Halloween (11/15)

After much hassle and negotiation, my screen doors are being installed as I write. In reality, no amount of screen doors will keep out the swarming relentless army of insects that pour through every crack and game to dance around my lights; but it's nice to hope that these doors will make some difference. So I realized I never wrote about Halloween!

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Halloween fell on a saturday this year, and so I decided to save up my informal vacation days and take a full weekend off in Tamale. I arrived friday, picked up my Halloween package from Mom, and started the festivities. Inside the box was a chocolate mini-bite sampler pack complete with: 3 musketeers, Mars, Mars Special Dark, Twix, and Snicker's Mini bars. SO delicious. I think I ate half the bag in one sitting. Also in my gift box was the DVD with the UF vs LSU game and the alligator from the following monday. Beth and Julie were in the mood for Swad again, so we had dinner there and after I setup to watch my game. (Swad is a western food restaurant where we can spend lots of money and get pizza or sandwiches).

After dinner and drinking it was late; I didnt even start the DVD till 10 or 11, but hell I was watchin my Gators game no matter what. I sat alone for most of it just cheering and cursing to myself, people popping their heads in every so often to see what all the commotion was about. The gators won (of course) 13-3.

The next day (sat Oct 31st) we went shopping in tamale to buy finishing touches for our costumes. It was a fun little adventure exploring Tamale to find random odds-and-ends to put together the pieces. The girls (Beth, Julie and Lizzy) dressed up as futbol players and I was dressed as a teen-aged Ghanaian who's trying too hard to dress like an American from the movies. ...They really do try too hard, and are way off. It looks like a mix of a popped-collar idiot, and a prohibition gangster.

The original plan was to dress in costumes, go to a spot, hang out, and eat candy. Turns out many people had similar ideas and quite a few people were at the TSO for Halloween. By chance an NGO nearby was having a party. We heard rumors of a party, a pig roast, and every time the story got more ridiculous.

-An NGO Allison knows is having a party, one guy there is Irish...
-The Irish are having a party!
-There's an Irish party and a Pig Roast!
-Are you going to the Irish wake/party bash??

When we arrived it was like stepping into another world. We left a spot where Ghanaians were laughing at our peculiar dress, and walked into a party with 95% white faces, all dressed in ridiculous outfits. We greeted some people and it was easy to see who the PCVs were; we all skipped the open bar and went straight for the food. The steak and chicken kabobs, the roasting full pig, the salads and hor's dveurs of all kinds. After I ate way too much I got back up and went for seconds. When I got back to the food bar it looked like a field ravaged by locusts. All the dishes were empty. An irate Ghanaian agreed with the disappointed look on my face "Ah! They have eaten all the food!" I looked at him and mumbled somethin like "Ya dude, THEY did... that's messed up..." as I scraped the remaining beans and salad onto my already dirty-from-eating plate.

When I was done embarrassing myself at the food stand I went to the bar where 2 older men dressed as priests were bartending. I ordered a Rum and Coke and marveled at this almost like home scene. I distinctly remember how I felt at one point, the Irish music was playing, my Rum and Coke in hand, friends walking about, and I just smiled. Not even sure why, but just so happy. Almost like that "on at all times" guard was lifted momentarily and this feeling of home and familiarity swept over me and took me in an embracing glow. Maybe it was the charm and luck of the Irish, the great hospitality, I dont know but it was as happy as I'd been in a long time.

I spent most of the next day paying for the great time I had the night before. I suspect the Rum and Coke had something to do with the glow of the night but aside from that there was clearly something more, and the feeling of the emotion, as well as the feeling of my liver cursing at me, hung around all afternoon. For lunch we took a cab (with Hannah's directions) to the Desert Rose. A place totally tucked away in a suburb of Tamale that you would NEVER find without exact directions. What we encountered was the most amazing burgers I've had in recent memory. Real beef, with onions and tomatoes on a kind of onion bun. It was out of this world and for only 5 cedis I may order 2 next time.

That night we watched a showing of the Kayayo video, that a past PCV Alicia made, and called it a wrap for the long Tamale stay. The next morning I rushed home to teach my classes. Business as usual again. I'm getting very comfortable at site: with the people, the food, my lifestyle. But these brief escape moments go a long way to keep the batteries charged and keep my positive outlook flowing.

Happy Halloween!