Last Day in Ghana!

It is crazy to think that I have been here for 7 weeks! Monday was my last day in school, which was great. I taught two classes about MI and the students were very interested. They had so many questions but also taught me more things about their culture. The second lesson I taught went over 15mins because the students were so engaged! It was awesome to have an 80 min lesson that the students turned into a 95 min lesson! After school, I went to my teachers house for the night. At first, I was a little concerned about spending the might at my professors house, but it was okay. As we are leaving, my teacher told me she had to pick up her girl, but she told me she only has 2 sons. I think she and her husband, who is a minister fosters this girl. We got to her house very late because she lives so far away and some of the roads to get to her house are HORRIBLE. I took some video to show just how bad the roads are. When we got to her house, I was shocked. It was huge. We took this two track road to get there and she lives in a Ghanian Mansion, which they have a guard. It was a five bedroom house and I had to take note of things such as the shoe rack so I knew where to turn to get to the guest area. It was great. Esther cooked me dinner, which was some rice and peanut butter soup, which is amazing! After dinner, Esther put on the tv. I forgot about the tv. I haven't watched the tv since I left. After we were watching tv for a bit, "the girl" turned the tv off and handed each one of us a book of hymns. Oh boy. I am flipping through this book and Esther's husband told us to turn to page 109. Then he started signing and, sure enough, we all joined in. It was very interesting. After we sang a few hymns, her husband did some bible reading in both English and Twi. Then there was a discussion followed by prayer. The three of them each said their own 5min prayer. I hope they didn't expect me to do a prayer. I just nervously looked down at my folded hands. After this memorable experience, I went to bed. The bed was so comfy and the pillow was the fluffiest pillow I have seen here. I felt like a princess...but that was only the guest area. Tuesday morning, we had to leave her house very early because of the traffic. The traffic added another 30-45mins to her drive.
Tuesday, we watched the kindergarten Christmas program. It was so cute. One of the guys dressed as Santa. The kids sang songs and got a present from Santa and of course there was some dancing in which teachers and parents quickly joined into. There was some debate over Santa. Some students wondered if he was real or not. They also noticed that he was white, which raised some confusion. This was a serious party with speakers, a mic, and tents. It was crazy, but the studenst were great! After the program was over, we had some lunch and went to do some last minute shopping. After shopping, we had our going away party with our teachers and the administrators from the school. Sadly, my teacher did not come, but it turned out to be okay. It was still a great party. After that, we went out with some of the other teachers from another school. It was a great time. Today, I am finishing my packing and we have some errands to take care oof. We will be leaving for the airport around 5 or 6pm. This experience has been great. I hope to return to this country within the next 10 years! Better start saving now!

Last Day at SOS HGIC

Well, the weekend was crazy! Friday, we spent some more time in Accra because we had the day off due to the holiday of Farmer's Day. We went to Osu, which a part of Accra. We did some shopping and had lunch. We had been told that people will trade. Example, you give them clothes, they will give you some of their goods. After lunch, another girl and I wanted to get a few paintings, so we went back down the street while everyone else finished lunch. I was able to trade some things for this awesome shirt! I am so excited for it! When walking down the streets, there are so many people stopping you. They are yelling things out like my friend or my sister, please come in. If there is another white person around, they say your brother/sister in here, so you come in, regardless if you know the white person. There are few white people, so most of the time they are right. I am with the other white person. After our trading session, we got some cabs and headed over to the Kwame Nkrumah Museum, and did some educational things. After that, we headed over to the cultural center. We did some more trading and of course shopping. The trading in the cultural center turned out to be not as easy going as planned. They did not really come down on price, but we were able to do some trading and it was still fun and part of the experience. I did trade some of my clothes with a guy, and he put them on and modeled them. The pictures are great! Once we were done shopping, 6 of us girls, were trying to figure out how we were going to get back, and conveniently, there was a guy at the cultural center that had a mini van that went back and forth to Tema. We got into his van and he turned the radio on and his was planning so awesome music, Whitey Houston, I will Always Love You, Bryan Adams...it was great. We had a nice concert on the ride back. I am not sure if the driver enjoyed it, but we did. One of the guys on the trip hadn't been feeling well since Thursday. We we got back on Friday, he went to the clinic and he is bring treated for Malaria. It is not 100% sure he has it, but they are pretty sure he does. They cannot confirm he has it until a blood test is done. Saturday morning, I got up with the expectation that I would be going to my teacher's house for the night. After some confusion, my teacher dropped another girl and myself off at the market and I was no longer going to her house, because another teacher from the school called because he wanted us to make fabric, and we needed two days rather than the one day we planned. So, on Saturday, we started making fabric, which was awesome but very time consuming. It is also very draining because, while making the fabric, we were standing out in the heat and right now we are moving into the hot season. It is very hot right now and very draining. Sunday, two other girls and myself went to church. This was an experience. We were told the service started at 7:30 and lasted an hr or an hr and 1/2. Great. We can handle that. We get there at 7:30 and take our seats in the back. Clearly, we were going to stand out so there was no need to sit in the front and we also had this suspicion the service would last longer than an hour. There is this thing called Ghanaian time, basically time does not matter. As we were sitting in the back, we noticed that there were very few people in the church, especially for it being 7:30 when the service was supposed to start at 7:30. We had one woman come over to us and ask us if we would like to sit up front, we politely declined. Then, the pastor came over and we could not decline him, so we moved to the very FRONT row. Three white girls in the front row. Needless to say, we stuck out like a sore thumb. Church finally started at 8, but at 8:45 when we were just starting greeting, we knew the service was going to last longer than an hr. After greeting, everyone started dancing and singing. This is like get out of your seat and walk around church dancing. The three white girls were watching until we were called out and the people did not leave until we were dancing. So, we sat at church through the sermon, but when a bride and groom walked in and they were getting out the communion things, we realized we need to sneak out. We were well aware of the fact that we would not be sneaking out but after being there for over 3 hours, we had to leave. When we got outside, we could not believe the amount of people outside. This church was huge with two stories of seats and the walls open up and they put chairs outside which were all filled and people were still standing. We drove by other churches on the way home, and the other churches were just as packed. It was crazy to see so many people at church. Once we got back, we finished out fabric which cost a lot more than planned but it was worth it. It was also very hot yesterday and I was crabby. I was told I needed to take a nap. :) So, I napped and it was great until I woke up sweating! After a shower, we headed to get pizza. A teacher from the other school invited us to get pizza at her husband's restaurant. It was very good pizza. Her husband is from Napolion, Italy, which is know as pizza city. To summarize, we are Americans in Ghana eating pizza from a native Italian. Never a dull moment here! After pizza, we came back and all worked on some homework and packing. Today, I am teaching some students about MI. I am pretty excited. After school, I am going to my teachers house. Tomorrow we have a Christmas program in which we are each playing an elf. Wednesday, we are dropping some books off at a library that is just starting. It is going to be a busy three days, but I am excited to come home!

Last Full Week Here!

This week has been pretty calm in terms of adventures. In school this week, the students are taking their end of semester exams. That makes for a pretty lame week for me. There is not much I can do and the teachers only give out one exam a day, so I have a lot of down time. I went to school on Monday and worked on the last few assignments for me degree!! Crazy! Tuesday, I visited the other "high school" Teme International School, which was very nice and I also visited the kindergarten! That was crazy! Wednesday, I went to school again and helped with the exam, which means I passed out and collected exams. Then, I typed some things for Esther. I used my amazing typing skills she is oh so impressed with. After school, we went to the market to pick up our clothes we had made which look amazing! I could not be happier! I wish I could get more made. We have some money from a memorial fund that we need to spend to help improve the education here. We chose to spilt the money and buy books and also maps and atlas for each school. Yesterday, we went and did that. Last night, we went to our pizza place, Bisicilla's for the possibly the last time. Today is Farmer's Day. It is a day that farmers are recongized because, until recently, farming was the #1 job in Ghana. It is now the 2nd. We are taking full advantage of our day off and going to Accra to do some last minute shopping and visit a museum! Tomorrow I am going with my teacher to do some more shopping in town then I am going to her house for dinner and to say the night. Sunday, she will bring me back bright and early so a few of us can hopefully go to church and later in the day we are planning to make fabric! After that, we are going out for pizza at another place. These next three days are going to be so busy!