Days 11 and 12: Laboring and Anniversaries

So today is Sunday, which means all the kids wake up real early and go to church with their parents. It also means it's communal labor day! The most work gets done today so we were really excited. We went up to Kwasi-doi, the lazier of the villages, who kind of disappointed us cause they were supposed to have the pit dug and all by the morning but they said they'd come back at 2pm in the afternoon. Hmph. At least we did have the honor of being served some food again by some of the villagers, this one woman has given us fufu (mashed casava) before so this time she gave us some cold square kenke, which is mashed maize, with some spicy tomato fish sauce. She also had us mash the fufu she was preparing for us with some hot soup which was great too!

On a brighter note, Alata's substructure is halfway done. We videotaped a lot of the construction with Marta's camcorder for her documentary. I even interviewed a couple of the kids, like James, who enjoys making animal noises and wants to be an engineer! It's all on camera I swear. And we also met John Kwaye from Kwasi-doi, who wants to be a doctor because doctors help people. I noticed how he said doctors help people, not that he himself wanted to help people. Well, maybe once he's closer to his dream he'll realize he will be the one helping others!

Dinner was quite special tonight because Mira made gardenegg soup (gardenegg is a squash the size of a tomato i guess, and it has tomato paste, onion, jalapeno peppers, palm oil, and some spices) and cocoyam (a yam-like... yam) Sammy said it's almost as good as his mother's gardenegg soup... Congrats Mira!

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Monday, August 1st, means only one thing. Team 2 is one day away! Suraj, Ben, Anjali will be coming tomorrow! Anyway, Mike and Sammy went to Accra to take care of bizznazz, and me and Mira had to go check up on Kwasi-doi, the slower-digging village. We literally took the straightener and shovel ourselves and made sure the bottom sides of the pit were vertical and straightened. It was really sunny too, so it turned out to be a good workout. As you can see too, kids love helping out with the latrines too. So why not let them have a shovel and go at it right?

And tonight we went to Nsawam again to McDonal's! Not for burgers and fries but for chicken and rice. We also celebrated Marta's 7th anniversary with her bf, well with us, but you know what I mean. McDonal's is like a club actually because when you enter there's a huge space for dancing. The restaurant is upstairs, and a floor above the street so you're free from the streetlights and noise and everything. And today we were able to get some internet too, only the 2nd time actually. We're really living simple here, even though there is electricity in the village, we don't have a means of calling or going online without Sammy's blackberry or coming to Nsawam which is a 15 min taxi ride from Obodan. At least it's kinda cheap though (the taxi which is around a $1 per person and the internet which is a $1 an hour)

Your obronis,

E&Ms

Day 11 pics (Day 12 pics start at our group picture):