i haven't blogged much lately and i really have no excuses besides sheer laziness. i haven't been particularly busy, no natural disaster occurred besides the earthquake/tsunami in japan, and i still have ten perfectly usable fingers with which to type. so i shall give you a summary of the past little bit in my favorite way: bullet points. (i love lists.)

• perhaps most importantly... lent. lent started over a week ago with ash wednesday (march 9th) and in the days leading up to it, i contemplated what i should sacrifice until easter rolls around. there was one thing that kept coming to mind but because of my stubborn nature i repeatedly pushed it away. this thing was one of the few real attachments to home i have here in ghana and even though i knew i was physically capable of giving it up for 40 days, i didn't want to. as i result of my obstinacy, i was a little late in deciding on my lent-sacrifice. nothing i could think of was as good (or as necessary) as the thing i didn't want to give up. but sunday night, i decided to get over myself and just do what i knew i had to do. i finished off the last can of diet coke that was in my fridge and called it quits until after easter. i want to say i'm giving it up for life, but i'm just taking baby steps. thankfully, i have yet to start twitching from withdrawal.

• last friday we went on a day trip to kakum national park, el mina castle, and cape coast castle. it was a fantastic day. we got up at 4:45 (woof) to get to the bus station early and catch a bus (read van) to cape coast. but in ghana, the buses/vans don't leave until they are full there is the potential to wait for quite awhile before you actually take off. we got on the road about 7 after an hour of waiting. upon arrival in cape coast 2 hours later, a taxi took us to kakum so we could experience the canopy walk through the rainforest. it was less stable than i thought, but it was a great adrenaline rush!

at the highest point you get about 40 m (130 ft) off the ground!

our next stop was elmina castle-- a castle that housed slaves in transit to brazil and the caribbean. it was sobering, informative, and caused much reflection on the value of human life.

"the door of no return": this is the door the slaves went out to get to the slave ships.

cape coast castle was similar to elmina castle only smaller. the door of no return lead out to a dock where fishermen were mending their nets. it was fascinating to watch them work.

The Door of No Return

Cape Coast Fishermen

a very common sight

our ride back to accra took 4 hours thanks to traffic, but it was well worth the effort.

fact #1: i am loving my time in africa.

fact #2: right now i really miss europe.

will write more later.

Highlights of the Past Week Pt. 2

2. On Friday we went to the beach! We drove about 1.5 hours to get there, but it was SO worth it. There was no one at the beach and it was beautiful. Without the car horns of the city, I was really able to relax a little bit.






3. Saturday evening was the primary activity. Most of the kids came with their families and we had loads of fun learning about the Book of Mormon. I adore the kids... I want one. Here are a few of them:

Joshua

Jason (He looks sweet, but he's kind of a terror)

Bertha. 8 going on 25. She's my bud.

Kingsley (Joshua's brother) We are also buds. I sit beside him all through primary to help him stay in his seat. :)

I love working in primary. Imma gonna miss these kiddos when I leave.

Highlights of the Past Week Pt. 1

1. I went to Koforidua last Thursday with 2 senior missionary couples. The city is about 2 hours outside of Accra through and mountains. Getting out of the city made me feel like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I definitely feel better with a little wide open space around me. In Koforidua, we went to the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana and the Koforidua bead market. At the research institute, they do exactly what the name suggests-- research cocoa. They try and develop the best growing methods for cocoa and give that information to the local farmers. It was fascinating! Ghana is the 2nd largest producer of cocoa in the world (behind Brazil). Interestingly, their locally produced chocolate really is pretty disgusting (Ghanaians usually don't like chocolate. It's too sweet), but they export all of their cocoa to companies like Cadbury and Nestle. So the next time you eat a Cadbury egg, thank Ghana! Here are some pics:

Cocoa pods on Cocoa tree.

Who knew this is how cocoa grows?! I sure didn't.

Amen.

Lots of beads.

Wide open space!

I learn a lot from Ghana billboards.

WTG #3

We frequent Ruth's fruit stand every week. She is a delightful lady that adds "please" to the end of every sentence. "More, please." or "How many mangoes, please?" or "Is that all, please?" Even better is that you can get produce for ridiculously good prices. This was today's shopping list:

5 tomatoes +
7 carrots +
2 bell peppers +
a lot of cilantro +
4 oranges +
4 mangoes +
2 pineapple +
------------------
= 14 cedi (7 dollars)

welcome to ghana (or at least Ruth's fruit stand).

one month down...

...two months to go. As of yesterday, I've been in Ghana for 4 weeks. I have to say, the first three weeks dragged a bit, but the last one went by really quickly. We finished teaching our second workshop on Friday. Lizzy and I taught better this go 'round, our class was smaller and bit less lively than the first group, but more of the participants already had a foundational knowledge about small businesses, so the discussion was more interesting. Here's a picture of the group:

Other highlights (and one lowlight) of the week included:

• I stayed up until 3:30 AM to watch the Superbowl and the Steelers lost. Definite downer.
  
• It rained for the first time since I arrived, and boy was it a doozy! It rained for a solid few hours and flooded the parking lot in our apartment complex. But afterwards, it felt so refreshing. The Harmattan is going away, so the blue sky is starting to come out again. Huzzah!
• Lizzy and I babysat the 1-year old of a young couple in our ward. He (the baby's father) works at the US Embassy so they have a pretty nice set up. After the babe went to bed and his parents came home, we played cards for a few hours. To make things better, they'd just received their food shipment from the states and most of the stuff came from Costco! I ate way too much, but it felt like I was back in America for a bit.
  
• Two of our Ghanaian friends, Koby and Rebecca, came over last night after institute and we taught them how to play Uno. It was the first time we'd hung out with people that wasn't at institute. I think that the young single adults here don't know how to just hang out because they work so hard all the time. Rebecca brought her homework to do! Lizzy and I are going to organize a YSA activity where we cook them Mexican food!
  
• On Monday, we went with the Maughans to a couple of cool stores that sell jewelry, beautiful fabric, artwork, and other African things. Submit your gift requests now!
• I got sunburned yesterday, but I have zero complaints about getting sunburned in February.
  

Welp, that's about it! On the docket for this week is a trip to the MTC and a bead factory with the Maughans, and then a trip to Koforidua with some senior missionaries (I love that I am friends with senior missionary couples!) Next week, we have a trip planned for Cape Coast. Huzzah for seeing more of Ghana!

superbowl XLV

steelers. 4. eva.