Focaccia and Birthday Cake Oh My!

My friend Gilda celebrated her birthday this past Sunday so we organized a potluck party for her with all of our neighbor friends including Marina and her husband Jon, Antonio (his wife Dyane is away on business), their Israeli neighbor, and Gilda's sister who's in Ghana visiting from DC. I volunteered to make focaccia and of course the cake. I'd never made focaccia before but figured I'd give it a try. It went pretty well actually and the cake was delicious if I must say so myself (chocolate with berry mousse and whipped cream frosting). Gilda had a great time at the party despite the fact that the guests got in some pretty heated political and world issue debates that verged on the point of producing awkward moments. This, we've learned, has become common place here because so many people converge from all over the world with total opposite types of experiences and world views. Luckily, everyone was generally respectful and no one seemed offended by anyone else. It makes gatherings in Ghana very interesting to say the least and I'm certainly learning a lot.

Here are some shots from the prep work I did for the party and of the guests.

Home to Ghana

Alan and I are still not quite used to calling Ghana our home and after 5 weeks away, it was a little harder than I thought adjusting back to life here. We were quickly reminded about the little annoyances that give us many laughs each day here. The first of which was when we came down the stairs from our airplane on the tarmac and were waiting in line to show our passports to a security guy. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw this Ghanaian guy behind us sort of sneak around to Alan's side going in for the big cut in line. Normally, when I see this happen, I position my body to totally block whoever is trying to pull a fast one. But, maybe Alan didn't see or hasn't learned this trick yet. So just when it was our turn to show our passports, this guy boldly thrust his passport in the security guy's hands. Alan exclaimed, "my friend...what is this?" Then the guy said under his breath, "well, you looked away." Alan luckily didn't hear this because if he had, we might have gotten into a verbal altercation. First of all Alan wasn't looking away and second of all, what kind of excuse is that?!! The guy proceeded to board the bus which was going to take us to the terminal and I was so tempted to ask him if he planned on getting to the terminal any faster after cutting in line now that we had to wait for 10 minutes for the parked bus to fill with passengers. After some deep breaths and a reminder that we are supposed to laugh on these occasions we were all set to proceed with our re-entry into Ghanaian life and culture.

Frank was very happy to see us when he greeted us at the airport and we were happy to see him too. Frank has become a part of our family here so we missed him and I'm sure he missed us also. So we briefly caught up in the car ride home and figure we'll have lots of things to share over the next few days. He's been busy taking his English classes while we've been away and shared with us that he finally has his clunker of a car turned into a taxi which he plans to drive on the weekends to make some extra bucks. Well, except for still missing shock absorbers in his car he's almost ready.

And so I've quickly gotten back to my routine of spending half of each day shopping for necessities usually requiring numerous stops at different stores to gather what we need. However, this week I really feel like I hit the jackpot, as I was able to acquire some rare finds. For example, I find found dill pickles which I've been craving and even dried cranberries which are virtually unheard of here. And just today, I came across a bizarre but wonderful store called La Fiesta Hacienda. Yes, that is the name. And what a party it was in this place. Their website says that they carry an assortment of imported food and grocery items from America which sounded like a little bit of heaven to me but needless to say my expectations were low. The place has an outside cafe where on the weekends they serve hotdogs, soda, and beer (how much more American can we get?). Inside were unfortunately mostly bare shelves as I later learned they only order every 4 months and are awaiting their next order in 3 weeks time. Most of the store was devoted to Christmas decorations and such which unfortunately Alan and I are not in need of. But, it was a jackpot for me because I found my long-sought-after cake and pastry boxes that I've been searching all over for and even contemplated getting made at a printing press. They had tons!!! And just the kind I wanted. I loaded up. Plus, after searching the whole city for chocolate and learning that the chocolate plant here is still shut down for repair (it's only been about 3 months), I found a Sam's Club-sized pack of Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chips! I grabbed them despite the exorbitant price that I'm too embarrassed to mention here.

And in between gathering necessities like dill pickles, cranberries and chocolate chips, I've been catching up with my friends here. I had tea and cookies with Marina and Gilda yesterday and we spent 2 hours sharing all the events since we had all been on vacation from Ghana. We are all booked up this week with dinner plans and outings with friends so it should be fun. Tomorrow, Marina and I are going to have a lesson from a woman to learn to play Bridge so we can join the Bridge Club. Like I need another hobby!

Hope to have some pictures soon but so far in our few days back, there haven't been any great photo opportunities.

Mountains, Fresh Air, and Family

Alan and I just spent a wonderful week with both sets of parents up in Asheville, NC at my parents' cabin. Alan's parents came in from Bogota, Colombia to both see us and to celebrate Alan's cousin's son's Bar Mitzvah in Atlanta, which was just this past weekend (also a blast). Asheville was beautiful as usual and we filled it with hiking, good food made by my mom, some ping pong games, some walks around the town, and just good old fashioned family fun and relaxation. Here are some pictures from our week up in the mountains.

The weather was much colder than Alan and I are used to in Ghana so we had to bundle up in all the layers we could find despite looking a little silly.



The next day got a little warmer so my dad and Alan's dad, Victor, decided to sport these hats instead for our hike.




Alan felt he could surely scare off any bears we might encounter with this big stick. We are happy to report we had no run-ins with the bears who patrol the mountain...just their poop.



We ate tons of apples all weekend fresh from the trees on our mountain.



Alan and my dad and his dad had a little ping pong match down in our basement. Alan proved he has some skills with the ping pong paddle and won all the games. I'm so proud!



The view from the top. Amazing scenery and crisp fresh air. It doesn't get better than this. If only we could bottle that air and bring it back to Ghana with us!





And a picture perfect finale as we drove away. Lots of good memories were made this weekend and we can't wait to all be there again.

Life in the 1st World

After returning from a hectic but wonderful time in New York City, visiting all my friends and doing some much needed shopping, Alan has now joined me in Athens from Ghana. And so together we are enjoying all the little conveniences and joys of living in the 1st world starting with the fact that everything, well most everything works in the US and you don't have to bribe anybody to get it to work. Alan relayed a funny story to me and my family after arriving yesterday morning about his experience in the Accra International Airport. Basically, we both don't yet have our resident visas stamped into our passports after 8 months of living in Ghana because someone has just decided they don't want to stamp it yet. Our passports have been sitting at the government office for 4 months and so finally, when it was time for us to travel here, we had to go retrieve our passports from the office. And because we have paid for them we were told that we could show a receipt to the immigration official at the airport to prove that we've applied for the visa. So when I came through immigration to come to the US, the immigration guys gave me a hard time but I just played ignorant and eventually after speaking to 3 separate men, they let me through. Alan had a harder time. The immigration guy told Alan, after Alan explained that he was told to just show the receipt, that Alan would have to give him a "gift" if he were to be let through. Alan told the guy he was not going to give him a gift and so the guy told Alan that he'd have to take him to the office (I guess that was supposed to sound scary). Alan explained that he was prohibited from giving "gifts" by his company and could lose his job if he gave something to him. Then the immigration guy said to Alan that he could give a gift to a friend (since they were best buds I guess). And although Alan acknowledged that they were indeed "friends," he could still not give a gift. So finally the immigration guy told Alan that he should buy him a coffee in the coffee shop then after he let him through and so Alan agreed, but of course as soon as he got passed went straight to his gate and without stopping for coffee. That is immigration "Ghana Style."

We've spent our first 2 days here together catching up with my parents, relaying funny stories from living in Ghana, and taking care of some doctor's appointments to make sure we don't have any weird diseases from West Africa. We decided to go to a doctor here in Athens who is known for being a great diagnostician and he agreed to do some research of diseases he should test for. So after some blood work and stool samples we should know whether we're in the clear. Hmmm...the joys of exposing our bodies to the African elements.