Day 3 in Ghana- awesome

Today is Wednesday (Mon-day, Tues-day, Wednes-day, ....and on and on sings Emmanuella ALL the time). She knows quite a bit of songs in English.  She loves to count. She hates pizza. She LOVES chicken and rice. She is not afraid of anything so far, but cautious when it counts (swimming pool). She loves to touch you but just now beginning to be okay with a kiss. "Milo" is her favorite drink (like a chocolate milk). Plain bread with no jelly. Takes a few minutes to be happy when she wakes up. Is determined (didn't know how to jump rope but tried and tried until she got it right). Loves to show you when she does something right ("look daddy"). Has rhythm and will dance in her chair when she hears a song she likes.
Yup, she started calling us mommy and daddy within the first hour and continues. She now likes to say she "I love you daddy, I love you mommy" and then wants us to say it back. I can't believe how quickly she is learning. Saying a few phrases in English (color now please, I'm finished mommy, take a bath, come here daddy, etc) but also learning many words....colors, names of her brothers and sisters, and so on. She is very well mannered and I can tell they teach them to pick up after themselves. She always throws her trash away and likes to fold her clothes and keep things neat. We have also seen the attitude, but so far it's cute. Mostly when we try to give her something she doesn't like....when daddy tried to put jam on her bread this morning she wasn't having any part of that. Pushed his hand away and had a very cute sorta rolled eye look. When he tries to color on her page she responds the same. Scolding him but not in a mean way. I like that she knows what she wants, but is not demanding. We have things in the room that I'm sure she wants but she asks first and doesn't seem greedy, if you know what I mean. We have a suitcase full of things that I keep thinking she will just plunge through but she is leaving it alone unless we offer something.
 Today was all day with just her. Although she broke away briefly when there was a french girl here in the courtyard for a bit that had a baby too and although they were each cautious, joined in playing and had a great time. Wow, three way language barrier...can be tough but still so much fun. We ventured out late afternoon and walked to the pharmacy because she has a cough that has gotten much worse since yesterday. I was afraid she wouldn't sleep well tonight without something. I asked if they had anything for a cough and the next thing I knew she had given me two bottles (amoxicillin and mucinex), slapped some directions on the outside for her age and told me 21 Cedis (approx $17). I knew she didn't need antibiotics but what do you do? you pay for it and thank her! Thankfully I have some adult cough medicine that I could cut and crush and add to the liquid (she did not like it but drank it anyway).  It was great to walk the neighborhood and feel like we were in a different country. Most people were friendly, but definitely some outright ignored us. We are told Ghanaians do not like the British or French much and we are in areas many live. We were probably mistaken for them as many would look uninterested but when we said hi (and they realize you are American), they quickly change their facial appearance and very politely said hi back.  After the pharmacy we decided to take a cab to the Southern Fried Chicken place we ate at last night and was reasonable and good. We asked a cab how much and he repeated the place and laughed. He acted like he wasn't sure where it was and I mentioned it wasn't far (we knew it had to be somewhere close from being there before). He told us 3 Cedes (which is how much we paid from the hotel last night) and so we thought okay that was reasonable. Hopped in and within 30 seconds straight down the road we were there! We now think he was laughing thinking we were just lazy Americans!