It has taken me so long to write to you because there is just too much to write! I am so extremely blessed that sometimes it is overwhelming! I thank God for too much to write!

I finished my first full week of class! I did it. I was so excited that on Friday I actually got an entire lesson done with my three year old class! That was my victory. I have been having so many problems with my threes. Sometimes I just wanted to throw in the towel but I did not and on Friday I taught the color red! I was so excited we even did a sorting activity. I love my fours for the most part. They are fun and excited in a way that I think would make any teacher happy. I am amazed at what a difference a year makes. I hear people talking about the terrible twos but I’m determined that its really the threes people should be watching out for. I am having fun with them its just sometimes that two hours goes by REALLY SLOW!

Yesterday afternoon was a lot of fun. On Fridays the mothers take their children out of the compound and out into different villages around us and yesterday I got to tag along. I have gotten closer to the older girls recently and they have so many questions about life and university and BOYS! So they all asked me to go with them and their mothers. We walked to a near village and I actually got to take some pictures of some people and their houses. (I will have them up later today. http://uwyo.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025428&l=a1cd1&id=45200525 ) I got so many hugs from the villagers and the children. They like to laugh at obrunis that do not have a soft enough tongue to speak Twi. I figured out that is why I have such a hard time repeating Twi words. My tongue is to used to the harshness of English that it will not lighten up for Twi. Twi is a very soft language with a lot of vowel sounds, it is also surrounded by a lot of “k” sounds. I will have to record some a play it for you when I return. Every time I walk into a village my heart jumps a little. I feel like I am walking on the set of a movie. “People do not really live like this! They can not! This is only in movies!” That’s what I said to myself when I walked into my first village, but its true, its real. People do make houses out of mud! People do make houses out of tin. People do use palm branches to make their roofs! Its true! But they are so gracious and inviting. They wanted me to come see their homes that they are so proud of. They want me to see their water pump that they just got. I wish I could go out like that every day and meet all the people around here. That is my dream.

Imagine with me for a moment. Look around at the house that you are living in. Think about all the work that went in to it. Pay attention to the construction going on on that highway that is such a mess. What do you see? Tons and tons of trucks and jack hammers and electric everything! Just imagine all that done by hand. That is how it is done here. I have been watching the construction workers across the little road from my house and the highway they are building in Accra and seeing all the work they are doing and its all by hand. Making window frames with a hand saw and hand planers. Digging a path for a sidewalk with two shovels for five men and then breaking down the wall of a gutter with only a pick axe. There are no jelly donuts present here at this construction site! I am constantly amazed by it. I want to go over a watch and help. I think it would be amazing, however, I am not allowed. What a bummer!

God has blessed me with my roommate Susan. She is the most amazing thing that He could have given to me. She is fun and wild and loves Jesus more than anything! She is always smiling and having a wonderful time wherever she is. We get off duty at about 6:00 every night and then spend the next four hours talking about anything and everything. Its almost like having a coffee date every night. The moment I met her I fell in love with her. She is 58 years old and the most beautiful woman I have seen in a long time. Many of you know about my Princess club I have back in Garland and I know that if she were to live in Garland she would automatically be initiated into the Princess club. If my darling June had a long lost sister this would be her. That’s why I love her so because she is so much like my June and almost as beautiful. We have another lady coming the sixth of February and I think that we are all going to go on holiday to the slave castles which will be fun.

I had a fun experience the other night at dinner. I sat down to eat with Mama Agnes and served myself some rice and then some fish stew. I started eating and realized that my fish that I got had a lot of bones in it and was a little funny tasting but being the great gracious adventurous American that I am I just kept on eating. All of a sudden Mama Agnes said “Madam Sarah, do you like fish head?”
“I do not know if I do.”
“Well you are eating it and I think you just ate the eyeball.”
Not knowing what I had served myself I just grabbed what I grabbed and started chowing down on some fish brains and eyeballs. So that was fun. I did not get sick or anything it was just a little awkward. We all kind of giggled at the funny American and I got another piece of fish. It just goes to show that you can put anything in a stew and I’ll eat it. Needless to say, I am a little more careful about what I put on my plate these days.

After saying that I think I will end here. Have a great day and please mind your food!

Always smiling!

Sarah

Prayer request:
-For me and my threes that they do not kill me and I do not do the same.
-A lot of kids are still sick with runny tummy and vomiting.
-More mothers.