first month and a half!

I'm sitting in this internet cafe with 45 minutes left and I have no idea of how to summarize the last month or so of my life. When I think about my life in Canada, I have trouble remembering things, and it feels like a past life. My experience thus far has been incredible, and everyday really is a new adventure. So I will try to explain what I've been up to.....The trotro ride from Accra to Battor was interesting, a man was at the front dictating some sort of speech in Twi for quite sometime. We thought he was talking about safety procedures, until he got off the trotro when we were just outside of Accra and started to walk away. It turns out he was selling medicine (?!?) We arrived at the Battor Catholic Hospital where we met up with Sister Bernadette, a very wonderful woman. She brought us to Ave Maria, which would be our home for the next two weeks. It's sort of a guesthouse for people who have people in the hospital, so we met quite a few people during our time there. The purpose of staying in Battor was to learn (or try to learn) Ewe, pronounced aaway. The family who lives at Ave Maria is so fantastic as well. There's Mathais, the gentle father, his wife Monica, and their insane children: Mary, Petra, Katryn, Joaquim (which they pronounce Drunkie), and Immaculata. There were also Mathais' nephew and niece, Mark and Matilda, who are very splendid people as well. Learning Ewe was difficult at first, especially since we had lessons at 6 am, but apparently that's late compared to most people at the house who get up between 3 and 4. Our teach Philip is a very peaceful man who speaks in a very calm tone. The craziest kid in the world is Katryn, she's 6 I think? I love her sister Petra who has a great deal of 'tude for a 9 year old, and then Drunkie (3 years) is just totally out there, I don't know how to begin to explain him. Mary and Mark are sweethearts, we went to their school to practice our Ewe skills. The teachers here have been on strike since the beginning of September, so we basically had students surrounding us, gettingverymuchintoyour"personalspace," trying to teach us Ewe. It was a bit overwhelming, but their high spirits and beautiful singing made it all worthwhile. It's etiquette here to invite people to eat with you if you are eating, but we took it as, "We have to eat," meaning that we would be eating upwards of 5 or 6 FULL meals a day. The food here is really, really good, but we had constant stomach aches the whole time. It's all good though. We went to watch a football game at a high school, and my goodness do the crowds go wild. There was a group of girls, who sang and danced around the entire match, very enthusiastically. It was really beautiful to watch them, and I'm amazed at how much energy they have, especially in the heat of the middle of the day. I had my first hospitalization experience ever, right here in Ghana. It was interesting. After two wonderful weeks in Battor, we left for the villages. I was put in Dudevi, Elisha-Kofledeka, Sarah-Dedukope, Katrina-Kpeyibo, and Amy-Luta. I was really nervous the first few days, it was really overwhelming to be in such a small place (Dudevi means "the smallest village") coming from living in a big city in Canada. It seemed so barren at first and I felt very alone, but soon I came to see the vibrant and exciting life of the village. Here is my family: Grace is my mother, she is loud, full of energy, and a don't-mess-with-me attitude. There are 19-year-old triplets, the girls Woe and Woetsa and the boy Atsu. Then there is my little brother Ado, who is 15 and the cutest thing on this side of the earth. There is also an older brother (who I'm kind of happy isn't my real brother...) who lives in Accra, and the father divorced years ago and lives in Dedukope. I have come to love my family so much, I can't believe I only met them three weeks ago. Since the village is so small, I've come to know most of the people here very well. Before coming to Ghana, we were told to pick one thing in the village and learn everything about it. I've chosen to learn about education, especially with the teacher strike going on. I went to Woetsa's school and even taught a class... It was a very stressful experience, and I really have no clue how much they really learned. The class was on population growth. Apparently I'm hot stuff here in the village. Since being in Battor, I have climbed to the top in the proposal count, with 24 up to now. And that's not including the guys that ask me more than once. I've also gotten a gift and a love letter from boys... There is so much to learn here, everything is so different, I don't know how to explain. I've been to the farm a couple of times, and I'm not a very good farmer. I've tried my hand at cooking, but cooking involves major strength, which I don't really have either. The local football team's coach has gotten me to train with them, at 6 am...... and they even took me to Tema to watch one of their games. I am really enjoying my time here and I wish I had more time to explain everything. Tomorrow we'll be traveling to Nkawkaw for a retreat, before we'll be going back to the villages for another three weeks.

---

---