O Why?!?

First off I finally uploaded photos from my July travels so everyone can see what I've been up to and also where I will be living the next two years! Moving on to the update...

It’s been tough being back in the classroom this week so Alex and I have been exclaiming ‘O why?!?’ a lot which is a new favorite Ghanaian phrase. But we did learn a lot of new vocabulary about our daily routines, shopping, directions, and travel. Now next week we’ll just be revising (Ghanaian English for review) what we already know in preparation for the upcoming LPI (Language Proficiency Interview). In the LPI we are expected to hold anywhere from a 5 to 30 minute conversation. Right now I can talk about myself for a solid 7-8 minutes straight but the problem comes in when people ask me questions that throw me off. So next week will be a lot of practicing Buli, Buli, Buli as I like to say.

Then as part of our education training, we conducted a Small Community Outreach Project (SCOP) Friday. Our group did a skit about malaria during half-time of a short, informal football match for kids in Kukurantumi. My host brother acted as our translator and our project wouldn’t have been a success without him. Earlier in the week I accompanied him to a business venture of his where they have a TV setup for folks to pay a small amount to watch football matches and other events. We watched the Manchester United versus Manchester City game (I have a United poster in my room so you can guess who we were rooting for). It was a very exciting match and fun to watch with all the Ghanaian men because they get really into it. The Ghana Black Stars match was cancelled later in the week because of the London Riots. It’s pretty interesting because one of my homestay sisters Cynthia moved to London a few weeks back and now the family is hearing so much about it in the news. It makes me thankful Ghana hasn’t made world news yet so my family in America doesn’t have to worry about me!

I learned a valuable lesson this week on being careful what you wish for. I made a flippant comment to my friend Sarah earlier in the week that I wished I could be ‘sick’ on my birthday so I could be lazy and watch movies in bed all day. The reason being is that I’m pretty spoiled since I grew up just getting to have fun on my special day since I didn’t have to go to school. Well I was sick Thursday with an upset stomach but unfortunately my day went like this: feel really quite awful, go vomit and maybe more, feel better temporarily, take a nap, wake up and repeat from the beginning. At least I wasn’t sick on my birthday that would’ve awful!

Speaking of my birthday, thank you to all my wonderful friends and family for all the lovely messages. It made me feel so very special and loved. My homestay family also made it memorable as well- the sang me a beautiful rendition of ‘Happy Birthday to you’ complete with ‘How old are you.’ To which I answered ’27!’ and I think I caught 5 year old Chief off guard by this response. He looked at me as if to say ‘It was a rhetorical question!’ But yes I guess I am officially in my upper twenties- woo hoo. I ate a lot of eggs because apparently it’s traditional to do so hear to celebrate life by what I gathered. After our project a few of my friends hit a spot (bar) with me where I had a coke float to celebrate. Vanilla ice cream is sold here in these amazing squeeze packets and then of course I had it with Coca-Cola which is made with real cane sugar. It was coined as the ‘Stephanie’ by one of my friends which was cool because I’ve always wanted a drink named after me.

This week I was watching the news with my host mom and a story came on about the famine in Somalia. We were both pretty touched and though we can’t communicate well agreed that it was ‘very bad.’ It weighed on me throughout the week and in an email from a dear friend this week she mentioned reading a story about a Ghanaian youth raising money for Somalia. It’s a pretty cool story and I want to end this post by sharing with you so check out if you want to learn more about the dire situation in Somalia: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14474860">
Sorry the link isn't showing up how it's supposed to but I'm out of credit at the internet cafe so please excuse me!