Every day I am…
Learning to live without running water
Getting used to using bottled water for everything
Sleeping more and more with ease under my mosquito netting (even without my fan on!)
Eating new foods—some strange—but liking them
Finding ways to reach out at my job
Figuring out more tro-tro routes and the tro-tro culture
Living, Loving, Learning…
Mrs. Baiden was right when she said, “The human brain is like a computer, it responds to what is put inside. You will learn.”
It’s the little things of the day that make me smile, knowing that I am beginning to mold into this life. I’ve been hanging out a lot more with the family, especially Ekua and Renee. And I’ve been learning how to help prepare a few dishes. I’ve been helping Renee with her college applications, and we have a long list of American colleges to apply to and have already completed one essay! She wants to study fashion design, and since she is American (just going to high school in Ghana because of some unfortunate life circumstances), she is excited to hopefully return for college.
Yesterday, Ekua and I were the only ones home for a long time, and she shouted to me from her room that she wanted to show me something. And she ran into the living room in a gorgeous wedding dress. It was an eggshell mermaid style dress with beautiful beading. After we gushed about how well the seamstress had done (she had it made in China and brought back from a friend who was there), she told me that I was the first to see her in the dress and very likely the only one who would see her in it until her wedding day. I was so overjoyed that she would share this special moment of joy with me that I cannot truly put it into words how accepted into the Baiden family I felt in that moment.
NOTE: I am so sorry for the lack of photos. I still do not have a camera chord, but hopefully this hitch will be fixed in the near future thanks to my mom and my dear friend Sara Willis.
Odelia Younge 