A Noticeably High Proportion of Our Posts Have Been About Food, Haven't They?

**I switched to numbers, as a way of footnoting. So everyone can stop yelling at me, kthanks.**

Hi, it's Rivky! I'm sitting in the common room at 1 in the morning, watching Zahava fry potato balls.(1) CIEE has a trip tomorrow, so we're not going to have time to cook for shabbos, so we made everything today. Yesterday, we made beer bread- yeah, I meant to say that. Since there's no kosher yeast and we haven't been able to make challah yet, we improvised. Yamit likes to share little tidbits of wisdom with us, and she's informed us that beer bread was very popular in the 70s (often eaten with Jello!). Today, while Yamit and I were at Shoprite (more on that later), Zahava made fried plantains, and now, we're finishing up the potato balls.(2)

To buy all these ingredients, we took our first trip to Medina Market today.(3) We went with Ann, our first Ghanaian friend! It was ridiculous- like the shuk in Yerushalayim, but on crack. It was packed, and we were the only oborunis (white people) in the entire place. We stood out like a sore thumb(4). We bought mangoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, plantains and a yam.(5) We also bought bananas, and ate them on the spot. They were delicious; the bananas here are amazing, plentiful and incredibly cheap. They're also about half the size of American bananas.

Anyway, back to the current activity, frying 'yam' balls. When we tried the batter, we realized that we had bought a potato, and not a yam. In this country, apparently, there is actually no way to tell them apart. Hehe. We panicked a little bit, but we figured we'd just make them anyway. Turns out they're delicous- Zahava and I keep snacking on them. The first couple are actually ball shaped, but then we got bored because WOW they were taking a long time to cook, so the rest of them look more like latkes.(6) They're amazing. Can't wait until shabbos- we have a feast! Bread, fried plantains, yam balls(7), and salad?

Okay, we're almost done. Normally, we would wash the dishes now, but the water is out. Duh. We had to do bucket showers tonight- we took the buckets to the spigot across the street, where we filled them up(8) and lugged them back to the building, up the two flights of stairs, and into the showers, trying not to spill too much along the way. It was a thrill.

Tomorrow, we're going to Abonsi, a village about 90 minutes away from Legon. Apparently, while at Abonsi, "we will get the opportunity to meet with some of the local leaders of the town and also and also a traditional ruler to see how local governance takes place in communities in Ghana." Should be interesting. Maybe I'll even get to be made queen of a village!(9)

Oh, almost forgot! At Shoprite, we ran into Moshe and Uri, two of the Israelis living in Accra! We talked to them for a while, then Uri drove us back to campus and we met Sarah, the frum girl living in ISH (International Students Hostel). It was great, and we're planning on doing a lot of shabbatot together, but the best part is that Moshe's apartment has a WASHING MACHINE and he is letting us use it!!! Our hand-washing was a miserable failure last week, so this is a big step for us. Very thrilling.(10) Okay, time for bed! We have to be on the bus tomorrow morning in under 6 hours. Fun.

(1) They were supposed to be yam balls, an authentic Ghanian food. But they're not. More on that later.
(2) A real team effort. Yamit made the mashed potatoes, I shaped the balls, and Zahava is doing the bulk of the frying.
(3) Presumably named after the city in Saudi Arabia, not the Hebrew word for country. But who knows?
(4) But how much do sore thumbs even stand out? I, for one, never even look at thumbs.
(5) Or not a yam. Whatever. Still more on that later, promise bli neder!!!
(6) And these are literally potato pancakes. For future reference, even though I don't usually like latkes, apparently, when the potatoes are mashed, I do!
(7) GO AWAY we're still calling them yam balls, even if they're not.
(8) Good question on Yamit's part- if there is water across the street, is there really no way to make it get up to our suite?
(9) Shout-out to Elana! Or really her friend, who was made queen of a Ghanaian village she visited last year. How awesome.
(10) Also, at Shoprite, we bought Magnum. Amazing. A shabbos treat!