Oh yeah, ran a marathon, no biggie.

To start off, my laptop is not turning on (hopefully due to the humidity, but who knows), so there will sadly probably not be any more pictures. Other than the news about my laptop, this weekend was fantastic!

A couple of weeks ago, Morgan and I met one of the owners of this company called Trashy Bags which makes various products out of water saches (bags) and he invited us to tour the factory, so on Friday, we took him up on his offer. A big group of us ended up going and it was so cool! We first went to look at all of the finished products - I got a purse made out of water saches and a coin purse made out of the Fan Ice plastic. George, one of the workers, then took us on a tour of the factory. We got to see the process involved in the making of the products - from the cleaning to the sewing of the bags. It was truly amazing!

Then Saturday, Morgan and I woke up at 4am to go run a Marathon. Yeah, we didn't train or anything, but it seemed like a fun idea, so we did it. It was a 42K Marathon sponsored by Milo (a popular brand here, owned by Nestle) for peace. It was so fantastic. The marathon started in Nungua and zig-zagged through Accra, ending 5K past Kaneshie market at the Keep Fit Club. I ran the first 22K, power-walked the next 15K, and ran the last 5K. I came in 1,366 out of 3,000+. It was so thrilling. I was a bit surprised that we were two of the only women there. There were approximately 3,000 men and maybe 30 women at best. The course itself was bizarre because it was rather unclear about where we were supposed to go - the roads weren't marked very well. The traffic was a bit difficult to navigate through as well. Overall the experience was so great, but there were moments where I was a bit frustrated. While we were walking, even though there would be other runners in front and in back of us walking as well, many of the people on the street would make comments only to us about being last or lazy or just telling us to go home because we were walking. Unfortunately, they were picking on us because we were the only white people running. There were also a whole bunch of people though who cheered us on, which was an energy booster. At the end of the marathon, there was a whole group of men following us until to take pictures with them. Luckily, we made a friend who shooed the others away saying we are tired and that he is our bodyguard. I know that no one meant any harm by yelling at us to keep running or by wanting to take pictures with us, it was just so exhausting and tiring to deal with that kind of unnecessary and singled out attention. However, I am so happy that I was able to complete a marathon. Next time though, I will run the whole thing. :) We also did get a whole bunch of Milo products as prizes at the end. That night was spent relaxing and eating a lot of great food.

Sunday was another relaxing, but exciting day. I got to pick up my drum! :) It is beautiful! I got to choose the Asante symbols that Donty (the man who made it) carved onto. The ones I choose mean "bite not one another" and "unity is strength." I can't wait until I can play it with greater skill. I am still unsure of how I will get it home, but I will jump that hurdle when I come across it.