Tantalize Your Body

“Oh Ghana.” I think that will definitely be the phrase of the year. There is just so much going on.

I have met some great people here in Ghana, especially at the Night Market next to my dorm. There is Mama Mary who makes the best egg sandwiches ever for one cedi. Her husband Henry Sr. and son Henry Jr. alternate in helping her run the shop. She is so nice and I usually greet her in Twi and she helps me with my pronounciation and any other questions I have. Next to Mama Mary is my favorite Ghanian ever. Her name is Mavis and she helps her mother run the clothing store they have. They make dresses, shirts, bags, and jackets. Whatetver.-you name it, she makes it. I'm gonna get a Delta Sigma Theta Bag made for Kelcee and Nicole and cute purple dresses made for my nieces there. Anywho, Mavis is 18 and she is cool. I met her because she shouted at me one day to come and say hi, lol. She was just sitting outside her shop chilling. Now everytime I walk by (which is multiple times a day) I talk to her for a minimum of 10 minutes. I met her whole family: her brothers Michael and Edem and her parents. She said that they will be my foster family here in Ghana. That is so precious. She invited me to dinner at her house and she also invited me to her Church on Sunday, she said it is fun and that they sing a lot of American Gospel there. That reminds me, yesterday her father was pumping gospel music out of his car- Kirk Franklin to be exact. Everyone who knows me knows I love Kirk Franklin! So we just stood there singing along and singing like 10 other gospel songs. It was cool to have that connection with her. See why I love her?

Tuesday night I just chilled at the night market and in front of my dorm. When I don't have nothing to do I just go to the night market and talk to Mavis and Becca (she owns the shop next to Mavis). It kind of reminds me of when I used to live in Harlem. If I was bored I would just go outside, sit on the stoop, and talk to people. Ghana has that kind of atmosphere. Granted, safety first. I also talked to Mavis' older brother Edem who is really cool. He does a number of things including making Obama T-shirts. I'm definitely gonna buy one of his “My President is Black” T-shirts. I have seen too many Ghanaians with that T-shirt on and I kind of feel bad because I don't own an Obama T-shirt. It's a shame, I know.

In front of my dorm Tuesday night I met, Ms. Louisa who comes and sells banana muffins, mango pies, and chocolate chip cookies that she bakes at home. She yells to us all “come and tantalize your body.” Yes, tantalize our body with her tasty goods. We were all just cracking up laughing. She also helped Alesha, Meghan, and I with our Twi. I was trying to ask her “how do you count in Twi” and she wound up telling us how to say “I am looking for my shoe.” Lol. I forgot how to say it already. It was really complicated.

Speaking of Twi. I now know all the classes I am taking:

US Policy Towards Africa (it's gonna be so amazing)

Twi (what a fun language to learn)

Sociological Foundations of Development (I'm bout to get some knowledge in Ghana yah)

Religion and Society (I love to learn about God)

Post-Conflict Peace Building and Transitional Justice (Not really excited about that class)

Drumming (Hopefully, I plan on auditing it- AWESOME)

I have no classes on Mondays and Fridays. I will use Mondays to intern and Fridays to travel.

Anywho. Yesterday night, I went to raggae night at Labadi Beach with Alesha, Meghan, and Danielle (Spelman girls). It was such an overwhelming experience, like whoa. The water was beautiful, I mean breathtaking! There was live raggae music so that was also pretty cool. However the crowd was intense, there were Ghanian men, no Ghanaian women, and obrunis or foreigners. The men just came at us. Grabbed at us, stopped us to talk, followed us, asked us did we want drinks. We had absolutely no moment of alone time. I tried to take a picture with the water in the background and some men came up to me asking to “snap a picture of them.” Then they invited us to their “VIP” table and tried to offer us drinks. No way. Further on in the night, I had to use the restroom and their was about to be a fight outside the bathroom. Great. Over what? I don't know. I went back like five minutes later and it was all cool. Oh yea, I had to pay 50 peswas to use the toilet-excellent. There is so much that went on that night. Including me getting a drink spilled on me by Don Montana the South African, who is here in Ghana DJ-ing for a Norwegian hip hop station. Hmmm interesting. These are the type of people I meet in Ghana. Lol. I'm loving it here so far. It gets better and more fun everyday. I just have to remember safety first because not everyone here has the best intentions. We left the beach two hours after we got there. That was more than enough time because it was just so much. Don Montana and his crew were begging us not to go and then wanted to offer us a ride home. Obviously we took the safer route- a taxi. The good thing about leaving was that my friend King from the University found us a taxi, bargained for us, and paid for it. It can be kind of hard catching a taxi in Ghana and getting a good price so whenever a Ghanian can bargain for you it is better. We didn't know the taxi was paid for until we were driving off and we were trying to ask King how much we have to pay and he just said “don't worry, it is handled.” That was nice of him. We arrived home safely. Thank God.

Tonight, we are going to Afrodisiac, a night club in the city. It is ladies night so ladies get in free. I want to dance, dance, dance. Ghanains party hard but New Yorkers just might party harder lol. This should also be an experience. I'm looking forward to it. Safety first!

Love always,

Tamika Nicole