I made it!

Hi Everyone!

Here's a long one!

Well, i made it to elmina safe and sound. first of all, sorry for the no capitalization, but the shift button doesn't really work on this computer so i'm going to mostly skip it. i made it into accra on wednesday night (the 22nd0 and my friend Collins picked me up from the airport. Collins used to work with my dad, at the aluminum plant here in ghana, and i had met him when he stayed at our house when i was 7 years old. he is so nice, and was shocked that i'm taller than him now. haha! so he took me to my hotel, where i stayed for two nights, near his house. he took me to a delicious lunch of red-red, which is a popular ghanaian food made with beans in a sauce made of tomatoes, onions, palm oil, and something kinda spicy...and i'm sure some other ingredients...and then fried plantains, that you eat with the beans. they're a little red too, collins said it's because of the palm oil. it was DELICious. sorry, tried the capitals again, didn't work. on friday, a man name jojo picked me up to take me to elmina. i was going to take the bus, early in the morning, had my ticket and everything, but then i made some phone calls to tell people i had arrived, and jojo said to cancel my bus ticket because he was driving to accra anyways, so he would come get me. so that's what we did. he is very nice, just like everyone else in this country. everyone is so friendly and always trying to help me out.

i finally got to elmina around 5;30 pm, so it was almost dark (the sun sets at 6 here). ben, the headmaster of the school where i'm staying and working, greeted me and introduced me to a thousand people whose names i forgot instantly. then, someone shot an alligator across the street. seriously. everyone went over to see it, and he dragged it off with a mob of cheering kids following him. welcome to africa.

ben and mr. annan took me to see my room, which is huge!! a lot bigger than i expected. it is next door to his office, which has a toilet (a real toilet) and an area for my bucket shower. there is no running water though, so you flush the toilet with a bucket (sound familiar, travel buddies?) and i'm getting the hang of the bucket shower i think. yesterday my hair looked like there may have been an oil spill on it...i didn't do a very good job of rinsing. haha. today i think i got it though. we haven't had electricity since i got here, we were supposed to have it last night but it went out, so everyone has been going to sleep really early. but then again, everyone gets up around 5 or 5:30, so i guess that's the trade off. seriously, this morning i was going to go for a run, and the girls came to my room after i had woken up but before i had REALLY woken up, and said "why did you not go for your trot this morning?" and i said because i overslept, but COME ON it was 5:45!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! tomorrow, i will go though, because as i was walking over here to the internet, a boy stephen (one of the students) walked with me and said he was going to go running with me but i didn't go. oops. didn't know i had a running buddy. so i will go tomorrow, and i'm sure stephen will kick my ass, it'll be more like a slow jog for him i'm sure.

the school is on vacation right now, for about two weeks until it starts again. every morning, ben teaches some vacation classes, though. i sat in on his english class yesterday. ben and his family live at the school, in a house right next to it, and there are some students (8, i think) living here too. all boys, in summer. so it's nice, i'm just gettting used to everything and meeting the people that i will be working with. i'm trying to learn some Fante, but so far all i know is akwaaba (welcome) and medasi(thank you). we walked into town yesterday, to meet ben's mom and his sister connie, and then i walked back with ben's son maxwell. maxwell is off at high school now (on a Tomorrow's stars scholarship), and he is VERY bright. it was great to talk to him, he speaks perfect english and was explaining a lot about ghana to me. he wants to become a doctor.

last night, i got to help make fufu, which is another traditional dish. fufu is like a dough when it's done, but it's such hard work!! you cook plantains and cassaba and then pound it all together. it's a little more complicated than that, but basically there is a giant mortar and the pestle is this 6-foot long stick, and you have to pound it really hard. it took a long time to make, and my arms were sore! but then you eat it, in a soup with fish. you eat with your hands. and, lucky me, i got the honor of being served the fish HEAD which i ate, to be polite, but i do not reccomend fish eyes. i felt like maybe i was on fear factor, like someone should be momentarily walking up to me with a chest of cash... but nope. anyways, it was very good. the soup was a little spicy, which i like, of course.

this morning, i was in the kitchen with three of the girls, and we were all eating our breakfast, when ben came back from church and said "i like that you are part of us!" and i said that i like it too! thank you!! that made me very happy. i was warned that i would be eating alone, that they would always serve me first (yes) and then leave me to eat alone, but so far i have always been eating with someone. i'm not sure if that's good or bad, but i like it! i think it may be because i don't know how to eat anything with my hands so they like to be there to laugh at me!! but i mean seriously, how do you eat soup with your hands. atleast i have some eating tutors.

last but not least, here's a nice sign for you all. i saw this one in tema, outside of accra; "Because He lives fast food"

miss you all!! if you want to text, please see george's comment on my last blog!!

love shawna