Day 25 and 26

Today we got up early to work on our community presentations and to give them. The presentations went well and the towns people were actually open to talking about teenage pregnancy, something I thought would have been harder for them. About 30 people were there unlike the 300 that they thought were going to come. After the presentations we worked on our professional presentations. This one we will do tomorrow after we visit the Integrity Foundation School.  I am glad to have gotten the presentation done and over with and can’t wait to give the presentations tomorrow and be done with all the research stuff.  Tonight we just worked on our presentation while everyone else hung out. I am not sure why but everything seems to take us longer than the other groups. Oh well I really enjoy how our presentation ended up and I think it will go well tomorrow!

Day 26 June 15, 2011

Today we got up early and continued to work on our presentations. We had to write out what each of us was going to say for each slide. Around 12ish we headed off for Felix’s school. The kids were so cute when we got there they had a song and dance ready for us and performed it! I videoed it to show everyone once I am home.  We broke up into our research groups and talked to the kids about our topics. Talking to these kids about teenage pregnancy was a little awkward to say the least, but the Q and A afterwards was a little better. The kids asked questions about Obama, and one even asked if he could be the next president of America. After our mini group presentations we gave all of our donations to Felix. We donated pens, pencils, books, bubbles, stickers, and pretty much anything that a kid would like. He was so greatful and the kids loved everything. I think that next year when students come I want to send some donations with them to give to Felix. After we left the school kids we did our professional presentation. The presentations were held at the health clinic and about 20 people came. Everyone seemed to really be interested in what we had to say which was nice. Overall I think that my group did great and I am proud of the effort that we all put into the project. After the presentation we came home to pack. Today was our last day in Larteh and tonight is my last time sleeping in this house. It is weird to think that I will soon be home, when it seems like I just got here. Don’t get me wrong though I am ready to come home. We have been without running water now for 3 days and it is starting to get hard. After I packed my bags I weighted them and they were both around 44 so I am a little nervous because I don’t want them to be overweight.  If they are I know a few people who have said that they would help me out and I would be able to put some things into their bags. It’s nice to be on a trip where pretty much everyone gets along and there are no clicks or anything. After everyone packed up we had our goodbye dinner. This was such a nice dinner and everyone had such nice things to say. I don’t want to go into too much detail because it is something that was very personal and special to me. I am really going to miss being here in Ghana, and I am not sure if I will be back, but if I do I know that I would be welcomed the same way. It still amazes me how friendly people are here. Everyone wants to help you and everyone wants to be friends with you. The culture and the people here are amazing and I truly value getting to know them both. Tomorrow we head out to the waterfall around 6:30 and to Accra afterwards. My plan is to finish up last minute shopping so that I can enjoy Friday at La Palm before my long journey home. See you all soon!! 

Day 24

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WONDERFUL MOM! :) Sorry I couldn't call you! I will try to call you tomorrow! Love you!
Anyways, today was mainly filled with creating our community and professional presentations. But, in the morning I went back to the wood place that I went to on Saturday. Some of the girls who were in Accra when I first went wanted to go again, and I wanted to pick up a few more things as well. I got some cool masks, a neckless, and some animal carvings. All in all it was a great morning and I was happy to get out of the house! After shopping however, things changed. We just worked on our presentations and for some reason it seemed to take forever to get things done. Tensions were running high with everyone today and I think that everyone is ready to go home and be done with this research project. There are many reasons for this, but I am trying to stay positive so I won't list them. The best part of my day was sitting on the porch with sam venting about how the day went. I feel like now that I talked it out I can go to bed and wake up to a fresh new day. I just pray that everyone has patience tomorrow, and that all the presentations go well! (They are expecting about 300 community members to be present! And the professional presentation has been moved to Wednesday after we visit the school.) Also, a little up date about my grandpa, I guess he is doing better each day and was (last time I check) on a rehab floor at the hospital. Love you grandpa and sending warm healing thoughts your way!

Day 23

Today was such a nice relaxing day! Last night Holly slept in the bunk above me which is normally empty and Sam put a matress on the floor and slept there. It was fun to have a sleepover with all four of us in one room! We all slept in until around 9 which was amazing, that rarely happens here. We had a nice morning not doing much. Sam and I went on a nice walk down the road in the morning which I enjoyed. The rest of the morning I finished up some homework and read a little of my book. Mr. Ansari, who we are staying with, came home from Accra with his wife. His wife had been gone since we have been here. She was so nice and friendly. Around lunch time a few of us went to the local grill to have lunch which was really good. We took a Tro Tro there and on the way home the chief of police, who was also at the grill, had his driver drive us home which was cool. After that I did more homework then ate dinner. Mrs. Ansari made us dinner and, it was pretty good! Ever since she had been home she has bene scrubbing down the kitchen (which need it), and cleaning up everything; its been funny. After dinner I just hung out with some of the girls. Today was a nice relaxing day which was well needed. The rest of the week is looking like this: Monday-work on presentations, Tuesday-Give community and professional presentations, Wednesday-Talk to the local school and hang out with the children and have our good-bye dinner, Thursday-Pack up and go to the waterfall (I'm super excited for this!!!) and spend the night in Accra (and go out), Friday-Do last minute shopping (cultural center, Global Mama;s =, and go to the place where they make the caskets in all different shapes and things) and leave to fly home! and Saturday-Arrive in Detroit! Can't wait to see you all! :)

PS today has been cold! I have been wearing my sweatshirt all day! Who would have thought? lol

Day 22

Two things that I forgot to mention in yesterday's post: 1) when we went to the fetish priestest's house there were a bunch of little kids sitting all around us and at one point in the performance this little boy taps my hand and says to me "you are beutiful." It was so cute I could have died. 2) Also at the same event during the presentation another boy tapped my hand and asked for the time so I light up my watch to show him (it was dark out) and then he asked for my watch. I felt to bad because I can go home and buy myself another watch, it's no big deal, but I do need my watch while I am here so I can know the time. It's situations like this that make me sad becuase I want to help, but unsure of what I should do. Anyways, today was a great day! Sam, Kaitlyn, Marissa, Holly, and I all got up early today and were going to go to bead city (I forget the citys real name lol). We got a taxi that was going to drive us around all day and everything was falling into place. Then being flexable came into play. On the way to bead city, actually Somanya, the taxi broke down! Luckily it was right outside a car place and a guy came to start working on it right away. The repair was talking awhile so we were going to take another taxi, becuse we were almost there, but our taxi driver was so nice he said that he wanted to make sure we got there safe and that he wanted to complete his job. The repair took about an hour which wasn't too bad, and then we were off first to Global Mamas. The only problem is that no one could find it. Our guide book gave us one location, and each local gave us another, and the actual store was no where to be found. So after about 30 minutes trying to find this place we left that idea and changed to just going to Cedi's bead factoru. We had saw the sign a little while down the road, but the taxi man still stopped and asked for directions from some man in town. The man watned to come with us to make sure that we go to the right place. Good intention, however, having 5 people in the back of a tiny, tiny was not fun. Once we pulled up to the bead factory there were about 20 visitors who looked like they had already done the tour and were waiting to leave. Once of the people made this statement to us "there's 5 of you? I only thought there was 4!" It was so funny we were all just about dying at this point. The actual bead factory tour was awesome! It was just the 5 of us and he showed us all the steps to making the beads. After the factory tour we stopped by the gift shop and boy was I so excited! I got so many different braclets, and necklesses the shop was so cool I loved it. After the shop we decided that we wanted to go to the near by market. We were under the impression that this market would have wood carving and stuff to give as gifts. But when we got there we realized that it was just a market with food and practical everyday stuff. We decided that since we are normally made our meals in the house by the girls, but they wont be here until tomorrow, that we would make dinner ourselves. So we shopped around the market and got noodles, garlic, and bread. Our plan was to make garlic noodles and garlic bread! Yummy! After we were done shopping we left to come back to the house. After we got back Marissa, Kaitlyn, and Holly all took naps and Sam and I stayed up looking over all the beads that we got and planning out what gifts we still needed to get. We really wanted to get wood carvings to we called Connie and asked if there was any place close that we could go to. She said that her and Linda were going to go later today to one and that we could come. About 3 hours later we went and Sam and I cleaned up the place. I finished up a majority of my gifts and now all I have to get are 2 more things! (everyone get super excited!) After that we came back made dinner, which was soooooo good, and talked for a while with Connie and Linda. Overall it was a great day that made me feel more independent here in Ghana. Tomorrow we have a relaxing day to hang out and maybe work on some school work.

Day 21

Today we left to go back to Larth! We got to sleep in a little which was nice, packed up, and piled on the bus. The bus was so stuffed from everyone's shopping it was crazy! The bus ride was going to take about 4 hours and we would return home by 3:30, just in time to change and head into town to see the fetish priestest. However this drive ended up taking about 6 hours and we didn't get to see the fetish priestest until around 6:30/7ish. On the way home we stopped for lunch at this restraunt and I got really good veggie pizza! The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. Once we got back we stopped to let two girls off the bus then continued into town to see the priestest. When we got there she was dressed in traditional dress and there were drums and chairs set up. We all sat down, I got the front row, and the drumming started. People started singing, drumming, and dancing aound. I took some pictures and a short video, but then it got too dark to see anything. The pirestest got posessed by one spirit and started dancing. People from our group also got to dance with her, I declined because I wanted to experience what was going on, but not participate in it. Next, she sat down and fainted, meaning that spirit left her and another one was going to posess her. The next spirit posessed her and more drumming and dancing occured. Then she sat down and people could go up and ask questions. About 7 girls went and asked questions, I again decided not to. Her answers to all the questions were very vague and not specific, which was somewhat to be expected. After everyone was done asking questions the spirit left her body and the ceremony/performance was over. Overall it was a cool experience to see, and something that I will never forget. After the performance was over we came back to the house and unpacked everything. Tomorrow and Sunday are free days in which we can do whatever we want. Sam, Marissa, Holly, Kaitlyn, and I are going to this bead city tomorrow. Our goal is to tour the Cedi's Bead Factory, go to the market, and Global Mamma's has a store there in which you can take a half day workshop on making beads! We have to provide our own transportation, so this should be a fun trip! Ill let everyone know how it goes tomorrow!

And if anyone has time look at Global Mama's website (www.globalmamas.org) They have the cutest things and it's all fair trade!

Day 20

Today we woke up around 6:15 which was sleeping in a little compaired to yesterday! I was nervous to go see the bonesetter because so many people said that it was emotional, but  I also wated to see what traditional methods people use to treat bones. So the bonesetter was located in this back part of the village by like this car fixer-uper place so needless to say it was kind of weird. So the first group of students got to go into the lady's hut to see her work on this baby who was 40 days old. The baby broke its arm during delivery and her mom took her to the hospital to get it looked at. She said that the hospital said she was fine and that it wasn't broken, but the mom knew it was, so she turned to a traditional method to heal bone. The bonesetter uses a vasaline like substance that has methanol in to to rub on the skin over the broken bone. IT was sad to see such a young baby in so much pain. The next group, my group, got to go in for the nest patient who was a little boy with a broken arm. The boy did not even make a peep when they were rubbing is arm, even when we heard his bone pop into place. It was insane and this little boy was so brave that it was moving. After the bonesetter, we went to Lake Bosumtwi to eat lunch, swin, and go on traditional boats! Lunch no joke took about 3 hours. So that was kind of hard to sit through, and was kind of annoying. After lunch, we went out on a boat like a little metal one, but with no engine it had to be paddled by hand. We went out in the middle of the lake and got to jump in and swim around. Swimming was so much fun! We were in the lake for about like 30-45 min and it was amazing! It is crazy that this lake was made from a meteorite! After swimming we went and sat on traditional boats. Mine was pretty much a wooden plank that looked like it was taken from an old dock (with rusty nails still in it!). The local fishermen use these boats and I have paddle them by hand becuse the spirit in the lake does not allow anything else for fishing. It was super fun trying to keep balance on it and I even stood up on it! This was some much needed relaxing time/playing time. Oh something I forgot! On the way to lunch at the lake we were driving down a dirt road when all of a sudden we came upon a huge hole in the road! Eric the bus driver tired to go around it and almost fell it so Marissa and I helped him to back it up all the way back down the road (there was no place to turn around). After we got back from the lake we all showered to get the lake smell off of us then went for Indian food. IT WAS WONDERFUL!!!! I love Indian food now! Sam and I have decided that once we are home we are going on a double date to get some (she is an Indian food expert lol). Tomorrow we are driving back and seeing the fetish priestist perform her talking to the spirits. I guess she get posessed and dances so that should be cool! The rest of the weekend hopefully will include going to a bead company (where they make beads) and going to a private island by ferry :)

Day 17, 18, and 19

Sorry I haven't been blogging, but here is everything that has been going on!


Day 17 June 6, 2011
Today was a nice productive day in the land of research. We dedicated the whole entire day to coding our data and analysis of it. Our Data coding took longer then planned (like all day) so we pretty much only coded and will save analysis for another day. The main thing that has been happening today is that everyone is getting sick. There are at least 5 girls who have fallen ill today alone! It is so crazy because all but one was feeling fine the day before! Marissa and Sam are two of the people who are sick and I feel really bad for them. Word on the street is that it was something that they ate for lunch yesterday. The only two waves of people getting sick have happened when outsiders have cooked food for us. Normally we have the girls in the house cook (they get credit for working here) and so far everything we have had has been good. Connie has even said that normally more people are ill by this time in the program! I am so thankful that I am not sick because these girls look ill. They all feel very achey, feverish (one even had a fever of 101.4!), chills, headache, vomiting, and other GI problems. I hoep they all feel better by tomorrow because we are leaving to go on a trip tomorrow morning until Friday! I by the way am sooo excited for this! I am planning on doing some shopping and relaxing while on this vacation! I just wanted to say thanks for all the warm thoughts from yesterday. Yesterday was a hard day, but it is nice to know that all my friends and family at home care and love me. I'm having a blast here but I cant wait to come home and see you all!!! Now I am just sitting around waiting to hear about gpa and how his knee surgery goes! FYI it was the hottest it has been all trip today. It was crazy! I think that the heat made everyone who wasn't sick feel not well and the people who were sick 100x worse. I am glad that it is finally night out and that the power is back on so we can have our fan again. If this is what the people here call their winter I would hate to see their summer!

Day 18 June 7, 2011
Today we left early, early, early, in the moring so that we could start making our way to Kumasie (?). The bus ride there was supposted to take 3 hours, but like everything on this trip it took about double that time. On the way there we hit lots of traffic which made the trip longer and we also made a few stops along the way. One of the most memorable stops was a rest stop...we all had to use the washrrom so we stopped and paid 20p (like $0.15) to use the bathroom and boy were we suprised to find 4 open stalls, that looked more like showers, for the bathroom. It litereally looked like a shower drain and you just had to squat down and go, needless to say I got stage fright and couldn't do it. lol. The rest of the day we mainly sat in the bus, got pizza for dinner, and I got a cool painting along the way as well. We got to the hotel and it was nice. Tomorrow we have to wake up super early to see the Ashantiehene (the Ashantie Chief) which is a big deal, then we will go to the largest open market in west Africa!!! How exciting! :)

Day 19 June 8, 2011
Today was our big day to see the Ashantihene! And boy what a big day it was. It all started with getting up super early just to be there at :730 to see him. Funny thing is the Chief had a meeting until noon. Something no one decided to find out until we were already there and waiting. So while waiting we went and saw a mesuem about the Ashanti people and the history of the kings and the British influence. It was all super neat and we saw all these old guns and kid thrones, it was pretty cool. Something cool about the Ashanti people is that they have this golden stool, and they believe it is the soul of the Ashanti people, and if it ever gets stolen then they will die. Also, they are known porcupines, kill 1,000 of them and a 1,000 more will come, but we were told that they are a peaceful group of people. lol. So we pretty much waited around after the tour on the bus until it was time to go sit down to see the Chief. There was most likely like 200 people there to see him and there was a main stage and chairs set up along the side as well. We were sitting along the side and pretty much couldn't see a thing. So needless to say a 4 hour ceremony to see the Chief that was all in Twi and which we couldn't see made it super long. It was cool however, when it was our turn to go up and be introduced. All the people here love it that Connie, our leader, can speak Twi. They all just about die, which is super funny. When we went to go see him we had to take off our shoes as a sign of respect, which I understand, but at the same time grossed me out as well. After the ceremony everyone was starving so we went to eat at the cultural center. This cultural center was nothing like the one we saw the first day. This one had a nice restraunt, and was more like a park with people doing and selling art in it. I walked around with Sam after lunch and we found a potter. His shop was so cool (I didn't take a picture and I regret it!), and we decided that we wanted to buy something. We needed something small to bring back with us, but also something neat. We ended up buying little, little pots which are super cute and I really like them. Also, they were also only a cedi! What a great deal! I wish we had more time to walk around here because I really enjoyed seeing the people make their art, instead of just buying something off the street. After the cultural center we all headed off to the market. I am not sure I can accuretly decsribe my expereince in the market, but I will do my best to try. The market is the largest outside market in West Africa and is most likely the smelliest as well! We started off at the market all following Connie to find the beads which was super hard keeping all 16 of us together! The stands are so close you have to walk in single file, people have things on their heads so you have to watch your head, and everyone is rushing around weaving in and out. It was an experience to say the least, but one that I really enjoyed. After we got the beads Connie took Marissa, Sam, and I around to show us somethings in the market....that was if we could find them! We saw traditional medicines, house hold appliances, clothes, shoes, all kinds of foods (and boy did the meat section smell!), we saw chickens, cows feet, pretty much anything you can think of they had. It was cool Connie got us all oranges and taught us how to eat them (they cut the top, then you peal it off, and squish it like a stress ball, then drink the juic off the top), it was super yummy and fun. Next, we wanted to get some notebooks for the school we will be volunteering at on Wednesday. There is a school in town that we are going to on Wednesday to teach from 12:00-2:00 and from ages 3-17. Most of the students have teenage mothers and the man who runs it is named Felix and he is trying to stop the cycle of teen pregnancy in Larth. He is an awesome man with a great vision. So on Wednesday we are donating a bunch of school supplies, but we didnt have any notebooks so we got 120 for 50 cedi. After we got the books it was time to head back to the bus so we asked a local boy to help us get there, in exchange for a cedi and he agreed to help us. On the way to the bus we all of a sudden saw a mob of people start running in the direction of the bus and Connie goes oh look something is happening! I guess that a local man was caught stealing and the mob of people was going to take care of it, I guess that is how things are done in Ghana. After this we were almost back at our bus when our guide was stopped by a young street boy who was asking for money, when our guide went into his pocket to get him some a small bag (of what we believe to be cocane) comes falling out of this pocket. He quickly picked it up, Marissa, Sam, and I all look at each other, and then we all continued on like nothing happened. It was really funny and sad at the same time. After we were all back safely on the bus we came back to the hotel to change for dinner. Before dinner I talked to my best friend :) then went and had Chinese food, which was good. After that we went to bed becuase we have to get up early tomorrow (5:15 am) to see the bone setter which I heard is very emotional.

Day 16

Today was a hard day all around. We had some group issues, faculity issues, and I am worried about my grandpa. Overall today has made me homesick and exhausted. The only things we did today was analysis of our data and saw the shrine today. At the shrine we saw the priestist (female priest), who is a spritual and psychic healer. When we went to see her we poured libations (pouring some alochol onto the ground for your ancestors) which was nice. This is the second time we got to do this, first time was with the wise old man earlier in the week, and I really enjoyed being part of some old tradition. After we poured libations we went around and introduced ourselves and I guess the priestists name was the same as mine. She got all excited and had me sit on her lap, and people took pictures so I will have to get one from someone to show you guys. It was funny, but then she said that she wanted me to stay here with her and study under her to learn how to be a psychic healer! How crazy is that?? No worries though I am coming home :) After we got back we did more data analysis and I even got in a walk with Michelle and Sam. Walks here have helped me to relax so much, even with speeding cars zipping by. On the way back, when we walked up the drive way we saw a SCORPION!!!!!!! It was huge like 6 inches long and black and scary!!! I quickly ran inside to get my camera and took some pictures of it so I know you will all want to see that! The rest of the night was more hw, mac and cheese with cornbread and chocolate cake for dinner (note most dinners are not like this), and then bed. Please everyone say a little prayer that my grandpa's surgery goes well tomorrow! LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL! GOOD LUCK GPA!

Day 15

What I forgot to add yesterday is that after dinner we went back to the local bar and went out for a drink. Only 10 of us went and 2of the local girls who we have been working with drove us there and back which was nice. I really enjoyed getting to know some of the girls better outsdie form this house and schoolwork. THe local girls who we went with tired to teach us to dance and all around it was a great time. :)
Today started out like most days this week have. We had oatmeal and this time eggs for breakfast (which was a nice change), and then lecture on analysis of our data that we have collected. The lecutre part as pretty boring, but once we started looking over our data results that part was pretty cool. We only got to work for about half an hour then it was time to get ready for lunch. Lunch today was for some women (they wouldnt really tell us who) who was turing 70. The party was just down the road at this palm nut farm, and the party was located under the palm trees. It was super pretty, but kind of random that we went. Oh and I forgot so we were going to be leave by 12:15 then it got changed to 1 then changed back to 12:30 and we ended up not leaving until 1:15, so needless to say sitting around for all that time was pretty boring. I feel like a lot of this trip has been hurry up and get ready, but then wait around because nothing is ever on time and people are never ready. Anyways, the food for lunch was pretty good I had rice and some veggies. I also tired palm wine which was kind of weird. It smelled like nutty but tasted sour, so it was a weird coombo. AFter being at the party for 4 hours we came back and continued to work on analysis of our data. As we were working on it you could tell a huge storm was rolling in and it was only a matter or time before we were going to gt poured on. Luckily we got to eat dinner, which was rice ball and nut soup (like what we had at Connies hoouse but a little different), first before the rain came. But when the rain came oh boy did it come! It downpoured for 3 hours and we lost power as well. We quickly finished up what we were working on, thanks John for the head light I used it to help my type on my computer, and then decided to stop because it was too hard in the dark. So what we ended up doing was having 8 or so girls come into our room and share ghost/scary stories. This was so much fun and a great way to end the night! Right about before we were going to go to bed the power came back on, but by this time no more homework was going to happen. I hoep that Linda isnt mad that we didnt finish everything, but with no power it was super hard. Tomorrow we are going to the local shrine which I have heard is cool and scary. Hope that everyone is doing good! Love you and miss you all!

Day 14-Half way done!

Day 14 June 3, 2011
I have offically been away for 2 weeks!Its crazy how fast time has gone! I miss everyone at home so much, and I am thinking that the next two weeks will fly by. Today we woke up super early so that we could go to the post-natal clinic in the village, and like always we had egg toast and oatmeal for breakfast. I ate the oatmeal today and some fresh homemade wheat bread which was yummy! We started out later then we wanted this morning, but my ride into town was free! There was this BMW driving into town and they gave us a ride which was super nice (and slightly scary to get into a car with a stranger lol). But we made it into town and made it to the clinic but by the time we got there about 100 patients were already there waiting to been seen. We were going there to interview the health care workers which was hard becuse they were busy, but we got it done! Once we got our interviews done we had some extra time and we helped in the pharmacy! We counted out pills and filled rxs. At first I felt weird about this cuse it was very strange, but I figured I am not the one perscribing the pills I am just counting them out, which is something I can do. After this we went out to eat at a local bar place where people liked the chicken (when we ate with the chief and head of police). Now we ordered in bluk and all paid a set price and I need some opinions. I paid the same amount even tho I dont eat meat. Now at the end of the trip we are going to divide up the cost for the food that we have been eating in the house. Here is where I need help do I talk to Connie and tell her that because I dont eat meat (which she knows) do I have to pay the same as the girls who are eating meat? Or is this going to be a bigger problem then its worth? Anyways after lunch we went back into town to go see a school where all the children have teen mothers.  The man who runs it is named Felix and he was such a nice guy and really seems to be doing a good in the community. After talking with him and hanging out with the school kids we headed out to do our first focus group. As we got there we found out that the man who was supposted to run it was headed into Accra......so we had a change of plans and did not have our focus group. We only had a short amount of time so Connie and Linda too us to their house to hang out until 5 for our other focus group. While we were there we all took a short nap and it down poured. It was so nice after it rainned, it was cool and the sound of the rain was awesome. So we get to our second focus group and find out that instead of 4-5 girls like we had asked we had 18! We changed out plans from 1 focus group to 3 smaller focus groups. It was awesome to get to talk to these girls one on one and I really think that they enjoyed it too. Each of them wanted my e-mail and one girl even wants to get together tomorrow to play football (which I am trying to set up). This was the best part of my day and something that I will never forget. After this we came back and taught the girls who cook for us how to make pasta sauce! This was so much fun, but after awhile there were a few too many cooks in the kicthen so I went up to my room to relax and hang out with Sam. I hope that everyone at home is doing good! I really feel like the rest of this will fly by and next thing I know I will be home again! See you all soon! Also, next week we are going on a trup again and the rumor is that it will have good internet so Ill bring my computer and try to upload some photos! :) Also, I love that I am learning more Twi and James and John some man clicked at me today bahahahahaha

Day 13

Day 13 June 2, 2011
Something I forgot to say yesterday was that I did laundry!! and boy was it an experience! So Caitlin, Sam, Marissa and I all needed to do a few things and we all decided we would do it together to help save on water and soap. Sam's room has a nice porch on it and we set the clothes lines up in the sun and started washing the clothes by hand......the water was sooooo nasty and I'm not entirely sure how clean they came but it was fun! It was a great experience, but I am happy to say that I will only need to do launrdy maybe once more while I am here. Then in the middle of class yesterday it started to rain! We all ran back to the house to bring the clothes in, but it was too late they were already wet. :( we ended to hanging them up in our room and they kind of took a long time to dry, but they eventually did. However, they still feel weird and not clean.....but this morning was awesome. We got up and finished up our homework, and ate breakfast. We were all sitting around waiting for Connie and Linda to get here so a few of us decided to go for a walk. Man was it great to go walk around for about 45 minutes in the morning! Once Connie and Linda got here they reviewed what we typed out for our next focus group and health care interview that we will be performing, and they gave us their feedback on everything. Next, we had one of the local girls who has been traveling with us read over our questions just to make sure that she thought the girls who we are going to be talking with would understand the questions. She gave us some suggestions and girls from our group read over our questions and provided us with feedback as well. Then once we were done with that we sat outside on a porch (the one where we hung our laundry) and sat in the sun for awhile. Man after about 10 minutes I was just about cooked! When we were all done we deicded to go into town and walk around again. To get to town we had to grab a taxi so we can become more comfortable with the local tranportation. Our taxi driver was sooo nice and played the best music! It was fun being independent and learning how to do things here. Once we were in town we talked to where the local women get water from (a spring). This was moving to see just how far they have to walk and what they have to do to get water, just like it was yesterday as well. After we saw this water we walked to a natural spring where people get water during the dry season. The walk was amazing! It was so nice outside and walking through the jungle was sooo cool! I took lots of pictures but it doesnt even begin to describe how it was. On the way back we stopped at a old chiefs house. He was like a little yoda man. Everything he said was just so wise and amaing. One quote that I really liked was something like this "Everyone shares two things; birth and death, the in-between is your personality." He was super cool. While we were at his house we shared a drink with himi and had some avocado (which they call pear). We continued to walk back and stopped by church and met a local priest. This was nice, but by this time we were all starving and wanted to get going to we quickly left and made our way back to the house by grabbing a taxi oruself. When we got back dinner was ready and waiting, but it was what we had yesterday for lunch....so I didnt eat very much so I am still hungy. I may eat a bar tonight which will help. Tomorrow we have two focus groups (each made up of 5-7 teenage girls) and we are going to the health clinic to see how it is runned and to interview a few workers. And throw in a random lunch with someone important! lol Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, and with today being so tiring we are all going to bed early. LOVE AND MISS YOU! xoxo!

P.S. Mini is doing great here and I am so glad that I have such an amazing boyfriend who got me her! :) The only downfall is that we have had to type up and do all our research on her and windows 7 starter sucks (no powerpoint and word is like half of the normal word), but that is her only downfall :) THANKS AGAIN JAMESY!!!!! XOXO!

Days 10, 11, and 12

Day 10 May 30, 2011
Today was our first actual day of research, and man it was as exciting as it sounds. We got up around 8 and started lecture at 9. This has become our new standard for the "school day." Lecture was all about the different types of research and all that jazz. We then ate lunch, and during lunch we had a huge rain fall! It was so nice and calming. It lasted about an hour and everything was soaked. We even had some rain coming into the house through the roof! Luckily not in my room! :) We were going to go into town after lunch, but because it was raining we got to have a 2 hour break instead. It was nice to have a break to just sit on our pouch and watch the rain storm. After the rain stopped we did eventually go into town. Our goal was to walk around with our research groups and to do participant observations. Pretty much it was people watching, but we had to take notes on it. It was nice to go into the town and not have people bothering us all the time. After this we decided to eat dinenr and Connie and Lindas house (they are staying 15 min away on the other side of town). They made mac and cheese and it was nice just to hang out for awhile someplace other then our house. After dinner we tried to watch a movie, but couldnt get anything to work so we settled for a few episodes of friends that someone had on their computer.  We ended up going to bed early becuase tomorrow we have a day full of lecutre and focus groups. And the best part of the day was talking to my best friend on the phone! LOVE YOU!!

Day 11 May 31, 2011
Today was a lot like yesterday, but instead of participant observations we had a focus group. We woke up, had lecture, lunch, then went into town again. This time when we went into town it was to do our focus group. A focus group is where you get people to come in and have a converstaion about a topic. While they talk we take notes and one person leads the group in conversation. Everyting that could go worng with our focus group did. We were in this open bar with children running around and we were supposed to have people ready to go in our group, but they weren't, the lady in charge just pulled some women off the street to come participate. Even with everything that went wrong we got a ton of information. Caitlin was our moderator and did a great job and I learn a few things about teen pregnancy in Ghana that I was kind of suprised about. And that reminds me yesterday we changed our topic from prenatal health to teen pregancy. After coming here and talking to people prenatal health is not a concern for people of this community and teen pregnancy is. Anyways, what we found out was that sometimes when a teen has her baby she will wrap it up and throw it away in a different city. This way no one every finds out and she tells people that she miscarried. That was the biggest shocker to hear, even tho this doesnt happen a lot. After we were done with our focus group we had dinner at a local restraunt with the chief and the man who is the head of the police department.  After I hung out with a bunch of the girls. We drank some beer and wine that kind of tasted like salad dressing. Tomorrow we get to sleep in an extra hour which will be nice!! MISS AND LOVE YOU ALL!

Day 12 June 1, 2011
Today we got to sleep in which was super nice, however, the bright light and people working woke me up early. I got up early and did some more homework, and had a very relaxing morning which was a nice change. We had lecture today and then we sat around the rest of the day waiting to talk to Linda and Connie about hour research and where it was going. We were the thrid gorup to go and the two groups before us eachtook about an hour each, so needless to say it took forever and we spent a lot of today waiting around. Once it was my groups turn to talk and get feedback a lady who has been helping us named Edith came and stopped by. She wanted to take us around the village and give her impression of everything (she is from Ghana and I think the village). We drove around at first and she showed us the cemetary which looked a little like the one I saw in Poland where people are burried above ground (kind of). Then once we stopped driving around we walked the walk that the local women have to take to get water. This was of moving and it made me really appericiate where I come from and that I dont have to do this. The walk was long and steep, and the underground spring where they get their water from was just an open cememnt container that had leaves and even a turtle in it. It was so sad to see and it really put everything into focus. After we did this walk Connie wanted us to learn how to use local transportation so a few of us grabbed a trotro (a bus like taxi) and took it back to the house. This was a much needed break from all 17 of us together. Once we got back we had mac and cheese for dinner (which was sooo good!) and then we had our discussion about our research and how it is going. The talk took forever, but we got good feedback and have a good idea of what we need to do next. After this we took showers and went to bed. Tomorrow will be more lecture, and I am not sure what else!
P.S. Everyday for breakfest we eat egg toast and for lunch some meat with rice (so I only eat rice) when I come home I do NOT want either of these within my first week. Please and thank you! lol :)