Cocktailllll

Woke up really upset and not prepared for my last day at Christ. I brought all of the supplies I've accumulated to give to Christ to keep when I leave. When we got to Christ Raymond wasn't there which was really confusing. On last days of placement he usually throws a little "thank you" celebration for the volunteers. When Raymond did show up he held the goodbye ceremony. The kids sing this song about goodbyes and how if we never wee each other again the Lord will allow us to meet in heaven. It was SO SO SO sad. I cried a bunch. We were presented out traditional cente cloths and given Christ Orphanage polo shirts. Saying the final goodbye was really hard. I started crying when I saw most of the kids in my oldest ... read more

Woke up and headed off to Christ with lots of games in tow. I had a "Fun Day" with my class because it was my last day teaching. We played Jenga, made oragami paper boats which they LOVED, and colored. They are really starting to understand the fact that I'm leaving and Thursday will be my last day. Esinu and Rachel begged me not to leave again which was pretty crushing. After we left placement I ran errands and got ready to go back to Christ to take the oldest and middle classes to the monkey sanctuary. While we were walking to Christ a man came up to me carrying an infant baby and stopped me. He told me that we should take his baby with us into the orphanage. I got really upset. Children here ... read more

Woke up and my foot felt a lot better. I went to Christ in the morning and had a really challenging day. After lunch I visited a garden on the outside of town which was surprisingly well kept and really beautiful. It's quite strange that something like that is kept weed-free and clean when the rest of the town is crawling with garbage. We walked around the garden and walked around town pretty much the entire afternoon. When we got home Matt and I decided we were going to host a "Ghanian Formal" for the evening. We put on our best Ghanian clothes and were off to Malaysias. We didn't tell anyone we were doing it so everyone was hysterical when we walked in to the bar. It's really weird how much I'm going to miss ... read more

Woke up and went to Christ Orphanage. Today we worked on penmanship and basic math. I started crying when Rachel told me I couldn't go to America because she would cry when I left. Because of my severely infected foot I have to take medication. I forgot to explain how sick it was this weekend. Imagine Fred Flintstone times seventy. My foot was huge and it got worse and worse and worse. All because of a stupid little bike accident. ... read more

Woke up thinking it was 10:00 when it was actually 11:00 because of the time change. Weird to think there's a time change when Benin is only 90 miles from the Ghanian border. We headed off to the Python Temple which is the voodoo place of worship. When we arrived there was a morning service taking place which was completely unexpected as we were informed the temple was more of a museum than anything else. It was really awkward walking in and I thought they would be osmewhat annoyed with us, however, they offered us chairs to sit down and observe the worship service. Voodoo worship even sounds different than any other African worship music. It's enchanting and feels like it's casting a spell on you. After the service we were escorted into a private room ... read more

Woke up and took a bucket shower which is really gross to do inside a bathroom. We waited aroudn our hotel for quite some time before we actually started our day to visit the stilt village in Ganvie. After our talk about visiting Nigeria subsided we got a ride to a village near the lake entrance to Ganvie. The ride on the water was crazy. We took a canoe for the four of us which was rowed by a small boy. Our sail was made out of a patched bedsheet. Our boat constantly felt like it was sinking. We actually crashed into a fish trap and the man just assured us that there was "no problem, no problem." When we arrived in Ganvie we all sat in shock for a bit. It's like something you'd see ... read more

Woke up at 6:00 and called Tonash. Matt instructed him to go into Jahwill's house and wake him. We talked to Jahwill and only got "Ch" out when he asked what hotel we were at and where to meet us. He never called back. We thought our trip was pretty much done at this point and talked about what else we could do for the weekend. We called Tonash back multiple times and he told us that Jahwill wasn't there. He then finally told us that he was going to Ho to meet us at Chances Hotel. JAHWILL SHOWED UP! We were ecstatic and FINALLY on our way to BENIN!!! We got a ride to the tro-tro station and passed the CCS van on the way which was pretty interesting. We hopped on a tro-tro to ... read more

Woke up and went to Christ Orphanage. Mark, a previous CCS volunteer returned and also went to Christ. He is the first volunteer to actually come back and see the progress that has been made there. Maria, Diana, Matt, Jahwill and I left Hohoe for the weekend to travel to Benin which is two countries over on the east side of Ghana, right after Togo. We left Hohoe with little time to get to Ho before the border/visa place closed. Diana was feeling really sick. When they finally approved our visas they made us pay a "processing" fee of $5.00 extra. We ran into a missionary there that urged us to take Diana to the hospital. He even gave us a ride in his truck and offered to take us to an American hospital in Togo. ... read more

Went to Christ in the morning feeling awful. I had a really bad sore throst and a blocked runny nose. Christ was pretty uneventful today, although Linda did get her head shaved. I was pretty upset. She no longer looks like the same crazy little girl and it really felt like a little bit of her spirit was gone. I got home from Christ and went into town to run some errands. While I was on the bike, someone walking cut in front of me. I slammed on the brakes and I completely crashed and skidded against the gravel road. And of course this was right in front of Miss Ghana (a statue in the town centre) which is in the roundabout in Downtown Hohoe. I got up and people surrounded me saying "Ohhh sorry sorry." ... read more

Woke up and went to observe HIV Counseling at Hohoe District Hospital for placement. It was so interesting. To be tested for HIV it costs 50 pesewa (about 50 US cents) and results are read within 15 minutes. Believe me, it's a long 15 minutes. They make you sit in the room and you basically stare at the test with the nurse. I was able to sit in on three different tests and you literally sit there in silence for 15 minutes If results are read as positive, a second saliva test is given. If the second deems positive, counseling is immediately given to the patient. I was actually pretty impressed with their counseling program. I observed a girl in the clinic who couldn't have been older than 16. She tested HIV positive. It was really ... read more