So lets see.. the rest of last week- Wednesday, just class as usual- boring- drums- learning a new song but I can barely remember the last one.. Had a skype interview with Nourish International for their founders program that I am applying for. If I get it, I get to start the Nourish International chapter at Elon and we chose a site and project to begin fundraising and working on. Check out their website, its pretty cool. The interview went well, I find out April 18th if I've made it to the next round so *fingers crossed!* Then I did ALOT of skyping with Jessica in Costa Rica, William at home, and Colin, Drew, and Brian at Elon! It was so nice!!

Thursday, I wanted to swim but it was cloudy (of course) so I made banana french toast with Jenna and then we were told we HAD to get our visa renewal stuff done so we ran around campus getting everything ready to turn it in on Friday. Then I jumped rope and went for a run- so nice to be sweating on purpose not just because I'm alive- and then hung out like a lazy bum. Tell and I tried to make our own version of red-red but I oversoaked the beans so it tasted ok.

Friday Jenna and I went to renew our visas and pick up my PACKAGE! It was from Erin- so awesome! It was a Davidson tee shirt and a great, really really nice card which made my day! Thanks Erin!! Now I can support the SOCON champs from Africa!! And I also got a postcard from Jessica in Costa Rica which was too cool! Then I took Jenna to Josie's for lunch cause it was so good the other day. When we got back to ISH, I got ready and then left with Patricia to go to her house!!!!!!!!!!!!! Her house is huge (2 levels, 8 bedrooms, 2 kitchens, two living rooms) but in a sorta rundown neighborhood. She has a housekeeper, and like a groundsman, and her cousin with her 7 month old baby who helps out too. Her mother and father are both 60, and her mother isn't too mobile. I found out that her father is an apostle for the Church of Pentacost and is in charge of the Kaneshi district and all of the churches in that area. So their house is church owned and maintained. Her mom was super sweet but she said I spoke too fast and I felt like I was being so rude when I talked slow and loud, so we tried to communicate as much as possible. Then Patricia and I ate banku with okro stew- yum- and then her dad came home. He was so nice and so friendly. We talked about all kinds of stuff like the news, corruption in Ghana, Ghana's elections, money and greed, Hilary vs Obama, me, him, religion- it was very cool. Then we watched half of Romeo Must Die (RIP Aliyah- made me sad for a few minutes...) and this show called Bands Alive which is on TV3 - like American Idol but with bands and I'm pretty sure I'm going to figure out how to get tickets to be in the audience cause it was awesome. One of the bands even played Diamonds on the Souls of Her Shoes/You Can Call Me Al which made me like die from happiness. Then we went to bed.

Woke up early on Saturday, had a delicious breakfast with Patricia and her mom, then we went to market! We got some fish, some stew base, chilli powder, white pepper, veggies, agushi (like crushed up melon seeds? random..), kontomire/kokoyam leaves (like bigger, thicker spinach), some wile (cow skin), and adobo (which I'm pretty sure is celery salt). We went back to her place and started cooking, aka she cooked and I watched and wrote it all down. We made vegetable stew with sausage (hot dog) and goat meat and then palava sauce (my #1 favorite thing) with fish and wile. It was sooooo fun! Then we left her house to head to her sister's place where she has her own store/salon and lives in an apartment with her husband and two ADORABLE daughters. Patricia got them calling me Auntie Avra and I was in heaven. We just hung out, talked- I watched her sister pound fufu which was awesome. We talked a little bit, she was so kind and generous, and she told me she liked me cause I was friendly and simple. It was a really nice complement. Then, she fed me, Patricia, and her 2 year old daugher fufu with pine nut soup and fish. It was delicious. The 2 year old ate ALL of hers, Patricia gave her more and she drank the bowl dry. Then when she tried to wash her hands in the bowl of water she spilt it everywhere - it was hilarious and adorable. I wanted to take her home with me. Then it started to rain so we left there real quickly. Went back to Patricia's house, said good bye and thank you to her parents - her dad gave her $$ and sliped me $10 cause "I'm one of his daughters now" it was SO generous. They were so hospitable. On the ride home Patricia and I had a good talk, in response to a radio show, about women and clothing and perception. It was awesome to talk to her and hear her opinions because usually we just have the "hey, how are you, how was your day" sort of conversation in our room. It was such a great weekend.

Sunday, I convinced Duncan to go to the pool with me rather than sit in the hostel all day so we tro-troed to Danielle's to swim in her pool. We happened to catch the end of their post-yoga lunch so we ate with them and met some more of their friends, which was super nice. Then Dunc and I just swam and read and played cards for a while. We were getting ready to head back but Danielle and Daniel invited us to stay and hang out, have dinner, and they went to pick up their friend Mike who I had met a few weeks ago. Dunc and I did the dishes - we figured it was a nice, easy gesture and we were havin fun being domestic haha- we ate a DELICIOUS Daniel meal of pasta and salad and fish and wine- yum. After dinner, we had tea and desert, the guys had cognac and coffee (I prefer chocolate any day) and we had some really interesting conversation about life and politics and international relations and economics and socialism and capitalism and colonialism - we were all over the place. It was so interesting to listen to because the perspective is so international rather than when I have conversations in the US because everyone sorta has a similar base that they start with, probably due to growing up and being educated in the US and the biases that are so engrained in us. It was a very very very good night.

Today, just went to class, now being lazy and relaxing! What a great weekend! This week should be nice too- class and Danielle's again tomorrow, maybe more swimming on Thursday- just getting exciting for MOM TO COME!! yay