Day off From School!

Yesterday was a holiday from school for all 9 of us. We decided we would go into Accra and doing some shopping. We got a taxi and headed to the Kenshie market. It is a market that is more traditional in that it is where the local people shop and it is not usually visited by tourists. It is a 3 story market. On the first level, there is the food section. You can imagine what that smelled like, although this is an indoor market. The second floor is the miscellaneous level. Everything from toilet paper to beads (jewelry) can be found here. We spent a lot of time at the jewelry section. People were very nice here. We could not find the beads, so we asked a lady. She turned to the lady next to her stall and asked her to watch her station. She walked us to the beads with no problem. After we finished buying some beads, we moved to the third floor, which was the fabric floor. Many of us bought fabric, myself included. The fabric is so pretty and vibrant. I love it! After we bought some fabric, we headed out of the indoor market. Outside the market you still have people selling things all over the sidewalks. We walked down the sidewalk for a short ways but did not really see anything of interest. We decided we would get a tro-tro and headed to Osu, which is basically another part of Accra. A tro-tro is another way to get around in Ghana. It is just a big van that runs like a taxi but is way cheaper. It only cost 50 pesewas, the coin currency. The tro-tro was actually not bad. Many people seem to view them as a lower form of transportation, but we really enjoyed the price and the ride wasn't bad either! We got dropped off in Osu and did some more shopping. I spent a lot of money, but I got a lot of gifts. Don't worry, Mom. I am be responsible with my money, or as responsible as I get. ;) By 2 or so, most of us were out of money so we headed back to village. We cramped into a taxi. For some reason, I always seem to be in the taxi with 5 people. Both on the way there and back we had 4 people in the backseat. We are crammed into the backseat of a car equivalent to say a Ford Escort. We were packed in there, but we managed. Once we got back, Osei, who is basically the person who takes care of us, brought over his tailor. We were able to give him our fabrics we purchased and he is going to make clothes out of them. I am going to getting two skirts made. It was pretty cool to have your measurements taken and know the clothes are being made specifically for me. Makes one feel special! I did tell the tailor that he was not allowed to say my measurements out loud. He laughed and said, "for me to know only, right?" Apparently not wanting to share your figure measurements is a universal thing. Dinner was shortly after the visit from the tailor. Now I am at school, waiting for the one and only class of the day. Three weeks from today we will be heading home!
The holiday is a big Muslim holiday. As we were heading to Accra, we seen so many Muslim people in their traditional outfits. At one point we seen many Muslims going to this field area, where we assume they will have their event(s). The holiday has something to do with sacrificing. It was very cool to see all these people dressed in their traditional Muslim clothing.