Really, I'm Alive

Sorry I have failed at posting regularly, but now that the World Cup has started, I have been really busy. Last night was the USA-Ghana game. I told myself that I would cheer for Ghana because i'm here, but as the match started, I just couldn't do it. I ended up cheering for the US. Sadly, they let me down. It was a bittersweet ending. I didn't stick around after to participate in the merriment, mostly because it has been getting worse every time. Plus I had a massive headache, made even worse by those stupid vuvuzelas. Seriously, whoever thought those were a good idea to give to thousands of people should be shot. Last weekend, someone decided to start the pre-game celebration at 6 a.m. Luckily it didn't start until 9 this weekend. Needless to say, I was not too happy to be awoken by that noise. It's even worse than the stinking roosters (which I think may have been eaten. I have not heard them for a while. Thank goodness!).

Anyway, things are good here. My time is now over halfway gone. Many of the volunteers are getting ready to leave, and the realization that my time is coming soon makes me very sad. If I had the money (or a real, paying job) I would totally try to stay longer. But, alas, I am poor and must go home and try to become a real-live adult. Psh, I think it's overrated. I will be very sad to leave my classes though. They are so sweet and I love teaching them. Speaking of teaching, I have gone from teaching 4 classes to teaching 11. My friend started working with me, so we team teach. The new classes are in the JSS level, so we are able to go more in-depth and I can actually tell that they are listening and learning from me. It's been really fun, though, and kinda funny since I have always hated having to talk in front of people. I feel really comfortable being up in front and teaching them now though. Yeah.

Anyway, I've done a lot that I have not yet had time to write about, but hopefully I will be able to do so at some point soon. Don't hold your breath.

My favorite quote so far: "What you don't know won't hurt you...until you get diarrhea." Yeah, that pretty much sums it up...

Football Fever

So, now that the World Cup has started, my entire life is consumed by football (or soccer for all you crazy Americans). Saturday, after an adventure that I’ll explain in a future post, we finally made it home and headed to a bar to watch the U.S.A vs. England match. Let me tell you, being one of two people in the entire place cheering for the U.S. is kinda awkward. People were chanting and singing, all for England. Luckily, we tied. At least I didn’t have to listen to annoying British people brag about beating us.

Sunday Ghana played their first game. Let’s just say, that was a very memorable experience. Their reactions at anything bad were hilarious and their celebration after Ghana scored and then after they won were crazy. After the game, entire streets were flooded with people, making it impossible for cars to go through. Music was blaring and everyone was dancing. Apparently, now that I am in Ghana, I have to dance. That’s exactly what I’ve worked so hard to avoid for so long. At any rate, it was a lot of fun to be part of the excitement and celebrate the Ghanaian win. I’m looking forward to the next game (if we win) and the craziness that will ensue.

Here are some pictures of Osu (part of Accra) after the match.

Paradise Found

This weekend, a group of us went to Ada Foah, quite possibly the most beautiful place I have ever been. We got up relatively early to go catch a tro-tro with a planned timeframe we wanted to follow. I guess we still haven’t learned that timetables don’t really work here in Ghana. Everything you plan is subject to change. We got to Kaneshie Market where we were told we could get a tro-tro. After wandering around for a half an hour and asking countless people where to go, we found out that we needed to go to Tema Station for a tro-tro to Ada. We made our way to Tema Station, asked another bunch of people where to go, and then finally made it to the right tro-tro. Now you see, tro-tros don’t leave the station unless it is full, and when we got there, there was only one other person in it. Luckily since there were six of us, we were able to fill up half of the car. But we still had to wait about an hour for the tro-tro to fill up and leave. About 2 hours later, we made it to Ada Foah.

Okay, I want you to close your eyes and picture in your mind what you think Africa looks like. If you’re anything like me, you probably imagined something like this:

While that may be true in some parts of Africa, Ada Foah is a tropical paradise like I’ve never seen. It is nestled between the Volta River and the Pacific Ocean. We stayed in little huts along the river, but it took about a minute to walk to the ocean on the other side. Basically all we did was swim, eat food, and lounge around in hammocks and beach chairs. Most of the time we had no clue what time it was. It was pretty much the most amazing and relaxing weekend I have ever had. Before we left, we took a little boat tour around to some of the other islands along the river and stopped at one island where they produce rum from sugar cane. My fellow volunteers sampled and even bought some of it. Apparently it was pretty good.

We were all very sad to leave and go back to Accra. Everything was just so different in Ada Foah. The air was actually clean and I didn’t feel like I was developing cancer with every breath. There were very few people at the beach camp we stayed at, and not even very many tourists. There no hawkers or anyone trying to get us to buy things. Seriously, it was wonderful. Being in that place made me realize how blessed I am to live on this earth and witness the beautiful handiwork of our creator. Here are some pictures of Ada, but they don’t really do it justice.

This is where the river meets the ocean:

This is the hut we stayed in. It was pretty cool.

So yeah, that was my weekend. Hope you all had a great one too!

Life Is Good

So I figured since it has been a while, I figured I should update you all on what I've been up to. On Saturday, I went to the temple to do baptisms with my friend Nadine, who I met at BYU. It was beautiful inside and out. And it was really nice to escape the noisy, dirty city and just sit inside the temple for 2 hours without having to think about work or heat or anything else. Here are some pictures from the temple grounds:

This lady is one of the temple workers that helped with baptisms. She saw that we were taking pictures and wanted us to take one of her:

This is the building where we have church.

Later that day, I went to Kaneshi Market to buy some batik fabric. I got some pretty sweet stuff. One of them is even orange! Now I just have to figure out what to make with it all. There is a lady right around the corner from my house who is a seamstress and makes clothes for a bunch of the Ikando volunteers and is really cheap. I hope to have a completely new wardrobe by the time I leave here. I have decided to stop eating so that I can afford fabric.

On the way home from the market, we had just gotten onto a tro-tro when the mate (the one who collects money) totally got into a fight with someone on the street. Like a legit fight. It was kind of scary. The driver had to get out to break it up. But we made it home safely, don't worry.

Sunday we went to church at the same ward we went to last week. As we were leaving after the meeting, one of the members, a relatively young American woman, stopped Nadine and I and invited us over to have lunch with her and her husband. They pretty much have the nicest house I've been in while here in Ghana, which really isn't saying much, but it didn't even feel like we were in Ghana while we were in their house. They were very nice and the food was awesome. It was nice to have a home cooked meal again. Since being here, I have not really cooked anything myself, I still feel lost when I go to the grocery store, so I mainly eat out or eat PB & J. There are lots of good restaurants here though, so I eat well most days.

After lunch on Sunday, I went to a slum community called Abgogbloshi to have a little health discussion about malaria, which is a big problem in that area. There was a huge fire there on Saturday that affected a lot of the women who were supposed to be involved so original plans were changed a bit, but there were still quite a few women there. I don't know how useful I was. Everything I said had to be translated. A lot of the things I told them seemed useless since they don't even have the resources to do it. I'm going again in 2-3 weeks to talk about prenatal care. I have a feeling that I will feel the same way after that session as well. Here is a picture of some of the women who were there:

This is Wofa (which means "chief"; he was a chief in his hometown), the focal person for Abgogbloshi. He translated for the most part.

Today I went to a class that I haven't taught before because last Tuesday was a holiday. They actually participated more than any other class and understood me the best out of any of them. It was awesome. After we finished with the lesson, my coworker wanted to take a picture of me with the whole class. They were crazy! I have never been touched so much in my life! They were all grabbing my arms, holding and kissing my hands, and pulling me in all different directions. In spite of the insanity, they are all so awesome and really funny. The teacher also invited us to her wedding in 2 weeks, which was really cool. This is the class. The teacher is on the left hand side. Sorry about the chalk board. We were talking about HIV/AIDS...

If you look at the boy in front holding the pink notebook, you'll see that it has a picture of Obama on it. People here are in love with him. It's really funny. The end.

I hope this appeases all you who complain that I don't put up enough pictures. Now you can stop whining (*cough*Trish*cough*).