Junie's Online Thoughts
Friday, February 14, 2003
Jeeeeeeeez, its hot as Hades today. ARgh. Thank god we are going to the beach. I couldnt keep myself together enough to be productive when its so blooming hot. Its very sad, though....this is the last weekend before Stacey leaves, and Morten is leaving on Monday, and Erik and Barbara are going to Burkina Faso on Monday....slowly the house is dispersing....soon we will have all new folks and a totally different vibe. Pity, we had such a nice little community going....its hard to know that is all going to change. (sigh)
Last night, dinner was fabulous. Erin made homemade marinara sauce, but was out playing tennis. So we started with some appetizers while she was out (me, Jeremy, Stacey and Pernilla). We baked some feta cheese with tomatoes on top and dipped bread in it, and ate pineapple and olives. Then Erin showed, so we started the pasta and bruschetta. After eating way too much, we then progressed to dessert crepes with nutella, ice cream, whipped cream, jams, bananas and pineapple. (And wine, too.) I love having folks over for dinner...its nothing special normally...just whatever we are having, they join in and then the next time they cook for us. I will miss it when Stacey leaves, but hopefully Mark and Pernilla will take her place and frequently come over for dinner.
We are leaving at 2 pm, and wont be back until Sunday night. I will check my email on Monday, for anyone trying to get a hold of me. HAve a great weekend.
Thursday, February 13, 2003
Jeremy did a great job today, although most folks showed up after he had presented his project. I guess there was a mix up on the time and some folks thought it started at 10 instead of 9. Either way, Jeremy answered their questions and hopefully gained some new ideas from their comments.
Had lunch at the Legon cafeteria. Too full on redred and yucky bagged water that tasted like solvent. Took a trotro to 37, where hundreds of bats were swooping around these trees surrounding the shared taxi rank. The bats flew everywhere; you could see swarms of them hanging upside down in the branches.
Ready to go home to putz around until Im not so full and can do yoga. Been a little stressed out lately, both due to stuff going on at the homefront and decisions to be made here. Good thing we are going to the beach for the whole weekend.
p.s. Mom, I will decide on Monday about the checks.
Wednesday, February 12, 2003
Hot today. Went to the bank this morning, then went to Kaneshie with Erin to pick up my waist beads and STacey's disaster dress. It took us a while to find the booth, and then the lady said it wasnt done. Come back tomorrow. Argh. Got my beads, and bought some fabric with Erin. Previously, it was 120,000 cedis for 6 yards, but now it was 130,000. On the trotro home, I realized that I had 120,000 stuck in my brain, and cheated this poor woman 10,000 cedis. Guess I have to go back either Thursday or Friday to pay her what I owe her...might as well pick up STacey's dress while Im at it. Double Argh.
Tonight we aer going to some strange danish embassy party. We had dinner plans with Mark and Pernilla, but they cancelled on us again and invited us to their doings. I dont really want to go, but oh well. Might go dancing tonight....who knows?
Monday, February 10, 2003
Argh. So hot today. We promised our friend Tim, who is currently in Senegal, that we would drop some books off to his friend. Of course Tim didnt tell us more than her name and the name of her work place...no street address....nothing. So today we took a trotro to 37, then walked into Roman Ridge, a new neighborhood for us. Finding it wasnt too hard, but she was off on leave. Agh. We left the books for her anyway, then took a taxi home.
When we tried to make lunch, we discovered our gas had run out, and Auntie C was gone. Instead we walked to the big house and used the 3rd floor kitchen to finish the grilled cheese sandwiches. Now we are emailing then grocery shopping before our friend Erin makes supper for us tonight. (veggie chili)
TOo hot to think today.......thats it for now.
Sunday, February 09, 2003
Yesterday was a full, great day. We woke up early to go with Stacey to a gallery up the street (and saw several things I would LOVe to have...including this metal sculpture of a woman carrying a big fish on her head) and The Loom, an expensive but quality gallery by Circle. After much deliberation, Stacey decided on two painting and we bought one (a merchant woman wearing a big straw hat and selling tomatoes). We ate lunch at Wok Inn, (decent Ghanian interpretation of Chinese food), then stopped at the Osu Food court/Vasili's for coffee and treats.
Sidenote: There are about four places in Accra so far that both remind me of home, and could be anywhere in the developed world. They are Busy Internet, Champps, Osu Food Court and Koala. Busy Internet has multitudes of flat screen computers, is brightly lit, has clean bathrooms with toilet seats and toilet paper and soap, and has a movie theater in the back. Theyre fast, professional and could be located in Atlanta, Green BAy, Chicago, etc. Champps is a sports bar attached to the Paloma Hotel and offers ten big screen TVs playing sports, Trivia night on Thursdays, huge expensive servings of bar food and feel odd next to the adjoining restaurant that serves Ghanaian food. Koala is the exclusive grocery store in Osu, complete with two stories, a bakery, tons of imported (expensive) food and feels just like any old supermarket back home, albeit on a much smaller scale. The Osu Food Court is like the food court at the mall. Powerful air conditioner, clean toilets, and six components. Vasili's, a bakery; Chicken Inn, serving chicken and fries; Creamery Inn, serving ice cream treats, Pizza Inn, serving--you guessed it--pizza, theres another chicken place, and Junglemania--a playpen for kids that looks a bit like McDonaldland--with slides and the pit full of plastic balls and jungle gyms. We usually frequent Osu Food Court to get coffee and donuts/croissants at Vasili's or deep dish pizza at the Pizza Inn. But the OFC is also a great way to observe some of the folks in Accra---although its a skewed vision of the population, as most of the clientele is white foreigners or rich Ghanaians. Yet to watch the fashionistas, the businessmen, the tourists in shorts and tank tops, the Lebanese families, the African diva girls....its so much fun. NOt to mention the one place with reliable beautiful air conditioning when its 98 degrees.
Anyway, we went to the food court, then made our way to the Spa at Danquah for our massages. I wouldnt say it was horrible, because it was only $7.50, but I dont think I will be making my way back to Body Kitchen. They had two rooms and JEremy and I started the group with our half hour massages. I took off everything except my undies and covered up with the towel. The lady came in and I laid down on my stomach. Technically, in Ghana, they will give you a whole body massage---this includes everything including an apparent boob massage, but not in a sleasy sex kind of way. I opted out of the "front massage" and told her to just work on my back. Her style seemed to consist of four components. After covering her hands in a liberal squirt of Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion, she began with pushing strokes using the most powerful thumbs I have ever encountered. (Im a bit of a fragile girl, so this means it hurt like hell.) Then she proceeded to pound quite heartily on my skin, then moved to a quick pinching motion with the tips of her fingers, then finally to another version of the pounding but with cupped hands. Sometimes she would repeat this process, sometimes not. She started in my back, and created several more nots and pains after beating the hell out of my shoulders, then moved to my legs. The way that she started with the hard strokes repeatedly in a small area, created lovely charlie horses in both of my calves. Wheee! Yeah, thats getting my money's worth! She then worked on the thighs (nothing like getting the jiggly inner thighs pounded with someones fists....I began to wonder if an abruni had stolen her boyfriend or if she was mad at me for something.) The parts that did really feel good included an all too brief hand massage and when she took a hot towel and wiped off all the lotion. She tapped me on the shoulder. "Do you want me to do your front? You have ten more minutes." Umm.....no, not really. Cant you just do more on my back? So the entire process began anew---back, ow, shoulders, ow, more charliehorses in my calves, more thigh work. Then, thankfully, my thirty minutes were up.
We limped home (just kdding), and showered, then lazed about the house until dinner. We decided to fulfill Jeremy's birthday dinner date, since I had gotten sick the weekend we planned to do it. Jeremy in a nice shirt and tie, and me in a shirt and skirt, took a taxi to L'arco, the most authentic Italian place we could find in our neighborhood. We were the first ones there at 6:30, and it turned out that we were the only ones to show up for the next two hours. No matter, we had a great time. Devoured a bottle of wine, a salad, a basket of bread, bruscetta, pesto and linquini and red funghi with fettucini, plus both tiramisu and a crepe with chocolate and hazelnut spread. YUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. (the only thing I didnt like was the red funghi----it had a salty back taste and I think they snuck some yucky bacon in there....) Of course Jeremy got a little worried that we were being too extravagant, but really, if we were home, we would be blowing $100 on dinner....here we got a feast for about $40. I think we will go back for my birthday because it was so darn good.
After passing the tipsy point, we walked home to find folks on the roof drinking beers and hanging out. We all chilled for a few hours, then eight of us moved to Joker's, a dance club a few miles down the road. I have never been there....and the place was mildly disorienting. Similar to home, loud R & B and Ghanaian music, lots of divas and prostitutes (it was hard to tell the difference except for the ones dancing with the old white guys...those were the prostitutes). But we had fun and stayed out LATE------2:45 am!!!! Can you believe it? I was so proud of myself for not pooping out earlier.
Today the power went out at 9 am, which was fine because we didnt wake up until 11:30, ate breakfast and made our way to Busy in hopes of air conditioning and internet. I think the air conditioners broken, but the internet's up...and thats all good. Tonight is another gal's birthday so we're eating at the big house (and making garlic spread with bread....others are making lasagna and salad and such.) Fun, fun, fun.......
