Building things by hand and hack saw =>best day ever

Buenos dias mi familia y amigos!

Why good morning in spanish you ask? We currently have a set of twins around my age staying with us and last night they asked me to start giving them Spanish lessons on the basics haha

I've been just as busy as ever now that I have decided to try and go to my internship three times a week now...crazy!! Luckily, I really enjoy being super busy because I hate being bored...I no longer have time to be bored while I'm here! This past week I also had one of my favorite days here so far, let me tell you about it!

Tuesday of last week, was pretty normal except that one of my professors called me out in class...once again in the class where I'm the only other white girl. Luckily, it was just to thank me for coming to class regularly because the three oburoni guys and most Ghanaians are just occasional class attendees. He also shook my hand after class to thank me again haha I know, I know..as my dad would say "you brown noser!"

Wednesday, Jessalyn and I got a ride to school from my host dad. I don't remember the last time I was driven to school (as a loyal school bus rider up until I got my license). He just happened to be parked on the side of the road outside our house when we were walking past and he called us over and said he'd take us! 

Thursday was a great day for me in Ghana. I went to my internship alone and it was the first day that I've been here where I really felt like I was just another person going to work in the morning, not the white girl struggling to get somewhere. I wasn't called oburoni all day until my way home around 6pm. I was able to easily catch a tro tro to my internship, paid the fare easily, got dropped off at the right place and everything! While these seem like small things, when you're in a place where you draw attention immediately upon entering someone's view it's the little things that matter most. I was able to do entrance interviews for our new trainees at SISS which was really nice being able to meet these new students and get to know them right away. 

Side note: I don't think I ever showed you all what a tro tro looks like so here it is:

This is a nice looking tro tro, please note the large number of heads inside and random things on top. Things missing that are characteristic of the typical tro tro: back door being held shut with a rope, a "mate" hanging out the side door yelling the destinations the tro tro will go to, the general rust and poor conditions on the outside of the vehicle. You may wonder why we take these if they're so crowded and in poor condition...well to get to a location five hours away it cost us about $5...when I go to my internship it costs me 20 cents each way...not too bad!

Friday, we went to Agbogbloshie again to work at the school. This time I didn't get to teach because the entire first floor of kids (which I started counting and my previous guess was a complete underestimate!) spent the day singing and dancing. They taught Madam Tera a few songs and dances and I had to lead them in a few primary school songs though my brain was blanking on any except for the ones I learned when I was in Yoruba (another African language class I took at UW).

Saturday, was by far one of my top two days so far in Ghana. CIEE did a community service project at Future Leaders, a small school in Teshie. For some reason quite a few people skipped this event either for no reason or because it was too early (we left around 7am), unfortunately for them, they missed out on a fantastic and rewarding day. We sanded, painted, and put up walls to separate the new additional classrooms. If you know me at all, you probably have noticed my ridiculous love of random hard work, especially if it's something that a man would typically be seen doing..for example..working in a cast iron foundry making car rotors and furnace boilers (if you don't know me...that's 100% true...I did that and LOVED it). Therefore, it may not be surprising that I LOVED working at this school. I tried to make sure I was always busy which led of course to me being super dirty between paint and sawdust. I was fortunate enough to work with some fellow Midwesterners on really important projects like painting the gate. Please note my enthusiasm:

Winner, winner chicken dinner!

More pictures and possibly a video from our community service day will come in my next blog since I didn't take my camera so I'm waiting on others to post pics of me so I can take them.

A week or two I gave you all a link to my friend Anil's blog and I still highly recommend it because I'm often featured in it (3 weeks in a row, yeah!). You should also check out my friend Matt's blog. He is also quite hilarious http://topoftheworld18.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/is-that-your-giraffe/

I'm planning to do my blog next week on food so you can see some of the typical Ghanaian dishes (even if my stomach won't allow me to enjoy them as well) and also talk about the funeral I'm attending this weekend in my family's village, Battor.

Till next time!