AhweneE

My Twi class went to Koforidua this afternoon (about 2 hours north of Accra in the Eastern Region) to practice our Twi bargaining skills at the well known ahweneE (bead) market. They have beads/jewelry from all over West Africa. Last night, my Ghanaian friend Phebe grilled me for about an hour on Twi bargaining lingo. She's a a toughie.

Me: AhwenneE wura (bead seller)

Phebe (in the most calm and quiet, but stern voice): No. What are you saying? I don't understand you.

M:AHHH-HWEEE-EH-NAY wuuura (bead seller)

P: No! i have no idea what you are trying to say. Do you know what you are saying? You are saying 'nose.' Why are you talking about noses at a bead market?

Moving on...

M: me pE sE meton ma w-...(I want to sell it)

P: What? Why are you talking about butts?

M: meton

P: No.

M: Tooe-n?

P. No. That is butt.

M: Tooo-own

P: Taw-n

M:Tawn

P:T-AHWWW-N

M:OMYY...woman! That is what I said. TAWN!

P: NO! you keep saying 'butt'!

Yeah. so that went on for a while...

Got to Koforidua and was bargaining for two necklaces made out of fish bones with my mad Twi:

Me: Ne boo yE den paa. (it's too expensive)

Ahwenee wura: WHAT. oh. please...speak English. Your Twi is not good at all.

M: Oh c'mon! Let me practice!

A. Wura: ok...fine

M: MepakyEw, te so. Me yE sukuu--... ("Please lower the price, I'm a stude...")

A. Wura (cuts me off mid sentence unsympathetically, and totally unimpressed by my efforts): Yeaaah yeaaah. 'You're a student, you don't have any money...' I know, i know. It's still 12 GH cedi."

Dang it!

So much for that. I got completely owned by Twi. =P But I ended up getting a really good deal when I told him I had to get money from a friend. He thought I was ditching him ( i really wasn't and honestly was going to return and pay him 10 cedi) so he quickly said "OK OK! 8 cedi! Bring it!" Sweet.

I really enjoyed the market, surprisingly enough, since i normally hate going to markets because of the harassing and bombarding of sellers. The sellers there were way chill compared to what I'm normally used to. You tell them you just want to look first and they'll give you your space. And they don't start at ridiculously outrageous prices. Their rates are actually decent. It was a nice change.

A bunch of the girls bought beautiful waist beads. It's popular among Ghanaian women. You wear a string of small beads around your waist to keep track of your weight. If the beads get tighter, you know you're gaining weight and are forced to inch the beads up a little higher. No one is supposed to see them because they're lingerie status. Interesting eh? Ashley's been trying to get me to buy some for months. Finally bought a few today. She's been breaking me. First banku, then Glee, and now waist beads? What next?

The market was an all-day ordeal since it was so far away. I was super tired when I got home. Watched an episode of Glee (SOO addicted, by the way), and met up with Prosper, the guy I'm working with on the NGO he is starting. Talked a lot about logistics, strategy plans, manual formatting, etc. It's weird going into this stuff, just cause I haven't had much background in all this mumbo jumbo administrative business that goes into starting an NGO. But it's actually pretty interesting and I'm learning a lot. Sometimes i feel like I'm in way over my head. I also don't really enjoy working with Prosper. I think most of it has to do with the fact that he was trying to holler at me in the beginning, and later kept asking me to hook him up with a White girl. I was so put off by his unprofessionalism and haven't liked him much ever since. It's all business when we meet now.

Officially the last day of lectures tomorrow! I don't have any lectures, just one tutorial. Wow. I can't believe it. Only about a month to go. There's still so much I want to do and learn. I wish i did the year-long program. =( But i'll be home soon! I'm definitely looking forward to that.