Day uhhh...16? 17? Lost track a while back...

Well, I have officially been without internet for 13 days! That has got to be a new record. And I can definitely feel the effects. I don't think I hve ever felt so disconnected from everyone and everything.

The last 10 or so days up north have been some of the most meaningful and confusing days I have ever had. Nothing turned out as I expected it would.

Looking over my first post, I came to Africa looking for an answer. I thought it would "lead me on the right direction towards my future," but it has truthfully only made me more confused. Some days I feel really excited and giddy about being here and doing these different projects, and then other days I feel rather down and don't understand what I am really doing here. On those harder times, I realize I didn't come to Ghana to enjoy myself...it was never supposed to be a vacation, but a true learning experience. In those challenging moments, I think that is when I am truly learning.

Anyway, I'll stop with my rambling and attempt to summarize the visit...

On the first day of our trip, we met the man who runs the orphanage called Abraham. This man is one of the most incredible people I have ever met in my life. He has completely given up his life to serve these kids and the people around him. When ate all of our meals at his house and he would make sure that everyone else had enough to eat before he served himself. A few times he even gave up eating because there wasn't enough for everyone, claiming "he wasn't hungry." He also has big plans for the city of Damongo (where he lives.) He wants to set up a restaurant to help fund his orphanage and wants to build a community garden to help feed the people "healthier" choices there.

The same day, we went down to the orphanage to meet some of the 50 children that live there. They all greeted us on the spot with laughter and smiles. I wasn't sure how I was going to first react with the children, but it didn't take any effort at all. They were absolutely darling from the start. Over the next few days, we played frisbee, football (soccer), and other little games that the kids were eager to teach us. We also painted some of the walls of the orphanage and helped cook meals. Okay, cooking meals here is so much more challenging then at home. Some of the hired women (called Aunties) taught me how to pound cassava one day (with a huge wooden tool into a pot). I thought it couldn't be that hard if the older women could do it for thirty minutes straight. I excitedly took the job over and, to my surprise, failed miserbly.. That stick was so incredibly heavy. I must have pounded the cassava only few minutes and had no strength left at all! The ladies and children got a good kick out of it and were laughing pretty hard at me. After a little instruction (from the children! ha!), I tried it for a second time and apparently did something right, b/c I got a little round of applause.

Early in the week, Abraham asked everyone what their majors were and I happened to be the only person in our group to be studying a science. He informed me that they were looking for a science teacher at the school nearby and he said I could start the next day. I thought that was rather random and strange to start a teacher randomly through the school year, but I agreed to do it. So, the next day I ended up in front of a class full of sixth graders with about fifteen minutes "prep" ahead of time. I was handed a book and told I was teaching physics. That's all...I freaked. First of all, physics is probably my worst subject of anything so naturally I would get that, and second of all I had no idea what or how I was supposed to teach!! One thing I did know, I just had to keep calm and look confident. Oh and speak realllly slowly since the kids could hardly understand my "accent." I vaguely recognized the material and pretty much winged the lesson. Two teachers and the principal watched me as I attempted to look professional and put-together in front of the 40some students. They also helped me translate some of the kids' answers. Let's just say, it was an experience!

So, this is a funny story...
we were working along four Dutch volunteers at the orphanage and one of them named Nicgrita used to run track. Naturally, we quickly caught up on the subject and she said their was actually a track competition (called "athletics" in Ghana) going on that weekend at the local high school and she was taking some of the children down to go see it. She asked me half-joking if I would be interested in running one of the races. I told her, if they really let me run, I would do it. I kind of regret saying that b/c within a few hours I found myself on the starting line of a 1,500m race against about 15 other Ghanains. I was the only white person in the entire meet...and the only one wearing tennis shoes (the Ghanains strangely preferred wearing bare feet...) The 400m track was roughly carved into the ground around a large football(soccer) field. There must have been over 400 people watching the meet and, man, did I get some weird looks. But, it was such a blast. I was older than the other girls in the race and had some prior training, so I knew it was not going to be an all-out race. I paced the top girl to the finish and had quite a reaction at the end for "a strange abruni-white person- winning the race."

My time is almost up though...I will update more later on this blog...possibly tomorrow. This entire trip is just much too long to explain...