No Internet in Wa

Hello Blog followers - This is Sandy (Maddy's Mom) Maddy asked me to update her blog she was in the middle of sending me a document (while we were on Skype) so I could upload the photos for her and the internet went down. Ghana is not like USA - it wasn't just internet where Maddy was - but all of Wa - so no one has internet since Sunday!!!!

I am giving an update for her: Maddy is teaching 4th thru 6th grade Math. She has 2 cooperative teachers one is seeing and the other blind. They had a staff meeting on Monday it went from 6:30 am to 10 am - (now that is a long staff meeting) At the meeting Maddy was able to meet the teachers and they her. They discussed curriculum, the children and Animals - yep Animals - things like feces and the blind students learning to deal with animals all over – It is very important that they keep the animals there since that is typical life in Ghana – there are animals everywhere – not the animals we think of when we think of Africa, ie. Giraffes and Lions – it is barnyard animals, Goats, Sheep & Chickens all thru Ghana. The school rules are strict and there is an all-day schedule for the children – Maddy can provide more on this later....

The culture is very different. Maddy told me that you can go to a restaurant and order something on the menu and they say – oh no we don’t have that today – and that is many things on the menu not available that day– Then you can ask “Do you have Chicken today” they will answer – Oh yes – You order Chicken and they say it will take extra time because we have to go to the market to get the chicken!!!! How funny is that?? (I was glad they go to market and not just run in the street and grab one.)

Maddy has found a store called Holis Life – it is a store that is sponsored by the Catholic Church and all items made there are made by women with aids and the money goes to them – she is excited to stimulate the economy (hooray she got that from her Mom & Grandma) She is having her Trinity Formal made there and she is so excited – I am sure you Trinity Followers will be excited to see it too!!!!

Maddy & Anna are getting used to living at the school in the flat – the students are starting to realize they live there and they are getting little visitors – they do not have Gas yet – it is not available to them – they have rice but no gas for the stove to cook it – so they are enjoying PB&J’s by candle light – since they have not figured out how to read the meter for electric and are conserving electric since they have a card to pre-pay electric and they need assistance on how to read to add more and since most people are blind there they are awaiting assistance on this – so conserving electric for Fans and Computers to do homework and I assume e-mails that they will send when they have internet. They do use the fans – it is very HOT – they left a candle on their porch and it melted!!!

I have to say – Maddy is really enjoying this experience – she is very happy – she is starting to pick up the Ghanaian accent so they can understand her more and she is enjoying the laid back culture. She is learning to relax (having no choice but to move at their pace – not Maddy’s over achiever pace) She is doing her homework and will send when she can – (fyi Joy - I thought I would throw that in – since she is worried about that....)

Keep checking back if she does not have internet soon – I will send another update on her behalf.

Sandy