In God We Trust

That's the motto of a Junior Secondary School in the town next to
mine, it made me chuckle :)

So, the first week of moving to a new town is quite busy! Lemme try to
say as much as I can....

It's exams week so there's no work or observation to be done for my
primary project at the school, which is ok, since there's a lot to be
done within my house and the internet:-D. National Immunization Days
for Polio were last Wednesday through Saturday. I woke up and had to
be at the clinic at 6am, and that's not early for a Ghanaian. We
needed to get to teh students before school started. So this lovely
vaccination for Polio consists of this bad tasting liquid that is
squirted, two drops, into the child's mouth, from 1 week to 5 years of
age. And to make sure they don't get it twice we dye the nail of their
left ring finger. I was the dye-er :) and my hand became very dyed
becuase we all know how messy i can be, haha, it's just now coming
off, one week later :). OH and we walked from house to house, this
wasn't sitting down in the clinic and the children coming to you....so
i got to see a lot of Foase, and it's a much bigger town that I
previously thought! So on Wednesday morning we vaccinated 150 kids in
3.5 hours, not bad eh? Then on Thursday we vaccinated about
10....there was some miscommunication between me, my friend's sister,
and my friend about going to Kumasi and so I was told he was waiting
for me at my home and Abena, the woman i was vaccinating with, told me
to go home to see him. So that was that for the day. (but when i got
home he wasn't there, oh my, the miscommunication....) Then on Friday
morning, Abena walked around the same place we went to the previous
days, said she was tired, and we sat down on the main road for 2.5
hours, just resting, not doing any vaccinations. THen she said it was
time to go, so we went to the clinic without doing any vaccinations
that day and the head nurse guy was ok with that! Of course Abena
conversed with him in Twi, so I don't know what she told him, but that
was that. Strange to me, it was quite the learning experience. Oh and
to mark the house that it's been visited, we write S2 with a circle
around it with chalk on the outside of the house! can you bleieve
that? and the people are cool with it.

Earlier last week, i believe it was Monday, i went to Kumasi with my
counterpart Mr. Appiah to do some food shopping, he took me to the
"European" Market and guess what was there? Meijer toaster
pastries!!!!! no lie!!!! how funny is that? I got really exicted
though when i saw Meijer, although I didn't buy them becuase i didn't
feel like toaster pastries AND who knows how old they are if MEIJER
toaster pastries are in Africa, you know? Oooh, but i did treat myself
to some grapefruits and mandarin oragnes....fresh, not canned mandarin
oranges.

I'm learning how to be a wood carver! I've had a total of three
lessons already. Last nite I carved a fertility doll aka simple doll.
Tonight I'm supposed to finish it and make the simple male doll too. I
can wait, it's a lot of fun, and i think i mentioned this before my
teacher is also left-handed, so it's great!

OH! haha, two nights ago I finally got to eat a vegetable dinner in
Ghana, raw and lightly steamed :) Well, here the coco yam leaf aka
Kontomire, is Ghana's spinach, so i was gonna eat it raw, but when i
did that, something told me there was a reason that Ghanaians boil it
so well, so i pan steamed it wiht salt and black papper, well
apparently that's nearly a sin in Ghana, cuz my counterpart's son,
Albert, who's 11 years old, what shocked at what I had done to the
Kontomire and said it made him sad....so sad taht he went to bed right
then! LOL oh my, i was cracking up....i luagh just thinking about it,
i mean seriously, like stir fried spinach, it was good and he was so
sad, and when i tell this to other ghanaians they also look at me with
shock, haha.......but i like my vegetables :) oh but cooking, i do
like ot cook my own food, but it's so time consuming, lately i haven't
been able to cook until late and by then i'm so hungry i can hardly
think straight, i have to get into a better schedule.......it's nice
haveing a kitchen though, oooh i made pancakes the other day :)

ok, there's something wrong with my right thumb and palm....i have
some kind of irritation, it's slightly swollen and hitting the space
bar it aggravating it, so i must go. Also, i'm very hungry :-Dit's
130pm and i haven't eaten since 8am.

I miss everyone please keep writing.....

oh! and i learned that if you send anything the cheap way.....by
boat....it will take at least 6 months to get to me, so the best way
is through Air Mail, but that is expensive. Also a few people asked me
about type of tampons, OB the green kind. And if you're really itchin'
to send me a present a NiMH AA battery recharger that plugs into the
wall would be great! I brought a solar one and it doesn't charge the
batteries very well, i've lost many pictures becuase the batteries
died early. And, I may try to purchase a CD player here, but COmputer
speakers to hook up to my discman is also something i've been missing.
It'd be nice to share my music with my friends.

OH! and Jim, thank you very very much for the iPod, just recently i
got an adapater and was able to charge it, tons of great music, thank
you! and Mom, you can take 50$ from my savings account to give to Dad
to give to Jim for the iPod.....or something like that.


Anyway,

I miss you all. Merry holidays.....

Kris