It's a small world, after all.

Today is my 12-hour travel day to Wa.

Last night, George Guri, my host from the Upper West Science Foundation, stopped by the guest lodge with his brother, Don, and our driver for tomorrow, Dominic. George and Don were very friendly. Dominic...mmm...didn't seen like he enjoyed being in East Legon at 10 at night. He was no Simon the taxi driver as far as chattiness.

We are supposed to leave at 6:00 a.m., but I'm not sure whether that is "American" 6:00 a.m. (known to us as 6:00 a.m.), or "Ghanaian" 6:00 a.m. - which is a little looser.

I shared a lovely meal of spaghetti and meat sauce, salad and pineapple with the other guests here and we had a brilliant discussion about what "hospitality" is in African vs. American culture.  One point that Damare, from Liberia, made emphatically was that if someone offers you food in Africa -- a piece of their cake, for example -- and you refuse, you have, in essence, refused them.  So it was good that when Damare offered me a chunk of her peanut cake all the way from Liberia, I didn't refuse, right? And there was a pretty active discussion between Lawrence and Eliza about whether Lawrence should eat snake, bushmeat, or dog when offered.  We agreed that it was in the attitude of refusal. For example, if I was allergic to peanuts, Damare would not have been insulted. But if I made a face and turned her down, that would be altogether different. This group is from a organization called Evangelism Explosion and they will be sent to other African countries to spread the Gospel. So, much of their discussion centered on how to behave when you go into a rural tribal person's home and are served something you really would not otherwise eat. And they are, I believe, planning to discuss this further at breakfast this morning.
It's clear that food in Africa carries much more significance than it does in the U.S., not as far as how much people eat, but how, when and even IF people eat.  Food has great meaning, here. And that's something we can definitely learn from.

My housemates: Damare, David, Eliza, Lawrence, Joseph and Adam -- whose parents came to the U.S. as refugees from Nigeria and live in Wheaton!