RACHEL IS HERE!

Hello everyone. I am in Accra, with my friend Rachel! She arrived last night after 8 and we made quite the scene when greeting each other. I am so happy she is here and I can share some of my experiences with her. My friend Adam picked us up from the airport and took us to my favorite bar in Accra: Ryan's Irish Pub for dinner and drinks. We also met a few other American girls and I recruited them for my birthday celebrations on the beach in a few days. Should be an exciting weekend with little time for sleep.

I want to backtrack briefly though and tell you what I was up to this past weekend. On Friday evening my sore throat turned into a full blown cold. No fun. I had planned to go to the Volta Region to the east on Saturday but decided I resting and getting better for Rachel was more important. So pretty much the whole weekend I took it easy, watched the first season of "Lost," (which is awesome) and hung out with the new volunteers from Germany. On Saturday Naomi and I ventured out to do a few more things on my to do list. First stop was the cultural center to pick up a few more gifts, then she showed me a store where I can purchase school supplies in bulk for the kids. I will go there when I get back to Kumasi next week. The next stop was Bonwire, the Kente village. This was lovely, but I think my being sick, combined with me trying to get to Bonwire for the past 5 months caused me to be a bit disappointed. I did buy a small thing from the village. Kente material is very beautiful, but also very expensive. Next we headed back to Kejetia so Naomi could buy a chicken for dinner. This is interesting...there are women selling live chickens everywhere...you decide which one you want and the price varies depending on the size of the chicken. These chicken look quite sad to me and are crowded into a large silver bowl type thing that women then carry on their heads. I have pictures. Once we picked our chicken it is put in a plastic bag with the head sticking out and we are on our way.
Last thing...we went to Ash foam to pick up the mattresses. Ash Foam and Latex Foam are the two mattress companies in Ghana. All beds here are basically large foam blocks. I bought 4 mattresses for the kids still sleeping on the floor and we grabbed a taxi home.
That night I took pictures of Edith and J.K. laying on their new mattresses. They have huge smiles on their faces. I then took pictures with Mamayaa and Delia. They are 16 and 18 and are still sleeping on the floor. While I know they are not kids exactly, they are two young women who deserve a mattress. They too were very grateful.
On Sunday I went to the church briefly, but at this Pentecostal church 30 minutes is about all you can handle. I then headed to Tafo to make copies of the sex health test I was giving to my vocational school kids the next day. I also found some shortbread cookies that I promised to bring to my students for after the test. I also noticed recently that P.K. and Pastor had marks on their heads and faces that looked like ring worms. This is worrisome for many reasons (one of which the fact that I play and touch them all the time) so I went to the pharmacy to buy some medicine for them.
The electricity was out for a few hours Sunday night so I had to postpone movie night but Monday night was a full fledged evening of Lion King one and two AND coloring on construction paper.
Monday morning I had the test with my class. 5 girls showed but and all of them did very well. I was very pleased. Charles called me to say he had to go to the technical school on Monday because his younger brother was sick this weekend and he was unable to get there. Because I am now in Accra, I have not yet seen him but he says he will be ready for both the test and the papers from his school to show me that he is enrolled for next term.
Monday and Tuesday were exam days and I did not have that much to do. I helped prep the kids with a math lesson on Monday but I was too tired to take them to P.E. after the exam. Next week. Tuesday I left school early to meet Jeanette so we could pick up the last of our dresses made in Ghana. I am pleased with my dresses and look forward to wearing them to the upcoming weddings I am attending in August. We then headed to "the palace" to see Alison. Our friend had been in home in England for the past three weeks and just returned. While she was sad to come back...I was very happy to see her. They three of us plus Tony headed out to get pizza for dinner.
Yesterday I woke up to rain and was quite unmotivated to pack and get down to Accra. When it finally did stop raining I got into town and on a bus in reasonable time. I arrived in Accra around 5:30, checked into my hotel, showered and met Adam for a drink before going to the airport. Now everything is complete. My birthday is this Saturday and I think I have a good size group coming to meet me at the Hideout Lodge in Takoradi. For anyone who wants to call me...here is my number again: 233 24 896 0094

We have to get going now. From Accra we head to Cape Coast to meet Jeanette for lunch and go to the cape coast castle for a tour. The castle used to be used for slave trade. From there the three of us head to Axim and to the Axim Beach Resort. Tomorrow will be a full day to lay on the beach and play in the ocean. Life is good.
Love to everyone back home! And have a great weekend.