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

Spiders are my Friend, Spiders are my Friend…

Anna and I moved into our flat at the Wa School for the Blind on Wednesday. Now when I was 11 years old saying I wanted to go to Africa I really did not realize all of what that entailed. After researching and talking to other people lives in Africa I realized I should start praying for a toilet and at least a well to get water from. I knew that electricity and running water is a great thing to have but for me not so much of a necessity. Sure they are great to have but I knew that the places I was wanted to go probably would not have these things.

Well, God answered my prayers! I have a great flat with a toilet and the well is right next door. It is a little place but it is great. It has a little sitting area with a love seat, desk, chair, and we got a refrigerator. There is a bedroom that has two beds and we have a toilet, shower and sink room. Now we do not have running water but the well is very close and Alice (the school helper) comes every day to help us carry buckets of water to our flat. She carries them on her head but as for Anna and I, we help each other carry one between the two of us. (Water is heavy.) There is electricity but it is expensive so we use the ceiling fan at night when we sleep and use candle light after 6:30pm because by this time it is pitch black outside.

Dinners with Anna can be very are romantic  Often we eat peanut butter and jelly with an apple. We will also have tuna salad with unions, tomatoes and hopefully soon the cucumbers will be good at the market. Once Wa is able to get some gas we will buy a small eye, or stove, so we can cook rice and will be able to have more food. The bread here is really good. Ghanaians really like starch so when you are asked what your favorite meal is, you say rice or potatoes and then the meat (chicken, but sometimes beef) or vegetable.

It is very hot here and very dry. It feels over 100 during the day in the sun. When you step in the shade it gets much cooler and it is bearable to be outside. You do not feel your sweat because it evaporates right away, due to the fact that it is so dry. Around 2 in the afternoon I bet I could crack open an egg and fry it on the cement or I could boil some water for hot chocolate but as much as I love hot chocolate I really would rather drink some water.

They do have popcorn at the market but no kettle corn. I brought some different seasons to put on the popcorn so when we pop it we can make it butter or cheese. But they do have veggies, jewelry and lab kabobs at the market.

As for the wild life in Wa… Well have you every read the book Charlotte’s Web? It is like that but with no fences. Goats, sheep, chickens, some ducks, a few pigs, spiders, oh and lizards (I know there are no lizards in the book but there are some here) all just roam around all over the place. The way you can tell the goats and sheep apart is by the tail. Goats’ tails are up and sheep tails are down and pigs’ tails do not curl here, they are straight. Yeah Wa is pretty much a large farm.

A pig family lives right outside out flat; Anna and I named the little one Wilber. We have a pet lizard in our room that we named Evelyn. There are a lot of Daddy Long Leg Spiders that live with us but we call them Charlotte to make them a little less intimidating. We keep them around because they will eat all the bad bugs that we really do not want in our flat. Spiders are my friend, Spiders are my friend, Charlotte is my friend; I have to remind myself sometimes…

Market Day in Wa

Tuesday is Market Day in Wa. This is when everyone brings everything and all set up shop in one part of the town. For those of you who have been to the Saturday Market in Alaska it is kind of like that but way more people. I have tried to upload a picture but the Internet will now allow it. There were people, goats, sheep and colors everywhere; any thing you can find.

Anna and I went shopping for food and supplies for out new flat. We moved somethings in today. It was very exciting.

I may not be able to blog for a few days but will come back with some stories. Thank you to all who have been reading.

Meeting the Headmaster

Today I was able to meet the Headmaster (principal of the Wa School for the Blind). He was very nice but a little hard to understand at times; although I am sure I am hard to understand with my Chicago accent. One thing the Headmaster asked for was a lap top for him to use at the school. I was able to find a used one and give it to him. He was so please and very excited.

The students will be coming back from break tomorrow and moving back to the dorms. Anna and I will also be moving a flat that is at the school tomorrow as well. Because it is dry season here we do not have running water at the school but we do have a toilet. A toilet is all I really asked for so that is great. The helper at the school is named Alice and she said she would come each morning and help us get water from the well. I am excited to meet the students!

Mr. Schanz: You would not like it here. There are a lot of snakes! Oh and I forgot to mention that we were very lucky there was a recent forest fire when we went camping because if there was not there would had been many snacks to watch out for. Glad you are following my blog. Say hi to everyone for me.

And for all who are wondering: I did dance at the Church. It was so much fun!

Lesson of the day:
There is a difference between the sign that says women urinate and the sign that says women toilet. Ladies, coming from experience, you want to go in the door that says women toilet. Oh and mom thanks for throwing in the extra TP, used it on the bus ride.

Spelling Errors

Just wanted to say sorry for the spelling errors.

I am typing very fast and often do not have time to spell check before the internet goes out.

Please ignore the spelling mistakes and keep reading.

Thanks

Church

Today we went to two different church service.

Wa is in the 10/40 window which means there are not as many Christians or missionaries here. 90% of people in Wa are Muluim.

The first church we went to met under a tree and had about 10-15 members and many children. It was in a village and John (the missionary family I am staying with) spoke about baptism. The members had really good quesitons about it and John hopes to come back soon and hold a baptism.

The second church was in a cement and stucko/mud building. The men and women were seperated to sides and between the congregation and the drums there was a big opening for people to dance. They did an African running man; you lean forward and kind of run with straighter legs, with your arms in from of you kind of pushing a car horn. First the kids went up, then the women, men, then the white people and then we all did it together. John brought communion but in order to take communion here they must be confirmed and be members of the church. So after they had been there for a 2hr service, they wanted to stay for another hour to be confirmed and then they took communion. It was great.

These people have so much faith! It is amazing to see!

With most of the population being Muslum, 5 times a day they stop everything and pray. One man has a microphone and prays over the loud speaker. If you think about it pray for the Musluims about 11pm Chicago time. That is 5am in the morning when the Musliums are doing their morning prayer. It is hard to sleep throught but I am very thankful for worship music and ipods.

Even though there are many musliums here the Holy Spirit is definetly present! And the Lord is working in the people.

Comments

I want to thank you all for reading and commenting on my blog. It really means a lot to me. I look forward every day to read all of the comments you put. They are all very encouraging.

One more comment about going to the market. Coming back from camping we were very dirty. We had to walk through the market to get to the trotro. Now we already stick out because we are white but now we are extremely dirty white people. We already are stared at for being white but being dirty white people make people stop all that they were doing and just watch us walk by.

I could not help but think that this was what the homeless of Chicago feel like as people walk by. Feel like they are strange animals; like we should not be here and there is not place for us.

I have so much more respect for the people of the street. I could not be looked at like that all the time. The next time you walk by someone that does not have a home, try just to look at them in the eye, say hi, or even introduce yourself; they might have made some poor decisions but so have you. They are people and have feelings too.

In Wa

I made it to Wa!

We left at 8:45 in the morning and there was not much traffic and no bus problems so we made it by 9pm. It only took 12hrs!

The bus was like a coach bus with air co (AC) and nice seats with arm rests. There were even TVs in which they played Nigerian films pretty much the whole time. When we first left the bus station the bus driver put on the radio and all of a sudden I noticed it was Christian music. I was like what... but I realized in Accra it is very common to have christian music playing and there are signs all over the place saying to love the Lord.

As for animals in Ghana the animals are goats, chickens, dogs, lizards, some sheep and lots of bugs.

The Market

My foot is doing well. Very sore but it is good.

Today I slept in and just relaxed before our big bus ride. Friday movie night and pizza at the Jacksons. Anna, Mary Kay and I make pizza from scratch, even the flower.

Went to the market to exchange American money to Ghana Cedis. Then I got a cell phone and a wallet.

Ok a little about Accra. There are very few traffic lights and the ones that are here often do not work; during rush hour the police manage the traffic. Really you just have to be aggressive to get where you need to go. Jasper often honks the horn to tell people he is coming. He honks to keep them safe because every one is just walking all over the place.

People selling things will come up right to your window and ask you to buy what they are selling. If you do not want to buy it you continue doing what you are doing, even if that means staring off into space. That is hard for me, I at least want to say 'no thank you' or something but everyone here just continues to go about their business. These vendors are very persistent. Often they are women and young girls with big bowls filled with things on their heads. They young girls look very sad so you will buy from them. When we were on the trotro one girl even started to bang on the side of the bus to get myattention so I would look at her to say I was interested in buying a bag of water.

Oh here one thing that is most commonly sold is little waters in a bag. You buy it for about $.5, bite off a corner and drink the water.

So there are people carring things on their heads trying to sell it to you every where. Down town Accra has a big open sewer right next to the road and you have to literally jump it to get to the sidewalk. Once on the sidewalk there are just vendors lined up, one on top of another; selling anything you can imagine, things like tire, shoes, computers, chickens, rear view mirrors, food, clothing, children toys, chairs, phone chargers, anything. There are even little stands where you can buy more minutes for your phone.

They also make good use of wheelbarrows here. That is where I found my wallet. There was a man pushing a wheelbarrow with a mound of all sorts of things bungee corded together. I asked if he had a wallet and he pulled out two different types. He really encouraged me to get the cameo, US wallet. He said it was 3 Ghana Cedis and Anna (another intern) said no 2 Ghana Cedis. After a little going back and forth I payed 2 Ghana Cedis for the wallet.

Then I realized I had just exchanged my money so only had big bills and not have exact change and here in Ghana they want exact change. I did have 1 Ghana Cedi and Jasper had 1 Cedi as well so I was able to get the wallet.

I sure hope I will get good at bargaining soon. I also need to pick up this accent so people can understand me and I can start to understand them better. I am sure it will be a little different accent in Wa so I hope I learn that one.

Camping Trip

There are two other interns here in Ghana right now, Anna and Lee. They both are taking a gap year, the year between high school and college, and touring Ghana. They picked me up from the airport and asked me if I wanted to go camping with them and two of their friends.

Now I had not slept in two days and just walked off a plan but I was in Africa and was not going to miss an opportunity like going camping in Ghana. So I said yes.

We went with Connor who's family has been missionaries here for the past few years and his friend Evans, who is from Ghana. They go on this trip every year and were very excited.

We packed our bags (well I unpacked and repacked my backpack) and left early in the morning. We took a taxi and a trotro (bus) to get to where we wanted to go. We hiked straight up this steep mountain. It was hard work after sitting on a plane for two days but whenever we needed a break we just turned and looked out over Ghana. It is beautiful. There was a recent forest fire on this mountain so a lot of the tall grass and trees were ash but the mountain was still very pretty.

Once we got to the top we found a great place to set up our camp ground. It was right next to a cliff (Grandma you would have loved it :)) that looked over the other side of Ghana. Wow what a sight!

I wish I could show you but I am not able to get internet on my computer where I am staying right now. I will upload the pictures as soon as I can (probably when we get to Wa next week).

Since we were backpacking we did not bring much. Last night I slept on a sheet, on top of the bottom of the tent, on the soul and sticks of Ghana. It was great but the sleeping was not so good. Got about two hours of sleep and back hiking down the mountain.

Because of all the ash the forest fire left, we were very, very dirty by the time we got down the mountain. I was dirty to the point where my legs were not long white but black, my arms where grey and my tan pants were back as well. After we got down the mountain we hiked to the road and hopped on a taxi to a trotro and then walked to Connors and Evan's house and Jasper (the family's driver who we are staying with) picked us up. When we came out of the house Jasper's jaw dropped and eye got wide and he asked what we got into. 'Oh you know, just hiking a mountain.'

It was so much fun. Even though my legs hurt right now and I am very tired it was worth it.

I'm in Africa!

After a long journey and very little sleep I finally made it to Accra. I'm in Africa!

Plane from Chicago was delayed so had 1hr in Germany to figure out where I was going. Had just enough time to go to the bathroom after that 8hr flight and get my boarding pass for the next 6hr flight.

When we landed in Accra we walked off the plane down the stiars and took a train to the airport. Customs went very well and my bags came out right away.

I found the family that I will be staying with until I take the bus to Wa. Driving to their house was an adventure. Roads were not smooth, traffic was crazy and people came right up to the window selling you things... Hey kind of reminds me of Chicago... but of course a little different

Ok made it safe. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers for safe travels. I will keep you updated on the trip!

On My Way

After I have packed and repacked and now repacked once again, my bags meet the weight limit. I am on my way to the airport. It is a 8 hour plane ride to Germany and then I have a five hour lay over, then it is a 6 hour plane ride to Accra. I will be there Tuesday at 4pm, Ghana time. I will be 6 hours ahead of Chicago time. On Saturday I will take a 8 hour bus ride to Wa and Monday morning I will start teaching.

I will let you all know when I arrive there. Thanks for all your prayers thus far and please pray for traveling mercies. Thanks you everyone.

I AM GOING TO AFRICA!!!

Map

So here is where I'm going.

Ghana is 6 hours ahead of Chicago time.

Packing

Packing for a 10 week adventure to Africa is a lot harder than I thought it would be. At first I didn't have enough clothes, then too much clothes, and now I think I might have just enough.

I found out (the hard way of course) that the Megaword games does not fit in any suitcase I own, so I am shipping a box to the school. I figured well, if I have to ship a box might as well make it a big one. I have packed and repacked (with the help of Jessica) the box and it now weighs about 44lbs. I hope I can carry it from the post office to the school...

In my suitcase I only have the necessities; shirts, skirts, water filter, soap, camera, flip flops, electric adapter and of course sunscreen.

Only 2 more days!

Supplies for the School

Here are some of the school suppleis I was able to get with the money that was raised. To look at the pictures you will need a snapfish account but it is free and I have found this is the best way to share my pictures with you.
Click here to view photos

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

Most of the supplies I ordered for the school has come in
I have half of my malaria medication and lots of antibiotics
Plus an abundance of sunscreen
I got a camera because I am sure you will want to see pictures
The electric converter I got weighs about seven pounds...

This will be interesting to see how all of this stuff fits in two suitcases that will total to be 100lb. Mallory (my sister) is good at puzzles, I'm sure she can will help me.

11 more days!

Soccer Ball is Here!

The students at the Wa School for the Blind love to play soccer. There is a special soccer ball with a bell inside that the kids play with. I found one online and purchased it with the money that was raised. And it came in yesterday! I cannot wait to play soccer with the students.

Giving the Gift of Help

With the money that was raised I have been able to purchase some gifts for the Wa School for the Blind.

I had the privilege of sitting down with Dr. Rice at Trinity. Dr. Rice was willing to talk with me about what it is like to go to a school for the blind and some strategies that will help me teach. He also gave me great ideas that the Wa School for the Blind might need or want.

I also had an opportunity to visit the Lighthouse in Chicago, a school for the blind. I sat with a teacher named Sara and she was able to give me great ideas and methods as well.

I want to say thank you to both Dr. Rice and Sara for helping to prepare me for this experience.

With their insight I was able to choose gifts wisely. At this point in time I have purchased: a tactile map, wicky sticks, foam paper, a soccer ball with a bell inside and special 20/20 pens. I hope to order a few games and books with in the next few days.

Once again thank you for the gift of taking the time to sit down and talk with me as well as all of the donations that have been given.

Oak Forest High School

To all the students in Mr. Schanz's 2nd hour class:
Thank you for letting me come in your classroom and teach. You guys have helped me sharpen my teaching skills so I can go to Africa and teach at the Wa School for the Blind. Good luck with your finals. Thanks again.

Fundraiser

I would like to thank everyone to has participated in the fundraiser for the children at the Wa School for the Blind. The students will greatly appreciate all of their new school supplies. Thank you all and a special thanks to Marcin, Heather and Brent for all their hard work organizing the event.