Happy St. Patrick's Day!

From a country that doesn't know what a Four leaf clover is :)

First of all.....THANK YOU to all of you who have snet packages.....9 packages showed up at the same time.....so yesterday Peace Corps delivered them to me....Christmas in March! how great! :) The packages ranged from being sent NOv 8th to Jan 22nd. Funny huh?

Becky! THanks for the food...was it left over from burning man? the toffee crunch cookie was amazing :) Bad news though.....the package said it was supposed to contain Tuna and a battery recharger....but neither was in the package, and the strange thing is a peace corps rep is there when the post office opens the packages so really nothing should get stolen....are you sure you put the recharger in the package? I'll try to email the PC mail room and see if they know what happened to it....i really wanna use my digital again, it cost 56,000 cedis to devleop a rol of film.....but thank you even if it got stolen :-/

MOm, thanks for the candy, pics, markers, pens, magazines and history book....it's really up to date, i can't wait to start it :) ( i think i got three packages from you, maybe four!)

Selena, you effin rock! the body shop stuff will come in handy fo'sho' :) and oh does it smell good :) you're an angel!

Erin.....I finally get my jump drives back! yay!! now i just gotta be able to use the digital again :) and the chocolate, mmmmmm THANK YOU!

Aunt Linda! the stencil book is AMAZING! the novel looks incredibly interesting! and the pic is gorgeous! no one can believe only 3 people live in that house....i have a wonderful 14 year old who wants to come live with you....she can cook, clean, and wash laundry by hand superbly....you wanna invite her? oh and she speaks very good english too :) Her name is Grace :) hehheehe.

Dad and Jan...wow! what a package! thank you! SPeakers! you found some very nice compact speakers! Kwasi says they look like a phone, which htey kinda do.....they work just fine too:) The smelly markers! awesome! the kids love em! and the MAp!!!!!! what a great map!!!!! whne I leave i'll give it to the school and let the school use now while i'm here....the file, thank you! and the handsanitzer i'm starting to run out of that! so much appreciated

To everyone! THANK YOU for the tampons and pads! I have just about run out and now i think i have enough for one year! Bless you souls! And the candy! my oh my, just in time, i promised the school kids the top 5 studetns from each class will get ot go to a party with american food and candy, so there you have it! madaase pa!!!! (thank you very much....ma-daa-see pah)oh and i'm soo sorry i can't remember who sent the pasta sides or jiffy mix...but thank you!!!!! i can't wait to eat them .....

NOw that' you've all fufilled my previous wishes, here's a new list ( no rush by any means)

More pasta sides, rice sdes, jiffy mixes,

cup-of-soup.....can of chicken noodle soup would be nice, but they're heavy so i think the instant cup-a-soup will be more than satifactory.

hand sanitizer :)

sugar-free chewing gum

jerky even

ok i tink that's good....oh underwear could be nice, but not really until birthday or christmas.....mine so far is holding up.......

OK now the email for everyone :-D

Let's see... yes, yesterday was a nice day, treated to 9 packages, and when my landlord came home, he brought a new kitty for me. He says this kitten is close to three months old but it looks more like one month to me....i'm praying it stays healthy. I ca'nt believe I knew Obolo when he was that small.....the kitten fits in my hand! Obolo is at least 2.5 times the size of it:) So, I told Kwasi that if his father brings me a replacement cat, Kwasi can have it.....It's an adorable cat, hate to say it, but it's more beautiful than Chingy, it's black and grey striped, and has Socks! white socks! and it has the same pattern on its face as chingy, anyway, i'll take a pic soon. But, earlier that day Kwasi had seen the pics of Mom's new dog Nestle, and liked the name so much he named the new kitten Nestle, i think the cat is a girl, but not 100% sure yet, it's still super young and nervous since it just arrived yesterday.......so now there's NEstle and Obolo :)

March 3rd, was that a Saturday? anyway, the staurday around that time, boy oh boy, what a story, and i'm exhauseted.....short version....general cleaing day in Kumasi, didn't realize that meant everything, including tros, were to be shut down until noon, that way everyone will have nothing better to do but clean! and i was in Oduom at the Peace Corps office, took me one hour to catch car from peace corps office to tech, which isn't far, then no cars were coming, had to beg a ride to railway staion and walk to kejetia station! all in the 9-1130am sun! with only one litre of water and one peice of bread eaten....and i couldn't buy any water or food cuz everything was shut down. I get to Kejetia and they tell me the deal no cars till noon. Anyway, I was tired, thirsty and hungry, i finally get home and collapse on my bed, no the brightest idea cuz i was hungry and dehydrated, i wake uup buy water and some food, feel like shit....i try to eat and drink, and make some Oral Rehydration solution and go to bed. I have a fever, i wake up in the middle of the night with a fever of 102.6!!!!! and i go to the kitchen to get some drink, i see stars, getting tunnel vision my limbs feel heavyt, oh shit i'm gonna faint....i sit on the ground and call for kwasi! thank goodness he's there, he gets me water, sqeezes an orange for me and he sleeps on the thermarest pad in my room just in case. I was shivering and singing to keep my self sane...oh and when the fever reached that high i took tylenol to lower it, did not want it going any higher. Fever all day on sunday too, but it peaked at 100.8 that day. next day no fever. cleaned my room and tidyed up some stuff. Tuesday, still feeling exhuasted, but knew i needed to go to the bank and i had a mysterious package to pick up at EMS (some postal service) so i came to kumasi with Mabena (Mavis) but the line at the bank was too long and i was too tired, and the package was only from peace corps....it was only 6 news weeks (all PCVs get newsweeks while serving) and a few letters. Ugh! so i realy wasted my energy, on top of that! all internet cafes were busy or slow...i teach wendesday and clean and lesson plan, i teach thursday and rest, i teach friday, and nearly kill myself (figuratively) i called the PC nurse on wed told her i htink i have an ear infection and that can i get a fever from htat, or from being dehyrated, yes to both. So friday i try to go to kumasi to buy the meds for the ear infection, after teaching i'm so tired that i can barely make it to my house let alone kumasi so i just stay home. Saturday Cate comes ( a fellow PCV) and brings me my meds (bless her) and i'm just thoroughly exhausted. And i have been ever since. She thinks I may be anemic, if i don't feel better by monday i'll call the nurse again, Ivy is supposed to come to my site on the 22nd, so hopefully she can help me then. as for teaching I only taught one day this past week, wednesday, and it exhuasted me to the point where i went home and slept and read and thursdayu morning i had no energy and no voice.....i feel a little better today, but i'm very tired from traveling to kumasi and going to the bank.....but! i found a new branch of Ghana Commerical bank...one that opperates like the ones at home, AND i learned I can get an ATM card!!!! so then i'll never need to stand in line again!!!! whooooohooo!!!! praise god! (living in ghana makes you start to say stuff like that.....by god's grace i hope you're doing fine......nyame adom eye = by god's grave i'm fine....and that is the response to everyon'es e te sen? =how are you) anyway, now i must go to the peace corps office for the Peer SUpport and Diveristy committee meeting. We're getting trained to be Peer Support this weekend....basically informal shrink for fellow pCVs, everything we hear is confidential and the PC shrink is training us....also, we get to watch Crash......if any of you hgaven't seen it....see it...it's an excellent movie about race relations in the states....no super uplifting, but fabulously done.....and seriously....you can't pass up a chance to see LUdacris bashing HIpHop :)

ok email long enough. Kris, tired enough. Kafra (sorry) to Shaza ,Erin, and all the apckage sencders, i wanted to send you personal email but my energy has hit rock bottom and i still have an hours tro ride ot the office. hopefully sunday on my way vback to Foase i can hit the internet cafe.

Love and mIss you all.....

Kris