My days here in Ghana seem to be picking up speed every day. The more I settle into a routine, the faster the days fly by and kind of blur together. I am reaching a stage where suddenly, everything I see isn’t new to me, and doesn’t shock me like it used to. Things around me are becoming more normal. It is a nice feeling, because now I can really focus on the volunteering I am doing. This week, I have been going to an orphanage in the afternoons. I can’t remember if I wrote about this in my last blog, but another volunteer and I are putting together a play for the kids in the orphanage to perform for the other volunteers here and other community members that may want to attend. Yesterday, we finished making all the props. We have little resources to work with, so all of our props and costumes are made with white paper colored with crayon. They look great though. It is really chaotic trying to get them all to come in on their cues since they haven’t done much of this kind of thing in the past, but we always have a good time. They are all so sweet and just smile all the time with really wide eyes. It’s actually a relatively nice orphanage. I got to see the rooms where all of their beds are lined up side by side. They each have a mosquito net and some hooks to hang their clothes on. My favorite part about being there is seeing the small family they have all built with eachother. There are about 25 children there, and they are all like brothers and sisters. They attend the same school, and every time we arrive, they are outside playing games with each other. They are eachother’s family.
This weekend, a big group of volunteers and I travelled to Accra, the capital city on a day trip. We rode 4 hours there and 4 hours back all in one day just so we could go to the mall and get some American food. I can’t tell you how much I dream about going home and eating food I am familiar with. I fantasize about a meal from Taco Bell and my mouth waters. Haha. I ate a delicious meal of French fries, pizza, and a gyro in Accra, and then got some soft-serve ice cream for dessert. I stuffed myself so full. Afterwards, we were all kind of regretting eating so much because we all had really bad stomach aches. My stomach is just not used to that kind of food, all the greasy goodness of American food. I need to remind myself to adjust slowly to the food when I return back home.
My African 21st birthday/Halloween party was a lot of fun! My room mate here and I found some non-alcoholic champagne from Belgium at a sketchy little liquor shop to celebrate. haha. I opened my first bottle of champagne and the cork went flying. Everybody was trying to teach me how to open it properly. We also played some games and watched the "Thriller" music video all crowded around someone's laptop. I wore my awesome Rhino mask. I will have to post pictures sometime when the internet is faster.
Placement is going well. My students are becoming more and more comfortable with me every day, and it makes it just that much more fun to teach them. I am really going to miss them when I leave this program in about a week. Today, we made paper chains to decorate their classroom. I have been hanging up the work they have been doing with me. Yesterday, we made color wheels, and we have been coloring pictures of animals that my mom sent in the mail, and we have been hanging those up all over the classroom. It looks great in there. It was so hot at school today. When I went to hang the paper chains from the ceiling of the tin roof, I burnt my hand on the roof because it was so hot from the sun. The roof makes it like a natural sauna in the classroom. Today while we were making the chains, they started singing a song about Miso, my cat. It was so funny. They asked me if I can bring Miso to show them. I said it would be too long of a journey for a cat to fly from America.I brought pictures to show them from home yesterday and had a picture of my cat, so that’s how they knew about him. Yesterday, Suzy, the director of the school, asked me if I could please stay longer at her school. It broke my heart to say I can’t, but hopefully I can come back and visit one more time before I go back home during the month I will be in another town volunteering somewhere else. As for now, I am trying to get any last minute things done. I am having some local seamstresses make things for me and some of my family and friends at home, so I have been going in regularly to check on those. I am excited to see how everything turns out. This weekend, I plan on traveling to a town 2 hours away again to go to church on Sunday. They are broadcasting October’s conference this Sunday.
This weekend, a big group of volunteers and I travelled to Accra, the capital city on a day trip. We rode 4 hours there and 4 hours back all in one day just so we could go to the mall and get some American food. I can’t tell you how much I dream about going home and eating food I am familiar with. I fantasize about a meal from Taco Bell and my mouth waters. Haha. I ate a delicious meal of French fries, pizza, and a gyro in Accra, and then got some soft-serve ice cream for dessert. I stuffed myself so full. Afterwards, we were all kind of regretting eating so much because we all had really bad stomach aches. My stomach is just not used to that kind of food, all the greasy goodness of American food. I need to remind myself to adjust slowly to the food when I return back home.
My African 21st birthday/Halloween party was a lot of fun! My room mate here and I found some non-alcoholic champagne from Belgium at a sketchy little liquor shop to celebrate. haha. I opened my first bottle of champagne and the cork went flying. Everybody was trying to teach me how to open it properly. We also played some games and watched the "Thriller" music video all crowded around someone's laptop. I wore my awesome Rhino mask. I will have to post pictures sometime when the internet is faster.
Placement is going well. My students are becoming more and more comfortable with me every day, and it makes it just that much more fun to teach them. I am really going to miss them when I leave this program in about a week. Today, we made paper chains to decorate their classroom. I have been hanging up the work they have been doing with me. Yesterday, we made color wheels, and we have been coloring pictures of animals that my mom sent in the mail, and we have been hanging those up all over the classroom. It looks great in there. It was so hot at school today. When I went to hang the paper chains from the ceiling of the tin roof, I burnt my hand on the roof because it was so hot from the sun. The roof makes it like a natural sauna in the classroom. Today while we were making the chains, they started singing a song about Miso, my cat. It was so funny. They asked me if I can bring Miso to show them. I said it would be too long of a journey for a cat to fly from America.I brought pictures to show them from home yesterday and had a picture of my cat, so that’s how they knew about him. Yesterday, Suzy, the director of the school, asked me if I could please stay longer at her school. It broke my heart to say I can’t, but hopefully I can come back and visit one more time before I go back home during the month I will be in another town volunteering somewhere else. As for now, I am trying to get any last minute things done. I am having some local seamstresses make things for me and some of my family and friends at home, so I have been going in regularly to check on those. I am excited to see how everything turns out. This weekend, I plan on traveling to a town 2 hours away again to go to church on Sunday. They are broadcasting October’s conference this Sunday.
Well, I am nearing the end of my post for the week. I want to end with a quote I read in a book that I really like, it goes, “What is important is to keep learning, to enjoy challenge, and to tolerate ambiguity. In the end there are no certain answers.” -Martina Horner, a former president of Radcliff College in Massachusetts. I think this is a great quote to sum up my experience here and know that times are not always easy here, in fact they are more often difficult and challenging than comfortable, but I know I am learning and gaining something new with every step of the way. Have a great week everybody!
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