Christmas Wish List

I remember the days when I would create a wish list for Santa. If Santa showed up in Ghana I would like him to bring:

Complete's Blink and Clean contact solution for my roommate
More Craft Books for my Agogo students to get ideas from
Fiction to read (I brought a ton of nonfiction)- something fun like a Chuck Palahniuk book
Old Navy tan tops in small (any color) because my laundry lady has stretched everything out
Vegan goodies (cliff bars, box mixes, etc)
Running Water
World Peace- that would be nice

The Totals

Matriculations attended: 2
Funerals attended: 2
Weddings attended: 0
Text messages from America: 8
Cards received: 11
Bags of fried plantains eaten daily: 2 ½
Bags of groundnuts eaten daily: 1
Sacks of water I drink a day: 4 to 7
Dresses/skirts made by my tailor: 4
Books began: 7
Books completed: 2
Monkeys seen after going to wildlife preserve: 0
Crocodiles seen after going to wildlife preserve: 0
Times I have gotten to use my new rain boots: 3- we are in the dry season now
Marriage proposals: 8
Cliff Bars left: 1

Thanksgiving in Agogo

Yesterday, Thursday, November 28, I celebrated Thanksgiving in Agogo. I woke up at 5:30am to prepare for church and my 7am class. After class I ate breakfast and headed to town to buy a table. We have been eating meals at our coffee table and that is just getting a bit old. So I found a plastic table for 18 Ghana Cedis. It looked great on out back porch. Then I taught two more classes and had after school open hours where we had around 40 girls working on creating posters for their classrooms. It was a great workday, but very busy. At 4:30pm I headed to the house to start our Ghanaian Thanksgiving feast while Betsy set the table with a fancy tablecloth and candles. Around 5:45pm the Canadians came over to our banquet dressed so nicely I felt like a slob. For our feast we served: Betsy’s Famous trail mix, fried plantains, red red, rice, vegetable samoas (I got in Kumasi), olive oil, tea bread, watermelon, fried bread, and lemon Fanta (my new favorite soda). It was nice to sit outside under the stars and candle light with good food and great friends. The weather felt like a cool summer night and the conversation was just what I needed. It was a great evening and I look forward to many more nights under the stars with my new friends.

THANK YOU SCHOOLBOX!!!

I finally got the chance to travel to Kumasi on a week day to visit the post office to-FINALLY- pick up my package from the SCHOOLBOX. The Schoolbox has been my employer for on and off for four years. It is a great teacher supply store with locations around Atlanta (although they also have a store in Tennessee too). You can also check them out at www.schoolbox.com. They were so excited about my trip to teach in Ghana that they told me that would be happy to ship any supplies I would need. I was so excited that I purchased a bunch of really great teacher resource books. The top three books I would highly recommend were:

The First Days of School by Harry K. Wong and Rosemarry T. Wong
-every teacher should have this book!
Look What You Can Make With Dozens of Household Items by
-unfortunately out of print…but worth looking for- my favorite for Arts and Crafts
Alternatives to Worksheets: Motivational Reading and Writing Activities Across the Curriculum by Karen Baur and Rosa Drew- Creative Teaching Press
-fantastic way to get away from worksheets and have the kids make something fun and educational- I use this on a weekly bases throughout the year

I felt like it was my birthday as I opened my package of books, markers, rulers, crayons, and stickers on the post office counter. Also- the employees in the Kumasi general post office are so, friendly! I was astounded by their politeness and helpfulness.

My students at Agogo Presbyterian Training College are very grateful for this donation. I have already logged the new books into my Teacher Resource Center Inventory and have decided to save some of the goodies for a Teacher Learning Materials competition that I am going to hold next semester. I can’t wait!

Also- you should check out www.schoolbox.com because they have a link to a page about my adventure here. There is also a video clip of me before I left the US. Enjoy!

Bomfobiri Wildlife Reserve

On Saturday, November 22, Laura, Rabina, and I chartered a taxi to take us to the Bomfobiri Wildlife Reserve. It is so close to Agogo, but you have to drive around in almost a complete circle because the direct road to it is far to bad. It too a bit over 2 hours to get their.

Above are Rabina, Laura, our guide, and our cab driver before our hike.

The guide told us about the Bomfobiri waterfall, monkeys, crocodiles, and how to get their. Once we arrived at the office to get our guide the pricing was just like Bradt said (a first). It was very beautiful. You could see mountains everywhere, long grassy plains, and the beautiful waterfall. However- no crocs and no monkeys. Our guide, who carried a loaded shotgun for our protection, or maybe his, told us that we should come in January in stead. Oh well- it was nice.

Above we hid in the grass- can you find us?
Below is the picture our cab driver took. I don't think he should quit is day job.


On the way back we stopped in the town of Bonwire, that is home to Kente cloth- seriously- this is real Kente cloth- (History fact: the people of Kpetoe claims they started it and Ashanti added their own style later). We went to a Kente cloth manufacturer and had the chance to see a weaver in action. I didn’t take pictures because I would need to pay extra and I was strapped for cash- so I will come back when I have money to spend.

Then we headed home. Below is Laura with Betsy special recipe trailmix (raisin bran/plantain chips/ground nuts).

But before I forget- when I left the Bomfobiri Wildlife office I say a bunch of turkeys hanging out near a tro-tro. I thought of how happy this turkeys should be they don’t live in America. Although I am sure they will be someone’s dinner soon. It makes me happy to see turkeys just hanging out with their friends waiting to get on the tro-tro.

Rabina's Birthday Party and Funny Story

Betsy and I have made friends with two other Oburni’s in Agogo from Canada- Rabina and Laura. Pictured here.

Wednesday night, the day after Rabina’s really birthday, Betsy and I had them over for DVD watching and snack eating. Betsy brought home ice cream and cake from Konongo. I just watched since the ice cream and cake aren’t vegan- no worries I ate cookies. Here is Rabina at her birthday “party”.

While watching a DVD on my computer in our dark living room I felt a bug land on my mouth. This is not too uncommon here, but as I went to swat it away I realized it was HUGE. It was literally covering my lips. As soon as I brushed this GIANT bug off my lips I began to scream. The bug then hit my leg and next landed on Laura’s, who was sitting next to me. I pulled my feet up into the chair I was sitting on and waited for Betsy to turn on the lights. I didn’t see anything at first, but then from under the seat cushion I saw a long antenna. I jump off the couch only after squealing, and yelling to Laura “Open the Door- Open the Door”. By now Betsy had seen the antenna as well so I grabbed the cushion and ran for the door. I hurled the cushion out on to the porch. This event happened around 9:15pm and all four of us were talking loudly while the rest of our neighbors were quiet for once, seriously. I turn over the cushion to reveal the largest grasshopper I had ever seen. It was about as long as a deck of cards and this just made me scream a bit louder. Finally we all started laughing at my fear of this harmless grasshopper. About this time I heard Nicholas, my neighbor, calling to me to see if everything was alright. He was in the middle of putting on a shirt and running over to my front porch. I said, “I’m fine”, feeling embarrassed to be screaming my head off at a grasshopper. He found it funny as well. He said he heard the screams and thought if must be a snake (which would have been my worst nightmare) so he jumped out of bed, got dressed and ran over. It is amazing that Nicholas got to my house so quick- within seconds. He may need to quit teaching and become a firefighter with that response time. I thanked him for his heroic deed and he sweep the grasshopper into the yard and we went back inside to watch our DVD.


Seriously the grasshopper was on my lips- it was scary at the time.

I Love My Students

Have I told you how much I love my job lately?


Here I am with my students during the afterschool open hours at the TRC.