Second Glance

Perspective changes perception.

I spent this past weekend in Tamale with EWB friends, Carissa, Jody and Hasan (He was a JF this summer and stayed on for an extra four months). The return to Tamale was bizarre. I felt like I was in a the height of civilization. Where am I? This isn’t what Tamale looked like four weeks ago when I was fresh off the plane from Canada. Did I get off the tro in the wrong spot? Haha. The reunion with Carissa and Jody was a joyful one – when I saw them down the street I started pretend running (my backpack and the heat prevents real running) towards them and smiling like crazy. The man on the other side of the street exclaimed, “white lady, you look happy!”. I was. I am.

Saturday morning we went into the Tamale market with a list of things to buy. Last time we took tentative steps, shyly looking into booths or at goods on tables, not sure what to buy or what anything was or how much to pay for it. Not this time. This time we were relaxed, laughing, joking. When I first spent time here I couldn’t believe how little there was to buy, but now the amount of fruits and vegetables astounds me. Cauliflower! Eggplant! Cucumber! Oh my! There is SO much in this market and in the surrounding streets.



We stayed at the "EWB House" which is two rooms in a compound that they rent out. Each room has a mattress, a mosquito net, random stuff left by volunteers, and one room has a lot of books!!! The tree of us spent a lot of time looking at the books and talking about how wonderful books are :)