FLASHBACK...My Flashbacks

To be honest I have been titling my posts since I have been home FLASHBACK with a line afterwards explaining some characteristic that had stuck in my mind from my trip to Ghana.  Most of the time though I seek out a story to remember or think of fondly and begin to describe it as I remember it.  There are times however, when there is a sense of a flashback washing over me.  A true flashback in a sense.  For a moment it feels like the flashback has sought me out.  I was in class yesterday and one of the students next to me pulled out of her backpack...a small thin black bag with handles.  Inside was a smaller clear bag filled with pastries and snacks.  I immediately focused in on this little bag of tasty treats and it was as if I had been transported back to Ghana for a short moment.  In the city that we lived in it was common for everything you bought to be wrapped up neatly in a black "rubber" (the word they often use to refer to a plastic bag).  Some of my favorite things to discover wrapped up neatly in one of these bags were the snacks from local vendors.  All piping hot and wrapped in a small clear bag inside the black bag.  Deliciously fried yams smothered in hot chili pepper sauce, boiled peanuts, and more!  Don't be fooled though...not all black bags are created equal.  There was one instance where a treat of "oily fish" had been wrapped up tightly in newspaper and given to me in the very same type of black bag.  Needless to say, this did not come to mind as my favorite snack of all during my flashback.  They are small, salty, whole fish that are cured in oil-not my kind of snack.  None-the-less the foods that we were able to get out in town and at the resorts were delicious!  From this fond flashback I went directly to remembering the delicious fish that we had out at a cafe in Ho, and the mouthwatering Singapore noodles we had at Volta Hotel overlooking Lake Volta.  What mouthwatering treats!

Spicy Tilapia

Singapore Noodles