On this particular Thursday, due to a funeral taking place next door, nobody in the office went to work. With the loud noise that would take place and high flow of traffic, calling off work for the day was in everyone’s best interest. Although nobody went to work, one person from the office was asked to attend the funeral. As no one knew who the lost loved one was, making an appearance at the funeral was highly looked upon and shows kindness to the family who is going through loss.  This is one of many examples of how the Ghanaian culture is full of loving, kind and thoughtful people. People in the U.S would never go to a random funeral not knowing anyone.

Instead of hanging out back at the house, my coworker and I planned to hang out in OSU and film for a multimedia project. The trotro journey that morning was the most challenging I have had so far. Considering I was dropped off at a new location, walking around lost and seeking a trotro for 45minutes, I was still right on time. My co-worker, on the other hand, was fifteen minutes late. As I met my co-worker at Papayes, a well-known restaurant in the middle of OSU, I expected he would have a tripod on him and be ready to film. My expectations for this filming day were not high at all, but I was a little concerned when he told me he didn’t have a tripod.

We started our day off by dropping his car off at a mechanic. With no car for the day, we stayed close to OSU and walked towards the beach where we did our first and only interview. I was hesitant about interviewing with no tripod and lavalier, but we did the interview anyway. As I followed my co-worker’s guidance, he picked our first interviewer. She was a street vendor who sold the fruit papaya. Her English was broken, but she still agreed to help out with our project using her local language. As I was filming her, in front of a store on the side of the road, I knew the quality was not going to work. After the interview, my co-worker and I decided to do the future interviews at the office where we would have the correct equipment.

With time left in the day and no car, we made our way back to the city. After the far walk back to the city, we cooled down at a shaded picnic table in the middle of OSU. With nothing going on or planned, all I could think about was food. I wasn’t bored but the only thing I could think of was eating food.

First, we went to the mall and got Fan Ice, then we walked to a street food cart that was selling bofloot. Bofloot is one of my favorite Ghanaian foods. It simply is a sweet round ball of bread that is fried to perfection. It is warm, soft and crispy on the outside, kind of like a donut. We sat and watched the process of how bofloot is made. For about an hour, we ate and talked with the locals. I got to try and balance fruit on my head, which is something I have always wanted to learn. With the help of others, my new head balancing skill was a success. The way my co-worker interacted with the people coming and going, I for sure thought he had known the people forever.  Once we left, I asked him how long he knew his friends and he explained he just met them, and how in Ghana it is easy to make friends.

This day was one of my favorite days in Ghana. I got to walk in the city, experience the culture in a new way, meet new people and eat food, my new favorite bofloot.