So far...

SUMMARY:

We've been having so much fun!!! Saturday we went to the market to buy some souvenirs (I know, already??) so that Sarah could get some before she goes home next week. We went to church on Sunday, an orphanage on Monday, and the island schools on Tuesday. The kids are adorable and I decided I'll probably end up adopting a few of them.

DETAILS:

Saturday--Sarah found a dead lizard in one of the pots in the kitchen…gross. It looked like it was fried to the pan. The market was hot and pretty awesome. The people here are so happy and just want to make friends with everyone. It was a pretty chill day and we played games at night under our mosquito nets. (Don't worry mom, I've only gotten 2 bites so far.)

Sunday--The power went out in the middle of the night so we were all pretty hot and didn't sleep very well. It stayed off for most of the day (turns out you have to pay the bill in order for it to work. Who knew??). We took a taxi with all 6 of us plus the driver in a regular-sized sedan to church. It was a pretty great fast and testimony meeting. Ghanaians are so grateful for the things they receive from God. I want to be more like them. During church, they kept switching between English and Twi so it was hard to keep track of what was going on. Now I know how the senior couples felt on the mission. Good thing we had a self-appointed translator who made herself our best friend!

Monday--We met the MPAs to go to Lucky Hill orphanage. We met them at Hut De Eric, a pretty nice place that served bagels, omlets, pizza, hamburgers, and Ghanaian food. Of course I couldn't pass up the pizza. It was a bunch of vegetables sauteed and thrown on top of some flatbread. It was actually really good and tasted like pizza rolls.
We went to Lucky Hill and we were greeted by this little boy, about 3 or 4 years old running out to give us the most tenacious high fives I’ve ever seen. He ended up being the most cuddly out of them all. He would just walk up to someone and get them to pick him up, then just lay his head on their shoulder for as long as they would let him. SO adorable! Someone brought frisbees and hacky sacs for them all and we played with them for a while. I think one kid is going to end up playing professional baseball. He had a great arm!
After Lucky Hill, we went to Hilda’s house to make dinner. She is a recent convert and college student whose mom lives in the UK. She raised her 2 brothers on her own and one of them is now in high school, which is a pretty huge accomplishment here. We learned how to make Jollof Rice. It’s rice cooked in a kind of tomato soup. Pretty good. We plan to make it for all our friends when we get back. We stayed and had FHE with them and played games. They taught us a Ghanaian game that is pretty much like “Sorry” but with some twists and then Sarah and Taylor taught them chess since they had a set but didn’t know how to play.

Tuesday--We went to the island schools to check them out and see if it’s possible to put a MGR there. On the way, we stopped at the Obani school to check up on its MGR. Everything seemed to be in working order but we couldn’t get in because it was locked. The kids saw us and ran over to play with us. I brought out the science lab stuff and they thronged me. We did a few demos but had to leave pretty quick in order to get to all the schools in time. The island schools' circuit director, John, met us to show us around 5 of the island schools. We met another guy and the boat driver at the shore and headed out on a freshwater lake for the islands.
The third school was one of my favorites. They called it “Coconut Island” and gave us coconuts before we left to drink and eat. The guy spent the whole time we were there collecting them from the trees and then cut them open for us as we were leaving. He even sent some home with us. He cut the outsides off and then poked holes through them so he could string them onto a strip from a palm leaf. His kids were so cute. He asked me to take his youngest one home with me. If only.
They had long grass laid out to dry so they could make mats out of it but they said they make a lot of things out of it. Taylor gave them a Book of Mormon and a pass-along card with a pic of the temple on it. We left just as it started to rain pretty hard. The entire boat ride to the next island was spent with our heads down trying to not get rain in our eyes.
The fourth school was really cool ‘cause it was colorful and had a huge Balboa tree and clingy kids. They ran up to us and fought over who got to hold our hands. They were all pretty young except for the 17-year-old boy who came over to ask where my boyfriend lived. Ha. I was wearing my “don’t worry be happy” shirt with the giraffes on it and they kept pointing to it and calling it whatever the word for giraffe is in Twi. They saw us off to the boat again and waved goodbye. They’re kind of catching on with blowing kisses.
On our way back, the water was like glass. So serene. We passed a bunch of fishermen standing out in the middle of the lake up to their waists pulling in their net. It was a pretty cool sight. My camera ran out of batteries so I couldn't get a pic, but I'll post a few others.

Feel free to write me if you want. News from home is always welcome!