Foggy London Town: Passport Shenanigans

So we arrived in London on December 26th after a lovely but strange first Christmas away from home. And Andy forgot his money belt on the plane. He decided that it was bothering his neck and so he tucked it away in the seat back pocket and there it stayed. We discovered it was missing when we arrived from the train to the immigration. The security lady almost let us ride back to the plane on a security truck but after a call to her manager she changed her mind. So we stood in line and Andy made it into the country with his Spanish ID card and we rushed to the easyjet desk only to find out the worst news ever from the lady there. She told us that easyjet contracts with a lost and found company for everything left on the plane and our only option would be to call them, leave a message and wait for them to call us back if they found the item. She also told us there was no way we would be making our flight to Dublin so we trudged out of the airport and tried to use our spanish bank account to access money but the atm wouldn't recognize the card so I had to use my card from home and suck up the crappy exchange rate so we had some money. So we bought a coach ticket into London because the airport we arrived at was an hour and a half outside of central London. So we rode and rode through the traffic and arrived at Victoria Station disoriented and overwhelmed by the fact we were in a city we knew next to nothing about with no one we knew and no place to stay. But we wandered a bit and found a "hotel" that cost only 40 pounds a night and we booked it. It was seedy and dirty but it had a tv so we crashed on the bed and watched the Chronicles of Narnia. At 4 am, I woke up to what I truly believe were the sounds of prostitutes soliciting business in the hallway outside of our room and I listened to their drunken raucousness for hours. But the breakfast the next morning cheered my spirits especially because of the tasty tea and the stack of toast we received. So we set out for the day and walked around looking at Westminster, Big Ben, the London Eye and Buckingham Palace. We also found an internet cafe so we could book a new place to stay asap. We stayed one more night at the "hotel" and utilized some Nyquil to assist our sleeping process and thigns went smoother. Then we moved to a great youth hostel where we made some great friends even though we only stayed for two nights. We called the lost and found people several times over the days and finally yesterday we received an email from them that they located Andy's passport. The stress of a missing passport is difficult to convey but Andy also had 150 euros in his satchel and when we checked in with the embassy for an appointment to get a replacement passport, they didn't even have an appointment available until the day we were supposed to leave London. Rediculous. So we were incredibly relieved to find out it was safe. Although, getting is was a whole other battle. It was in an office beyond Stansted airport so we took the tube, a bus and a train to get there. We spent all our money on the transportation and Andy forgot to save 5 pounds to pay the fee to get it back so we had another crisis until we used our american card again. And then we had seven minutes to run back to the train platform and catch the train so we ran and ran with our lungs burning in the 1 degree weather, and just missed the train. The town we were in was tiny tiny tiny and everything was closed. The next train wasn't for another hour. So then we found ourselves in rural England stomping around on a train platform in the cold counting down the minutes until the train came back for us. And finally it did after several dance routines for me to get my blood flowing. So we rode back, checked in with the awesome five star hotel we are transfering to tomorrow, courtesy of my dad's holiday inn reward points, to make sure there wouldn't be any problems. And now we are sitting in the basement of our hostel using the internet and waiting to take the bus to go to our hotel. I feel very very lucky to have turned things around for the best and I am truly enjoying our time in London. It's a very comfortable and beautiful city. And New Years is going to be wonderful and I think we will camp out near the fireworks over the London Eye with some champagne. I am also hoping we can find some discount tickets to go see Wicked and I want to take a tour of the Tower of London. So lots to do and fun to be had.

Christmas in Palma

Today is the very first Christmas day I have ever spent away from home and it feels very strange. Andy and I bought a small fake Christmas tree and we bought several lovely presents for each other (boots, necklace and tea set for me; spain flag, barcelona jersey and cd for Andy) but being away from family for Christmas is a surreal feeling. Especially with the warm weather outside. But we are making the most of it while we can. The only challenge at this point is that both of us are feeling under the weather and we need to start packing for our adventures to Dublin and London tomorrow. Yikes!

But tonight we are going to make a huge dinner with our roommates that I am really looking forward to. Here is the menu:

Deviled Eggs
Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Spinach and Mushroom Lasagna
Pork Roast
Glazed Carrots
Corn
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
And Banana Bread for dessert

We'll see if we can get it all together in a timely manner so dinner is hot all at once. Last night, Andy and I went to Jill's house for a delicious curry Christmas Eve dinner and her kids were so excited that they kept running around in circles around everything chanting "Christmas is tomorrow, Christmas is tomorrow!" It put me in a festive mood. Jill's parents also flew in from Manchester so we left her dad in charge of the kids and walked down to the Cathedral for midnight mass. The huge cathedral was decorated with lots of danglies from the ceiling and the effect was charming. We arrived at 10:30 and the service began at 11 with quite a bit of singing and frankincense. Yuck. I do not like the smell of that stuff. Unfortunately the service was completely in Catalan so I understood very little but the organ and the singing was captivating and we stayed until midnight but we weren't very far through the program so we ditched and walked back home under the Christmas lights. Funny side story though: On Calle Sindicat in the old town we had heard a pretty noisy party going on above one of the stores on the walk to the Cathedral and then when we were walking back home, an old woman near the loud apartment was out on her terrace with a sizeable stick banging onto the windows of the partyers. It was absolutely hilarious. She was very seriously shaking a stick at them and nobody was listening to her whatsoever. Perfect. Anyways, I need to go get the eggs ready and have a little snack before kitchen madness commences. Merry Christmas everyone. I hope it's a good one!

I may or may not have been struck by lightning

So here's the deal. The weather here in Palma today is outrageously bad and ugly. It has been pouring all day with various spurts of thunder, rain, hail and wind. So I bundled up to go to work and took the toasty warm bus to my stop where I walk an additional 15 minutes or so to get to my school. On rainy days it can be a bit of a bummer, especially because I walk on an overpass above the train tracks and the wind gets a little nasty that high up. Well, I made it to school with only the tops my shoes getting wet but the heat was off so it was pretty cold in our classroom. Even the kiddies wore their coats. Angel the English teacher was super busy so he left me alone with the 5th grade math students to administer a test. Not that big of a deal except that the first class I worked with was out of control and had no qualms about yelling the answers and whispering insults in spanish at each other. But I got it done and luckily the class is always held in the computer lab so I sent the devils to the computers when they finished and paced around to keep warm. The English classes later in the day were more enjoyable because they practiced their song to sing for the Christmas concert on Monday. And all of the music is from Momma Mia. Love it. So we learned "I have a dream" by ABBA. Fantastic.

Now to the good part. It was absolutely pouring down rain when I left the school and it was the end of the school day so I elbowed my way through several layers of concerned parents holding umbrellas outside waiting for their little ones to arrive. I booked it toward the bus while keeping an eye on the ever-increasing level of water on the road because of the possibility of being drenched by a car's spray. So I was running/power walking and at the top of the overpass a car honked at me and just then a big spark flew off my umbrella and my fingers were shocked as a huge clap of thunder banged overhead. I don't think I was struck by lightning because it really didn't hurt all that bad but I was so crazed by the weather and the circumstances that I slammed my umbrella closed and picked up my pace toward the bus while screaming at the top of my lungs, "My life is a joke!" I felt a bit better after some screaming and then it started hailing so I continued yelling while glaring at my lightning rod umbrella dangling uselessly in my hand while I got soaked through and through. So I may have been struck by lightning. But everything is fine now.

Another week gone by

Today I arrived at my school and the substitute I've been working with (more on that later) wasn't there so I milled around a bit feeling awkward and then decided to go back home. I was told the sub was having car problems and no one seemed to know if she would be coming back in anytime in the foreseeable future. Since I don't have keys to the English classroom or access to the lesson plans, I felt lost without guidance so I just left, feeling slightly guilty but also looking forward to the fabulous bed that awaited me back home. And I took a really great two hour nap!

So the sub. My main teacher, Lauren, is always on her game and pretty much teaches English single handedly to 300 kids. But she was chosen for a training session that lasts until Christmas so last week she mentioned that I would be working with a sub until the new year. Patricia the sub is a very nice woman but she is not an English teacher and she normally works with three year olds. So to say the least things were a bit of a challenge on Tuesday. I had the normal misunderstandings as she spoke Spanish and when I spoke English she didn't really understand either. We made it through the day though without any terrible incidents so I considered it a success.

To cheer myself up and get things moving into the Christmas spirit, I bought ingredients to make sugar cookies. They were very difficult to cook because our stupid oven has two settings of hot and super hot so I had to closely monitor the cookies and a couple batches burned but the remaining turned out quite pleasant. Andy and I also hitched a ride to Ikea on the number 14 bus where we bought some Christmas presents for the house such as a garlic press and oven mitts as well as some wrapping paper, ribbon and ornaments. We bought a little fake tree at the Chinese Bazaar across the street and thus, Christmas decorations have taken root in our lovely homestead. We also had a new roommate move in so we are now six and evenings are very cosy as we huddle together for warmth in our unheated apartment. Things are going well.

Remembering

Kevin, Eric, Andy Mardock (with his head turned), Barett, Me and Megan celebrating
Andy Mardock's birthday in the mountains

A Full Week

This week I . . .

Struggled to come to terms with the death of Barett, a friend from the University of Oregon who I met through Andy

Remembered Barett through photos taken of a few very fun weekends spent at the Oregon Coast/mountains and from Eugene

Had a breakthrough with three of my sixth graders who my teacher terms "slow" but really I think they just needed a chance and someone to believe in them

Had a four day weekend filled with late nights drinking, meeting friends and a particularly memorable trip to Valldemossa

Watched the office with my hilariously awesome roommates

Made curry lentil stew and ate it all

Received the best care package in the world filled with countless goodies and very useful items like a purse and an umbrella that made me realize just how lucky I am to have my family

When Friends Come to Visit, Thanksgiving

Rachael is here! We've known each other since middle school from the Unitarian Universalist Youth Group and now we are here in Spain together. She arrived on Thanksgiving night and although Andy and I missed her at the airport, we all ended up back together to celebrate a Thanksgiving dinner at the American Diner here in town. I had a salad and Rach had a club sandwich while everyone else ate turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumkpin pie. It was a noisy and fun dinner.

But, yesterday we made our own family-style dinner and it was absolutely fabulous. The kitchen got crazy with six people moving in and out but we took turns talking to our family's on skype while peeling potatoes and chopping onions. We wanted to make a Thanksgiving meal for ourselves so we cooked garlic-cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, corn, turkey, gravy and pear crumble. It was a great success and we gorged ourselves properly in between many glasses of wine. By the end of dinner, we were so comatose that Rach and I ended up laying down and talking about all of our different experiences of working with kids, interacting with roommates, speaking in Spanish and the future travels we want to go on together. It lifted my spirits tremendously to talk with such a great friend who is having such a similar experience as I am. And we fell asleep on the single mattress together. It was lovely.

Today we slept in and then watched a pirated version of Quantum of Solace because the weather was totally wretched. The windows shook with rain and wind and the sky was a nasty shade of dark grey until afternoon but we just cuddled up on the couch and enjoyed taking it easy. Then we walked down the block to a bar with crepes and gorged ourselves again with yummy crepes and we just got back from walking down to the cathedral. The cathedral dates from the 14th century although it took 400 years to build. The complexity of the building is hard to comprehend when you stand at the base but we wandered around to the entrance and managed to get in a walk around for a half an hour until services started. The height of the ceiling alone was astonishing. We stayed for a bit of the service and it was nice for me to discover that I understood a bit of what the priest was saying. Now we are back at home eating some tasty leftovers and gearing up for a fun night out on the town tonight.

Fornalutx

Another Trip to Sóller and a Week of Fun

This past week was a whirlwind of activity including a lot of bonding with my students and making a great new friend in the form of the mother of two of my students. Jill, from Manchester, moved to Palma at the end of August and her kids attend Joan Miró where I met her because she volunteers in their classes. Jill is a kick in the pants and a great lady to chat with. We hung out on Friday and she helped me (finally) get my bus pass as a resident of Palma. Of course that whole process was a shenanagin involving a lot of me smiling while being totally confused and the Palma people repeating themselves over and over again until I kinda understood what the heck they were trying to tell me. After that adventure, both of us rode the bus out to the University of the Balearic Islands where we hung signs offering tutoring sessions. I even colored my signs with some University of Oregon green and yellow just for good luck. I am hoping that something will come of the adverts although the economy here is really suffering. Unemployment is close to a 20 year high at 14% so many people are hesistant to part with their hard earned euros in exchange for English lessons. But the one tutoring session I am still conducting is going great. For 18 euros a week, I work with Maria Angeles, a teacher at Miquel Porcel, to help her prepare for her test to become an English teacher for one hour and for another half an hour I read to her very shy and silly son Marcos. This past session, Maria Angeles told me that if I ever need anything, to just call her up and she'll come and give me a ride wherever I need to go and I thought that was a very sweet thing to say. I also attended a couch surfing dinner on Wednesday where I met a bunch of great people who live in Palma and I met a girl named Isabel who might be interested in a language exchange so that is certainly something to get excited about. I desperately need to practice speaking spanish.

This past week I also booked tickets for Andy and I to fly to London and then Dublin on the 26th of December. We'll go and visit our friend Eric who is living and working in Dublin and make our way back toward London after New Years to hang out with my friend Ashley until we return on the 5th of January. I think that trip will be a great change of pace from day-to-day life here in Palma and we'll actually be able to drink some good beer because the cervezas here are pretty bad.

This weekend we returned to Sóller to find fantastic weather, a cheery market and a fabulous hike awaiting us. We hiked from Sóller to a small town in the mountains called Fornalutx and on the way we passed olive and orange grove terraces and plenty of happy-making views. Although I've been fighting a cold, our trip to Sóller was a restoration of my spirits. I feel so lucky to be in such a beautiful place and I am really glad to be meeting more people and making more connections here because that is what makes me feel like I belong.

Joan Miró

Figur Gegen Rote Sonne II by Joan Miró

Today, I walked to school in the rain zipped into my brown rain jacket and when I arrived, I was informed that my teacher was sick. Instead of turning right back around and walking home, I hung around a bit. Luckily two of the classes were heading out on an excursion to the Joan Miró museum so I just tagged along. And it was awesome. Joan Miró was an surrealist artist who created stunning paintings, sculptures and ceramic pieces before his death in 1983 here in Palma. The museum was split into two sections, one being his original studio filled with his art and another being a traditional gallery with a wide range of his art. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't understand a word the tour guide was saying because she spoke in Catalan but I just observed and helped the kids. They painted replicas of four of Joan's paintings so they really got a kick out of walking through the museum and looking for the paintings they imitated. And, Joan Miró is the namesake for our school so it seemed appropriate to explore his art. Our tour guide showed us great photos of Joan Miró using out of the ordinary painting techniques using a broom, his feet and a water can. I also enjoyed his use of different materials including sandpaper and bronze. Managing the children in the museum was enough to make me crazy but I still found time to appreciate the paintings and sculptures around me.



Today is also Inca's (the second largest city on Mallorca) big market day so Joseph, Nikki and I are going to set out shortly to scope out some Mallorquin crafts and goodies so I'm pretty excited about that.


I've been a little homesick lately but I'm trying to fill out my days more so I have a bit less down time. Working only 12 hours a week has left me with a lot of time but I think that is both a good and a bad thing. Bad because sometimes I get bored but good because I am using the time to think a lot about where I want to go from here and what I want out of my life in the future. I'm definitely thinking a lot about the possibility of graduate school and I also think that living abroad is a fabulous experience but I will want to return to Oregon and home afterwards. So, lots of thinking still to do, but I have plenty of time.

Soller: I love you.

The views from our hike around Soller on the other side of the island were awesome! I can not wait to go back.

Mummia! Una Mummia!

I was a mummy for Halloween. Wrapped in a two-punch of toilet paper and paper towels. And I hid in a closet from 9:30 am until 2 pm scaring students at Joan Miro and shuffling around the English classroom with my head tilted and my arms straight in front of me. The idea was a good one. Lauren, the full-time English teacher, decorated the class until it was completely dark and hung the kids' giant spiders made from trash bags from the ceiling. She even had a mosquito net set up in the back corner of the classroom draped in orange and black streamers as her witch tent. But somehow by the end of the day, the streamers lay on a desk, totally disassembled from their previous state; a majority of the spiders were missing their legs; cobweb stuff covered nearly every surface; the apple bobbing station was dripping water onto the floor; the "jello feels like brains" station dyed Lauren's desk pink and the pin the tail on the black cat game was missing the tail. Lauren, Jill and I surveyed the damage as the last group of kids sat in a circle on the floor and scared each other with Halloween tales. Lauren said decisively, "I am so glad that Halloween is on a Saturday next year, because I am damn well NOT doing this again."

For the students, the Halloween spooky classroom probably was a success. Close to the entire school passed through our door and the screams combined together were enough for me to stay hidden in my closet space. For all of us running the show, the experience was the beginning of a meltdown. I recall a particular moment during the break while sitting downstairs with the rest of the teachers. And, you should know, none of them were dressed up. I was still wrapped in my mummy wear although it was falling apart because of the many hands that had grabbed at it. One of the classes decided that it was a brilliant idea to use me as a jello wiper and by the break I was splattered with pink goop. And then one of the teachers walked in, stopped in her tracks and just laughed at me. Laughed and laughed. And then she left. And of course my Spanish isn't good enough yet to understand conversations, so I just sat in the room picking at my toilet paper and watching the activity around me until it was time to head upstairs and resume my position in the corner. And I did. And the children kept coming and screaming and losing all control of themselves as the raged through the class leaving pieces of paper, costumes, blood? and craziness behind them. It was a day to be remembered for sure. And then I drank and stayed out until 4 am in my own celebration of the Halloween holiday.

And on a more serious note, I've organized my first tutoring session with one of the teachers at my school so now I am tutoring her four year old son and her for an hour and a half every Wednesday. I charge 12 euros an hour. That is all for now.

Internet! and preparing for hallowe'en shenanigans

So today the nice internet man came and we adopted a brand new baby router complete with internet and all the extra goodies. We couldn't be happier about this addition to our family here in Palma. But in a seriousness, we were tired of pirating signals from around our neighborhood and now I am writing this blog from our lovely living room and it feels great.

Today at school I helped the Kindergarters paint pumpkin masks while attempting to keep them from painting themselves. I stapled newspaper "legs" onto a spider "body" made of black trash bags filled with more newspaper. I helped paint such legs black and miraculously avoided transferring the black paint that covered all the students onto my white top. I also met Jill, the parent of two of our students who hails from Manchester. She is an English teacher who speaks no Spanish but she loves living in Palma and it was great getting to know another person who is new to Palma. I also taught the sixth graders how to complete a crossword puzzle with hints like "What goes bump in the . . . " and "Halloween month." But the highlight of my day was my attempt at explaining a haunted corn maze to the skeptical sixth graders while jumping around the classroom, flailing my arms and yelling. And that was just the lead-in to the best part of the day. The climactic moment of my day was when three of the observant girls in the back of the room signaled me over and looked at me for awhile, while formulating their question. And then they just said, "What was that?" in Spanish of course. And they started flailing and yelling and I started laughing and realized how rediculous my life is sometimes here in Palma. I tried explaining in English again but all I really got through to them was Halloween. But, I will be dressing up Friday and thus will continue my reign of terror whilst yelling and flailing.

New Look and Americans Coming

I was getting bored with the style of my blog so I decided to change things up a bit. And here's a little story to entertain you:

Last night, in the middle of the night, I woke up several times because of a super loud thunder storm. But one time I woke up to see Andy standing over me. He said, "The Americans are coming. Move over." Then he swung his arm at me to move over. I stared at him. I said, "I think you are confused." He continued swinging his arm at me and so I scooted over to the other side of the bed and fell back asleep.

The End

Andy's Birthday and Mallorquin Nightlife

First things first, on Saturday night we found ourselves wandering the streets of Mallorca intoxicated off a combination of local gin and lemonade trying to find a mystery bar that one of the guys we were with had been to previously. Unfortunately, he had been in a state of deep(er) drunkeness when he last entered the bar in question. And little did he tell us that this was an "underground" illegally operated bar. When he finally got to where it was, I almost yelled "Stop!" when he reached up to ring the doorbell. The place looked like an average apartment and I wanted to avoid a confrontation for ringing a random Spainard's doorbells in the middle of the night. But then the door swung open and we were ushered under a black curtain into a dingy bar. It was a dirty bar - and I only say that because really did have a lot of dust and grime from the lack of ventilation - and it was full of people I probably would not trust on an average day. That might not be fair but it's the truth. There were some shady characters in attendance. But we were welcomed in by several of the locals and after another drink, I started to feel somewhat at ease in the strange location. The music was dim as to maintain a level of secrecy. People played foosball and a few of them chatted with us. We even met a DJ who works in Mallorca that spoke great English and Andy and I had a lovely chat with him. I remember distinctly laughing at his stories of living in the US while simultaneously searching for a non-sticky spot to rest my elbows on the bar. Other things I do not remember quite so clearly but it was great people watching. By 4 am, Andy and I said goodbye to the nameless bar and walked home, just missing day break.

Yesterday was Andy's 23rd birthday and we celebrated by getting a bank account and going out to dinner. The bank account wasn't so much a celebration, but it felt great to finally get it done. Now whenever we are paid we have a place to deposit it. We're going to try using a joint account to simplify things since we share most of our expenses at this point and if it doesn't go well, one of us will just open a different account.

Bea told us about a yummy Paella restaurant in Can Pastilla that we wanted to try out for Andy's birthday. For those of you who don't know, Paella is a rice and saffron dish that is cooked with a great variety of meats and/or seafood. And the Spanish are crazy about it. So we went with the roomies out to Can Pastilla on the bus only to discover that the restaurant was locked up and dark. So we backtracked to an Thai restaurant we saw on the way and ate there instead. I should have known it would be strange by the name: Cha Pra Pa. Hmmm. I will set the scene. First off, we were eating at about 7:30 so no one else was there because most Spanairds eat much later. So when we entered the waiter/owner/? was smoking and watching the TV. Secondly, the waiter didn't seem to speak Spanish or English and he had us write the number of our orders down on a piece of paper. I wrote that I didn't want spicy curry and he took one look at the paper and said, "Only numbers, only numbers." So we explained to him that the curry should not be too hot. Ok. Then he just disappeared. It seemed like maybe he was the one cooking our food but Nikki saw a cook so I have no idea what he was doing since there was no one else in the restaurant. And there was that TV that played crazy music videos from the eighties. What an absurd situation for dinner. Anyways, the food finally came and it was pretty good although not very "Thai" Thai food. Nikki, Joseph and Eric gave Andy a Mallorquin flag for his birthday which he greatly appreciated. We walked across the street when we finished and scored some super tasty gelato and then went home to the cake I attempted to make earlier in the day. To preface this, it is not easy to make a cake with an oven that functions like a stupid broiler so the whole top of the cake was originally scorched until some handy knife removal action cut the damn top off. So the cake turned out ok although I couldn't find vanilla or baking soda at the grocery store so I used baking powder and cinnamon in a little science experiment to see what would happen. Not too sure about the impact of the baking soda but the cinnamon was yummy combined with the generic brand Nutella I bought as a frosting. I scraped the idea of paying for a trip to Paris after finding zero cheap flights and instead bought a nice wool sweater for when it cools down here and told Andy that I will pay for the train ticket to the other side of the island when we finally make that trip. It's supposed to be quite beautiful for sightseeing so it should be nice.

Today I worked with the kids at Joan Miro and finally felt like I had a bit of a breakthrough with the sixth graders. I think it's easier for the little kids to warm up to strangers in their classrooms because all the younger kids reacted great to me after the first meeting but the older kids have been slower to accept me. But today in class they were raising their hands and signaling me over faster than I could keep up with. Their questions were good and they made a serious attempt to speak to me in English. It was great to feel like I am carving a place for myself in the classroom and I really hope I can learn names as soon as possible because all of them have got mine down pat. "Jessica, over here." "Jessica, please." "Jessica, jessica." Their friendliness and acceptance makes my day that much. And I had a coffee break with the teachers at the bar near the school and was able to follow bits and pieces of the conversation in Spanish so I'm also making some progress on that front as well. It's going to be work to learn Spanish though since I only speak English in the schools and I live with English speakers but I really want to make it a priority while I am here.

Photos to follow

I'm starting a new photo site to (hopefully) upload more photos quicker. This is the web address: photobucket.com/jessandandy

Autumn in Palma

It's autumn here, not fall. The influence of British English in schools makes itself most present in the strange mix of Brit/Spanish accents of the teachers and the word usage differences. Film not movie. Autumn not fall. So far my interactions with the teachers I've been working with have been stellar. It's still unclear how we're getting paid but all of that is in the hands of the great Spain beaurocracy that takes it's sweet time figuring all things out. In the meantime, I am so grateful to have real people who truly care about their students and the work we are doing. At least, most of them try. But teaching three year olds - or, acting as their handlers - is a challenge that grates on even the most composed teacher. I work with one class of the little buggers every day in each of the schools and they are a real handful. Their energy is seemingly endless, their cries of joy or anger are overwhelming and their mob mentality often overtakes them in both excitement and despair. For example, Marta at Miquel Porcel uses "Ducky" the duck puppet to explain things to their spongy minds, but at the beginning of every class when Ducky makes his appearance, the kiddies shriek like banshees with smiles that don't seem to quite match the terrible noise that comes out of their mouths. So Marta puts Ducky away until they calm themselves and tries again, and again. And that's how it is with the threes.

In the older classes, the kids challenge the authority of the teacher in more thoughtful ways by refusing activities, immersing themselves in strange inner-dramas and ignoring attempts to reach out to them in English. But, that is a minority of the students I work with, thank goodness. And even when kids refuse to participate they often have some type of reason. Francisca, a 4th grade girl at Joan Miro, refused to color her picture of a house and kept asking me for another activity in art class. Since I'm not supposed to speak spanish with any of the kids, I asked her to repeat in English and she stared at me until I walked away with a gleam of angriness in her eyes that disturbed me. After almost 30 minutes of slow demolition to her picture, she finally snuck up to the table to grab a clean one. She hadn't been asking me for the other activity, she just wanted a clean slate to start on. She was desperately behind the other kids who were starting their chants of "I'm done. I'm done. Come check!" I squatted next to her and started a rapid-fire drawing session to fill in the sky and ground and felt partially redeemed for our mutual misunderstanding. Dealing with misunderstandings is just one of the challenges to this position. Since so many of the kids in my schools have very little exposure to English, they simply do not speak well. And that is why I think I can really help here. At least I am going to convince myself of that for now. I worked one on one in a question and answer activity with 5th graders at Miquel Porcel and it reinforced my conviction that kids really need some type of individual attention to thrive in a classroom session. It felt good to be able to provide that opportunity to them.

Last weekend we had our couchsurfing hostess over for a dinner of fish, glazed carrots, asparagus, salad and bread. It was an experience I hope we can continue having because I really enjoy making food and cultivating friendships. Our apartment is plenty big for visitors and I hope we can host tons of dinner parties. I also made a tasty lentil soup for the weekend because it was a holiday on Sunday and that meant we didn't have work on Monday and all the stores were closed on Sunday (as usual) and Monday. So we ate soup for the whole weekend and it turned out pretty well. We also went to a bank last Friday to try and open an account but we found out that the banks all close at 2 so we were out of luck. I walked across town in search of a health food store that I found just as I was giving up. I was finally able to buy some vegetarian proteins so I can mix things up a bit instead of always relying on eggs and cheese to survive.

Andy's birthday is on Monday and I am still considering what to get him and have been diligently searching for cheap flights to cool locations on a weekend in the near future so we'll see how that goes. I would really love to go to Paris, but still need to work out the details. We are going to try and find a blues club tonight in old town to listen to some music. Love to all.

Updates from Spain

It's been a little while since I last posted but a tremendous amount of activity has happened since.

Numero Uno: I have an apartment, am all moved in and getting to know my great room mates through some really great meals cooked and eaten together. We literally have a suprmarket right down stairs so it's easy to buy supplies for each meal as they come. Last night we made hearty homemade mac and cheese with a spanish salad topped with lentils, garbanzos, mushrooms, corn and red peppers. The wine is super cheap so we bought a couple bottles for the meal and used it in the cooking and then drank it, of course. Our apartment is the museum because it is filled with our landlord's old furniture and knick knacks (that I already stored away). There is no microwave, clothes dryer or toaster but we are making do. Everyone dries their clothes on the line here and they dry in a day because of the mildly warm lovely weather.

Numero Dos: I began work at my school! Yesterday I took the bus to the school Miquel Porcel and got a bit lost but after I asked an older Spanish woman for directions, she walked me all the way there. The kids range in age from three to twelve and they decorated a huge sign in the entrance of the school that read "Welcome Jessica." It was a very sweet gesture and really helped me start feeling more at home. The teachers were extremely excited to see me and I struggled through their spanish and catalan barely understanding anything before the English teacher switched over to English. I help with a remedial math class for 5th grade, an english class for 6th grade and an "infantil" class with three-year-olds. The math class has only ten students and I ended up working with one girl named Angie who moved here from Ecuador a couple weeks ago. We were learning basic addition but it seemed like she didn't have a grasp so I helped her count on her fingers while naming the numbers in English and then I showed her how to write out numbers and count from one to another. It felt good to work with someone one on one because it really seemed to help her. The 6th grade english class was very rowdy in a noisy classroom above the playground. I thought the kids would understand more english than they did but I slowed down my speech and clarified my questions and answers to them. I am glad I'll be here for the school year because I think I'll see a lot of growth and be able to get close to the kids I'm working with. The three-year-olds were a whole other story. They spoke zero English and were intimidated/distracted by hearing English. With the older kids I was told to not speak any spanish so they are forced to speak english with me, but that was impossible with the little ones. They asked me my name in spanish and I obviously answered. Because of their age they were cranky/happy/distractable/silly. But, it was an interesting change up to my day and overall I enjoyed the experience as a whole. Most of the teachers and kids have learned a form of British english so my accent and some of my words are very different from what they've learned before but I think they are excited to get to know me and work with me.

I finally got a hold of my other school, Joan Miro, that I still hadn't heard from and went to visit today. Both of my schools are in poorer neighborhoods but the kids are still kids and they make me laugh. After walking across town to meet someone from Joan Miro, I was briefly introduced to the female English teacher from France named Laurence. She didn't have time to say much although she did warn me that the school kids often have lice and "there are a lot of gypsies here." I had already been warned from teachers at Miquel Porcel but it still took me aback to hear it. I think if I'm careful I can avoid the lice and I'm not really sure if the issues with gypsies is about stereotypes or what. But I am totally thrilled that I am spending a large part of my day teaching art there!

So my perceptions of living on a tourist island are a bit different than the reality because I will mostly be working in immigrant neighborhoods. But I am glad with this opportunity because I will be here for so long and will be able to know these kids. I don't want to jump the gun but so far I am enjoying the experience of teaching and looking forward to the crazy awesomeness to come.

Here's my schedule for those of you who are curious:

Monday/Wednesday: Miquel Porcel, 10am Math 5th grade, 11-11:30 break with the other teachers, 11:30-12:30 English 6th grade, 12:30 to 1:15 infantil control (kind of a joke)

Tuesday: Joan Miro, 9:30am-11:30 Art 4th grade, 11:30 to 12 break, 12-1 English with 6th grade

Thursday: Joan Miro, 9am infantil control, 9:30-11:30 Art 4th grade, 12:30 to 1 English

Closing in on an Apartment

Ack! Finding an apartment in Palma has been one of the most frustratingly slow and painful processes ever recorded in the history of my life. We've looked at newspapers, websites and signs hanging out windows to find numbers to call and inquire. And then the phones cost 50 euro cents per minute to call and most of the time nobody answers or the apartment is already rented. We have combined forces with another couple and a single guy to look for a three bedroom apartment in order to save money. But, even with all the help it still takes a long time to wait for people to call back or get the apartment ready to look at it. There are also tons of rental agencies that operate here and the apartments we've looked at that are listed under an agency charge a commision of a full month's rent. So, most apartments we're looking at are in the 850 euro price range and that means the commission is 850 euros! So much money. But split 5 ways makes it much more affordable although it is a painful price to pay on top of the normal month's worth of deposit and first month's rent, which is standard.

But, today we got our first call back from our second choice apartment asking us when we wanted to move in. Since we've been working at finding an apartment for the last week as a full-time job, it was a very welcome phone call. We call the apartment "the museum" because it is decorated like one. Luckily, the owner is showing the apartment so we wouldn't have to pay a commission. It also has two double rooms and a third room with two twin beds so the bed situation is ideal, which is unique because most apartments only have a single bed in the bedrooms. So hopefully we'll be able to follow through with this apartment tomorrow after our orientation and get ourselves moved in. Our couchsurfing hostess, Bea, has been a most gracious host allowing us to return to her apartment after we had no other place to go. She went to Seville yesterday and left us with the keys to her place. She's the perfect host for us right now since we are in such a limbo until we can find an apartment. We're still waiting for a call back on our first choice apartment but we've been waiting since last night so I'm not holding out too much hope for that. It's been a long process and hopefully we're coming to the end soon. We've been extremely lucky to stay in a place that doesn't charge us so we've been doing fairly well with money but euros go quickly since the exchange rate is always working against us. Hopefully the recent crash won't adversely affect the exchange rate since we won't be paid until the end of October at the earliest. Signing off for now and crossing my fingers for an apartment soon.

Apartment Hunting in Palma

I am working on getting an address ASAP! We had a very busy first day in Spain yesterday although it was quite productive. Upon our arrival, Bea, our gracious couch surfing hostess, warmly welcomed us into her home and became our official first friend in Palma. She is absolutely wonderful and even set out biscuits and coffee scups for us the next morning before she headed out for work. We took the bus into town and set about orienting ourselves and finding a bank to exchange our money into euros. It rained almost all day so that was a bit of a mood buster but we made it through. I was starving so we snagged some food at a middle eastern food stand. I ate cheese pizza and it hit the spot. We wandered aimlessly a bit and finally located a cell phone store but they were closed! At two in the afternoon. Both Andy and I forgot that in Spain the siesta plays a big role during the day and many stores are closed from 1:30 to 4ish. So we did the only conceivable thing. We went home and took a siesta.

After our brief nap, we walked along the beach and admired the lovely clear waters and delightful little sea shells that lined the beach. Bea took us out for the night and we drank a tasty concoction of Gin and Limonade. I can´t say enough about how grateful we are to have met such a great person right off the bat here in Spain. She got her masters at U Mass so she speaks great English. Today, things are going great here. It´s sunny instead of rainy today which makes me so so happy. Bea, our hostess, took us out last night and it was a really fun time. She is our very first friend here on Palma which I just love. Andy and I have an appointment to see an apartment today at 2 so hopefully that goes pretty well. I´ll keep you updated. I´m hoping I can go swimming sometime today because the water is gorgeous and with the sunshine, warm enough to swim. Bea´s apartment is just a block away from the water too!!! : ) Our flights went smoothly although still no sign of Andy´s bag. The island is friendly and welcoming so far so things are going very well.

Spain: Here I come

Today is September 22 which means it is already time for me to scoot on over to Spain on the Balearic Islands. This past week has been a real doozy leaving very little time for me to grasp the fact that I am moving abroad in less than 12 hours. My brother's lung collapsed on Wednesday last week (for the fifth time since June!) in what doctor's consider a completely spontaneous occurrence common in tall, lanky dudes like my brother. So on Friday he had surgery to remove the blebs causing the problem and rough up the lung wall to make the darn thing stick. So my life has been somewhat consumed by trips to Portland to visit him even though he is extremely grumpy and in a lot of pain. But he's coming home today so I'm going to make a quick stop at the hospital to say goodbye before I head out to the Seattle airport to fly away.

As for the details of Spain, I'll be working for two different schools and teaching English to elementary aged students. Although I have no idea what to expect, I am really excited to get moving and start this new chapter of my life. I'll be gone for nine months which is difficult for me to even grasp at this time. When Andy and I fly in, we are going to stay with a couchsurfer to save money and meet new people. That should be interesting to say the very least. Our first priority will be to find an apartment asap but the demand is high so we'll have to be savvy and wily to find a nice place in a good location.

Signing out for the last time on US soil. Besos.

The Last Days

On Sunday, I am leaving Ghana. I can't believe it. Today is my last day of work and after a long night of beating the NYU group at flip cup and dancing to Jazz music at Byewel, I'm a bit slow this morning. Ghana has meant so much to me and especially the people I have lived and worked with.

I feel honored to be a part of our diverse group. And just to spice things up, here are some fun facts about our group this year:

1. We were the first group to have a case of malaria, and we had two!
2. Two of us had front page bylines at our newspapers
3. One of our group mates, Josh, is staying in Ghana to work at the wonderful Coconut Grove Hotel in Cape Coast on their radio station
4. Three of us: Michelle, Josh and Krista, are traveling after the program to Cote D'Ivoire, Mali and Togo
5. Five of us are heading to Europe directly after the program
6. We were the very first group to go on the great adventure up north to Mole National Park

Studying abroad is perhaps the most effective way to learn about yourself and I firmly believe that anyone who has the opportunity should take it. I have a much better grasp on what I want to be doing with my life (maybe even grad school in my future) and I have our whole group and this wonderful country of Ghana to thank for that. There are no words to express my gratitude to everyone I have met here for their perpetual kindness and generosity.

I am leaving for Spain on Sept 22nd for eight months of teaching English after a brief hiatus in Salem, Oregon with the family. If you will be in Europe anytime in the next year, come visit! And I will keep you posted.

Barack Obama Fever

Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L85YF0pyPH0&feature=related

People here are crazy about Obama.

The Volta Region: By the Numbers

Transportation
3 Asia bus breakdowns
1 flat tire
2 hours of time waiting for the Asia bus to cool down
9 village children who helped carry water to cool down the bus
12 gallons of water to cool the Asia bus down
1 time that the Asia bus no longer started
1 bus switch
11 hours of driving time
8 foreigners picked up while stranded on the side of the road
2 out of 3 central beams with cracks on the Adomi suspension bridge over Volta Lake

Accommodations
1 hotel called Chances
120 rooms in Chances that were quite possibly all haunted
1 wonderful hot shower
1 bowl of corn flakes with cold milk

Activities/Craziness
3 instances of monsoon rain
2 times caught outside in the monsoon rain
2 lightening storms
1 onset of malaria for fieldtrip director Doc
1 great substitute fieldtrip director Sonny
1 debilitating case of runny stomach
2 times to stop the bus because of the runny stomach
1 time pooping on the side of the road in damp bushes
4 Imodium tablets
2 pepto bismol chewables
1 of the tallest waterfalls in West Africa
1 time being pounded by water while ducking under the waterfall to touch the rock wall
347 bats that flew over the waterfall every time that one guy blew his horn
1 monkey sanctuary filled with Mono monkeys
10 times getting soaked by standing under branches while monkeys jumped on them
2 times holding bananas to monkeys while they peeled and gobbled and threw the peel back at incredible speed

Number of times I thought about leaving Ghana in a week with an aching heart: countless.

I bless the rains down in africa, I bless the rains down in africa

Its gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
Theres nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had

Today the rain is pounding. Hours of rain. I took photos but I will have to post them later. I understand the function of the gutters now. The rain even drowned out Peace FM playing in the newsroom (and it plays astonishingly loud).

The first week we were here, a bunch of us were sitting on the front porch at our house when it started raining. The everpresent heat didn't lift, but the humidity turned liquid. We got off the porch and danced to the rains down in africa and we sang.

Today, just like everyday, I have to catch a tro-tro a 15 minute walk from work to get home. I'm procrastinating walking in the rain but I am unconvinced it will ever stop. When it seems to let up just a bit, a growl of thunder urges it on. There's a zero percent chance of me staying dry but I am going to give it my all.

Observations

I've been thinking about some of my observations during my daily life here in Accra that might be interesting for others to know about . . .

1. The new Accra Mall that I've visited twice is a sprawling, air conditioned mega mall where I found veggie burgers yesterday. Veggie burgers! Amazing.

2. Newspapers often use strange words. "30 Students Pass Out at Ceremony" (meaning they graduated).

3. People do not use their left hand to eat, shake hands or gesture. If you do use your left hand, someone may stare at you until you stop.

4. Women have very curvy bodies.

5. People have assumed that I am from Germany and Ireland and every once in awhile I get the U.S.

6. Quite a few Ghanaians love love love Obama. There's a song about him that plays on the radio.

7. There's no milk, cheese is extremely expensive, but there is ice cream. My favorite variety is Fan Choco, iced chocolate milk.

8. Goats are everywhere. Chickens too. And just because something is free range does not mean it isn't eating nasty things like feces.

9. Ghanaian men are more outgoing than Ghanaian women on the outset.

10. Women carry their babies swaddled in cloth on their backs.

11. Seemingly anything can be carried on your head. Molly witnessed one woman ask for assistance because her bundle was too heavy for her to pick up but then once she got it on her head, she was ready to roll.

12. American music.

13. Dogs and cats are very small and malnourished. And eaten by people in the north.

14. Time is an abstract.

15. Someone will take your large bill at a restaurant/bar/shop and may not return for a few minutes but they'll eventually find your change.

16. Alight. To get off. Now get off the tro-tro.

17. Tro-tros have mates that take your money and yell at you on the side of the road in a strange nasally tone to announce their destination. "Cir cir cir cir cir cir cir circle." That's my call to listen for. And if they could stack people inside the tro-tro to make more money, they would.

18. Club is the better beer to drink out of the two choices and it's made in Ghana.

19. "Sister", "Friend", "Obroni", "White woman" are commonly used terms throughout the country.

20. Groundnut = Peanut

21. The term is not intern, it is attachment.

22. We live at Okponglo junction. "A pung-lo"

23. Watch out for the really deep gutters; 6+ feet.

24. Church/Weddings/Funerals will take hours and they will involve a great deal of singing and dancing.

25. Michael, the 14 year old bartender across the street, is the sweetest, most innocent bartender ever to exist. And he dances up a storm.

Dancing the Night Away

Last night we attended a fantastic salsa night hosted by Coconut Grove Hotel in Accra. We didn't leave our house until 8:15 so we entered the hotel just as the salsa lesson that began at 7:30 ended. But boy that did not stop us from dancing. I have yet to discover a Ghanaian that can't dance exceptionally well so I felt a bit like I was flailing in the midst of a sea of perfectly synced bodies. But I just laughed and kept dancing.

And we danced in lines to complicated choreographed dances that I struggled to keep up with. One of th dances was a salsa version of the electric slide and I mastered that one. But we reached a point between hopping on one leg and spinning at insane speeds when it just didn't matter if we looked like silly people with no rhythm and we kept dancing. When I took a break from scootin' around the dance floor, I was able to stand and admire the other dancers. Some of them were good enough to be considered professional dancers in the U.S. Perhaps one of the biggest differences I noted in the Ghanaian dance style was the fact that men move their hips like nobody's business. It was a bit amazing.

The hotel looked like a Tuscan villa and the dance floor surrounded a crystal pool. It was picture perfect and certainly one of my best nights here in Ghana. I think next Wednesday I will make a point to show up for the lesson.

The Great Northern Adventure

Alright, I am finally home. After more than 20 hours on a bus, a terrifyingly awesome run-in with Savannah elephants in the bush and a two hour wait under a mango tree, I have made it back to Accra. Would I do it all over again? In a heart beat.

We started out at 7 am on our big Chinese bus heading to Kumasi on Thursday. The drive lasted for about 5 hours with a couple necessary bathroom breaks in between. The concept of a public restroom is much different here than in the U.S. and thus I have a strategy of not drinking water despite the heat to avoid as many run-ins with public restrooms as possible. But, I could not ignore the urge to go at the gas station we stopped at on the drive. For the first time, I stood facing a four inch diameter hole in a concrete room otherwise known as a bathroom. After a few struggles to get situated, I managed to pee into that hole like a pro, with about an 86.3% accuracy. I have to admit, it was kinda fun.

So we continued on our way and encountered a rough and tumble group of bush hunters on the side of the road that swarmed our bus when Isaac (the driver) slowed his pace to allow us a photo shoot of the strange and exotic bush meats. The hunters demanded money for the photos we took of them with their machetes raised. As most of us felt quite uneasy over this situation, we encouraged Isaac to start moving the bus as fast as possible. "Please Isaac" we pleaded. However, Isaac was not one to let anthing pass without at least a few loud words in edgewise. Many Ghanaians speak so loudly when they debate with each other that it's difficult to judge if the conversation will deteriorate into violence. However, after quickly sealing all our bus windows and staring wide-eyed at the bush hunters, we finally witnessed Isaac's conversation moving from a frightening tone to humorous laughter and then we moved onward. Thank goodness. Afterwards, Isaac looked back at us and pointed out that we could have easily snapped as many photos as we wanted of the dead grass cutters and armadillos while he was distracting the hunters. Well shoot. I was too distracted by the machetes.

By the time we got to Kumasi, I was tired of curling into every possible comfortable position using an armrest and two bus seats. We checked into our hotel called the Royal Basin and quickly ordered rice from the hotel restaurant to sustain us through the rest of the days' activities. We visited the palace of the Asante kings where an eccentric tour guide provided strange narratives about the history of the region and the kings. That night, I took full advantage of the pool at the hotel and ate fried plantains and more rice.

The next day was full of activites including a trip to the village home of Kente cloth, adinkra stamping and wood carving. After much negotiation and bargaining, I walked away with two stools (still considering the options of how the heck I am getting them home) and a kente blanket as well as adinkra stamped kente. The experiences were entertaining and informative. At Bonwire, the home of Kente, the overwhelming smell of human bodies lingered in the air inside the building filled with handwoven cloth where men wove faster than I could ever imagine. At the adinkra stamping village, the demonstration of the ink manufacturing was too much fun and then we were able to pick out stamps based on their meaning and stamp our own kente. At the wood carving village, I went crazy shopping and it was awesome.

The very next day, we had breakfast before dawn and set out for Mole. The road toward Mole was covered with handmade speed bumps and justifiably so as we saw multiple remains of horrifying accidents involving overfilled trucks and passenger cars both on the drive there and on the drive back. We stopped at a rest stop where they had flushing toilets (yes!) and cold drinks. I purchased my favorite thing here in Ghana: the tropical fruit juice box. Mmm mmm. Because the last 80 Km were so bad on the road, we had to switch buses at the junction when we arrived. Little to our knowledge, we switched into a tro-tro. Oh Lord. Our luggage probably could have filled the darn thing but somehow we managed to get all of us crammed into the van. Fatal, the owner of the van and the man in charge of getting us to Mole, assured us we would have a good trip. Less than an hour into the drive, we broke down. So, the driver got out, investigated the leaking trail of oil under the car, tightened a clamp, dumped more oil in and set out once more. Unfortunately for us, we ran out of oil and the van came to a complete stop. The driver and Fatal said, "Don't worry. We'll be right back." And they took off, heading to the nearest town to get oil. Unfortunately for us, we were on the side of a dirt road, getting covered in red dust everytime a vehicle passed us and we were roasting under the sun.

Luck struck and a family that lived right by came to investigate the situation and then invited us to sit under their mango tree off the road. What heaven! They even brought out chairs and benches for us to sit on. Although not all of the many children spoke English, we spoke with them and learned that most of them were siblings and they all went to school. We drew in the sand with them and then I sat with one of the little boys whose brother said could speak English but couldn't speak because of illness. So we sat in silence, taking in the surroundings and watching the few people pass on the road. Eventually, the boy wandered back into his house and came back out carrying his baby brother. Granted, he could barely carry him because he was so young but they were too cute so I invited both to sit on my lap and we sat together. I sang a bit and told them a story about American football and we waited. For over two hours, we waited under the mango tree for Fatal to return. "15 more minutes" he kept saying. Finally, Fatal and the driver returned and we were off and running again. It was sad to leave behind the family but they were in good spirits as we left.


The rest of the drive was uneventful but passed quickly given that we all sang every song we could think of at the top of our lungs. It was a memorable drive to say the least. And then we were in front of the sign to Mole. And as if we crossed an invisible line, animals started peeking out of the bush. Antelope, warthogs and monkeys were visible from the road. I could barely contain my squeaks. After checking into the lovely Mole hotel, I took a great leap into the pool and soaked away all the dust and some of the weariness from traveling. Judging from the opaque color of the pool, it seemed that everyone who came to Mole used it as a dust depository.

That night, we watched wildlife from atop the viewpoints of the hotel and enjoyed the feeling of finally making it to Mole. At 6 the next morning, we reconvened to eat breakfast and walk to our Safari. My shoes didn't meet the standards of our guard, so I had to put on rubber boots without socks. My feet are still sore from being rubbed raw.

But, we set out to see the wildlife. And boy was there a lot. We walked toward a complex where people lived and baboons, green monkeys and warthogs were all around. Next to the garbage piles from the communities, we found tons of animals digging for leftovers. But then we cut into the bush and lost sight of people. Almost immediately, the guard put up his hand for us to stop and then we cut over onto another path. Just like that, we avoided running right into an elephant and instead came up on his flank to watch him eat. We were no less than 30 feet away from the huge creature and all of us tried to be as quiet as possible while we snapped away photos. Then, another elephant approached and we started backing up. Then both elephants started backing up and we were really backing up fast at this point. I attempted to keep the guard and his rifle between me and the elephants at all time but at this point I was terrified. And then the guard told us that elephants can run 70 mph and there's really no way to avoid them. Well great. It gets better. At this point, the elephants decide to test their manliness and they start fighting, tusk to tusk. I was at the point of having a digestive emergency from the stress of imagining those elephants turning their aggression toward us. Finally, after a few more retreats into the bush, and a lot of sweating on my part, we took our leave of the Savannah elephants munching on the bush trees and headed to higher ground. We saw antelope and dung beetles, guinea fowl and monkeys. It felt great to watch non-violent animals from afar without imaging impending death. And then just like that, our time was up. For each person, the Safari cost $1.50 and I feel comfortable saying we got the full value. But then it was time to head back because we needed to travel during the day so we packed back into the tro tro with Fatal and made it back to the junction without incident.

We drove back to Kumasi where I used the pool again to feel alive after so much travel time. The next morning, we went to a village that produced glass beads in a clay oven. The children of the village were adorable and they held our hands as we trailed our guide. After spending every last cedi I had, we finally headed back to Accra. And now here I am, back at Public Agenda. It was surely a trip to remember.

Mole and Kumasi

Huts, Elephants, Warthogs, Oh my

Happily Making

Here's a few photos of our northern adventure including me happily pounding out Adinkra ink, our armed guard for the Mole safari, a group pic at Mole, a tribute to UO and the girls all cleaned up after our dusty ride to Mole.

Northern Bound

This week has been fairly busy here at Public Agenda. I've had three stories published so far and one of them made it on the front page (I didn't write a word of it though). I attended a conference on aid effectiveness and gender equality yesterday and then wrote a story with Ama, the other reporter, today. Yesterday night was terrific Tuesday at Bonjour so almost all of us made the trek out of our house with the smell of pizza luring us. Bonjour is a pizza/ice cream/chicken restaurant at a gas station near our house. The two for one pizza deal on Tuesdays had us all satisfied and filled our bellies with doughy deliciousness.

We leave for Mole on Thursday and won't be back until late Monday so I will be out of touch until Tuesday. Mole National Park is one of the only places in Ghana to go on a safari and we are going to be walking! There are supposedly elephants, baboons and all sorts of animals to view. I am really looking forward to it. There are rumors of violence and armed robbery on the road going North, but we are making a point to travel at night and ensure our safety. We are also bringing duct tape which I am going to use to tape my camera under the seat if anything starts to happen. I just got it so there's no way I'm losing it.

The violence is stemming from ethnic disputes between Northern tribes so I think Westerners should be ok. I've sure had enough of armed robbery to last through the next few weeks. The drive to Mole is most likely going to be the biggest annoyance of our trip as it's a six hour drive to Kumasi, where we are stopping off for Thursday, Friday and Sunday night. The stretch to Mole is an additional million (maybe more like nine) hour BUMPY drive. The last three hours of the drive consist of only a sixty mile stretch of road. But I am more than willing to sacrifice the comfort of my bum to see elephants in their natural habitat. I know it is going to be a grand adventure and I am excited to the point of bouncing in my chair.

Robbed

On a darker note of my experiences here in Ghana, yesterday three of us were mugged walking on Cocoa Beach. We arrived after about an hour of travel time on two different tro tros and we perrched under an umbrella with books and beers. After awhile of sitting and soaking in the sun and strickingly beautiful beach, I asked Logan and Ken to come along on a beach walk. We walked for maybe 10 minutes and as we were turning around to head back, still in view of the fishermen working on the shore, three men with knives approached us and cut off Ken's belt, removed his shorts, took his wallet and MP3 player and then walked away. I kept my head fairly well and stood near Logan the whole time with my hands in the air. I even asked them to give us back Ken's shorts, which they did. Luckily, Logan and I just had swimsuits and coverups on so they didn't even touch or approach us. Unluckily, the experience terrified us for the day and left a sour taste in my mouth of Cocoa Beach. But, these things happen in big cities all around the world and we are blessed to be safe and unharmed. I cried a bit when we went back to our group as everyone showed so much love and support and we left to go home. I made some delicious pasta salad as comfort food and beside feeling that my trust has been violated, I am feeling much better. I will not let those few bullies color my perception of Ghana because everyone else I have met has been so kind and helpful to me. I spoke about the incident with my coworkers this morning and they all apologized with such fervor it was astonishing.

On a brighter note, the conference I attended on Friday about peacekeeping during November's election was the front page story today in Public Agenda and my story on domestic violence made it onto the gender page. I love this internship. When the other reporter came in today who I attended the conference with, he gave me a big hug and congratulated me on the shared byline on the front page. Granted, I did not write a word of the story (I just tagged along with him) but it was still a great experience.

Published!

I have now officially been published in Public Agenda. What an exciting day! I also wrote an article on domestic violence after visiting a domestic violence shelter yesterday. The article was a bit challenging, especially given that I thought I was just tagging along with another reporter until we showed up at the shelter and she looked at me and said, "Well, ask your questions." Yikes, I didn't even know I was supposed to have questions. The shelter was run by the government and was woefully understaffed and under supplied. But, I wrote my article as an information session about domestic violence and the financial strain on the shelter. I'm hoping public officials will pay attention.

Yesterday night I had a real blast with our group as we decided to try and balance things on our head just as most of the women here do. So far we have seen sewing machines, gallons of water, bananas and a refrigerator on top of various womens' heads. It's outrageous that we haven't caught on to this brilliant method of transportation in the U.S. But then again, I gave it a good try and still ended up knocking myself upside the head with textbooks multiple times. In all of our silliness, we decided to turn off all the lights and tell ghost stories. Boy we got scared. I couldn't even take my nighttime shower I was so filled with fear. Michelle told the scariest story of one of her friends who went on a two week camping/hiking trip on the Pacific Crest Trail with just her dog as a companion. When she returned and developed her film, there were pictures on the roll of her sleeping inside the tent with her dog. But who took the photos? Creeeeepy! So we scared ourselves silly and then I crashed into bed from pure exhaustion. It has been cooler here than when we first arrived (or maybe I am getting used to it) so sleeping is much easier.

This morning as I was walking to work I looked into one of the three feet deep gutter on the side of the road and saw a baby kitten sitting in it. The gutters here are not a pretty sight and they often are flowing with untreated sewage. The kitten almost made me cry as it noticed me but I had to get to work and I wasn't sure if it would be safe to pick up because the last thing I want is to deal with a cat bite. It was luckily in a dry gutter near a food stand. So, I stood for a while trying to come to terms with the state of things in my life that I would turn away from a kitten in need and finally pointed the cat out to another man standing nearby and went to work. It's hard to relate to the priorities of animals here when there are so many people in need of fresh food and water. All I can do now is pray someone took pity on the kitten or the momma cat was somewhere nearby. (A fact I have almost convinced myself of already.) Thinking back on the situation, I think I did the right thing.

Internship Experience

I have now officially been at my internship for two full days. I ride the tro-tros to get there, and boy are they an experience. Besides the discomfort of being crammed into a gutted van with 20 other people, catching a tro-tro takes time and a great deal of patience. Sheena and I have internships in the same part of town so we commute together and catching a tro-tro took an astounding 35 minutes of waiting by the side of the road this morning. Then, it was another hour of traffic to finally get downtown near enough to walk, which took another 15 minutes. Luckily enough for me, I do not have to catch multiple tro-tros to get where I am going.

Everyone at Public Agenda is very nice and helpful. Today I went on assignment to a CD release press conference for a reggae artist. It was a pretty fun time and I was able to travel by myself, another learning experience. However, a reporter, Frederick at Public Agenda, drew me a wonderful little map with quite a few markings to find my way around. And one of the best parts about being here is that most people speak at least a little English so I always ask everyone if I am heading the right way. I felt very professional at the press conference although I had to take my own photos and I struggled to make them look good. Oh well. I did my best. I have a lot of down time at the internship between assignments so I get in a bunch of reading time. Tomorrow, I might be going to a domestic violence shelter because a new bill was just passed to protect women. If it happens, I know it will be a powerful experience. All is well here and I hope everyone is having a fantastic summer!

Here's a Picture of the Bridge of Death

Coconut Grove, Bridges of Death and Hungry Crocodiles

This past weekend, our fabulous director, Leslie Steeves, surprised us with lush accommodations at a resort called Coconut Grove right outside of Cape Coast on the beach. At home in Accra, our house is well equipped but very basic, lacking hot showers. But given the heat and humidity we deal with here, cold showers are often a refreshing treat in the morning. Three hours from Accra, Cape Coast was cooler and much less polluted than Accra. My first hot shower in over a week at Coconut Grove felt like a small miracle along with icy cold air conditioning, a delicious menu at their restaurant and a lovely pool. While in Cape Coast, we visited two different slave castles. Walking through the castles was an experience that I will never be able to convey in words but it pressed down upon me with sadness and horror at the conditions that people lived in for months before they had to endure the terrors of the trip across the ocean. The walls of the dungeons themselves held the memories of the thousands of people that passed through. There were literally scratch marks in the concrete from people reaching out in pain. Hearing about the rape of African women by British, Dutch and Portuguese soldiers was particularly hard for me. I hope that the period of history of the slave trade will never be repeated again and such injustices will always be fought against.

On Saturday, we changed pace and went on a canopy tour in a nearby rain forest. I am terrified of heights, but I prepared myself for the bridges above the canopy that we were warned about. However, I wasn’t ready for the bridges. No way. They consisted of a one foot wide board held aloft by ropes and a rope fence keeping you walking hundreds of feet above the rain forest floor. Each bridge was maybe a hundred feet long. I can not think of a worse challenge for someone terrified of heights. Luckily for me, one of my group mates sang to me as we crossed together, me hyperventilating, him chatting away happily. It was quite an experience. There were about seven bridges, linked together by small stands surrounding tree trunks and they all swayed with a vengeance. By the time I finished the last bridge, I was soaked in sweat and my legs felt like they might give out. But I finished alive and we all headed off to lunch in our Chinese bus.

Lunch was a whole other adventure. We went to Han’s Cottage, an eatery located above a crocodile pond. In my mind, I imagined eating and watching a few crocs swim by. In actuality, we were seated next to one of the landing strips of the crocs and then introduced to the one perched on the shore by an emotionless restaurant worker. She charged 1 cedi ($1 U.S.D.) to touch the tail of the croc. So of course a couple people do and at this point I am thinking this lunch was a really terrible idea. But in Ghana it takes forever to get food so we didn’t have anything else to do but stare at the crocodiles and watch as the crazy restaurant lady brought out raw chicken to feed the damn things.

Right at this point, almost as if the fates collided, a huge group of children arrived with only three or four adults in tow to watch the crocodiles. Things get worse. As the kiddies watch the woman feed the croc meat from her stick, a different crocodile lunged out of the water from behind the children and scared them all half to death as well as making me wonder if we had a casualty. With signs all around warning that the restaurant would not be held responsible for accidents, the children ran into our seating area, screaming, laughing and crying. But amazingly enough, the woman still showed no emotion and continued feeding the croc and for at least a half an hour, the children would push forward onto the shore to watch the crocs and then scream and run back toward us at the slightest sign of motion. I thought my poor heart would give up after all the stress of the bridges of death and the terror of those children. And to top it off, lunch finally came and it totally stank. Literally. The rice smelled like cigarette smoke. So with no food, little water and the noises of children’s screams reverberating in my skull, I climbed back into our bus and returned to Coconut Grove where I nursed myself back to health with a shower and a (few) beers.

Today is the first day of my internship at Public Agenda, a private newspaper focusing on sustainable development. I will be following reporters around and hopefully getting a chance to write a few of my own stories. The paper has features on women and gender issues, government policy and the environment to name a few. I think the process of learning how the media works first hand will be a great experience. Already, I have met all the reporters and we even went out to lunch together where I had Red-Red, a yummy dish of beans colored by red palm oil and fried plantains. I had not yet eaten at one of the many stands on the side of the road, but I got my Red-Red today from a little stand around the corner from Public Agenda and it only cost 50 cents, which is definitely the cheapest meal I have had so far. It was great too! Tomorrow is Republic Day, so our group is heading to Labadi Beach, where it’s rumored 100,000 people gather to celebrate. It should be a grand time. Now that I have internet access at work, I will hopefully be able to post pictures soon.

Schools and Tears

Yesterday, we had our last two lectures at the University of Ghana. The last was absolutely captivating as investigative reporter Anas A. spoke on breaking stories about a child prostitution ring and prisoner abuse in Thailand. His lecture was inspiration and at times, truly unbelievable. The opportunity to uncover scandals and deep social problems is something that Anas said the Ghanaian media should take advantage of. Later we walked down the road on a fun trip through the neighborhood to find the soccer field at the elementary school nearby. We brought our own soccer ball and a few of us played but I stayed on the sidelines to take pictures and observe the fun. And it was so much fun. The children here are the most beautiful I’ve ever seen and they are full of bubbly energy and excitement. We took a bunch of photos and the kids were thrilled to see themselves in the screen of the camera. Overall, it was a wonderful experience and I had a really great time hanging out with the kids and watching the soccer game.

Today we went on a field trip to a school in a Muslim neighborhood called Nima. The children prepared heart warming performances for us with dances, songs and poems. It made me cry it was so sweet. The school was in an impoverished area that we got to through very thin corridors and it was a bit scary thinking about the possibility of a fire (one happened last year in another depressed area in central Accra) in a neighborhood with so few entrances and exits. During all the performances, one girl in a pink shirt, probably about four years old, watched and sat with us silently. She had short hair, a single gold earring and refused to smile even when the other children were squeaking with glee. After a while, I realized she didn’t attend the school but had snuck in to be with us. Other children had pressed up against the windows during the performance. This girl didn’t speak English but she latched onto us when we got up from the performances and then stuck to my side. One teacher tried to lead her out but I held onto her hand even as we were leaving.

The children here are often left on their own, even at very young ages, because the community acts as a family unit and each person looks out for one another, especially the children. When I had to part ways with the girl in the pink, she cried and immediately my heart broke. Leslie, our director, left a $100 donation with the school and I asked her if we could request it be used to send the girl to school. There are over 60,000 children in the area of Nima and only 25% attend school because their families can not afford school fees. I can only hope that girl will be able to attend school and I have certainly been inspired to begin looking for credible sponsor organizations to pay for education.

Falling Asleep in Lecture

Ok, there's a lot to update on and we found a great free internet site here at the University of Ghana that allows me more time to write and reflect on everything that has happened so far. Yesterday and today we've had lecture at the University of Ghana on media history and different forms of media. All the speakers have had unique viewpoints on the role of the media. Sadly, I fell asleep during yesterday's morning lecture (I wasn't the only one and luckily also not the one yelled at), but after a quick infusion of easy-to-find coca cola and a few bites of delicious ginger snaps, I was up and running again. We were in a room with air conditioning that made life freezing, especially after walking to the university and working up a fantastic layer of sweat. The sweat here becomes a way of life and I have decided a sheen at all times just makes me look healthy. For dinner, we went to a tasty pizza parlor at a gas station near the University and took full advantage of a "two-for-one" pizza deal ordering 8 pizzas in all. They were really quite good and since cheese is very expensive here, a good change from other things I've been eating.

Our living accomodations are quite nice. There are 13 of us total and Molly, Logan and I all live in one room together (all girls). I've been trying to stay healthy on a vegetarian diet which can be a bit of a challenge since protein staples include chicken and fish, but I am taking a multivitamin and my malaria medication regularly, so far so good. Naps are becoming a regular occurence in my life as the heat and humidity takes its toll.

We found a delightful bar across the street a couple nights ago that serves Star and Club beer (the only 2 options) for $1.20 each but they stand about a foot tall. I can not finish two but a beer at night takes the edge off and it's a great way to meet Ghanaians, who are more than happy to converse, dance and hang out day or night. I can't say enough how kind and accomodating the people here are. It is truly a heart warming place. I will try to post photos soon.

Here I am.

Wow. Here I am in Ghana. Traveling was a whirlwind but I made it safe and sound. This country has the nicest people I have ever encountered in my whole life. Yesterday we went to a super high energy soccer game and that was an experience and a half. Today we took a tour of Accra that really opened my eyes to size of this giant city. Got to go, no time left at the internet cafe!

Getting Ready to go

I am currently procrastinating the long process of packing for six weeks in Ghana. I leave on Thursday and I am extremely excited although it all feels a bit surreal right now. But soon enough I'll be heading out and I know that I will have an awesome experience but I will also miss all the people I am leaving behind.