Weekend Update

I was too lazy to type this all out on my phone.

Friday night we called our go-to-taxi drive Peter to take us to the Stumble Inn. He came to the house and 7 of us plus Pepo piled into his car and headed in the general direction of where we thought this hotel was.  So we drove through Elmina and into the middle of nowhere, when we finally found a sign for the hotel. We continued to go further into the trees, when we finally saw lights. We pulled up to what looked like the county jail with a massive chain link fence with barbed wire on the top. The gate man let us in and we basically fell out of the car when we opened the door. Some workers from the hotel came to greet us, but froze in their steps as soon as they saw Pepo.  One of the workers looked at us and said, "We would like to welcome you, but how your dog is, we are very afraid." So we put a leash on him, and then found out that we were at the wrong hotel.

So we all packed into the car again, and eventually found our way to the actual Stumble Inn.  Check it out at stumbleinnghana.com  .  The group that lives near our volunteer house was part of building this Inn, and their volunteers living here for less than 8 weeks live at the Inn.  So, the goal of our going to the Inn was to try to make friends with another NGO group in the area. Epic Fail.  I think that our group is a little to hyper to make friends.  We tried to be social, but they apparently were not in the mood to make new friends. So, we ended up hanging out with the two that live right next to our house.

When we got to the Inn, they had just put dinner out and it was the most delicious goat, chicken and rice ever! However, I was having second thoughts on the goat when I found out that it belonged to one of our neighbors.  I guess they couldn't find a goat for dinner, so they just killed his. RUDE!!!

After dinner we went for an evening swim, because we all just get so excited whenever we are at the ocean...we couldn't wait until morning. After we went swimming we played cards and then sat around the campfire until it was time for us to go to sleep.  We were in a dorm style room with 8 beds, but it was a pretty big room.

The next morning was really funny because we all woke up to one of the volunteers saying "ummmm guys, there is throw up on my shoes." Of course we all started cracking up, and everyone was looking at one another saying, not me, not me, not me. After deciding that we all would have heard a human throwing up, we put the blame on Pepo. Maria confirmed that he does often throw up silently, so we are sure it was him. Later in the morning we found out that he also pooped in one of the showers.....bad dog!

We really had no idea what to expect of the Stumble Inn, so we were thrilled to see that they served breakfast. Once again I ordered french toast, and coffee. Seriously, nothing beats sitting on the beach drinking coffee and eating french toast. It is the best way to start out a Saturday morning.

It was pretty cloudy when we got up, so we went for a walk along the beach after breakfast.  The water washed up onto my feet and I looked down and suddenly there were tons and tons of red bumps all over my feet. It did not hurt or itch, so I just ignored it and kept walking.  Eventually they faded, but there was still some irritation....and then later it turned into an itching nightmare. I seriously wanted to cut my feet off. On ONE foot I have 114 little red bumps. I do not know if they are bites or a rash or what, but it is so so so itchy.

After our walk, we just sat around reading because it was pretty dreary outside. Then we decided to have lunch. I think that is the bad part about having a tab....you just keep eating and eating and then at the end you are slapped with the payment. My tab was under the name Frick and Frack. So, we all had chicken salad sandwiches, and they were once again amazing! I think I just love the weekends because I always get to eat a lot.

After lunch we played cards. The main family running SABRE (the NGO) has 4 little kids that are always running around by our house. I always try to get them to laugh or smile, but I never have any luck. The family was at the beach and the little baby was crying, so the mother of little Casper asked if anyone wanted to hold him, and of course I just jumped at the opportunity. He was such a cute little baby, and he was so happy just playing with my water bottle and doing a little baby shimmy with me. Eventually I got the other three kids to like me too. :-)

We headed back to the house so that we could shower before going to watch the BIG GAME! I put on my oh so fashionable Ghana sweat band, and we went over to the Shell station to watch the game. At Shell they pull tons of tables into the parking lot and play it on a big screen.  It was kind of like a drive in.  Some of our "new friends" we there, and the little kids were also near our table.  Everyone was going wild during the game, and it was so cool so see them when there was a goal, and then at the very end.  They were dancing and cheering and loving life! I have a few photos of the reactions.

Sunday was sunny, and we were feeling lazy so we just went to the pool all day. People must think that we are insane, because I feel like we act like 5 year olds when we are all together. We all got into the baby pool, and ran around trying to make a huge whirl pool. Just picture 7 white people running around a tiny pool and floating around.

For dinner we went down to Elis, because a group of Global Mamas volunteers from West Point were in town and we all wanted to hang out.  This particular group is working in a different area with the jewelry, but wanted to come to Cape Coast for a batik workshop and to meet the rest of us.

A few of us were still having extreme itching issues, when suddenly it dawned on me that oatmeal might help stop the itching.  One of the other girls and I basically ran to shell to grab oatmeal, and made what we would now like to call "The oatmeal sock"  We had instant relief. It was so nice not to itch like mad.

After our feet stopped bothering us, we went back to hang out with the other volunteers. They also probably thought that we were insane, itching like mad and then running off talking about putting oats on our feet. oy.

Ok, I think thats my weekend in review.

peace. love. oatmeal socks.