rosh hashanah in accra/my friends are adorable

L'shana tova, everyone. I hope everyone--jewish or otherwise--is having a sweet and healthy new year. Last Rosh, I was in Kimmel. This year, I'm in Ghana. Next year, Jerusalem? A girl can dream. 

There aren't any synagogues in Accra, just a small but proud community of Jewish ex-pats. Most of them are children and their young parents, who work in amazing places like the World Bank, the American Embassy or a local international school. Some run NGOs all week and pause for Shabbat dinner. 

Meeting them was nothing short of bashert (that's yiddish for fate, for all you gentiles). I had to present my idea for the final documentary project in front of my film class and Parine, my teacher. I was deciding between Ghanian Jews and something loosely related to HIV/AIDS. Feeling a bit homesick and out-of-place among the hundreds of stores with Christian names like "Jesus Will Save Snack Shop" and "Blood and Body of Christ Hair Salon", I chose the former. I did a terrible job of explaining my topic, so it didn't get chosen, but Parine is wonderful and realized I was jewish and probably had no place to go for the high holidays. So, she hooked me up with some of her friends who were having a little service and dinner on Friday night.

I went with Sarah, who is the only other practicing jew on the trip, and we had the best time. The people are so welcoming, as jews tend to be, and the food was unbelievable. We had challah that was baked with slices of apple, two different kinds of chicken, cous cous, soup, apple crisp and four different kinds of honeycake. Why the excess of honeycake? Because it's one of the only good desserts you can make without milk. 

We had a short service where we sang the basic blessings and prayers. Afterwards, we helped the kids make rosh hashanah cards by dipping apples halves in glitter pants and stamping colorful construction paper, and writing all of the things they wish for. So cute. 

Like I said, there aren't any synagogues around here so I didn't go to services yesterday. Instead, I went to the pool at the hotel around the corner and tanned for 4 hours. I'm very religious, as you can tell. But then last night, in the spirit of togetherness, a bunch of my friends and I made dinner together. Holley made this sickkk pasta, with an eggplant-tomato-garlic sauce. Miranda made an amazing stir fry with vegetables and egg noodles. Katey made breadsticks, Caitlin and I made the best french toast ever, and Whitney made french fries. So it was a rather random assortment of foods but everything was beyond delicious and I ate until I was stuffed, then ate a little more.

For dessert, Miranda and the guys made apple pie. Tell me you're not jealous and that my friends here are not the cutest people alive. Joey made an excellent point, standing in the middle of everyone mixing and cooking and laughing: "If this is just another Saturday night, can you imagine what Thanksgiving is going to be like?"