May 14th

So to send our emails and do some shopping, we had to go to... *dun, dun, dunnnnnn* KUMASI!

Kumasi: The second largest city in Ghana, and is crazy to navigate. Just picture New York City, with vendors selling shoes, clothes and sunglasses; only here, you got to add locks, floor tile and fabric as common things to be selling. Kumasi is known for its large outdoor market that is called the Kejetia Market.

**** All in all, we liked Kumasi better this time around. But the reason I'm writing is to tell you a story- an experience we had there. Here it goes:

After emailing, Michelle, Deidre and I headed to the Opoku Trading Market to buy some supplies for our Nut Soup Esther is making us tomorrow. (Ps. This soup is A-MAH-ZING and we get to eat it with fu-fu.....)

fu-fu: I think that is how you spell it. You make it by cooking plantains and casava, mashing it up in a bowl by pounding it with a stick. Once they are all mashed up, one person continues pounding while another person folds the dough over and over until it is done. It is a beautiful thing, the rhythm of it all. I really like foo-foo but my body can only handle so much starch! It is not Michelle and Deidre's favorite thing about Ghana.

**** Anyhoo, we were on our way to the market, in fact, right across the street from it, when we came across a woman selling peanuts and what looked like peanut butter. We asked her how much it was- "5 cedi, 50 pesewa". "Um...," Michelle said, "That is kind of a lot... We are going to the store so we will check there first and then come back". The woman raised her voice, stood up and said, not in a harsh way mind you but firm... definitely firm "Not the market! This is better quality! This is very very good quality!" She then grabs one of the containers, twists off the top and points the lid towards us so we can have a taste. We all "oh and 'yum'" our way through the pinkie-swip of peanut butter that we have in our mouths and again tell her that we don't really need it so if we have money left over, we will think about buying some.

We do our shopping at the market, only to realize that we really do need the nut paste so off we go, heading back in the direction of this woman so we can see if we can get it for cheaper (we really like trying our hand at bartering with the vendors-- well, Michelle and Deidre do. If you know me, then you'd know how terribly bad I would be at that). We say hello to her and we tell her that indeed we want to buy some peanut butter. She asks us where we are from, we say "America" and that was a magic word or something because she went off saying things like "oh America, we like America!"

"America is good, good, good, good, good" (To which we respond "No, Ghana is good, good, good, good".... They liked that)

"America, and Ghana, and Britain.. the same mother and father", clasping her hands together in unity. She repeated this sentence in different variety probably four or five times.

"We like America, and Ghana, and Britain"

"Not France" shaking her head in a negative way

**** We shook our heads in agreement, even with the French comment (and I swear... I like the French... it just seemed like we needed to agree with her) :) Overall, she was animated and quite enjoyable to talk with (I'm soooo sad I can't remember her name). However, the conversation drifted back to the peanut butter.... we tried bartering and she wouldn't budge. She insisted that it was worth GHC 5 (that is how they write their money, it just means 5 Ghana cedi) because it was such good quality. I think to help prove her point even more, she gives us each a handful of her peanuts,,, they were really really good. Thanks to Michelle, we wouldn't budge either till finally she said we could get an even smaller one for GHC 3 and 50 pesewa. Deal! She found a smaller container, added the peanut butter and then we parted ways. The end.