Thanksgiving in Ghana

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I can’t believe that November is almost over already! I think that I have had difficulty feeling like the year is ending because there are not really any dramatic changes in the weather like there is in Utah. The only climate change that I have experienced is hot and hotter! It is getting to the point where it is unbearably hot when I sleep, even with a fan on and as thin of clothes as I can wear. It will be nice to come home and have to layer on the sweatshirt and pile on blankets when I sleep in the cold basement haha. It was SO nice to talk to everyone on Thursday! It was good to see faces of cousins, aunts and uncles, and Grandma Johanna!

This week I spent some time studying for a final exam, working on human anatomy, and reading more research for my thesis. On Thursday all of the ISEP students had Thanksgiving dinner at Auntie Theresa’s house (ISEP director). She lives in a REALLY nice house out in Nungua (about 30-40 minutes from campus when there is not any traffic). She had lots of tables and chairs set up in her back yard and we were joined by her family and her friends and some students from another exchange program. The food was absolutely delicious! We had all of the classic Thanksgiving foods: turkey, ham, mashed potatoes with gravy, green bean casserole,  rolls, sweet potatoes, and even macaroni and cheese! All of us were SO excited to eat and we piled our plates pretty high with as much food as we could fit in our stomachs. After we ate we all sat around the gazebo to let the food settle. I ate so much food that my stomach started hurting and I had to lay down on the ground to ease the pain hahaha! It was such a great night to spend with my closest friends here. Although I missed being with the family, it sure was a nice night with my ISEP family.

On Friday I woke up early and walked across campus for my first written exam. This test was for the Music of West and Central Africa class. The way that testing is set up here is quite strange… They give you the time/date/location of your final and when you go you are in a room with about 2-4 other courses taking their final as well. You have to find the desk that has your ID number written in chalk and that is where you have to sit. As you take the test about 2-3 different people come around and you have to show your ID card and sign a paper stating that you took the exam. We were given two and a half hours to write our exam. There were about 20 short answer questions and then we had to write 3 essays. I felt like I did really well on the exam! I knew almost all of the short answer questions and I wrote about 9 pages total for the 3 essays.

Later on Friday I went to Adenta to spend another Thanksgiving dinner with the Oparey family. I met them at stake conference last weekend and they invited me to join them. Natasha Oparey is an American from Alaska and her husband Emmanuel is Ghanaian. Brother Oparey served his mission in Provo and then went to BYU-Idaho where he met Natasha. They have been living in Ghana as a family for almost a whole year now. They have two ADORABLE and brilliant children, Dante and Iris. They had about 20 family members over for the dinner. They were all from Brother Oparey’s side of the family and it was their first Thanksgiving experience haha! The Oparey’s also invited Jackie and Julie, the two American girls that I met a few weeks ago. It was fun to see them again. The dinner was also very delicious! Two nights in a row of mass amounts of food!!! It was really interesting to hear about Sister Oparey's experience in moving to Ghana and being married to a Ghanaian. It really made me think hard about how I would react to all of those live changes if I was in her position. I think that it would have to take the right person (husband) and an amazing support system (family) for me to be able to pick up my life in the United States and decide to move (most likely for about 15-20 years) to another country with my family... It was definitely food for thought haha. After everyone ate and the dinner was cleaned up, Jackie and Julie and I stayed and played some board games with Brother Oparey. I beat him twice at Blockus! (Mom would be so proud of me haha). It was such a fun night!

Well, in 3 weeks from today I will be on my way to London! I am really excited to be spending a few days there on my way home. There are still some things that I want to do in Ghana before I leave. This coming week I am preparing for a performance on Thursday and then I will be traveling to the Volta Region on Friday and Saturday to do some mountain hiking, monkey watching, and waterfall swimming! That is where I wanted to go for my birthday weekend (wwwhhhaaaatt!?!?!? Birthday? I can’t believe it is next week… I’m getting so old haha!). Anyway, I love you all and miss you! Have a wonderful week!

Oh yeah... by the way... I'm losing weight!

Pre-meal bliss

Post-meal coma haha

After coma snuggling :)