I can't believe that I have already been here 8 weeks. Tomorrow morning, I leave for Accra where I will be visiting some of my friend's from BYUs family for a week. Then, I will be out in another place volunteering in an orphanage where the children's parents are dealing with AIDS with another organization for my last 3 weeks in the country. I am living with a host family there, and as far as I know, I will be volunteering on my own. There may or may not be other volunteers there. I just don't know. I am excited for the change, but sad to leave a place I have become so familiar with. It will be sad to say goodbye to all of the volunteers I have become such good friends with, and especially my kids that I teach at school. I have written them each a little note that I am going to give them tomorrow. I am only going for an hour in the morning tomorrow, then I need to be on my way to Accra.
This week has been a great last week. On Wednesday, the children at the orphanage performed their play that Stephanie and I have been practicing for the last few weeks and they did great! It was no 5 star performance, but they loved doing it. We had all of the volunteers here and some of the staff come to watch. The orphanage is located in a beautiful place, where there are rows and rows of corn and palm trees. It is out in the middle of nowhere, but it is like a safe haven for all of the children there. Every day when we arrive to practice, they are usually washing their clothes in big silver bowls with water that they gathered from a river nearby, and they greet us with huge smiles as our taxi pulls up. As soon as they see us, they all sprint over to the car and surround it, so much so that I can barely open the door. Then, they take our hands and lead us to the practice area. Every time I go, it's a surreal moment for me. I am constantly thinking of grateful I am for the opportunity to be in Africa. Here, I am constantly surrounded by beauty. Beautiful scenery, beautiful traditions, beautiful sounds, beautiful people....Ghana is simply a beautiful country. I love traveling here from city to city just so I can look out my window as we pass many small villages and communities and see all kinds of things going on. Women are starting their fires for dinner, children are standing at the well pump gathering water to wash their clothes. It's all so natural. I like it.
I don't know what else to say about this week except, it has been a great 8 weeks here that I will never forget! I only have 4 weeks left in the country, but I know that tomorrow, I am starting a whole new part of my trip that will bring new learning experiences. I don't know when the next time I will be able to use a computer will be, because the town where I am going is more rural than Hohoe, so I am not sure what the internet situation will be like there. So, if you don't hear from me next week in a blog post, you know why. I will try and update as soon as possible. But, until then, CHEERS! I love you all.
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