Rachel bundled on the floor in Winneba

Royal Beach

Darling Nonja

Pounding of the fufu (pounded boiled yam to a gooey substance = Ghanian staple)

At the Independence Day Parade

Fanta's for life

Winneba Beach

Baboons at Shai Hills

Our hiking adventure

Boabob Tree (?)

Shai Hills

I apologize for the long time that has past in between my posts (particularly to my wonderful mother... :) Life just gets a little crazy and sporatic, you know? But I will try to summarize the past three'ish weeks in some way shape or form.

To start, the saying that March is the hottest month here is not a lie... not even slightly. I don't think I ever stop sweating, let's just put it that way. And there are random power outages here and that means no fan at night which means...torture. haha Ventilation has a whole new appreciation in my mind. The sun is also causing me to get some pretty funky tan lines just from walking back and forth from school etc.- my feet look like I'm wearing my Chacos even when I've taken them off... real cute.

School has finally picked up and I've been enjoying a full load of activities. This week is my third complete week of all the daily happenings I have in my schedule- internship, classes, Twi, and all the other random bits life in Ghana loves to throw at you. I have been going to my internship three days a week and the past couple times have been absolutely wonderful. Last week was a low-key week there so I was able to just spend some time with the girls and they taught me 5 different ways to braid hair! haha. I'm thinking of starting my own business when I get back :)

I don't know if I mentioned this, but the place is called Today's Choices and it's a center/school for girls coming from abusive or poorer backgrounds and the center has three different sections of skills it teaches. It teaches hair braiding/cutting, etc., baking, and dress making and sewing. These are all skills that the girls learn so they can go out after they graduate from the program and have skills to work. Counseling is also available for the girls and the director/founder is really great and I've enjoyed working for him a lot. Two other girls from my program were placed with me this past week and its been such a relief working with them because we were given the task of teaching English lessons. This week started off better than I expected and they know quite a bit. We just went over the basics, and most of them speak it fairly well, but understanding the nitty-gritty stuff is a whole other adventure- we're up for it though.

Three weeks ago was Ghana's 51st Independence Day celebration. A group of us went into Accra in the morning to watch the alleged parade. But evidently there is a difference in the American meaning of parade and the Ghanian meaning. The Ghanian meaning is for groups of military, different school children etc. to march around in a circle in the Independence square. We sat in the stands and watched, and it was neat to be a part of all of it, just not a 4th of July celebration I'm used to. There were some cool planes that passed over spraying Ghanian colors and the president was there too so that was fun. It was weird to celebrate Independence day without burgers and potato salad though!

Two weekends ago some friends and I traveled around to several fishing villages and it was incredible. It just continues tp knock me off my feet everyday with the simple fact that I am here. It is so beautiful and wonderful!! We stayed at a place on the beach and walked along this long beautiful beach and just hung out and somehow managed to find our way around.
It is becoming more apparent to me though, or maybe the funny-factor of it is wearing off, but that people give a lot more attention to me because of my skin than I would like. You will find a lot of kind people here who simply want to help you, but you also find a lot of people who want to take advantage of you and not necessarily help. It's good to be on the ball all the time though, and I've learned a lot about safety and become much more firm and not as timid when it comes to dealing with people (in a good way :).

My family here is still absolutely wonderful and I have so much fun with them all the time. I was just telling my roommate how lucky we are to be with them, because they seriously are such a blessing and we all get along so well. We all went dancing again last Friday and we tore it up as usual... woo! Oh, and it rained here!!! Alleluia!! It was three weeks ago and it rained twice, three days apart. It was a definite tease and has left us wanting more but was so wonderful because it cooled things off for...half a day. haha. But what a wonderful half-a-day it was.
Last weekend was fairly uneventful besides the dancing. Out program has some tours set up at a local museum, the Dubois center, and the Nkrumah Mausoleum. It was interesting to learn a little more about Ghana's history and influences.

And finally this weekend has been just perfect. We had Good Friday off from school and I went to church which was long, but very good. It was interesting because most everyone wore black or dark colors to mourn Jesus' death which I hadn't seen observed in that way before. A group of us then went to a nearby hotel and used the pool and it was HEAVEN!!! A body of water has never felt that sensational, haha. And then today Rachel, Lindsay and I ventured out to the Shai Hills and did a little hiking. It took slightly longer than we thought and we ended up hiking at the hottest part of the day, but it was so beautiful we didn't care. I think we were all just glad to be out of the city atmosphere and have clean air! The land was pretty dry because of the season but we got to climb up to the top of this hill and look out at the land and it was so crazy. It was crazy because I was sitting on this gorgegous rock looking out onto the African savannah that God freaking made...wow!!!! I still can't believe I'm here. I don't know if it'll ever really sink in. gah.

But tomorrow is Easter and I'm looking forward to celebrating it. I hear that women get up at the crack of dawn and walk in the streets singing and looking for Jesus, like the women in the bible. That should be interesting to wake up to :) But anyways, happy Easter to all!!!

Well, dinner calls. I'm praying it's not rice because my system can only take so much. I got a mango the size of a dinosaur egg today, though. And I look forward to the joy that will come from its consumption, :) Take care to all and know that you are missed!