Im finally coming home...

We all went out for a last dinner to a resturaunt that sells wild game. Everyone ate ostrage, wild boar, warthog, crocodile and waterbuck... ew I had a salad but the whole table smelled like meat. We also went out dancing for the last time which was fun... we went to the art market for a few last minute gifts and then pretty much just packed. im leaving for the airport in what seems like an eternity! just thought i would update everyone since i will have no form of communication in a little while. Thank you for all of the thoughts and prayers- i will return home safetly :) I also heard that cousin Emily was having a sad day missing me so I just wanted to reassure her that i am coming home and I can't wait for a BIG hug from her. I miss everyone sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much. See you all soon!

I can not wait for Monday! of course our flight leaves Accra at like 11:30 pm so we have to wait alllllllllll day :( Most of my things are already packed :) Now we are all living off rice and whatever condiments are left over... ketchup mustard thousand island dressing lol... we are trying to get creative and we are all running out of money. I finished my exam which was super easy so now theres nothing but relaxing and tanning to do :) :) :) I think today we are going to a pool and then we are going to a club tonight for one last hoorah. Im counting down the seconds!!!!! Its really hot here omg- i cant wait for the snowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

This past weekend :)

This past weekend was really fun! A few of us traveled this weekend to some really nice beaches :) Im def going to miss swimming in the ocean waves. We also went to see a film that was made in Ghana called A Sting in the Tale... it was interesting to say the least lol. We had to keep asking ghanians what was going on in the film because it was really hard to follow but all in all it was a pretty good movie. We also went to a club and danced until 5 in the morning... my feet still hurt! On Sunday the Aya Center took us to get Chinese food for our goodbye dinner, and then we took Alicia to the airport. The dinner was really really good! but the good bye was sad :( It makes it seem so much more realistic that we are going home in 8 short days I am soooooooooo excited. We leave 1 week from today... My bags are pretty much packed... i am really ready to go home. See everyone soon! Ill prolly update after my exam on wednesday for the last time :)

12 days until I'm home :)

I finished all of my papers!!! :) I feel so relieved! Now I only have one exam to study for which is on Wednesday... and then school and everything is over. This weekend a few of us are going to travel a little and go to some beaches and just work on our tans before heading back to the freezing cold weather in MI lol. On Monday one of the girls (Alicia) is leaving so on Sunday the Aya Center is taking us all out for dinner and dancing which will be really fun! Other than that I really don't have any other plans set in stone. A couple of people are going to a voodoo market in Togo which sounds ind of interesting so I might put that on my adventure list?? Miss everyone and cant wait to see you in 12 short days :) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

Update! TWO WEEKS LEFT WOOOHOOOOOO

The past week was pretty interesting. There have been a ton of power outages… more than the usual one a day… it makes the heat unbearable because the fans don’t work. The heat has been CRAZY… I take like 4 showers a day just to cool down. Mosquitoes have been worse that usual too… but I think that’s just because we are forced to leave all the doors open for airflow in the house. Thanksgiving was quite interesting because we tried to cook a 5 course meal for 30 people in a short amount of time with a dinky stove and no normal tools. I now know that if I can make Thanksgiving dinner here I can definitely make it in the US no problem. The convenience of going to a store and it having all of the ingredients seems so crazy to me… just to get the ingredients to make green bean casserole took a couple of hours because we had to go to one place to get a pan, a few different places to get enough green beans, and everywhere to try and find cream of mushroom soup lol. Insane… let me tell you. And then there was the turkey crisis. The boys said that they found a store that had already cooked turkeys so we were just going to get one of those since it was almost impossible to cook one on our own with our little oven. A few hours before dinner the boys went to go get the turkey and they realized that it was actually like lunch meat in a box that they thought was shaped like a turkey… leave it to the boys to screw up thanksgiving. They got a frozen turkey… defrosted it in the microwave and cooked it at full heat in the oven for the three hours before out guests arrived. Apparently it turned out to all of our surprises lol… and everyone seemed to enjoy it. We had some fried veggies, a fruit bowl, green bean casserole, stuffing, turkey, gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, rolls, and apple pie. People chowed  I also found some ranch dressing which I have been searching for the entire time I have been here and have had no luck finding… so I also made myself a salad smothered in Ranch  People invited guests and friends from their internships and the Aya Center. We had about 30 people all together I think. Dinner was at 7, but everyone stayed really really late. One of the guys from the Aya center brought over all of his DJ equipment and blasted music the whole time and everyone danced, it was so much fun. We had all the kids make hand turkeys and pilgrim hats  I was really sad that I could not have Thanksgiving with my friends and family back home, but this was pretty ok.
That weekend we all made the trek to the cultural center. It’s like an art market where all the people go to sell their artwork. We toured there the first week that we were here but we weren’t allowed to buy anything, just look. It was really overwhelming then because all of the vendors were pulling at us and yelling obruni come buy from me. It wasn’t much different this time but it was less of a shock. I got to practice my bargaining skills which I am pretty impressed with- I got some good deals  My favorite quote that all of the vendors say is “Obruni… its nice to be nice” which basically means come buy my stuff for really expensive lol. Now we use that quote all the time at the house. The cultural center was pretty tiring so we all went home after a long day of shopping. Bringing back all of our stuff on the tro tro home was quite interesting. The tro tro home was also interesting because a preached decided that we would be his audience for the day and stood up in the front seat facing us and yelled bible verses in Twi the ENTIRE way home. I’m kind of used to this sort of thing by now, but this guy was kind of over the top.
We also went to a World AIDS day concert. Tom, a guy we live with, has spent his whole internship for the West African AIDS Foundation planning this one event. We got to meet a bunch of famous rappers and the whole event was a total blast! Everyone enjoyed themselves.
On Sunday I packed one of my suitcases with souvenirs to see how much room I had left lol… its sad that I am already packing… but I am SOOOOOOO excited to come home! I have two of my papers done, my twi test done, and my presentation done… so now I only have one more exam and a paper to do. I also finished my internship on Monday!!!! I corrected exams from 7am to 4pm with no breaks but got them all finished and recorded. This upcoming weekend we are all planning on doing a little exploring and def going to a beach so that we can look tan when we come home  Cant wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving and more waterfall pics :)

More birthday pics...and CAKE!

Update :) Three Weeks Left!!!!

This past weeked a couple of us decided to hang out in Takoradie, a city on the western coast of Ghana. After work on Friday, I hopped a tro-tro and got on an STC bus to Takoradie. THe ride took about 5 hours. The bus was pretty nice- air conditioned and everything. When we got there it was already dark so we thought against going exploring in the strange town, so we just watched Spread with Ashton Kutcher which was a pretty good movie. In the morning we went straight to the beach. It was sooo nice and sooo clean and we were the only ones there. After swimming we went to lunch at one of the hotels on the beach which was really really good :) Then we went and explored the market. Unlike in Accra where there are stands and vendors EVERYWHERE selling stuff, in Takoride, people only sell stuff in the central market. Its a HUGE circle in the middle of the city. Its a lot cleaner and more organized than the ones that I have been to in Accra. Also there werent any tro-tros in Takoradi so we had to take taxis everywhere, and there was no traffic which was a huge change from Accra. When we were in the central market there were these 6 guys that all came out in jump suits with huge backpacks on and a hose thing coming out of it... I thought that it was the ghostbusters Im not kidding. But they stood on different road dividers and a ton of people swarmed them and got into a line in front of them. Turns out they had coffee that they kept warm in the big packs on their back so they would just fill up cups with the hose and people went wild for it... it was so weird. After the market we went to the harbor and saw all of the big ships :) That night we went to a club for dancing. After dancing for like an hour the power went out so everyone went outside and people blasted the music in their cars and we all continued dancing :) SOOO FUN! After that we went home and slept and left for home in the morning.

Monday, teaching at school was boring. The ICT teacher was writing the exams so I basically did nothing and left at noon. Then He told me it would be the same thing on Tuesday so I didnt have to come in til Friday... but then I found out theres no school on Friday because its a muslim holiday... so I guess I really didnt do much at my internship this week. Next week I'll just be correcting exams and then my internship will be over.

I have been using my spare time to write my papers. I have two done and one to go. I gave my presentation on the first one so thats over with. We also took our Twi test and the teacher let us use open book (such a joke) so im sure we all got 119.5% :)

Other than that have just been working on Thanksgiving. We got everthing together Tuesday night and started cooking Wednesday night when we ran out of gas... lol figures we are cooking for 30 people and the gas goes out. We had to wait until this morning to get more gas. I dont think there is any way that dinner will be done today lol. Hope everyone is used to Ghana time :)

Im getting really really excited to go home! Less than three weeeeekkkkkkssssss :)

Me in my bday outfit:) Shoes!! My birthday gift to meeeeeee :)

Teaching ICT has been a little more intersting. They called in some computer techs to try and fix the computers so classes were cancelled for a few days and I just sat around feeling useless because I dont know how to make computers work lol. They ended up fixing 6 of the computers so we uploaded some software on them and then finally I got to teach with more than one working computer. It was glorious... unfortunatley the children dink around with the computers and push random buttons and click things that they shouldnt and by the end of the first day there was only one working computer left... and all that was working on it was Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing... in Spanish. Some kid switched the languages and now we dont know how to change it back because everything is in spanish. Needless to say we are now constantly trying to refix the computers instead of teaching the children on the one working computer... same shit different packaging :) The kids are preparing for their exams so we are mostly reviewing the stuff that we have been teaching them this semester. I also had to watch kids get beat with a computer cord/plug because the teacher couldnt find his cane- it was horrific and i never want to have to sit through that again- i felt totally helpless and taken aback!

This week we went to the mall a couple of times so that i could find an outfit for my birthday. The club that we decided to go to has a dress code and none of us brought party clothes or shoes so we all went shopping (the girls). It was so fun and after a full day of shopping we all had gelato (the best icecream EVER). It was like being back home and it made me kind of homesick :( We also stopped at the mall and saw 2012 which was really good- although I wish it had more of the history of the mayan predictions and the religious references- because Im a nerd like that.

We went out Saturday night to a club in Osu called Cinderellas. It was so much fun OMG we danced from 11-5 in the morning- my feet were numb from being in heels for that long but I looked like a rockstar so it was totally worth it :p Sunday was a day of recovery for most of us so we just chilled around the house and slept a lot.

My actual birthday was so nice. Everyone came over from the Aya center and bought me a bottle of sparkling wine :) and the people in the house got me a pink cake that said "Happy Birthday Princess" and had a ton of candles and it tasted SOOOOO YUMMY! and of course there was icecream too! I felt really spoiled. I also got some sour gummy worms, a chocolate bar, and a Chelsea jersey with my name on the back :) My family also sent me a bunch of cards and pictures which made me homesick but was really nice! I def felt special and had a great birthday. I don't feel like im 22 yet, hopefully it sinks in soon.

Now its down to crunch time... 26 days left. I have to write three papers and make sure I wrap everything up before heading home.

Question Answering Time Again

I know that I havent answered questions in a while... Im sorry- keep em coming I love them!

*Im not sure how close you can get to the anthills but Im not going to find out lol. They are like termite biting ants... its like how many licks does it take to get to the center of the tootsie pop... but instead of not knowing the answer because the people bite the sucker... the people that try to find out are the thing getting bitten by 3,3482395728972357 ants lol.
*The shacks outside of my office in the picture have corrogated metal roofs... i love the sound when it rains.
*It costs money to pet the crocs lol - i was like eff that im not paying to get my arm bitten off.
*Yes, we as white americans get stared at ALL the time... and people shout Obruni at us lol.
*Aunt Dede, I want to see you in glasses!
*I dont remember if I ate alligator or crocodile that one time on vacation... I hope it doesnt come back to haunt meeee!
*Thank you to all who say that I look good/tan/skinny/adorable/happy in my pictures :)
*Ground nut stew is actually good. I know that peanut butter and tomatoe might only sound good together to a pgnant woman- but its actually really tasty. I can't wait to eat american food again though.... i miss salad and ranch dressing!
*Yes the core to African culture is centered around food/music and dance. I love it!
*Yes, I pinch myself often and I still dont believe that I am here.
*My room still looks like a jail cell lol... its so plain!
*The marketplace is just as much for the men as it is for the women which is really weird since I know that the men back home hate shopping so much- they would really hate spending an entire day in the market- its so hot and crowded and the men have to carry everything that the women buy :)
*The canoe ride on the lake was not as good as the one on the river with the Emeotts!
*The children were leading us to the bead village in the picture of us will all the kids.
*The sphinx does have some scaffolding around it... they were doing a dig while we were there... it makes me want to be an archaeologist!
*yes mom the pic by the pyramids was for you, and yes the camel was very alive
*I take notes daily so that I dont foget ANYTHING!
*The animals is Mole are wild- they are not socialized to humans at all so we had to be really quiet on the safari- if they see you they run away... except the elephants- they charge you. The monkeys came up to the tables where we were eating and took some sugar cubes off of it so I guess they arent really as scared of humans.
*The monkeys peeled the bananas that we held in our hands and ate them- it was so cute!
*The waterfall was pretty intense so I think thats why the girls were a bit scared. It wasnt too deep and it was the most perfect temperature in the world :)

Wli Falls- I have some more pics we took with a waterproof camera that I will upload asap :)

STARBUCKS in Egypt!!! Monkeys at the Sanctuary, Monkey crossing the Road, Me feeding one!!!!!!!

Larabanga- oldest Masque- ELEPHANTANTS!- Look at the pretty clouds- Lightening storm in Mole

Sunrise on the Nile- Me and Bethany tanning- Alexandria- Bridge over the Nile- Leaving for Egypt (Tom Alicia Liz Bethany Me) were making pyramids :)

Ghana Socce team arriving :) Nile - Lotus Statue- Ramses- Cute pic on felucca

The Volta Region

This weekend was amazing! We woke up at 7am and took a van 3 hours to Wli waterfall. We hiked for a while and then swam in the waterfall it was sooooo amazing (pictures to come)! It was def really exhilerating to say the least. Only me and the three boys were brave enough to go in (tee hee hee). After the waterfall we went to the hotel and swam until dinner... then we swam after dinner and went to sleep. In the morning we woke up and went to a monkey sanctuary. The monkeys and the forrest are well taken care of because they are believed to be sacred. The legend has it that the cheif of the village would turn the villagers into monkeys every time he left so that they could hide in the forrest and be protected from people who were trying to harm them. One day the chief left and turned everyone into monkeys but he was killed and so he never returned to change them back. To this day, the people in the park have never found a dead or sick monkey and they think that the chief gave his life to make them eternal. The monkeys came up to us and peeled the bananas that we held in our hands. It was so amazing to be so close to them, they are so cute I want one!!!!! (Pictures to come soon) After that we left for home and made it home pretty early like noon. We cleaned the house and swapped pics and all watched Superbad together it was pretty fun!! I think that one of the remaining weekends we are going back to the waterfall again and climbing to the second level :) I cant wait!

Girls Night In

Last night we kicked the boys out after dinner so that we could have a girls night in. We made smoothies out of frozen strawberry yogurt and bananas- they were soooooo good :) Then we read cosmo and watched Mean Girls and talked about girl stuff- we also at a ton of chocolate :) It was so much fun and it was def needed... the boys have been driving us crazy. We went to sleep at about 12 and the boys still werent home yet from their night on the town so I am assuming that they had fun too lol. Tomorrow we are leaving early in the morning for the Volta region where we get to see a monkey sanctuary and a waterfall so I think it will be a ton of fun!!! Missing everyone like crazy!

The Elephants are hard to see, Elephant, Monkey, Our Safari Guide, Warthogs

Snakeskin at the leather factory, Dead animals EWW!, Huts where the chiefs 28 wives lived, Inside the magic tree, Me with the chief!!