Ghana is Beautiful!

hello all

i have safely arrived in Ghana Wednesday.. sorry for all the lower case letters, the keyboard is different here, so i'm happy getting this much out. anyways.. our plane was three hours late because there were mechnical issues, but we arrived on wednesday at 9:45am to Accur. we then drove about 1 hour to our hotel which sits on the side of a hill in mampong. the country is quite simple but lovely. it is very colorful and the people are friendly. our drive to mampong was bumpy as there are potholes everywhere and the roads are slender. as we were driving you could see small shack shops along the road. people were selling clothes, food (pineapples, meat, bread and water bags), fixing cars, hanging out and more. There were women all around carrying various items for sell on their heads. That is a skill i hope to gain before i leave here.

Maren, my friend from California, and I were able to get a phone yesterday. We met a man named Ben who took us all around the town trying to negotiate a good price. After 2 hours, we found a good deal at the post office. I learned a lot about the 5 different Ghanaian languages, the Mampong area, his family, and negotiating prices. We successfully got a phone, but were unable to charge it as our electric went out last night, so without a phone or a shower we simply eat dinner by candlelight. You really have to go with the follow.. it was a good day.

Today (Friday), we went to the wood district. It is about a mile of small outdoor stores with various wood carvings. I am hoping to get a drum made and start drumming classes next week we'll see. Our goal is to start our work in the schools next week. We have to ask special permission to start work, so things are done differently here. They need official volunteer letters so we are working on that now. I have had a chance to meet some of the high school students and they are wonderful. I met a small group of girls that ran up to me with huge smiles. It was good to be able to communicate with them. They kept say "you look like us." I have not met the children i will be working with yet, so i'm looking forward to that hopefully starting on Tuesday. Well, my 15 minutes are up...so good bye for now