Bon Voyage Grandma!

Sadly, Grandma is on her way to the airport. I'm 100% sure that this trip would not have been pleasant or even possible if she had not come, and I would have wanted to go home by now. She made the transition smooth and was a great help, and great company for both Ama and myself.

I really hope Ama adjusts to Grandma's departure well, but I am thinking that the next week or so might be a bit rough. She has pretty much been with her "Gampa" every day since mid November, so this will be a change for her (and me).

Our last week here was pretty busy. I had lots of Amend work to do, and can tell that there will be no shortage of work there for the duration of my stay. It feels nice to have everything planned out and to know what my work will actually look like.

Mom got an outfit made by the lovely seamstress' (pictured below) next to the Amend office. It looks pretty awesome, but I will keep the pictures to myself so that it's a surprise when we come home. I am also going to get at least one outfit made, since they did a fantastic job for really cheap (labor was 20GHC), and fabric is very cheap here too. There is this fantastic fabric store called Woodin, which we have probably spent about 3 hours total in since arriving. Note to shoppers-picking out fabric will not be a quick task!





Kingsley, Muhsin, and Tom from Amend insisted that we be "baptised" into the Amend family by joining them for Talapia(fish) and Banku(odd tasting dough ball made from maize, I think). Mom was a bit worried about the eating with the hands thing, as well as the fact that the fish comes whole with eye balls and guts, but it was really quite tasty. It has a spicy gingery sauce and was served with tomatoes and onions in a very spicy sauce. The Banku was less tasty, perhaps an acquired taste? The afternoon was quite enjoyable-even the 1 hr tro tro ride that I dragged mom on! The only tro tro mishap was that a rather large lady sat on mom, and I had to do everything in my power from laughing hysterically out loud.





We did some last minute shopping which was surprisingly hassle free and enjoyable. There is a great basket shop around the corner where mom when a bit nuts (I will probably do the same, they would be great for my future classroom!)The old lady was a tough bargainer and didn't budge on the price, but the prices were quite fair. We also went to George the driver's friends store and bought some cool souvenirs for the family. There was no pressure and the prices started out at a reasonable level. Weird...




We spent our last day poolside at the Shangri-La, which will likely become our weekend retreat. We enjoyed a nice dinner out, and off went Grandma in the cab to the Airport. Safe flight Mom!