(Thie is Regina... my absolute FAVORITE little girl from the village... if she didn't have parents... that girl would be moving into my house TOMORROW!) :)Breakfast was less subdued than last night but still quieter than usual as we are all still trying to respect Crispin's process. The only seat left for me to take was a dark green chair in the "cursed corner" where all the chairs break on us! I made a joke like "well, looks like I get to live on the edge this morning." Boom... not even 5 minutes into it I am on the floor with my broken chair while laughing! Do you think it could be all the extra rice I've eaten these past 2 weeks? After breakfast, I decided to start packing up as our bus would be arriving this evening and we are planning on packing up tonight as we will be leaving EARLY tomorrow morning.
We walked into town @ 3pm for our closing ceremonies but the chief was not yet ready for us. We hung out at a "bar" instead. Some of us needed to use the restroom before the ceremonies and Kolfi took us to us the Chief's outhouse. Imagine that... a "royal throne". I crack myself up! And what a throne it was... you had to step up onto a step and then the toilet seat was cemented into another step!
The closing ceremonies were CRAZY! The chief had hired a brass band to come and play. All the villagers had turned out. We entered and made our rounds, shaking hands with everyone and then they came by and shook ours. It was so different from our opening ceremonies just a week ago, this time it was infused with familiar faces, smiles from people we have worked with and spent time with. The chief wanted to give us each gifts and I was the first one they called up! He had gotten us all Kente cloth sashes with our names embroidered into them.
He also had special "chief" flip flops made that are seriously bling'd out... AND seriously uncomfortable (since they are handmade, there are nails that poke out... I think they are more like acupuncture flip flops!) During the ceremonies people/villagers, most we'd never seen before, came up and would stand only a few feet away from us and take pictures of us individually. 
It felt really uncomfortable and just reinforced how I don't feel it is appropriate to take someone's picture with asking their permission... it is precisely the reason why I was so frustrated this week with a couple of people that would get in these children's faces to take their pictures. Just another insight to store away and discuss with teammembers when I lead a team... to be mindful that people might not want their pictures taken.
WEll, after all the speeches were made and the keys were handed over to the homeowners, all hell broke loose! We got up to dance and the villagers swarmed in to dance with us. They were dancing much closer than they had and it all started to feel a bit claustrophobic. Some of the team had already left and I kept looking for another teammember to leave with but everyone was preoccupied... I was really uncomfortable with how forward and pushy the villagers became and was REALLY glad when we left for home. The rest of the evening was a bit of a blur and we went to bed exhausted... it would be a short night's sleep as we were set to load up the bus tomorrow... only 2 more days left in Ghana :(
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