Thanksgiving

Happy late Thanksgiving to everybody! I don''t want to rub it in to my brothers and sisters that didn't come to Accra for Thanksgiving but I had two big feasts to celebrate, with plenty of turkey, stuffing, and several types of pie, including pumpkin and pecan. The American Ambassador to Ghana was a gracious host and invited a select few of us volunteers to join him at his house and threw a big party. My thanks to him and some of the other ex-pats that opened their homes to us so we could make this event possible. For one day I felt like an American living comfortably overseas, I stayed in a house with glass pane windows and air conditioning and a real shower with hot water. All of the things I took for granted before joining the Peace Corps. But I met a lot of really great people that are working for the American government overseas. Many of them were former Peace Corps Volunteers, and it was really interesting to hear their stories from their service and how they ended up in their current profession. Needless to say, it was a whirlwind trip that now seems like forever ago. I even had a bit of adventure on the way home.
So a few months ago I heard that one of my friends lost his cell phone in one of the big tro tro stations in Accra. I heard this news and laughed, thinking what a moron! And telling myself that I would NEvER let that happen to me! LOL. Well, I guess I broke rule number one from Peter Pan, Never say Never, and I learned that Karma can be a cruel mistress. So when sliding into my seat in a tro my phone slipped from my pocket. Completely unaware of this I got down at my station. Before walking 5 steps I realized that my phone was not in my pocket and I ran back to the tro to retrieve it. But it was nowhere to be found, I even met a lady who saw my cell on the seat but didn’t feel like telling me!! And the real kicker is that when my friend Anthony called my phone to see if I could hear it ring, a Ghanaian answered, “your friend should be more careful next time” and then claimed he would be ‘coming’ back to return the phone. We waited around for about 5-10 minutes and realized it was a lost cause. However I was able to buy a new phone already, somehow the guy that took it didn’t feel like stealing my phone credits too which is lucky for me. But what a pain…anyways, exactly one week from today is the presidential elections in Ghana. I’m really hoping for free and fair elections with no violence. I’ll keep you posted with the latest happenings.