Monday

Yeay we have to office to ourselves again which means we can sit in the sweet air-conditioning. Loves it. It actually got a bit too cold today and I’m glad I wore my jeans, im now wishing I brought a sweater.

To begin with we worked on finishing the carving out of the sample batik stencils. This takes quite a while but is necessary if we want to have the women batik what we want. I’m proud of myself today because I drank 4 pure waters!! I’m really bad at drinking water and staying hydrated and these pure waters really help me do just that. They design makes it one, fun to drink from and two impossible to not finish the whole thing. Since you have to bite the top off to drink the water you can’t really put it down till you finish so you’re forced to drink the whole thing.

Halfway through the day I went with Nick and Hillary to get some groceries for dinner. Stopped at Malcolm’s which is what I consider the equivalent to our Meijer’s; they have a little of just about everything. It gets a bit confusing there. Someone stands at one end of each isle; they watch you and when you pick up an item the take it from you then find a code number for the item, write it down on a small piece of paper and then gives you the paper. This happens for each item in each row. You then have to take your items to check out and give the check out help your items and bits of paper and she rings everything in and you pay her. Next you take everything to another table, give them your receipt and items, she checks the list and then she bags your items. You then have to make one more stop at another person at the door that checks your receipt on more time before you leave. It’s a bit much if you ask me but oh well. I buy chips (someone’s version of Pringles) they are curry flavored and a bit too delicious!! A bit too much really since I finished the whole tin before lunch was over!! I tell everyone not to let this chip monster buy any more chips for the duration of our trip, I just can’t control myself!! On the way back to the office I stopped by a woman selling vegetable; I buy cucumber, onion and lettuce, I plan to make a salad with the vinegar I bought earlier. I think im going to need the nutrition since I’m sure I didn’t get much from my lunch.

Back at the office I spend the last part of the day on the internet looking for inspiration. We have another presentation due by the end of the day tomorrow and I need ideas for silhouettes. Using the internet here is rather irritating. It’s just so slow and most of the images don’t load so you have to constantly reload pages hoping the pictures will eventually show up. The last leg of the work day is chaotic. The global mama batikers com to the office to check out the templates that we have made. We explain to each what we are looking for, they use the stencil to stamp on the foam and we have them cut the stamp in the office to ensure that its what we had envisioned. The office is just so full. I’m excited I meet with one of the women that are working on one of my prints and I plan to go to her shop tomorrow at 9 to watch.

We leave the office but before we can take a taxi Katie wanted to go visit one of our friends that we met this weekend at the Oasis. His name is Kobe, he was really nice and works at an NGO Internet workshop. He is a Ghanaian. Him and Katie had talked for awhile about music once he found out that we were from Detroit and that they both shared a love for Mr. Eminem. I guess he put out a new album today; Katie had already been planning on downloading it from iTunes. She made a copy for him which was really nice and I think he really appreciated it!

Taxi ride: always a trip! Today we had Rasta Man. He always likes to see Katie (she was sick one day from local Red Red and threw up in his cab. He makes fun of her still. He’s the most talkative one of the bunch, always asks how we are, he sings quite loud with no music playing. One day he told me he finds my blonde hairs in his car after each time I get in and that if he had a wife or a girlfriend they would think he was running off with a ‘bruni.

Back in Elmina I had just a small dinner since I was still full from the chip binge earlier. I finished off the bit of pasta I had left from Sunday. Just Cowbell cheese, garlic and margarine. Sounds like a James favorite!! After eating I went to the Hotel to have a good swim and upload some photos.

Back at the house I went straight to bed so I could try finish off the book. I have two chapters left!!

Craving of the day? … bubble bath and any kind of pizza!!