Brief Update!!!

We have less than 4 weeks until we depart for Ghana!!!
Yesterday we visited Fr. Anthony who works at St. Pius and grew up in Ghana. He is extremely kind and told us about Ghana. First we went to an African market here in Omaha. He showed us all sorts of different foods and told us how they are prepared. They put red pepper in most of their dishes and eat a lot of stews and fish. He made us Gari, which is ground up and roasted cassava, to which he added milk. It's a very quick dish, much like a porridge, so many students eat it on the run. Then he made us fried salmon with stew and rice. The stew was delicious!! He sautéed some onions in oil, then added freshly pureed tomatoes, onion, and garlic. Then he added a spoonful of ground red pepper, to which he said, “I’m just adding a tiny bit, for flavor, but not too much because I don’t want it to be hot for you!” It sure had a kick!! I can tell already that I am going to love the food!
Fr. Anthony also taught us some Twi. The official language of Ghana is English, but most of the people in Ghana speak Twi. He taught us the days of the week and how to say “how are you?” People in Ghana will call someone by the day of the week that they were born on. For example, I was born on Saturday so I could introduce myself as Ama. Here is a list if you would like to know your name!!!:

Day of Week Female Male
Sunday Asi Akwasi
Monday Adjoa Kodjo
Tuesday Abena Kwabena
Wednesday Akua Kweku?
Thursday Yaa Yaw
Friday Afua Kofi
Saturday Ama Kwame

What is your name? Wo din de sen? or Ye fre wo sen?
my name is X me din de X or ye fre me X
how are you? wo ho te sen?
I am well me ho ye (may ho yay -- pronunciation)

I really enjoy learning different languages and talking to people in their native language; so I hope to learn much more!!
It definitely hasn’t hit me yet that we leave in less than a month. Our team has been preparing all year, and we have all the necessary items, but mentally preparing is a different story.
To prepare for our trip to Ghana, each of us chose a topic and taught everyone else about it. For example, Molly told us about the history of Ghana itself while Tim did current issues within Ghana; Danny and Jenni picked current issues within Africa. We discussed cultural issues, and luckily Ghanaians are friendly kind people, because Annie G. and I are left handed – gesturing with your left hand in Ghana is considered insulting. Fr. Anthony assures us that if we just mention that we do not mean harm by it that they will be happy that we tried to learn the culture before we came and will not take offense to it. Plus, we will already know some Twi; so we can embarrass ourselves by trying to speak it, and they can just laugh at us for that! I am already getting excited for it!!
Anyways, the next thing we did was reflect and get to know each other! We have had a few meeting to discuss logistics of everything and necessary documents, vaccinations etc. So at the end of the meetings we will discuss our expectations, previous travel experiences, and fundraiser ideas.
Although I feel our best bonding time was when we did our “taster” run for Savor the Flavor! Tim and I went shopping for the groceries, and then everyone met at my house to cook. Food does bring people closer together! Not necessarily because of the food, but the process of making it and having to work together to prepare something that hopefully everyone enjoys. Plus, getting ready to eat is a relaxing time when discussions flow naturally and people (at least our group) are more open. We made fried plantains and groundnut stew! It was delicious! When we served it at Savor people seemed to love it as well. If you want to try it, here is the recipe:
Groundnut (peanut) stew
INGREDIENTS (multiply by 8 --- but only use the onion we have—cuz they’re big)1 tablespoon olive oil 1 medium-size yellow onion, diced 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 or 2 hot or minced chiles, to your taste, seeded and chopped 1 ½ teaspoons peeled and grated fresh ginger ½ tablespoon light brown sugar ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground red pepper (I added this to the recipe, you may need more)2 carrots, chopped
1 green pepper, sliced1 ½ cups water ¼ cup creamy natural peanut butter Salt and freshly-ground black pepper 1 ½ cups cooled black-eyed peas or one 15-ounce can (see Note), drained and rinsed ½ cup chopped unsalted roasted peanuts

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, cover, and cook, stirring a few times, until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, chiles, ginger, brown sugar, cinnamon, red pepper, and cumin and cook for 1 minute. Add the carrots and pepper and stir to coat with the spices. Add 1 ¼ cup of the water and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low.
2. Put the peanut butter in a small bowl and slowly add the remaining ¼ cup water, stirring until smooth.
3 Stir the peanut butter mixture into the stew, cover, and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes. Allow 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time, add the black-eyed peas and peanuts and simmer until heated through. Before serving, taste to adjust the seasonings.

Kelewele (Fried Plantains)
6 large ripe plantains
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground red pepper
2 Tablespoons water
3 cups oil or shortening
Procedure
Peel the plantain and cut crosswise into ½-inch slices, removing any woody parts from the center.
Mix ginger, salt, and red pepper with water in a mixing bowl.
Drop plantain slices into mixture and turn them to coat.
Heat oil or shortening in a large skillet and fry the mixture-coated slices until golden brown.

We had a hard time deciding which meals to make. We decided on these because they were relatively easy to serve. However, we also looked into serving Fufu or Jollof Rice.
Tessa was in charge of the Savor the Flavor event that I keep referring to, and she did a great job! She organized many items to be auctioned off, and coordinated all the Project CURA groups to get together and present their trips to the guests. She can tell you way more about it than I can. All I know is that we had a great time at the Ghana table!!

Well, believe it or not, this is just a quick summary of all the things we have been doing to prepare for Ghana! I hope you're ready for lots of stories in a few weeks!!