Photos/ dancing and shopping

Helping Ransford instruct some other volunteers in the dance I learned last week.

Carrying the food on my head like a good Ghanian.

(can't really balance it yet)

The 'good's and the 'bad's and the 'why it's all worth it's

Good:

Two full buckets of hot water for my shower.

Our security guard at night, Dramani, who sits outside my window on the porch. He teaches me some Twi almost every night. We both have trouble with the other's language but never fail to end up laughing or smiling when I finally go to bed. His son, Mmsa is really shy, he's just turned nine. I gave him a small green little race car after he recited his abc's in English to me about a hundred times through my side window.

Amelia, I do think her name is spelled 'Emelia' though. She sometimes brings me little gifts, which is so sweet of her. So far she's brought home juiceboxes, a can of sprite, small thing of strawberry ice cream for both of us, and spicy fried plantian. It's not the gifts that makes her sweet of course, it's her personality, how thoughtful she is that makes me know I'll really miss her when I'm gone. She stayed up late a few nights ago to braid my hair, we sat in the living room as we tried to tackle my impossibly slippery white-people hair into braids. We eventually used my braces rubber bands to tie the ends. I wore them all the next day while I did tons of laundry with her looking over once in a while to laugh at how hard I was trying.

Sun dried everything. Talking about washing clothes, I love how everything is dried in the sun. All my clothes smell way nicer than they ever did from the dryer.

Food, it's taken me a while to get used to. Now I get kinda hungry when I hear someone starting to pound fufu out back. I've moved up to seed pounding by the way. I haven't pounded or 'driven' (when you sit next to the person who's pounding and turn and fold the kassava or plantian and mix the two together, picking out the bad parts) fufu yet but last week I pounded seeds used for groundnut soup.

Groundnuts. The peanuts here are so good, they sell them in small bags the size of a tangerine for 10 pesewa each.

Richard is really great. We'll have talks sometimes about America, Ghana, AFS, his family, my family, church, school, ect. It's really incredible that I was placed with this family, I feel like we fit really well. It's also really nice that Toni spent some time here before I did, in a way it transitioned both Richard and Amelia and I really well into my nine month stay.

Belinda, Mavis, Rosemund, the girls in my class. It took a small while but now instead of an oddity in class, I'm starting to feel like an actual student. I mean, when we read aloud my speed and accent sometimes get's the whole class into a fit of giggle and whoops, but that can't be helped. And it's hard not to stand out when your skin practically glows. When I was feeling like maybe I should switch classes, since Jonas and I are in the same class and we both agreed we didn't come to Ghana to slip into the comfort of hanging out with obrunis, the girls absolutely said no. Priscilla arranged to switch seats with me so I would be on the other side of the room and, honestly I like the window seat.

Knowing what to do. Some things are still really foreign but the few things culturally, food-wise, language-wise that I've got down make me feel really confident.

Speaking Twi, understanding what people are saying. I don't always know what everyone's talking about which is sometimes frustrating, but now that I'm speaking a bit more Twi I can get at least the topic of most of conversations. Still very basic Twi though.

Little kids. Sometimes it's too much (things can definitely be both 'good' and 'bad'), but when kids are showering you with love and singing to you it's pretty hard to not like it. When Jonas and I were riding out of school all of these primary school kids starting running after us, one even hoped on the back of Jonas's bike. The kid I like the most though is still Mmsa.

The sun. I am getting so tan, determined to "get brown" like I tell Richard. We joke that my papa will say "What!? I sent a white girl to Ghana and she comes back brown!"

The tv. Normally I don't like tv a lot unless it's certain programs that I watch online or Breaking Bad with Justin (We still have to get me caught up when I come home darling :) ). Ghanian soaps are also not my favorite, sometimes they're funny to watch because they're so dramatic though. But what I do like about tv here is the news. We get just one channel, GTV, that plays the news in Twi first then in English. It's really interesting to see another country's news program, the way they tell stories is very different. It doesn't glorify things as much. There's also a program that comes on Monday nights called Environment TV, it's good, it shows films on and talks about Ghana's environmental problems.

The school library. I still work in it every time we have Christian Religious Studies, about three times a week, and I really enjoy myself. The books are so dusty my hands are always filthy by the time I'm done but it feels really good to be helping the school in that small way. I always have people who offer to help and talk to me in the process (once again, 'good' and 'bad' thing, sometimes I feel like I have to defend my thoughts and beliefs too much) that make everything go really fast. Even if there's no one to talk to I just listen to my Ipod and have some me-time. I've organized the fiction (even though I have to re-organize it every time I come in), geography, french, accounting, and economics.

DANCE CLASSES. A few other volunteers have been coming to our drumming lessons and with the help of them and my previous teacher/classmate Ransford we're going to have classes three times a week for a while. It feels so good to dance again. So good, I just can't explain how nice it is to know that I'm working on improving my skills in what I want to do for the rest of my life. This just proves to me once again that dance is a universal language; get a bunch of different people from different countries and cultures and have them dance together, they'll be friends after one class. Plus, free of charge! Even though Eily, a German AFS volunteer and I talked about getting Ransford something when we stop classes. I think we'll all pitch in.

Of course there are a million 'good' things, but being realistic, there are 'bad' things too. Maybe 'bad' things would better be described as 'difficult' things.

Bad:

The view on women. Ghanian government has passed a law against beating women, but that's not really the discrimination that I face every day. It's in class when the teacher will pause from our reading to explain in detail how a woman should never leave her husband under any circumstance, but the man can leave, have multiple wives, for any reason he chooses. All this is because, according to him, the bible says that the woman is under man. Whew, I literally had to do some yoga breathing to get through it. It's strange because never would I want to disrespect him, and I know they're eager to hear my views, but sometimes I feel like it's better to just observe. I'm sure I'll get plenty of chances to advocate for women's rights here, but that just wasn't the time.

Education. Teachers will show up when they feel like it, which is sometimes never. Students from primary up are beaten because 'they won't listen to anything else'. My classmate wore her jacket all day even though it was blistering hot because her lashings from that morning were still fresh and she was embarrassed.The library. Students treat books awfully here, not saying I haven't dog-eared or carried around a book until it's cover has fallen off before, but the way they'll just start writing in them, like they're scrap paper. The way they crowd them on shelves, not stacked, just bent and open against other books. The classrooms. Uninspiring written on walls, and written on uncomfortable desks, and an old chalkboard is all we have to look at unless we're staring out the window or at the teacher. I guess I've just been so use to neat posters shouting happy messages at me from the front of the class, books lining the walls, a desk filled with pictures of the teachers family or favorite students, bright colors, clean plastic desks, and a janitor to make it all nice again during the weekend once we leave.

The fish (and the meat). I was just really starting to like fish in the US. I was preparing to eat a lot in Ghana since I know it's one of their more common foods. I'm lucky my host family doesn't eat a lot of it because of course then I'd eat it. The way the fish and meat is kept, hanging with flies in and on it, sitting in the sun. It's not so appetizing.

The homesickness. Sometimes it really is painful. I mean, I'm very used to being far from the ones I love, with parents who live on opposite sides of the country, a long-distance boyfriend for about ten months now, friends scattered across the country from New Orleans to Montana, but this is a different feeling. Whatever place I was in, when I missed someone I could turn to a friend, a family member, or something comforting and normal. Here it's not that way, although it's getting better, I don't always know what to do when I'm sad. I know going out and enjoying Ghana is what everyone's telling me and thinking when they hear I feel this way, but it's not always easy or even manageable. Sometimes I dream about home and curse the fact that I woke up. Sometimes I'll just sit and think about details of my house or room in Montana. No worries though. I have good friends and family in both the US and I'm developing them in Ghana. I know that I can always write to my parents, Justin, Grace, Rinnah, Tia, all the people who are so behind this trip and that makes me feel good. I know I can always speak to Richard and take comfort in Emelia.

The whole time-thing. Really there's no set time for anything. School will start twenty minutes early or an hour late, usually the latter. Also, as late as Ghanians are known to be, they never get up past 7:30. At least my family and all the families I've heard of. I take Saturday as my 'sleep-in day' and get up between 8:30 and 9:00. Once I tried to explain to Richard how on the weekends in America some teenagers, adults even sleep in until ten or eleven (even later sometimes, but I didn't want to shock him too much). Richard almost didn't believe it.

Internet connection! I didn't realize before how dependant I was on the internet, and honestly, I don't want that to change! I like being able to google everything and anything whenever I need it, I love watching music videos and TED talks, I like how my dad and I can share links to neat new sites, I like stumbling, and facebook, and skype and streaming music. How I miss wifi. Here I'm lucky if I can upload a few pictures, and really that's the peak speed of the internet here. Even internet cafes just have nothing to offer. I've bought a small modem for my laptop that I use about nightly to send emails, check facebook, blog post, ect. but it's very, very slow and a lot of times nothing uploads. I get the first three months free but I'm not quite sure what the price will look like afterwards.

Communication. Here nearly everyone has a cell phone. You'll get calls in the middle of the day that just consist of "Hi" "Hi" "How are you" I'm fine, you?" "Also fine" "Bye. It's like their way of texting "what's up?" Also 'flashing', since when you call someone it costs only you, people will call you and quickly hang up so you'll call them back and use your money. Don't like that. Especially with how I'm trying not to spend a lot. I really, really, don't know what I'd do if my money ran out. There's just no way you can't spend money everyday, the way food, cell phone credit (which I'm spending cautiously, really), and emergency situations pop all the time. Good thing I guess is the US dollar is worth more Ghana cedi.

Power outages, not a big deal, totally can handle it, but sometimes it's bothersome.

I miss being able to drink tap water, not having to take meds or wash my hands a million times a day.

Hand washing your clothes gives you little cuts on your knuckles that sting when you cook with pepper later, really bad.

Bartering. I really like having a set price. I mean I like a good thrift store deal as much as the next person, but I hate feeling like I might have been cheated. I have been cheated here already. I went to buy fabric from a place Richard brought me before and still being kind of new at knowing what two yards should cost I bought it for twelve when it could have been, should have been eight, maybe even lower.

"You're white! So you must be rich!" I was getting out of a taxi in Sunyani, he had only driven about a block, a really short distance. I just didn't want to get lost so I thought I'd ask a taxi to bring me to the Dormaa taxi station. When I got out he said fifty pesewa. I said that he had driven us a block and I certainly was not paying him fifty pesewa, maybe thirty. He said, and I quote "You're not rich? You're white." I gave him twenty pesewa. I understand it's cultural, they see white people and just think we have money, and most likely with the exchange rate, we do. Here in Ghana though, everything is extremely cheap so you can live on less. I'm thinking of when I come home, my plane ticket down to New Orleans, I'm thinking of credit to call friends and family, I'm not rich. People won't believe it, they just give this indifferent sort of shrug "Of course, you're rich, you're from America, everyone's rich there." And when I say that there are homeless people in America too, nice try, no one believes it. I hope while I'm here I can give the Ghanians I meet a realistic idea of what America is really like.

Religious talks, arguments, and people dead set on converting me. "You can't go home without becoming a Christian" said the library assistant. We get along better now after I told her that if she kept telling me what to think and do I wouldn't speak to her anymore. When I tell people "No, I don't go to church, I don't study the bible, I don't pray, and I don't believe in God" not only do I get shocked faces and disbelief I get straight up "No"s. Some people I meet just won't let it go. They aren't interested in sharing cultures or asking questions, they're just interested in changing me. I don't like that. Richard is extremely great about me going to church, he says of course I don't have to attend, it isn't right for him to push is religion on me in any way. I like that.

Views on homosexuality. It is actually against the law here in Ghana to be gay or lesbian. That doesn't fly with me at all. I strictly believe that people can love who they want, how they want, when they want (as long as it's mutually respectful, legal, ect.) Talking with the girls in class about it I had to say "I don't want to talk about this anymore." because I really don't want to get angry with them. It's just somethings they'd say... For example, I'd say that I know quite a few gays, lesbians, bisexuals in the US and all of them are great people (unless of course I don't think they're great for a reason other than them being homosexual). I said that they're people of course, that you shouldn't judge them on who they decide they're attracted to. They told me not be friends with them anymore, that they would all definitely turn me gay. Sure... So I've decided this is just not one of the things I'll ever like to talk about much here in Ghana.

I'm too passionate about some of these issues to do anything more than sit and listen to Ghanians views, I couldn't say my own without seeming a little harsh. I'll work on it, I really will, but I think most of the time I'll just back off of the topics.

And all of things are 'why it's all worth it'. I'm learning, I'm missing, I'm experiencing, I'm loving, I'm tasting, I'm disliking, I'm enjoying, I'm crying, I'm waiting, I'm holding back, I'm observing, I'm giving, I'm taking, I'm letting go. I'm a US foreign exchange student in Ghana, with a supportive great family, a wonderful boyfriend, an amazing set of friends, and experiences that will be there when I get home. I've got a lot of time and new things ahead of me. At the same time, I'll be barely here long enough to get in the swing of things.

I've got a trip to Accra to visit Dabney and her host family in two weeks, I'm really excited to have some pizza in the Accra mall! After that I'll have a week long study tour with my awesome AFS chapter. I've heard something about a surprise Halloween care package coming my way, that I'm all but bursting for! The lovely Lucianos are also sending me some basic survival needs, oreos, cheetos and the like (which I'm all psyched about sharing with my host family). After the DormaSS students start their exams I'm off to start volunteering for the DVTC, the vocational training center Richard manages. Doing what exactly, I'm not quite sure. I have a letter from Justin that's on it's way to join the other two sitting on my nightstand. I washed my two AFS shirts together, my 2010 one and my dad's old one. I wonder if there'll be a third joining that collection someday, I wouldn't be surprised. Of course, they'll do what they want. I'm seriously thinking about volunteering some of my time in Memphis to AFS.

Things are really starting to feel like I'm an exchange student. I guess there's nothing left to do but just embrace it.

Oh and Margaret told me today, We're leaving in eight months, to the day. Time does fly.

YOU'RE DANCING

Afterwards I taught him how to soulja boy, oh man, I love being a foreign exchange student.

and I'm sorry for all the crazy spelling and grammatical errors, I sometimes have trouble getting good connection but that's no excuse.

Host Grandparents

Richard's parents and I:

All's good in Ghana

Crazy obruni what are you doing in this tree?

Finding a bird!

With a trip to the Sunyani Regional Hospital, the recent passing of my grandmother, and a bad case of the homesick blues it's been a while since I've wrote!

But all is good now in Ghana! As for the hospital trip, it was for the last thing I thought I'd be visiting a hospital here for. Sometime last week in school my friend Rosemund gave me a milkpop to try, just like a lollipop I munched down on it, bad idea. Later that day I felt something funny on one of my back top teeth, turns out it wasn't something funny at all, it was an old filling tthat had completely fallen out. I cracked the filling off with the milkpop earlier that morning. Darn it! Anyways, I talked with my dad, my contacts, my host parents, and Toni, my(now back in Germany) host sister, and we decided that a quick trip to hospital in SUnyani would fix it. Richard, my host dad, has a friend who's wife is a head nurse in the hospital and made sure I got a good dentist and well taken care of. The hospital in Sunyani, an hour away, isn't that different from a hospital in America. The building was pretty new, the wait (six hours) was about as long as expected, and the sight of children sleeping next to their mothers in the waiting rooms was normal. Some of the sick people I saw there had very different things than I'm used to, big burns, or rashes of some sort. A small girl had a painful looking sore on her ankle and sat all the while wrapped up in a cloth to hide it. She didn't smile like most of the children do when they see white people. The dentist and I had a little trouble communicating and the UV light he used to finish the filling kept not working, but in the end he did a totally fine job, and my filling was taken care of for about 23 US dollars. AFS insurance doesn't cover eyes, nose, throat, or teeth. For lunch at the hospital the nurse showed Jonas and I roasted plaintians with peanuts (or groundnuts as they're called here), and I decide they are my new favorite Ghanian food! I'm slowly getting better at Ghanian cooking, but fufu I've yet to pound. All in all, the trip to the hospital went well, and I'm feeling a lot better.

School's going really well too. They're still some things I'm getting used to; the corporal punishment, the three hour classes, the accent of the teachers, the different teaching styles, uniforms, ect. but as for just enjoying my time there it's going really well. It seems to make the days past extremely fast though, I can't believe it's already Friday.

Speaking of Fridays, one of my favorite nights to be home. Since I don't have school in the morning I can stay up a little later and listen to all the prayers being shouted behind my house, listen to our security guards radio playing outside my window, dance around for my host family and try and make them laugh. I really like Friday nights. And tomorrow, I'm sleeping in!!!

My school starts at 6:40 every morning, we have a morning assembly (normally inside the cafetria, but there isn't always enough room to fit the students or we arrive late). That actually leads to one of the things that's going to be hard to see for the next nine months. I don't want to talk about all of it, but basically, a lot of students were standing outside talking instead of listening to the morning assembly, and for that that were beaten. Four times each (some eight, I heard later) with a double cane (two canes twined together). I was standing outside and couldn't look away, I was really shocked with how hard they were being hit, how some twitched away from the cane, some teared up a bit, and some didn't seem phased at all. I wrote a lot about it, talked with Justin about it. I've decided that it's in no way my place to say it's right or wrong for them, and definitely not my place to get involved, but I know that in my own heart and mind that I think it's violent, and painful, and not necessary.

School goes on to have morning classes until 9:10 when we break for breakfast, then we're back at 9:40 to continue on until 1:30. Whew, long day.

The past few afternoons we've been having drumming lessons, one of the instructors goes to my school, and tomorrow we've set up some DANCE LESSONS for me!! I just have to teach him some of my dancing in return. The drumming is really fun, it's a lot harder than I thought though. Ransford, the instructor who attends DormaSS told me that often they play the same beat over and over for an hour straight. It's very repetitive and not as middle eastern as I'm used to, so... I was feeling kind of helpless today when I spent more time on a harder drum, but I managed, and in the end I figured it out. Got some video of it too, that will be available someday... internet here is just not up to it.

To sum it all up: there's a lot going on and even more to tell, but I'm enjoying myself, experiencing, and growing and that's what foreign exchange is all about.

I love you mom, can't wait to see a picture of your new tattoo! And thanks for the call today.

I love you Dad and Reva. I filmed part of the drumming lesson for you guys!

I love you Tia, Rinnah, and Grace.

I really appreciated the call from you too Tia, Shmia. I miss you eons, and thank you even more for planning to send a care package my way, I bragged to some Germans today that I'll be getting oreos!

Rinnah, I love having photos of you, the old black and white ones that I took last winter, up in my room. It makes it homey.

I'm wearing the necklace you sent me for graduation Mrs. Williamson, thank you again.

Mrs. Clark, I really wish I could just let you see through my eyes the way people play music at football games here.

Alice B. Elrod. Your lotion, the solid lotion that you gave me, is a big hit in my house. I smell it when I start to miss Montana, which is often, so it sits by my bed.

Richard and Amelia's house

My room's the windows on the right.

Tik Tok, I've been here a month!

Rosemund, Me, and Abagail.

Two of my favorite classmates in Form 3 General Arts 2. They've been helping me with my Twi, cheering me up, teaching me so many things about being a young woman in Ghana, and also teaching me some Ghanian hand-games. I've been showing them American music, teaching them slang, and telling them all about how my school and house work back in the States.





Ampesi and Acadia's Stew:

Ampesi: (said like embassy)
1 large yam, 'peeled' and shopped into circles and half circles.
Left in water until it boils and is soft like baked potatoes.
Covered with a lid (and a large sheet of plastic in my house)
10 min.

Acadia's Stew (a adaptation of my German host-sister Toni's stew):
Onions and red plantain oil to brown in a pot.
Five or more chopped tomatoes.
Half of a cucumber.
salt
two eggs dropped in when it comes to boil.

Clean your hands and use your fingers to dip the Ampesi into the stew. (Don't eat Ampesi with soup! Don't really know why, but it's not allowed in my house!)



I'll write more soon. The home-sickness comes and goes. A few morning's ago it was pretty bad, normally it's connected with when I make some kind of cultural mistake. Powering through it though. I've been washing my clothes by hand, getting the hang of bucket showers, bartering, debating, working on my Twi, and on a surprise for my papa (don't tell him Justin!).

I miss so many, love so many, and can't wait to share more with all of my friends and family.

And Justin and Tia, along with teaching Rosemund and Daniella some American slang I've decided to teach them the lyrics to Tik Tok because they love it so much. Love you both so much! I miss you baby. Miss you Shmia.

Dayie (goodnight)

Uniform

It's good to feel like I'm in grade school again.

It's the nice time between after-church lunch and starting to make dinner on a Sunday when it feels like the whole of Ghana is sitting with full bellies and dirty dishes waiting to be washed. The power's out, but that happens a lot, It'll go out for a few hours and then just magically come back on. Sometimes one of the great storms or rain showers will cause it (rain showers isn't a strong enough word for the buckets of rain that pound the dirt and tin roofs here), or sometimes it'll just be off on the nicest day you could imagine. I thought maybe that it'd bother me more, but it only has a little if I'm trying to charge something. Like they say here "This is Africa!" It's just part of living here, having less, using less, and for the month that I've spent in Ghana... I'm getting the hang of it.
For example, the shower head works now in our shower room. I've only used it once or twice though. It's nice for the first few seconds but then I just feel like I'm using too much water and retreat to the bucket. Anyways with the bucket showers you can warm up your water. Which I've never appreciated more, warm, hot water eve, on command. Man, what a luxury. Not saying I don't love these things in the States, but I'll definitely have a new found appreciation for them. Reliable electricity and hot, running water I mean.
Today was the day I taught at the Sunday school. Last Sunday I was sitting in the service and was getting a little antsy, because really, I try but I don't understand a word. So I walked down to the Sunday school and after exploring the younger kids room I was introduced to the older class who asked me to come back next week. So this week Jonas and I presented a little bit about our countries to the class. I was really grateful I had gotten my scrapbook and things from home together so I could bring them today and show them all. I got so many questions on my letter (for a jacket) from LCHS and my tassel from graduation. I also brought my old copy of Where the Wild Things Are and I explained how my parents would read it to me alot when I was a kid, when I said "probably like you had favorite books your parents read to you when you were little" I got blank looks. I'm guessing this doesn't happen so much here. After we talked about our countries we answered a few questions about ourselves, my favorite: "Why are you so grown up and muscle-y if you're only eighteen?". I answered the with the good old "Black people age better than white people". Heading over to the younger classes I had no idea what we were going to do, one of the teachers suggested in barely recognizable English to sing. So I taught them "Isty Bitsy Spider" and "Row, Row, Row your Boat". Row your Boat turned into "Row, row, row boat ently did the stream, earily earily earily life is stream" and Itsy Bisty Spider was a hit with all the hand motions. While I was teaching, feeling great, and using some Desiree techniques I saw from when I assistant taught with her at the CAC, Jonas was being pestered by the teacher.
Now I think Jonas, I, and all the other AFS students here in Ghana are aware that our religious beliefs will be questioned quite a lot and we're prepared to let it roll of our shoulders. At school though, a couple of my new friends are really into debating it. School is going great, we've not had a class yet! I'm not saying I want it to stay that way, but it's good to get a chance to make some friends without a class going on at the same time. So far Jonas and I have been hanging out with some of the school prefects, at first just to look after us, but now I really enjoy their company. Abdul, Priscilla, Alfred, and David (who really enjoys pushing our buttons). But as much as just going to school is a nice, new experience what I really love is the library. When I first stepped into that library, all dusty and shut away for their summer break, I got this kick out of the idea of cleaning it up and making it nice. So that afternoon while I talked to the teacher who runs the library and one of the library prefects I started organizing. Jonas and I started sorting books into categories, they were terribly mixed up and being eaten by termites, and cleaning up the fiction section. The next day at school after our morning "class", which was just us sitting in empty classroom for three hours, and our conversation about us being unbelieving over breakfast we went back into the library with David and Alfred. The I really started going at it. Some girls were sweeping the floor so I took all the books off of the fiction section and swept the shelves and with the help of Alfred and Jonas we had all the fiction books organized by the authors last name and most of the geography section sorted through by the end of the day. The librarian talked to me, with encouragement from Abdul and asked me to be library prefect, pretty sweet huh?
Anyways, I wanted to make sure I posted something and told about these two neat things that are going on before the weekend was over, but I think the fufu is getting to me. I'm getting kind of nap-y.

New things I've learned:

-Taxi drivers are insane, they drive with this sixth-sense about cars coming around the corners because I don't see how else they make all these dangerous passes.

-If I talked about Africa-time before I had no idea what I was talking about. Maybe I thought an hour or two late was normal here, try four hours.

-Always, when coming back from a trip to another village or town, bring a present. Bread seems to work best.

-Fufu is made from kassava and plantian, boiled like ampesi then "pounded"

-Amepsi is my favorite Ghanian food besides fried plantians or these dough-y pie things people with fanice carts sell. (Ampesi is cooked yam or plantain, tastes like baked potatoes, that you have with a stew or soup)

-All teachers normally carry sticks to beat students with. Most children who have been through school are covered in scars. (more on this later)

-Men in the house are not required to do a thing except go to work and sleep.

-New Ghanian words: Ko- go, Braa- come, Wo ho te sen- how are you, Me ho ye- I'm fine, Wo ho ye- Are you fine?, Be di di- come for food, Da da- bed/sleep/rest, Atena- tomorrow, Me to- I'll buy

-Don't ask how much for a taxi, just give them the amount your host family's told you it would be.

-Alvaro is still the best drink around.

More soon! I've got school in the morning.