Ghana, I'll miss you!

Hello from Ghana.
Today is everyone's second last day with our host families. We cannot
believe it has come on so quickly. School is becoming quite emotional
as we tell our kids that we will soon leave them. There are so many
things that seem like home to us these days that I forget are so
foreign to you reading the blog back home. So here's a list of all the
things that I will miss about my home in Agona Swedru and my stay with
my host family.

Wandering down the streets of Swedru is like walking through different
people's backyards. You experience small kids washing and brushing
their teeth and adults cooking outside on their fire stoves. Just down
the street from us we have a lady who makes banku and sells it (a
local dish made of maize and cassava). I will miss the baby goats who
roam the streets bleating for their mothers who tend to walk a little
bit too fast for their short legs. It's also common to see chickens
wandering around with their little babies, all spray painted pink so
that they can be identified by their owners. Usually all the animals
know what house to return to no matter how far they have strayed.

I will miss the cute little local kids greeting me in the mornings
with "Obroni1!!!!" (meaning foreigner) and i will never get over how
excited they are to see us every morning. Brightening our day with
their excited squeals as we walk down the road to school.

I will miss our students and how they rush out to greet us before we
have even stepped within the school grounds. We can hear cries of
"MADAME" as we approach and almost get bowled over by excited little
kids who are so happy to have us as their teachers. Some of the girls
have even started calling me their mother and they sit in wonder as
they play with my blond straight hair and place stickers all over my
arms and face. Siobhan told me that one of her kids asked her to
remove her wig (which is what many women wear here as their hair is
thick and wiry and hard to maintain). They cannot believe we have
naturally straight hair.

On Saturday we are all traveling as a group up north. Starting in the
Volta region we plan to see the Wli falls and a monkey village before
taking a 3 day cruise up the Volta river!

This past weekend. Siobhan, Hannah, MJ, Georgia, Tony and I traveled
across the Ghanaian boarder to Togo. It was like entering another
world and i have to say it was one of my highlights. Especially the
Fetish market where Voodoo practitioners and white magic doctors sold
all kinds of animal parts to perform healing and magic. There was
everything from dried chameleons to an elephant skull, hyena, monkey,
leopard and dog heads and many other grotesque and interesting things.
It was one of the major highlights of my trip to Africa. We also
visited Togo's version of Mc Donalds (Al Donalds) but didn't eat there
as it looked very dubious and we did not want to get sick.

Hopefully while traveling up north I can update you on our last day
and a half in swedru and everyone's experiences leaving their families.

Until Next time. Eleanor!!!!