Emmanuel's Visit Day 1: Summer

  Today Emmanuel got to Santa Barbara Airport at 10:30am.  My parents, my sister Hannah and I picked him up from the SB airport.  He was totally wiped out from the 25 hour flight from Ghana to California, so he decided to sleep for part of the day.  He would be sleeping in my sister Ashley's old room, which has a bathroom that he could also have to himself.  When he woke up around 2:00pm he was hungry so I asked him what he would like to eat.  He told me about all the different traditional meals he enjoyed in Ghana: Waakye (rice and beans), Fufu (pounded cassava and plantain or pounded yam and plantain, or pounded cocoyam), Banku/Akple (cooked fermented corn dough and cassava), and many others, so we decided to make one of them together.  We chose to make Waakye and Fufu.  To make Fufu and Waakye first we needed to go to Whole Foods Market and buy Bisquick, instant corn flakes, rice, and black beans, and then went home to start cooking.  To make the Fufu we boiled six cups of water and then stirred in the Bisquick and instant corn flakes for 12 minutes.  It was hard, we had to keep stirring vigorously until I couldn't stir anymore however Emmanuel could have stirred all day, because he made Fufu almost every day in Ghana.  Then we cooked the rice and beans. After that we set the table and sat down and Emmanuel said a traditional Ghanaian blessing and then we ate. It was delicious, but not like anything I had ever tasted before.  After we were done we cleared the table, and I brought out a chocolate chip cheese cake that my dad and I had made earlier, when Emmanuel was sleeping.  I cut him a piece and he picked it up and smelled it, then he broke off a piece of it, ignoring the fork that I had given him, and put it in his mouth. He chewed for a minute then asked me what was in it, I told him and he looked at me and said, "why put cheese in it? In Ghana we don't use cheese in anything most people don't like it, but I personally find it quite good."  He told me that he enjoyed my cake very much, and accepted a second piece when I asked him if he wanted another.  Finally we were done and went into the kitchen to do the dishes.  When we were done with the dishes I asked Emmanuel if he had enough energy to go to the beach.  He said yes so I asked my dad to drive us to Santa Claus Lane Beach, he said, "of course!" so we got our bathing suits on and I got us towels.  I thought it would be fun to play soccer together on the beach so I brought my soccer ball and then we left.  On the drive there Emmanuel couldn't stop looking out the window at the ocean.  I think he thought it was just a really big lake.  When we got there we parked right in front, we were lucky there was  a spot, and got out of the car.  It was a perfect beach day, it was super sunny and there wasn't a cloud in sight or a wisp of wind, we couldn't have asked for a better day! We crossed the train tracks and onto the smooth hot sand.  Emmanuel sighed and closed his eyes.  I understood standing there on the warm sand was one of the best feeling in the world, one that was only matched with actually being in the ocean.   We crossed the sand, set down our stuff, grabbed each others hand, and ran into the ocean!  I screamed as the freezing water hit my skin, but Emmanuel just smiled happily, as if he didn't feel the cold water around him.  We dunked our heads under the surface when we came up for a breath I saw the biggest smile I had ever seen spread across Emmanuel's face.  He said, "This is the first time that I have touched the ocean."  I couldn't imagine not living near the ocean my whole life, it's a part of me.  After about two hours Emmanuel had finally had enough splashing, swimming, and body surfing.  We got out of the water, dried ourselves off and just sat and stared at the water, after about five minutes a pod of dolphins passed by,  Emmanuel jumped up and glared at the dolphins curiously.  "What are those?", he said.  "Dolphins", I said.  "I have heard of them before, but I never dreamed that I would see one", said Emmanuel.  "In Ghana they are very rare, because fishermen capture them in nets and eat them.  There are very few left, because of this." he said.  When the dolphins had passed we decided to play some soccer.  We just ran and passed the ball back and forth and then we played one vs. one with goals made out of sticks.  Emmanuel was very good.  He was fast, had awesome footwork and skill, and was very fit from playing in Ghana.  After soccer we went on a beach walk, I found a white spiral seashell.  I gave it to Emmanuel and told him to put the hole to his ear.  He did, and said, "It sounds like the waves."  I told him to keep it and take it back to Ghana so he could always here the California ocean.  He held it to his heart and said, "Thank you very much" and then gave me a huge hug.  We went home and I showed Emmanuel how to work the shower, he was very surprised at how clean the toilet and shower were.  He took an extremely short shower, I guessed that it was because he was used to using as little water as possible.  He put on his night clothes and came out to say good night.  I told him if he woke up early he could wake me up, get something to eat, or just go out in the yard and watch the birds.  He went into his room and I went to bed.  While I lay there I thought about what a good day it had been, and how excited I was for the rest of the week.