Celebrity

Being one of the only white people in the village has made me an instant hit. This is the sort of popularity I was dying for in middle school. In fact it seems more than popularity. It reminds me more of the chaos surrounding hollywood celebrities.

Today Brandon and I walked into town just to look around and fetch some oats for Mike and Chelsea. Every child we walked by was over joyed to see us. We would wave and their entire faces would light up. Some children ran off of their porches yelling "ABRUNI! ABRUNI!" ( twi for white man) jumping up and down excitedly. Many children would come up to us and excitedly chirp "How are you?" when we responded "Good, how are you?" they just stared at us with huge grins across their face. When Brandon stopped to talk to a man who was very pleased with Brandon's shirt which had the name of a classic regae artist on it (regae is very popular here) literally a crowd of probably 20-30 children surrounded us. They were fighting over who could hold my hand. One that had gotten to it first began kissing it and swatting away and other child who tried to take over.

The children aren't the only ones excited to see us. Many adults and teenagers excitedly called Brandon Jesus or tell him that he is christ-like because of his beard and long hair. Yesterday when we got dinner in Kumasi our server jokingly asked brandon if he would bless him.

As for me, I've becoming remarkably popular with the boys. I have walked with some of the girls at the school while they have gone to get water for our house and there is always a long line around the water hose. Everytime a bunch of boys will be running up to introduce themselves. Why didn't boys like me like this when I was single? I never had that sort of luck while at home.

Well I guess it's about time my old adolescent dreams come true... I just never included Africa in the equation.