Adventures in Ghana

BITTERSWEET!

2010-06-23T10:11:00.000-07:00

As we come very near the end of our time here in Ghana, both Katie and I are realizing all the things we're going to be missing. Ghana has made a nice little home for itself in our hearts and it's not going to be easy come the afternoon of July 1st when we drive for the last time down our muddy, lake filled, pot-hole infested road and on to the airport. And even harder than that will be Wednesday afternoon when we have closing assembly, dismiss from school, and put our kids on the bus for the last time.

Tomorrow marks one week. Never in all my time here since last August, did I imagine the difficulty I would have with saying goodbye. Maybe it's a mixture of 1. Me being terrible at goodbyes to begin with, and 2. The fact that I fell in love with the kids.... or maybe, it just stinks because I really am going to miss this place. Whatever it is, it's a heart rendering feeling that no words can describe. This year has been a lived experience, and both Katie and I will struggle the rest of our lives trying to bring our experiences home to all of you; the people we love and care about. I don’t know if we will ever be able paint a picture well enough for ya’ll to understand, but we sure will try.

In light of looking at life with the "glass half full" mentality... the growth and improvement that we have had the joy of watching in our kids has been incredible. We now understand what teachers mean when they talk about the rewards of teaching. They aren't materialistic, or obvious, but in the end, after spending a whole year with the same kids, you stand back and look at them and realize, “Hey… it really works. Teaching really works!” And, this goes without saying, we are the luckiest two teachers EVER… they always say teachers never forget their first class of students, never has this rung truer! – Katie and I are so proud of our kids. All 26 of them are amazing and full of so much potential. We can only hope they will continue to be pushed and their knowledge expanded over the years to come. We now put them in the hands of two fantastic young women, Becky and Lauren: Recent graduates of Saint Mary’s College, who will be continuing the program in Ghana this coming August. Please keep them in your prayers as they prepare for the journey of a life-time.

As a goodbye hurrah for Katie and I, Sr. Esther treated the whole entire school to a day at Till’s Beach. Mr. Danso, our bus driver drove two trips of students to the beach last week, even the little nursery ones. It was a truly beautiful site. A great memory to carry with us.

On another note… can you say USA? Anyone watching the 2010 World Cup?? If not, the USA just advanced to the next round. Football/Soccer is a huge deal over here in Ghana and Katie and I have caught the bug.

See everyone very soon. Katie will be arriving in Dulles airport around 1pm on July 2nd. I will fly on to Cincy and then arrive in Fort Wayne around 9pm. Molly, will you still have my subway sandwich? Laura… DeBrands? Andrea… rootbeer? Mom… chocolate chip cookies and a HUGE glass of 2% milk?? Okay, just checking!

Love to all! See you State-Side in 9 days!

Fast and the Furious

2010-05-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

On Monday morning we found out that Tuesday was "African Unity Day"... which means NO SCHOOL. God I love Ghanaian Holidays!!! Knowing 15 Holy Cross College students were in Cape Coast staying with the brothers, we decided to go visit them. The brothers told us that on Monday night was the 10th Anniversary of the 2 week Holy Cross Service Learning Ghana Experience Program FAREWELL PARTY. Wow that's a mouth full. When we heard the word PARTY, we knew we were going. So after school, we rode the bus to the junction at the main road, hopped into the back of a random truck to hitch hike into town, and jumped on a TRO TRO heading to Cape Coast. The 2 hour journey was a breeze, minus the goat in the back kicking our chair, and we got dropped off in Cape Coast. We were walking down the main road in search of a taxi when one of the HOLY CROSS vans pulled off the road to pick us up - PERFECT TIMING. We arrived at the Brother's Compound and met all of the Holy Cross College students. Megan had a friend from high school in the group, Kaitlyn, who was GREAT. She even gave us her left over food, shampoos, etc. etc. ETC.!!! She was our MRS. CLAUSE and provided us with the best ever Christmas in May. The night's festivities included dinner (pizza, french fries, and ice cream... not really the Ghana experience but hey we loveddd it!). We got to know some of the students and enjoyed having American conversations. We have discovered that our English has turned into Ghanaian English and we struggle holding a conversation with anyone above a 2nd grade Ghanaian mentality. Our word choice and grammatical structure are seriously suffering. Oh well... I bet you guys don't know what WA BO ADOM means. GOTCHAAA. We stayed up until 2am, wayyyy past our Grandma bedtimes, enjoying music, drinks, dancing, and visiting with my fellow Americans. The next morning consisted of early morning mass, quick breakfast, and loading up the cars for the students' last day in Ghana and a tour of Accra-the capital- with a quick stop in Kasoa to show them the Sisters' house and school. Megan and I rode with one HCC student and Brother Stephen in the pick up truck with ALL of the luggage tied down in the back, followed by 2 15 passenger HOLY CROSS VANS driven by Brother John and Brother Ken. And we were off- making GREAT time to Kasoa... the Brothers must be great drivers.
In Kasoa, we showed the students around our classroom and the school. They were very impressed comparing our school to the ones they had volunteered at in Cape Coast. We continued to Accra and this is where it got interesting.
To start off the drama, Brother Stephen received a phone call from Brother John in one van saying, "Black BMW side swiped the mirror off Brother Ken's van..." It was now OUR responsibility to chase them down. And so... WE WERE OFF. And I mean OFF... flyinggggg down the road, dodging, weaving, and swerving in and out of everyone chasing down this awkwardly nice car in Ghana. Cheers could be heard from the back seat from Megan and me. Once we spotted the car, we discovered the driver was female. When Bro. Stephen yelled out the window at her... you could see her quivering lip and stressful character. Bro. Stephen could sense her frazzled-ness and asked her to pull over to talk it out. She refused, thus creating more of a car chase down the road... where we cut her off in a turn lane, Bro. Stephen jumped out of our car, leaving us behind in the middle of the road, to go confront the driver. Much to his surprise, the husband had switched places with his wife, and was now in the driver's seat. Sneaky little guy huh? At this point, the 2 vans had finally caught up, and parked on the side of the road. Brothers Ken, John, Stephen and Tony surrounded the black BEAMER encouraging them to take responsibility for their actions. Still refusing, a policeman came onto the scene and as we know here in Ghana, the RELIGIOUS are always right. The police arrested the woman and her husband, but refused to pay for our mirror. We were off to a gas station to get it fixed yet we were on GHANA TIME AS ALWAYS, so 2 hours later we left the gas station and were off to the Cultural Center in Accra. From there, we toured Accra seeing the President's House shaped like a stool, the Black Stars stadium, and Independence Square. We arrived at the airport for a nice dinner, and then checked them all in for their flight. We tried our best sneaking onto the plane, Megan was fully prepared with passport in hand, yet we were denied. We will have our turn in 35 days.

To wrap this up, we LOVED our time with the HCCers and can not thank Brother Stephen enough for allowing us to be a part of the HIGH SPEED, GHANAIAN EXTRAVAGANZA HIGHWAY CHASE OF A LIFETIME.

HIPPOS!

2010-04-28T15:23:00.001-07:00

During our third day in Wa, we traveled to a small surrounding village called Wechiau. The only, and I mean only, attraction within an hour of this village is the hippo sanctuary started by a Peace Corps volunteer in the 90’s. We spent 2 hours in a dugout canoe on the Black Volta River which provides the boundary between Ghana and Burkina Faso. Our guide, Adams, (yes, Adam with an “s”) and our canoe-rower if you will, Thomas basically rowed so quickly we felt like we had a motor attached to the canoe, amazing! No wonder everyone in Ghana has huge muscles. They were able to lead us to the island in the river where the hippos spend the hot days in the water. There were about 10 of them in the middle of the river just staring at us while we enjoyed the wildlife. We pretty much became one with Mother Nature. Not only that, but we were able to cross the border (a little illegal, no passport stamped here) to the Burkina side of the river. Hello African country #2. I mean it was only 10 minutes, but we HAVE been there now. Took some photos and videos to prove it. From here we called it a day and headed back up the river.

Back at the sanctuary “office” Katie met her future husband, his name is Muhammad. He’s Muslim but they decided to raise the kids Catholic. They called it a day, so more on that later. We’ll let you know when the wedding will be.

We left Wa at 7:30 am on an ever so lovely public bus… for all you soccer fans.. we shared a bus with THE Michael Essien (he looked a little younger in person but he did have the jersey) For those of you who don’t know, Essien is Ghana’s pride and joy soccer player. The bus was headed to Kumasi but Katie and I had other plans. We alighted in a drive by village known as Tinga (also known for their illegal mining). It was here that we were in search of Kwame Joseph, another friend of Mimi’s (the last one on our list to find)… and lo and behold, after being bombarded by 40 non-english speaking men, not Kwame Joseph, looking at a picture of Kwame that we carried, we found his brother who led us to Kwame Joseph himself. Miraculous! We met his children, saw his house, bought a round of drinks at the local pub (yes, 9am) and then we boarded the most horrible taxi we have ever been in. It started out ok, we were 5 people in a 5 seater car… it was when they tried to put the sixth person in that things got rough. The driver proceeded to smack Katie’s leg telling her “push over push over.” Which Katie responded with “I can’t push, there’s nowhere to push to.” So naturally, I’m closest to the door which means the window went down and my head went out while I hugged the door to make room for our 6th guest. The other backseat passenger with Katie and I seemed to be taking some sort of sleeping pill seeing as how she slept through all of this while her wig proceeded to blow in the wind to the point of destruction. Needless to say, when the big 6th man got out of the backseat, wig lady was down and out for the count, dead to the world. She would not move over into the open seat leaving Katie and I squished for the duration of the 1.5 hour drive (head still out the window). I have now experienced wind burn in Africa.

We are now back in Takoradi enjoying some cooler weather after the 105 degree temps. In the north. Thanks you Sub-Sahara. Back to Kasoa on Friday to prepare for the 3rd and final term at school. When school starts we will be left with only 1.5 months in Ghana. 4th of July USA here we come!- Love you all, miss you!

Pictures will be uploaded to Picasa within the next week. Look out for those.

African Village.. I think so

2010-04-28T15:22:00.000-07:00

Off the beaten path, and I mean OFF the beaten path you will find a lovely quaint little village known as “Sankana.” Katie’s aunt, Mimi, spent two glorious years in Sankana while in the Peace Corps. It was our mission, with the help of a 5 pictures and a few local names, to find all of Mimi’s friends from her time here. We began our search at 7:15 am under a large tree, and by 7:30 we were drinking “pito” (local brew) out of calabash bowls with a man named Kwame Kumfra, one of Mimi’s good friends. This was the beginning of a very eventful day. We got a taste of true African Village life. Kwame introduced us to many villagers who knew Mimi, and he showed us her house complete with a tour of the inside which now has electricity. We also came upon some white chalk written on the wall spelling “die ants.” Apparently while Mimi was living here 11 years ago she was told that the magic juju chalk would fix her massive ant problem. There were no ants, so maybe it worked. If you would like to order some magic juju chalk to help with your insect problems, please contact Kwame Kumfa in Wa, Ghana Upper West Region. Don’t worry, if you need to find him personally you just go to the large tree, drink pito and ask for the chalk man. They will kindly point you in the right direction.

Also in Sankana we were fortunate enough to try a local dish yet to be tasted by yours truly Megan and Katie, and NEVER to be tasted again. EVER! EVER! You will never find something so utterly repulsive in your life as this dish known as, Sao/Teazzard (a slimy dough substance poop ball) eaten with green shoup (as Kwame called it, we think he meant soup, but we prefer to use the local dialect). Katie was smart enough to stay far away from the green “shoup” however I am an idiot and flet drawn in by the slimy green cassava leaves in sandy liquid. NEVER again will I be duped into something this exotic and green shoupyness. Sick… Mimi, how did you live here? In order to even begin to describe the taste of the green shoup you need to close your eyes, take a deep breath, and try to imagine the most horrendous smell you have ever come across… this is the taste of green shoup. Now, combine the smell of a truck stop bathroom multiply that by 5 then add that to the smell of month old stagnant water combined with dirty diapers and topped off with (nope, not a cherry) but a dash of sand and a hint of (not salt) vomit. This was one tenth of the green shoup experience. Not only did tears form in my eyes, they ran down my face as I ever so slyly warned Katie to stay away from the green shoup and smiled at Kwame’s mother who kindly prepared the shoup and stated “this is delicious.” (keeping in mind she spoke no English, I hope my smile was more convincing than the tears on my face)…I’m a big fat liar. However we did receive more pito after this, which I kindly handed over to Katie (I don’t even like beer, let alone local fly covered brew). So, I carried my cross and Katie carried hers. Champs? I think so.

The end of our Sankana experience was a little more uplifting. We met Jacob, Mimi’s next door neighbor and good friend. He put us in touch with his brother Nicholas who had moved to Wa and opened his own welding shop due to the kindness of Mimi who put him through apprenticeship school while she was here. Nicholas ended up being the greatest discovery of Wa (next to the invitation we received to become the next wives of chief of Wa). We tried convincing Nicholas that we would be great apprentices to welding, so he let us have a go at it. Success! He also drove us all around town on his motorcycle and we had the chance to meet his wife and daughter.

Wonderful Wa

2010-04-28T15:15:00.000-07:00

From Sunyani, approx. 5 hours north, is a great place known as Wa… in Degari (local language) meaning “come.” So we responded to the call of Wa… and we went. We took it upon ourselves to stay at the Catholic Spiritual Renewal Center, let’s just say we left 4 days later feeling renewed spiritually, thank you Wanye Spiritual Renewal Center. We aren’t sure if you had to be religious if you wanted to stay there, but they didn’t ask so we got the sister discount.

While in Wa, we met two classy gentlemen named LaCase and Maxwell. They became two very good friends and our personal tour guides. Not only did we take porridge, rice in a community bowl, and yam fufu, with these two cool cats, but they also showed us the Wa-Na (meaning chief of Wa) Palace complete with 42 rooms for each wife and a personal introduction to the CHIEF OF WA!!! The Wa-Na himself. Yes, we had to remove our flip flops and bow down and clap our hands 4 times before we could sit up and address the chief, well not the chief directly, but his personal sidekick. No one may talk directly to the Wa-Na but we think he kinda liked us so he let a few words slip and spoke to us. The reason for this could be that we received, personally from the Wa-Na himself, local tribal names. Katie is Tibuorataa meaning “let us love one another.” Meg is now known as Suntariba meaning “one who helps and looks after others.”

Sweetness of Sunyani

2010-04-28T14:56:00.000-07:00

From Takoradi, the second leg of our “Epic Journey” as we have so named it… began with a ever so lovely stay with the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Sunyani. Sunyani is in the Brong- Ahofo region up north. It was approximately 7 hours by tro-tro from Takoradi. Let’s just take a minute to discuss the horrific environment of a Ghanaian tro-tro. Small crowded buses from the 80’s (we’re not even sure how they are still running), jam packed with too many people sweating to death. Most of the time there are broken windows, rusted out floors, and a goat or chicken riding under the seats. On special occasions you will pick a seat where you can watch the road beneath you as you’re riding or perhaps you will choose the seat close to the gear shifter where the engine runs so hot it melts the bottom of your flip-flops… take your pick.

The SSND’s (sisters) were extremely hospitable and took excellent care of us. Our connection to these sisters comes from a very special person named Linda Cahill (Katie’s friend)… Linda’s mother’s cousin is a woman named Sister Kathleen Feely (could be one of the most incredible people on the face of the planet because neither of us can really see ourselves at 75+ kickin it in Ghana). Anyhow, Kathleen was a treat. We had our first bowl of cereal in 8 months (it was powdered milk made with water, but hey, it tasted great to us). We also were able to meet up with Sister Kate, who’s studying at the Catholic University in Sunyani as well as a few of the brothers who are studying and living there. Sunyani was a great place to rest and relax before we headed even farther into the bush country of Africa… Wa! – Wa is in the Upper West region.

2 Terms Down, 1 to go!!!

2010-04-28T14:50:00.000-07:00

Alright, first off… big apologies coming your way. Sorry readers. It’s been a little longer than usual. Katie and I have been a bit busy enjoying our last few months here in Ghana. We’re currently sitting in Takoradi while there are monsoon rains outside. Welcome RAINY SEASON!... This blog is going to be co-written, community effort.
Since our last blog we’ve been hitting up the beaches, loving our kiddos, and running a few workshops for the teachers. We had a nice Easter and on April 15th we wound up the 2nd term. Everything is going well on our end. The kids ended the term with their ever famous “Our Day.” Apparently this is a custom that happens all over Ghana on the last day of each term. We thought it was just something special for our school, oh well. The kids come dressed in their “house dress” as they call it. We have no classes, only music, dancing, fun, and eating. Then we let out of school at noon…. And off we went to Takoradi to begin our break from school starting in the most important place, the beach. FREEDOM!

New Picasa website

2010-03-11T10:34:00.000-08:00

We expended our storage capacity on our first Picasa website, so our second round of pictures can be found at this website.
http://picasaweb.google.com/katie.yohe/WliFalls1

photo update

2010-03-09T11:28:00.000-08:00

This is just a quick message to let you know that there are new photos on the picasa website!

Beach Adventures

2010-03-06T04:26:00.001-08:00

On Thursday morning, Megan, Sister Vero, and I took 50 students to Till's Beach for a field trip. It was SOOO much fun. We left around 930 and did not get back to school until 2:30. On our bus ride there the kids were singing and jumping around because they were so excited. Even though we are only about 20 min to the nearest beach, most of these kids have never seen the ocean. When we were about 5 miles away you could start to see the coastline. The kids went CRAZY. They could not contain their excitement and it was so neat to see. We parked at the resort, I went inside and paid, and we were off to the beach. The kids were so happy and so thankful to be there which was really cool to be a part of. We had a trash pick up first beacuse we have been talking about how important it is to help clean up the Earth. Then, we had relay races, played football, built sandcastles, and Megan and I even took one student at a time into the water. After doing this the kids worked up a little courage after being COMPLETELY TERRIFIED of the water. By the end of the day, they were all rolling around in the sand, splashing through the water, laying in the water, and acting like crabs. We brought water, juice boxes, and cookies for everyone to enjoy. Our day flew by and none of us wanted to leave. However, we needed to get the kids back to eat something before sending them home. Overall, it was a blast and the kids had their eyes opened WIDE. It was a lot of fun to be able to incorporate what we are studying in science- rocks, air, and water- to something real and tangible for them. I think we have definitely exposed these students to our love of the beach and we might even have some tag alongs next time we go ourselves.

It's About Time

2010-03-01T10:44:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!
I would first of all like to apologize for our lack of blogging. It seems we are so busy that it is hard to find time to sit and write about everything going on. I am going to try and catch ya'll up on what has been going on in GHANAAAAA.
First of all, I would like to say that it has not been an easy week for me. I found out on Thursday about a good friend of mine passing away in a traumatic accident. I am sure most of you heard about the death at SeaWorld. Dawn was a wonderful person, and I am really going to miss her. I was fortunate enough to have just spent some time with her while I was home in November for my grandfather's funeral. Needless to say, I will be dedicating a day in our classroom to Dawn - filled with SeaWorld photos, videos, and hopefully opening my student's eyes to Dawn's message of believing in the impossible and following your dreams.
With that said, let's get onto Ghana.
We are currently in our 7th month I believe. We have received our flight details for our return trip. Megan and I will be back in the States on July 2nd.... get ready 4th of July... here we come.
I cannot believe our time is going by so fast. Yes, we still have a lot left; but I know it is going to be so sad to say goodbye. It is hard to think about.
So I am sure you want to know what we have been up to. Life in the convent has been pretty great. Lots of comings and goings. Sister Maggie has been in Uganda for a while, Sister Mary has been in Cape Coast, Evelyn left for the States, and Comfort and Alice leave on March 12. However, we have some girls who are thinking of life as a religious who are here and they are a lot of fun. We have been having movie nights (Hitch, Happy Feet, Rudy, Armageddon, etc) which are fun to get the Ghanaian perspective on American movies. I think there is more explaining what is going on than understanding... but that is okay.
Last weekend I hosted a party. I told everyone to meet on the rooftop at 8 for drinks. And by everyone I mean all the Sisters. It was a great success. We listened to music, talked, and enjoyed ourselves.
Our classroom has been lots of fun recently. The students are doing so well. We have midterms this week and it is always exciting to see how much these guys are learning. It's pretty reassuring to us about the job we are doing. I would like to share one story that occured today that really made me laugh. The question was where does a fish live? On land, in the air, or in the water. My dear friend Nathaniel answered on land, so I asked him what fish lives on land. Without thinking, without a slight hesitation, he stands and responds, "Madam, a dead fish." I nearly lost it and had to explain the question read: Where does a fish LIVE? I was implying that a dead fish is not living. Good try Nathaniel, and thanks for the laugh.
I think it was 2 weeks ago that Meg and I decided we wanted to take a field trip. So one day I was planning some science things using a textbook from the US. I came across an idea that said take your students to a shoreline, to look at water, sand, and air. I said hmm... we are studying water, sand, and air, AND there is a beach not to far away. When we presented our idea to Sr. Esther she LOVED IT! So Megan and I will be taking our kids, along with Sr. Veronica and the 1st graders to the beach on Thursday. It will be the first time a lot of these kids have seen the ocean, even though they live less than 20 min away from it. We are pretty excited.
Well... thats it for now. We have a 4 day weekend coming up, so we will post after we have some exciting adventures. Most likely off to Accra for some pizza. I hope everyone is doing well. All my love - Katie

Moving Along, Filling the Void

2010-01-31T03:06:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!! (Oh, wait, it’s already February)
It’s been such a long time since Katie or I have written, but here we are. Better late than never, isn’t that what they say? School is back in full swing and our class size has grown from 23 students to 27 students all within one day during the second week of school. We have 4 new boys: Prince, George, and James and Joseph, who are twins. We’re now 16 girls and 11 boys.

Katie, myself, and Sister Vero are preparing to give our first workshop on February 20th focusing on classroom management type topics. None of us have ever planned something like this, we’ve attended them, but never planned them. So, we’re learning as we go and quickly, Katie and I, are falling into the role and lives of a teacher. We’ve gotten so much better, even in only a few months of teaching, at planning and running the classroom.

Well, since the last post, our visitors have come and gone and left a big lonely hole in my heart. We had a fabulous time. I will let Katie write about her adventures with John and Ann, but as for me and my gang, we had an unexplainable adventure. So, I will do my best to recap the highlights.

Such as: Michael attending an African Disco in a tiny village, Yeji, which we got stuck in one night with our new friend, Alfred. Returning after a few hours of fun, Michael entered the hostel room with only a few words before sleeping, “They dance weird!” OR, the female baboon and her baby that stole our toiletry bag from the table only inches from Adam while we all watched in disbelief. Jess simply stated, “Hey, she can’t have that.” While Michael was the only one to react by throwing a rock in her direction to scare her. She dropped the bag, but none of us could believe that a wild baboon literally had walked right up to the table where we were sitting and reached across Adam’s lap to steal our things. OR, the African Elephant that we came within 100 yard of on our safari done on foot at Mole National Park. OR our night spent in a tree platform in the middle of the forest, an hour hike from any other human beings, where elephants roamed below us to the watering hole in the middle of the night and baboons barked in the adjacent trees (On top of the fact that there were huge fire ants under our mosquito net, and it’s the Harmattan wind season and the temperature dropped from 95 degrees to 50 degrees within a few hours, and we only slept about 3 hours that night). OR the horrendous 4 hours tro-tro ride we were forced to take when the ferry we planned on taking didn’t arrive. Jess had a live chicken below her seat, Michael didn’t fit in the tro-tro, his legs are too long, so he was incredibly uncomfortable, I was supporting the sleeping man next to me for about 2 hours while he slept so that he didn’t fall on me, and Adam was squished in the middle with nowhere to go and nothing he could do about it. Everything we carried, including our entire bodies, was covered in a thick layer of red dust by the end (not to mention we were sitting 5 across in a van that’s meant to sit 3 across, maybe 4 if it’s 4 smaller people. OR, spending New Years Eve on top of a mountain in Hohoe, overlooking the Wli Falls and the mountains separating Togo from Ghana. We hiked an hour up the mountain with a guide named Alphonso and then he cleared away from bush grass and we made camp in the dirt with no tents and nothing but a fire and mosquito nets. It was an incredible night. Such beauty in a place filled with so much desolation and despair. It was a pretty remarkable experience to be so close to nature and to the earth.

There are a thousand more stories I could tell, but just not the time and room to do it on here. We journaled our experiences, so once that is typed up, I will attach it to the blog and you can read a day-by-day account of our trip.

Here at the house, Jemilla, has become my constant shadow and I have come to thoroughly enjoy the company of this 4-year old. She brings such joy to my life. We do everything together. She helps me clean, do laundry, cook, organize the classroom, and in exchange I give her my freindship, and help her with homework while giving her someone to always rely on at the house. I am already dreading my good-bye to her. She has given me so much that she doesn't even realize. She is such a blessing. It may sound strange, but a 4 year old can do incredible things to a person's life.

I am working on planning my return trip from Ghana and tentatively, I am planning on flying into Chicago on the evening of July 9th! So, Fort Wayne, get ready, here I come!!!

I can’t speak for Katie, but I am definitely missing home; mostly friends and family, but also the comforts of living. We do the best we can to carry our crosses each day here, no matter how heavy they are, but there are times of weakness and longing for the ease of living in The States. Every day I pray for strength to find Christ in every part of life here. Sometimes I find it unexpectedly, but there are times when I struggle to see Him at all. And there are days when I go to bed feeling empty and, in a way, angry, for not being able to find any hope that day. But, the sun always comes up and I get to try again the next day. I’ve come to realize that God gives up what we need when we need it. Not always what I WANT, but definitely what I NEED. Sister Veronica sings a song to me most days, “One day at a time, sweet Jesus,” and we laugh because this really has become a motto for living here. You just have to make it to the end of each day without giving up and then you can start fresh the next day.

Videos are up on youtube. Jess brought a DVD of them home to upload them to Youtube for us since the internet can’t handle it here. Go to http://www.youtube.com/ and search “jchubins” and you will find the videos from Africa. There are more, but those are the ones we had room for on the DVD.

Please, know that we are thinking of each of you always and counting down the days until we return home. You are always in our prayers. And remember, live each moment the best way you know how, and never take anything for granted! Love those around you with everything your heart has to offer, find joy in the simplicities of life, and take pleasure in the company of your loved ones!! Until next time!

Peace,
Meg

We're Dreaming of a White Christmas

2009-12-22T08:39:00.001-08:00

Hello bloggers!!!

Megan and Katie here (we’re going to tag team this blog, it’s been a while since we’ve written a blog together).

We’re just sitting here enjoying a nice Ghanaian biscuit on Tuesday afternoon, 3 days before Christmas… precious babe Jesus is on his way, but don’t forget, Katie’s Bday is first (December 24^th)…. She paves the way for little JC. Just in case you were wondering, there’s no snow in Ghana so we tried building a snowman with the dirt but it failed miserably. Then, we tried cutting down a palm tree, but the ornaments wouldn’t stay on the branches. Failure #2… So instead we are singing “White Christmas” and truly dreaming that there’s snow. Then we go to church where they sing the opening hymn to the tune of “Jingle Bells” (But it’s not the words to jingle bells, it’s the words to a church song, ironic) so naturally, Katie and I find ourselves singing “Jingle Bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh, hey!” and no one notices because they’re singing their own words. It really is a nice set-up… we get our Christmas song fix while at church.

And just in case you’re all wondering, because we know you are, Katie and I spent yesterday decorating the dinging room for Christmas. We must say, we outdid ourselves. If you closed the blinds and ignored the heat you would think you were in Rockafeller Center on Christmas morning.

So school ended last Thursday and Katie and I took off on Friday morning for an adventure in the village of Hohoe. 1. We had no idea what we were doing. 2. We didn’t arrive until midnight, 4 hours late (thanks to the marvelous public transportation). 3. We met our guardian angel, George who took us in for the night. 4. We saw the most breathtaking waterfalls (largest in West Africa). 5. We fed Mona monkeys bananas from our hands in the jungle.

We discovered the joys of hopping from one tro-tro to another as our means of transportation the whole 4 hours back to Accra. We decided to try this method out after the “organized” STC Bus from Accra made us 4 hours late on the way to Hohoe.

So, back to George… naturally, arriving in a tiny village at midnight means no taxis running, so no way to get to our hotel… now what? Well that’s when George comes in. He recognized the look of desperation on our lost faces and offered to let us stay with his family for the night. It took us about .3 seconds to agree. We were exhausted. George literally gave us his bed to sleep in, fed us eggs in the morning for breakfast, fetched us water to bath with, and personally walked us to the taxi station in the morning so we could get to our hotel.

Once checked in, we headed off for the Agumatsa Wildlife Sanctuary where we met a guide named Samuel who hiked the 45 minutes with us into the jungle to the Wli Waterfalls. We paid Samuel 5 cedis to leave us at the waterfalls to explore on our own. For two hours Katie and I swam, and just took in the beauty of the falls. They were amazing. Such power and awesomeness. It literally took our breath away when we got close enough to the falls. Of course I thought it would wise to just swim in my underwear so that I didn’t have to hike with wet clothes on the way back. It was all fine and dandy for the first 2 hours until a group of picnickers came all of the sudden… oh well. They didn’t seemed phased by the crazy American in her underwear. There were hundreds of butterflies in every color imaginable and fruit bats by the thousands.

After our hike back to the hotel, we ordered our first real meal since Thursday night. We were famished. Other than the eggs at George’s house, we had been running on granola bars and Finding Nemo fruit snacks. Our meal was followed by a 4.5 hour nap and then a quick snack of French fries, ice cream, and pineapple. And back to sleep we went.

Waking up at 5:30am, we departed our hotel for Logba where we jumped on motor bikes that took us to the Tafi-Atome Monkey Sanctuary. Here, our guide Daniel took us to the jungle where we fed Mona monkeys. Yes, Katie, miss I hate animals, even fed a monkey and enjoyed it. I was pretty much in a state of ecstasy.

From here, we began our long journey back to Accra. Once back to our familiar stomping ground we found some pizza, and met a family from America who was in Ghana on vacation from Nigeria. They live on a compound in Nigeria because of the husband’s job with Shevron Oil. It was so nice to talk some other Americans.

Anyways, we are safely back in Kasoa and definitely got a true taste of Ghana this weekend.

Only 2 more days until Katie’s Birthday and Adam, Michael, and Jess arrive!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And Happy New Year!

Much Love,

Katie and Meg

We're Dreaming of a White Christmas

2009-12-22T08:39:00.000-08:00

Hello bloggers!!!

Megan and Katie here (we’re going to tag team this blog, it’s been a while we’ve done that).

Anyways, we are safely back in Kasoa and definitely got a true taste of Ghana this weekend.

Only 2 more days until Katie’s Birthday and Adam, Michael, and Jess arrive!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And Happy New Year!

Much Love,

Katie and Meg

"Waiting"

2009-12-16T10:45:00.000-08:00

Hello All,
Katie here. It has definitely been a long time. I hope this blog post finds everyone doing well. Things have been pretty busy here in Ghana and I am going to try my hardest to keep you up on everything. As for us saying we were going to do this weekly... haha whoops! But as we are in the 3rd week of Advent, and temperatures averaging in the high 90's... I am still not believing that Christmas is 9 days away.
Life in the classroom is going great. Since I got back from the States, Meg and I have been doing lots of fun things with the kids. We made caterpillars after reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar, started animals in science and the kids are loving it, keeping up with addition facts in math, and teaching the students about Advent in Religious and Moral Education. Meg has been giving them a new prayer each week, and we light candles in the room. The kids are OBSESSED with the candles and had a slight heart attack when they saw a green candle... (we are using green because we couldn't find pink). It is the little things that crack me up with these kids.
Today in school we had our Christmas Play that Meg busted her butt working on. It was AMAZING. The kids did an awesome job and it was adorable. I am sure she wants to talk about it, but I just had to mention it because it was not only hilarious but so good for only 6-10 year olds. I posted a pic of the wisemen from the play... Samuel I., Nana, and Isaac N.
The title of this blog post is WAITING, coming from the meaning of Advent, and describing the feeling Meg and I share right now. We are both not only WAITING for Christmas, but waiting for the end of this first term in the classroom, and waiting for our visitors to arrive in Ghana.
Tomorrow is our last day before break and the kids call it "Our Day". Basically, they come to school from 10-2 to eat, play games, and receive gifts. I am pretty excited to see them each get their own bag of little presents. You have to remember there is no Santa Clause here, so this is most likely all they will receive this holiday season.

Meg and I have big travel plans coming up so I am going to wait to blog about that when we get back. We are going to Wli Falls in the eastern region of Ghana. It will just be us two so wish us luck, and stay tuned for an update.

Other than that, life is good. I am still thrilled to be here. Even though it is disappointing being in 90 degree weather when it should be snowing... to have Christmas here is going to be something to remember forever.

10 More Hours

2009-12-05T03:10:00.000-08:00

Ahhhh Hello everyone! We’re back in action. Sorry it’s been so long since the last blog update. There are new pictures posted on the Picasa page so check those out.

Since you last heard from us we’ve had celebration after celebration. Including a genuine Thanksgiving dinner thanks to the sisters’ hard work in gather and preparing all that they could to make Katie, myself, and Sister Veronica feel like we were at home in the States. We have turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, pumpkin and apple pie, and even pilgrim and Indian decorations, compliments of Katie and Comfort’s artistic abilities. From the bottom of our hearts, Katie and I want you all to know how thankful we are for each and every one of you who supports us!

We’ve had the past two Fridays off of school due to national holidays. December 4th is national Farmer’s Day. It is a day honoring the farmers who saved the people of Ghana during a drought and famine in the 80’s. Without their hard work the country would not have survived.

Katie made it back safely to Ghana after returning home to be with her family as they buried her grandfather. She was so happy to see everyone and had a fabulous time in Florida (she’s got the battle wounds to prove it: during an intense game of kickball on the beach she wiped out when rounding third base). Plus, she got to drive, eat a big Mac, and spend time with the girls from Saint Mary’s who surprised her at the airport (Ash, Jen, Bender, Lindsay). The kids were so cute when I told them why Katie wasn’t going to be at school for the week. We said a little prayer together and a few of them even cried. They are such little “Love Bugs.”

Needless to say, I simply “survived” 10 days alone in Ghana. Definitely missed Katie a lot and was worn out by the time she returned. Handling the classroom alone was a big task. It’s not like handling a classroom at home in the US alone. At home, when it’s time to take the kids to art, music, gym, computers, library, there’s a teacher waiting there to take them off the classroom teachers’ hands for a short time. This gives the teachers time to plan and get ready for the next lesson. NOT the case here. We have them from 7am-4pm straight with a 30 minutes break for lunch. We teach art, music, computers, library, PE… EVERYTHING. So it’s go, go, go all the time without any prep. breaks.

We’ve recently been having a lot of electricity shortages. We’ve been whole days without power and then there’s some days when the power goes on and off continually throughout the day. So this has made communication tough the past few weeks. I’ve ben talking to my mom, dad, Michael, Adam, and Jess quite a bit though to get them ready to come to Ghana. Only 19 more days!!! Woo hoo! I CANNOT WAIT for them to be here.

Oh, just a side note, I did contract ringworm, but it’s pretty much cleared up now. So that’s good. I’ve still been running a few days a week and actually starting to enjoy it (for those of you who know me, you know that I hate running, and I only ever did it b/c I felt guilty if I didn’t exercise, amazing!)

Sister Theresa returned from the rehabilitation hospital last week with her new prosthetic leg. She is doing well and making good progress every day as she learns to walk again.

Some funny things that have happened in the classroom recently:
1. Well, one of our little dears, Samuel A., came to school with new sandels. He’s so proud of them. They are actually girls sandals but who cares. They are little red rubber sandals with a blue buckle. Adorable.
2. This past week, while the kids were working in groups on animals, we were telling them, “okay, 10 more minutes. Okay, 5 more minutes.” Etc. Then Nathaniel comes up to us and, very seriously, asks… “Please Madame, can we have 10 more hours? Just 10? (he meant 10 minutes but it made Katie and I laugh pretty much for about 5 minutes)
3. Nicolina shouted “shit” in the middle of class this week. It’s a pretty loosely used word around here and it doesn’t mean the same thing as it does at home. I don’t even think the kids really know what it means other than they hear it from other people. So we had a good laugh over that too.
4. The kids also decided (very logically) that since I am approximately 1.5 months older than Madame Katie, I will be dying first. I tried to get them to explain their reasoning and they said it’s b/c I’m older. So lucky you, Katie! Anyways, one little girl, Elizabeth O. got really worked up about the whole thing while we were discussing it and stood up and shouted, “NO ONE IS DYING!” That put an end to that. I found it pretty amusing.
5. I was reading a chapter of “Charlotte’s Web” to the kids and all of the sudden I feel this little hand rubbing my calf. It’s Samuel A. I don’t really shave my legs in Ghana. So Samuel finds it really amazing that I have blonde hair on my legs. I don’t even know if he noticed he was doing it, but I just kept reading as if nothing was wrong and in the back on my mind I’m thinking, “oh, my God! This kids is fascinated with my leg hair” I almost lost it!

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us here in Ghana. We need it!

Love, Katie and Meg

May God Bless you Now!

2009-11-11T09:12:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!

Yes, as many of you may know, I turned 23 last Wednesday: November 4th!!! Woo hoo!!! I can't believe I actually got to celebrate my birthday in Ghana. It was a fabulous day. Ama and Elliham baked me a cake and, of course, we had ice cream. My day started with a delicious home cooked meal of oats, fresh bread, and oranges! I arrived at school to find the classroom beautifully decorated by none other than Madame Katie herself. Balloons, posters, the works! The kids sang Happy Birthday to me about a million times (THEY SING LOUD too). We had birthday lollipops and each kid got a special sticker. I had students bring me cookies, juice, a necklace, all sorts of fun things (things that I know they cannot afford, but they still bought them anyways.) It is officially, 1 week after my bday and I am still receiving odds and ends from the kids. They LOVE to celebrate! Then, for lunch we had Fufu and Groundnut soup, my favorite. To end the school day, the whole school sang to me at assembly. I don't know if I've ever felt so happy! Then, after praying the rosary at Auntie Mary's house in the community, we came back and had a celebration, the sister way! We had the cake and ice cream, the sisters bought me a birthday Smirnoff Ice, we danced and sang and just had a fantastic evening!

I received a piece of beautiful cloth and a card from the sisters along with a basket full of "nonsense" if you will. Here in Ghana it's a tradition to present the birthday person with a basket full of all their favorite things. So, I received a basket with a pineapple, Mp3Player, a picture of Adam, some oats, fish (as a joke), custard, peanut M&M's, etc. It's so cute. They have a little presentation ceremony and everything.

The birthday song sung the Ghanaian way:

"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. How old are you now? How old are you now? How old are you now? How old are you now? (birthday celebrant answers) I am -23- years now. I am -23- years old. I am -23- years old. I am -23- years old. I am -23- years old. May God bless you now. May God bless you now. May God bless you now. May God bless you now."

In between all this action, we also celebrated Halloween with the kids and we celebrated jemillah's 4th birthday. Ironically, today is also Sister Martina's bday! We are a house full of November born. We shared all the traditions of Halloween with the kids and they got to draw their own pumpkins. We recently received a package from Ann Yohe with candy corn in it, so we will be giving that to the kids. They thought it was crazy that we dress in weird clothes, but the ABSOLUTELY loved the idea of simply knocking on some one's door, saying "trick or treat" and getting candy from it. We told them... "and by the end of the night, you have so many toffees (that's what they call candy here) you won't know what to do with them." Their eyes were as big as pumpkins. So the Monday after Halloween, they got to practice their "trick or treat" lines on Katie and I and receive some candy.

For Jemillah's birthday, I baked her a banana bread cake that she got to put 4 candles in and make a wish. She was dressed in her cute little party dress all day long. It was so cute. By the end of the day the dress was a mess, proof that she had a successful birthday.

Weather here is still... hot, and hot! - I've become a professional sweater! Our class garden is doing well, Isaac N. and I built our own trellis for the cucumbers to climb. It looks likes something from Gilligan's Island, but it's sturdy and will work, so we were happy! Speaking of happy, I am getting so excited for Adam and Michael to come... word on the street has it that Jess Chubinski will also be coming for an extended stay to travel around Ghana... Jess?? Is this true?

From October 28-November 4th all the sisters, minus Comfort, Alice, Cynthia, Monica (the candidates), and Mary were in Uganda for an area planning meeting. So, we took it upon ourselves to have a grand old time. We went to Accra for the day, we spent two days at Till's Beach (took a picnic and everything and got to watch little kids literally climb the coconut trees to get the coconuts down to sell them), Had a party on the veranda where we ate popcorn and sang songs (just fyi: Sister Mary busted out her spoons to accompany our singing, she's a pretty skilled "spoon player"). Throughout the week of October 26th (Monday - Thursday) the kids took their mid-semester exams. For the most part, a success. There's no national testing, so we make all the tests on our own. Then, we had Friday October 30 and Monday November 2nd off of school. So on top of having a 4 day weekend, the younguns' had the house to ourselves! But OF COURSE, on Thursday, to end our short week, we had to have a little drama in our lives. We had about an hour of monsoon type downpour rains. The kids were trapped in the classroom so the school bus had to drive the food to each classroom so they could eat. Ahh Africa, each day it's a new adventure.

On the topic of adventures... This past Sunday morning I woke up and couldn't even get out of bed. I had a sore throat and my body ached... my first thought: malaria!!! So Monday morning Sister Evelyn took me to the Kasoa Clinic to get a blood test done. Thankfully it was negative, however, the doctor found an infection in my throat. It's not Wednesday evening and I'm feeling 110%!!! The clinic was quite different from a doctor's office at home. The paperwork was very unofficial they just took my name, age, and phone number. I didn't even have to prove if I was in the country legally. There were SOOOO many people there. Babies crying, angry mothers, tired nurses, the whole bit! It was a regular nightmare for someone sick and not feeling well. But that is that, and I'm better and that's all that matters.

Please keep Katie and I in your prayers, as well as the students and the school.

My love to all!
Meg

Please Madame, I must Urinate

2009-10-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

Let me first say, there are NEW PICTURES up on Picasa. So type the web address that is to the left into your browser and you will be able to view the new album.

Katie and I have been busy bees over the past few days. So, here is tid bit of what we have been up to...

First of all, last weekend we set up a Day of the Dead altar in our chapel here at the convent. Sister Veronica arranged it all so we got to have an evening of sharing where everyone presented their pictures and names of people that they wanted to be remembered on the altar. I shared my grandpa's name and Aunt Annie. Katie shared the names of her uncle and a close friend from high school. It was a really nice way for us all to share.

Okay, so last week was full of fun adventures! I'll work backwards. On Sunday, Katie and I drove with the sisters to Kumasi (it is up North in the Ashanti Region). Very lush and green and full of life. Much different from Kasoa, which hasn't had rain in weeks. We went to celebrate Brother Daniel's jubilee with his family at his home parish. The drive was about 4 hours, I was a little cramped in the backseat that's made for 2 people with Alice and Comfort and myself. It was good to see all of the brothers though.

On Saturday, Katie and I went and checked out a beach called Till's Beach. It's about 40 minutes from the house and pretty easy to get to. Esther and Maggie dropped us off and we found our own way home by taxi and trotro. It was really awesome and we have decided since it's so close, we will be returning often. On the way home we were excited to be on our own and figure out how to get back. But of course, just our luck, our taxi breaks down in the middle of nowhere. So the driver takes about 20 minutes, dismembers the entire backseat and changed the fuel line. Magically it was fine and we made it to the main junction where we then hopped on a trotro which took us to the junction near the convent. Since it was late by this time, due to our slow taxi, we have to walk the rest of the way home in the dark, but WE MADE IT! It was a good experience for us.

Last Thursday, I decided to go running after school, but one of the students, Isaac Nyame, asked me to ride my bike to his house so that he could follow me on the bike while I ran. Sounded great to me, so I rode my bike to his house and we went for a run together. He took me to Stella Aikin's house, another student. I got to meet her mother and father and watch them prepare fufu for dinner. Her little sister, Elizabeth, a nursery student at the school, was so excited that the Obruni teacher came to visit. Then we proceeded to Eugenia/Sherifatu's house. She lives in a compound housing area with her mother, grandma, sister, about 7 cousins, and even more second cousins. Eugenia's cousin Kofi (an older man who is a worker at the school) and his wife gave birth to triplets only 5 days prior to that. INCREDIBLE. You should have seen these little cuties. Of course I had to hold them all. They were so tiny. The mother was in a lot of pain and isn't able to breast feed due to the medicine that she is taking. She was in a coma after the labor. She is getting better, but it's hard for them to feed the babies. Formula is not cheap here. As with many things here, day by day, that's all they can do. On the way home, I stopped at Isaac's to greet his mother.

Anyways, the next evening, I took Katie back and we did the same thing. Isaac took us to Stella's and to Eugenia's to see the babies. We had a blast.

To end, I would like to give you two lists! First, a list of the things that I miss the most from home. Second, a list of all the ironic/funny things that I have encountered while in Ghana that make me laugh. No doubt, this list is probably pretty close to the same for Katie

THINGS MOST MISSED (or you could say taken for granted)- in no particular order

1. A cold glass of 2% milk
2. Cereal for breakfast
3. My pillow
4. My cats
5. Dryer sheets/fabric softener that make clothes actually smell good after it's been washed
6. Being able to brush my teeth with H2O from the faucet instead of from a water bottle
7. Air conditioning
8. Clean air to breathe (they burn pretty much everything here including all trash)
9. Guaranteed electricity (unless you live in Indiana during an ice storm, but that doesn't count)
10. The fall weather
11. Football games (Bishop Luers, Notre Dame, and the Bears)
12. Shade (you just can't fin any here)
13. Root beer
14. Cheese
15. Hot showers
16. The smell of my house
17. Verizon fios
18. Driving
19. Mass being said in English
20. Holding hands during the Our Father (they don't do that here)
21. A vacuum cleaner (instead of a wicker broom the length of my forearm)
22. Going to the grocery store
23. Laying on a couch
24. Chicken on the grill with my dad's potatoes
25. Steak
26. Subway sandwich
27. American TV (let me tell you, the TV here is brutal, absolutely brutal)

MOST IRONIC, FUNNY, and DIFFERENT THINGS

1. One of my students came to school wearing Playboy Bunny socks last week... he has no idea.
2. The same student was seen after school wearing a Beauty and the Beast tshirt with Belle's face on the front, he's a boy.
3. About a month ago I saw a girl wearing a shirt that said, "Everyone Loves a blonde"... she definitely was Ghanaian
4. All the shops, taxi's, cars, trucks, vans, etc. have religious names such as "By the Grace Hair Salon," or "God is Alive Electrical Works"
5. You can golf at the Takoradi Golf Course for the equivalent of about $7
6. They call pharmacies, "chemical stores"
7. When the students fall or hurt themselves, they say "it's paining me" instead of just saying it hurts.
8. They call their butt "buttocks"
9. They call trash- rubbish and they trashcan the "dustbin"
10. Instead of going to the play ground, they go to the "playing ground"
11. Before every meal in the canteen at school, the student pray and then all say "Madame, you are invited." Here, it's polite to invite those around you to the meal you're eating, even if you know they aren't going to eat with you.
12. I can't tell you how many times a day I hear, "Madame, please I must Urinate" or "Madame, I must wee wee" or "Madame, I have to poopoo" or "Madame, Please, the wee wee is coming"- and it's the washroom or urinal, not the bathroom.
13. To answer yes and no questions, they children all say "please yes or please no" and they stand up from their chair every time they are called on in class. Very classy.
14. On Sunday, a huge truck that said "Humble Thy Self" in the back window cut across the intersection and cut us off, ironic.
15. There is one little boy who wears pink barbie shoes with rainbow socks, again, he has no clue. But let me tell you, it makes me smile every morning. He's one of the best students in the class.

It's Party Time

2009-10-21T13:41:00.000-07:00

Hellllloooo Blog Readers! Again it has been some time since we last wrote. It seems that even though life in Ghana is more slow paced we are still moving a mile a minute. School and teaching has us pretty busy most days, and we just can never find the time to sit down and "blog". So I apologize for that and hopefully we can make a change so we can do this more often. We really do enjoy keeping you all up to date on our adventures so here I go... this is what we have been up to. Besides life in the classroom... Meg and I find ourselves just hanging out around the convent. We are currently trying to get some travel plans together. Not only this weekend, but next weekend when all of the Sisters go to Uganda for a meeting, and of course our Christmas break. This just in: Megans fiance Adam and her brother Michael will be coming to visit us!!! We are SOOO excited for our first visitors that our planning has already begun more than 2 months in advance. So Adam and Michael... I am hope you are ready for your own adventures in Ghana. As for this weekend... I think Meg and I will either go into Accra for a little adventure or try to find a close by beach where we can hang out. We have exams next week in school... so we don't need to plan a whole lot since we already wrote our exams. As for next weekend... I can't wait. As much as I love all of the Sisters sooo much, it is going to be Meg, myself, the two candidates Alice and Comfort, and the other two soon to be candidates Monica and Cynthia. We are the youngsters in this house of 12 and we all like to have a good time. This passed weekend everyone was travelling except us 6 and we had a lovely time. We made food, got some drinks, and sat under the veranda on the rooftop singing, dancing, being silly, and enjoying each other's company. I am not sure I ever prayed before a party... but it was great! And I know I have sang religious songs... somehow YES LORD YES LORD YES YES LORD always seemed to make its way out at every party we threw at my apartment last year. Anyway... we had a great time and I am looking forward to another weekend with these girls.

Punishment

2009-10-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

I have been asked a couple of times about discipline in our school. In Ghana, there is a law about how you handle behavior problems at school. The law is... anything goes. So, at Our Lady of Holy Cross School, we have our own rules. The only person who can hit the children is the headmistress. However, that rarely happens. This passed week we had a couple of issues in our classroom. We had two girls cheat on a spelling test, and three students who just could not behave. When this happens, I take them down to talk to Sister Esther. When you mention that you are taking them down to Sister Esther or Maggie... their eyes start swelling, tears start flowing, and the look is TERROR. However, in order for it to work, we must follow through and actually take them down there to get their punishment.

For the behavior problems, the students had to hold their ears and bend down 50 times saying "I am sorry Madam Katie". For the one boy who has been a problem since nursery, he was taken into the back room to get a little "love tap" on his hands. Needless to say they behaved for the rest of the week after this incident. As sad as it was to see them cry, I could not help but laugh imagining what would happen if this was the procedure in the United States. On that note... for our two cheaters... Sister Esther was so upset and angry that students are already cheating in 2nd grade... she said she will not cane them. Instead, they picked weeds in front of the school from 8:30am until 1pm. Students who came late also joined our cheaters. They were then told to apologize to the class, and during the test today... we had no cheaters. Thank goodness!

Miss us?

2009-10-09T11:02:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!
It has certainly been a long time since we last blogged. We would like to apologize for that, and hopefully we can do a couple of blog posts here today, as well as make it a weekly event from now on. Things have been busy here in Ghana to say the least. School is going great and we are really into the swing of things. It is really nice to have a routine. I am going to give you a day in the life for a typical day of school for Meg and me.

Wake up: This varies depending on our crazy late nights bar hopping... oh wait. There are no bars here in Kasoa. A normal wake up time is between 6 and 6:30am. We get dressed, eat some breakfast, and head down to the school by 7ish.

School: School does not officially start until 8am. But you must remember we are in Ghana, therefore time does not matter. If the bus drops off all the kids by 7:30 then school will start at 7:31. So for the kids who walk... they just need to get here early just incase. We have students who are at school by 6:45... and those who show up late all the time.

We are in school all day until 2:45. At least the actual teaching goes on until 2:45. Because there is one bus and two trips... we have students who stay after school, therefore we must stay at school with them until around 4pm. Meg and I have worked out a nice routine where the kids can do homework, we play review games, and sometimes I like to play soccer with the older kids as Meg mothers the young ones.

During the school day... life is pretty much to the schedule. We have classe like math, science, english, phonetics, religion, spelling, technology, library, music, pe, creativity and then Ghanaian Language and French which we don't teach. So twice a week we have a "prep" time when the Ghanaian Language and French teacher come in. Meg and I have it worked out where she teaches the phonics, I teach the science and math, and then we sort of split everything else. It works out pretty well.

After school we are both exhausted. We have rosary, holy hour, and evening mass a couple of times during the week, and then we plan.

So far so good. We are enjoying ourselves and each day brings new challenges that we can't help but laugh at.

No Shaved Legs?

2009-09-23T09:47:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, we're still alive! Sorry that it's been so long since our last post. Time is flying here and we quickly became absorbed in teaching and school. A lot has happened since we last wrote so let me begin by informing everyone that Katie and I are loving our classroom... despite the challenges and the language barrier. Last Tuesday, September 15, marked the first day of school. The students spent the entire first day doing nothing but staring and gawking at us. I mean EVERY student, not just the second graders in our room.... the entire school! On the way to lunch when we would pass the little guys, they would stop and touch our skin and pull all our little arm hairs, pick at our freckles, and one went so far as to even lick Katie to see what she tasted like. Our students are slowly settling into the routine that we have made for them but it will take some more time to get them adjusted. They had a slightly inattentive teacher last year so they have to idea how to act in a classroom. So all 20 of our students need a little redirection.

We ended the first week with tears at the end of the day. All we can say is, "Attack of the Ants." The ants had invaded our classroom without us knowing, so at the end of the day, Nicolina's bag was absolutely covered in ants. She cried and cried and would not touch her bag so Katie and I had to clean it for her. This week began with Isaac bringing Katie and I our first teacher apples!!!! It was so cute! We also had a little "wee-wee" problem. One student asked to visit the urinal but I told him no because we had just gone only 45 mins. before that. We are trying to get them on a schedule so that people aren't leaving the classroom every minute to go to the washroom. Well, this students took me very seriously so we a bit of an accident. He had to wear a cloth around him like a dress for the rest of the day, I felt so bad, but trust me, Katie and I had trouble holding in the laughter. We never realized how hard it would be to teach with one another in the same room and not laugh at inappropriate times. We also discovered that one of our students cannot read at all. She does not even know her letters, so.... we'll just have to work on that. We have a lot of work to do, but we've already made tons of progress. Today, there were some younger children visiting our classroom and started fighting... All of the sudden our students started explaining to the younger kids that we don't hit (or no beating as they call it) in our classroom. It was so cute to see them referring to our rules on the wall to teach the younger kids.... so, we are getting through to them. They really love to do the vowel dance that we've taught them and we also love acting out how a seed grows into a big plant with the help of rain and sun and soil! Slowly but surely we're getting there.

On a different note, Katie and I recently informed the girls at the convent that we shave our legs in the U.S.! They were so confused. "Why would you do that? Men love the hair!" ---- Here, the men find leg hair attractive. They don't understand why we would get rid of it, when some of them wish for more. So weird! Anyways, Comfort likes to sneak up behind Katie to feel her shaved legs. They thinks it's so fascinating. They also call razors: blade sticks.

This past weekend Katie and I attended the Jubilee celebration in Cape Coast. There were 4 brothers who celebrated 25, 40, and 50 years as professed religious in the Holy Cross Congregation. AND, exciting, Brother Vincent made his final vows. The whole day was colorful, full of music and dancing, and good food. Sr. Maggie, Sr. Veronica, Katie and I stayed behind in Cape Coast to spend the night with the brothers while everyone else returned to Kasoa. We enjoyed some good conversation and delicious food with the brothers. We met a bunch of the brothers who we will be spending time with in the future while here in Ghana. The following day, on Sunday, we attended mass at the brother's church and then went to Brother Mike's house in Takoradi where his mother was throwing a second celebration party. Brother Michael is only home in Ghana for a short time before he returns to University of Dayton to continue his education. We got try the some true Ghanaian food, including gizzard for the first time. yum yum! On a sad note, there are 8 cute little 2-week old puppies at the brother's house but on Sunday, the mother died so the brothers are going to have to hand raise them on cow's milk. It was so sad, they were crying all night long for their mom!

If all goes as planned, Katie and I will go to Accra this weekend to stay with a friend, Amy who we know through Katie's aunt Mimi (who just had her baby! Girl #3, Siena... Congrats!)

If anyone is interested in donating, some of the kids are having trouble paying for book fees. Let us know. The money can be sent to Sister Madeline in South Bend.

Also, any letters that you wish to send (not packages) can be sent to this address:
Sisters of the Holy Cross
P.O. Box KS437
Kasoa, C/R, Ghana

P.S check out pictures on picasa!

Love to all! - Katie and Meg

This and That

2009-09-10T13:18:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday Katie and I were fortunate enough to venture to Cape Coast again to attend an annual festival known as Oguaa Fetu Afahye. We were first treated to lunch at Coconut Grove, a resort on the ocean. Sister Esther and Sr. Maggie sure know how to entertain. It was classy and delicious. I ate chicken cooked in mushroom and coconut sauce with potatoes on the side. Katie had a chicken basket with french fries. So, chilling, relaxing at the beach...we decided to test out our feet in the water. Hiking up our skirts we kicked off our shoes and walked on the beach. Comfort thought it was a brilliant idea to climb on the rocks near by. Naturally Katie and I followed. Hey, if Comfort was doing it, it must be okay. We were just getting ready to pose for a picture that Sr. Veronica was going to take and we were pleasantly surprised by a giant wave that decided to grace us with its presence. Just moments before, the water was calm and no where near the rocks. Ha! Esther said the ocean did it on purpose and it heard us on the rocks and thought that we wanted to swim. We were soaked! All the people at the restaurant got a kick out of it too. We felt like we were Ariel in The Little Mermaid when she sits on the giant rock, singing, and the waves crash around her.

Anyways, moving on to the festival... Before we got there, we stopped at a Shell gas station and purchased ice cream! YUM! Okay, festival...People everywhere, music, drums, dancing! The whole nine yards. We parked the car and walked to where the "parade" procession was and found our way to the public square. There were chiefs being carried in wooden chairs on top of men's heads. Their were people drumming for their chiefs and dancing all around him. We got to see the chief of Cape Coast as well as the president of Ghana, Atta Mills. There were women carrying wooden stools on their heads. These stools are believed to hold the spirits of that particular tribe's ancestors. These women are chosen by their tribe to have the honor of carrying the stool. In Ghana, each stool is unique and has a different meaning. There are symbols carved in them that represent things such as "serve God" or "Go back to your roots." It was really interesting and definitely a custom and ritual that we know nothing about, but we are learning.

FYI: Comfort has mastered the bicycle!!! Next we need to work on swimming!

So far, this week has consisted of preparing for school to begin and meeting the bishop of our diocese here. Earlier in the week, Esther and Maggie took Katie, Veronica, and myself into Accra to purchase supplies for the school. Needless to say, Katie and I have quickly become increasingly creative as we attempt to make our absolutely bare room come to life. I am beginning to appreciate all the access to teaching materials I had while student teaching.

Today (Thursday), Katie and I were taken to Cape Coast again, only this time for official business. We went to the Secretariat office of the bishop to introduce ourselves. He was a wonderful man and excited to meet us.

Our little friend Jamilla has become our shadow in this past week since we met her. She is anxious to help us and loves following us wherever we go, even if we're doing laundry. She is absolutely adorable and so lovable. Her laugh is so innocent and makes everyone around the house happy. She helped Katie and I in our classroom for hours the other day. Jamillah loves our room and can't help herself when she gets to play with things like our cameras, video camera, MP3Player, computer... she finds it so fascinating. She also loves listening to my music after I return from a run. She says, "please, put it in my ear." Today, as we departed for Cape Coast, she held my hand while I explained that we had to leave for a meeting. She looked at me and flatly said, "No, you can't!" I said, "But we have to." ... "Please don't go, stay here." She finally allowed me to leave when I promised her that we would be back later today and she could play with us then. Sure enough, she was waiting for us when we pulled in the gate.

Remove the Training Wheels

2009-09-03T07:59:00.000-07:00

Hello from Ghana! Meg and I are sitting here thinking about what would be interesting to all of you. We came up with a couple of good stories. So buckle your seat belts... this is going to be a crazaayyyyy ride. Hereeee weee gooo: 1. We are teaching Comfort how to ride a bike. It could possibly be the funniest thing to watch- Seinfeld and Conon O'Brien have nothing on us. Because there are no paved roads or flat surfaces... it is quite the adventure. I don't think words can capture what occurs during each lesson... so once my computer gets fixed... we will upload some videos for your enjoyment. 2. Kwame, our good friend/tour guide, took us into Accra. He told us to wear walking shoes and bring h20, however, I don't own pillows for my feet which would have been the ONLY thing to keep me from getting blisters after the amount of walking we did (roughly 15 miles). Nor do I own a portable well to intake all of the water that was needed to keep me hydrated. Overall, it was still a very enjoyable day with all the sites that we saw and things we learned about the country we are living in. The monuments, museums, and statues were similar to Washington DC - minus the fact Ghana has only had 5 presidents and the fact that their military wears animal hides and carries spears to protect them from enemies. Okay, that is a slight exaggeration but possibly in some parts of the country this is true. Let's see... Kwame also took us to this Culture Center, which was a bunch of huts/shacks that sold really cool wood carvings, drums, art, fabrics, etc. Every vendor wanted us to come into their shop so we felt pretty darn popular... much to their surprise though we are 2 white people who have no money. Too bad. However, we made 2 new friends. Abu, who sold us wooden elephants and giraffes, named after the monkey in the Disney movie Aladdin and the Boss, a 90 year old man who taught us how to play these balls that have seeds in them called Kush-Kas. Also on our tour of Accra we went to a part of the city called Osu (thanks Mimi). Here I was able to find an external cd/dvd drive to fix my computer (or for Kwame to fix it because we know I can't fix anything), andddd ICE CREAMMM. Well, gelato to be more exact. But let me tell ya... BRING IT ON ITALY. This was THE BEST thing I have eaten in the past 17 days (yes it has already been that long). It was like heaven. I think the women who were working in the little shop thought we were crazy but we wanted to try every single flavor, and then we were making sounds that most human beings don't make while eating ice cream. After all of our walking, the hot weather, and the intense blisters on my foot- it was like I had died and gone to heaven. When it was time to leave, we did not want to go. We could have stayed there all day but it was exciting to trick the taxi driver. I convinced Kwame we should take a taxi to the next destination, and so he went outside to fetch a taxi, got the price, and then called us out. The taxi driver was so surprised and not very pleased because if he had known we were WHITE AS GHOSTS he could have charged us triple the price... MUAH-HA-HA-HA.

The next morning, I walked into the bathroom and SCREAMED. What was so scary you ask? A spider the size of Japan was on the wall. I ran, jumped on the bed, and hid under the covers while Megan grabbed her sandal and walked into the bathroom ready for battle. She insisted she would not miss... but much to her surprise that little arachnid was fast as lightning. However, if it was baseball she would not have struck out. It only took 2 tries to kill that little sucker (refer to picture to see the late Hair E. Spider).

We tried fufu for the first time... wayyyy too much work for the taste it has. You have to pound and pound plantains and cassava for hours with a giant wooden pistol into the mortar bowl thinger mabob. Also, if any of you were so fortunate to get one of the green shirts Megan and I sold for a fundraiser, we met the girl that is on the front of them, Jamillah. She mooned us during our first introduction... needless to say we are now best friends. Not only that, she bit Megan's butt... and plays an intense game of hide and seek. We are really looking forward to an entire year with this 3 year old.

Bits and Pieces

2009-08-31T04:44:00.001-07:00

Just FYI, to the left, on the blog, there is a website that you can go to in order to view all of our pictures on Picasa Web Albums. Also, below that there is a link to our videos. We will update both of these as often as possible.

Now, for the more important stuff! Such as, I (Meg) went for a run this morning for the first time and was soon joined by three kids who ran with me for a short strech, I had Obruni (White person) yelled to me about 100 times. The people were so excited to say hello!

Katie here, how is everyone doing? I wanted to share a couple of things that have been going on around the convent. First of all, we met Martina, who lives here at the convent but she was on a retreat so this was our first meeting. She is from the Upper West region of Ghana, and will hopefully take us up there to travel at some point. Also, we had a convent game night on Saturday. I was a little nervous knowing my competitive nature. I was very careful and in the end it was the most fun game of Uno and Jenga I have ever played. Comfort and Alice, two candidates who live here and are preparing to go into the Novitiate in the US in Feb., have never played before. It was hilarious to observe them get the hang of the popular game- the idea of Skip, Draw 2, and even Reverse. Don't worry, Alice fully understood the power of the Draw 4 Wild and decided to drop that bomb on me twice. My new nickname around the house is Draw 4. Jenga was justas exciting... Evelyn accidentally bumped the table and down went the tower. The laughter that erupted was so contagious that even those who were not playing got a good kick out of it.

On Saturday evening, Meg and I went out to explore a bit. We were looking for players to get a game of cards going. We ran into Alice in the classroom who was teaching 4 local children how to serve during mass for Friday mornings when we have mass here at the convent. Afterwards, she was going to walk them home so Meg and myself decided to join. Phyllis, Cecilia, Joseph (our student), and Emmanual were great! I brought along a football and we were laughing and playing catch the whole way home. Cecilia insisted she needed my sunglasses so I gave them to her. She was mimicking everything that I said. The kids then were pointing to things and teaching us new words. They loved the fact that we already knew a couple of animals. So we bragged about knowing akoko (rooster), bodum (dog), anoma (bird), and a couple of others and they laughed and laughed.

Last night (Sunday), I was skyping and Meg yelled at me that our friends were here. Confused I looked into the court yard area and there was Cecilia, Emmanual, and Joseph asking if I still had the football. We played for a couple of hours with them before it got dark and they had to go home. Later in the evening, we were in the TV room with Comfort, one of the candidates. Since she is going to the US soon we were preparing her on what to expect. We told her really important things like not to point with her middle finger (a lot of people do that here), not to say 'flash me' while talkin on the phone (very popular phrase meaning call me back), the fact that when she says she has boyfriends we get very confused so we told her the difference between boyfriends and friends that are boys, among a couple of other do's and don'ts. It was really fun to be able to just sit and talk to her about her upcoming adventure to the States because we are currently experiencing all of our firsts with our adventure here in Ghana. We also had the chance to talk about her family, friends, and all the normal stuff considering she is the same age as Meg and me. She is one of the kindest people we have ever met and because of our age- it's fun to have her here to make our transition easier.

To Takoradi and Beyond

2009-08-31T04:14:00.000-07:00

We are officially "Tadi" Girls (short for Takoradi)! We made it home safely from Takoradi on Friday evening. The sisters decided that we are now "city girls." We had an amazing time with Sister Helene, Sister Scholastica, and Sister Evelyn.

On Tuesday we went to the most wonderful place, Egyam Orphanage. This was an orphanage started by a Dutch woman named, Thea. She came to Ghana to visit a priest friend and fell in love with the children, but also was heartbroken by the living conditions of many of the children. So, in 2007 the Egyam Orphanage was opened (sponsored by a foundation in Holland). A young man named, Daniel, is the house father and pretty much runs the orphanage. Thea returns home to Holland to be with her husband and children for part of each year and Daniel makes sure that things are run well while she is gone. The orphanage has roughly 52-54 children currently ranging from age 3-15. Katie and I couldn't believe how happy all the children were. They were obviously well taken care of and comfortable. They have routine chores each day, scheduled meals, they attend school, and in the summer they have enrichment programs to keep them learning. What a beautiful environment. Thea wants nothing but the best and top of the line for these kids.

Tuesday evening Katie and I went with Evelyn to "Harbor View." It is a little lookout restaurant where we had a Coke and had a great view of the Takoradi Harbor. We also stopped at a golf course which was right on the ocean. It's only about $7 to play 9 holes!!! The next morning we were able to go down to the harbor and have a private tour on the docks. The gentleman who showed us around did it free of charge and explained everything from the history of the ports to how Ghana's ports are ranked 2nd in Africa and 4th in the world for "Turn Around Time" (how fast they can unload and reload a ship to get it back in the water).

Wednesday afternoon Helene, Evelyn, Katie and I took off for Busea Beach. It was roughly an hour drive outside the city. There was a "resort" hotel and hostels complete with a restaurant, swimming pool, and playground. We had pizza, fried potatoes, and salad! YUM!! Our first "American" food since being here. It was delicious and we relaxed the rest of the afternoon in the sand and at the restaurant. Katie swam and the rest of us just walked in the water and searched for shells. I took a walk down the beachfront where there are little houses and another village and met some kids bathing in the ocean. They immediately ran towards the camera and wanted pictures! Then a gentleman tried his best to sell me a lobster. I had to inform him that I had no way of getting this lobster home to cook it. He said, "Oh no no no, it still moving, it living."

Thursday was our Cape Coast day. We drove the 2 hours to Cape Coast and went straight to Kakum Nation Park to climb up to the Canopy walk. It was a steep climb and we followed our guide, Prince, as he explained various trees and ways they can be used for medicine. When we finally reached the rope bridges we were a little sweaty, but excited. Katie thought she was going to die, but obviously, she made it! It was a stunning view and so much greenery. From here we went to eat at Hans Cottage Botel. This is basically a little restaurant on a pond surrounded by alligators and weaver birds. Both creatures were fascinating!

Our final excursion was to the Cape Coast Slave Castle. We walked through the museum and participated in a tour. It was a very intense and somber experience. We were with a family that had traced their genealogy back to the Ghanaian slave trade. FYI: Ghana used to be called The Gold Coast and this is where the first accounts of slave trade began when the Portuguese built the castle as a trading post on the coast of Ghana. We learned a lot, but plan to go back because there is another castle in Cape Coast called the Elmina Castle (this was the first-ever slave castle).

All in all, our trip to Takoradi was a blast!!! We ate well, experienced tons, and met all sorts of new people.

Longer than 2 Easter Vigils

2009-08-24T04:05:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!
Meg and I are happy to inform you that we will never, and I mean NEVER, complain about sitting through an hour of mass again. Okay maybe Meg has never complained, but I know I have. Yesterday we woke up for mass at 6:30am. We left the convent around 7 after grabbin' an apple for breakfast, and arrived at the church at 7:30. Now just to clear this up, we were warned that mass could possibly last a little longer than we are used to. We thought nothing of it, thinking that maybe it would be almost 2 hours with some extra singing and dancing. To our surprise, mass did not last 2 hours, but it lasted 5. After being delayed 30 minutes, it finally started.... and never ended. The normal parts of the mass were added with multiple offetories, a 45 minute homily said in both English and Twi, guest speakers, gift giving, honoring CYO inductees, a little dancing here and there, and our friend Kwame on the drums. I would like to describe this dancing we are talking about. It's like native tribal movements mixed with hiphop complete with hankerchief swinging around their head like a helicopter. When we get home we will demonstrate as we are practicing nightly in our room. If you are lucky, we will bring my video camera next week. Mass was then followed by 45 minutes of meet and greet outside. Meg and I met 4 girls who were about 13 years old. They were asking us questions and we taught them how to say "flip flop" which does not roll off the tongue too easily for Ghanaians. We then tried teaching them "Sally Sells SeaShells by the SeaShore... and again... it didn't work out too well but it gained a lot of laughs. Overall, the long mass was enjoyable because we truly felt apart of the community here in Kasoa.

We are leaving this afternoon for Takoradi, which is about 3 hours west of Kasoa. We will be there until Friday, exploring the city, going to Cape Coast, visiting an orphanage, and going to the slave castles... We will blog as soon as we return because we have no idea what the internet situation is like there.

Quick Update

2009-08-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

Hello From Kasoa,

The Internet has been questionable lately so this is just a brief update to let you know that we are alive and well. We will post more when we have more access. Hopefully we will be able to put up more pictures and the videos that we have.

Katie and I did our first "load" or laundry. This was by hand of course, in three buckets with powder soap and water. Not exactly easy on the hands. Never the less, we did it, and boy are our clothes clean. Afterwards we hung them on the line to dry by the goat pen.

Our dear friend, Alice, one of the candidates of the congregation, was stung by a scorpion. Now don't get your pants in a wad, apparently this is taken care of with a simple injection. Piece of cake. Guess we don't have anything to worry about when we're stung by a scorpion. No need to worry. Alice recovered in a day and is doing well.

Yesterday, we spent 8.5 hours in Accra shopping with the sisters (Maggie and Esther). Our good friend, Kwame was our tour guide and Peter was our driver. It took over 2 hours to get into the city, only due to the heavy traffic and unorganized roads. We bought fabric for the children's school uniforms, which are made by hand here at the convent. We bought a new printer and went to the market to buy some of the food supplies for the kitchen at the school (millet, onions, etc.). We also got a taste of Ghanaian cashews and chocolate.

We have learned a new phrase to help us great people: etesei (pronounced: ehtisay)- This means "How are you?" We've gotten really good at this one!!! You should all practice, that way when we come home you can speak to us in Twi/Fanti.

Oh, and one last thing, Kwame has told us he will teach us the drums. Get ready!

Peace from Ghana,
Katie and Meg

To the Market we go!!!

2009-08-19T14:51:00.000-07:00

Let's just start by saying that Katie and I have never been to a REAL market... until Tuesday afternoon in downtown Kasoa. A young man, Kwame (which means he is Saturday born), was our tour guide. Kwami is the brother of one of the novitiates, Alice. We walked the bumpy road from the convent closer to town to catch a taxi to the market. From here we wandered the Kasoa market, which takes place each Tuesday and Friday, for 3 hours. We got to ride a TroTro (public transpo bus). All we can say is hot, sweaty, and crowded! We saw so many new things. So many new foods! (We've put up pictures from the market).

Today, Wednesday, Katie and I went with the sisters to a local woman's home where a small group from the community gathered to say the rosary. It was intimate and awesome! A few of the students from the school were there so we got a chance to meet them and they got to meet their Obruni (white) teachers.

Katie and I are slowly learning to speak the Fanti language. Bit by bit! The sisters are wonderful to learn from and they are patient teachers. They also enjoy quite a few laughs at our expense as we butcher the words.

Peace

Katie and Meg

Akwaaba! (Welcome)

2009-08-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

Dearest Readers,
We made it to Ghana safely after a few glasses of FREE wine and lovely British flight attendents. Meg and I could not stop laughing when they asked us if we wanted any tea or coffee in their accents. We decided it would be best to respond to their questions in our own British accents- it went quite well. We arrived last night around 8:30 and were greeted by the lovely Sister Maggie and Sister Esther. The drive from the airport to the convent was around 30 minutes on a paved road and very light traffic compared to the normal 2 hour commute to Accra. Once we turned onto the road that leads to the convent we experienced our first unpaved road. To call them bumps would be an understatement. It was more like the surface of the moon, craters, dust, and all. While driving 2 miles an hour, swerving to avoid the giant trenches in the ground, we decided this part of the drive was more like a roller coaster. The sisters really got a kick out of our comparison and the way we held on for dear life. Once we arrived, we were greeted by 3 other Sisters - Alice, Evelyn, and Comfort. The others were sleeping. We snacked, talked with the Sisters, and were eventually led to our room.

Our lovely beds are complete with mosquito nets. And we slept like babies. This morning, we took showers after being slightly confused on how to turn them on. While showering, we heard interesting noises coming from outside. Meg cleared this up and explained they were sheep and goats walking around the compound under our window.

Sister Evelyn gave us the grand tour - around the convent and down to the school. We saw the classroom we will be teaching in and minus the spider it looks the way we imagined it. We had a nice lunch with the Sisters, and will be going to mass tonight at 7. We will let you know how that goes... we heard some stories about dancing down the aisle and singing.

Here Today... Ghana Tomorrow

2009-08-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!
Meg and I just wanted to test out the blog before we actually get to Ghana. I am meeting her tomorrow at Dulles Airport before we depart to Accra, Ghana by way of London. Our layover is only 4 hours in England, so unfortunately I don't think we will have the chance to go find Prince Harry or even see Big Ben. We will arrive in Accra, Ghana at around 8pm their time, which is 3pm EST on August 16 (Sunday). I am hoping Meg knows how we are getting from the airport to the convent because I certainly have no idea. Just so everyone understands... Meg is the organized one behind this adventure (And just so no one is scared... The Sisters will be there waiting for us I believe).

We are both looking forward to keeping everyone informed about our adventure, and we hope you will keep us posted about what is going on here in the US. Thank you to everyone who has given us the constant support and well wishes as we embark on this journey together.

Talk to you soon from Ghana,
Katie and Megan