Lake Bosomtwe

Posted on October 22, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

The market is even better when it’s in full swing! We went back this morning, and it was seriously so cool. Around the market, everyone is just walking in the street and making the drivers angry, and shops fill every available piece of sidewalk. There’s a pedestrian bridge that would be plenty wide to accommodate the people walking across except that people are selling things on both sides of the steps and on the bridge, and you’re left with maybe a 3-4’ wide path through the middle. I was constantly afraid that I was going to crash into people and knock whatever they were carrying off their heads.

Inside the market is the same except minus the cars and plus very narrow passageways. There isn’t even space for two people to walk past each other, which is inconvenient when you don’t know where you’re going and are trying to keep a group together and don’t have space to move out of everyone else’s way. We survived it though. Besides just looking at the general chaos around us, we did some shopping and all of us bought fabrics. This is one of my favorite things (I have a lot of favorite things)… When people are wearing clothes made from printed fabrics, they’re often custom made by a tailor. So instead of going clothes shopping for your fancy clothes, you go to the market, pick one of the million fabrics they have, and take your fabric to a tailor to order clothes that fit you exactly and look how you want them to look. To give you a sense of how much it costs, I got a pair of shorts made. The fabric cost 15 cedis and it cost another 15 for the tailor (which would probably be less if I was local or went to a different tailor). The conversion rate is about 4:1, so the shorts (that fit me perfectly) cost me about $8. Not bad!

Anyway, after we finished shopping, we wandered around again until it was time to head back to the hotel to check out and attempt to locate a tro to the lake. We got directions to the correct station from the reception desk and set off on a quest to find it.

All I can say is, thank goodness for google maps and functional internet. Once we got close, we asked the nearest guy if he knew where we could get a tro to the lake, he went and talked to a nearby tro driver, and he came back and told us to get in because the driver agreed to take us there. I think it was another one of those situations where the tro wasn’t planning to go so far, but since there were five of us, he said yeah sure.

Here’s the lake’s location in relation to Kumasi. Look at how round it is since it’s a crater lake!

Lake Bosomtwe is a crater lake located southeast of Kumasi. The lake has a diameter of about 5 miles (and it’s pretty round since it’s a crater) and a maximum depth of 260 ft. It’s a weird lake because it’s fed by rainfall and doesn’t have any outlets, so the water level keeps rising. It has flooded and forced villages to move multiple times because of that. We arrived at the lake around probably 3PM, and after a half hour trek in the hot sun to our hotel, we were ready to swim. After getting settled, we headed to the lakeside (I would say “beach”, but really I don’t think it could be called that), and James, Nick, and Anna went for a swim while Yara and I sat and talked. Apparently the water was warm, so I didn’t feel much like I was missing out. I was just happy to be sitting and enjoying the view because the lake is absolutely beautiful. Maybe I’ll go in tomorrow.

I’m telling you, we should really start carrying things on our heads.

Once it started getting dark, we headed back to the hotel for dinner and card games. We made friends with a couple more Germans, Josie and Peter, who are volunteers in Cape Coast (I say “more Germans” because Anna and Yara are from Germany as well). The plans for tomorrow are still up in the air, but the seven of us are probably going to try to do something together. It should be fun! And hopefully also relaxing.

In the tro on the way to the lake… Anna, James, Nick, me, and Yara.

Kumasi

Posted on October 21, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

Out of all the trips we’ve taken thus far, the trek to Kumasi today was the longest. Kumasi is one of the largest cities in Ghana and is the only real city that we’ve been to besides Accra. It also has a massive open-air market that’s the supposedly the biggest in west Africa, with over 45,000 stores. The traffic in the city is ridiculous, and in the main areas of the city, it’s incredibly hectic. It also didn’t seem to be terribly touristy. It is a tourist destination, but it wasn’t overrun with foreign tourists like so many of the other places we’ve visited on weekends. Obviously that’s helped by the fact that it’s a huge city, but still. Besides at our hotel, I haven’t seen a single other white person.

Our trip started with a 5AM wake up and 5:30AM departure from the house. We were trying to make it to Kpong to catch at 6:30AM tro to Kumasi, but by the time we got there, the 6:30 tro only had three seats left and we were five (James, Nick, Anna, Yara, and me). They put us on the next tro out, and we ended up having to wait two hours until it filled up before we could leave. These are the things that you can’t really anticipate, and it’s too bad because we could have eaten breakfast at home and had a much more relaxed morning had we known. Instead, we sat for two hours on a tro going nowhere and ate some nutritious donut balls for breakfast.

Here’s Kumasi. We had to go south first, to Kpong, and then took an endless and very bumpy road northwest to Kumasi.

The view off one side of the pedestrian bridge.

We FINALLY left the station at 8:30AM. That was exciting, but the drive to Kumasi is not short. We arrived at about 2:30PM after 8 hours on the tro (2 not moving and 6 in transit). The roads for the first 2-3 hours were HORRIBLE. We were weaving through a bunch of small villages, and the road was dirt and beyond bumpy. So much for sleeping on the ride! I slept a little, but every time we hit a bump, my head smashed into something and I woke up. Not the most restful sleep I’ve ever had, that’s for sure.
As you might imagine, by the time we got off the tro, we were starving. We walked to the hotel, dropped off our stuff, changed clothes (because after 8 hours on a non-air conditioned tro, a clothing change is essential), and went to eat. I got a cheeseburger, and it was awesome. I think I probably could have eaten 10 cheeseburgers at that point, though.

Random market shot. This is in the outer area that isn’t as congested as the main market area.

Even though it was getting late, we decided to walk around the city a bit and go to the central market (called “Central Market” or “Kejetia Market”). People were starting to shut down their shops, but there was still enough activity to get a good sense of what it would be like in full swing. Once you get into the depths of the market, it’s like a labyrinth. There are rows and rows and rows of shops that all seem to be selling the same things. I honestly don’t understand 1. how any of the shops stay in business with so much identical competition nearby and 2. how anyone finds anything. I think there is some sort of large-scale organization of the market, but even so, it’s nothing beyond clothing and fabrics over here, pottery over there, food over there, etc.
I’m glad that we got a chance to scope things out when the market wasn’t as crazy as I’m sure it gets during the day. We’re planning to go back in the morning before we leave the city and head to Lake Bosomtwe, a crater lake to the east of the city, for the rest of the weekend.

Another Sunday Bike Ride!

Posted on October 16, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

I went for another bike ride today! Everlasting, my teacher friend with the bike, is out of town for the weekend, so he told me I could borrow his bike again! I did another 6AM wake up to avoid having too many cars on the road, and I road all the way to Sanga, a town past Asikuma (the town containing one of the orphanages and where I biked last time). The distance was something like 16 miles round trip, and I’m more than happy with that considering my bike and my lack of fitness.

It’s amazing how much you can accomplish in a day when you wake up early! I got back from my ride, stretched and did some other exercises, and still had time to eat breakfast and get ready to leave for church at 8:45. Nick, Andy, and Gaby came with me this week. My new friend, Elisha (from the clinic), preached about the importance of prayer. After the service was over, he came over, said hi to me, and welcomed the new volunteers. I think this means we’re actually friends! Or maybe not, but I’ve decided that we are, so he’s going to have to live with that.

In the afternoon, we all headed to… you guessed it… the soccer field! The senior team didn’t have a game this week, so instead, the two younger teams (under 17 and under 15 maybe?) played back to back. I think they both won? If I’m being honest, I didn’t see a single goal. I really see soccer games as more of a social event than something to actually watch. I caught up with one of the senior high girls who has been out of town for school, talked to some of the other volunteers, and basically did anything except watch soccer. The mason from Friday, Senyo, has taken it upon himself to find me a husband (“someone with good character”) before I leave, so we’ll see how that goes. All in all, I’d say it was a successful day of soccer games!
James, Yara, Anna, and Avy all came back today from their weekend trips, so the night was spent going over information for tomorrow and doing more of the usual “getting to know you” small talk. I’ll be happy when this phase is over and we’re back to the point where everyone feels comfortable around each other.

Back to Village Life

Posted on October 10, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

We stuck around in Accra for an extra day because Avy and I both had things that we needed to get done, and we needed wifi do to them. The internet situation in Frankadua is, as you might imagine, somewhat of a nightmare. I have data on my phone, but it’s the slowest speed at best and completely not working at worst. The cell network was down all last week, and I guess the cell phone company’s first priority isn’t fixing coverage issues in the middle-of-nowhere Ghana.

Some of the side of the road chaos on the way out of Accra.

Avy has an interview next week for Teach for America that she wanted to prepare for, and I had a million emails to respond to and some blog work to do. I was happy to be able to respond to emails from a computer rather than having to type them out on my phone or, what I do when I have long ones to send, type them in word on my computer, transfer them to my phone, copy them into emails, and send from there.
We left the hotel around 3:30, took a cab to the Tudu tro station, and got a tro from there to Frankadua. I got to sit in the front seat, but it was actually kind of terrible because I was sitting in the front middle on a high seat that left my head about 2 inches from the ceiling and a head rest digging into the middle of my back (what kind of tiny person did they think was going to be sitting on that seat when they designed the tro?). Our driver was a bit of a maniac and was getting angry that there was so much traffic. He kept attempting to cut around the traffic and took some “shortcuts” that I’m convinced actually slowed us down. On one, we almost got stuck in some mud just to try to get around like 10 cars.

So many people and so much stuff everywhere.

Think about the things that people do on the highway at home when you’re in traffic that really make drivers angry… and now multiply those things by about 1000. There are basically no rules when it comes to driving here. At one point, we were on a one lane exit ramp, and people had formed two lanes of traffic. Another time, we drove next to the road in the equivalent of a strip mall parking lot so that we didn’t have to sit in the slow-moving line of cars next to us. Driving on the shoulder of a road to get around traffic is so normal that the shoulder is basically just another lane with its own traffic.
Anyway, we eventually made it home about 4 ½ hours later. We had really good timing because the other volunteers told us that the power had been out for an entire day and was just turned back on. Apparently there was some issue at the pole near our house, and all of the light bulbs exploded in our house and the houses around us. People’s TVs got fried, and anyone who had something plugged in had their transformers totally destroyed. Eek. That just reinforces my idea that the electrical situation in this country is absolutely terrifying. But now all is well, and I’m glad I missed it!

Besides that, James is sick, and I’m pretty confident that he has malaria. He went to the clinic today, but the guy who does the malaria tests was out, so they couldn’t do a real test for him. He thinks he just has some stomach thing, but I don’t believe it. We’ll see tomorrow when he goes back.

Mall Day!

Posted on October 9, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

Today was awesome!! Avy and I slept in, ate breakfast, and got ready to go to the mall!! We had big plans for the day including seeing a movie, enjoying air conditioning, eating snacks, and going shopping. Before we could do all of those things, first we had to figure out how to actually get to the mall. Hm. We asked at the front desk and the guy told us where to go to get a tro. He said the walk was about 5-10 minutes. Okay, that’s not bad.

Apparently it’s a universal thing that Christmas decorations come out waaay too early. This is the supermarket at the mall.

Ten minutes later, we were still walking and definitely not where we were supposed to be. Every block, we asked another person for directions, and I’m almost positive that they were all sending us to different places. We walked through some tiny, windy streets and finally ended up somewhere with a bunch of tros. Of course though, it wasn’t the right place… we asked someone and they pointed us across the street… which was a divided road with a fence in the middle. So I would say probably 20-25 minutes after leaving the hotel, we FINALLY found a tro that would take us to the mall. We think they overcharged us a little, but they dropped us off right outside so we’re over it.
First stop was the movie theater to check out the movie times and buy our tickets. There weren’t many options, and we picked Storks, some animated movie I’d never heard of (though that’s not surprising because I’m incredibly out of touch with the outside world). We had about two hours to kill before it started, so we had lunch (I had chicken nuggets and an Oreo milkshake! Does it get any better than that??), bought snacks to smuggle into the theater, and walked around the mall until it was time to go.

I can’t even describe how nice it felt to do something “normal”. We bought popcorn and sat in a cold movie theater and I stuffed my face with smuggled gummies and cookies for two hours (okay I didn’t actually eat the ENTIRE time, but that’s just because I ran out of gummies pretty early on). I enjoyed the movie, but honestly I would have been happy no matter what it was.

Afterwards, we went clothes shopping. At home, I generally hate going clothes shopping, but today it was perfect. I know that probably sounds horrible… like I had to buy some things to feel happy or feel like myself again. I don’t know what to say about that, but sometimes when you’re in a place where everything feels unfamiliar, you need to take a break and do something that feels like real life. Today, for me, watching a movie and buying a pair of pants apparently felt like real life.

By the time we finished eating dinner (a burger!), it was dark and we were not really into the idea of trying to figure out a tro to get home. We took a cab back to the hotel, and now I’m completely exhausted. It was a good day though.

Accra

Posted on October 8, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

Avy and I headed to Accra for the weekend yesterday morning because I needed to renew my visa. When you arrive at the airport, they stamp your passport so it’s good for a 60 day stay. If you’re staying longer, you have to go to the immigration office and extend it. I’m here for 80 something days, so I had to extend mine for a month.

Live chickens under a seat in the tro… Because how else are you supposed to transport your chickens?

Randomly last week, Rudolph (our friend who gave us a ride on our way to Ada Foah) was driving by the house and stopped to say hi. He said that he could give us a ride to Accra, and we made some plans to hang out during the weekend. Since our house is pretty far out of his way, Avy and I took a tro to Kpong, and he met us there. We got there about half an hour before he did and went on a search for shade because it was HOT, and the sun was brutal. We were creepily loitering in an alley next to a store for about 5 minutes before some guys came and insisted that we sit inside. We protested that we were fine, but they didn’t really give us a choice. It was really nice of them, so we bought some ice cream from the store to say thank you (and also just because we wanted ice cream).
After Rudolph picked us up, the rest of the trip to Accra was so typical Ghana. It’s like time doesn’t exist here, and there’s no sense of urgency ever. We planned to get to the office around 2, but Rudolph had to stop to pick out some car tires for his friend Phillip, then Phillip got lost on his way there so we had to go find him, then we went back to the shop and got the tires, then finally we were on our way and Rudolph realized that he left his phone charging at the shop, then we stopped and told Phillip to go back and pick it up, and then we actually were on our way. Avy and I probably should have just taken a tro all the way to Accra… We ended up getting there at 4:00 which is about when the office closes, but there was still just enough time to get my form filled out and passport turned in. Phew. Glad that is over with.

We met Phillip at the mall to get Rudolph’s phone back and then went on what felt like a world tour of hostels trying to pick somewhere to stay for the night. Avy said, “this must be what people did before there was the internet”. But TIA (this is Africa), so that’s what we did. It’s a good thing Avy and I had no expectations for the weekend and were happy to just go with the flow. It ended up being pretty fun, though if we were hoping for some big exciting day, it would have been disappointing.

That night, Rudolph and Phillip took us out to experience some Accra nightlife. It was fun but weird for two reasons: 1) there were other yevus (white people) around and 2) the nightlife in Frankadua consists of going to this one bar in town, sitting at plastic tables outside, and hanging out while the TV plays very dramatic and poorly executed Ghanaian soap operas. The nightlife in Accra actually resembles something you would experience in a city in the US. I felt like a girl from the village experiencing the big city for the first time. Hello culture shock!

Today we’ve just been recovering from the few hours of sleep we got last night. Avy has been in touch with a past VCO volunteer, Leela, who spends a lot of time in Ghana now, and we relocated to the hostel where she helps out when she’s in town. Guess what the room has? AC AND running water AND a hot shower!!!!

Our room. You can see the lizard dispensing AC unit above the bed.

Don’t worry though, it was impossible to forget that we’re in Africa because when we were laying in bed relaxing, lizard poop (as identified by Avy) fell out of the AC unit and onto Avy’s neck. She handled it incredibly well and just brushed it off and said matter-of-factly, “oh, that’s lizard poop”. Oh yeah, no big deal.

Did you think I was making it up? Photo evidence.

A little later, she was about to get onto the bed and the AC started making a weird noise that lasted maybe 30 seconds before a DEAD LIZARD FELL OUT ONTO THE BED. And Avy said, “I guess that’s the lizard” while meanwhile I was letting out little panic screams every couple seconds. Can I just say this one more time? Avy was about to get into bed, the AC started making noises, and A DEAD LIZARD FELL RIGHT WHERE HER HEAD WAS GOING AND SHE HAD NO REACTION. She’s been here for too long, I think. Needless to say, we pulled the bed away from the wall to avoid any more potential surprises.

Tomorrow, Avy and I have a day of luxury planned (yes, even more luxury than AC and hot showers, and hopefully no lizards). It’s going to be awesome!

Bike Ride!!!

Posted on October 2, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

Okay so I probably shouldn’t have been taking a selfie, and I clearly know that because my eyes are filled with worry and fear. But I’m still alive so that means it’s fine.

I woke up early this morning and went for a bike ride!!! As much as I hated waking up earlier than I had to, I did NOT want to bike on the road during the day when there are more cars. Since there’s only one paved road in town, my options for non-dirt routes are limited to the busiest street. I figured that at 6AM, it would be light but it wouldn’t be too hot or crowded on the road yet. If I put it off until later in the day, there’s no way I would have mustered up the courage to go. We can pretend that I had a helmet and that there’s a huge shoulder on the road, if that makes you feel any better.

Some of the scenery along the road. Yes *wink*wink* I stopped the bike to take this picture.

I decided to bike away from town and towards the orphanage because I think that way is a little less populated. I went for about an hour, did around 11 miles, and made it all the way to Asikuma, the town where the orphanage is. Even though it was early, plenty of people were awake, and I was apparently quite the spectacle, a yevu on a bike. Some guy even took a picture. I would equate it to one time in Philly when I saw Benjamin Franklin on a bicycle. I thought it was funny and ridiculous, and most of the locals seemed to think the same about me.

Avy proving that it’s possible for a girl to know how to use a saw.

Don’t worry, this is way safer than it looks… But anyway, they said they knew what they were doing.

It’s amazing how much time there is in the day when you get up early! I got back to the house and still had time to do some stretching and a workout before breakfast and church. We went back to Agnes’s church (it’s looking like that’s going to be our church home) and brought all of the new volunteers with us. The setup of the chairs was different AGAIN, which means it’s never been the same twice in all the times I’ve been there. This week was really fun. I can tell that people are starting to remember me, and I’m beginning to feel like they’re accepting me (not that they were ever unwelcoming or anything, but like they’re seeing me as an actual part of the community rather than just a one-time visitor).

When we got back from church, one of the neighbors was on our porch with two saws! He said that his dad would be mad if he let us use them, but he could cut the wood for us. Fine with me! He ended up letting me use the small saw to cut the pieces to reinforce the back, and we helped a little with the big cuts for the shelves. I was just happy to be able to finish the job. We stabilized the back, measured out the shelf heights, nailed in the shelf supports, and we were finished! Now you can actually see all of the books and games we have, and there’s even some space left over! When Joe came over later, we asked him if he regretted doubting us. He said yes, but who knows. I’m just happy that we didn’t talk ourselves up and then get stuck and have to ask for help.

Goodbye Amber, Hello Monkeys

Posted on September 24, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

Well, there was no putting it off anymore… Amber left today. You know what though? The mind is a powerful thing, and I’m convincing myself that she’s still here. It’s easier to do than usual because we didn’t actually see her leave.

Here’s the location of Tafi Atome. It’s not quite as far as the waterfalls we went to (Wli), but it’s still quite a hike considering the roads to get there.

Nico’s final wish was to see some animals before he leaves on Tuesday, so James, Nico, Isabel, and I decided to get out of the house and do a day trip to the Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary. It’s only about two and a half hours away, but you have to take two different tros and then motorbikes for the rest of the way. We left around 10, and Amber walked us out to the street to catch a tro. It was weird that we were the ones leaving her and knowing that when we get back later, she’ll be gone.

James, acting like he doesn’t think this is awesome

We got a tro pretty quickly, and when we started getting close to the first transfer point, the mate (the guy who collects the money) told us that they were willing to take us all the way to the sanctuary, wait for us to go through, and then drive us all the way back to Frankadua. Sounds like a good deal, except when we asked him how much, he said, “we’ll negotiate in Kpeve” (the first transfer point). We got there, dropped some people off, and kept going without a negotiation. Then we started really pestering him until he finally gave us a number: 100 cedis for the rest of the round trip. We quickly did the math and realized that, according to the fare estimates we had, we would save 7 cedis each, and there would be no transfers to worry about. We came back and agreed on 100, he tried to up it to 150, and we shook our heads and said 100 until he conceded. Score one for the yevus! Oh, that’s another thing I don’t think I’ve talked about. In Ewe, “yevu” means white person/foreigner, so when we’re walking anywhere, everyone yells it to get our attention. The kids will just keep repeating “yevu, yevu, yevu, yevu” until you acknowledge them.

Isabel, looking like she was born with a monkey on her arm

Anyway, we made it to the monkey sanctuary after asking about 15 people for directions and getting stuck behind a funeral procession. We got assigned a guide at the welcome center and he walked with us to buy some bananas for the monkeys and explained how the monkey sanctuary came into existence. In the town, there used to be only traditional religions, and they worshipped the monkeys. After Christianity entered the town, the Christians tried to attack the traditional religions by attacking the monkeys and the forest. Eventually, some external groups found out about what was happening and started working to protect the forest. Now, there’s no hunting or cutting or taking wood in the forest. Dogs also aren’t allowed in the town because they don’t get along with the monkeys. The money that they make from tourists goes to conserving the forest, various community building projects (library, computer center, day care, etc), scholarships for further education for exceptional students in the town, and a few other places. It’s a pretty cool setup!

Me, smiling despite the banana goop all over my hand

Now, if you know me, you know that I HATE bananas. That’s not just when it comes to eating them… I don’t like to touch them or smell them or look at them. Monkeys, on the other hand, love bananas, and that’s how you lure them out of the trees. You can even get them to jump up on your arm! But, of course, you have to be holding a banana. I fought through my internal struggle, decided I could sanitize the heck out of my hand afterwards, and went for it. So worth it! The monkeys jumped right out of the trees onto your arm! We got to walk through the forest a little too. The whole thing was pretty awesome. We were only there for 45 minutes or so, but I still think it was worth it.

Afterwards, the driver brought the tro around to pick us up, and he drove us home! Best agreement ever. The house felt a little emptier when we got back and Amber was gone. I’m feeling pretty drained, but I think we’re going to try to watch a movie before bed. I anticipate falling asleep.

Back to Frankadua

Posted on September 18, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

Is it weird that I really don’t mind how long it takes to get from place to place here? I know that some people like the weekends away but hate the traveling that it takes to make it happen. I, on the other hand, almost like the time in the tros just as much as the time at the destinations. I think it has to do with being able to feel like I have some time alone, even though I’m still surrounded by people. That’s why I’m all about the back seat, window spot. You can look out the window, put some headphones in, and block out everything else. It’s good for me to have a break sometimes.

Anyway, today was another long travel day. We planned to leave Kokrobite at 2PM, but as is the tendency with large groups, we left way later… we weren’t on the road until 4. So what did everyone do with all of that time during the day? Well, some people went to the beach and enjoyed our last few hours of vacation. What did I do? I slept. I woke up in the morning, ate breakfast, contemplated doing something, and instead sat on my bed and passed out for a few more hours. This seems to be my new habit… I don’t sleep as much as I should each night and force myself to function throughout the day anyway. Eventually it all catches up to me, I hibernate for a day, and I’m back in action. Sounds healthy, right? Okay, I’ll work on it…

Tro #2 with the back open.. It made us feel very secure.

When we finally left at 4, I was in need of some “alone” time in the tro because from 2PM – 4PM I got progressively more and more annoyed that we weren’t leaving. Luckily, there was plenty of tro time in my future, and we went back on our fun journey from Kokrobite to somewhere in Accra to Atimpoku and finally to Frankadua.

We ate dinner on the road. This is actually one of my favorite things, and it’s something I’m going to sorely miss when I leave. I don’t know if I’ve talked about this before, but when tros go through a town, a toll, traffic, etc (anything that slows you down), there are always a bunch of people selling things on their heads. A lot of it is food, but Amber and Nico even bought headphones off some guy on our way. We’re all currently obsessed with bofrot which is basically a big donut ball. VERY healthy. You can also buy Fan Ice (the ice cream in a tube we got on our first day) off of people’s heads, and we’re obsessed with that too.

Like I was saying, when the tro tros slow, people swarm the car trying to sell you the stuff on their heads. If you want something in particular, you just say it and someone will go find the person who has what you want. So we asked a woman selling laundry washing powder for bofrot, and within 20 seconds the bofrot lady was at our window, bagging warm donut balls for us. Yum. And fantastically efficient. I think my laziness level will be at an all-time high when I get home. Going into a store is way too inconvenient.

We didn’t get back until 7:30ish, and I am exhausted (you know, from all of the hard work I did today). Time for bed! The weekend is over and it’s back to the farm tomorrow morning. Hello, 5AM. I’ve missed you (NOT).

Kokrobite

Posted on September 17, 2016March 14, 2019 by Lark

There’s really not much to say about today because I did almost nothing, and it was awesome! The day started when I woke up at 10, a welcome break from my usual 5AM alarm. We had a leisurely breakfast, headed to the beach (right outside of our hotel), and kicked a soccer ball around. Once other people started joining in and it developed into a game, I decided it was time for me to duck out and just watch.

I worked on my tan (aka fell asleep on the beach) until everyone was overheated enough to go in the freezing cold water. That lasted probably less than 10 minutes… the water was rough and it was hard to do anything except dodge waves.

To complete our action packed day, we decided to go on a hike in the afternoon, left during the hottest part of the day, got 15 minutes into it, realized that it would probably take 10 times as long as we expected, and turned around. So yeah… very productive today. Anyway, I’ve said all there is to say, so rather than rambling on about nothing, here are some pictures!