Exercise!

I am happy to announce that I was finally able to take my first jog today!!!!

I faced the heat straight in the face and I won-for a couple of miles anyway!

I'm acclimating...I hope!

In fact, I've even been cold here at times!  WHAT????

I've had to turn the air conditioner off a couple of times in the night; which is such a good feeling!  

However, that doesn't mean that the sweating stops....it never stops and that's the way it is for everyone here.

Here is the best companion anyone can have here in Ghana...a sweat cloth.

You can buy one just about anywhere for around 50 Pasewas (about 50 cents).

Who Would've Thought...

First, let me just tell you how thankful I am to have parents and grandparents who have taught me how to work!  Both my mom and dad are so handy and can fix just about anything that needs fixed.  I was not only taught how to do the small and simple things on my own from my parents, but I also observed how they did the small and simple things on their own.  Thank you, momma and daddy.

I am pretty sure I mentioned in a prior post how I went to the Accra market this past Saturday, but if not, I am now.  I went to purchase some metal to try and rebuild the swings on the children's playground.  While I was there, I had a crazy idea to build the children a tire swing while I was at it.

The market is no Home Depot to say the least!  It's not even a Walmart!  Here is a small glimpse...

So, one must go from shanty to shanty to find the item they are in need of.  Luckily, all of the metal supplies were in the same area (The market goes on for blocks and blocks). I found all that I needed to repair the swings but now I needed to find the supplies for a tire swing.  I'm not sure why or when I decided this was a good idea.  I am also not sure how I knew what to look for to make a tire swing...as if I had made one before.  I know it's not rocket science but add the Accra Market into the mix and it's pretty close!

Well, low and behold....I made a tire swing!  However, this post isn't about me because believe me, most of my accomplishments here in Ghana have been with the help of a Higher Power.

I have yet to see a happier group of kids (and teachers)!

I thought the little suckers I brought last week to school were a hit but that was nothing compared to their new tire swing!  Only one of the children had even ever seen such a thing.

In fact, the children told Uncle Ben that they want to ask me if it's okay that they name "the ride".  He said they want to name it the "Awesome Ride".

Not only were the kids happy with the tire swing, but they were thrilled to have their swings back.  In fact, they were allowed to play on the entire swing set today in celebration of their new swings!

I love watching the older children have toys to play on now.

PS...my hair has yet to dry while I've been here in Ghana!

Thank you, mom and dad, for showing me how to believe in my own abilities and for not calling a handyman every time something needed a good fixin!

I've decided that I will go back to the market this next Saturday and buy the metal to make a tire swing for the smaller children.  After seeing how happy the older children were, how could I not want this same happiness for the rest of my babies!?!

The smallest gifts mean the world to the children in Ghana!  

Trying to give the world to the children in Ghana is the largest gift I could ever receive.

Sweet Angel

My sister-in-law emailed me the little story below and I couldn't help but share it.

 "- Cute story (hope it doesn't make you homesick...) When we told Addie that Grandma and Grandpa were coming to visit at our house and that they were bringing Wassie (sorry, I can never remember how you spell it) she was super excited and said with the sweetest, most excited face, "And Sydnee?!" When we told her you weren't coming, she wrinkled up her little face, put on her best pout, stamped her foot and SCREAMED with her whole body shaking "No! Sydnee need to come too!" "

My goodness, how I love my little babies!  Thank you, Rhonda, for sharing.

Did You Participate?

Truly Clean Hands!

First Bite(s)

Both legs look like this!

JERKS!!!!

Even while wearing bug spray!

I better not get Malaria from these ugly creatures!!!

My Birthday in Ghana

The family I am staying with, the Anno's, were dead-set on making my birthday a great day!  They did an amazing job!  I was really homesick yesterday but they made me feel like I was with my family-my Ghanaian family.

Even though my birthday is today, we celebrated it on Sunday because the oldest daughter was home for a few hours from boarding school.  Plus, traffic here is the worst I have yet to see (another post of its own) and to be able to have everyone at home at the same time during the week would never happen.

So, here was my Birthday day:

Lydia made me breakfast; pancakes, eggs, hot dogs and beans.  Yes, that's correct.  They offered me hot chocolate but I declined as I was already sweating through my clothes.  Kuwaku, Lydia's hubby, said that when he was in America he was offered cold cereal for breakfast when it was snowing outside so hot chocolate in 95 degree weather is no different.  Point taken.

We went to church together; stake conference.  Imagine me, the whitest girl in all of Ghana walking into a big stake center full of black (it's okay to say black here) people, some who have never seen a white person in person before.

I was hoping Lydia would buy me this dress for my birthday but no such luck!

The Ghanaians are very proud of their religion no matter what religion it may be.  They were selling this dress at the Temple Dedication. :)

Here's this week's little church friend of mine!

So cute!  He is the Stake Presidents son-yes, the stake president is about 30 years old!

Then we went out to eat for lunch (I just do what I'm told so don't blame me for breaking the Sabbath!)  I was a little scared to go out to eat because I've stuck to mainly bread and rice here so far.  We ended up going to a little pizza joint, even though someone suggested Chinese...ummm...it's my birthday!  The pizza was pretty good!  I scarfed down enough to catch me up on all of the food I've been missing over this past week.  Lydia also bought me a cake!  We had to eat in the car because we had to be somewhere by 5:30 and traffic is so unpredictable here (Ghanaians say, "Take away" rather than "to go" when referring to food.).  We cut the cake at the restaurant and took a few pictures. 

Yumm!

Then we stopped for ice cream to go with our cake.

I realized the other day that I haven't smiled this much in a very, very, longtime.

Even though I'm so very homesick, I'm so very happy here.

Another Interesting Day

What comes to your mind when you think of an "Art Center"?  Well, I went to a place called the Art Center today in Accra but this art center is a bit different from what I expected it to be based off of its name.  The Art Center is a bunch, I mean 100's of little shanties , individually owned, full of handmade products to purchase.  Anything from a wooden elephant head to a leather purse.  It's sort of like a mall but nothing like a mall I've ever seen; more like a "name your price" bargain area.  It was a great time!

I have a friend here, Rasta, who showed me around the Art Center.  His name is a very long name and the only parts that I could hear were something, something, Rasta, something, Gideon, something.  He said to just call him Rasta.

Seemed fitting... 

(He's in the white)

Anyway, we stopped along the beach before we arrived at the art center so that I could check it out.  I took a few pictures, uploaded them to my computer and just kept thinking about the pictures I took of the beach while I was in Hawaii.  How amazing it is to see the comparison of the two different countries!

See if you can pick which country each picture comes from:

This one may be a little more difficult to figure out if you can't enlarge the photo.

Pretty interesting, in my opinion. 

I bought a few gifts from the Art Center for my nieces and nephews.  Thank goodness Rasta was with me otherwise I would've bought something from every person who tried to pull me into their shop-literally pull me!  I felt so sad for all of them and just wanted to pay the first price they named.  Rasta said they really like when a white girl comes to shop and to just let him do the talking; which I did and bought about 7 gifts for the price I would've paid for just one.

 I did get to be experience the Rasta life for a minute...

I have video's of the show they put on for me and Rasta but for some reason they won't upload to my blog.

This is where the man in the picture below with Rasta lives and a picture of a few of his "pets".

 

Yet, another very interesting day!