Obruni!

Obruni is the Twi word for white person, and it follows me wherever I go. It's not offensive, more of an acknowledgment of difference. I have learned the Twi word for local person so i say that back to them and they laugh. Julie and I have moved into our homestay - our Auntie is named Comfort and she is really nice and layed back. This morning her daughter taught us how to handwash our laundry, it was hard but we will have ripped biceps by the time we get back. There is not much running water in Ghana, so all the bathrooms I have been in usually dont flush, dont have toilet paper, and there is not water coming out of the tap. I have learned to just hold it. We have to take two trotros to school and two back home. Trotros are terrifying. The roads in Accra are completely packed with reckless angry drivers at all time of the day. tro tros and big vans that seat12ish and they swing by, you jump in, and they peel out, kind of holding the door shut while ramming into bumps everywhere. At first it was absolutely scary, now I just nap for most of the way. Neither of us can pronounce where we live (or know how to get there) so you can imagine the big scary struggle it is getting home before dark (6pm all year round). It seems like nothing comes easy here. We drink water out of sealed plastic bags that are relatively safe, and I haven't been using my mosquito net because it keeps falling on my head in the night and scaring the crap out of me. But there don't seem to be any mosquitos...strange. Probably because we are inside when it gets dark out and we have screens on our windows. We have bucket baths, which is the Accra form of showering. You fill up a bucket with water and dump it on yourself and scrub your skin until you are clean. It is cold but it feels so good. I have to go to class now so I will talk to you all soon! Oh and yesterday I saw the ocean, I put my feet in. It was so incredible and breathtaking.
Love Claire