Jan. 2

This day started off three times for Nikolai. He trusted his watch. A watch that has been know to jump ahead an hour or so on occasion. This time it jumped two hours, something he did not realize till venturing from the room twice, the first realizing it was the wrong time before getting to the lobby, the second getting out of the building and to the dinning room before realizing it. Suffice to say, he feels bad as he accidentally awoke Nathan the second time when he left the room.

Breakfast was amazing as all food cooked by the amazing Auntie Theresa, we wish to bring back with us as we cannot imagine food without her anymore. Surprise after surprise of wondrous foods. We piled into our second home, the bus, to pick up Scott, Promise, Edward, and, of course, Stephanie. First stop was a little place next to Linda Dor to return the pig cooler and settle up on the books, receipts must be had! Then Osino where we waited on the side of the road out side the bank for Felix, who most did not realize had found us before we were following a bamboo bike riding man with a kente messenger bag, and questions were asked. Chris was a little amazed that the meeting up was so smooth, let alone happened, as the number he had for Felix was obtained six years ago and the only conversation setting it up had been a bit garbled.

Felix brought us to a shipping crate on the side of the road, which is how a good number of store fronts are set up, this one just happened to be right in front of the speed bumps in town. He walked us through the process of creating a bamboo bike. We saw their jigs for the bike making and also the blueprint for setting the jigs made form a vinyl printed mat. Also he used bauxite dust in with his epoxy resin for coloring which rocked. Prices were discussed, the going price for a bamboo bike here is a quarter of the price (or less) of what it is in the states.

Bauxite was the next stop, Abompe, a village a small drive away. Where we saw, we swear the same woman that we saw in pictures Chris took when he last visited some seven year prior, demo-ing the way to cut and drill bauxite chunks to create the beads. We figured out ways to improve our version at home that we tried out in our pre-req class. Smaller knife, better hold. Then Edward made a bit of a boast saying it would be easy and he knew exactly how to do it. After watching Chris, and both of us have a go and struggle in our own ways, he had the hardest time of it. Something we made a little fun of him for. Then a short walk to another store where a man allowed us to watch the carving process and the rounding. Before coming to Ghana, neither of us had heard or seen a carved bauxite, bead or otherwise. Pictures of our score and the process have been included.

Back to Scott's, some were given the option to go to the hotel for an hour to rest, neither of us did this, we jumped right back into our respectful projects. Autumn went to working with Aaron and Edward on passport holders, an item most of us bought back in the states. Inspired by her own passport bag, and the kente and batik fabrics, and possibly a little bit of the sachet wallets from the previous day, created a paper mock-up that put the interpreter, Nikolai, to the test with its complexity. Edward seemed excited to get to work after a few in-depth questions, and had started before we left for the night. Kudos to Edward for juggling allllll the projects he did; the passport bags, kente accent shirts, and his own work.

-Autumn and Nikolai