Septem-brrrrrrrrrrr

Sorry it took me until October to write about September! It's been crazy busy around here like always!

While you might think I'm being sarcastic with my blog title, it has actually been quite cold for us here in Ghana! With a fan at night I have had to use covers and long pants to sleep in! Can you believe it? I certainly can't. We can feel October is starting to warm up quite a bit though, so everyone get ready to pray for some rain, I can feel the need coming already!

But weather is trivial, let's talk about something more fun! How about fufu!? So at the beginning of the month, I took a Sunday to go and visit my Ghanaian family that I haven't seen since May! Right away I felt at home when I arrived and the dogs didn't even bark! My brothers were busy making fufu, and I realized I had never videotaped the making of fufu for you all to see, so here's your chance (it's just a few seconds, but it shows how they pound it and it becomes so slippery, gooey, and slimy)! Remember while you're watching, this is a mix of boiled yam and plantain. Which is sort of like the equivalent of a boiled potato and a SUPER HARD, ripe banana. Enjoy!



Here's a picture in case your internet connection is slow like mine:



Sadly I learned that one of the four dogs had passed, so Grandma decided they needed to replace him with two new puppies! Cute right??



Here's a picture of Grandma and I. She says she looks ten years older without her sunglasses, so they were necessary in the picture.



Grandpa was traveling for the weekend, so unfortunately I wasn't able to see him, but other than that, the day was REALLY fun. It felt really good to go to a place that was so comfortable and familiar. They sent me away with an incredibly full tummy of my favorite dish and promises to call very soon.

The next weekend was spent at another familiar place....THE STADIUM!!!!!! So I HOPE AND PRAY you all know that the WORLD CUP 2010 is coming up this summer. Some of you may remember that Ghana was in the last world cup and do you also remember that they beat the U.S. in that very cup!?!?! Anyway, after a successful number of games in their bracket for next year's tournament, they were set to play against Sudan. If they won, it would mean they were guaranteed to go to South Africa, no matter what happens in the remaining matches. Knowing that it was a big match, we took our $7 seat tickets and got to the stadium hours in advance to beat the rush. After arriving, we found our seats IN THE SHADE IN THE THIRD ROW. AMAZING!!! Now my friends and I noticed how close we were sitting to the field, and to the security gate that keeps people from getting to it. Curiosity is constantly stewing in our brains, so we decided to press our luck and ask if it were possible for us to touch the field. Please see Exhibit A below:

EXHIBIT A


!!!!!!!! This would never happen in the States. We asked the head policeman if we could touch the field so that we could go home and tell all of our friends that we touched the stadium field in Ghana and it felt Oh So Nice. He just waved at the guys blocking the doors and we were allowed in! The woman who's crouching next to me didn't get the memo and was yelling in my ear. I just ignored her while I smiled for my picture. If policemen say it's okay, green-shirted ladies can't stop me. :)



They ended up winning the match of course!! South Africa here we come!!!!!!!


Next on the list was my birthday hooray! Like last year it was filled with nice goodies and messages from students. My favorite being a plateful of Laurie's bran muffins coupled with two whole packets of Philadelphia Cream Cheese!! Two cakes were brought for me, this was the most impressive:



It's a LADY in a cake! A LADY with a CAKE for a DRESS. I was just very impressed. Apparently our secretary had taken cake-making classes this previous summer and not told anyone until now. Happy surprise!!

For my fun go-out celebration I chose bowling, because everyone likes bowling right??? We have ONE bowling alley in Ghana and it took us an hour and a half to get there in the Friday rush-hour traffic, but it was worth it. I had only been once before and certainly did NOT remember them having a Dance, Dance, Revolution video game!! It was fun for the person on the left because one of the steps for the right side didn't work unless you used all of your human force into stomping as hard as you could onto the button. Either way it was such a fun night and I'm SO SO grateful for my friends/family that have made Ghana feel like home. Of course I had a BILLION e-mails and messages from family and friends in the States and that's one of the best feelings in the world. So thank you so much to those who made me feel so special from so far away. :)


Switching gears back to school, our latest fun activity has been the Battle of Marathon. If you don't know the story it is about a fight between the Athenians and King Darius' Persian guys. In the story, the Persians are loading up their boats to attack the Athenians from the back, little did they know, the Athenians were looking down on them from a mountain and with the element of surprise, defeated a force much larger than their own. When I told 2/3rds of my class to start piling themselves under the table (boat), I whispered to the other 1/3 to quietly crumple up a few papers and gave orders to follow my lead. We launched the most gruesome surprise paper ball attack in history. Now that it's been written on blogspot and the hearts of boys and girls across the 6th grade, it shall be remembered forever. :)

(A friend of mine gave me the paper ball idea-so here's to networks of teachers that steal ideas!!)

Speaking of ideas. Whoever told Connie to put marshmallows in her package that I've just received deserves a medal for the best idea of the month! Marshmallows are very hard to come by in Ghana-at least the ones that actually taste/feel like marshmallows. When I opened the package, all of us squealed with excitement, "RICE KRISPY TREATS!!!" We are now waiting for Rice Krispies to go on sale, so until then, we are using the extra marshmallows on anything we can think of, ice cream, cookies, peanut butter and jelly toast:



We even heat up bowls of marshmallows and drop peanut butter in it and eat it up like it's a bowl of ice cream. This is all just to explain to Connie how grateful we are for those hard-to-find sweets. Thank you thank you thank you!!!! :)

Last weekend we were blessed to be invited to a Korean Bazaar that was hosted by the church pastored by one of my students. Our night was full of traditional Korean dishes, treats, and staged performances. The finale was from the women who prepared all of the tasty food. Here's a blurry picture of the dance:


I don't have a picture for my latest-greatest piece of news, but you can picture it in your heads. As you know, I've been coaching the boys grades 6th-12th soccer team. This past Thursday, we were challenged by some local Ghanaian boys to play a match. When they finally showed up an hour late, we played for 30 minutes. After about 5 minutes the Ghanaian boys scored first. Just a few short minutes later our team answered with a goal of our own (keep in mind, this is the very first time we have played a match together on the full field)! When I blew the whistle because it was time to end practice and parents were waiting, both teams asked me for one more minute of play. After seeing the excitement in their eyes, I could not say no. They began to play, 30 seconds in, WE SCORED AGAIN!!!! Our boys were ecstatic! They could NOT believe their good fortune. Many of the boys repeated, "I bet they weren't playing their hardest;" But the smiles could not have been wiped off their faces. I expect they'll still be smiling on Monday.

Phew! So if you're still awake, pat yourself on the back for reading it all. I am so grateful to those of you who continue to support me in so many different ways. I have what might be a trivial prayer request on top of the usual 'missing my family and friends'. For some reason I've had a man-voice for the last month. Some say it might be coaching and just getting back into talking all day as a teacher, but it's lasted for over a month. For about 3 or 4 days out of each week my voice has been hoarse. This wouldn't be an issue if I didn't have to SPEAK for my occupation, but as fate would have it, I do. Anyway, thank you for your prayers. Thank you again to my supporters in finances, cards, e-mails, messages, prayers, and love.

I'll end with a common blessing here in Ghana:
May you be blessed with many children in Heaven
:)
Love and lotsa hugs,
Meg