Taste and See

Yesterday my roommate, Amy and I went up to the Burkina Faso border because she had to leave the country for visa issues. We rode up with some people that were leaving Ghana to return to Ouagadougou. However, for the return trip we took public transportation. I wish I could put into words the experience of riding a public transport vehicle in Africa. The sights, smells, and sounds are beyond words. As we sat there, being smacked in the head every few minutes by someone's smelly bag or body, staring at a windshield sticker that announced "Never Say Die, Until the Bones are Rotting," the passenger between us squeezed into the pull down aisle seat leaning against us...even though there were empty seats behind us she could have taken, Amy and I came to the conclusion that no picture or video will do it justice. At one point on the trip, it was so loud from the vehicle's engine and open windows that I decided to try singing and see if anyone noticed. So while singing "I'll Fly Away" at quite a loud volume, only the girl sitting next to me seemed to notice. Or else they chose to ignore the crazy white girl. It was interesting watching the driver's helper pull out the cement brick every time we stopped to keep us from rolling away, and then proceeding to climb on top to get down people's luggage. The smells are just too much for me to describe. I guess you just need to come and experience them for yourself.

I am happy to tell you that I have finally started my language lessons! I had my first lesson on Monday. A volunteer that will be here for 5 months is joining me in the lessons, so it is nice to have someone to be doing it with me. We have a very nice young lady that will be coming three days a week to help us learn Mampruli. She has never done this before, so we will all have to work together to get the most out of the lessons. Mampruli is an interesting language, so this will be a journey.

I cannot believe how quickly the past few months have flown by. I travelled to Accra when we finished school to help out with childcare at a conference for the convention team in West Africa. We had 13 kids so we did VBS with them. It was really great, because I always love helping with VBS at home. And Boomerang Express had such fun music! After the conference was over, Some Journeymen friends of mine and I went to the coast of Ghana for a couple days of vacation. I must say being on the beach in Africa is not like the beach in America. But wow, it sure is beautiful. After my friends returned to their own countries, my mom came out to visit. It was so great to have her here. We did lots of baking and just chilled in Nalerigu. It was hard to see her go. I think having family actually here with me in Ghana, made me miss everyone even more. But I’m getting used to being on my own again.

After Mom went home, my whole house got a makeover! Every single room was painted. It looks so great. It’s amazing how fresh paint can change the feel of a room. So my guestroom is all set up for visitors, whenever you’re ready! ;)

I think that brings us up to date. Right now I am focusing on Mampruli and getting school ready for the next year. I’m looking forward to school starting up, I know – I’m a nerd. Oh well, I’ve accepted it. Have a great day!

Hello my friends! I am back to the lovely/dirty city of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. This will be our last trip here until September. I am teaching the first and second grade group at FES this session. They are great fun. I have 3 boys and they are treasures. I heard them whisper just yesterday, "Now that Ms.Birney is gone, Ms. Bell is the BEST teacher." I just love them, (even if I am only in second place.) They even promise me chocolate chip cookies!

So, I just want you to know that I do not speak French. There is a reason I am living in an English speaking country. I find myself speaking Spanish to Africans more times than I can count. Any foreign language will do, right?

My teacher friends, Christina and Robbie, and I went on a shopping excursion today. We forced Robbie to join us because he speaks French quite well. We made it all the way to the little street with all kinds of fun shops. No problem. breezed right through the taxi ride. Once we were on the street we, as expected, were greeted by all kinds of great deals. Here, buy this bracelet for 3 dollars, I only spent 3 cents to make it! Robbie did his best as translator, but we all managed to be dragged into different shops. They know one American is easier to trick than 2+1 British man who speaks French. At one point, I sat down and had an audience of about 8 African men watching me-waiting to pull my arm off in order to sell me their wonderful Ivory letter openers. When I say Ivory, I mean wood. I went shopping today just for fun with no plans to buy anything. I returned with 5 boxes, 2 elephants, 1 nativity set, 3 "silver" bracelets, and about a gazillion woven bracelets. What was I thinking? However, it was so much fun bargaining with them and going from 20 bucks for one thing to 14 dollars for two things (even though they weren't worth more than about 5-10 dollars together.) I was able to practice my French numbers and my ability to laugh with a French accent at their ridiculous prices. I was also told my head was too big and we must stretch the hat...I firmly refused that hat.

Anyway, things are going well. We will finish up school in about 3 weeks. Then I will go to Accra for a few weeks of doing VBS and vacation. Some of my favorite people in the world will come and visit me too! I am blessed.

Tonight, as I was sitting at my desk in the school room there was an incident. Two of the medical volunteers had just entered the room and I was meeting our newest addition (She's very nice, by the way). The door opened and in came one of the kids followed by a HUGE spider! I did not panic at first. I mean, it was just a spider, right? Easily handled. But then it started running, and I think it has those 500 MPH elephants beat. Not only was in running, but it was running towards me! So I decided to get up from my chair and get out of the way. I began to calmly stand up, but this crafty spider had other plans! He started jumping! High! This is when I lost it. I of course jumped up into my rolling chair and pushed off from my desk to get away from this demon-possessed, mutant spider. Thankfully, the new med volunteer (now my new hero) saved the day and placed a bucket onto the evil beast. This bucket is now sitting next to me and that I am not too happy about. But at least he's not jumping at me anymore.

Hello friends! I hope everyone is having a Good Friday. I allowed my students to have a half day off from school today for the holiday. Now I am sitting and waiting for a movie to download that I rented from itunes. It has about 11 hours left....which is better than the 500 hours it started out with! I have had a few adventures since my last blog and will try my best to describe them.

Mole National park
About 2 weeks ago, I traveled with my 2 new mk teacher friends, and 2 Peace Corp girls to Mole. We hired a driver to take us down there to find some elephants. It was a long drive with 6 normal sized humans in a 5 passenger truck. I think I have a permanent indentation of the seatbelt in my behind! Anyway, we made it there safely and had a great time. We were able to see some lovely elephants and our guide informed us we needed to stay far back because an elephant can run 500 miles an hour! Hmm...We also went swimming in a less than sanitary pool, but the heat made the nastiness was worth the risk! No signs of infection yet. While we were there, we looked into the little snack shop at our hotel and I found the softest toilet paper I've seen in a while. And if you find soft toilet paper, you get all you can! (Its not fun to use the notebook paper they pass off as tissue here.) I think that was the most exciting part of the trip for me! Here are some pictures!

The Escarpment
Well after the Mole adventure, I came home and my two teacher friends continued on their journey. They spent the week in Tamale and then returned to my house for another visit. We then traveled to a town called Nakpanduri where we took a little hike up to see the escarpment. i of course had to sing as many Lion King songs as I could remember. Which wasn't hard because we watched the movie the night before in honor of the trip. It was quite a beautiful place. I think it is mandatory for anyone who comes to Africa to have a Lion King moment. On our way home, we stopped at another Ms house, where we found her pet baboon had decided to adopt a little goat as her baby. She had it up in the tree with her! It made for some adorable .
pictures.

We now have about 9 weeks of school left, so I'm going to have to start cracking down. I want to make sure the kids learn all they are supposed to this year. I'm also excited about planning for next year. I still have not begun language study, but hopefully that will happen soon. I am only able to see the girl who is going to help me on Sundays and I haven't been able to get in touch with her yet.

I hope everyone has a wonderful celebration of our Risen Lord!

Hi! You don't have to say it. I know. I'm a terrible blogger! I will try to catch you up. I got back a couple days ago from Burkina Faso. I was there for about three weeks helping with a program called FES. It's basically a group of M families that come together 4 times a year to do school as a group. It gives the kids a chance to experience more of a classroom setting and allows them to socialize with other children their age.

FES was a lot of fun. I was able to meet some other mk teachers. It was awesome to spend some time with people my age again. I really didn't think I would miss that because there are so few people in my hometown that I can hang out with anyway. But I am so thankful for the time I had with them. I'm even going to go on another Africa adventure soon with one of my new friends!

When I came home I was really excited to see what work had been done to my house. The counter tops and floors were all retiled. But the result was not quite what I expected. I guess Africans just don't see things the same way Americans do. If I was to find out I didn't have enough tile to complete a room I would get another color of tile and do a design or something. But the man who did my house, decided he would just do one half of the room in one color, and the other half of the room in another color. It was interesting to see. There are some pictures here.

Hopefully, sometime in the next week or two, I will begin working with my language helper. I am so excited! I am more than ready to be able to go out and talk to people. I can get by with English, but I know they will appreciate it more if I learn their language. So please pray for me during the next few months of language learning. You know I tend to be shy and right now I need to be bold and outgoing.

While we were at FES, the students performed a musical called Donkey Tales. It was a really cute story about how God used donkeys in different ways throughout the Bible. It was so hectic during the weeks of rehearsal that I really didn't think too much about what the songs we were singing (even though I couldn't get them out of my head the whole time we were there!) But the night of the show, I really heard the message of the musical. There was one adorable little song called God Can Use ME. We had 4 of the younger kids sitting on "donkeys" doing a cute little dance. It was adorable. But then I stopped looking at the kids and started listening to what they were saying. God can use me. If God can work though a donkey, He can certainly work through me as well. I guess I had been feeling a little discouraged and was wondering what purpose He had for me here. And hearing those little children sing about how God was going to use them, reminded me that God has a reason for all things. He has a perfect plan and purpose for all His people. I am so thankful for that.

Ok, I'll try to update more often, but I can't promise anything. Love you guys!

Well hello! Yes, I know is has been quite some time since my last entry. I arrived in Nalerigu on January 14th. That same morning the internet went out at the hospital . So, we have been going to the little internet café down the road every few days to do basic stuff like email and facebook. It’s been a little frustrating not being in constant communication with everyone, but I’ve learned to adjust. I have constant communication with the Father, so all is well!  But as of today we are back online at BMC! I’m so glad.

My first week here I spent learning about my students. They are some great kids! The oldest is a sweetheart. She’s usually taking care of me instead of the other way around. The younger girl is awesome too. She keeps me laughing. And the little boy is lots of fun. They’re all happy little children; really easy to be around and to teach.

I love my little “half house”! One of the houses at the hospital was split up and made into a duplex about 15 years ago. It has so much space! So anyone who wants to come and visit is welcome! (hint, hint) I will even cook for you. Cooking has been lots of fun. My first attempt was this chicken-rice-broccoli mixture that I kind of just threw all together. I don’t really know what all I put in there, but it was alright for my first try here. Then I made spaghetti. Now, that was good! I even took a picture of it.  I’ll have to post pictures of everything soon. I might wait until after the new tile is put down and the kitchen counters are redone. We'll see.

The other day I bought bananas from some little girls who came to my door. After I gave them my money they asked for some water. So I decided to be a nice person and give them a drink. I was feeling generous, so I even put an ice cube in their cups. I handed the cups off and told the girls to leave the cups at the door when they were finished. I went back to work in the kitchen for a while. Then all of a sudden I turn around and they’re just standing there! I was like “Whoa, what’s going on here?” I escorted them to the door and explained that they needed to stay outside on the porch. I locked the door and they stayed out there for quite a while longer. It was interesting. I guess that’s my random story for the day.

Teaching is going really well. The kids are hard workers (on most days!) so they make it easy. I have to push Emily a little because she doesn’t like science...or really school in general! :) But overall, everything is going smoothly. I’m glad Mona is able to have more time now. That woman STAYS busy. I don’t know how she does it all!

I have not even started language learning. I think we decided to wait until the summer when I have more free time. That’s ok with me because language learning scares me.

Please pray for two girls here in Ghana with PeaceCorp. I’m going to try and get to know them better and share with them.

I know this post was totally random and doesn’t make much sense, but I wanted to at least post something on here. Hope everyone is doing well!