Last Day in Ghana

Elephant! This is how close we were to them.

My crazy class. The 3rd grade.

Our last day with the entire class and our teacher. Making a funny face.

The last day of class the kids did some dancing and singing for us. It was awesome.

Last day of class with some of my students and my new dress they made for me.

At the Ghana temple.

The LDS church group played music and danced for us too. They were so good, it was the coolest thing.

Today was my last day here in Ghana. Its sad. I know I will miss it once I get home. But Im still excited to go home. We went to the pool today and then Lynley took us out to dinner. Ive just been packing since then and playing cards. Tomorrow morning at 7am I am eating breakfast and then Lynley and I are jumping in a cab to the airport. Im ready! Ive grown close to the people here and I think Ghana and the people will always have a special place in my heart :)

Friday

One more day in Ghana, I cant beleive it.
Yesterday we had class at 9am and Lynley passed out the exams that we had all day to take. After class we went to the pool to try and get a little more sun. It was sunny for about 10 minutes and then was cloudy. Since it is the rainy season in Ghana it is cloudy almost everyday. But it is still hot! When the sun isnt out the people here think that its cold so they will walk around in jackets. Some mornings when it had been raining the kids in my class would come in jackets and I would be sweating. haha I think I still got some sun at the pool though, we were there for a while. Jenny and I split a curry chicken pizza at the pool and drank cokes. The pizza was so hot it practically burned my lips off. haha
After we changed from the pool we went to the mall and ate at Rhapsody. I had a chicken sandwich with fries and it was really good. We stopped at Shopright to get some chocolate and water and then headed home. We were going to go to a club called Club Afro (hehe) but some of the girls including me werent feeling well so nobody went.
Our air conditioner has been leaking recently so we had to move my bunk bed to the middle of the room so it wouldnt soak our beds. That air conditioner.. it has been more of a hassle than anything! haha It stopped leaking right now so we'll see if the pipes freeze again tonight. It was doing really well except for being loud. Not loud like a normal air conditioner.. loud like it sounded like a car backfiring and it was going to fall out of the wall. hahaha No joke.
This morning we had class at 9am but my whole room didnt wake up. So at 9:05 Jon knocked on our door and we all came out to class half asleep. We had to enter some research data about our interviews and have journal checks for points. And we turned in our exams. Pretty much everything to do with class is over! Yay! A few of us went to Tetteh Quarshie market for a little bit and I am officially done shopping! :) Dinner tonight was at a place called Frankies. I had chicken BBQ pizza. It was very good. We didnt eat it all so we gave the rest to our taxi driver. Poor things are hungry. At 6pm we had a lesson at the LDS church. We were doing a fireside about our HIV/AIDS lessons and they were performing for us. We had it in the gym and it was amazing. The dancing that they did was the coolest thing I have ever seen. That was our last lesson of the trip and it was a good one. We just got home from the church and we are finishing up journals and hanging out.
Tomorrow is my last day. I think we are going to the pool for a little bit and then Lynley is taking us all out to dinner at... Rhapsody! haha Then Sunday morning at 10am I fly home!
I wouldnt say that it has gone by quickley, it feels like I have been here for a long time. Im going to miss my kids at the school and I think I will miss my hostel! haha It has been my home so I will miss the leaky loud air conditioner and the toilet that wont flush toilet paper and the shower with the broken door. Ive met a lot of nice people and I am sad to leave them. Ive learned so much while Ive been here. Its been one of the greatest experiences and I will never forget it.

Wednesday

3 more days in Ghana! Today we had our first day of goodbyes and it was sad.
It was our last day at Grey Memorial Basic with our kids. We planned a field day for them and had different stations that a few of us were in charge of. Before we went out to the field our teacher gave Desiree and I each a necklace and a pair of earrings. From the whole class. And one of the older boys named Alfred who Desiree and I have grown close to gave each of us a bracelet that he bought. We felt bad taking it from Alfred because we knew he could have used his money for something for him or his family. But it was so sweet and the kids were so excited that we got presents. The teacher put on our necklaces for us. We tried rounding everyone up for field day but there were like 350 kids and it was pretty much chaos. We just started doing our stations and the kids ran around doing whatever they wanted. Mostly playing soccer. haha But it was fine because it was a lot of fun. They all changed into street clothes instead of their uniforms and it was fun to see them like that. But harder to tell them apart. haha It was so hot! I was in charge of relay races and I raced with them a few times and was dying. haha After about 45 minutes of unorganized gamed (lol) we were taken to the headmistress office and given our dresses. The 2 guys in my group got African shirts and Ghana bracelets and they looked awesome. The dresses they made for us in 3 days were amazing! The were all different patterns and different styles so we got to choose. They were perfect and everyones fit. We were so lucky and grateful! They had us put them on of course and then we sat and watched the kids dance and drum. One of my girls got to dance with the older girls and I felt like she was family because I was so proud of her! haha I was yelling for her and grinning from ear to ear. :) It was a really cool program. The kids thought that we were coming back tomorrow, they kept saying "you be here thursday" so it was sad to tell them that we wouldnt be back. A couple of them told us not to forget them. We got our teachers email so hopefully we can stay in touch.
After school we stayed in our dresses and looking Ghanaian we went to the Happy Kids school to teach the boy scouts and girl guides lessons about things like nutrition, self esteem, and germs. They were so smart and new pretty much what we were talking about so it went really well. One of the men there said that he was in charge of their AIDS education. He metioned that the kids should be trained like he was trained by Lynley. 5 years ago Lynley came to Ghana with another study abroad and trained this man to be a youth leader. He still had his certificate they gave him and was educating kids about AIDS since then. What a good feeling to know that just one person could make a difference and all because we were here. Just like my mom said :) Thanks mom.
After the lessons we were going to go to the Teteh Quarshie market and shop but we were in traffic for an hour. We were all asleep and starving. So we decided to come back to the hostel and take a nap before dinner haha Dinner was Cordon Bleu, pasta with white sauce, and chicken rice and fruit. We are always so hungry by dinner that we eat in like 10 minutes. haha
Right now I am about to walk down the street to the pharmacy to get some mint chocolate and we are probably going to watch a movie on someones computer and just relax! Yay

Tuesday

We have had a lot more free time this week. Its how Ive been able to get online everyday.
This morning at school we didnt prepare a lesson because it was our last day of teaching and we just wanted to have fun. We are going back tomorrow but we are playing games with the entire school. So we had our kids draw Desiree and I each a picture of whatever they wanted and put their names on it so we could keep it. That was a lot of fun. We got a lot of drawings of people and fruit. haha They drew us and they drew them playing soccer. Then we got class pictures. Good ones and funny ones. And we took a picture with each of the kids. We passed out candy and balloons and gave our teacher lots of supplies for her to keep for them. Like pens and pencils and construction paper and crayons and colored pencils. Tons of supplies and she was so excited. They all say "God bless you" when we give them things and it just makes me smile because they are sincere.
Tomorrow is our last day at school so we are having a field day. We are going to play games with them and they are going to dance for us. We've also been told that all the teachers got together and are making us all outfits... we are excited to see how they turn out. haha They were going to take our measurements but we didnt go to school last week so they are just guessing.. It should be interesting. It will be funny if they make us wear them :) And they might!
After school we came back to the hostel and had a couple hours of free time before we had to have our class. Desiree and I walked down the street to make some copies of the stories our kids wrote a couple weeks ago. It was less than 5 cents a copy. The man working was very nice and was asking what we were doing in Ghana and we chatted until we were done and had paid him. His brother and another worker came in and they asked what we were doing in Ghana. I told them we were teaching at the school and also teaching HIV/AIDS prevention. To make a long story short.. the guy that had been helping us the whole time told us that there was a cure for AIDS and that the person who told us there wasnt is a liar and brainwashed us. He sounds like a looney I guess but he was serious. He said there wasnt a disease on the earth that didnt have a cure. The other 2 men in the room agreed with him. They all said that they dont worry about getting HIV and that they never will. We were trying to explain to him but he was very set in his ways. I told him before we left that I belived in God and that I would pray he doesnt get HIV because he would die from it.
I was so bothered coming home. Not because he was mean or calling us ignorant Americans but because there are probably lots of Ghanaians like him who are not afraid of getting infected with HIV. This is why AIDS in Africa is spreading like crazy. Because nobody really knows anything about it. We have been teaching it but it has been to willing people who know a little bit about it already. What about all the rest who dont care and who think they can be cured of it. I just cant help but wonder what I am doing here sometimes and what kind of difference we are really making. If most of the people of Ghana are uneducated like this man clearly was.. what can we really do? Make small differences and hope for the best for the people.
Anyway, after we had class we have free time now. We are probably going to the mall and eating there and looking around or shopping. Im excited :)

Monday

This morning we were back at Grey Memorial School to our kids! My teaching partner Desiree wasnt feeling well so she stayed home and I had to fly solo. She wasnt going to teach the lesson today about poetry so I just took her stuff she had planned and tried to make it good. We talked about poems and I read them one of Desirees poems. Then I had them write their name longways down a piece of paper and write a word that described them using the first letter. Lynley came at the end of my class to help since I was alone. They did so well on the poems, they really got it and it was fun reading some of the words they came up with about themselves. Like preacher. haha They were getting crazy towards the end of class so we just went outside to play. When I told them I was leaving for America soon they kept asking when I would come back. Its sad to leave them.
After school we drove about 20 minutes to a school called Happy Kids School. Its in a bad part of town it seems. We taught Boy Scouts and Girl Guides. They were the youngest group we have taught AIDS to so we had to tone it down a little bit and be careful with what we said. They were around 9-15 years old. My lesson on condoms got skipped because the headmistress only wanted us to teach abstinence and being faithful. Those kids were so smart. They could have taught us the lessons. They knew what HIV and AIDS was and how you get it and what to do about it. They had lots of intelligent questions and we were shocked about how open they were. We really could have taught anything and been fine but it wasnt up to us. They were so different from the adults we have been teaching because they werent afraid to participate or tell us how it is or things about their culture. They were genuine and in that way they were better than the adults. When we teach children I feel like we are really making a difference.
After teaching we stopped at a market we have been to a couple of times and all of us still bought more stuff! But we saw the vendors who remembered us and its fun to talk to them when they arent trying to sell us their stuff. It gets easier going to the market every time we go because we are learning the prices of things and how the vendors work. Since we are white and American they think we have tons of money. There are no set prices for anything, its all bartered. I think its kind of fun actually, to argue about a price. They hound us constantly when we walk around the market. They always say "My sista, come, look at my shop, I give you good price!" Theres always stuff in your face and if you say what you are looking for they run and get it for you. Its hard to just walk and look at everything because they hound and yell the whole time. We learn all the tricks so that they dont expect us to pay outrageous prices for something. If we start to walk away since they wont give us a better price they will say "Okay, Okay take it for 4 take it for 4." Once you catch on to them it can be really fun.
We were sitting on our bus after shopping waiting for the others to come and there was a boy with a wire basket of water on his head. He came to talk to us and we asked him if he was wokring today. He said "If I dont work, I dont eat. Ive only made 50 pesowa today" Pesowa is the cents. He made less than 50 cents today. Erin gave him 2 cookies and a hard candy. I gave him 20 pesowa.
We are now back at the hostel waiting for dinner and we cant wait because we are starving. We are having stroganof, pasta with red sauce, fruit, and rice. Yay :) And our choice of drink every night is Fanta, Coke, or Sprite. Thats pretty much the only choices of pop around. Everywhere sells those 3. Going to eat now!

Pictures

The kids love to have thir picture taken. The adults are not as excited.. see the lady in the background? This was at a village last weekend

Me feeding a cute monkey a banana. They would peel it in our hands and touch us but they wouldnt scratch or anyting, it was cool.

The bed Jenny and I slept in

The men drumming and people behind them singing

Us dancing. I have a nice braid by my face from a 10 year old girl named Doris. My professor Lynley looks so cute laughing! haha

My dinner. Yummy :)

Erin and I at the bottom

The waterfall. The bats are so small and hard to see but they are all underneath along the rocks on the left side.

The Pink Hostel!

Monkey Sanctuary

This weekend we only drove about 4 hours to a small village on the outside of town. We dropped off our stuff and then drove about an hour to the start of our hike. We kiked to the base of a huge waterfall and we got to swim at the bottom of it. It was the coolest thing I have ever done! The water was freezing and we were drenched just from standing close to the splashing. There were bats along the cliff and some of them woek and flew around in circles way above our heads. It was awesome. Everything was so green and the trees and mountain looked like something out of a book.
That night we stayed in the village with the people who lived there. We ate dinner outside under a roof made of branches. We had rice with some mystery meat sauce and boiled eggs. There was also fruit and spagetti. It wasnt bad, I had seconds :) But maybe I am just more used to the food now. It was dark by then and the villagers took us for entertainment. They had plastic chairs set up and a boy started a fire in the middle in the dirt. Then an old man told us stories and the boy translated. The old man also played his flute for us. During the stories, the girls in the village braided our hair. After stories, they played drums and danced in circles around the fire until it went out. We got to join them in the circle and dance for a little bit. It was so cool. This went on for at least a couple of hours, they just kept going. They were singing and clapping. A few of the kids did their own little dance around the fire for us. I had so much fun, I loved it.
About 8 of us were able to sleep in the village in homes and the rest of my group was in the "compound" Which was just a group of buildings with rooms in them. I slept in someones house. They were out of town or something, they werent there that night. Jenny and I slept on a bed with one sheet that we layed on. We had no covers but I dont think we needed them and we got lucky and had a mosquito net. There were 2 ceiling fans in the other room but not in our bedroom. We couldnt open the windows because wewere told it wasnt safe. It was stifiling in that room. I slept in jeans to protect my legs from bugs and I did have socks on but I couldnt keep them on haha I thought I would die. We just layed there sweating all night. I did sleep though. I think I woke up every time I moved but the night didnt seem too long. Good thing :)
In the morning we woke early and had breakfast at 7am. It was bread and porrage. (spelling?) The bread was really good and sweet so I had like 3 pieces. The porrage was pretty bland. Could have used some sugar or something on it :) But we ate it. We got ready to go on another hike that was harder and more steep than our last one but it started pouring rain. It was flooding, it looked like a monsoon. They said that wasnt even bad, that they have had worse. haha crazy people. Our hike was cancelled because we didnt want anyone falling down the cliff. We headed back to Accra and stoped at a resort along the way and went on a boat ride in a lake. It was less than $20 for about 15 of us to go and it was worth it. We were all very tired so we didnt look that excited haha but it was fun.
We went to dinner after we got back to Accra and cleaned up. Rhapsody :) I shared a big bowl of pasta. Today was my last day going to church here. It was stake conference and they changed the boundaries and got new bishops for new branches being formed. It was really neat to be there and listen to all of the new bishops talk.
I leave a week from today! This week we are teaching at the school and teaching AIDS to a girl/boy scout group. Im excited to see my kids at school. Im going to try and post pictures today because we arent doing anything. Im need to get caught up in class with the reading and journals so thats what ill be doing. :)