MB-day.

Last Sunday was MB's (Mary Beth) b-day--so we'll refer to the day as "MB-day". Being Sunday in Ghana, of everything was naturally closed--this meant that even though we were staying at a hotel that was like the Ritz Carlton or Hilton of America, that the "kitchen" was all out of sweets. I asked, "You mean there's not a grain of sugar anywhere?"---"That's right." the waitress replied.

Every girl deserves sugar on her birthday, which meant that McKenzie and I decided to make it our mission to see to it. Long story short-we went into town to seek one of the hotel worker's friends who supposedly bakes cakes professionally (he said she did weddings, birthday parties, events, etc.). We arrived to her house, where she showed us the different sized cake pans, and settled on a cake for 35 Ghana cedis (about $33--crazy, I know, but we hoped others in the group would pay us back after enjoying a slice of delicious cake; side-note: Mistake #1 was paying for the cake up front).

Long story short, the woman agreed-no, she PROMISED-that the cake would be delivered by 8:30pm. I looked at McKenzie after meeting with the woman, betting it would be later (we met with the woman at 6:30pm, and baking a cake in AMERICA takes longer than that from pre-heating the oven to frosting the cake once it's cool, let alone in GHANA).

8:30 rolled around, no sign.
9:30, same story--so we called her. "I'm coming!" she said.
10:30 her phone "went dead"
11:00 her phone sounded disconnected
11:15 she claimed she was in a taxi on the way
11:30 "I'm coming!!!"
11:55 she finally rolled up in a taxi, cake in hand--wrong frosting flavor, wrong cake flavor, without candles, without a knife, AND get this---she was trying to demand MORE money (because it took her "longer than expected)

(above is a little example of how Ghana works sometimes...a bit frustrating, but as a friend explained to me--"In America, we value efficiency. Time is money. In Ghana, that's not the case." end of story.)