bingo

Obed and I are at cape coast, in our room waiting for the restaurant to open in 2 hours for dinner. He was sooooo hungry so I let him have powdered milk. He insisted on showing me how its done. “you put de wata in de cop. Yes mommy dat ees plenty wata. Den you put dat in de wata. An use da sponk.” “what is a sponk?” “da sponk! Da sponk! Right daya” “oh! This?! No obed that’s a spoon.” “no. sponk.” “no it’s a spoon” “spoon?” “yes. Spoon.” “I no like eet. Is not sweet. We need da sweet” “this?” I hold up a sugar packet. “yes das sweet.” “hows it now?” “is good. I like eet.” 5 minutes later…….”mommy my tummy is burning.” “it’s the sugar obed. I told you that was going to make you sick.” “mommy can I poo poo?” “yes, go in the toilet.”. then he came out with a smile. Praise God he can wipe himself, cause I refuse to go in that bathroom. That’s is one of thee foulest smells ever.
We had our first big emotional blowout in the taxi on the way here. he thinks that I am here to give him anything he wants and that we will always be having fun, which is understandable. That’s kind of the perception of americans over here. so he asked me for something from the street vendors and I told him no. boy was he mad! Glaring at me and then glaring at the floor. I offered him to play with my phone (the music on it). He grunted at me. So I said “alright. That’s fine. You can sit there and be mad by yourself.”. then he started bawling and moaning. I felt real bad for him so I tried to pull him over to me but he held on to the front seat with a death grip. He has absolutely no idea what to do with his emotions. They are trained here almost from birth not to cry and to deal with their emotions alone. So I tried to pull him to me very softly and spoke slowly and quietly. This may sound a little weird, but obed seems to respond better when I speak with a ghanaian accent, so I did that too. He came over to my lap reluctantly. He cried and cried, covering his face because he was ashamed. So I told him “its o.k. you are sad” over and over. Eventually he let me wipe his tears away with my hands and uncovered his face. Then he started to make eye contact again and stopped crying. Then he fell alseep in my lap curled up like a baby. I feel so bad for him.
We were walking down the road in cape coast, he had his new shoes and clothes, wearing his blades and backpack, everyone stared at him and commented and asked me questions. Obed did not like the attention. In a way I wish we were home because we wouldn’t get this many stares out in public. He wanted to go back to the room so here we are.
They had a little party for obed today at and asked me to say something. I was caught very off guard so all I could come up with was “uh….uhhhh. um, I guess I just want to say thank you to the aunties. Um obed do you want to say anything?” and he just waved goodbye. That’s obed.
I caught him 2 hours ago standing in front of the floor length mirror with all his new gear and his blades, flexing. Hes soooo happy right now. Id say every two hours he gets withdrawn. I know itll get worse but at least I know him well enough to notice and we’re here in a more secluded place so he can have a little time to bond with me.
Oh and another thing to mention. Obed LOOOOOOVVVES the New Kids On the Block! I have to say im really happy about this. Now I wont be the only one in the house who likes them . also the driver…..i swear we were going over 80 most of the drive. No seat belts in the back seat either. He was passing cars, with other cars coming at us. I was freaking out inside I seriously had to hold my lips together. I wanted to say something. We stopped so that our driver could get some bush meat (its illegal, but they sell it outside the city). I saw him chowing down behind the car. It took him what felt like forever! We didn’t have air cond.
I better go obed wants to talk
Bye!