Vacation within my vacation.....Is this a vacation? :)

This has been a great week. I'm becoming so close with all the kids. I love them all and we are becoming the best of friends!

The town is a lot like where I was before - I would say there is some difference from place to place. Our school is one of a few in Mampong so it's definitely not an isolated village. We live outside of the main town - which is basically just the main paved road with sellers along the sides spread out. There is one main paved road that it is easy to get a taxi or trotro from and everything else is dirt road. The stores really all seem the same from town to town, they have stacks of cans or packages of things hanging from the shack. People walk up and down the road with things to sell on their heads - that is more common in the bigger cities.

We had a little excursion of our own this past weekend. We left on Friday to cape coast. The group from Kibi joined us making sixteen people to ride in a little trotro for about 5 hours - plus our driver Emmanuel and his mate Donquah. It was a little squishy with 3 or 4 people in a row I spent the majority of the time in the backseat corner with low ceilings, hard seats, squeaking metal, with one leg on the wheel cover and a window easily slid open or shut. I loved the trip though because there are so many things to look at, new smells, and new people that are so different than the normal everday American life.

The road is typically one way but cars will not hesitate to pass each other. During one long stretch there were two sets of 5 speed bumps that came up about every minute creating an uncomfortable ride. We drove past a lot of greenery, mud hut homes, city life, and ocean. Because it is usually one way there is a lot of traffic through some areas and that is where the sellers come up to our window staring the obrunies down. Everyone was white in the trotro so they think it is a great selling spot.

I will never forget this one man selling grapes. We had already gone about 40 yards past the man and someone in my group decided they wanted some. His friend, meaning another street salesman selling apples heard her and called out for the grape man. We turned around and from behind a big truck out darted the grape man arms full and held out wide sprinting towards are car. It was hilarious. He made a good sale though so I guess it was worth it for him. He had to run alongside the car as we kept slowly going along to give us change. This happens to a lot of the sellers actually because traffic is still moving so they have to be good at getting quick change. You could basically drive down the road in some areas and get everything you need without getting out of the car - pretty convenient I guess :) From flags, windshield wipers, food, air fresheners, clocks, razors, or soap they had it all.

We stayed at a hotel which was a luxory in my opinion! But really it would have been a ghetto place if I stayed somewhere like that at home. I had running water and a sort of shower that had a little heater to warm up some of the water!! That was amazing. And our hotel had a big pond surrounding an eating place with crocodiles! I ate mashed potatoes one night served with a full fried fish, eyeball and everything. That was.. interesting. Pretty tasty. The next night I had french fries and imitation ice cream and I was in heaven :) I was excited for my hard bed, my big hard pillow, sheets, a squeeking fan, and a bug filled swimming pool.

Cape Coast itself is much more crowded than Mampong and the homes are much closer together. People didn't seem quite as friendly as they are in our town. Saturday was so much fun and full. We went to Kakrum National Park with the canopy walkway that is above the main tree line. It was beautiful! I saw a spider that was probably the size of a tennis ball, not so fat though. The walkway has plenty of rope but it is still shaky. The best part was it rained most of the time, and we were in a rainforest so it created the perfect situation. We went to two slave castles in the afternoon, Cape Coast Castle and Elmina. Those are very sobering places, it's so different seeing something like that personally than reading it in a book. I went to all of these places last summer so it was fun to visit it all again. Although one time is enough to get the idea at the slave castles - it is pretty draining to hear about the cruelty of the people there. Plus getting the tour from an African man is quite the experience.

Saturday night we ate at a beach and got to play along the shore. I didn't actually swim because it was later at night, but we got some fun jumping pictures!

It was fun to start back at the school on monday morning after a good break from everything. Suzy and I made up some fun games to play with the kids to help them learn their English and multiplications. I am officially halfway through the trip! I love being into more of a routine, and yet it's not really a routine because I never really know what to expect for school. The students are so much fun and I am so happy to be at the Junior High.

I am out of time now, there is so much more I could say about my experience here and the people, I can't wait to show you all my videos and pictures. There will be plenty :)