Jambo Kenya - Nairobi Part 2

After Sarah collected us from Giraffe Manor, we took a drive out to a place called Kitengela glass. They make hand-blown glass pieces from recycled glass bottles. We received a quick demonstration from one of the craftsmen as he made a very pretty fruit bowl. It's amazing the simplicity of blowing air into hot glass to make everyday items. After the demonstration, we wandered the couple shops that they had on site.

Items made here are used for decor in many of the hotels and safari lodges around Nairobi and the Mara. Additionally, they are available for sale in those same places and other shops around town. As a result, the items for sale at this "warehouse" were offered at a wholesale discount of 30% off. I really wanted some sort of light fixture or chandelier-type thing. I had my "fun money" from the teddy bears I've recently made for people in Ghana, and I had a short list of items I was interested in procuring. We wandered around for awhile and I was having a hard time making a decision (shocker!... anyone who knows me knows I'm awful at this kind of stuff... I can't even pick a restaurant efficiently).

I finally asked Dan if anything appealed to him and he said, let's get three of these and two of those and we can do a cluster thing, hanging them at different heights. Done. So we retrieved the hanging lanterns, and I picked out some gifts while Dan selected a pitcher and decanter. The guy calculated everything up and gave us the discount and in total it came to about $180. Seriously? For custom, handmade, original pieces?! Sold! They packaged everything incredibly well and we were on the road again.

We stopped at a cute little sandwich place for lunch and then headed into the city center of Nairobi to attempt to find our hotel. Sarah isn't terribly familiar with downtown as traffic is usually a mess and she avoids it like the plague. She teaches 2nd grade at an international school in Nairobi and is almost finished with her third year. In June, she will pack up and move back to Florida. We met at University of Florida and have been sharing East Africa vs. West Africa stories for awhile. Since we knew she would be on her way out soon, we figured it was a good reason to get a visit to Nairobi on the schedule.

After arriving at the hotel, we walked to the Masai Market, a market of "artisans", (read as: people hocking stuff they haven't actually created), and shouting at you because your white and likely to buy stuff. I had a very detailed list of the items that I wanted to buy (cough, thank you, Pinterest). Sarah and I briefly discussed numbers on the way over because everything is negotiable. Once I had an idea of what the price should be, or even what I was willing to pay, then I felt okay diving in. There's a lot of people yelling to get your attention "sister! come look at my things!" A guy told Sarah he was Obama's cousin. It's a hoot just to listen to the things people say to get your attention.

I knew I wanted two beaded Masai collars that I want to frame and hang on the wall back in the US. I had a vague idea of what I wanted but had a hard time finding two I liked from the same person. Finally, we found some Masai women in the middle of the market who were surrounded by beaded jewelry. I found two that I liked and eventually got her to agree to cut her price in half. The other item I wanted was a couple shukas. Shukas are blankets of varying thickness that the Masai people usually wear draped over their shoulders or as a quasi-toga. They come in all different colors but red is considered traditional. I liked the idea of them as park blankets or even outdoor blankets back in the US on a chilly evening. I got two lightweight ones and one heavier one for about $22.

 The shukas we purchased and a photo of Masai warriors wearing shukas (credit)

After the market visit, we went our separate ways and got some rest. Sarah picked us back up in the evening and took us to one of her favorite restaurants for dinner. The food was good and the air was a little cool; a welcome change from the heat and humidity of Accra. Afterwards we said our goodbyes and Dan and I walked to a nearby pub for a nightcap before going to bed.

Sunday was much less eventful. Slept in, worked out, I got a massage, we had some lunch, etc. The highlight of Sunday was dinner. We'd been informed by a number of people (Kenyan, tourist, websites, etc) that the place to go is Carnivore. It's a sort of Brazilian churrascuria-type place with all you can eat meat. You get a little flag on your table and as long as the flag is upright, a constant flow of servers continue to come by carrying skewers of different grilled meats. When you admit defeat, you set your flag down on its side to signal the servers that they don't need to come by anymore. Carnivore is also famous for a drink called the dawa. It's sort of a twist on a mojito. It's vodka and lime and soda water with honey on a stick. You stir the honey stick in the beverage which sweetens it up like the sugar in a mojito (no mint though). So we enjoyed our drinks and our meat, which included the normal beef, chicken, pork, lamb and turkey, as well as some more obscure things like crocodile and ostrich. It was a fun way to end our trip.

A very early wake up call on Monday, and we were off to the airport to head back to Accra. Until next time, Kenya! Asante! (Thank you in Swahili)

Birthday Festivities

Last week was a whirlwind of celebrations. I am so grateful for our amazing friends here in Ghana and feel blessed to have crossed paths with such lovely people. Thursday was my 31st birthday and was a day of well-wishes, finished off with a tasty dinner out at an Italian restaurant with Dan. Towards the end of our meal, the sky opened up and dumped rain for several hours. We made a run for it to get a taxi home and slept soundly to the sounds of the rain. That rain may have flooded a bedroom overnight but, we will let that slide.

Friday, after work, a group of us got together at a new place called Kona Bar and Grill in Osu. We had a going away party for one of Dan's coworkers. Janni was on a 6 month exchange program from Copenhagen, Denmark. She has now gone home but it was a nice last night for all of us to get together. It was a surreal moment in the car to look around and realize none of the 5 of us in the car would still be in Ghana by the end of the year: Janni back to Denmark, Gabby back to Kenya, Veronica back to Uganda and Dan and me back to the States. All in all, it was a nice night with good music and good company.

Saturday was a lazy afternoon on my part. Dan, however, woke up and began preparing a birthday cake for me. A few weeks ago, I showed him a photo of a birthday cake shaped like the Death Star from Star Wars. He said "I could totally make that". I politely accepted his challenge and he spent the entire afternoon baking a cake and mixing frosting from scratch. His efforts were truly impressive. The final product was delicious, though maybe slightly lacking in the aesthetics department. It's the thought that counts and I greatly appreciate the thought and the effort... and the multiple sugar rushes that occurred over the weekend.

Saturday evening, Hannah and Robin came down to spend a few days with us. We were going out to dinner that night except for one small problem: the water pump was broken. They turned off the water at about 3:30pm and water was not restored until 9am the following day. Hannah, Robin and I decided to take our pre-dinner showers in the pool since we had no running water. I have to say we all looked pretty good despite maybe a slight waft of chlorine.

There were 10 of us at dinner (left to right in the photo below): Veronica, Selasi, Joe, Sharon, Dan, me, Robin, Rosemary, Gabby and Hannah. The food and drinks were delicious and the conversation was also very enjoyable. We left the restaurant around 11:30 and all headed home after being out the night before and a long Saturday in the kitchen on Dan's part.

Sunday was a day full of movies and lounging. The four of us got up and had breakfast, played volleyball in the pool, took naps and relaxed. It was a very nice birthday weekend filled with quality time with some of my favorite people.

Weekend with Friends in Akosombo

Last weekend, we went up to Akosombo to see Hannah and Robin's new place. They've settled into their little cottage house on the grounds of Right to Dream Academy where Robin has assumed a new role as Director of Operations (or something like that).

We rode up there on Saturday afternoon and quickly got the tour of their new digs. They have a two bedroom place that they've painted and furnished, which we poked fun at because it took them almost a year to get a sofa when they lived here in Accra. It's really cute and suits them perfectly. Robin informed us that a few of the girls might be coming over to talk to Dan and me. One of the girls, Louisa, is going to be moving to the US in August to attend a high school in Connecticut. Robin wanted to give her the opportunity to ask questions to Americans and we were happy to oblige.

Around 3:30 there was a knock at the door, and twenty-something girls filed in. Each one walked right to me, extended her hand and introduced herself... impressive. They ranged in age from about 11 to 15. They took over the sofas, chairs and floor. Robin did a quick introduction of us and opened the floor for questions.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but things got really deep. I think I expected more, what's the weather like? or how is it different from Ghana? We did get those questions. But we also got some deep ones which really put us on the spot. Things like: who are your role models and how did you pick them? What's your definition of success?

It felt a little guidance counselor-like but we tried to inform Louisa of some of the challenges of school in the US. For example, we tried to address trying to figure out where you fit in, and cliques, and that there's nothing wrong with being labeled a nerd/geek/smarty-pants. I also tried to say a little about being a teenage girl in high school since it was a group of young ladies and we have slightly different experiences. This is especially important for Ghanaian girls because this culture is still very male-centric. Women clean and cook and basically do what the man expects them to do. It's still not fully understood/accepted for a girl to be better in the classroom, workplace or on the soccer field than a boy. Girl's sports are pretty well ingrained in US high schools so hopefully she will be proud to showcase her talents.

After our chat, Hannah, Robin, Dan and I got freshened up and went to the Royal Senchi resort for dinner and drinks. Went back home after and crashed.

The following morning, Leonora drove up so we had a nice morning catching up with her and showing her around the school. She basically runs the Ghana branch of an education foundation that works with low-income regions. They go to rural schools and provide a solar panel and satellite dish. The satellite dish then beams lessons that are taught centrally here in Accra out to the rural schools to ensure that those children get a chance at a decent education. As such, Leonora's company has access to quite a few education grants and curriculums which could be really helpful to Robin and the teaching staff at Right to Dream.

After we walked around, we sat down with two of the boys who had been asked to explain RTD's badge system. The badges, which are basically pins, are Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3 and you have to score a certain level in three areas (academics, football/soccer, character) to move to the next stage. The Stage 1 criteria are more basic as it's intended for younger kids or kids that are new to the program. Stage 2 expects more from the kids and achieving a Stage 3 badge means you are ready to be considered for placement at a school in the US. If you fail to achieve the necessary scores at the end of a term, your badge can and will be taken away. With your badge goes your privileges. For example, one of the under 15 boys lost his badge and wasn't allowed to play in the tournaments with his teammates in Europe. The team ended up winning all their matches and the tournament and he was devastated. Not only has he learned his lesson and cleaned up his act, but the other boys, seeing his despair, have quickly realized they don't want to make that mistake. It was a very informative presentation and Michael and Perry did a great job explaining it to us and answering our questions. This is the second time we've been up to the school and the kids continue to blow us away with their English, vocabulary and public speaking to complete strangers.

After the RTD requirements had been completed, we went back over to the Senchi to spend the afternoon by the hotel's pool. Sunday was Ghana's Independence Day so there was a lot of live music and the hotel was packed with people. We stayed till about 4:30 and then rode back to the city with Leonora.

If you'd like to watch more about Right to Dream's girls program, please watch the video below. Note: yes, they all have short, cropped hair. That is standard for school-age girls in Ghana.

Weekend Getaway - Blue Diamond Beach Resort

Apologies for the lack of postings lately. Things have been very quiet/uneventful around here so there wasn't much to tell. But, alas, we did something fun last weekend so here ya go!

Last week some friends invited us to tag along with them to a hotel on the beach about 2 hours outside Accra. Considering we rarely get out of town given our lack of car and driver, we were pleased to be included. On Saturday, Sam and Alex picked us up at our place and we set out for the town of Apam. Apam is due west of Accra, about midway between the capital and Cape Coast.

Not surprisingly, we hit quite a bit of traffic so it took almost 3.5 hours to get to the place but the view was worth the wait. The room rates were very reasonable, though I admit that the rooms themselves were very average. No fancy bedding or other resort-like amenities. That said, we didn't mind because... Look at that view! Why would you be in your room except to sleep anyway? To be fair, they actually offer day rates if you want to drive over and spend the day at the beach/pool.

We arrived, checked in, dropped off our bags and went down to a table in the sand. We each got a fresh coconut and ordered some seafood for a late lunch. Dan and I split some calamari and each got grilled tilapia with some rice. Sam and Alex also split calamari and got the spicy seafood dish and a seafood salad. Everyone was pleased with the meal and given how long it took to be delivered, there's no question it was freshly prepared.

After lunch, the guys played some volleyball and goofed off in the ocean. Alex and I went and got hour massages. An hour massage was 180cedis... so roughly $45. Um, yes. Sign me up. After massages, showers and a nap, we met back up poolside for dinner and some drinks. Between the traffic, the sunshine and just the general lazy feel of the place, we all retired to bed by 10:30pm.

The next morning, I woke up and walked down to a hammock and just hung out listening to the waves. It reminded me of the condo my Gram and Gramps had on the beach when I was a teenager. When I'd spend the night, we'd leave the guest bedroom window cracked so you could hear the sound of the waves as I fell asleep. Dan woke up shortly after and came to join my "hammock vegging".

Eventually, the four of us went to the poolside for breakfast, which was included in the room rate. Tea/coffee, juice, an omelet, fruit and toast. Lots of food for someone who's about to sit around in a bikini... haha. After breakfast, we relocated to some lounge chairs by the pool and relaxed. With the view and the occasional dip in the pool or the ocean, it was hard to believe we were still in Ghana.

Another late lunch with our toes in the sand and we went back to the rooms to shower up for the ride home. There was much less traffic on the way home, which is common for Sundays here, so we made it home in an hour and a half. Dan and I had some incredibly gourmet peanut butter sandwiches for dinner and watched a movie before calling it a weekend.

2nd Annual Valentine's Day Fort-Build

Valentine's Day weekend was surprisingly busy, despite not having any concrete plans ahead of time. Friday night, Dan and I went to dinner with Robin. It was his last night here in Accra before going back to the UK for a few weeks. They are currently in the process of moving up to Akosombo so the house here is pretty much empty and certainly without food.

We went to a South African restaurant that is in a hotel/apartment complex that looked new. The menu was pretty robust for a "hotel restaurant". We got some chicken and seafood skewers to share as starters and a bottle of wine. For mains, Robin got short ribs, Dan got the pork chop and I had a steak. Few places here have steak, and even fewer have good South African beef so I figured I'd give it a shot. My steak was actually really good, the best I've had in Ghana for sure. The guys seemed lukewarm about their choices. Robin's ribs were not braised the way we would have expected short ribs to be, so he gave the chef a hard time (which he always gets a kick out of doing).

Saturday morning, we lounged around the house. Francis, the head security guy, had been bugging me about washing our windows. I held him off for awhile with the good ol' "it's harmattan, let's wait til April" spiel, but he was growing impatient. As I'm certain he needed extra money, and we genuinely like him the most of the staff, we said ok. We did, however, choose to limit his access to just the living room and kitchen. We rarely open the windows in any of the bedrooms anyway.

He came at 10:05 (impressively punctual for a Ghanaian) and got started. When he finished with the patio, I was really grateful. Mostly because I had been dreading cleaning the deck after harmattan and trying to de-dust our patio furniture and the grill. He did all of that and washed the screens/sliding glass doors. We had agreed on 75ghs but we were so blown away by the job he did that we gave him 100 (which is still only $25, to keep things in perspective). I might have him do it again in August right before the patio furniture gets packed onto the shipping container.

Saturday afternoon was spent by the pool, with a side of naps. We got cleaned up and went to our favorite restaurant, Bistro 22, for Valentine's Day dinner. They had red lights throughout the restaurant with silk flower petals and heart confetti on the tables. There was a live band playing "love tunes" on a guitar, saxophone and a strangely high-pitched male vocalist. We ate a lot, enjoyed playing a mildly successful version of Name That Tune and got carrot cake to go. Came home and watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith whilst fork-fighting over the slice of cake.

Sunday was equally as relaxing (read as: lazy) while we watched a triple-header of soccer games. Last Valentine's Day, we were living in Mozambique. To refresh your memory... or mine, since I don't recall whether this story was told at the time... Dan offered to plan the activities for the day. When we left the hotel it was humid and over 100 degrees and felt like a sauna. By 4pm the sky turned black and was about to dump. We stopped off at the store for snacks and gave up on dinner reservations. Good thing we did because it was hurricane-worthy. Cars were stuck in the flooded streets, rain was blowing sideways, it was crazy. We took the mattresses and couch cushions onto the floor and built a fort of bedsheets and blankets, created a makeshift charcuterie plate and watched movies.

It was such a spontaneous but fun night that we decided to make it a tradition. So, this year was the 2nd annual fort-build-movie-watching Valentine's Day. We put together some snacks, built a fort with the sofa cushions and dining chairs and climbed in. We watched Bridge of Spies with Tom Hanks and then cleaned up and crashed. Still fun the second time around so I suspect it will continue.

Things have calmed down a lot on this end now that the weddings and things have passed. I expect the next couple of weeks to be pretty uneventful... which is just fine. :)

Ghanaian Wedding Numero Dos - Gabby and Rosemary

Last Saturday, we went to our second wedding in as many weeks. This one, while taking place in Accra, was much more multicultural. Rosemary, the bride, is Ghanaian from the village of Ho (see Dan's post from Sunday about the Ho festivities... it's not what it sounds like, I promise). Gabby, the groom, is Kenyan on secondment in Ghana from PwC Nairobi... though he's been here three years now. Pierre, the best man, is Cameroonian, and used to work for PwC Ghana but now is on rotation in London. Jonia, the maid of honor, is Tanzanian, and used to work for PwC Ghana but is now on rotation in Dubai. And then there's me, Dan, Janni (Danish), and White Joe (English) rounding out the cast of pale folk. Yes, we have multiple friends named Joe so we do actually call him White Joe to his face.

The wedding was set to start at 10am "prompt". We left the house at 9:35 expecting to arrive around 10:15. We got lost... very lost. In Dan's defense, he knew where he was going, but there was a service road on the right of the highway. He didn't know he needed to be on the service road so when our turn came up, we couldn't make it through the cement barrier. We finally arrived at the church at 11:05 and were sat in the front row by the usher. Rosemary had walked down the aisle but, considering the priest was giving the "please silence your cell phone" spiel, we realized we actually were right on Ghana time.

The ceremony was a Catholic one with lots of standing and sitting but the service was very nice. The priest did well to try to merge the West African/East African cultures and made everyone feel welcome regardless of their personal beliefs.

During the ceremony, we noticed that some people had programs. Dan looked across the aisle to check a woman's program to see where we were in the service. He then whispered to me, "My name is in the program for the reception but I'm not sure why". We asked the usher for a program and she said they had run out. The nice woman across the aisle heard this and gave us one of theirs. Verdict: Dan is a "Popper of Champagne"... along with a few of Rosemary's friends, Gideon, Pierre, Gabby's brother, Dan and Albert. All I can picture in this moment is the scene from Dumb and Dumber when they pop Champagne and kill the endangered species owl. We had a good laugh over this. Thankfully, when that time came at the reception, no humans or owls were hurt in the completion of this task.

After the ceremony, there were multiple photographs taken. A list of the order of photographs was provided in the program just like it was the weekend before. We stayed for the "PwC" photo and the "friends of the groom" photo. Afterwards, we hitched a ride with George to the reception where we were seated and awaited the arrival of the newlyweds.

The reception was very nice and similar to Laura's with the western-ness. They cut the cake, there was a bar, toasts, first dance, etc. There was a buffet of food from both sides of Africa... Ghanaians love spicy food, whereas East African food has no pepper so they accommodated family/friends from both ends. The funniest thing is that our table was selected last to go to the buffet but they had run out of plates. We're not sure how that happened. You have x number of chairs, wouldn't you need at least as many plates and then some for people who come back for seconds or take two? Apparently not. So we had to wait for them to wash some plates. A lot of the food had run out by this point so we took what was still available and went back to the table. After the food was finished, and the drinks were flowing surprisingly heavily, the dance floor opened up. It was everything you'd expect an African wedding's dance floor to be. Best people watching experience I've had in a long time.

 Albert post-Champagne-popping/Dorothy, me and Ayesha

 Dan the Man/Photo with the newly married couple which escalated to...

 

this...

and then this...

As the reception was winding down, Pierre asked Dan and me if the after party could be at our house. Obviously, we said yes. The remaining booze was put into Albert's trunk and he and Dorothy drove us home. We got home around 6pm, took some showers and a quick nap. People started turning up around 8/8:30. At max capacity, there were about 15 of us.

By 1am, Rosemary was asleep on Gabby's lap and I casually started to pick up empty bottles/glasses. You know, the universal sign for "hey it's been fun but please get out of my house so I can go to bed". Everyone was very grateful that we had them over and the troops headed out. Suffice to say we slept very well after a long day in the sun and playing host/hostess.

Another wedding in Ghana complete.

Guest Post - Gabby's Traditional Wedding

Jeopardy Clue: A long handled gardening instrument, a promiscuous woman, and a city in Ghana.
Answer: What is Ho?

It’s wedding season in PwC Ghana.  A number of coworkers are getting married (not to each other).  Jen shared her experiences at a wedding last weekend which was done in the Ghanaian take on western weddings.  During that weekend, I was supporting a good friend with his traditional Ghanaian wedding in Ho (no funny pronunciation, it’s just the way Santa says it).

Cast of characters:

Author: Me
Gabby: (Male) coworker on secondment from Kenya
Pierre: Coworker from Cameroon/Ghana but on secondment in London and Gabby’s good friend.
Albert: Husband of coworker Dorothy
Rosemary: Gabby’s bride-to-be
The Kenyans: Gabby’s friends from Kenya
George: Partner at PwC

Albert, Gabby and I were drinking (juice) together and decided that we needed to have a party, one last hurrah with Gabby before he got married.  Unfortunately, Gabby’s weekends were being occupied by wedding stuff.  Apparently weddings don’t plan themselves. 

However, according to Gabby, he had to attend some traditional thing in Rosemary’s village (Ho) on 30 January.  “It’s in the afternoon and I just have to show up for five minutes, not say anything, and then leave.  We can go up to Ho together and have a good time”

Conveniently, that was also the weekend Pierre was going to be in town – so he’d be able to join us. 

The plan was simple, pick Pierre up from the airport on Friday, head up to Ho, enjoy a night on the town, and head to “this traditional thing” the following morning.  Hangovers be damned.

During the workday on Friday, there are a lot more details surfacing about “some traditional thing.”  It turns out that this is the traditional Ghanaian wedding we’re headed to.  It’s a little more than just going for five minutes and being done.  It seems that since Gabby’s family was in Kenya, he needed someone of stature to speak on his behalf in front of the elders.  Enter: George. 

Not only did Gabby need someone to speak to the elders, he also needed to give a gift to the elders and some of Rosemary’s family members.  Specifically, cash.  But not just any cash, new bills.  To assist with this, Gabby and I headed out after work to go to my bank ATM (closer than his) and start to sort through money that I withdrew.  What probably looked like a suspicious exchange was actually completely legitimate.

Gabby and I grabbed dinner while the Kenyans and Albert came to meet us. Pierre was set to arrive at 8PM on Friday.  Planes arriving from the UK or US generally take about an hour longer than other planes because people are always bringing half a dozen bags of goodies for their friends and family.  Pierre’s flight was no different.  About an hour delayed in landing and another 1.5 hours for baggage, Pierre was back in Ghana.  Since Pierre was staying with Jen and me, I was the welcoming committee while Gabby, Albert and the Kenyans were taking care of Gabby.

I get Pierre settled and we meet up with Gabby, Albert and the Kenyans and then we’re off in our caravan to Ho.  Oh, and we’re also informed that this wedding program is supposed to start at 7AM…

A few hours later we arrive in Ho at about 2AM.  Time to hit the town! Unfortunately, the town looks haunted.  You see, this time of year is harmattan.  Sand and dust blows down from the Sahara.  The further north you go, the dustier and sandier it becomes.  As a result, we’re driving through a quiet, poorly lit town with “fog” that restricts distance vision.

Early mornings and quiet villages can’t stop us though.  We arrive at our hotel and wake up the staff who were sleeping on couches and mattresses around the property.  Much to their chagrin, they open the bar for us and our night on the town wraps up around 6AM.  45 minutes of sleep later, we awake to get ready.  Quick showers and a quick breakfast is all we need (when you’re as naturally good looking as us, it doesn’t take much).  George had arrived in Ho and was escorted to meet the elders.  Pierre, Gabby, Albert, the Kenyans and I meet George at one of the elder’s home.

(Left to Right: Gabby, George, Pierre, me)

 

They say a few words and want to validate all of the gifts that Gabby had purchased for Rosemary and her family.  These are separate gifts from the envelopes of fresh cash.  Typically, the traditional gifts are a sewing machine, cloth, kitchen utensils, tobacco, spirits, and a stool (yes, like a small bar stool) among other things. Since we are running late, Gabby has to bring another gift to Rosemary’s family as a token of respect.  The elders recommend a specific brand of whiskey. 

Upon arriving at the venue, we are seated with the other men and listen to the priest and some of the elders say a few things.  The local language there is Ewe, of which I (obviously) and Gabby do not speak.  Luckily, Albert does speak it and is able to translate for the Kenyans, Pierre and me, and the elders translate for Gabby. 

Then the ladies come in bearing the gifts that Gabby had brought. (see Video) Traditionally, the family will accept each gift individually, but the process was sped up a bit with the mother just announcing that everything was accepted. Following the gifts, it was time for the bride to come out.  Except she needs a little extra “motivation” – meaning that the crowd needs to throw in some cash to help convince her. 

 

Rosemary arrives via procession with the ladies of the village, similar to the way the gifts came in.  The rest of the “ceremony” (about another hour) involved people giving speeches and prayers in Ewe.  After which, the father accepted the engagement proposal and both Gabby and Rosemary started to cry. Naturally, Gabby caught a fair share of flak from us.

 

 

After the festivities completed, we went back to the hotel to check out and made our way back to Accra. Due to lots of traffic, and multiple food stops suggested by a very convincing Albert, we finally made it back home around 9pm Saturday night.

My First Ghanaian Wedding

Last Saturday, I attended my first Ghanaian wedding. Friday night, Dan went with a bunch of the guys up to Ho (about 2 hours away) for Gabby's traditional wedding to Rosemary... more on this later as I'm currently negotiating with Dan to write up a post about it.

So Saturday, I was under the assumption that I was waiting for the guys to return and then going with them to Laura's wedding. In reality, Dorothy was coming to pick me up to be her date to the wedding, since Albert was also with Dan. Dorothy told me that the wedding started at 3pm. She picked me up at 3:15 (Ghana time). We got to the venue around 3:45 but a bunch of PwC people pulled in at the same time as us so we walked over together. Laura was already down the aisle and the ceremony was in progress. Everyone was very impressed by this.

The ceremony was nice and everyone was very excited for Laura and her new husband Kplom. After the ceremony, they took pictures. The wedding program has a list on it of the order of the photographs so you know when to be ready. Maybe 5th on the list was PwC, so everyone was congregating around the couple. I told Ayesha that I would wait for them in the back. She said absolutely not, you're part of PwC, so there I was in this photo... and yes, I was the only white person at the wedding.

Wedding program/fan

One interesting fact is that there are people all over the place with cameras. So they look really official but actually it's a ploy. They take your picture and then show it to you and when you say it's nice they go print it out, hand it to you and say 10 cedis. I almost wanted to applaud the mindset... almost.

After the ceremony, we went across to the reception. I didn't know what to expect but all the traditions were very western. The reception was long tables with tablecloths and nice decor. They cut a cake, did a first dance, guest book, etc. There was an open bar and a buffet of traditional Ghanaian food. The firm here is such a close group that everyone stepped up to help Laura on her special day. Ishmael was the photographer. Dzidj was the MC. It was sweet to see everyone support her. There had to have been 40-50 people from the firm there just based on the size of the two reserved tables.

After dinner and dancing, we went up to say our goodbyes. I wasn't sure if Laura even knew who I was but I felt like I should at least thank them for such a nice event and wish them well. I walked up and she said "Jen!" and gave me a big hug, asked Dorothy and I where the guys were and we explained they were stuck in traffic.

Dorothy dropped me off at home and I waited on the Motley Crew to return. When they got back, me, Dan, Pierre and Gabby went to Shisha Lounge for pizzas and drinks and toasted Gabby's married status. Gabby then spent the first night of his marriage sleeping in our guest room with Pierre. We made sure to give him a hard time about this.

Gabby and Rosemary's western/formal wedding is this Saturday so I'm very excited to have another party with everyone.

Jollof Training... or Parent Training?

Last Saturday, we went to Dorothy's for the day. Back in November, when Dorothy was in the US for training, she went to Costco and ordered a ton of stuff for her and another coworker here. It was sea freighted over here for a flat rate and had just arrived that week. One of the items in the shipment was an electric kid's car. Dorothy invited us over so Dan could put the car together and she could teach me how to make jollof.

Her driver came to pick us up and we went over to Tema. When we arrived, the kids were ready to "help". And by help, I mean, make it incredibly difficult for Dan to put together this car. The first issue we ran into was that the screws provided with the car were too small. The heads just fell straight through the predrilled holes. So new screws needed to be procured, then he was able to get started. Dorothy and I were in the kitchen listening to shouts of "Uncle Daniel, Uncle Daniel! I can help!" and "Uncle Daniel, Uncle Daniel! Can we drive the car now?!" He was very patient whilst having to constantly remove one child or another from the vehicle and hide the car's decals on top of the fridge.

 

 

While he wrangled the three crazies, I was attempting to take notes on jollof. I thought this would be pretty straightforward since jollof is a Ghanaian dish and Dorothy hasn't been here all that long. So I figured she would have just learned from scratch within the last 10 years or so and would have a real recipe. False... wrong on all fronts. 1. Jollof is also made in Cameroon, so Dorothy has been making it for as long as she can remember. 2. There is no recipe. 3. Dorothy cooks like my Grandma Maria...dash of this, scoop of that, no measurements... just autopilot.

So I tried to scribble down the ingredients, although I admit I have no idea what the correct proportions of these things are. Essentially, you make a stew with stock, tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, spices, etc. Once the stew has been prepared and has thickened, you add in the rice. The rice cooks in the stew and absorbs it, making it a little red in color (from the tomatoes and tomato paste) and as spicy as you wish... It's very spicy in Ghana, which is fine with us. Once the rice cooked, we added in some diced carrots and green bell peppers.

In between stages of jollof cooking, I went to try to help Dan with the car. Maame Esi (pronounced like Mamisi) is 7 and genuinely wanted to help. She would get a screwdriver and wait for me to place the part and screw in the screws as far as she could. Ethan and Nathan (twin boys) are 4 and just were in a battle for who was going to drive the car first. Dan had to keep removing one or the other from the driver's seat. At one point, Nathan started pushing the car from behind.

Eventually, we finished the car and Dan broke the news to the clan that the car needed to charge... for twenty hours. This was not well received. They coped with this disaster and the 6 of us sat down for some early dinner. We ate and the grown ups had some wine. Dorothy packed us up some of the jollof and coleslaw to take home. We horsed around with the kids for awhile and then said goodbye to the clan and were driven back home.

Back in Ghana

The last two weeks have gone by pretty quickly, now that we are back in Ghana and caught up on laundry from the holidays. Hard to believe it's 2016 and our assignment will be over this year. We've been watching NFL playoffs, chuckling that there's only two more weeks of NFL watching from abroad. We will welcome a reasonable football-watching-timezone with open arms.

The weekends have been busy since we returned. Two weekends ago, we met Hannah and Robin on Friday night for dinner at a new (to us) place called Le Must (photo at left - credit). The food was decent and the ambiance was nice. It was quiet and we were the only people for awhile since people tend to eat late here. It was a good environment to catch up since we hadn't seen each other since before the holidays. On Saturday, there was a party at the tax partner, George's, house. He lives pretty far away from us and the party was supposed to start at 3. We decided we would leave the house at 3:45 which got us there around 4:30/4:45. We were the second people there. LOL.

Dan was giving directions to our taxi driver and he said "turn right here" and the driver said "are you sure?". Clearly, even he didn't believe we could be in the correct neighborhood, but alas, there was a big house and three Mercedeses in front. The house is beautiful but it's definitely the nicest place in the area (which is kind of the middle of nowhere). Come to find out it's basically the midway point between the village where George grew up and the office, which was the appeal of the location. There was a TON of food: soup, chicken, beef, three kinds of rice, grilled chicken, kebabs, and an entire roasted pig. By 7 or 8, most of the tax department was there and there was dancing and laughing and very loud music courtesy of the DJ who didn't seem to understand our many requests to dial it down. Various neighborhood folk kept trying to enter the party or get some food and George and his son had to keep escorting people back out the gate. It was good to see all of Dan's coworkers, especially my favorites, who I hadn't seen in almost two months.


I chatted with the other partner, Ayesha, for awhile and she paid Dan and me some really lovely compliments. She said how impressed she was with how much we try to go out and explore Ghana and see different places. She joked that we probably knew more of Accra than most Ghanaians who don't go out much and stick to the areas they know. Ayesha did a rotation in the UK and said she understands how easy it is to just stick to the customs/food/places/people you know but that she was genuinely pleased to see that we were outgoing people and open-minded to trying new things. (File under: qualities I never would have used to describe myself 5-10 years ago). It resonated with me because we really do try, but it's nice to know that other people see our efforts and appreciate them.

Saturday night and Sunday afternoon were quiet with football. I checked out a new grocery store and found tortilla chips. When I handed Dan the bag, you would have sworn it was the $1.5 billion Powerball ticket. He almost ate the whole bag in one sitting. That night, I went out to Bistro 22 with Alex and Leonora for dinner to catch up on their holiday happenings, which was very nice. Another work week flew by and Friday night, we went out to Urban Grill for dinner. We'd only been there once before, for Dan's birthday, but I really like the place (photo at right - credit). They have a really good salmon dish, which is not a common fish here, so I enjoy it even more. We had some wine and split a tuna/avocado appetizer. Dan got roasted chicken. It's a little pricey but consistently good and has a great reputation among the expats.

Saturday afternoon, we went to a place called Wild Gecko with Robin and Hannah. A lot of expats shop there for Ghana souvenirs. Since our time here is quickly coming to a close, we wanted to see what they had to offer just to keep in mind. I was really looking for housewares that we could bring home, like a cool mirror or light fixture, rather than just a knick-knack. They had some things but nothing that wow-ed us and everything was really expensive. We shall keep looking. Afterwards, we got dropped off at home, everyone had a little rest (except Chef Dan) and they came back over for dinner that night.

We ate and watched the recording of the Golden Globe awards from the weekend before. After they went home, Dan and I watched some football until we fell asleep. On Sunday, we hung out by the pool for a couple hours and watched some movies. Enjoyed a good week for our fantasy football team and got some rest for the coming work week.

I'm Baaaaaaack

That's right. We're safely back home in Ghana after lots of traveling. My apologies for the delay in posting but it's been quite a busy few months. In mid-November, we flew back to the US. Dan spent a week at training in Orlando and I worked from my parents' house in Tampa. On Friday, we flew to Vegas for a quick weekend trip... something we did almost every football season when we lived in San Francisco.

We returned back to Tampa and spent Thanksgiving week with both of our families. It was a very enjoyable few days having everyone together. After the holiday, Dan headed back to Ghana and I remained in Florida. Frankly, it was significantly cheaper for me to remain in Florida since Dan and I were meeting in Europe three weeks later. Considering my job allows me to work remotely, it worked perfectly.

Fast forward a few weeks... wonderful weeks filled with quality time with my parents and some of my best friends.

When Dan and I planned our European Christmas Vacation, I was looking into flights. At the time, the easiest route of travel was Lufthansa from Accra to Frankfurt and then directly to Tampa. (Yes, there's a direct flight from Frankfurt to Tampa... surprising, I know). Expecting to fly through Frankfurt, I invited my mom to fly back to Germany with me to explore some German Christmas markets. Of course, she eagerly accepted... and, shortly after that, Lufthansa stopped their service to Ghana. This required some airline/flight finagling but we managed to get it sorted out.

So mid-December, my mom and I flew to Frankfurt. We arrived in the morning on a Wednesday. I needed to get some work done during that part of the trip so I worked early mornings, before dinner, and before bed. After sending some emails, we took the subway to the Christmas market. We roamed the market and had a mug of gluhwein (warm spiced wine) to properly complete the experience. Honestly, neither of us were fans of the drink but the mugs were incredibly cute, soooooo.... worth it. We got the obligatory Christmas tree ornaments and just made note of the items we were interested in for future reference.

Thursday morning, we took the train one hour north to Cologne. We checked into the hotel and went out to see the market there. Ok. Ok. Markets. Cologne has 7 Christmas markets, and we were determined to see as many in our one day as possible. So after a quick stop at Starbucks, we fired the starting gun and we were off. Cologne's markets were much better than Frankfurt's. So much so that we were having trouble deciding on what we wanted to get as souvenirs. We made it to a total of 5 of the 7 markets before we felt like we were seeing the same stuff over and over. We stopped for a glass of wine and a snack and waited for the sun to go down so the Christmas lights would illuminate the largest market (which was just next to the city's beautiful Gothic cathedral).

We walked around again and went back to our favorite places. There was a band playing live music and it was definitely more lively with everyone being off of work and enjoying their evening. I got a wreath, some matching handmade garland and a wooden German Christmas pyramid. My mom also got a pyramid, another one for her friend, and some Christmas cookies in the shape of the cathedral. We went back to the hotel carrying our load of gifts and even the woman at the check-in desk remarked about how we "did some shopping" haha.

Friday morning, we boarded the train back to Frankfurt with our loot in tow. We rested at the hotel while I worked and walked down to a really cute hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant for dinner. On Saturday morning, we said our goodbyes and my mom headed back to the States and I flew to Turin, Italy to meet Dan and start our holiday vacation. More on that next time...

Halloween 2015

I apologize for the day late post. Life is incredibly busy at the moment and the days keep getting away from me. I cannot believe it is Friday again. We launched a new initiative at work this week which has made for some long workdays... topped off with evenings at the sewing machine trying to get through all the teddy bear orders. Definitely bit off more than I can chew with that side project this year. Thankful for all of my mom's help with keeping all the orders sorted out and making sure I don't miss anything.

Obviously last Saturday was Halloween. During the day, we had our typical Saturday afternoon. Work out, lay by the pool, maybe a nap, watch some college football... pretty standard. Honestly, I have no idea how/when Halloween got popular here. I'm starting to think maybe it was just because it was a Saturday. Last year, we didn't hear about anything for Halloween and just figured it's not a holiday celebrated much outside North America. This year there were three bars and two restaurants doing Halloween contests, a masquerade ball at a hotel, a rooftop dinner at a friend's place, and numerous house parties. What? So we definitely had our pick of the litter.

Problem is that anyone who knows me knows how seriously I take my Halloween costumes. I usually start thinking about them around August, especially if "much assembly is required". Unfortunately, we learned about most of these parties about a week in advance and given the lack of Target and Jo-Ann's in Ghana, I found myself hard pressed to find items for a costume. Dan has a standard fall-back costume of Clark Kent. He's a huge Superman fan and it really doesn't take a lot of work aside from having a Superman shirt, some glasses and dress clothes. All of which he has. Bonus: having a cowlick in the center of your forehead that can be moussed to curl. Numerous people have commented that he sort of looks like Christopher Reeve when he wears the costume.

Ok so Dan is done. What the heck do I do? With the new Star Wars movie coming out, we've been re-watching a lot of movies... ok, I confess, we watch them often regardless of a new film coming out. I started going through characters but realizing that I didn't have the wardrobe or the shopping outlets to pull it off. Then I landed on R2D2. Well I have an extra white pillowcase... and a metal mixing bowl. I could probably make that work. So one football Sunday was spent painting a pillow case and taping fabric pieces to a metal mixing bowl.

Here's a picture of our final products:

It's a far cry from some of our past work:

So Saturday evening we had Miriam and Joe over for dinner and then went to two different house parties. We really didn't know anyone at either place but it was fun to meet some new expats and see the costumes people came up with. Lots of witches and Joker's. There was a Dalai Lama, Count of Monte Cristo, and a few others that were pretty impressive. Most people liked our costumes which is always a fun bonus. Too bad we didn't bring some of our past Halloween costumes or we could have gone from bar to bar winning costume contests. Oh well, live and learn. All in all, it was a fun Halloween and I enjoyed getting to let the creative juices out for my own personal crafty talent show.

NAWA and Dan's Birthday

The early part of this week was quiet, mostly because we were waiting to get paid... haha. On Wednesday, I went to a cafe to work and Alex came over at lunchtime to have a coffee and chat. She mentioned that she recently joined NAWA (North American Women's Association) and wanted to go to an organized dinner the next night. She wanted me to tag along; partially, so she didn't have to go alone but also because she's British, so she wanted an American partner in crime. Dan was expected to have a work happy hour that night anyway so I agreed and we RSVPed.

Thursday evening arrived and Alex was coming to pick me up. Just then, the sky opened up and DUMPED rain. In the run from the door of our building to her car, I was drenched. We very carefully navigated Accra's poorly drained roads and got to dinner safely. We weren't sure what to expect as we had been told that NAWA was a lot of older ladies, so we were going in open minded. There were about 20 of us and I think people ranged from early-mid-20s to early-mid-40s, so a good group. Everyone was really friendly and it was nice to meet some new people and share our experiences here in Ghana.

Maybe 5 of us were actually North American which I found pretty funny. One girl from Boston, two from Montana, one from all over California and me. The dinner was at an Ethiopian restaurant and was served buffet style. The food was very good and as enjoyable as I recall it being in Addis Ababa. The owner of the restaurant is definitely Ethiopian so the authenticity was never in question. We had some wine and chatted, and eventually parted ways around 10pm. The restaurant was very close to Alex's house so I felt bad having her return me back home. Luckily, one of the other ladies lives quite close to me and was kind enough to drop me off. I'm really glad I went and grateful to Alex for inviting me. Going to stuff like that alone can be overwhelming.

Friday was Dan's 30th birthday and we had reservations for dinner at a place called Urban Grill, which we heard good things about. It's close to his work so he and some coworkers went over and hung out at the bar downstairs after the end of their day. I met them there and, apparently, just missed the cake/singing bit. Funny because I know that Dan is not a fan of that stuff so I know better than to inform any servers it's his birthday. He had gone to the bathroom and when he returned they started their birthday music and parade of servers with a cake that has a sparkler in it, and immediately knew what was coming. That's what he gets for leaving Noks unsupervised. Dan and I went upstairs for dinner while everyone else kept enjoying their happy hour. We got a bottle of malbec and shared a tuna and avocado appetizer that came with plantain chips. For dinner, we got salmon with quinoa and a beetroot sauce and plantain chip crusted grouper with salsa and green beans. We swapped plates halfway through, haha.

After dinner, we went back down and found everyone right where we left them. We rounded up the troops and headed to Republic, an outdoor bar in Osu. We had some drinks and chatted until we got tired after a long day of work and celebrating. Headed back home around 11 to crash. I think Dan had a good birthday and a nice kickoff to Halloween weekend.

Wings and Rugby

Another busy week in the books. Thursday and Friday, Dan taught trainings at the office for the better part of the morning. Friday, I ran some errands to top up the electricity and go on a wild goose chase hunting down dishwasher tablets... for which we have now checked four stores and no one has any... weird.

Friday night we wanted to go out for a bite but wanted to try somewhere new. Recently, just on the other side of the US Embassy, a new wing place opened up. It's called Lord of the Wings... see what they did there? The menu is sizable and seems to be a knock-off of Buffalo Wild Wings in the States. They have a few different types of wings and then 15 or so different sauces. Now, this is Ghana where spicy food is a big thing. So we decided to try a few different sauces and Dan stuck around the middle of the heat scale. His thought process was that given Ghana spice, anything labeled as spicy would be tear-up-your-insides/smoke-out-your-ears spicy. The wings came and while tasty, there was no kick at all, which left us a little disappointed. Oh well. You live and you learn. At least it's a walking distance place for a decent meal and a beer after a busy day.

Saturday we had plans to meet up with some of Dan's coworkers to watch the Rugby World Cup semifinal of South Africa v. New Zealand. The pub is really close to this clothing store I've been wanting to check out so we left a little early to go there. It's called Brown Sugar and they have really cute clothes on their website and in the window (very American looking). We went in and the place is pretty small but they do have quite a bit of inventory. I was pretty disappointed to learn that all the clothes I thought were cute and could wear in the States were... actually from the States. I would say half the inventory is called Forever XXI Contemporary. Now I have no idea what the Contemporary line is or how it differs from standard Forever XXI, but I cannot justify paying $60 for a dress that is from there. For that price, there are many better-made options in the States so I suppose I'll set aside my shopping desires until I get back to the homeland in a few weeks.

The rugby group was fun: me, Dan, Veronica, Noks (wearing her South Africa rugby shirt), Janni, and "white Joe". White Joe requires differentiation as we ran into "Teddy Bear Joe" who is Ghanaian and was also at the pub watching soccer. Unfortunately, SA lost to the All Blacks but kept the score close which is an impressive showing given New Zealand's dominance in the sport. There was a promotion for Carlsberg beer that you got free swag if you drank so many beers. Given there were quite a few of us and we were there for 3 hours, much swag was procured. I think by the end we had 3 shirts, two hats, and two coffee thermoses amongst the table.

After rugby, we got some last minute groceries and came home. Hannah and Robin came over for dinner but we were all pretty exhausted by 10:30 or so. Watched a little college football an then hit the hay. There's a game at Wembley in England today so NFL watching starts a little earlier than usual in our house. Looking forward to another Fall Sunday!

First No-Travel Month... in awhile

Think about it... it's really been quite some time since we've had a full calendar month without a suitcase. Jan-Mar: Mozambique, Apr: Morocco/England, May: Safari in South Africa, June/July: Ethiopia/Tanzania, Aug: Dubai/Cairo, and Sep: SF/Munich. It's been incredible. We wouldn't change a moment of it. That said, having all of October to lounge around and catch up with friends and life here in Ghana has been lovely.

Things are looking very late-October-y (you like that made up word?) around here. The Halloween decorations have blended in to appear like normal house decor, weekend evenings are filled with football of both the NCAA and NFL varieties, the teddy bear business is booming in preparation for the holidays and we're just about a week and a half away from Dan's 30th birthday.

The last couple weeks have been very average. We've both had some busy work weeks culminating in many quiet evenings at home with dinners and DVR dates. We went out to dinner a few times with friends including a positively hilarious night with Hannah and Robin. We went to a French restaurant. Admittedly, we had wine at their house before we went so all four of us were feeling quite loose. We weren't sure of the dress code so Dan called to see if he could wear shorts. They said no, so we had to swing by the house for him to change into jeans. H & R were hounding him and giving him a time limit. He was taking a really long time and we couldn't figure out why. Finally, he appears back at the car in a full suit... apparently he really took the no shorts thing to heart.

Sitting at the restaurant, Robin wanted us all to speak in sub-par French accents through dinner, which no one else was really chomping at the bit to do. So then he decided we should give each other a character to act out until the next course arrived. We got to pick out the character for the person to our left. We'll just cut to the chase and say Dan won... or maybe I won depending on how you look at it since I picked his character. I told him he was Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. I was actually crying at the table. He starts subtley rocking back and forth stroking his left arm and saying (in the perfect voice) things like: "There's three pieces of bread. Three pieces of bread." "You had wine but now you don't. You need more wine." Suffice to say, no one else even attempted their character because we were a) too busy laughing and b) well aware of the fact that we couldn't beat him.

I apologize that our lives haven't been particularly exciting in the last few weeks, and, as a result, my posts are less entertaining. But, hopefully, the mental picture of this story was enough to put a smile on your face.

Tax Away Day 2015 - Part 2

Sorry for missing Thursday's post. Dan is teaching several trainings over the next week or so, thus he was "too busy" to write the second half of the Away Day Recap... But, without further ado...

Post Games:

Ghanaian food for lunch (prepared by the hotel, not me).  Then, nap time for me. Nap time lasted about 90 minutes.  Then, the plan was to have dance practice and get ready for the evening event.

Oh yeah, dance practice.  So, the planning committee decided that we should do a performance at the end of the evening event and to kickstart the party.  Obviously, this wasn’t a unanimous vote.  But, being the gifted dancer that I am, I was not that upset when the majority agreed to do a dance.  The dances were to Uptown Funk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPf0YbXqDm0) - which I’m sure all readers have heard on the radio – and Shake Body (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qoUU4onORY).  Given my proclivity to “feeling the rhythm,” I’m pretty confident I looked just like the dancers in the second video. 

Anyway, the plan was dance practice then get ready for the evening event.

Unfortunately, lots of things were running on Ghana time (i.e., not on time).  As a result, dance practice turned out to include helping finish setting up the venue and dealing with other issues.  Most notably, power. 

“Daniel, we have a problem.”

“Okay…”

“I’m being told by the technician that we don’t have enough voltage”

“Like power?”

“Yes please.  You see the lights? They’re already going out”

“Okay, so who do I need to talk to?”

“The technician is over there”

“Yo, boss, I hear we have a power problem”

“Yes, someone should have talked to me!”

I then took a bit of berating for the next minute or so.

“Alright, well are there any solutions?”

“We can add another power source”

“Okay, lets do that then”

After talking to a few more people, power issue = troubleshot.

Evening program:

 So the evening program was scheduled to start at 6.  People would arrive, take pictures, grab a drink, then have dinner at 7.  Dinner was a wide variety of food that was as close to “island” or “Hawaiian Luau” as we could get.  We had about 30 roasted chickens and 2 whole goats that were on a rotisserie.  Not quite a pig roast, but we did what we could.

In Ghana time, that means people started to arrive at 7PM and dinner starts at 8PM.  This actually worked out well because while I was dealing with last minute items, I was still in workout clothes.  In fact, when people were taking their pictures and selfies, you can find me in the background of quite a few still in my work out clothes…an interesting contrast to the fancy dress of everyone else. 

But, like most events, everyone will have a good time regardless of the little things that go wrong.  Obviously, I’m a little torn up that the drink umbrellas didn’t make it out, but I don’t think it ruined the atmosphere. 

As some readers may know, Ghanaians generally do not drink alcohol.  When budgeting for the party, we assumed there were about 7 (out of 60 people) who would drink alcohol and we bought beer/wine/liquor accordingly.  Part of that budget was 2 bottles of Johnny Walker Gold Label.  Even among 7 people, that’s a decent amount.

At approximately 10:30, the bartender informs me that the Gold Label is out.  I tell him to open up the second bottle and he informs me that is gone as well.  I look around and none of the 7 drinkers are passed out, so I tell him to get another one from the hotel bar.

At about 11, the bartender informs me that the Gold Label is out, again.  Now I’m starting to realize that a lot of these non-drinking-Ghanaians are having a little extra fun.  I go ahead and tell him to bring two more from the hotel bar.  Neither of which made it home with us.

The whole evening lasted until about 1:30AM, and then Gabby and I hosted an after party until about 3AM.

Since pictures are worth a thousand words, here’s a few thousand-word essay on the rest of the events.  I will note that none of the pictures after 11:30PM (aka, after 5 bottles of whiskey) were shared amongst the group:

Me presenting Gabby with the Hardest Partier award

Video of dance done by Senior Managers: