Day 3: 13 April 2010

After sleeping in until 8PM I forced myself up some stairs to the 5th deck dining room and did some more shoveling of French toast into the chute. Carson's friend Katie missed her bus, and therefore trip, that morning so she joined our wondering group for the day. We finished eating, got ready to go exploring [which basically means put on clean glorified pajamas instead of the ones we had slept in], and then waited outside of the ship for the shuttle. There shuttle is "free" on a daily basis, but really they just slipped a 10$ charge into our shipboard accounts, and comes every hour and takes us into Accra since we are docked in Tema. This was the first time we took the shuttle so we weren't 100% on what the deal was - the bus showed up about 20 minutes late and we got on even though there we no more seats because it was easier than waiting another hour. I sat on the floor in front of Carson who sat on the floor over the engine and in front of my Identity Development professor [Lopez] and her daughter Sabina - who will grow up to be in charge of something; something you can tell by the way she walks with her hands on her hips so purposefully. Before getting into the shuttle three of the kids were having shadow wars where you beat up the other kid's shadow [ultimately a way to fight someone without getting in trouble for actually hitting them] but Sabina didn't fully grasp the concept and just hit her brother, Spencer, instead.

About 40 or so minutes later we ended up at the world's ugliest giant purple building with pink / rose colored windows. I am pretty sure that you would be able to see it from the moon - which is why it was ultimately such an ingenious meeting place to find the bus. From the bus we walked about three blocks to a store called Global Mammas which is a really cool fair trade store full of things that I will be bringing home. They had so many awesome colors and patterns and cuts and things that I will have to get more of when I get a house, and all of the money goes right back to the women who make the stuff in Ghana; pretty sweet deal for everyone.

From there we walked back towards Frankie's - the place our group went for lunch with Augustine on the first day in Ghana. We got lunch [nuggets, fries, and a chocolate shake] and then went downstairs and did something CRAZY! Carson and I got ice cream - BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! We got a doughnut too. Let me explain why getting the doughnut made us such rebels! Carson's boyfriend [who I rent out whenever she is sick of him] Michael had never seen Dexter before the ship so we have been watching it in my room and Dexter always brings doughnuts to the office. Well, we do not ever [literally, it has never happened] have doughnuts on the ship so Carson got one and hid it in her bag of goodies from Global Mammas in order to sneak it onto the ship and surprise Michael later on tonight. In case you were wondering, she didn't get caught - we are just that good.

After we finished our ice cream, which obviously didn't take long, we walked across the street and continued out experimental market hopping. I FINALLY found postcards [not overly attractive and covered in dirt - don't feel bad if you don't get one, they really weren't worth it] and a cool shirt for me. We went to the next stall and while Carson was trying on a dress Katie was getting proposed to and kissed by some random guy who kept trying to sell me a Bob Marley shirt on the basis that he was from Africa which I kindly informed him was not true at all - his response was, "well we are both black!" That point was irrelevant, I just wanted a Bob Marley shirt because it was awesome but ultimately was too big anyway. He brought me and Obama shirt instead - that obviously did not get purchased either.

In order to avoid Katie having any more awkward African experiences we grabbed a cab to the post office which was much easier to find than the postcards were. I got my stamps [5 in total so you can tell that I was serious about not getting many postcards] and then went and waited in the car while Katie got her stamps with Carson's company. By the time they got back to the car I had figured out an extremely clever method of adhering the stamps to the back of the postcards - sweat! We were all drenched in sweat from walking around outside all day and dealing with annoying men following us and being space-invaders, so I started wiping the backs of the stamps across my neck and forehead and voila! The problem of having to lick stamps had been solved! They were obviously very impressed with my newfound talent and I continued to finish my task. We left the post office and headed onwards to our next stop.

BOWLING! Katie had been bowling the night before and so we went back to the same place which they pretty much opened for us. They guy behind the desk, Tommy, turned on the lights, lanes, and music for us to start bowling - the place was dead. I love bowling and go pretty much every Thursday at home because it is dollar bowling night, and that is a night that I believe should be taken full advantage of. When I gave him the paper with our names on it to put in the computer I wrote myself in as "Small" because so many people in Ghana have thought that's what I said my name was, and I really don't mind it so much; however, Tommy told me my African name should be "Cute" instead of "Small" - I thanked him and walked away. Unfortunately for me, because we are in Ghana where things are not overly well maintained or entertaining, the lanes were all kinds of warped and my game sucked. None of us did amazingly well - Carson claimed she did with her 120 but who knows - and I only played one game because it was extremely annoying to me to be doing really badly at something I am definitely at least not terrible at. There was one line that if you caught it you could get a strike and if not everything else was basically gutter. Tommy bowled in my place for the second game and won after Carson won the first game. We exchanged email addresses and took a photo together after loads of high fives and hugs [which seem to never get old in Ghana] and then got a cab back to Global Mommas.

I got two more little things for the kid's classrooms - beaded doll good luck charms that were pretty neat - and then we went to the gas station to grab a drink before heading back to the ugly purple building, and ultimately the bus. This time we had seats but the guy in front of me [who sounds like a book on tape when he lectures and annoys the crap out of me] decided to lean back into my lap as much as possible so that I had no room to breathe the entire way back to the ship. We got back to the ship, at dinner with Lydia & the Abels, and then gave Dr. Abel his surprise that we got him at Global Mommas. We got him a tie that had white fish all over it, and apparently he freaked out with excitement [Carson was there for the experience, I was doing something I have already forgotten about].

Tomorrow is our last day in Ghana, and to be honest I am not sure what I am going to do. There is only so much that you can do in Ghana with the amount of time we have before on-ship time tomorrow afternoon. I am contemplating sleeping in and the going to sunshine land on the ship and read my book and do some school work before our date with the Abels. We are going to watch Lion King with them because somehow they have managed never to have seen the Lion King! Unacceptable! Sorry if that is not exciting enough for you but there is not much to do except shop and be extremely annoyed by the guys who want to sell you things you don't need at prices you have no interest in paying. I have enjoyed Ghana, but I am excited to be going to Brazil, even though it means I will be home in about 22 days…