Still ailing a bit, and homesick...

Hey Everyone,

It's been about two weeks...I've finally gotten my energy back. But my ear is still paining me and feeling plugged up (after I took ten days worth of Augmentin, an antibiotic) and I went to the clinic in Foase but their instrament to look inside the ear is broken so I had to call PC nurse and she said I must come to Accra. But this is not so bad. I wanted to visit Angela on April 13th anyway, so now it's just a little sooner, And I can stay with my father and brother (the MPs house!) on Sunday night before I go to the office Monday morning. Let's hope it's nothing serious, and everything will be fine.

Although, I am getting insanely homesick. And going through that stage of culture shock when everything in teh new culture seems wrong and bad, and everything about my own culture seems perfect. So I'm trying to keep my head on my shoulders and hang out with the women more and simply tell men that I don't like that when they look me up and down and t ell me i'm a nice girl, among other things....my poor friend angela has men straight up ask her if she like porn!!! what's wrong with men? arrggggh. Anyway, I keep dreaming about home. I miss you all very much, I miss having friends who understand me, I miss having girl friends who speak the same language i do. Anyway, i miss food being readily available....haha. where's McDondalds when you need one, eh? I miss ordering pizza, and I miss most of all, opening up a box of wheat thins or triscuits or cheeze it and haivng a snack without having to cook and dirty dishes. ugh. hahah.

But 29 March, was a solar eclipse in Ghana, it was a total eclipse on the coast, near Takoradi I think, and up by me, it was almost total, but still it only felt like the sun went behind a cloud. But the exciting thing is, they've been selling these "Eclispe Shades" for 10,000 and i thought they were a hoax, but my landlord bought me a pair and oh my goodness they worked like a charm~!!!!! holy crap! so i ran thorugh the village sharing my glasses with everyone so they could see the eclipse too.....cuz without the glasses you wouldn't've noticed anything.....and it was great to see people say " it's true!" they didn't beleive it would happen....one person even said, "god is coming" and the distrcit cheif executive bought some shades for the schools, so my school got 38 shades for 318 studens, but still, to provide one school with 380,000 cedis worht of goods, is damn nice of teh DCE plus the entire thing lasted about 2 hours from start to finish, so there was more than enough time to have everyone share.

Oh! and on Tuesday, the 28 the school had a road march to do an enrollment drive, they were marching and holding picket signs about why you shoulc send your child to school....i had my camera and was marching wtih them....it reminding me of marching in college and high school. except the marching style is very different, i like Ghana's better, they swing their arms :) And there was a TB durbar at the clinic, which was the district health people came and performed a skit on TB and how it's pread and what you should do to prevent it, although the whole thing was in Twi so i only understood bits and pieces. i also learned that AOB means Any Other Business, at which time a women got up nd spoke about Malaria and misquito nets. So it was a long day, but a good day, i was very happy about the march. oh boy, was I tired though. haha.

So that's teh jist of the week. So long as I make sure to leave my house and stay away from my landlord i'm ok....he's such a bully......he's used to having everyone do what he says, and i'm getting fed up.....good thing i'm going ot Accra and can talk to John, my boss about it. H'ell give me some ways of dealing with him. Lemme tell you, i wished for my own single person house this past weekend....he brought 30 people to the house for a funeral and all i wanted was a nice quite relaxing weekend! oh my.

Here's a huge hug!

oh teehee......not fora ny hurry, but for easter or my birthday if you feel the need to send me a package here's a new list, haha:

-Handi-wipes

-Sapandex shorts (aka bike shorts) i think size Med (i wear them under my skirts so i don't have to worry about pepole seeing up my skirt, and it's still much cooler than pants....i would say 2 or 3 would be fine

-Bras (mom knows the kind i like......the bralettes, mine are starting to fall apart from the vigourous hand washing)

-Victoria Secret Binki style size small underwear.....that can wait for my b day or christmas...but they're also just starting to show some wear and tear, and after not fitting into an XXXL I just assume not try to fit into any Ghanaian underwear....but this is not an urgent need

-Gatorade! PLease! Crystal Light is nice....but I need something to rehydrate myself, and ORS just tastes bad

-More Stickers.....i think the kids like them

-Coloring Books, of anything

-"Wifebeaters" aka A shirts, i think. Size Boys XL i don't know what i was thinking when i only packed one!

Ok thank you all for everything you've sent me already! everyone in Foase also thanks you! They say you are good people and that I am blessed :) I tell them, i know ;)

Pray for me ot get through these next two years.........it's def'ly a challenge...

HUG

kris