Purim in Ghana

Sorry I (Rivky) haven't been posting lately. The truth is that not much is going on recently, but Purim was this weekend, so I want to describe that a little bit. Because it was absolutely ridiculous. Nothing like any Purim I've ever experienced.

Ta'anit Esther was on Thursday, baruch Hashem I didn't have any classes. I spent the fast baking hamantaschen (1) with Rachel (2) and Brittany (3), two girls from my dorm (4). We had awesome fillings- fresh pineapple, fresh mango, chocolate and peanut butter mixture, stam peanut butter, and apricot jam. The hamantaschen looked and smelled amazing, and we made about 75. This was all in preparation for our Purim party Saturday night, because we knew we would have to spend Friday cooking for shabbos.

On Friday morning, Sarah, the religious girl from ISH (5) called, and she told me that a guy she knew had just gotten into Ghana from England, and he had an actual megillah with him for Saturday night! Amazing. He was planning on reading at 7:30, and our party was called for 9:30-10, so we figured we'd be fine. So right after shabbos, we grabbed a cab. I can't even describe where this place was. Apparently, it was an ex-KGB building turned into some sort of guest house? There were random Jewish things everywhere, like this big menorah and cut-outs on the wall of Chasidic men dancing. We had to get let in this gate with barbed wire on top by an intense, scary guard. Obviously, we were cracking up the whole time. Because come on! There were two cabs of students from the university and a bunch of secular Israeli men, and then this British guy who gave a short d'var Torah and explained the story of Purim, and then he read the megillah. (6)

Anyway, we ran back to campus after the megillah (7) and set up for our party. We got into costume- Zahava was a fairy, I was Harry Potter, and Yamit was...something. A jester? She wore a lot of pink and purple. The party was just ridiculous. A bunch of our Ghanaian friends came (8), Dela DJ'ed, and people had awesome costumes. At like 1 AM, when Yamit and I walked Daniel and his friend Maxwell downstairs to say bye, a guard came over to us yelling about parties and rules and whatnot. We didn't really know what he was talking about, but it was already 1 and we had to wake up early on Sunday morning for the seudah anyway, so I agreed to close the party. The guard followed us back to the room anyway, glaring, but whatevs, we shut down the party.

On Sunday morning, we woke up early to have our seudah. Zahava made pancakes and Yamit and I made matzah brie. Yes, weird seudah food, but whatevs. Jenny brought us mishloach manot, which was reallllly cute. We couldn't do a megillah reading with the British guy on Sunday, because Purim was also the day of the CIEE Olympics at Bojo Beach. So instead of doing it in person, I arranged with Rabbi Marwick that I would call him and we could put the Hopkins megillah reading on speaker. Zahava, Yamit and I found this bizarre ex-bar thing where we huddled underneath, so you couldn't hear the waves and the wind, and we waited two minutes to call Rabbi Marwick, but obviously, before we got to call, the fishermen came in pulling in their nets. We were dying of laughter- it was the most Ghana moment. We found a different spot, but Hopkins was running late, and before they read the megillah, the fishermen were done with their fishermen stuff and we went back to our awesome hut. Listening to the megillah there was an amazing experience. We were sitting under fifty feet from the Atlantic Ocean, in flipping West Africa, listening to a crystal-clear megillah reading in Baltimore. (9) So surreal, but so incredible.

Anyway, that was Purim. Nothing big has happened since then- we haven't had water since Thursday night. (Yes, it's Tuesday afternoon. Whatevs, Ghana. Whatevs.) Last night, Yamit and I showered in this guy Sidney's apartment. It was the best water pressure I've felt since being in Ghana. I'm attempting to make french toast for dinner soon, I'll let you know how it goes. (10)


(1) Wiki it. It's a traditional Purim dessert- a triangular cookie with a sweet filling.
(2) Rachel Sternberg. Jewishest name ever. Besides for Rivky Stern.
(3) Close enough. She has black curly hair and she's like, majoring in the Holocaust in college. Seriously.
(4) Did I mention that basically all my friends live in my building? It's really easier that way.
(5) International Students Hostel, the other dorm building for international students. It's a half hour walk, aka I've never been there. It's just so far!
(6) My favorite part was that he was reading it sfard, probably because the Israelis asked him to, but kept accidentally slipping back to the "suf."
(7) Figuratively.
(8) Even Daniel, from our political science class! Hi, Daniel!
(9) Shoutout to Ezra, Josh, Ben, and Rabbi Marwick for doing a great job with the megillah.
(10) I'll probably forget, how sad for you.