No Shaved Legs?

Don't worry, we're still alive! Sorry that it's been so long since our last post. Time is flying here and we quickly became absorbed in teaching and school. A lot has happened since we last wrote so let me begin by informing everyone that Katie and I are loving our classroom... despite the challenges and the language barrier. Last Tuesday, September 15, marked the first day of school. The students spent the entire first day doing nothing but staring and gawking at us. I mean EVERY student, not just the second graders in our room.... the entire school! On the way to lunch when we would pass the little guys, they would stop and touch our skin and pull all our little arm hairs, pick at our freckles, and one went so far as to even lick Katie to see what she tasted like. Our students are slowly settling into the routine that we have made for them but it will take some more time to get them adjusted. They had a slightly inattentive teacher last year so they have to idea how to act in a classroom. So all 20 of our students need a little redirection.

We ended the first week with tears at the end of the day. All we can say is, "Attack of the Ants." The ants had invaded our classroom without us knowing, so at the end of the day, Nicolina's bag was absolutely covered in ants. She cried and cried and would not touch her bag so Katie and I had to clean it for her. This week began with Isaac bringing Katie and I our first teacher apples!!!! It was so cute! We also had a little "wee-wee" problem. One student asked to visit the urinal but I told him no because we had just gone only 45 mins. before that. We are trying to get them on a schedule so that people aren't leaving the classroom every minute to go to the washroom. Well, this students took me very seriously so we a bit of an accident. He had to wear a cloth around him like a dress for the rest of the day, I felt so bad, but trust me, Katie and I had trouble holding in the laughter. We never realized how hard it would be to teach with one another in the same room and not laugh at inappropriate times. We also discovered that one of our students cannot read at all. She does not even know her letters, so.... we'll just have to work on that. We have a lot of work to do, but we've already made tons of progress. Today, there were some younger children visiting our classroom and started fighting... All of the sudden our students started explaining to the younger kids that we don't hit (or no beating as they call it) in our classroom. It was so cute to see them referring to our rules on the wall to teach the younger kids.... so, we are getting through to them. They really love to do the vowel dance that we've taught them and we also love acting out how a seed grows into a big plant with the help of rain and sun and soil! Slowly but surely we're getting there.

On a different note, Katie and I recently informed the girls at the convent that we shave our legs in the U.S.! They were so confused. "Why would you do that? Men love the hair!" ---- Here, the men find leg hair attractive. They don't understand why we would get rid of it, when some of them wish for more. So weird! Anyways, Comfort likes to sneak up behind Katie to feel her shaved legs. They thinks it's so fascinating. They also call razors: blade sticks.

This past weekend Katie and I attended the Jubilee celebration in Cape Coast. There were 4 brothers who celebrated 25, 40, and 50 years as professed religious in the Holy Cross Congregation. AND, exciting, Brother Vincent made his final vows. The whole day was colorful, full of music and dancing, and good food. Sr. Maggie, Sr. Veronica, Katie and I stayed behind in Cape Coast to spend the night with the brothers while everyone else returned to Kasoa. We enjoyed some good conversation and delicious food with the brothers. We met a bunch of the brothers who we will be spending time with in the future while here in Ghana. The following day, on Sunday, we attended mass at the brother's church and then went to Brother Mike's house in Takoradi where his mother was throwing a second celebration party. Brother Michael is only home in Ghana for a short time before he returns to University of Dayton to continue his education. We got try the some true Ghanaian food, including gizzard for the first time. yum yum! On a sad note, there are 8 cute little 2-week old puppies at the brother's house but on Sunday, the mother died so the brothers are going to have to hand raise them on cow's milk. It was so sad, they were crying all night long for their mom!

If all goes as planned, Katie and I will go to Accra this weekend to stay with a friend, Amy who we know through Katie's aunt Mimi (who just had her baby! Girl #3, Siena... Congrats!)

If anyone is interested in donating, some of the kids are having trouble paying for book fees. Let us know. The money can be sent to Sister Madeline in South Bend.

Also, any letters that you wish to send (not packages) can be sent to this address:
Sisters of the Holy Cross
P.O. Box KS437
Kasoa, C/R, Ghana

P.S check out pictures on picasa!

Love to all! - Katie and Meg

This and That

This past Saturday Katie and I were fortunate enough to venture to Cape Coast again to attend an annual festival known as Oguaa Fetu Afahye. We were first treated to lunch at Coconut Grove, a resort on the ocean. Sister Esther and Sr. Maggie sure know how to entertain. It was classy and delicious. I ate chicken cooked in mushroom and coconut sauce with potatoes on the side. Katie had a chicken basket with french fries. So, chilling, relaxing at the beach...we decided to test out our feet in the water. Hiking up our skirts we kicked off our shoes and walked on the beach. Comfort thought it was a brilliant idea to climb on the rocks near by. Naturally Katie and I followed. Hey, if Comfort was doing it, it must be okay. We were just getting ready to pose for a picture that Sr. Veronica was going to take and we were pleasantly surprised by a giant wave that decided to grace us with its presence. Just moments before, the water was calm and no where near the rocks. Ha! Esther said the ocean did it on purpose and it heard us on the rocks and thought that we wanted to swim. We were soaked! All the people at the restaurant got a kick out of it too. We felt like we were Ariel in The Little Mermaid when she sits on the giant rock, singing, and the waves crash around her.

Anyways, moving on to the festival... Before we got there, we stopped at a Shell gas station and purchased ice cream! YUM! Okay, festival...People everywhere, music, drums, dancing! The whole nine yards. We parked the car and walked to where the "parade" procession was and found our way to the public square. There were chiefs being carried in wooden chairs on top of men's heads. Their were people drumming for their chiefs and dancing all around him. We got to see the chief of Cape Coast as well as the president of Ghana, Atta Mills. There were women carrying wooden stools on their heads. These stools are believed to hold the spirits of that particular tribe's ancestors. These women are chosen by their tribe to have the honor of carrying the stool. In Ghana, each stool is unique and has a different meaning. There are symbols carved in them that represent things such as "serve God" or "Go back to your roots." It was really interesting and definitely a custom and ritual that we know nothing about, but we are learning.

FYI: Comfort has mastered the bicycle!!! Next we need to work on swimming!

So far, this week has consisted of preparing for school to begin and meeting the bishop of our diocese here. Earlier in the week, Esther and Maggie took Katie, Veronica, and myself into Accra to purchase supplies for the school. Needless to say, Katie and I have quickly become increasingly creative as we attempt to make our absolutely bare room come to life. I am beginning to appreciate all the access to teaching materials I had while student teaching.

Today (Thursday), Katie and I were taken to Cape Coast again, only this time for official business. We went to the Secretariat office of the bishop to introduce ourselves. He was a wonderful man and excited to meet us.

Our little friend Jamilla has become our shadow in this past week since we met her. She is anxious to help us and loves following us wherever we go, even if we're doing laundry. She is absolutely adorable and so lovable. Her laugh is so innocent and makes everyone around the house happy. She helped Katie and I in our classroom for hours the other day. Jamillah loves our room and can't help herself when she gets to play with things like our cameras, video camera, MP3Player, computer... she finds it so fascinating. She also loves listening to my music after I return from a run. She says, "please, put it in my ear." Today, as we departed for Cape Coast, she held my hand while I explained that we had to leave for a meeting. She looked at me and flatly said, "No, you can't!" I said, "But we have to." ... "Please don't go, stay here." She finally allowed me to leave when I promised her that we would be back later today and she could play with us then. Sure enough, she was waiting for us when we pulled in the gate.

Remove the Training Wheels

Hello from Ghana! Meg and I are sitting here thinking about what would be interesting to all of you. We came up with a couple of good stories. So buckle your seat belts... this is going to be a crazaayyyyy ride. Hereeee weee gooo: 1. We are teaching Comfort how to ride a bike. It could possibly be the funniest thing to watch- Seinfeld and Conon O'Brien have nothing on us. Because there are no paved roads or flat surfaces... it is quite the adventure. I don't think words can capture what occurs during each lesson... so once my computer gets fixed... we will upload some videos for your enjoyment. 2. Kwame, our good friend/tour guide, took us into Accra. He told us to wear walking shoes and bring h20, however, I don't own pillows for my feet which would have been the ONLY thing to keep me from getting blisters after the amount of walking we did (roughly 15 miles). Nor do I own a portable well to intake all of the water that was needed to keep me hydrated. Overall, it was still a very enjoyable day with all the sites that we saw and things we learned about the country we are living in. The monuments, museums, and statues were similar to Washington DC - minus the fact Ghana has only had 5 presidents and the fact that their military wears animal hides and carries spears to protect them from enemies. Okay, that is a slight exaggeration but possibly in some parts of the country this is true. Let's see... Kwame also took us to this Culture Center, which was a bunch of huts/shacks that sold really cool wood carvings, drums, art, fabrics, etc. Every vendor wanted us to come into their shop so we felt pretty darn popular... much to their surprise though we are 2 white people who have no money. Too bad. However, we made 2 new friends. Abu, who sold us wooden elephants and giraffes, named after the monkey in the Disney movie Aladdin and the Boss, a 90 year old man who taught us how to play these balls that have seeds in them called Kush-Kas. Also on our tour of Accra we went to a part of the city called Osu (thanks Mimi). Here I was able to find an external cd/dvd drive to fix my computer (or for Kwame to fix it because we know I can't fix anything), andddd ICE CREAMMM. Well, gelato to be more exact. But let me tell ya... BRING IT ON ITALY. This was THE BEST thing I have eaten in the past 17 days (yes it has already been that long). It was like heaven. I think the women who were working in the little shop thought we were crazy but we wanted to try every single flavor, and then we were making sounds that most human beings don't make while eating ice cream. After all of our walking, the hot weather, and the intense blisters on my foot- it was like I had died and gone to heaven. When it was time to leave, we did not want to go. We could have stayed there all day but it was exciting to trick the taxi driver. I convinced Kwame we should take a taxi to the next destination, and so he went outside to fetch a taxi, got the price, and then called us out. The taxi driver was so surprised and not very pleased because if he had known we were WHITE AS GHOSTS he could have charged us triple the price... MUAH-HA-HA-HA.

The next morning, I walked into the bathroom and SCREAMED. What was so scary you ask? A spider the size of Japan was on the wall. I ran, jumped on the bed, and hid under the covers while Megan grabbed her sandal and walked into the bathroom ready for battle. She insisted she would not miss... but much to her surprise that little arachnid was fast as lightning. However, if it was baseball she would not have struck out. It only took 2 tries to kill that little sucker (refer to picture to see the late Hair E. Spider).

We tried fufu for the first time... wayyyy too much work for the taste it has. You have to pound and pound plantains and cassava for hours with a giant wooden pistol into the mortar bowl thinger mabob. Also, if any of you were so fortunate to get one of the green shirts Megan and I sold for a fundraiser, we met the girl that is on the front of them, Jamillah. She mooned us during our first introduction... needless to say we are now best friends. Not only that, she bit Megan's butt... and plays an intense game of hide and seek. We are really looking forward to an entire year with this 3 year old.