Well, I just finished my second day here in Ghana and it was good. Played a lot today with the kids. Term does not start until next monday so right now they are still on holiday which means I am too.

This morning I woke up and ate a fresh mango for breakfast. So amazingly fabulous! I actually like the food that I've had so far here. Granted I've only had four meals with the kids but I was warned from the very beginning about the meal we had last night for dinner and I really enjoyed it. There is a lot of stew like food served with rice. Last night, the meal everyone warned me about, I think its called kan kan. Its fermented corn mush like corn tortilla batter. Its is rolled in a tight ball, wrapped in corn husks and served with stew. They eat it with their hands by mushing it up really well and then dipping it in the stew. I thought it was pretty good. I would eat it again, which is good because I will be eating it a lot. Its a staple here in Ghana, like ham and cheese in the states.

I eat with the kids for lunch and supper and all the families sit at their own table. When MiniMissionaries are here they are usually only here for a couple of weeks. In cases like that they rotate eating at different tables for each meal just to make sure they make it all the way around. Well in my situation because I will be here for five months I am eating at Mama Cecilia's table for lunch and then at Mama Anges' table for dinner this month. However, the other children do not understand why I am only setting with those two tables and not at theirs. Everytime I see the children they ask the same thing, "Aunty Sarah, will you eat at our table?" They will understand it finally, but right now I feel bad because the other kids think that I am avoiding them.

Today was Vivian's birthday. She turned six. On the kids birthdays they get cake at dinner. This is a very specail treat. Ghanaians are not very accustomed to toffee (candy/sugar). It was really sweet when everyone sang her happy birthday it was also the longest Happy Birthday I had ever heard in my life. Before they cut the cake Mama Anges lead a prayer for Vivian and it was such a sweet prayer. She thanked God for the day the month and the year that Vivian was born. She prayed that as Vivian grew she would grow to love God more each day and be brought up in His light. It was very special. But then Joshua kicked Adwoa Mary's cake out of her hand and the tears came a rolling. Never a dull moment.

I was playing on the playground today and thought that it would be a prime time to take pictures (or snaps as they are called here) of the kids. I took my camera out of my bag and you would think that I pulled a hunk of gold out of bag. Not just the kids but the Aunties and Mamas all came out to have a snap taken. It took about five minutes in between each picture because everytime I took one I had to show it to all the kids even if they were not in the picture. It was fun. I videoed the kids on the merry-go-round singing songs. They sing songs in English the first verse and then most of the time they sing the same verse again but in Twi. (Twi is the most known trible dialect here in Ghana.) The kids really like Joy to the World, its their favorite. We sing that a lot! The kids also love to dance. They get together by themselves, form circles and dance, clap, and sing with eachother. It gets difficult with that sometimes because there are not many followers, mostly all l eaders. If they aren't a leader its because they can't talk yet.

Around this time each year a cloud of dust gets blown down here from the Sahara Desert and is here for about 3-4 weeks. This is the coolest part of the year because the dust covers up the sun. It is like a really dense fog at all times. They say this is the worst it has been in about three years. Its funny though, in the morning its about 83 degrees and the kids and moms are walking around in sweat shirts and coats because they are actually cold. Mama Cecilia today was telling me at lunch that she did not want to leave her house this morning because it was so cold.

Tomorrow I am going in to Accra for the day. I won't have much time after this week to get off site because I am going to be teaching every day when school starts and next week we are going swimming every day. Tomorrow I am going to try to buy some fabric and get dresses made. I'm really looking forward to that.

Hope all is well with you. God bless!

p.s. I know you are probably saying to yourself, "She said she has all these pictures so where are they?" Well I will tell you. I lost the cord that goes from my camera to my computer and I could not find one before I left. So I am going to try to use someone's computer around here and see if they can help me.

Prayer requests:
Rest.
Getting my lesson plans done and room done before term starts.
For the children that I will be teaching, they will need it.
For the health of the village. Everyone is getting sick because of all the dust around.