"Please, I am coming."

The title of this blog is what everyone says here in Ghana when they mean like "wait a second" or "hold on". I I've started to say it. think I might have already said that in my blog, but I thought it was appropriate for this blog because, I am soon coming home.

So, this week has been so fantastic! Well, just this weekend. BEST WEEKEND YET. Seriously. So, Katie went to high school with this girl who came to Ghana on a  humanitarian trip, fell in love with a Ghanaian and after a series of events, came back and married him. So now, while waiting for his visa to process, they are still living in Ghana. There are a lot more details to the story, but I don’t super feel like typing those right now, but really, it’s just as crazy as it sounds. ANYWAYS, Katie, Brittney, and I went and visited her this weekend. It was SOOOO fun. They live in a town called Hohoe, and it took us about 5 ½ hours to get there from Mampong. But that wasn’t just driving time, that was like…transferring cars, waiting for tro-tros, you know, the works..So it was probably like a 4 ½ hour drive. Anyways we left Friday morning, so we got there Friday afternoon. We haven’t been in a typical Ghanaian home yet, so we were pretty excited to see what kind of house they live in, but I don’t think Paul’s house was really ‘typical’. It’s really nice for Ghanaian standards. Annie and Paul live with his parents, and his parents are the NICEST human beings ever. So is Paul. Seriously, Paul and Annie’s relationship makes me want to marry a Ghanaian. She definitely chose the right Ghanaian to marry. 

Anyways, when we arrived Friday afternoon, they had and loaf of bread and apple juice for us. It was divine. Seriously. Then after getting acquainted with them, Paul drove us in his car to a deaf school in Hohoe (ho-hoy). We just talked to the Headmaster for a minute, then went and talked to the kids. It was pretty fun. Then we went to Annie’s orphanage. When she originally volunteered here two years ago, she came to this orphanage, and now because she’s living here, she goes there everyday. It was really fun just because I love kids, but it was also very sad. The conditions were pretty awful. It was very eye opening. At the orphanage there were 15 girls and 30 boys. All 15 girls share one room, and the boys have two rooms. All of their English was AMAZING. They have a ton of volunteers constantly coming and going, so they know English and not their local dialect (which is Ewe). Also, they are very malnourished, so you’ll see a baby who looks like she can’t be older than 2, and she’ll be 5. I took a video of this baby…seriously looks like he’s 2 years old, dribbling a basketball like a pro. He’s really 4 years old, which is still impressive. After the orphanage we went and ate dinner, which Paul’s mom, Mary, made. She is a really good cook. I didn’t love the dinner because it had fish in it, but it was good. Then we just chilled with Paul and Annie. We watched a movie on Annie’s macbook, which is was I have wanted to do this WHOLE time, so it was super fun! 

Saturday we woke up and they took us to the biggest waterfall in western Africa called Wli (Ve-lee) Waterfall. It was really cool. And huge. Paul bought us mangoes to eat; he really is just the sweetest guy ever. Also, Paul knows EVERYONE. And if they don’t know Paul, they know Paul’s dad. Annie told us they are pretty well-off. His dad is a regional accountant and owns some farms, and Paul owned a taxi business, but just sold it a couple weeks ago. Then we went back to the orphanage, called Eugemont, and played with the kids more. We tried to play cards with them, but it was just really chaotic. All the babies were crying. After the orphanage was the BEST part!!!!! We went to the monkey sanctuary!!!!!!! It was one of the coolest things EVER! So at a typical monkey sanctuary you go pay an entrance fee, then the park people will take you to wherever the monkeys are that day, and you can feed them. When we went there, we pulled up right next to the front office and the monkeys were right there!! There was a group of about 80 monkeys just jumping around EVERYWHERE. It was SO cool. So after we paid, the woman working there gave us a banana to feed the monkeys with. You hold it out and like 3 or 4 monkeys will climb up your body and on your arm to eat it out of your hand. They really are just jumping everywhere, on your head, on your arms, climbing up your legs. It was seriously so cool. We were afraid it would hurt, but they just have little paws, no nails, so it didn’t hurt at all, but they were really dirty. So afterward my arm was covered in dirt. I would drive the 5 hours again JUST to go to the monkey sanctuary. SO worth it. 

After that, Paul drove us back to Hohoe (the drive was about 45 minutes from Paul’s house) and we made homemade banana bread. It was SOOOO good. We went to the market where they have all the cooking supplies for sale. It’s really interesting how it is set up. Everything is in plastic bags. They have big bags for flour and sugar and stuff, and tiny little bags with only like a couple tablespoons for spices and baking powder and things you only need a little bit of. It was really cool. So we bought all the ingredients we need and went back to Annie’s house and just made it in a pot. We didn’t have measuring cups or anything; it was definitely cooking ‘African style’. But it was SOOOOO good. AMAZING. Also when we got home, there were FIVE PINEAPPLES, about 45 BANANAS, 3 APPLES, and 9 DRINKS in our room as a gift from Paul’s dad. What did I tell you…the NICEST people ever.  That night we just hung out, played cards and stuff. I really love them so much.

On Sunday we drove to Ho to go to church. It is almost 2 hours away from Hohoe, but it is the closest LDS church to Annie and Paul. Paul owns a car, and it was SO nice to have him drive us everywhere. It was so nice of them, and saved us TONS of money. Church was…interesting. At the other wards we’ve been to I’ve felt right at home, and the church building has been really similar to an American church building, but this ward was just renting out the building, so it wasn’t really a typical church building. And it was just really chaotic. Sacrament meeting was good, but I felt like no one took Sunday school or Relief Society seriously. In Relief Society the lesson was on the Law or Chastity, but basically the whole time they debated about whether you should bathe with kids over 6 years old or not. Just a really big tangent and not at all related the point. Then Paul and Annie drove us to the tro-tro station. It was really sad to say goodbye. I wish we could have stayed longer, or been able to visit them twice. I love Annie so much. She is so strong and independent. And Paul is just the greatest person ever.

This week at school is a sports tournament. School is cancelled Tues-Thurs and 2 other deaf schools come to our school to play sports. They are competing in soccer, volley ball, track, ping pong, and net ball. Today all day at school we just cleaned the grounds around the school. I’m super excited to watch them. Friday (July 1^st) is a holiday here, so school is cancelled. We’ve seen signs for tons of parties and celebrations going on, so it should be good. So basically since there is no school this week, we only have one more week with the kids. I’m getting really sad. I love these kids.

My birthday is in one week, and we get home in two weeks! Be sure to send me a text on my birthday so I can feel loved when I get home! I love you all!