Talk About Modern-Day Conveniences

My boots (soccer cleats) are spoiled (the sole is coming off from the top along the outsides of both, where it’s like my foot is totally popping out).  I was worried because they got a lot worse yesterday, when we were training for our match.  I didn’t think they’d be usable today.  Terry was like, “Kay, well, we’re just gonna have to sew it.”  I was like, “Okay,” but then afterwards, as I thought about it, realized that I don’t know how to sew a shoe, and don’t have any sewing materials even if I did know how.  I was asking some of the girls who I train if they have sewing materials that I could use to sew up my shoe, and Grace was like, “We do, but our needles are for sewing material, not for sewing shoes,” looking at me like I had just asked for a trip to the moon…haha = )  Sometimes I feel so dumb.  But yeah…then she told me that I just needed to find one of the guys who walks around hitting the wooden box.  I’ve never seen one of these guys before, so I was curious about what they do.  She said, “They’ll repair your shoes.”  So they just have cobblers who’ll fix your shoes on the spot for a couple of cedi!

It’s amazing what services and goods come right to you!  In the office, we’ve had people come in selling clothes (they know the sizes of the ladies who work there, and bring them clothes that they think they’ll like in the right sizes!), jewelry, bags, shoes.  People walk around selling all kinds of food…my favorite, of course, being the ice cream man = )  Wait…have I told you about these guys?  They have these carts that have a compartment for ice cream (I don’t know how it stays frozen in the scorching sun with no electricity!) in front, and then a glass box for like egg roll things and meat pies and pastry things and other hot foods on top (I know how these things stay warm…haha…but it’s still a wonder that they don’t spoil).  And they squeeze these little beepy horn things as they walk by…which kills me when I hear it from my room…haha = )  It’s like ignoring the ice-cream-man-song multiple times a day = )