There are always new things happening around me that remind me I’m somewhere completely different than home, tiny things that catch my attention and make me want to nudge someone and point out. Unfortunately, there is rarely someone around with whom I might share my intrigue, and even if there is, they are usually unimpressed by these quite normal occurrences. So I started making lists, just to help me remember. While I’m sure these lists aren’t complete yet, I thought I’d share them with an audience that perhaps is a bit more interested in the little, somewhat insignificant pieces of my Ghanaian life. Enjoy!

The Things I Love…

• the tiny kittens that run around everywhere, who are unbelievably skinny and skittish
• the big, beautiful, fluffy towers of clouds on my short plane rides from Accra to Tamale
• when people approach me, seeing my camera, and ask me to take their picture, then completely ham it up with their friends
• the little geckos who occasionally keep me company while I’m brushing my teeth
• how even though I’m in a big city, the stars are still bright at night (they were on a whole new level in Kuwani)
• the sweet, syrupy, stringy, sticky, scrumptious mangos warmed by the sun
• how I get swarmed by children, actually buried in a crowd of pushing and giggling kids when I kneel over to show them the pictures on my camera
• plantains…dried, fried, roasted…it doesn’t matter
• the rush of AC when I walk into the office (just ask my coworkers Benedict and Elliot about my reflexive sigh of relief)
• the church music that drifts around the dark neighborhood on Sunday nights

The Things I Hate…

• the giant speed bumps, which are about 30 seconds apart on just about every road around here
• how I am constantly sticky with this merciless humidity
• the cockroach with a body the length of my middle finger that scurried behind the kitchen stove
• getting sunburned even when I take all the precautionary steps
• the dried oyster kebabs street vendors sell (they’re definitely not for me)
• waking up and squishing a mosquito that’s full of blood
• the disgusting flat spiders sneaking around my motel room in Salaga
• nearly colliding with swooping bats on my evening runs

The Things that Make Me Laugh…

(simply because there is NO WAY they would happen back home)

• how crosswalks are called “zebra crossings” 
• a gaudy wedding photoshoot in the Shoprite parking lot
• how when I turned a tap on, no water came out…but several ants did
• the sign entering the military base in Tamale that says “mess with the best, die like the rest”
• the man riding his bike down the street, holding the handlebars with one hand and a chicken with the other
• how in Kuwani, music coming from a speaker was known as “white man dancing”
• shop signs advertising “Praise Jesus Aluminum Works” and “God is Alive Curtain Sales” 
• seeing a poster encouraging me to “stop the spread of ebola, wash your hands” next to a sink that had a mango where a faucet should’ve been 
• a man wearing acid wash jeans, a flannel and sweater vest under a suit jacket, and a santa hat in 39 C° weather (being completely casual about it of course) 
• automatically saying “bless you” when I heard a sneeze, and looking up to realize that sneeze came from a goat
• how the bottom two or three feet of trees are painted white for aesthetic purposes
• the airport security man searching my bag who asked me if he could steal one of my pens, and gave me a fist bump when I laughed and said “go for it”