So, after my third try and 2 hours wasted, my pictures still won't upload to my blog. I am really sad about it. I so want to share pictures with you all. I have great ones. I guess I will have to show you when I get home...or I will try again another day.
I have so much to say about my second week here. It's so hard to fit a week of adventure and learning into one blog post without making it so long that you blog readers out there are bored to death, so I will try and make it short and sweet, but try to include everything as well.
Let me tell you about my favorite experience of last week. About 10 of us volunteers had the opportunity of visiting a small community just outside of Hohoe, where I am to teach classes on personal hygiene. I was so surprised that the whole community had come out to greet us, including the chief and his wife. As we stepped out of our van, they greeted us with hugs and drumming and dancing and gave us a huge bowl of bananas to take home. I didn't know what to expect going there, but I certainly didn't expect that extravagent of a welcome! Wow! They split off into groups, and we had rotations of the group come through and learn a lesson. I was put in charge of hand washing, and had a translator to speak Ewe while I taught them to scrub their hands for atleast a minute. I was teaching inside of a sort of gazebo made of mud and thatch roof. I had them sing Happy Birthday twice to demonstrate about a minute, since that was an English song they all knew. They loved it and laughed as they sang and I had volunteers come up and wash their hands while they all sang happy birhtday with them. I also taught them how to cut their nails and a few of us cut the kids nails for them. They use knifes to cut their nails here. There are not really nail cutters around. At th end, we handed out toothbrushes and toothpaste. That was mad chaos, and not everyone got one. We didn't have enough, but they were so grateful nonetheless. It was such a great experience because I am looking to use my degree in public health to help developing countries as a career, and what we did that day was exactly that. I loved it so much.
My volunteer placement is getting better, or atleast I think so. It's still really difficult, especially with the language barrier to have these kids listen to me. They all call me "Yevo! Yevo!" which means white person in Ewe. The most shocking thing is that the children just get up and use the restroom wherever they like. Some even get up in the middle of one of my lessons and walk to the corner of the room to pee, or just turn and face the window, and aim out the window. Gosh, it's really hard to be ok with. haha. The school is very unstructured, and a lot of days, some classes teachers just won't show up, leaving the children to just sit at their desks and stare at the wall all day. I feel so bad for them. I am going to start teaching older kids tomorrow. I want to try it out. But all in all, the children are so sweet and loving. I played soccer with them on Friday, and actually scored a goal! I totally gained their respect as a white person playing soccer after that. I think they thought I wasn't very good at first, and were lightly passing me the ball, but after I scored a goal, they started playing rough with me. haha. Even though they were like 8 years old, they are amazng at soccer.
Oh, there is so much to talk about. Too much! I went to the beautiful Cape Coast this weekend and stayed in a hut on the beach. I felt like I was in Tahiti or something. There were 7 of us in our group, and we visited one of only 4 canopy walks in the world. It was so cool! We were up 40 meters in the tree tops walking around in the middle of an African Jungle. We also visited the Cape Coast slave castle and were able to walk into the dungeons used to hold slaves in before being shipped off to the Americas. We stood in rooms where literally thousands of slaves died waiting for the ships. It was very emotional. There was a very eery feeling when the tour guide would turn off the lights and shut the door to give us the full effect of living there as a slave and not coming out for 2 months. I can't even describe what it felt like to be there. This week, I also visited Wli waterfalls and got to jump right in under the waterfall. Today, we hiked up to the top of the highest mountain in Ghana. Mt. Afadjado. I was sweating more than I have ever sweated in my life because of the humidity. Many gave up half way, but I made it to the top, and had no regrets after finally reaching the top. The view was breathtaking. I could see Africa for miles and miles. I looked out and saw miles of palm trees and waterfalls and little cities carved out by red dirt roads. I loved it up on top of Mt. Afadjado.
Well, I must go before this post gets any longer. Again, I am so sorry I can't post pictures. I will keep trying. I love you all! P.S. This is a shoutout to my mom. She asked that I remind her to exercise atleast 3 times a week while I am gone. So, to my mom, I hope you are keeping up with that!! Have a great week.
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