Friday was great and busy. Brach n i went to town to use the interwebz n to buy provisions for shabz. We bought challah and palm wine (palm tree alcohol) for kiddush. Came home. I went to shule to organise some lessons for the adults for shabbat afternoon while bracha returned to town to help a community member set up his first ever email address at age 45. i showered and went to shule at 5pm for kids service. We sung all the songs we'd taught over the week and then i began singing kabbalat shabbat. Luckily bracha got back to the community just before shabbat and could join me in singing kabbalat shabbat. Even though the kids couldn't sing with us (except for lecha dodi which we taught them) they seemed to really enjoy it anyway. Friday night was a revelation. We'd lit shabbat candles in our room and since we eat and sleep in that room we hadn't left any light on there. But conveniently the shabbat candles provided adequate light. We finally understood why these candles are so necessary in the first place, they serve a practical not just a spiritual purpose. In general i find that jew stuff makes more sense in ghana but i'll leave my meditations on that for another time.
Shabz morning we were at shule by 8.30am. Shule didn't finish till 12pm. That is way too long to be in shule. Particularly why most of it is in sefi or twi, ie: languages that i don't understand. But at the end of the service the kids did a performance for the adults of all the songs we'd taught them. They were pretty good, i was pretty proud. But by the end of shule i was super grumpy b/c i hate spending 4 hours in shule even when i know what's going on. So we had lunch and i napped and then i woke, read and then complained to bracha about the 3rd world and how much i miss running water and fridges and vegetables. At 5 we returned to shule and ran a lesson for the adults, though the kids came too since they like brach n i. So we taught them the order of the prayer service and facilitated a discussion about the length of the service and whether they would like to shorten it and the ways in which this is possible. They seemed to like my suggestion of only reading one third of the parsha each year and thereby having a 3 year cycle. Also potentially doing musaf in the afternoon service since they don't do mincha but gather to learn on shabz arvo. We then taught Rambam's 13 principles of faith. This was super challenging to explain that god never has a hand or a mouth, not on earth and also not in heaven. Also resurrection of the dead? Good luck explaining that. But all in all i'd say it was a good thing to teach. It's challenging material so well suited to adults but also super important things to know as a jew.
Saturday night i was still grumpy and bracha n i went to get soft drink so that sugar would improve my mood. That and having kontomre stew for dinner (my favorite green vegetable) and i was definately feeling a bit better by the time we went to bed at a very late 10.30pm.
This morning we got up early, breakfasted, said goodbye to everybody, gave them monies for looking after us for the past 2 weeks and were on a bus to kumasi. We arrived at around 12pm at my government bus station and asked about buses to tamale but it turns out that they don't have overnight buses. So we took a taxi to the STC station and bought tickets for a 4pm bus to tamale which would arrive at 10pm. Which meant that we'd have to return to the bus station at 3pm. The woman told us however, that if we miss the bus that we'd be able to get another one the next morning at 7am. So we hopped onto a tro tro home in kwamo. Once home, i reunited with all my friends. But i also called snappy who was meant to come to kumasi from cape coast with my passport so i could grab it on my way to tamale since it's been at the immigration office for 2 months getting a visa extension (long story but it basically comes down to african incompetence). However, snappy informed me that he wouldn't be back in kumasi until 5pm which meant that we had to miss our bus. Grrr. But it's ok, we'll get up at 4.30am to make it to the bus station by 6am to allow for arguing for the bus tickets tomorrow. On the plus side hopefully susan will join us to mole national park which should be super exciting.
As for tonight my plan is to blog, watch the ghana vs tunisia game and shower, though the bathrooms in kumasi are super gross.
Miss u all. Xoxo.
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