Beach Tour '08

So I have recently returned from my latest traveling. As you all know it is Easter time and to celebrate Jesus' raising from the dead, we get to take off school and bask in His awesomeness right?! Thank you Jesus! Therefore, Kristy (the other volunteer) and I teamed up with my housemate, Mariah (another teacher at American International School) and her friend, Jonathan, who is staying close by in Nigeria! Now I am not going to stretch this vacation on for 3 months, so I will summarize it in this nice, concise list for you all to enjoy:

8 days
7 nights
5 beaches (each was a fishing village-as are most beaches in Ghana)
1 Tour of a Village built completely on stilts
1 Tour of a slave castle
20 minutes of running
Approximately 572,639 kilometers of walking!!
4 tro-tros
1 bus
1 taxi
3 million beads of sweat
400 pages in 'Gone With the Wind'
LOTS of street food (with a little sickness on the side)
And none of it paid for with a mastercard :-P
but of course all of it was PRICELESS! :)

The four of us had some incredible experiences together. On the flip side, it was actually a perfect chance to be alone and to do some reflection, reading, and relaxation (so...R and R..and r?). So thank you Lord for cheap travel in Ghana.

Also, I must say that I was told by one of my high school students that I write my blogs backwards. She thought perhaps I didn't know and was very stern in trying to get me to understand that I CAN'T write about New Years Eve in MARCH. Haha, that being said, I would like to quickly wrap up my last two days of holiday vacation.

New Years Day we woke up at 3:30am to catch a 4:00am bus. After frantically pushing and pulling ourselves through the mobbish group of people trying to get on the ONLY bus to Tamale for the day, Kristy, Bianca, Dayne (two Aussies we met at Mole National Park), and I settled in to sleep for a few hours. We woke up in Tamale, searched for a bus to Kumasi, failed to find one, hopped on a tro-tro and 5 squished hours later began to walk to our faithful Presbyterian Guesthouse. Bianca and Dayne continued on towards Accra, but Kristy and I wanted to stretch our vacation out for as long as possible. We found our restaurant with a pool table again; then came back to the guesthouse for a lovely shower and a comfy bed.
Our last day of vacay was spent hopping from Kumasi to Accra for lunch and back over to Ho to eat dinner and collapse into bed. Who knew vacation was so tiring??

What did you all do for Easter vacation (don't answer that if you're bitter because you didn't go anywhere :-P)? I would love to hear some fun stories :)

My Special Education student and I have really found our niche. Together, his occupational therapist, his other teachers, and I have been working on techniques to help with outbursts and extra energy. Thank you to everyone who has been e-mailing suggestions and encouragements in this area! My Spanish and American History classes are both going well and I am looking forward to this next/last quarter! Just so everyone knows, teaching actually works! My students are REALLY learning what I teach! hehe (Even those one or two mistakes that we had to go back later and fix...oops!)

I would like to give a quick 'shout out' to two very important people in my life. My brother Matthew turned NINETEEN and my agent/other mother Sherrill Heinrichs turned SIXTY!! woo hoo!!! I love you both so so so so much, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Well, I would like to thank you all for reading. It is such an encouragement to me to know that my friends and family take the time out of their crazy, busy, Obruni days to read what I think. Can you believe it's April already!?
Happy Spring to those of you who have access to seasons. hehe :)
Miss you!
Love,
Meg