Tales From A Run In Ghana

Today, I laughed harder than I have in a long time…to the point of tears!  I think Melinda was on something…too much sugar at least…haha…and she was acting so silly…I could hardly breathe, I was laughing so hard.  Anyway…amidst all the fun we were having, we forgot to collect the money from the drawer to bring to Marian, so, even though I hadn’t planned on it, I got to go for a short run to retrieve it.

On my run, I was forced to stop at one point (there aren’t sidewalks, so in a lot of places the area that a pedestrian can be in is very small) because I was stuck behind a line of…goats!  It was so funny!  They had crossed the road like the little ducklings do in Kailua (although not with nearly as much precision, and the cars were not nearly so kind and patient…almost running one of the kids over!) onto the path that I was on.  So I got to walk behind the goats for a bit…haha = )  Then, only like ten minutes later, I was running down a side “street” and saw a little dog with its head down next to another dog that was just laying in the middle of the road.  It was so sad! = (  The dog that was kinda inspecting the other dog looked so concerned and disheartened!  While I was concentrating intently on this scene, I heard a BRRRIINNNNG as a speeding bicycle rang it’s bell super loudly!  I jumped and screamed, not only because the sound was so startling, but also because both dogs leapt up!  The boy riding the bike apologized to me (I didn’t realized I screamed so loud…haha) and the dogs went running off.  It was so weird!  I have no idea what the dogs were doing…but glad that bike came along, or else one of them might have ended up run over, for real.  On that same “street” there’s a market, and as I was passing I smelled the most delicious scent of fresh-hot bread.  I was hungrily sniffing it in when suddenly my nose was bombarded with the rank of the raw sewage right next to me in the ditch.  Gotta love Ghana = )

And this didn’t happen on my run, but when I was walking to school Monday afternoon, there were a bunch of cars on the side of the road and lots of policemen.  Marian said it was a roadblock (although it lacked the signs and flashing lights that I’m used to seeing at police roadblocks).  They don’t have it figured out that you need to pull over at a place with only one way in and out though…haha…Marian and I laughed when we saw a taxi pull off and pretend like they had to go to a little shop.  But yeah…it’s so terrible.  She said, “If you’re lucky, you get to go by, and if you’re unlucky, you get pulled over.”  I was like, “Why, do a lot of people here drive without a license (looking at the state of the taxis and trotros, I’m sure safety checks are not required here…haha)?”  Marian said SO many…so they’ll have to pay the police officers money (a bribe, I guess) and then they’ll be able to be on their way.  Crazy, huh?!

Last little tidbit.  Some of the sugar that Melinda was high on came from ice cream she bought for us.  It’s sold on bicycles (they have this little “basket” on the front that’s a cooler, I guess) in little bags.  Just like the water, you bite a corner and suck it out.  And it is SO good!!!!  SO creamy and SO rich and SO smooth…I’m gonna be missing it when I come home and all I have is McDonald’s…haha ; )