Life is quiet and uneventful here in the village. My cell phone is slowly dying on me so most days are passing without communicating with any other white people. Its strange and a bit lonely. Well, rainy season is now in full swing. Life is very quiet, drenched, and cold…well as cold as it can be in Ghana. It has rained everyday for over 2 weeks now. The past 4 days it has rained straight. During the rainy season the power is off much more frequently, lately it’s been off more than it’s been on. I spend a lot of time reading books, writing letters, and cleaning. I clean my room several times a week just out of boredom. Most Ghanaians don’t work when it rains…there isn’t much to do when it rains. We sit under the huts and cook or just wait and watch. When there is a break in the rain I used it to burn my trash or run and buy anything that I’m in need of…phone credits or food mostly. Doing my wash has become quite difficult, I find it best to do a little bit every few days and when ever the sun comes out I put my clothes out to dry for a few hours. It takes days to dry them. I even hang them on lines insides.

The western region is experiencing the worst rainy season it’s had in the past ten years this year. Everything is beginning to flood! This picture is a picture of my landlord, Ataku’s, farm it has flooded and the plants are all dying. Many people are beginning to loose their farms. Nzulezo, the village build on stilts above the lake has flooded. All it’s residents are still living there, fortunately the water has not become unbearable there yet. Many homes are starting to flood slowly as the water rises a few inches every day. The only road to my market town has washed out and can't be passed by cars now. The only other way out of my village the water has risen to the cars bumper. I hope I will be able to make it back to my village. It’s hard to see natural disaster happen in areas that already struggle just to get by.

My landlord is doing well. 2 weeks ago his pig had 10 babies so he was very excited after trying to have them for over a year. He was very disappointed when all 10 babies died within 3 days of their birth. Ataku says it was because of the rain, I guess he was right because 2 days after they died their pens were flooded. The water is now 20 feet off my back porch.

Enough of the sad news! The village is starting to fish again! The first of the boats are starting to go out and the fish that have been pulled in are amazing. They are the largest catches I’ve seen since I came here. It’s so exciting! When the nets are pulled in the whole village goes to see what the catch is like this year.

The kittens are doing fine, getting big and becoming trouble makers. They should both have new homes by now but the Ghanaian who promised to take Lucky is still in Cote D’Ivory. The kittens recently moved outside after a life in my room. My room is about 12X12 and its just too small for 3 cats and me. The liter box became too much to keep up with and my rooms was starting to smell. The kitten are able to climb on my bed now so I would wake up to liter box sand in my bed and cats attacking my feet. The mother cat got in the habit of brings rats into my room in the middle of the night. After 5 nights straight of waking up to throw the dead rat outside and her dragging it back in several times I had had enough. One of the final straws that broke the camels back was when I came home from work to little white paw prints all over my room. The kittens found their way on to my desk and got into the ashes from the mosquito coil I burn every night and had a ball. So they are now outside and they come to my window and cry for hours for me to bring them in. Its heart breaking but they are getting used to being outside. They are still adorable and come in every now and again for a few hours.

Yesterday was the grand opening of our visitor center in Ebonloa. We had been planning it for months and finally it is over and every second of it was difficult. We spent weeks preparing for the opening, painting, weeding, and preparing the gift shop. The visitor center looked amazing, we even spent the day before the opening decorating with ribbons and balloons. We spent the whole night before the opening praying the rain would take a day off but I guess we didn’t pray hard enough. It rained all day! The roads were covered in mud and even rivers of water. The opening ceremony started 2 hours late. We had chiefs from all over, representatives from the French embassy, the Ghana tourist board, Ghana TV, COSPE and Italian NGO, and many other VIPs. The show did go on… with wires to the loud speakers running through puddles and a generator running on high the opening prayers started. The poured a bottle of gin on the ground during the prayer to bless the opening…what a waste, I know. The drummers and dancers still preformed even out in the mud. During the middle of the ceremony chickens started walking around in the middle of all the tents. There was even a cock fight that interrupted one of the key speakers. 9 cars got stuck in the mud one of which needed to be moved during the presentation so there was a huge commotion during the presentation to push a car out of mud. The power went out during the ceremony also before we switched to the generator so the microphone and speakers were out in the middle of someone’s speech. Little kids ran in front of the VIP table during the whole ceremony covered in mud and in there underwear unaware that it was in appropriate. Every time something would go wrong…or something would be in appropriate according to the Western World’s etiquette the reps from the French embassy and I would look at each other and smiles. It was fun having someone there who also thought so of this was outrageous and someone who could laugh at some of the crazy cultural differences with me. At the end of the day when the ceremony was over and everyone’s best clothing and beautiful cloth has been splattered in mud the center was open. It was great to get home and shower off layers of mud and dirt after pushing several car out of huge mud puddles.

I'm sorry I wasn't able to post pictures, the internet is just too slow. I will update soon with stories and pictures of President Obama's visit to Ghana. It was amazing. I will also come back and add some cool pictures I have. I love you and miss you all!

For my Grandmother and all other avid birdwatchers who are interested in some of the birds in West Africa that I've seen. All of the pictures were googled because my camera isn't this good, but I've seen them! Birds names is beneath the photo.

African Finfoot African Jacana

(or Lily Trotter) Malachite Kingfisher *One of my favorite birds!

Cattle Egret Pied Kingfisher

Purple Heron*One of my favorite pictures

Black Bee-eater

Laughing Dove Red-eyed Dove

Woodlands Kingfisher(or Senegal Kingfisher) Cinnamon Chested Bee-eater Western Reef Egret Great White Egret Little Egret*Of course I can't tell a difference between any of these Egrets

African Pied Hornbill Olive-bellied SunbirdVillage Weaver(or Black headed Weaver)Their are tons more but I'm out of time! I hope you enjoyed them Grandma and I wish you could be here to see them yourself. Love you and miss you!

Look at this, 2 blogs posted in less than 1 month. I must be turning over a new leaf! And I'm planning to post 2 today if I have time!

Work has been keeping me very busy for the past few weeks. As a matter of fact work is what's brought me back to the internet so quickly. We are preparing for the grand opening for out new visitor center in Ebonloa. The opening is set for June 26th and we are hoping to get the French Ambassador to come.

In preparation for the opening we are trying to prepare the grounds and put up some fresh paint. I'm in charge of getting the gift shop ready. I'm designing and having furniture made and finding crafts for the shop. I'm at the internet today researching West African birds, sea turtles, sperm and humpback whales, mona monkeys, and information on fishing traps. We've collected bird nests and local fishing traps to decorate the walls along with the information I'm researching. The new visitor center is in the picture on the right. The picture to the left is one of the fishing traps that will be used for decorating the walls. The trap is used to catch mudfish, tilapia, catfish, snakes, and monitor lizards. Yum yum!

Another activity we've started planning is the Amansuri clean up event. The event will include the churches in 8 different communities. We will have a 2 hour clean up competition between the different church groups in each village. We are providing trash bags and gloves to all trash cleaners. Each village will be given rakes and cleaning supplies for participating. The winning church group from each village who collects the most trash will get an event t-shirt. The program will also include environment education in 12 local schools. The picture to the left is one of the villages who will take part in the clean up.

I've been working hard but I've managed to find time to play hard too! A nearby beach resort has had 2 Australians and 3 Americans staying with them for several weeks. I was able to use their surf board and go surfing. I was also invited to stay the night for free for their going away party. One of the owners, my friend Nina, also returned home to the UK for vacation. The going away party was beautiful complete with beach bonfire, fireworks, candle lit dinner, wine, and chicken curry.

While you were all home enjoying a long weekend of bar-b-ques and pool parties we had a funeral in my village. The man who died has spent the last 30 years in Cote D'Ivoire but as tradition calls for he was buried in his home town of Elloyin. My village was invaded by French speaking strangers. I became the biggest attraction in the village again. All the funeral guests were very excited to speak Nzema to me. My house was also invaded by more than 15 new guests. They slept strewn all over the floor in every room of the house. They kept the typical party hours of a traditional Ghanaian funeral, going to bed between midnight and 1am and waking up at 4:30 am for more dancing and drinking. Quite different from the quiet village hours I've adopted, go to bed at 7:30 to 8pm and wake up between 5 and 6am. Unfortunately they made themselves at home and all my plates, cups, bowls, and silver wear disappeared for 4 days. I assumed they would be returned after the funeral and long weekend was over but I was wrong. My landlord very apologetically informed me his guests took off with my kitchen wear to Cote D'Ivoire. I'm eating our of pots with my hands...true Ghanaian style! Oh and the picture on the right are a few Ghanaian kids playing with one of the most popular toys in Ghana. Its a stick pushing 2 wheels...kids of like a remote control car....right?

I believe that is the full 2 week update! I love you and miss you all!

For Kime:

Spring is in full bloom in Ghana, rainy season has begun, little babies are running around all over, and bright flowers are blooming everywhere. The best part about spring in Ghana is it marks the beginning of mango season. I probably eat 3 or 4 mangoes a day and they are stacked up on the sides of streets for sale all down the road. the ocean has been "spoiled" according to the villagers, nobody has been fishing for the past 2 months and from what I hear they won't until July. I've been attempting to swim and I admit it's been tough. I can stand in water to my knees with wavers hitting over my head. The waves are huge and the rip tides are strong. I won't be sad when the waves and tides ease up! The fisher men have been repairing their nets for the past 2 months and they are ready for the tight season to be over.

My cat gave birth to 2 adorable kittens in my closet last month. They are just getting to the fun age where they wobble around and are very clumsy. They are two total opposites! One is curious and out going, I call her Daredevil, the other is a whip and always hiding, his name is Scared-cat. Scared-cat has a home waiting when he is old enough, he will live with one of my Ghanaian friends, Azaneboah. Azaneboah has named him Lucky and wants to keep him to remember me by.

It's hard to believe I've been living in Ghana for one year and 8 months. 6 1/2 months to go! It felt like last week all of my Ghanaian friends realized I will be leaving soon. My landlord and his family asked when I will be leaving and so did my NGO. Both told me they would cry when I leave. I am excited to get home but it will be hard to leave Ghana. I have bought my close of service (COS) ticket home. I'll be backpacking through West Africa with my good friend Terri, who is also a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in Ghana. We will leave Ghana in early November and go through Burkina Faso, Mali, Gambia, and Senegal. We will fly from Senegal to Morocco and explore there for a week before taking a boat across the Gibraltar to Spain. In spin we'll meet up with 8 other PCVs from Ghana and take a 14 day cruise across the Atlantic on our way home. The cruise will stop in Portugal, the Canary Islands, and the Bahamas. It's going to be an amazing trip home. I'll get back to the US in December just in time to relax for the holidays.(This is part of the crazy crew that will be making trouble on the cruise!!! Taken at my village on a fishing boat!)

Everyone has been asking me what my plans are after PC and I'm not sure to be honest. I'm not even sure where I will end up living but I will figure it all out when I'm home. For now I'm focusing on my work in Ghana and living for the moment. Work has been going great, after distributing the 10,000 copies of the brochure I made last year for the stilt village, Nzulezo. (These pictures are Nzulezo, the stilt village and some of my friends that live there) This year I created 5 different posters to promote new attraction in my area and my NGO has just made 4,000 copies of them. Our most famous attraction is Nzulezo, a village built on stilts above the Amansuri Lake, which is protected by Ghana Wildlife Society, my NGO. You can take a 1 hour canoe ride from Beyin to the village on stilts. There is also the Meandah crocodile pond which you can continue to from Nzulezo an additional 15 minutes. The crocodile pond has a boardwalk nature trail that is 500 meters long. Last time I was there I saw a mona monkey swing across the trail on my walk to the observatory on the crocodile pond. The last time I went to the crocodile pond I stayed the night there to research the crocodiles. The Amansuri wetlands is home to long snout, dwarf, and Nile crocodiles. (To the left is a terrible picture of me at the crocodile pond) We are also promoting a new visitor center at a village called Ebonloa. Ebonloa has a nature trail and is located on the Amansuri Lake as well so you can go to Nzulezo from Ebanloa too. In addition to Ebonloa you can see akepteshie distilleries and learn how the local people brew the local gin. Then there is the sea cruise, taking hand crafted wooden boats with an outboard motor 1 hour to sea and returning. Whale season will begin soon and you can actually see the whales jump from the shore. Another of our attractions is For Apollonia, a trade castle that was also used during the slave trade. (The picture to the right is Caitlin, Sarah, and I on a cannon outside of the castle. To the left is the inside of the castle.) Well you can imagine with all the attractions I'm staying busy. Our project was originally funded by the Dutch government, when that contract ran out the French decided to fund us. Our French funding ended this month and they just visited this week. We are hoping the French Ambassador will continue the funding after the visitor center in Ebonloa opens at the end of June. Oh, I also made post cards for our attractions and we printed 1,0000 copies that we are selling in our gift shops. I will try to send some out to my friends and family. I guess that about wraps up all the work I've been doing for my NGO. I am also working on building latrines for my village in my free time, which I haven't had much of. I will keep you posted on the latrine project as it continues.

Good news, I've managed to stay healthy since I returned from the states in January. I haven't had malaria or any infections this year. I've only had to fight off a little dysentery but I'm back to perfect health. Oh besides the current black eye I have, it's small though. I was riding home from market and I hit the side of my eye on the metal casing around the window of the tro tro. The roads are horrible, almost as bad as the drivers. I was hitting the roof on every bump. I didn't realize I had a black eye because their aren't any mirrors around but everyone in my village was trying to rub the bruise off of my face. They thought it was dirt, they can't exactly see bruises on their skin. They also always try to scratch my freckles off. Haha!I love you and miss you all and can't wait to be home in December! My Dad decided to get a new hip while I've been gone and now he is acting like he is 20 years old again. Their might not even be work left to do on the house when I get home. My Mom of course is still staying busy at work and trying to keep my Dad in line, a never ending project. My Grandmother just left after spending 3 weeks in Florida with my parents. Congratulations to Griffin who just graduated from the fire academy. He is very happy living in Texas now. I'm missing all of my buddies from A&M who seem to be doing well from what I hear.I think that's all I have for now. Sorry I haven't blogged in such a long time. I promise to post more frequently Kime! I love and miss you all. I hope their aren't too many type-os, I am always in a hurry at the internet. Looking forward to that beer state side.

I am returning to Ghana after an amazing vacation home. It was a whirlwind of a trip that took me from Cocoa Beach, FL to Austin, TX, College Station, Houston, San Antonio, and even down to Lafayette, LA. I had a great time hanging out with my family in Austin and old college buddies in College Station. I got to visit with some old friends in Houston as well as visit the Fed, my old internship. I had a great time with my friends and family in Cocoa Beach! I want to thank you all for your love and support, I couldn't do it without you! Had a great time seeing you Vicki, John, Erica, Amy, Katy, Hunter, Derek, Susie, the Animals, my friends at the Fed, Mr. Fraga, Sarah, Kime, Frank, Butch, Johnny B, Don, the Pfleugers, Beelers, Hammonds, Cuetos, my folks, my Grandma and everyone else who made my break so wonderful! I enjoyed the company, the amazing food, hot showers, washing machines, air conditioners, warm beaches...well I guess I have that there also! All in all I couldn't have asked for a better vacation!I'll take this opportunity to upload pictures of Ghana at a fast speed. Each picture is followed by a quick description.The man on the left is my landlord, he is like my father. He has made life in my village so much easier. I owe everything to Ataku!The next few pictures are friends in my village. She happens to be my closest neighbor and favorite cook.The last meal she cooked for me before my Christmas vacation!My little buddies!My favorite porridge maker!More friends!My seamstresses!

My seamstresses shop!The village church! I live behind the church.

I hope you all enjoyed the short tour though my village. Thank you again for all of your supports and letters. Only 11 months left and I'll be home!

Life is great in Ghana! Sorry I haven't updated you all in quite a while. As you know I don't make it to the internet often and when I do it is rarely fast enough to upload images. I'm trying right now and so far it seem successful!As for work and my village, things have been going really well! I am planning to have my HIV/AIDS football tournament the weekend of Nov 29-30th. The students will teach HIV/AIDS lessons to the village over a loud system before, after, and during half-time in the local language, Nzema. Also, we will paint and HIV/AIDS mural on the palace wall the week before the tournament. I will keep you posted and take some cool pictures of the students, hopefully everything will go smooth for the first time!I am also working on a Peace Corps Partnership Program(PCPP) proposal to build public latrines and a cultural center in my village. Right now most people go to toilet on the beach, but they are very excited about the latrines! They have all promised that they will use them! Anyways, the PCPP will be posted on the PC website and people can make donations towards the project. They will also send requests for funding to a list of address I give them...so sorry for those of you who start getting PC mail.What else with work...I made a brochure that has been sent to the print. They are making 10,000 copies! For those of you I haven't told, my primary project is marketing for a stilt village, Nzulezo. The money made through the tourism is divided and given back to several communities.The picture below is of an apateshie distilleries, and also the final product, jet fuel! Haha! I've learned to respect it after a few rough nights!

Now I want to tell you my favorite updates! My cat had babies on Halloween! I was in Accra the day they were born and by the time I made it home the 3 kittens were down to 2. I found them wrapped up in a fish net, I guess mom thouht it would be a good place to have them. They had cuts all over them becaue the string had cut through one of their skin. I fed her antibiotics through a syringe for 4 days, 3 times a day and she just had her 2 week birthday. They are both doing fine! Lil' Trooper who was cut the worst still doesn't have full use of one of her paws because it was cut half way though, but she is fine other than that.

Another project I am working on in my village is rabbit rearing, as an altenative proten source for the low fish rations in my village. Well my rabbit just had her first litter, 5 babies! Kojoe is a 16 year old boy in my village who I am teaching about rabbits, he is helping me take care of them. He came and got me when he found blood all over the cage and we got there just in time to see her give birth. She had 6 but one died at birth! All the kids who were watching the birth thought she was having rats. The picture on the left is the babies at 2 days old. The picture below is the babies at one week, alright so much more cute in my opinion!

I also have a new little boyfriend who is looking out for me. His name is Nanka, he is 10 years old and he comes to pick me fresh coconuts every afternoon. Last week it started raining and he ended up taking shelter in our tent and stayed the night. I have to chase him away every night at dark now. He is a sweet heart though!

This picture doesn't show it, but this tree is over 50 feet tall!

The picture below shows the site where our house will be! It is beautiful, it sits just 20 feet from the water on the beach. We watch beautiful sunrises to the left and sunsets on the right. It always has a nice cool breeze blowing too. Well till next time! Peace and love, Mandy

Hello all! My father recently informed me that I haven't posted a blog in 2 whole months so I figured I better go on it and knock one out. So here it is with my sincerest apologizes, an update on my last two months in Ghana.

I thought way back to July, and referred back to my journal, and remembered that July was the month school let out. I spent most of July wrapping up my environment clubs and getting ready for break. I also had a few visitors come to hang out on the beach with me. Brady came for about a week and Janet and her freind Karen from the states. Also, Terri and Erika were all at my place on Erika's way to Accra to ET (early terminate). We had a great time, we camped on the beach...even though we were rained out at 2 a.m. we still had a ball. I'm missing Erika bad!

In August Janet came back after dropping her friend off at the airport to unwind from the stress of visitors...haha! Janet is a sixty year old PCV who lives a few hours south of Wa in a town called Bole. Sha has on of the most interesting lives imaginable, from living homeless on the beaches of Hawaii to the life of an ex-porn star, ex-stripper. She is currently engaged to a chief in her village! We sat and daydreamed about making a cultural center at my site and hers. Then we brainstomed finding local artesians and having them train younger generations some of the dying cultures in Ghana. In addition we could find new crafts that foreigners might enjoy, like beach art and jewerly using seashells. Also teach the local fish net weavers to make hammocks! We even went as far as checking the price to buy land on the beach. My wonderful landlords response was, "Oh you want to buy some? I have plenty. I will give you some!" So, I'm now an ocean front property owner in West Africa. Janet is coming back down to my site in early October to help put together a PCPP proposal (Peace Corps Partnership Project). That will be a link on the PC website so people can make personal donations to our project. If all of this goes through and the funding is available I might think about extending my service a year to make the cultural center more sustainable and teach them book keeping, putting me back home in December 2010. As you can see, it's been an exciting and busy two months. While Janet was down we also had several beach burn activities, just started making trash piles and burning them, then asking passer-byers to help us. We always finished the beach burn with a swim and I would have about 8-12 Ghanaian kids hanging on me in the ocean. They seemed to enjoy it!

Last week we had HIV/AIDS training in Kumasi at a real nice hotel, with a pool and A/C. We learned how to put together PEPFAR proposals to use USAID money for HIV projects in our village. I'm aiming for my village football tournament to be in November. The students and environment club members will facilitate HIV/AIDS education, games, songs, and skits before the games, halftime, and following the games. I want to put together a larger proposal next year for an HIV/AIDS walk that will involve 7 villages.

Other than that life has been pretty normal here! After having malaria for my second time, and recovering from my fourth worm I can say I'm back to perfect health. We did go about a week without running water or electricity so I had to rough it and fetch my own water for a while. I also had to eat 1 1/2 kilos (3.3 pounds) of meat becasue my freezer when out with the power. Talk about a stomach ache! This week all of my group will be celebrating our 1 year in country, it's hard to believe I've been here a whole year. I'm really looking forward to coming home for Christmas, only 3 more months! I'm going to eat so much food! I'm also looking forward to seeing tons of friends and family. I'm hoping to go talk to one of the classes that I've been writing about Ghana and making them some fufu. My grandmothers coming down to visit from VA for the holidays. We are also making a short side trip to TX to visit some of my family in Austin. I will be busy for sure. In my down time I'm looking forward to doing some construction with my Dad and maybe making some cool cards with my Mom.

Sorry I wasn't able to post any pictures again, the internet is moving too slow today. I hope everyone back home is doing well! I miss you all! Love, Mandy

I typed up this long great blog about everything that has been happening in my life in the past month. Anyways, I forgot do upload it from my computer to my jump drive so I'll have to post it next time I'm at the internet. I did upload some pictures that I was planning to put with the blog so I will get as many up as I can before my time runs out. I'm sorry it's been so long since my last blog for my regular readers. The above picture on the left is an ingrown finger nail that got infected and resulted in my finger nail falling off. Only in Ghana would it get that bad. The picture on the right is of a burn I got cooking during my 4th of July celebration. It's my largest open wound in country so I'm being very careful and keeping it clean. It's almost heald! You can see the middle finger nail is almost grown out. Other than that my health is great....FINALLY!This last pic is from way back when Griffin visited. We went up to visit a volunteer who lives near Bolga so we went to the crocodile sanctuary. Sorry I couldn't upload more pics but I have to go find a vet for my kitten, she has to get spaid this month. I promise next time I will post a good story and some pics to go along with it. Love you and miss you all so much!

The past two months I have become accustom to always being sick, it’s just a way of life in Ghana. I carry toilet paper with me where ever I go just incase it’s a diarrhea day…or week…or month. I’ve started keeping at least 3 or 4 rolls of toilet paper in my house just incase, I ran out one time and I had to use newspaper. Not a very pleasant experience! I carry pepto, ibuprofen, aspirin, sudanyl, antacids, band-aids, butterfly band-aids, triple antibiotic ointment, hydrocortisone, a thermometer, and even medicine who’s soul purpose is to block you up incase you have diarrhea so bad you can’t travel to the hospital. This week is the first time in almost 9 months that I haven’t had any open wounds, from bug bites and cuts. Fevers have become a normal thing as well, normally 101 to 102, it will be on and off for about a week normally. Every now and then I will get a very high temperature, 104.5 to 105, when it gets that high I know theirs a problem. I’ve had 2 infections that caused temperatures of 104.5. I learned my lesson though, if you have an open cut keep it covered 24/7, don’t let cuts breath in Ghana.

This week I got a temperature of 105, my limbs when numb and my head was spinning, it hurt to move. It wasn’t so bad though, so long as I didn’t move I felt fine. The temperature didn’t bother me so much; I only felt it when I rolled over, then the heat would radiate from where I was laying. I managed to make it to my med kit and take some ibuprofen, drink some water, and wonder to take a cold shower. When I made it back to bed my temp was down to 104. The next hour was the worst part about being sick, breaking the fever. I laid there and sweat and had chills, uncontrollable shaking, when I got up I had made a sweat angle on my bed. I felt fine the next morning, I called the Peace Corps Medical Officer (PCMO) the next morning and told her about the temp I had had. She said it sounded like malaria, their was no way to be sure unless I took a blood smear so they could test my blood for malaria. She said the blood smear would be miss read unless I took it when I had the fever. She didn’t want me to wait for my fever to come back (normally every 24 hours) because I had such a high temp, so she started me on Coartem. I had heard horror stories about Coartem, I had heard that it was worse than actually having malaria. The side effects listed were dizziness, fatigue, nausea, abdominal pain, sleep disorder, joint pain, and headache. Before I started taking the medicine I cleaned up my room, cleaned my water filter and filled it, and got everything in order so I could be sick in comfort.

I ended up not having any of the side effects! Until about 5:00 pm the second day…the PCMO didn’t mention that the Coartem kicks in the second day. The second night I only got up to a 104 temp but I think it was worse because I knew what it was going to be like. The next day I was 100% cured! It was the easiest case of malaria I think I could’ve had. Turns out I got malaria on Griffins visit, it normally takes 2-3 weeks for the malaria to show up.

Terri, one of my PCV friends came to visit and nurse me back to health the next day, but she was a bit to late so we spent the whole day having fun in the sun and swimming. We had such a good time! Two days later we went to Takoradi in the late afternoon, she left early the next morning. After she got on her tro I got on mine and headed home.

I took got on the tro in a corner seat and tucked my bag under my feet and took a nice long nap. When I awoke from my nap I dug through my bag to find some mints, my mouth was dry because I had fallen asleep with it open. I couldn’t find my mints, I checked the floor and didn’t see anything and right about then the tro stopped and the two men next to me dropped at a station. We continued on our way and a minute later I realized not only were my mints missing but my cell phone was as well, and my Peace Corps issued cell phone for safety and security. The first emotion that swept my body was anger, fury, outrage, infuriated, irritated, etc. It is an over whelming emotion that fills your whole body and take all the strength you have to keep it in. I couldn’t sit still once I made it back to my village because I was so mad, last time I was robbed I was mad at all Ghanaians, but this time I was mad at myself for not catching the guys before they got down.

I am hard wired just like my Dad in this manner, I get uncontrollable mad but once I calm down I can see the light again. I took a nap, I’ve found that’s the easiest way to calm down and clear my mind. It has been a hard month for me, but they say when it rains it pours and it did pour for a few weeks. If you wait long enough you will see the beautiful golden light on the edge of the dark lovely clouds. When I woke up I saw my golden lining, the one person who could cheer me up. He loves me more than anything and I’m pretty sure the feeling is mutual. If I had to describe him I would say he is a cross of the best sides of Bashful and Dopey from the 7 Dwarfs. He is a Ghanaian boy, he doesn’t understand any English, and he is 4 years old and my shadow. His name is Quabinah!

With this golden lining it didn’t take much to make the sun rise. I taught a lesson in my market town and the class was phenomenal, they listened, laughed, and were all involved. It was the beginning of an environment club, we talked about wildlife as opposed to man made objects, and ideas on how to stop pollution.

I plan to go buy a new rabbit on Monday, it is already pregnant so I am very excited. I am also starting a susu in my village, it is a women’s savings group, I want to teach the women that they can save small amounts of money and it will add up to large amounts. On Tuesday I am taking a group of 15 girls who all want to be nurses to a hospital to shadow a Ghanaian nurse for a few hours. They will have the opportunity to ask questions, and then take part in an HIV/AIDS lesson. I am so excited and looking forward to this weeks work!

Life is finally starting to return to normal after my brother’s 2 and a half week visit. I just wanted to get my side of the story straight before he told too many people the wrong version…my side will make him look like a much bigger sissy and me look like I haven’t been sick for almost 4 weeks…I may include a few white lies!

So his plane arrived April 27 and I felt like a little kid on Christmas Eve waiting for him, must have slipped my mind that he bullied me my first 18 years of life. When I saw him I gave him the biggest hug and just didn’t want to let go. But I eventually did and he got to hear my Ghanaian English for the first time (slow broken English that is a language all on it’s own) as a bartered over a few measly dollars for a taxi. On to the Swissrest Lodge we went where Griff had a chance to meet some of the PCVs that I had been going on about for the past 8 months, including a PCV who had been robbed just moments earlier in a drive-by laptop snatching. Ironically enough we ran up stairs to drop our things and unpack a laptop my brother had brought for my counterpart before taking a few PCVs out to forget the recent robbery. While unpacking the laptop I got to peak at all the gifts and goodies Griff brought from family and friends, talk about more stuff than I knew what to do with. We found the laptop and mess of cords that went along with it and took it down stairs to meet its excited new owner, Jonathan. Griffin was about to experience his first real taxi ride when 6 full grown men and me all squeezed into a small taxi that can’t comfortable hold 4. Egan and Ryan were cracking me up the whole night trying to convince Griffin that they were gay just for the hell of it, Jonathan (my Ghanaian counterpart) and his brother were enjoying hanging out with a crowd of white people in Accra, and then the owner Duncan came over and insisted that all new customers have to visit Greece. A 15 minute walk later we were all in Greece, a brafel that he invites new friends to take apateshie shots at. Griff wasn’t a huge fan of the apateshie shot but it was the smoothest I had ever had in Ghana. A few hours later we all headed back to the hotel and everyone had successfully forgotten the robbery.

Day 1 of our trip began mid-morning as we leisurely left the hotel, deposited all of my brother’s money into my bank account(I just have skills), repacked our bags at the PC office, and headed to Kofiridua to meet up with Jacquie and Carolyn. It was on our 3 hour tro ride that I began to feel sick, the general I don’t feel good but I don’t know what’s feeling bad that I’m beginning to learn to live with in Ghana. A short side note, last week I was sick for my first time in Ghana, vomiting and diarrhea at the same time…a newly acquired skill since I came to this country. Regardless, we made it to our meeting point where Carolyn drug us through some alleys to this smelly scummy sitting area that is said to have the best fried rice in town. I wouldn’t know because I wasn’t feeling well enough to eat, I would assume that it wasn’t the best though because Griffin bit into his rice and broke his tooth on a rock. We left Kofiridua to go to Kukurantume, the village Carolyn lives in for the evening. We went to her counterpart’s house for Griffin’s first dinner of fufu, he liked it…for the first 5 minutes and then he grew tired of it quickly. We went home after dinner and Griff got to take his first bucket bath in Ghana, lets just say he sounded like a 5 year old girl shrieking every time he had to put a scoop of cold water on himself. It was hilarious! We slept on mats on the floor, but it was still a great night’s sleep.

Day 2 of our trip was interesting…we woke up and Carolyn made up pancakes with real syrup that her parents sent. I’m sure Griffin didn’t appreciate it, it was the first pancakes I had had in 8 months. We headed back to town to meet up with Jacquie and Niall. I was feeling terrible still so I sat at a spot while Griffin and Jacquie ran to the bead market to shop for my Mom, and Carolyn went to meet Niall at the station. By the time they returned Griff was about tired of me being sick, he told me, "suck it up" so I did my best and we headed off to catch a tro tro. We climbed in the back row of the tro and headed to Kumasi. Griffin was on one side of the seat, a Ghanaian woman was between us, and I was on the other side of the seat, I started feeling real sick on the drive so I stuck my head out the window to vomit. This was the point Griffin realized that I was really sick and I couldn’t "suck it up", I don’t know how but I managed to make it out my window and some how it came back in and to the other side of the tro and I got him…I’ll just let him think I did it on purpose. Griff gave me a shirt of his because I managed to get sick on myself as well as his, the smell of a shirt washed in American detergent was the only thing that kept me from getting sick again…for the whole 4 hours we had left! Well I’m sure you don’t want all these details! We made it in to Kumasi and went to the sub-office, I made Griff a garlic and egg sandwich for dinner and he loved it. We enjoyed running water and long showers after our long day on the tro.

Day 3 I let Griff sleep in and I made him another egg sandwich because he liked the first one so much. After he finished breakfast I taught him to wash his clothes by hand. We headed to town and I showed him the market in Kumasi, he wasn’t a fan of the market or the fishy smells. Next we did some shopping for dinner that evening and then headed back to the sub-office. Griff wasn’t shy to let me know he was bored…still! A warning to all PCVs with family visiting, it is difficult to catch back up to Western time. I made black beans and rice and actually bought some real cheddar cheese to top off the beans, it was amazing.

Day 4 was relaxing for me; we stayed at the sub-office all day because Griff needed to be around internet to take his last college exam. It was a one hour timed online exam so he spent the afternoon studying. He started the exam and with his luck the power went out, luckily the generators came on without the computers ever shutting off. He finished his exam and we packed up so we could head out early the next morning.

Day 5 we headed out early with more egg sandwiches in hand…he is my biggest breakfast fan, he doesn’t want anything else. We went to the station in Kumasi and then caught a tro to Techiman. 3 hours later we arrived in Techiman and meet up with Chris and Terri and had lunch at our favorite lunch spot in training. Griff and I had groundnut soup and rice balls, my favorite Ghanaian dish…he liked it and his teeth stayed in tact. After lunch we walked through the market in Techiman, most of the pictures in the blog are of the market trip...I forgot to upload all of my pictures to my jump drive when I left for the internet, guess you will have to wait till next time. The picture to the left is of the juju section, dried up animals mainly, crazy! Next we headed to Terri’s house and meet up with Ashley, Katrina, Ira, Travis, and Jon for a big Terri made dinner AKA- amazing!

Day 6 Griff and I headed out at 6:30 a.m. to meet my homestay family who lived 30 minutes away from Terri’s house. We were there by 7:00 and they were so excited to meet him, I told them his Ghanaian name was Quame Griffin, meaning Tuesday born. My homestay father, Ansu, loved it and must have said his name Quame about 50 times. They insisted that we eat breakfast before we left, so we didn’t make it out till 8:30. We were back in Techiman meeting up with the group at 9:00 to head to Fuller waterfalls. We got on a tro for about 30 minutes and meet up with Jeremy, a PCV near the falls and we got to swim and climb the falls all afternoon. Griff brought this water proof, shock resistant, camera and was playing with it like a 5 year old. He ended up tying his camera to a balloon and floating his camera down the falls. The falls turned out to be his favorite part of the trip. We had canned corn beef on crackers for lunch at the falls, it looked and smelled like cat food, but for some reason it tasted amazing. We made it back to Terri’s that evening for dinner and some well needed sleep.

Day 7 we left Terri’s at 8:30a.m. to head to the station to catch a tro to Wa in the Upper West Region. We made it to the station and the car to Wa had one seat left, but we were 2 so we had to wait for the next tro to fill. We ended up having to wait for 10 ½ hours! We didn’t end up leaving until 7:30 that night, and we didn’t sleep at all on the tro because it was a bumpy dirt road the whole way. Griff kept a small Ghanaian girl from crying the whole trip with a laser light he had brought. We made it to Wa at 2:00 a.m. and took a taxi to the lodge that we stayed at. Exhausting day, but I’m glad he was able to experience an average day in Ghana, I hate to think of how many hours I’ve spent waiting for tros to fill.

Day 7 we were up and moving by 8:00 a.m. and decided with Gray, Erin, and Alicia that we were going to go to the hippo sanctuary. We went to the station in Wa and got a tro to the village near the hippo village about 3 hours away. By the time we made it there we were all red from the dusty road. We paid to spend the night in a platform in a tree, we bought food to cook for dinner, and we paid for the taxi to the village. 20 minutes later we were in the small small hippo village, a 20 minute walk after that we were getting in a canoe on the Volta River. We rode in the canoe for about 30 minutes and were convinced that ever rock we saw was a hippo. We were so excited when we actually saw a real hippo in the wild, well 8 hippos to be exact. The canoe was about 50 meters away and we sat for about 45 minutes just watching them. About 4 or 5 of them opened their mouths; it was just amazing how huge these animals were. We canoed back, and then walked to our tree house, we made spaghetti for dinner, then we went up to the tree house. It was a platform about 40 feet up with very steep steps to get there; we had mats to sleep on and mosquito nets to sleep under. We listened to music and played with a laser before we went to bed.

Day 8, I slept great, Griff didn’t! We headed out at 8:00 a.m., back to the village away from the hippo village, then we got in the back of a truck that held 30 people total for 3 hours. We made it back to Wa in the early afternoon and went back to the lodge that we stayed at 2 nights prior. One room is $7 so we decided to be cheap PCVs and share 1 room for 5 people. Griff and I were interviewed by Alicia while Gray and Erin went to a meeting for an HIV/AIDS bike ride they are planning. We ate Tized for dinner, a traditional Ghanaian meal for the Upper West.

Day 9 was long! Nobody got any sleep because 5 people in a small bed just didn’t work, but Griff and I left at 4:00 a.m. to head to Bolga. We made it in to Bolga around 1, Blake meet us at the station and we headed to Congo to have Pito, a home brewed alcohol in the North, and cat for dinner. The cat was really good, almost sweet tasting…but not much meat! I still can’t believe I ate cat, I love cats!

Day 10 we left Blake’s house at 8:00 a.m. and headed to Bolga. We went to the craft market in Bolga because Griffin was on a quest to get face masks and everyone said Bolga was the best place to get them. We got to the market and Griff went crazy…he started talking Ghanaian English and haggling like a pro…I was in total shock! He was wonderful at it, he got some amazing deals. He of course went over board, bought a chair, a table, and at least 15 masks. I finally pulled him away from the market and Blake, Griff, and I headed to the crocodile pond in a small village about 30 minutes away. The taxi took us straight there, we got out and paid money to take pictures with the crocodiles. The pond was surrounded by a fence, we walked over to the pond and our Ghanaian guide made a whistle sound and about 8 crocodiles came out of the water. They picked the biggest one and we walked around the crocodile to the back and the guide told me to pick up the tail. I grabbed the tail and Griff started taking pics, the guide just walked away and left me there with the crocodile. The crocodile started to move while I was holding its tail, so I calmly asked the guide, "what do I do?" He just told me to follow it! So I followed it while I was still holding its tail. Eventually it stopped and everyone finished their photo op. They fed a crocodile a tiny chicken we had to buy for 3 dollars and then we left. We were probably there for about 30 minutes max, but we all really enjoyed it. Griff tried to convince our guide to let him wrestle one, but he didn’t go for it. We went from Bolga to Tamale and got to the Tamale sub-office that evening. Kim cooked us an amazing dinner, spaghetti with real meat in the sauce.

Day 11, it’s hard to believe he has been here this long! We relaxed at the TSO that morning and ate French toast, I started getting sick again at about this point…Griff and I both had the runs and we ate Imodium like candy. Around noon we left foe the station to catch a tro to Mole National Park with Blake, our luck…only 1 seat was left. We never made it to Mole. I suppose it was a good thing though, we were all so exhausted we looked forward to another night at the TSO. Everyone thought we deserved another good meal so we went to a restaurant and ate pizza in Tamale.

Day 12 was another relaxing morning at the TSO with French toast again. We lounged and packed slowly, we had a bus to catch at 5:00 p.m., and over night, air conditioned bus to Accra. So we made it to the station at 5, and the bus didn’t show till 6, and we didn’t leave till 7. I loved the bus ride! Griff didn’t love the bus ride; he thought it was too cramped. We made it to Accra at 5 a.m. and took a nap in our hotel. Griff had an appointment at 11 to have an old hernia looked at, he managed to not only hurt his tooth but to also reinjury an old hernia surgery. I found out he could have the surgery redone in Ghana for only 200 bucks, compared to the 2000 it costs in the states. We made the doctor appointment and then got lunch and Griff went to shop for some more masks.

Day 13 we finally headed to my site! A 5 hour tro to Takoradi, then a 3 hour tro to my market town, then a 20 min to my village. We made it in around 3 p.m. and I took him for a short tour of my village. He met my landlord, like my Ghanaian Dad, Ateiko, who loved Griffin and was so excited to finally meet him. I made us Mac-n-Cheese for dinner, 2 boxes that took every ounce of strength I had to save for his visit. We were both still so sick neither for us could finish dinner. We unpacked all Griff’s bags and dug through all the goodies he brought. Thank you to Mrs. Cueto for the slim jims, treats, and med stuff that always comes in handy, thank you to Terri for the good book, music, sweets, and fruit roll ups, thank you to Mrs. Pfleuger and my class for the rice crispy treats and lip gloss, thank you to Michele H. for the tons of beef jerkey, thank you to Mom and Dad for everything you sent…and just to set the record straight you have all succeeded in making me the most spoiled volunteer in Ghana, by far. Thank you for my birthday gifts and for thinking of me so often. A big thanks for Griffin also, for coming to visit and for hauling all of the stuff you hauled for me! Back to the trip…

Day 14 we had a relaxing morning and Griff’s new found favorite breakfast, garlic and egg sandwich. We went to Beyin about 15 minutes away on a tro and then took a canoe out to Nzulezo, the stilt village. When we came back it was about 2 in the afternoon. We went straight to the Beyin Beach Resort so Griffin could meet me good friend Nina and Patrick. We had a pizza for lunch, the ham and pineapple pizza, Griffin’s favorite. We stayed in the nicest room there and slept like babies on the soft beds. Unfortunately we had to leave at 5 a.m. to make it to my site to repack and head on to Accra. We spent all day traveling back to Accra and made it in by the early evening. I was once again feeling sick all day.

Day 15 we woke up in Accra and went to Griffin’s dentist appointment, a filling in Ghana only costs $25. After his appointment and the nearly 2 hour wait we went to lunch with Erica and Chad. Sunshine salads, one of my favorite places in Accra! We went back to the hotel and packed up Griffin’s bags, I tried to sleep off my sickness while Griffin walked back to take one final look at masks. At 6:00 p.m. we loaded up and headed to the airport! It was hard saying good bye but I was looking forward to getting back to normal.

Turns out that evening I went back to the PC bunk room and I came down with a temperature of 104.5 and a serious chest infection. I started hallucinating and my limbs started to go numb. The next morning I went to the doctor and ended up spending over a week in Accra. I had to get 4 shots in my bum…let me tell you they were the most painful thing in the world. Thank goodness Erica was also in Accra for the week for physical therapy so we got to hang out the whole time. I finally made it back to my site last week. Let me tell you it feels so good to be home. I’m finally getting used to the lonely feeling again; I’ve had time to replant my garden which was very dead when I came home. I think it should make it this go around; we are deep into the rainy season now. It rains every day for several hours. I am planning to buy 2 rabbits next week and get my rabbit ranch going again. My landlord’s cat has had 2 kittens so I get to watch them play all day. The rainy season has also filled our well again so the kids are coming by to draw water, I love seeing them when I leave my room. Best of all, I am back to teaching all my students! Hopefully I can have my beach clean up competition soon and the HIV/AIDS soccer tournament soon after.

I hope everyone is well back home, I miss you all dearly! Mom, congrats on the new car…I bet you are one hott mama driving around in that convertible. Griff, good luck on your move to Texas, and thanks again for visiting me! I had a blast! Tess congrats on finally making it out of Cocoa Beach High! Good luck with college!

Oh, and sorry for the lack of pictures...like I mentioned I forgot them all at home. I will post some of the real good ones next time I'm at the internet...probably 2 to 3 weeks.

Just had some free time to load some old pictures while I'm waiting on my brother's flight to arrive. Hope you enjoy them!

The above picture is Erika, Caitlin, Me, and Terri (from left to right) on the tro tro ride out to go paragliding. We were all exhausted from staying up the whole night before having girl talk/gossip hour...well 8 hours. I think we managed to get about 2 or 3 hours of sleep. Then we couldn't sleep on the tro because we had finished our conversation from the night before. These girls rock my world!

This is the same wild bunch, Me, Erika, Terri, and Caitlin (from left to right). This is our pre-flight picture! We took it during the opening ceremonies when we couldn't manage to focus on the speaker because once again we had too much girl talk to catch up on!

This is Terri flying off the edge of the mountain! It also shows a great view of the town we landed in. She ran off the edge of the mountian with her arms out like she was going to just start flying, it was the funniest thing ever!

The picture to the right is the crazy friend Terri that I am always talking about. I love her to death! She lives in Techiman where we did our first 3 months of training. She is one of the first stops on Griffin's trip, my brother.

The picture to the left is a of my skid marks from my not so great take off. It took me three tries to get up in the air! Ian is standing next to me, he was my tandom master who was riding on my back while I protected him from getting dirty while we ate it.

Switching over to the St. Patty's Day party...all the free green beer you can drink at Ryan's pub. This is Brady and I! She is one of my best buddies, she is a second year volunteer! We had a blast! (Brady on left!)

The picture on the right is Me, Brady, and Marisa wishing everyone back home a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

No more green Beer! One, two, three, floor! Lol! It was a good night!

I'm out of time on the computer! Next time I find time I will try to post some pictures of the trip with my brother and some of my village pictures. I miss you all!

Paragliding in Ghana, just sounds dangerous…so I had to go! Every Easter a group of South Africans come in and host a paragliding festival in Ghana, as an adrenaline junkie this is something I just couldn’t miss. A great group of friends decided we needed to go, so we all meet up at the KSO (Kumasi Sub-office), a bunkroom for Peace Corps travelers and sick volunteers. Erika, Terri, Caitlin, and I went…lets just call us trouble! We meet up on the 20th at the KSO and after staying up till 3a.m. having girl talk we headed out at 6a.m. to go paragliding on the 21st. (Tro rides just never bring out your beauty…rough pic) We took about a 2 ½ hour tro ride, normal people would’ve slept after only getting 3 hours of sleep but the girl talk continued for “trouble”. We got there and rushed to put our names at the top of the list! I was first on from our group, a few Europeaners went ahead of me.

Paragliding is a very relaxing sport! We went on tandem rigs, so I was attached to someone the whole time. Very different from skydiving which is what I am used to and was expecting. In skydiving you pull a parachute, or rip cord, whereas paragliding you run off a mountain side with your parachute already open. You really don’t even make it off the cliff; typically you “take off” before you make it to the edge. If you are me you start running and take off then you touch back down and eat it. I’m not talking about tripping and falling, I mean sliding face first in the mud with the person strapped to you just hanging out on your back nice and clean. To make it worst when I stood up covered from head to toe in mud a Ghanaian man walks up to me and says, “Oh, sorry!” then he asks to take pictures and tries to kiss my cheek in the picture. We gathered up the parachute and got back in line, with my group of 7 PCVs laughing at me. Ian, my tandem instructor decided that our next take off attempt we would try to take off in reverse. He convinced me that that would be easier; who would believe reverse is easier than forward….not me anymore! So we ran and turned (very small difference in the two take offs), but he told me to stop running. We had to abort the take off because there wasn’t enough wind for a reverse take off. Our third attempt was once again a forward attempt that finally worked. We ran and the parachute just lifted us up in the air, it was not a rush at all…but it was very relaxing.

Relaxing until he said that his rig wasn’t working properly! Ian told me that they were instructed to travel light so he took a few pieces off his rig. He left a part of the back support off his rig which made it very difficult to sit comfortable in his seat. The only way he could sit in his rig was to prop his legs up on my thighs, so he had to wrap his legs around me. I harassed him the whole flight saying he was getting pretty frisky for our first date and he might have to buy me a beer when we land.

The flight was great! He taught me all about how to find a thermal and what they are, upward winds that prolong your flight. We followed the birds to the thermals and flew around the mountains and the cliffs. It was beautiful! The landing was very easy; all I had to do was lean forward and take about 3 or 4 steps. I never really mastered the landings in skydiving so I was a little nervous but it was great.

We packed the rig up in the back of the truck and 4 people sat in the cab and about 6 sat on all the equipment in the back. We rode from the soccer field we landed on back up the mountain to where we took off from. About half way up we got in a car accident though! A small taxi T-boned us because he claims his brakes when out. Fortunately the taxi was so small the 6 of us in the bed of the truck barely felt the accident. We all waited on the side of the road while the drivers yelled at each other. Turns out this picture I took of his license plate is what was used to track the drive down. He hit and ran after 20 minutes of arguing. We reloaded the truck and headed back up to the top.

At the top we relaxed while the rest of the volunteers went gliding. Cait was the last to go so we waited till very late for her to make it back up. The whole group of us loaded up in the back of a truck for a free ride back down the mountain but, last minute Cait and I decided to get free rides back down, paragliding! So I got a free second glide down! A much easier take off, got it on the first time, and another smooth landing. The rest of the group headed back to the KSO and Cait and I decided we were going to take a quick swim at the paraglider’s hotel before heading back. I also had to cash in on my free beer from my frisky late 40’s first date. We ate dinner, swam, and had a beer or 2. By the time we were ready to go we had several offers to stay…lol!

We made it back to the KSO and I took my rabbit home to start my rabbit ranch. My landlord and his grand kids were so excited to see the rabbit. I also made them mashed potatoes for dinner and they small kids loved them. I’m not sure if they loved them or the fact that I was feeding the kids with my hands the way the Ghanaian women do.

I’m very excited about Monday though, I am having a meeting in my village to start a women’s savings group called a “susu”. Also, my last mango seeds I planted were eaten by goats after there were about a foot tall. While I was away my new mango seed sprouted, along with corn, tomato, cantaloupe, and watermelon seeds. Several of my original seedlings are branching out and getting big! My brochure should be out real soon also. Classes are studying for their finals and then they will be out for over a month so I will get a nice break from my teaching and clubs. IST (in-service training) is April 7th so I will get to see some of my friends that I haven’t seen since the end of November.

It might sound a little strange but I really feel like I’ve changed so much here. I am hanging out with friends who are very spiritual, not so much religious, but believe in energies and all sorts of crazy interesting things. I’m really starting to feel at home here! We really had a great trip, it was just what I needed!

I miss you and love you all!

My newest assignment at work is to start 42 environment clubs in my area for Ghana Wildlife Society. I was excited and hot to trot but I was forced to take my first week off…darn! The schools are all out this week for a soccer tournament. Nothing comes before soccer in Ghana, not even an education. The JSS 3 students, similar to our 8th grade, are taking life changing exams at the end of April. If they don’t pass these exams they will either have to retake 3 years of JSS or drop out. But soccer is more important! I guess you can tell I don’t really agree.

To get my mind off of things I decided to decorate my room. For those of you who know me well you can testify that I love to paint. I don’t know if my parents will ever let me pick up another paint brush in our house again after they see these photos. This is a before picture of my window treatments…well, faded Little Mermaid bed sheets and my beautiful bright green walls.

I replaced the curtains with the brightest most mixed up fabric I could find!

Next is my master piece! It took a few days to finish put I loved ever hour of it. I don’t know if I will ever be able to sleep in my room again.

My final touch was hanging all of the cards I've received! It helps me remember of all my friends and family, and reminds me to write.

The last thing I have left to do is come up with a light fixture to fix up the one I currently have. I tried something but was too embarrased to post it. It turned out looking like a 4 year olds failed art project. Next time I post I should have a better looking light! Until then I love you and miss you all!PS- sorry for my bad spelling and grammer! When I write these I am normally in a hurry in the big city.

It feels like it’s been an eternity since the last time I posted a blog. It’s been a busy few weeks, unfortunately not the best few weeks.

About two and a half weeks ago Mekulu, my puppy went missing! She ruled my room, I let her roam in and out at her leisure. She spent some evening in my room with me normally stinking up my room with terrible gas. I don’t think she agreed with fish, but she sure did love it. She also spent several evenings out side roaming around and visiting the neighbors, she had a play mate puppy at the neighbor’s complex. A few weeks ago she went out for her evening on the town and when I woke up the next morning she hadn’t returned but, I didn’t think much of it. When she hadn’t returned the following even I started to get a little concerned, as did Ateiko, my landlord. We walked around the village, from end to end; we asked all the villagers if they had seen her and followed ever lead. Ateiko threatened to arrest anyone who might have taken her and offered rewards for any information and we hired kids to find any information they could. Ateiko called the local police authorities who are several villages away, they held a week long investigation before giving up. Following leads and roaming the village become our nightly ritual for about a week straight. It faded to searching ever other night and stopped all together a few nights ago. I try to ignore the rumors around the village, they say she was stolen and eaten. I’m convinced that she found a puppy love and ran off to make babies some where. I’m sure she could sense that I was going to take her in to be spade in a few more weeks. Either way, at this point I don’t think she is going to return. I’m really going to miss her, she love to run on the beach with me, well run circles around me on the beach. She would never go in the water with me and she hated baths. When ever I came home she would be there with her tail wagging, it would wag so hard her whole body would be swing side to side. It was too much excitement for her little body to hold! It was great having someone excited to see me ever time I came home. I think the hardest part is my village, they show their condolence by asking where she is ever time they see me. My landlord wants to buy me a new dog already but I have asked him not to. I haven’t decided if I am going to try it again or not!

In the mean time, I have been assigned to start 42 environment clubs in surrounding villages for GWS. The task seems tedious and nearly impossible! I taught my first class last week in my village. I went to 3 junior high school classes to teach them about career planning, which lead to the importance of behavior and education. It was a difficult task, I had to speak very slow and repeat myself several times. I’m still not sure how much they understood! I was supposed to go in last week and teach about HIV and AIDS but they had to cancel because there is a very important 5 day soccer tournament that all the schools are taking part in. It’s much more important than education, so much so they are taking all the students out for a week. We also took the sea cruise on a trial run! A school with 60 kids came and we took 3 separate trips out 20 minutes off shore and 20 minutes back. When we made it out there we jumped off the side for a quick swim, just the fishermen and I, everyone else was afraid to swim in the “deep sea” or didn’t know how to swim. It was an exciting fun ride, when we came in they would let the boat turn parallel with the waves and we almost flipped several times. So all in all, I’m still surviving in Ghana! I miss you all dearly! Oh, I picked up my packages yesterday and I have my camera back again, so I will be posting more pictures next time!

I’ve had a very busy few weeks! It started with a trip to Kumasi to visit some very close Peace Corps buddies, Terri and Janet, and catch up on some gossip. Biggest news on the gossip mill is Janet’s engagement to a Ghanaian chief. Janet is 59 and the chief is 55, she is high school sweetheart, head over heals, in love with him. While we were in Kumasi Janet decided to extend her trip and go to Accra with me to talk to Bob about getting married. They have decided to wait till they return to the states to make their marriage official, only because it will be easier to get him a visa.

We got to stay at the KSO (Kumasi Sub-Office) and cook American food, watched TV, and relax, it was great. The KSO just isn’t the same without Sharon though! We stayed at the sub office for 3 nights and went to an African Cup of Nations game. It wasn’t a Ghana game, but the PCV where there in numbers…around 8 of us went to the game. With my recent fear of being robbed we left everything at the KSO and took $10 in our pockets. We had a beer at a small spot just outside of the stadium and I won a Guinness jersey. On the way to the stadium we had our faces painted with Ghana flags… it felt a little odd to stand in a line with 30 kids ages 12 and under, but they all had a great time with us. The stadium was beautiful; I forgot that I was in Ghana for a while. We watched two games, Egypt vs. Sudan and Cameroon vs. Zambia, and then headed back to the KSO around 10:00 pm absolutely exhausted.

The day after the game Janet and I said our good-byes to Terri and headed to Accra. Unfortunately we caught one of the worst tros I had ever been on. 28 people with 6 babies on laps! Fold down chairs are normally built into the isles for more seating. In my opinion they are the worst seats to sit on, besides the fact they are incredibly uncomfortable and have a tendency to tip over on hard turns or bumps putting you in your neighbors lap, they have no where to put your head for a nap. Well, I ended up in a fold down seat that was next to a Ghanaian woman with a baby. She kept falling asleep on my shoulder, dropping her sleeping child on my lap. Things that would make any normal human being uncomfortable no longs faze me, not only were the mother and child sleeping on me, but the breast the child was attached to was resting on my arm also! When I say child I mean 2 to 3 year old kid, still breast feeding which is normal in Ghana. They would wake up and readjust but always returned comfortably to my shoulder and lap. I found it quite funny… for the first 6 hours! But then, we heard a loud chime, the sound of something dragging on the ground as the engine cut off and we coasted to a stop. Everyone unloaded and urinated all over the place as the drive crawled under the tro to take a look. He quickly realized the drive shaft fell off, an essential component to a working tro! But we are in Ghana, and they can fix any problem on a tro with a hanger and Q-tip. A man was sent to find the drive shaft a returned about 15-20 minutes later. It took about a half an hour and the tro was up and running again. The last two hours of the trip I prayed the mother, child, and breast would fall back to sleep…no such luck. The mother spent the remaining 2 hours teaching her child to hit my leg; she thought it was cute and funny. After 6 hours on a hot tro nothing is cute or funny! Janet and I were thrilled and exhausted when we finally made it to the bunk room in Accra at 9pm.

My original plan was to spend one night in Accra to check my mail and then head back to site. With little trouble the crowd of PCVs in Accra had convinced me to spend one extra day there to go to the Ghana vs. Morocco game. I scalped a ticket off a Ghanaian who asked me to marry him in our first 2 minutes of conversation. After I purchased the ticket he informed me that I had the pleasure of sitting next to him the whole game… with no PCVs near me. The crowd of 12 PCV went to buy hamburgers (since we were in Accra enjoying American food) and also bought some sachets of whiskey for the game. We made it to the stadium, had our faces painted again and meet up with 3 PCV who were just getting in. Jacquie and Ira quickly convinced me to sit with them and hope there are empty seats. We went to their section and there were plenty of seats for about the first 10 minutes. The stadium was packed and the seats were filling quickly. The owner of my seat came so I stood up to move to another seat near Jacquie and Ira. I felt a strong grip on my right arm and then I was swiftly pushed back down in my seat. I turned around and a Ghanaian man was in my face screaming, “You are blocking my vision” (you learn to love the Ghanaian English). After 3 sachets of whiskey I decided that I wanted to say something back. I had never been in a verbal argument with anyone before in my life. (I’m going to warn you, the next things I said were vulgar, rude, and out of character…LOL!) I snapped back, “I don’t care, don’t touch me!” He replied, “You are blocking my vision!” so I said, “I don’t care, don’t touch me!” This went on for about a whole minute before I got up and switched seats. Not 5 minutes later my new seat’s owner had arrived and the man I had just been fighting with was inviting me to sit next to him. He and I were buddy-buddy the rest of the match, yelling and cheering together. We beat Morocco 2-0!

I had made plans to take a tro 8 hours home so that I could leave early the next morning to head to Volta on a business trip. It made more sense to have them pick me up in Accra on the way to Volta and save me from 16 hours in a tro. I spent a whole day in Accra relaxing and eating more American food and visiting Casey in the hospital. He had surgery on an infection on his shin. His leg was swollen to double its normal size! The doctor said that if he had come in 4 days later they might have had to amputate his leg. He was flying to South Africa for better medical treatment the next day. If he hasn’t healed before March 9th then he will be medically separated and sent back to the U.S.

The next afternoon the tro with our tourist sub committee had arrived on the way to Volta. I was stuck in the bad seat again, the fold down chair but decided not to complain after missing out on 16 hours there. 4 hours later we were pulling into a guest house in Hohoe. It was very nice, running water and electricity, mountains and woods, and harmattan weather AKA cold. The purpose of this trip is to show the sub committee (the team of local residents who will take over the Nzulezo visitor center when Ghana Wildlife Society pulls out) what other tourist attractions are like, as well as show them how other tour guides operate. Many of the committee members have never left their village so driving through Accra was quite the experience. Our first day on our trip we woke up at 5:30 for breakfast and then the tro took us to climb Ghana’s tallest mountain. Mount Afadjato stands tall at 2,905 feet, or 5 km and 2 ½ hours of hell. The Ghanaians all put on shower shoes so they wouldn’t get their good shoes dirty. I was wishing I had anything besides my rainbow flip flops. The last words out of Patrick, the tour guide’s mouth were, “We are going to take this slow and finish as a group!” A quarter of the way up the mountain with 5 men back he stopped to see how we were doing. Two more turned back before we reached the top! It was beautiful, although I couldn’t see very far, the harmattan winds made the mountains very dusty and the visibility low. Descending the mountain might have been more exhausting than the climb up. Our muscles were flexed the whole way down trying to avoid sliding down the leaves and falling off of very steep cliffs. It didn't help reading this sign before we left! They Ghana men were not too macho to tell me their muscles were shaking.

I was happy to survive Mount Afadjato and was looking forward to getting home for a nap when I was informed we were going to hike to the Wli falls next. The tro took us to a spot that served palm wine before heading to the next visitor center for another hike. This was another 5 km out and 5 km back, but luckily no altitude. The falls were amazing! The water fell off a solid rock cliff that was 60 meters tall with millions of bats flying over head. We tried to swim in the small pool of water at the bottom of the falls but changed our minds after we were ankle deep due to the temperature of the freezing water. By the time we made it home after our 20 km or 12 miles that we had hiked we were all exhausted. We at rice for dinner and all fell asleep. Day 2 of our trip took us to the Tafi Atome monkey sanctuary. We walked just a few kilometers through the woods before the tour guide told us that because it was harmattan and very dry the monkeys had left to find more food. I was disappointed that I didn’t see any mona monkeys. All the pictures that I’ve seen of mona monkeys very cute, they have black fur around their eyes that make them look like they are wearing sunglasses. We spent the afternoon relaxing at the guest house and taking about pain in our legs.

After a week and a half away from site I was excited to get home. We left at 4:30 in the morning to head back to Beyin. I didn’t get any sleep the night before we left, and you guessed it… I was stuck in the fold down seat! Not even the fold down seat could’ve brought down the good mood I was in finally returning home. Not the fold down seat, or the oil leak that caused us to break down in the middle of no where for an hour in a half, or the second oil leak that took 30 minutes to fix, or the third oil leak that took another 30 minutes to fix. I made it home at 9:30 pm after 17 hours on a broke down tro. I walked up to my house and found 30 Ghanaians screaming and Ateiko trying to mediate, his job as a village elder. He was so excited to see me he stopped everything to hug me and give me a kiss on my hand. I told him I was going to sleep and I would tell him about my trip the next morning.

I decided to skip church on Sunday and catch up on a few things at site; number one priority was my wash. Without a clean stitch of clothing I spend 3 hours washing everything I owned. I was so carried away with washing I gave Mekulu, my puppy a good scrub down next. After two weeks away from her she must have doubled in size. She was so excited to see me, and not happy with me after her bath. After I did my wash I headed into town to buy a cell phone charger and replace my broken one. I made it to Tikobo 1 and everything was closed because it was Sunday (I don’t know what I was thinking). I found a hardware store that was open and bought some mesh to build a mesh guard for my garden. My garden survived one week against the snails and lizard that ate everything that had germinated. I also bough chicken wire so I can build a rabbit cage. I have decided to become a rabbit rancher! ***This coming from a girl who had pet rabbits her whole childhood. My landlord had tried to raise rabbits once before but the burrow he dug for the rabbits collapsed and killed his rabbits. I would never be able to eat rabbit, especially after I raised them, so I will be a breeder. Rabbit is a fast producing was of getting protein for villagers. It has not caught on in my village, however Ateiko is willing to try it and he can help spread the word. I came home and replanted all the seeds that had been in the water sachet bags (make shift pots). I also bought a bucket to replant my mango seed that has now grown leaves.

I went to our village meeting today and was shocked when a more serious than coconut thieves was brought up. The village came in numbers when the elders demanded that the kids be brought from school to attend the meeting, and the parents were also required to drop what they were doing and go to the meeting. The topic of the meeting was the lack of respect the children were showing as well as their slipping grades. I wasn’t too concerned till the teachers stood up and told about the two students that were caught having sex in the school house. When caught by a teacher they said very rude things to the teacher, which resulted in the teacher quitting. After the meeting I was taken to the school by all the teachers to speak to the students impromptu. I introduced myself to all the classes, although they already knew me. I told them that starting next week I would be coming in once a week to talk to them about behavior, their future plans, the environment, and HIV and AIDS. I am planning to go in with games and treats. I will talk to them about what they want to be when they grow up; most of them have very few life goals. After we identify their goals we will talk about what it will take to get there, leading into a talk about grades, education, manners, and respect for others. The following week I will lead into HIV and AIDS. The kids caught were only 13 and 14 years old and having unprotected sex, fortunately she announced to the village that she was not pregnant. I swear Africans just don’t get embarrassed ever! It amazes me!

My two week vacation/work trip was just what I needed to recharge my batteries! It feels great to get back to work!

Skip and Teri corner: For family and friends concerned about my health! I’m sad to announce that my worm has died. I guess I wasn’t the best host! My toe has also healed up along with the rest of my bug bites. I am still battling heat rash; I’ve noticed it is just on my right side. I finally realized that I sleep on my right side; I fall asleep and wake up sweating most nights…so that is where the heat rash is coming from. Besides that I am in perfect health, and getting a little of my tan back. I have been going to Nzulezo a lot this week trying to put together a brochure, so I’ve been in the sun more than I should. Try explaining to an African why your skin has turned red, I have to reassure them it will turn back white. I had a Ghanaian try to scratch off once of my freckles for 10 minutes yesterday before I convinced him that it wouldn’t come off. I miss you and love you all! Take care!

This pandemic has been haunting Ghana since its birth 50 years ago. Zachley’s Pandemic is when your breath smells zachley like your ass! I don’t know why Ghanaians think chewing on wood is the same as brushing them with a tooth brush and tooth paste. Both of which I must mention are available everywhere in Ghana. The breath is bad, it could drop an elephant from a mile away.

Why we are on the medical topic, you might be interested to hear about my worm and my witch doctor. Better known as Ateiko…my landlord! He says he is a doctor, but nobody knows his qualifications, besides the fact he has been practicing medicine for 35 years. I came home from Takoradi with a hook worm in my foot, according to the Peace Corps. It was a red, puffy, itchy line across the top of my foot, starting at one of my infected lovely bug bites. I showed Ateiko and told my foot for conversation sake at the dinner table (you can do things like that in Ghana at the dinner table). I told him I was going to the chemical store (pharmacy) tomorrow to get medicine for the hook worm. He said it wasn’t a hook worm and I should be worried. He informed me it was a different type of worm, but he didn’t know the English name for it. He said the only way to get rid of it is to cut a small hole in my foot and grab the end of the worm. You wrap the end of the worm around a stick and twist the stick until the worm is all the way out. If you ask Betty, a woman I work with, I should mash the pill up till it is a powder, then cut my foot open and put the powder in the cut. I am going to sneak to the chemical store tomorrow and lay low till it goes away, or Ateiko and Betty forget.

Our village has meetings every Tuesday morning. It is 4 to 5 hours of arguing, screaming, clapping, and laughing. At this meeting I told the community that I would teach computer lessons on the early 90s model computer that has been donated, assuming that it works. I’m not exactly a computer wiz, but I will be teaching very basic skills like how to turn the computer on and how to type.

At the village meeting we also discussed the serious crime wave that is sweeping our small town. Coconut thieves! Please, don’t worry about my safety, I am happy to announce the vicious criminals have apprehended. They are being held until they pay their bail of $50 (big money in Ghana), reimburse the people whose coconuts they had stolen, and buy a bottle of gin for the community. What would we do without that bottle of gin? I know I could never forgive the thieves without it!

I went on a trip to New Town, it is the boarder town between Ghana and The Ivory Coast. We went on the beach, my Supervisor Cynthia and I, and it was a beautiful drive…for the most part. I learned that Ghanaians who don’t have latrines, which is the majority of the people who live in coastal villages. They make their bawl movements, #2s, poops, commonly called shit, but I like who the Ghanaians put it best, toilet. The Ghanaians make toilet on the beach. They dig small cat holes and toilet in them, some but not all fill their holes. I did learn on our little trip that Ghanaians get diarrhea to, at least 50%, it’s not just the PCV. And, it’s all orangeish yellow, my guess is from all the plantains they eat. It was not the prettiest drive ever. I’m just happy that mine is one of the more clean beaches!

Today was the first day of the African Cup of Nations! Ghana beat Guinee! It was pure chaos and excitement in my village. It’s the happiest I’ve ever seen them.

Well, my time is up! Till next time…

Yesterday sure was an interesting morning. I went to church as I do every Sunday morning but this time was different. Just before church began one of the donations got loose, a chicken to be exact. Everyone started chasing the chicken around the church; it was pure chaos and commotion. Finally the bird was caught! It was bound and tied properly and the service continued.

I have to be careful in church, you know, really pay attention. I get lost in the language and find myself staring off into the candles. Before I know it my blonde head is the only one sitting up in the church and all the other heads are down praying. I put my head down and start playing with the little girls through the pews. But, I seem to make it through every Sunday without offending anyone.

I got a letter in the mail the other day. The card read, “Why is the sky blue? asked Piglet. To give us something to talk about, said Pooh.” The card made my mind wonder, because “Why is the sky blue?” is such an easy question compared to some of the questions I have been asked. For instance, “Why does your hair grow long and mine doesn’t?” How does one answer that question? Then there is always the, “Will you marry me?” for which I respond, depending on my mood, “You can not afford to marry me. It will cost you 20 cows!” I have to be careful because they often respond that they will find a way to buy 20 cows. Sometimes they first ask me if I am married before asking me to marry them, often this comes before they ask me my name. If I am honest and say no, they ask me if I will marry a Ghanaian. I say no, I will not marry a Ghanaian. This is followed by another very hard to answer question, “Why won’t you marry a black man?” I have learned the right response, “Yes, I am married! My husband is in America.” I have even had Ghanaians continue, telling me that they will beat up my husband and take me as their wife. This is when I decide that if they want to play I can play… “You are just a small boy, (what they call children here) and my husband is a big man who could beat you up!” Other hard questions, “Can I have your skin?” or my nose, or my hair. This is an easy one; I say “Yes, take it!” I haven’t got all the answers just yet, but I am learning.

Harmaton has come! Finally it is getting cold! Last week I woke up one morning and it was cold. I had to lie in bed for a moment and convince myself that it was true. I thought my feet were asleep, cause they couldn’t possible be cold. It must have been upper 60s, lower 70s, sweater weather for sure. I walked to work in the morning and by noon I was sweating again. I had 3 more cold mornings and now they seem to have stopped. But they sure were nice while they lasted.

Oh, good news and bad! I am still not part of the “I shit my pants in Ghana” club, but I am part of the “I was robbed in Ghana” club. Only the hard core PCVs can make that club! Unfortunately another PCV was added to the club roster this week. She was robbed at gun point while in Accra. It was 5:30 in the morning, just around the corner from the Swissrest (the Peace Corps hotel). She also lost her cell phone, camera, and money, in addition to my losses she also lost an ipod and prescription sunglasses. Ironically enough she happened to be the same person who bought my cell phone off the black market for me. I had to buy my cell phone back from the thief who stole it from me. Well, she contacted me on my old cell phone to tell me that she had been robbed. She is keeping the cell phone that was stolen from me, since her cell phone was stolen. Twisted story huh? Lesson of the day, be careful in Accra, travel in groups, during the daylight, and take taxies as far as you can, but mainly carry as little on you as possible.

Dave, the SED (Small Entrepreneur Development) Director recently came to my site. He conducts site visits to everyone in the SED portion of Peace Corps Ghana in the first 3 months at site. We all meet before IST (In-Service Training). He brought me my mail, and my laptop. My Dad had it sent to a PCV who went home for Christmas, and that volunteer brought it back to me in Ghana. I am very excited to finally have my laptop, and the pictures and music on it. I finally have some Christmas carols to listen to, just a little late celebrating. When it goes to the screen saver it flashes all the pictures that I have saved. They really make me miss home! My favorite pictures are the pictures from the coast with my 3 favorite kiddos. My nieces and my nephew! We have pictures with the whole family, last year at the coast. I also love to see the pictures from our family cruise last year. I also have pictures taped to my wall of my family… all 3 of them. Thank you for sending me the Thanksgiving pictures Mrs. Pfleugar, they made my day.

I am finally starting to identify a few secondary projects at my site. My primary project is working for Ghana Wildlife Society, the only NGO in the Western Region. I am trying to help market a few tourist attractions in the Amazurie wetlands. We are building a tourist center for Nzulezo, the stilt village. We are also setting up a whale watching sea cruise, sea turtle, crocodile, and bird watching. The money that the NGO makes from the tourist will be divided and distributed to local communities. My secondary projects include environmental education, HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, beach clean ups, and waste management. One of my village’s biggest problems is the heaps of trash that are all over. I am designing a poster to be made to educate surrounding villages about trash disposal. I am going to my villages elders meeting on Tuesday to talk about starting a local land fill and burn site. I will be going to the school in my village this month for my first lesson on HIV/AIDS as well. In the next 6 months I hope to revive the NGO’s environment clubs in the local schools and organize a beach clean up competition. I haven’t decided the prize for the winning community with the cleanest beach. I also would like to organize a soccer tournament based on HIV/AIDS education for the children. I have lots to do, and my language learning isn’t going as well as I had hoped.

Life is getting better slowly but surely. I am getting used to the banku every night now. I have started making fried rice, but wither I cook or not I always have to eat the banku with Ateiko, my landlord. I am not good at making fried rice, the rice seems to be too clumpy, and so when it fries I come out with fried rice balls. Not quite right, but still much better than banku. I figure I have 2 years to critique my recipe. With all the seasoning I have received in the mail I can at least have different flavored fried rice balls, butter buds, season all, everglades seasoning, but normally I just load it up with eggs and onions. My toe is still attached, and my bug bites are finally starting to heal. Everyone seems to be curious if I look different since I’ve been here. The answer, yes! I don’t have a gorgeous tan from living in a beach village though, the malaria prophylactics have made me white as can be. My skin won’t tan for anything, I don’t even have tan lines anymore. I am doing everything I can do avoid banku belly, I don’t know if I’ve gained weight or lost because there are no scales here. Ghanaians tie beads around their waists and when the beads get tight they are gaining. When in Ghana, do as the Ghanaians do… my beads haven’t gotten any tighter or loser so I guess I am about the same as when I left the states. After 4 months here, my hair is finally starting to get longer. I think it is the longest it’s ever been. Middle of my back, and I’m finally starting to get used to the curls. I miss my hair straightener!

Well I had better wrap this up so I can get to market, the post office, and back to site before the tros make their last run. I will hopefully get my new camera in the mail soon and then I can post some new pictures. I will be back to the internet in about a week and a half to two weeks. I can’t wait to tell you about the African Cup of Nations game that I am going to on the 26th of January. I only wish I had a camera for it! I will stop in Accra to pick up mail before returning to site. So until next time, stay safe in America! Oh, and eat lots of good food for me, and see all the latest new movies. I love you and miss you all!

Things are going much better since my so sad posting about my holidays. I made it back to site and got back to work. Being back to a normal schedule has really helped my attitude. Shortly after I returned was when I got all my ant, bed bug, and mosquito bites. I had a small ant bite on my big toe that I didn't even realized I had scratched. Well the scratch turned into a small scab. Small scab turned into a toe infection that caused my whole foot to swell up so big I couldn't bent my toe at all, or hardly walk for that matter. Along with the foot swelling came a fever of 102 degrees. The toe went from having a small scab to swollen and fever in a matter of 4 or 5 hours. At this point, in the middle of the night, I pulled out my flash light (because the electricity was off) to take a look at this toe of mine. My whole toe was read and all around the scab was gray. It was really cute! So I popped it (I'm sure all of you really want to read the next few details!) and puss and blood came gushing out. I cleaned it up as best I could and put a bandaid on it. By morning the fever broke and since then the swelling has slowly gone down. So what was my first near death experience in Ghana has become a serious lesson learned: don't let cuts "breath" in Ghana! Otherwise... you could end up losing a limb... or at least a toe!

Well, I'm going to get back to work now! I have to figure out a way of teaching a community that lives on stilts (Nzulezo) to dispose of trash in a way other than throwing it in the water. If they continue what they are doing much longer they won't be living in water anymore... only trash!

I miss you all!

God's in Ghana!... he's everywhere here! He is plastered on every taxi and tro tro (van taxi). He is in every house on cheap plastic toys. He is in the title of every salon, small shop, chop bar (restaurant), spot (bar), or seamstress. These are in fact the only 5 things you will find in Ghana because the word "entrepreneur" does not exist. If it hasn't been done 1,000 times, successfully nonetheless, then no Ghanaina will attempt it. I suppose that makes sense because Ghanainans never try new things. Anyways, Religion is very important in Ghana! So I've started going to church now, as you can read about in my last blog!

For those of you reading, if you are planning to visit, or someday find yourself in Ghana their are a few things you should be prepared for. As most of you know, you eat with your hands....well hand. You never use your left hand, it is used for one thing and one thing only, wiping! Use your right hand to wave, shake hands, exchange money or goods. If you ever have to use your left you should say, "Pardon the left!" Another interesting cultural difference, Ghanaians have spots (or bars) and chop bars (or restaurants) , normally they don't eat and drink together though. Also, they drink in the morning more often here than in the states. It is not uncommon to see men holding hands here, or women holding hands, but rarely will you see a man and woman holding hands. Public display of affection is very taboo in Ghana. Also, being gay or lesbian is against the law, so same sex hand holding is a symbol of friendship. It's really taken some getting used to!

When you arrive in Ghana say hello to everyone. Greeting is a sign of respect here, and not greeting someone is considered extremely rude. Typically when you greet them you will shake their hand, and when Ghanaians shake hands they can tend to shake for an uncomfortably long time. Be warned, if you begin walking while in the middle of the Ghanaian extended hand shake it will often turn into holding hands. Another important fact about the Ghanaian hand shake is the snap. As your hands begin to separate at the end of the shake, your middle finger and thumb will snap off of theirs. This is typically done between close friends, so don't take offense if you don't get a snap. Ghanaians are also very close talkers and a good way to add distance in a conversation is to embrace the long shake and use it to push back. Be careful though, they can trick you and use it to pull in! Women, beware! If you are shaking a man's hand and he scratches your palm with his finger while shaking your hand, pull it away and smack him. That is his disgusting way of saying he want to do much more to you than shake your hand. Ladies, also be prepared to be proposed to....ALOT! But mainly, be prepared to meet some of the nicest, most caring, and genuine people you will ever meet. I'll just leave that at that! If you are going to have more than a greeting on the street, say a sit down conversation, their is a customary introduction you must know. You will enter the room and shake everyone's hand from the right to the left as you greet them. Next you will sit down and greet the group as a whole, introduce yourself, then state your mission, or why you've come. They will welcome you and then they will stand and shake everyone's hand. You are then free to have your conversation, which will usually take place over some sort of alcoholic beverage, apateshie, palm wine, or gin. You must thank them and say good bye before shaking hands your final time. Good byes can often be 2, 3, or even 4 hand shacks long. Well on that note, I will say my good bye... so until my next blog! Stay safe, happy, and healthy!

Well I'm seeing red dots all over, my holiday present from Ghana were ant bites, bed bug bites, and heat rash. But I made it through the holidays, and that's something to be happy about. I can't say they were my best, but they sure were memorable, and I learned a lot.

I would like to apologized for the lack of photos on this posting. It seems my idea of posting pictures on my blog won't work due to the fact my camera was stolen two nights after Christmas. I will explain that later though!

Christmas Eve was the beginning of my holidays and challenges. Midnight mass! Those of you who know me know that I've never been much of a church goer. However, respected community members are church goers, therefore I am a church goer. I came here to live the way Ghanaians live, I've decided that just living is enough at this point, any way I can. So I've decided to immerse myself in the culture, and a very big part of culture here is religion. My small village happens to have one small church, Saint Matthia's Catholic Church, it is the largest building in my village. (Insert picture of my church here) I normally arrive at church promptly at 9:00Am and it starts promptly between 9:30 and 10:30. The whole service is in Nzema, so I typically daze off and watch the kids, who all sit close to me so they can shake my had, or I watch the old ladies doze off, only waking up to wipe their sweat with small neatly folded white hankies. I have become a small hankie carrier also! Anyways, we normally have 3 to 4 collections which are somewhat different than in the states. Instead of passing the collection plate around, they put a plastic bowl in the front of the church and we dance up to it to make our donations. Well, Christmas Eve midnight mass started at 9:00 PM and apparently I didn't get the memo, I was supposed to bring a food donation for Christmas. Tonight everyone brought eggs, rice, plantains, etc instead of money. Mass ended at midnight and I headed home!

My next big feat was surviving Christmas day, which was surprisingly easy! I went to mass once again, and once again did not get the memo! Apparently everyone wears white to mass on Christmas morning, I decided to wear my best bright blue Ghanaian dress and stick out like a sore thumb... as if I didn't already! Besides being at church on a Tuesday I would've never known that it was Christmas. After church I walked around town and greeted people. I spent my evening packing for my 2 day trip to Accra. I took a break from packing to enjoy our Christmas feast of a dinner, I mean I ate banque and fish again. My day was made when I got to call my friends and family and hear about their holidays though!

With Christmas down, I just had New Years to go! The morning of December 26, or "Boxing Day" in Ghana, I decided to head to the capital, Accra, to pick up my boxes. I left at 5AM and managed to make it to Accra in the early afternoon. With little cash on me I went to the Peace Corps bunks and stayed there to wait for the banks to open in the morning. In the morning I made it to the banks and ran some errands with Carolyn, my PCV buddy. We enjoyed American food and conversations about diarrhea, food, and gossip, as most Peace Corps conversations go. That night we went to Champs for a trivia game and an expensive American meal. When I was leaving the restaurant I walked down a back road to get a taxi just past dark, and a man came up behind me and took my bag. He snatched it right off my shoulder and jumped a fence. The whole thing happened so fast I didn't even know what had happened till I realized I was now missing my camera, cell phone, and some cash. I never even got to look at the guy. With my remaining 3 dollars I went back to the Peace Corps bunks. The next morning I went to the office and reported the crime to the Peace Corps only to learn they can't reimburse me for any of my losses. After I made the report I checked my mail and have to admit, they came at the perfect time! I had 5 packages waiting for me, full of candy, books, CDs, lights, pictures, egg nog, and money... just enough to replace my cell phone. I spent the rest of the afternoon going to the bank, and buying a new phone. I left the next morning and headed back to site for the New Years festival.

I made it home and relaxed for a few days and went to work. New Years Eve meant midnight mass again, and what do you know, I missed another memo! I guess I was supposed to bring a candle, because we were going to do a parade through town, dancing, candles, and singing (in a language I don't know!) So I had to explain why I didn't have a candle... Ghanaians always seem shocked that we don't do things the same exact way as them in America. So I did my shuffle my feet and sway dance through town, with every 15, 16, and 17 year old girl wanting to dance near me and be my best friend. We finally made it back to the church and lit a huge bonfire (well really it was only about 12 feet, small to any Aggie!) The fire was lit and followed by... big surprise.... more singing and dancing! We went back into the church and the service continued and we prayed till midnight when we all shook hands. In the morning it was back to mass for me! Can't wait for the holidays to be over just so I can get a break from church! After mass we relaxed for a few hours before I headed to the big festival 2 villages away. I got there and about 20 drunken Ghanaians rushed up excited to see me and asking if I would take pictures with them. The photographer started taking pictures and the situation quickly got out of control. Before I knew it standing next to me went to hugging me in pictures. Someone tried to kiss me on the cheek in a picture and I pushed them away very mad. (I found that you have to set the limits, early and straight with Ghanaians) So I started pushing all 20 of them off of me and I felt hands grabbing me all over. As soon as I got out of the crowd I headed back to my house more frustrated than ever. I stayed in my village away from my only friends in the country to celebrate this big festival with my community who got drunk and tried to take advantage of me. I left before the festival even began.

So my holidays were a flop! But I'm looking forward to life getting back to some sort of a normal schedule. I hope everyones holidays were better in the states!

I have been in Ghana, West Africa for just over 3 months now. I am finally getting a feel for life here, both it's struggles and it's beauty. After a long plane trip from Philadelphia to New York to Germany, to Africa.... around 14 hours in all we made it to our final destination. I arrived here September 17th to a warm greeting by Peace Corps Volunteers from all over Ghana, as well as a police escort to our hotel. We spent one week at the capital and in that time had a welcoming party put on by the US Ambassador of Ghana! The picture to the right are 5 studly men from our training group at the Ambassadors palace!(Left to right is: Eric, Blake, Darren, Joe, and Mike) All looking much thinner and hairier at this point! From there our class of 48 went to Valley View University where we stayed one week.

Our next stop on our 27 month stay in Ghana was to our homestay families that we would spend the next 10 weeks of training living with. I lived with a family in Nsuta, right outside of Techiman. They were a wonderful family and took me in with loving arms. I had 3 siblings, 2 brothers, Hilfor and Rich, and a 6 year old sister, Michelle.

Every Thursday afternoon and all day Fridays we would go to the Dery Hotel for training and medical as a group. All in all, we probably got about 15 shots total! We had language and sector training on Mondays through Thursdays. I am learning to speak Nzema, which is a language spoken in the Western region. The Western Region is on the coast and the boarder of the Ivory Coast. We graduated from training on November 27th! It was a great day, we had a dancing group, drumming group, we all did skits in our language we were learning. Our homestay families came to watch us swear-in and we had lunch with them, followed by massive amounts of pictures! That night we did some serious partying that night before saying our very sad good byes and heading to our sites. I have to admit, leaving our group of now 42 to head off to Ghana alone was much harder than I thought it would be. It was scary to leave the only safe place we knew. Before going to site though me and 3 friends decided to head to the beach for some well needed R&R! We went to Cape Coast and laid on the beach. In all the excitement I forgot that we are now right on the equator with a much stronger sun and was burnt to a crisp. From Cape Coast we headed east to Accra, the capital of Ghana. Ghana is known to have the best night life in all of West Africa so we hit the clubs. They were nothing like America that's for sure! Occasionally we would hear songs from America but mainly reggae! After Accra we had to say good byes again... and really get to site. It has been difficult adapting to a new way of life. Time goes by slower here, it means nothing to them. One of the hardest challenges I have had to face is learning how to slow down. Meeting times are set and I am always there early, and my supervisor Cynthia will often arrive hours late. I eat fish and banque every night. The fish is fried, and eaten whole, skin, bones, and all. Banque is made of plantains, and fermented corn, it is pounded into a dough and has a very sour taste. I was nauseated by it at first but am finally becoming accustom to eating it every night. We drink water our of bags if we buy it on the street. They are called water sachets, or pure water by the locals. Come to think of it, we drink and eat everything from bags, water, street food, even shots of liquor. I have been very fortunate to stay healthy while in Ghana, a lot of the PCV have had what we call GT or Ghana Tummy.... sever diarrhea. Many of our guys have lost anywhere from 10-30 pounds.

My site is beautiful! I will be living in a small town called Elloyin for the next two years. It is two villages west of Beyin. Beyin is the closest village to Nzulezo...the village on stilts. My village is very welcoming and excited to have me there. The kids all call me "boofalet" which is Nzema for "white girl". I have been in my village now for 3 weeks and they are finally starting to call me "Yaba", which is my name in my village and means "Thursday born". The ones who don't call my by my name are at least calling me "my boofalet".

I am very lucky to have running water and electricity.... sometimes! I live with my landlord, his name is Ateiko. He is 63 years old and is the town doctor. He is also a community elder, which means he is respected and any problems in the village are brought to him and the council of elders. He has been my life savor the past few weeks, introducing me to essential people in the community, teaching more Nzema, and keeping the village scum away from my door.

In my free time I like to work in my garden.... it's my only escape from Ghana. I have a lot of work to do though, as of right now it is the town dump. I have been burning and burying the trash and it is finally starting to look like a garden. I planted my seeds in empty water sachets and they are just now starting to sprout. Hopefully I will have some fresh vegetables soon. It is so funny to see the reaction of the Ghanaians when I work in the garden.... they say I am strong and hardworking. When I start to sweat they ask if I am tired and try to get me to stop. Of course it only takes 5 minutes to start sweating! It is December and it is in the 90s! Last night it was so hot that I had to sleep on my concrete floor to stop sweating long enough to fall asleep. It's strange living in an endless summer! I'm looking forward to Christmas though, and our New Years festival in my village. I can't wait to post again and tell you all about it!

Until next time, I hope everyone reading this has happy holidays and stays safe!