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*).