Happy Thanksgiving!

November 25^th, 2008

The first thing that I want to say is that I'm still really excited that my man Barack Obama won and will be our next President of the United States. If I offended anyone just then... get over it (haha). I'm just listening to my ipod and “My President” came on and I got really happy and felt the need to voice it.

So, I'm hoping my initiation processes for life in Africa is complete after falling sick this weekend. I think everyone that comes to Africa has to get sick and that's just the way it is. I got real sick Friday afternoon. I was at my meeting and out of nowhere I felt super nauseous. I had to let my committee know I was feeling sick and I went home. So I ended up throwing up about an hour later and throughout the night I had a fever of 102. I felt so horrible and all day Saturday I just laid in my bed and slept. But thank God cause I woke up Sunday and felt better. I still haven't got my appetite back completely which I'm not sure if it's the fact I'm still recovering or the thought of rice and fufu don't exactly make me jump up for joy. All I could think of yesterday was a big juicy steak, a big ol' bowl of cereal with super cold milk, oh yea and a salad with ranch drizzled heavily over the top. Yesterday might have been the first time on this trip I got homesick and not cause I was missing home but because I missed the food. (Fat girl, yes, I know) I didn't even get homesick when I was burning up with a fever and puking my brains out, but the thought of a juicy steak made me cry out “AMERICA”. Sad. However, I should add that I don't hate the food here by any means, but they lack a few things in their diets. Variety of flavors, vegetables, diary, and meat. I always thought that I was a carb person but on this trip I've realize that the saying “To much of anyone one thing can be a bad thing” has truth to it. But I'm sure that I'll get my appetite back soon and it will be fine. I might try finding some lettuce tat the market and take it to the missionary family's house so they can properly wash it for me so I can eat some sort of vegetable. Until then, I'll just keep on taking my daily vitamin.

Other than getting sick this weekend not too much is new. I did miss out on going to someone's farm to help harvest yams Saturday. You all know I was devastated. (if you thought I was serious, you should seriously think about how well you know me). But I did feel bad so I told Dela that I would definitely go help the next time.

Well, with it being Thanksgiving and all, I find it appropriate to tell you all what I'm thankful for today. I'm so thankful for this opportunity to come to Ghana and live and work for 4 months; I'm thankful for the love and support from my moms and pops; and I'm thankful for all my family and friends' love and support. I am truly a blessed individual and I feel that God continues to show me all the glory and power he possesses everyday I live. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

A day in the life of a Ghanian

November 20^th, 2008

Things that I've seen in Ghana that I've never seen before:

· People walking down the main roads with machetes in their hand and nobody scared for their life.

· People asking the tro-tro driver to stop so they can squat real quick, in viewing distance for all to see.

· Numerous of exposed breasts (old women walking around with them saggin low or a nursing mother whippin out a nipple for her child to eat from anywhere, anytime).

· Goats stealing children's afternoon snacks (peanuts), resulting in the child chasing them with a stick shouting in Ewe.

· Riding in public transportation with living chickens sitting in the back and goats tied to the roof.

· A man selling aloe lotion, a toothbrush, a new testiment bible (purse size), matches, a pen, and a pencil all in one package deal for one Ghana Cedi (close to $1.00 in America), and people taking him serious; not looking at him like he's a crack head...

Hello all! I'm loving Ghana, and I wanted to share with you a list of things that I've seen that I find to be humorous in comparison to our American living. So that is the reason for the list.

Anyway...yesterday was a fun but long day. We went to Vli Falls which is a waterfall like 3 hours away from our village but worth the trip. Oh, and 'we' meaning me, Sarah, and Dela. We took a Tro-Tro into town. I don't know if you ever get use to the Tro-Tro. I was squished between people and sacks of coal. I felt like I might pass out from lack of air to breath and I also couldn't stop myself from thinking of what my escape plan would be if the tro-tro tipped over. The road is so bad and the tro-tro tips super far from the left to the right as it drives down the road. I just have to shut my eyes sometimes and think of happy thoughts lol. But when we got to Ho, we got on a 15 passenger van (the best 2 hours ever in a car seeing that I hadn't felt cold air for almost 2 weeks and it felt so good). When we got to the village, we had to take a cab to the Falls which was about another 20 or 30 minutes. Traveling here is tiring to say the least. After a small hike we were at the falls. It was so beautiful! The water was nice and cold so we wade in it for a while. It was pretty nasty though when Sarah pointed out the thousands of bats posted up high by the waterfall. But other than the bats being there it might have been the most beautiful place I've ever been.

When we got to Ho (the town that I come to once a week) it was dark out and we almost didn't catch a tro-tro back to the village. We ended up having to pay a cab driver 10 Cedis total (basically $10) to take us into the village. It really isn't a lot at all compared to the cost of a cab in the U.S. But here, the cabs to the village would normally be 1 cedi each. So after a long bumpy ride we made it home.

Today was my first time washing my clothes which I have to give these woman a lot of props for and anyone reading this blog that has ever had to do it. Washing by hand (in the hot sun) is no joke! The two ladies that cook all our food helped me wash my clothes and it seemed to take forever. I wish I could just wear the same thing for like a whole week so I didn't have to wash so much stuff but since there's dirt/sand everywhere and kids everywhere I get dirty so quick. So I guess I'll just be really good at washing by hand by the end of my time here.

After I washed my clothes, Me and Sarah cooked lunch for Dela and are caretakers Mary and Eunice. We cooked French Toast with honey and pineapple. We were going to make it for breakfast but we decided since we've been having to get up and do things somewhat early, that we would “sleep in” and make it for lunch instead. Oh yea and I love that the one day I have a chance to sleep in I wake up at 5:15 and couldn't fall back asleep. But anyways, the lunch was really good and they liked it a lot. The honey was made in the village by a bee farmer and it was amazing and the pineapple we bought at the market yesterday and it was also amazing and I might just buy them all the time seeing that they are like .20 cents.

So life in the village is good and more and more I have appreciation for things such as wash machines, safe public transportation, and toilets. If I don't post another blog before Thanksgiving I hope everyone enjoys the holiday and eats a little extra turkey, mash potatoes, stuffing, greens, corn, and pie, for me! And also I really love and appreciate all the comments from everyone. They really make me smile! Love ya all!

Mountain climbing in Ghana

November 15^th, 2008

This morning I was up getting ready at 5am and out the house by 530am heading to the mountain. Our village is one of the nine villages that surrounds the Adaklu mountain; I think it is the tallest freestanding mountain in Ghana. So Me, Sarah, Dela, and three gentleman from their committee came along (they're the ecotourism committee and they are responsible for maintaining the hiking trails on the mountain and advertising to tourist that come to Ghana). It was definitely a workout and I was a little scared at times cause the trails were steep and there was no rope or steps at some spots. There was this one part I for real was like what did I get myself into. Dela and the other men were laughing at me cause I was scared but I just laughed along with them like “haha yea look at me, I'm scared as hell i'm bout to fall down this mountain (lol)”. By about 7am we made it to the top. I made it there with no injuries and it was a beautiful view. I could see our entire village and miles of land pass that. I was a little sick to my stomach when I was looking at the view though, cause I'm not a fan of heights. Plus I had a dream last night that I was on the top of some super tall building looking over the edge and I almost fell off. Yet, it was a different but good experience. I don't know if I'll make it up there again but I might, who knows.

When we got back to the village me and Sarah went over to the Matthew's house. They are a missionary family that's been here the last 11 years and Sarah has gotten to know them really well in her 2 ½ months here, so she introduced me to them. They are really nice people. They have 5 kids between the ages of 5-13, 4 girls and 1 boy. They also have two missionary students staying with them that are in their 20s and 30s. It will be nice having them here.

My Ewe is improving more and more each day. I got my greetings down pretty well, so I'm just happy that I can actually greet people when I pass them instead of looking like the cluesless Yevu (white lady in Ewe). Although Dela tells me all the time I talk to fast. Their language is spoken very slow so that will be hard to get use to. But everyone greets everyone here at all times of the day; you do it to everyone you pass. So I got that part down after week one.

Crazy that its been a week. In a way it feels longer just because I have met so many people and I already feel a connection to these people. But it's still hard for me to think that I will be here for 4 months ( I mean this in a good way). I think it's good though that I just live day by day and enjoy each moment as much as I can. I think that the people here are going to teach me a lot about life. Their experiences and how they see things can teach me a lot. I also love seeing how the children live here and the role they play in the community. I think that it will help me grow as a youth worker and bring different ideas back with me to the U.S. Okay my family and friends, I am going to go sit on my porch and relax in the hot November sun (sorry to all those in the cold).

Life in the village

November 12^th, 2008

Today is Wednesday and I'm a few days into my stay here. So far (and I say this with my fingers crossed that I'm not jinxing my luck) I have not gotten sick or home sick for that matter. Although yesterday my two caretakers Mary and Eunice thought that I was sick because I slept until 8am. Here in the village people fall asleep around 9pm and wake around 6am. But this morning I woke up around 6am, ate some breakfast (oatmeal) and me, the other volunteer Sarah, and Dela (our counterpart) rode bike into the town of Ho. It took us around 1 ½ hours to do this and was so exhausting, but I was happy to get my workout on. Plus, it was such a beautiful day and I just soaked it all in and felt so blessed to be where I am. When we got to town we went to the internet cafe, where I sat and wrote a posting for my blog and right as I was finishing up, the electricity went out. Sarah was like “Welcome to Ghana”. So I'm on my second attempt at writing this blog. We have a old ass computer in the village in Sarah's room so she said that I should just start typing out my blogs here, save them to a flash drive, and bring them with me to the internet cafe; so thats what I'm going to do from now on.

On Monday night Dela took me with him to his bible study. His group meets three times a week and he invited me to join them as much as I would like. It was really similar to any bible study I've ever been to with the exception it was in Ewe (the language spoken in this region). Dela did a good job translating for me so that I could understand the message being spoken.

Real quick I should probably give a brief description of Dela since I will be talking about him a lot throughout my stay here. Dela is my counterpart. All the volunteers that come to Ghana with Global Volunteer Network (the organization I am with) stay in a village surrounding the town of Ho, and in the village they are assigned a counterpart. This person's role is to teach them the language, the culture, introduce them to people, and go with them anywhere they would like to go or invite them places they are going. So Dela is basically my new best friend. He is a really great man of what I have came to know so far. He is 35, he has a wife and three children. He is originally from the village I am living and although he has traveled a lot throughout West Africa, he has resided here is entire live. At this time his wife and children stay in Ho, about 45 minutes away. This is so that his children can have a better education. The reason he stays in the village still is because that is where he is able to make the most money for his family. This scenario is not uncommon here. Many families are broken up to increase the wellbeing of everyone. He still sees his family about twice a week though...

Tuesday, I met with my committee. There are 6 members and they are all from the village I'm staying. They are called A.I.E.C. and they are in charge of getting donors to support the needs of orphans in the village so they are able to go to school. Right now they are sewing 300 school uniforms for orphans so that these children can continue their education. Here in the region I am staying and I think all of Ghana, if you don't have a uniform, you can't go to school. Also, after 6^th grade, each student has to pay $150 a year to go to school. This might not seem like a lot to us, but to them this can be unfordable (especially if they have only 1 parent or no parents at all). So they also give scholarships to orphans to go to Junior High School and High School. I am going to be assisting this group by helping them write proposal letters to different businesses and organizations. My main goal while I am here is to get as much outside founding as possible so that more children in the 9 villages are able to attend school. I'm also going to be volunteering in the schools while I'm here. I don't know exactly what I will be doing yet, but it should be a good experience and help me a lot in what I want to do with my career.

Later on Tuesday night, after meeting my committee members, I was sitting on my porch playing with the children. The children come over everyday after school and play with me and Sarah until bed time. One boy that was over here had a horrible cut on his knee. It was full of dirt and the flies kept getting into it. So finally I went and got my First Aid kit and cleaned it and bandaged it up. He had the biggest smile on his face when I was finished. Next thing I knew, I had bandaged up 5 kids, and they all called me nurse Laura. It made me sad to see them running around with these cuts that were so easy to clean up yet were on the verge of infection. So I did what I could. I'm going to have to go buy some more ointment and bandages while I'm here cause they all want to come to me now when they have a cut.

The children here are so appreciative of the most simplest things. That same night I showed a bunch of the kids how to make paper airplanes and they were so entertained and so happy. They also are so excited whenever I pull out paper and pens so that they can practice writing and doing math problems . Its so interesting to see how the most simplest things make them happy. I love being around these children cause they have the warmest and brightest spirits.

So after a few days here, I am still loving it. It is so peaceful and everyone is so friendly. Living in a village is something that everyone should experience in their lives. It makes you realize how people should treat each other. It is so communal and everyone treat their neighbor like their brother or sister. They feed each others kids, they give each other warm greetings when they pass one another, and they live in harmony with one another. It is a beautiful thing.

I MADE IT TO THE VILLAGE!

Well, the journey to get here was long and interesting. It started off rocky. I was at the airport checking in and trying to move things from one bag to another bag and in the mix of it all, my phone got zipped into my suitcase and put on the belt before I even noticed it was gone. So you already know I made a scene cause that phone is my baby and I knew if I had to spend my last 2 hrs without a phone a would go crazy. So after shedding a few tears and complaining, the lady called and got my bag sent back. I got to make a couple last phone calls and I was off to the motherland.

The flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam I sat next to a 400lb German man that didn't speak any English which is probably a good thing because I can get to talkin. So I just made sure not to drink a lot on that flight cause I was on the inside and I couldn't imagine making the fat man get up to let me out a bunch of times. So I slept a lot and watched a couple movies.

When I arrived in Amsterdam, I used the internet for a minutes and then found a chair that I slept on for 4 hours. That time difference had me so messed up. But when I woke up from my nap in Amsterdam I got some quiche and a latte and made my way to the gate.

On my way to Ghana, I sat next to a man that was originally from Ghana who was going back for a visit. He was real nice, gave me a bit of advice and assured me that the people would make me feel very at home. On my flight, half the plane was filled with Europeans headed to Ghana for vacation which I had no idea Accra was a tourist city. I spent my time on this flight sippin a little Chardonnay and watching "Sex in the City". I thought, I might as well enjoy this shit while I can.

So I got into Accra, went threw customs and got my bags. Then I stepped outside and was officially in Africa. There was tons of people outside holding up signs and it was overwhelming but thank God my man Joy was right there in the front. Joy is the man that picks all the volunteers up from the airport and brings them to their village. He is real cool and super nice. We took a cab to the hostel. And when we got to the hostel he gave me some time to settle in and then we went to grab some food. We walk to this restaurant in a hotel and the food on the menu was not at all African food. I order some shrimp fried rice as my first meal in Africa lol. But I can't lie, that shit was good.

So when I got back to the hostel, I was so ready to sleep. The hostel was... different then what i'm use to, but it worked. When I get a chance to post pictures I will. The funny thing is, as much as I was like "damn" in regards to the hostel, it seems like a 5 star now that I'm in the village. The hostel had a "shower" which I will describe like this. You open a old wooden door to a hole in the wall that is tiled. There is water that comes out of the wall on the right side, out of what you could maybe call a shower head but not really and then with a small step up there is the toilet. There is no wall, no curtain, just running water, which after my first bucket bath last night, it sounds like heaven.

After a wonderful nights rest I was ready to venture on. I woke up and Joy and I had breakfast downstairs in the hostel. We then took a cab to the bus station. The bus was small, and old with about 25 people crammed up in there. It was a long three hours and all I could think was I can NEVER EVER complain again about the greyhound or the megabus. When we got off the bus we waited at Joy's house for about 2 hours for a car to take us into the village. We sat and watch an old MTV VMA's dvd from about 3 years ago and ate bananas and peanuts. Oh yea, there is mad chickens and goats roaming freely here which the goats I can do the chickens scare me though. But back to my story.

We got in this car that was covered in red dust inside and out, which at that point I didn't understand. The driver looked at Joy and said "did you warn her about the road". And then they both chuckled. I was so clueless to what I was soon to encounter. When I say this road is bad..... THE ROAD IS BEYOND HORRIBLE!!! I thought more than once, I am going to die in this damn cab. Again, I will be posting pictures. But it's not until you have to drive on that road you can even imagine how bad it is. (oh, and it's definitely the road we take to come to the office, and it takes 45 minutes to an hour).

I arrived in the village in the afternoon. There is one other volunteer staying in my village (which I guess doesn't happen often). The crazy thing is she is from Bloomington,MN (5minutes from where I am from). She has been helping me get use to a lot of things, such as techniques to bucket bathing and knowing the language. Most the people in my village don't speak English so it is going to be essential that I learn Ewe. I only know to say "woezo" (welcome) and reply "yoo" (ok) and "Efoa" (how are you) and reply "edo" (fine). I have a lot to learn. I met a lot of the children yesterday. They are just too dang cute. There was also a funeral going on when I arrived, which with the way they do funerals, Friday the funeral starts and Sunday is the last day of "celebration" and they dance and drink all day. So this older lady came and got me and I was dancing with the people to the beats on the drums. It was fun and I just feel like I need to embrace each and every part of this journey when the opportunity arises.

After I danced, my caretaker Mary had prepared dinner for me and the other volunteer. We ate fish and rice. It wasn't bad. Then I took my first of many bucket baths outside in the bathing room (which is 4 walls about 5ft high, with a whole on the ground in the corner to let the water drain). Me and my counterpart Dela (a man from the village) walked down the road to meet the secretary of my committee. I am working with them to write proposals to get funding for uniforms for the orphans in the village. He was very nice. We sat and talked for a while about Ghana, America and Barrack Obama. They LOVE Barrack out here! When I was through talking to Francis (the secretary of the committee), me and Dela walked back. I have my own room here. Its nice. Has a bed, a fan, and a chair! Way more than expected. I slept good, and woke up to the morning sun at 6:30 am (no alarm clock).

This morning, I ate a good breakfast, egg sandwich and tea!! yum. Half of my committee came to greet me so I got to meet them and practice my greetings in Ewe. Then me, Dela, and Sara (the other volunteer) head into Ho. Mondays and Thursday are office days, so on these days we come into the town of Ho on "Hell Rd". We took a Tro-Tro, which is a van/land rover/the bumpiest ride ever. It's market day today, so everyone in the village was pushing and shoving to get on the tro-tro. It took us an hour of bumpy road to get into Ho. We made it and I met Bismark the head man of the organization "The Bridge". He gave me a brief but very informative orientation. I met a few of the other volunteers, one from Melbourne and one from New York. And then I came downstairs to the internet cafe to update my blog. And after typing this much I'll leave a closing reflection and be done.

Life in Africa is so different then America, yet so beautiful. I think the fact the people in my village are so happy yet have so little is a beautiful thing and it makes you realize that having everything is nothing. I can't wait to learn the language more so that I can make relationships with the people in my village. I also want to volunteer in one of the schools while i'm here. The kids were already using some of my pens and paper to write words and you can tell they have a passion for learning. The people here are going to teach me so much and I can't wait. I already love it here and know that this is where God wants me to be.

The Day before I leave

Well its a day before I take off and all that know me well, know that I'm just about to start packing. If I was leaving for the week this would be understanable, but im leaving for 4 months and haven't even pulled out my suitcases yet. But im kinda good at doing things super last minute so it will be fine. I think because I have a million things to do today, I haven't even been able to fathom the thought im leaving for the motherland tomorrow, by myself, for 4 months, to live in conditions far from my normal way of life. But I know that God has put this desire in my heart to go do volunteer work in Africa and has made it possible for me to go, so I know that this journey will be a true blessing and I can't wait to see how I grow and change from this experience. To my family and friends, I want you to know I love you with all my heart and I thank you for all the support you have given to me. I don't know how often I will be able to get on my blog but hopefully often enough to keep you updated with my journey to Ghana. Peace and Love:)