christmas...with pictures!

as promised,i am posting pictures of our ghanaian-american christmas extravaganza.
the party began tuesday afternoon when the first guests arrived. on wednesday, we toured wa and saw all the sights. we visited the great mosque, and the imam allowed us to go up in the tower. it was pretty sweet to be high above wa and see the whole city.

the next day, most of the rest of the guests arrived. we (of course) took pito, this time mixed with guinness. mmm.

as this was christmas eve, we felt we needed to partake in a typical american christmas dinner. right? so... BANKU! we went to the spot down the street and had banku (a fermented corn dough) with okro stew. yum yum.

we partied there for a while before bringing the party back to my house and building a BONFIRE! i mean, you can never go wrong with fire, right?

the next morning was CHRISTMAS! for breakfast, we bought BOFRUIT (a fried dough ball similar to a plain donut) and americanized it with jelly, powdered sugar, sprinkles, chocolate frosting, etc. amazing. tasted just like krispy kreme. or else we've been here long enough it tasted nothing like krispy kreme and we were just desperate, but either way, it was amazing.

next was present time! we did a little white elephant exchange, swapping some lovely and some not-so-lovely treasures

then it was time to start preparing dinner. starting with the slaughter of the three chickens. yes, we did. it was slightly traumatic, mostly because the americans have never killed chickens and had no idea what they were doing.

but the end result was magical.

the end. it was a very happy christmas, good friends, lots of food, and much laughter. i hope you all enjoyed yours as much as we enjoyed ours!