Glad to be Alive!

This week has been Crazy busy!  We are always on the go! 
All I can say is that I am so THANKFUL for a loving father in heaven who is watching over me!  No doubt about that!
Here is a little taste of my diet here in Ghana:  For breakfast I usually eat a piece of white bread (I hate white bread) with jam and a boiled egg.
For lunch I have a piece of jerky and granola bar.  And when dinner comes, I am always excited because our cook Bonzi here at the hostile is an AMAZING cook!  We can't eat raw fruits or vegetables because of the different bacteria that is on them, so I miss salads and strawberries and oranges a lot! 
Since it has been a long week, we decided we deserved a good dinner tonight so we went to a really good restaurant about 15 minutes out of Accra called Rapsity.  I had grilled chicken and mashed potatoes!  The mashed potatoes were so good!

I am so excited because tomorrow we are headed out for a Nice Break!!  We are headed to Kakum Elmina CoCo Resort along Cape Coast beach.  It's about a 4 hour drive but we are also going to stop by the slave castles and do different things along the way.  We are spending the night at the resort so Saturday we are going to stay at the beach and relax all day!  I am really excited!  This week has been exhausting!  I feel like I'm not eating right or sleeping right so my body feels a little wierd! haha

So this week we started teaching at Gray Memorial School.  My teaching partner is Ashlee and we teach the second grade and kindergarten.  They are the cutest kids ever!  But believe it or not, Kindergarten is so much quieter and behaved than Second Grade!  The first day we walked into the school, you would have thought we were celebrities or the president!  Hundreds of kids came out to meet us screaming, yelling, cheering, and jumping with excitement.  I have never seen such a thing.  Everyday we walk into class our classes yell and jump with excitement!  I love it!  Tuesday I taught my classes about the five senses.  It was a big hit!  I held up regular pieces of paper with a picture on them and the clapped with excitement!  How sad is that!  They were so Excited to see a picture!

Tuesday night we drove a two hour drive to the outskirts to a place called Manya Krobo to a women's college.  We taught them our AIDS programs and also did surveys and interviews with them for AIDS research.  As we drove throught Manya Krobo, my heart just sunk! On Wednesday, we also went to Kanya Krobo to continue teaching the women's college about nutrition and anemia.  It started to rain and pour more than I have ever seen!  Then all of a sudden lightning struck literally about 10 feet away from us.  We were teaching under tin roofs.  Really fun to be under in a thunder storm.  It was crazy because where the lighning struck, the ground was smoking!  Also that day We walked through a local market and I literally felt so sick for the people.  They way they live amazes me!  I don't know why I am so lucky to live where I live in Lehi, Utah United States and to be blessed with such an AMAZING Mom and dad and brother!!  My heart is so full of thankfullness for my life and the gospel that I can't even begin to explain how thankful I am!!
I wish you could see what I have seen!
That was also they day we walked through sewer because it had rained so hard!

Today I also decided to have the hostile do my laundry.  Since we are leaving in the morning, I went to see if my clothes were done.  Nope, they were still hanging and drying on a clothes line haha

Here are my clothes and some of Bailey's and Amanda's clothes

Janessa, Mindy, Me, Lynley, and Megan at Rapsity!

Finally something good and nice!

All of us and our dinners

Don't mind how I look! This is how is look in Africa!

I had grilled chicken and mashed potatoes! So Good!

I still think the clothes are funny. The man who washed them is staying up all night to make sure they dry because we need them in the morning.  They got washed at noon and he's hoping that are dry by 2:00 am haha 

This is the tin roof hut that we taught our AIDS lesson in to the Women's College

This is a picture before the lightning struck. If you see the building to your left, that is where the lightning struck.  It was so muddy!

Here is the Women's College group.  Megan and I taught about the ABC's of AIDS prevention

and I taught more specifically on 'A'... Being Abstinent before marriage.

Megan and I again

All of us doing a skit

Teaching again!

These girls are specifically going to school to learn how to cook and sew.

This is Helenia and I. I interviewed her for AIDS research. 

Me, Lynley, and Samwell (Health director of Ghana).

I got this really cool picture from the bus.  As we drove to the outskirts, we went through a beautiful jungle I guess you could say.  I love the trees and how green it is!

Me and some of my second graders!

This is the first day we got to the school and the kids were so excited to see us.

Lynley caught this picure of one of my students teaching me the 2,4,6,1,1 game.  They love to play games, sing, and dance!

This is me and my kindergarten class

Here is my kindergarten class

This was the 5 senses lessson and they were so excited about the pictures! Thanks for printing them mom :)

For the sense of smell, I put some good smelling lotion inmy hand and had them smell it.  It was funny because some of the kids liked the smell and some of them wrinkle their nose.

I saw this girl on the side of the street and I had to take a picture of her!  She is so cute!

This is Amanda in our group.  This is how the women carry their babies all day long.  They wrap them on their backs like a piggy back.  I have no clue how babies heades stay up or how they straddle their poor little legs for so long.  Don't worry, we knew the baby's mom :)

We see literally hundreds of women and girls carrying many different things on their head!  So crazy how they balance heavy things.  Some women carry peanuts stacked on a tray on their head.

Just a glimpse of their living

This is how it looks Everywhere!!  Garbage is everywhere!  People just pee on the streets and throw things on the ground.  Goats are all over the place just like dogs in America lol.  There are also chickens walking around.

Another glimpse of their living

Exchanging for Ghanaian money.

More garbage Everywhere!  This is how people live!

Not a very pleasant smell.

This is me and my teaching partner Ashlee

A few kids watching us.  They were very curious about us.

Ashlee and I again

This was our dinner Tuesday night!  Best meal of the day!  So good!  Those were like fried banana things... I did not enjoy them too much haha.

Our dinner Wednesday night, chicken cordonblu!  It was different but good!

My kindergarten class

This is what I usually eat for breakfast:  My bread with jam and a boiled egg.  That day I tryed cereal and milk but their milk is wierd!

After a long day This is how I feel!  But I love every second of it! :)

Love,

Shan :)