mind these long bus/taxi/tro rides, as it gives my mind a chance to sort out all it's thoughts but also company if I want it. I thought a lot this weekend about how strange it is that we seek out perfection and convenience in our lives. I have been thinking about this since I first began my journey, on my first flight to JFK. There was a lady in the aisle having a medical emergency, and it caused all the passengers to begin to talk to one another. This reminded me, in turn, of flying home after thanksgiving and getting sent to Las Vegas airport for the night. You form odd, quick bonds out of this inconvenience. Anyway, back to how this relates...why do we strive for such things when it seems that the very opposite is what makes us happy? I think people are more pleased by their hardships. They're pleased by how it enables them to interact with people; they're pleased with the story they'll be able to tell; they're pleased with the satisfaction they get from dealing with or solving them. Certainly no one in Ghana has a life of perfection and convenience. Yet, when I asked a man how to say in Twi that you are not "fine" when asked "how are you?", he looked bewildered and responded "we are mostly always just fine". Of course I don't mean to say that Ghanaians are uniformly happy. Just that perhaps I am correct in believing that life should be rewarding, not easy.

I've also been thinking a lot about my relationships with people. I do this a lot of course, but here it is different. I've found that when you are completely alone (and I would say that this is the first time I have ever felt COMPLETELY alone. More so than at college), you realize the specific reasons you have for needing everyone you try to keep in your life. The reasons are strange, but I could tell you all why I need you. Some to be positive, some to be negative, some to be supportive, others to be harsh. My thinking about these sorts of things has become so simple. Everything has been broken down into necessities. I feel stupid writing this, but it seems true. At the moment, what I crave most has been spelled out for me.

Okay, tangent. Back to my weekend. On friday we just chilled at the beach and the riptide was insaaaaane. It gets deep very suddenly as well and was quite a chore to merely stand upright. On saturday I went with 2 others on a 6 hour hike through the rubber plantation and bamboo forest. It involved walking through many little villages, during which I found out that Ghanaians rent enormous sound systems for funerals and use them to play deafening music throughout the village for the entire weekend. Yet they don't have running water...We only had flip-flops, so now my legs hurt like crazy, but we were down for it and it was worth it! I took pictures of how the rubber is made, which is somewhat different than I expected. I got sun burnt despite the lack of sun and the application of sun screen. Oh, and you won't believe it but I no longer have a farmer's tan! Sunday we got up early to go on a canoe trip which was relaxing but fairly mundane. We didn't see any monkeys. Anyway everyone really opened up this weekend and I didn't even touch the book I brought. Chelsea, I had a moment where I realized how much I enjoyed playing uno with a bunch of people from different countries and cultures. It's endlessly fascinating to me to hear about their school systems and hobbies and music and stuff. It's funny/sad when we all can sing the same cheesy song or quote the same bit of pop culture. I feel so at ease with these people. In fact, there has really been no awkwardness for me since I got here. Perhaps I am oblivious, or perhaps I am getting better at meeting people. We shall never know.

Today a new girl from a different organization arrived to work with me at the orphanage. This is nice, because it means I have someone to make faces at when the staff does something ridiculous, but a little frustrating because it means the little work I actually am given to do is halved. All the same, it's someone to talk to.

Okay Mallory! So my city is very big. Well, for Ghana standards. It is the 2nd most populated and has quite a few suburbs. The actual city center is quite small, I suppose, but they have the largest open air market in west africa. It's terrifyingly huge, and I won't describe it because the video I took will do more justice. Btdubs it is killing me to not be able to post pictures...I possibly could but it would take forever. Maybe I will post a couple eventually, but really I am just going to force anyone who is interested to come to my house and listen to the entire explanation of my trip along to a slideshow. It's really that or nothing, because I can't stand summarizing things. Anyway where I live is 15 minutes away from the center. I take two 15 min taxis to get to work by 7:30. On the way home I stop halfway and come to this internet cafe. Kumasi is very urban and there are taxis crawling around everywhere and people scrambling to get out of/into the way. It was a bit overwhelming at first, but I'm now accustomed to the staring and the close proximity and the friendliness.

Kav! Francis is just...funny. He's a workaholic and never sleeps and likes to do his "exercises" at like 3 am. He is very high up in the agricultural research institute, which is just down the road. Apparently Ghana is experimenting with mixing cassava with the wheat in their bread, as wheat is very expensive. Ghana just makes me laugh. I was watching the news the other night and they mentioned a shooting, then proceeded to show footage of the dead man lying in a pool of blood. I was a bit shocked and Alice and I shared a "it's ghana!" look. Francis really likes to drink and last night was telling me about how when he lived in Russia, they made homemade vodka that was 70% alcohol. Men would sniff their armpits (to distract them from the fumes of the drink?) then chug their glass. I said this did not sound fun, but he seemed to very much disagree. He never eats with his family but he is very interested in sitting with me and Alice. Oh, this reminds me. Alice has malaria right now, and I am pretty much just waiting to get it. Out of 15 volunteers that Francis has hosted, only 2 have escaped. I'm hoping having it will at least free up some of my time for watching some more of the news...

On a very unrelated note, the guy who was on this computer before me was googling "equivelent of one orgasm" and "how many calories burned in one ejaculation". Another man was on a help board trying to figure out how to get a gmail account. It's astounding what they're willing to pay to do here.

This is probably enough for now...I've already forgotten what I've said at the beginning. Everyone - tell me how you are! I insist!