complete update

so I'm totally bummed because the day before yesterday I was at the internet cafe and wrote this long post about everything here and just finished and was about to click 'post' when my time ran out and the internet turned off. bummer. so, I begin again...

school: Corpus Christi Catholic School. students are caned when they misbehave. needless to say i do all I can to be good, however it seems inevitable that I will be beaten as I tend to do everything wrong. One of my "mates" said they won't strike me-I hope she's right. My uniform is a red skirt and yellow button up shirt. Pretty ugly, but I like it. I've always wanted a uniform. Classes are becoming easier to understand, but some of the older teachers are still nearly impossible to make out. The subject matter is not too difficult in general. Students study the same subjects three years straight and so I am hopelessly behind in a few subjects. School is incredibly boring. I almost can't stand it. All you do is write what the teachers say and do homework once in a while. I enjoy the social interaction, but other than that school's a huge pain. I am hoping to work in an orphanage instead.
a) boys: wrote me notes in the beginning to "worry me" as Randa said (bother me). They now talk to me sometimes and are so funny. The boy behind me (so hot btw) said I need to talk more and make friends, so he said he's always going to talk to me and we'll be the best of friends. I'm ok with that.
b) girls: all want to touch my hair. Ask if I have a boyfriend. Saw the pic of me and Brandon and think he's so cute. (guess you need to come to Ghana Brandon). They want to know if I like being alone. I say yes for the most part. They're nice in general and everyone has helped me know where to go when.
c)noise: The class is SO loud. Even when the teachers are there sometimes. And when they laugh, my gosh, you can't hear a thing. and fifty percent of the time they're laughing at me.
d)questions: are you married? why don't you wear earings? (everyone there does). Why do you write back to front? ( I wasd making a few notes in the back of my notebook). How old are you (no one believes I'm only 17). Is President Hinckley i your ward? Do you know Britney spears or Beyonce(I cant even spell her name, let alone know her)? Why isn't their music on you ipod??
e) catholicism: because it's a catholic school there's religious classes and singing time, where we all sing out of the catholic hymnal. It's a pretty cool thing. They sing so loud and harmonize. Not always exactly on tune, but it's still really cool. We also have to say hail marys and catholic prayers, which is a new experience. On mondays there's assembly and the students all line up and say the catholic stuff, sing the national anthem and say the pledge. Patience (one of my friends) asked me if I know the national anthem. She was surprised when I said no and said she saw me singing it at assembly. Everyone thought it was hilarious when I replied that I was just pretending because I was afraid of getting caned. lol. I used the choir trick of mouthing the words "elephant, watermelon". She asked if I know the American national anthem and she and another girl asked me to sing it. So, I sang two lines and they clapped and laughed and said I have a beautiful voice that is really high. I laughed and said yes, I have a white voice. All their voices are low.

I took a tro tro home the other day. The form of public transportation. It's about the size of a mini van but with more seats and a lot more people in it. Everyone said it would be a big deal, but really it wasn't definitely interesting though. About 7 girls went on the tro tro with me, wanting to see me experience it. I took down my hair at Randa's request and all the girls ood and aaad.

Randa is a member and in my class. She's nice and shows me around and when I didn't come to school because I was so tired she came over with a few other girls to see why I didn't come. They also wanted to look at my pictures of home.


Abigail: 16 years old from the villages, hired to manage the house. Doesn't go to school as her parents cant afford to send her. it is very expensive to go to school here. She's nice and patient with em. She is SO hard to understand though. Just got baptized. She shares a room with me. You know the culture is pretty different when she changes in front of me and will sit on her bed naked talking to me. Fairly shocking at first. Good thing I"m a pretty open person.

The kids: are so cute! Sedinam is six (girl), Selassie is four (boy) and Sefakor aka Seffie is 2 (girl). They love to play with me and do my hair.

Food: is tasty, very hot due to the high content of pepper. There's rice everyday and virtually no produce. And food is in huge portions. I tell them it's too much, but they fail to give me smaller portions. oh well. Carrie, you'll laugh at this. My first lunch (they packed for me) consisted of two white bread pb&j sandwiches, a poptart, sugar packed juice box and potato chips. I ate it. and later found out that that was supposed to be a SNACK. wow. I told them that it was enough for lunch too. Needless to say I'll not be any thinner when I come back.

Church: Is much smaller than church in Alpine, smaller than church in Edgewood too, but decent sized really. There are about ten young women I think. Church is pretty much the same, there's a fan in every room, which is really nice. The bishop told me to go tell the clerk my information so they could get my records, so I did and found out the clerk is in his twenties and there were about three other men in there around the same age. They talked to me and couldn't believe I was only 17. They told me they're all return missionaries, emphasizing the point really. lol. The clerk asked for me to write my name, address, phone number, ward, and email. I don't think he really needs my email to find my records, but w/e. I looked at him skeptically when he asked me and the other guys said what are you going to write her when she leaves, and he said yes or course. They all said they'd watch out for me while I was here. I thought the whole thing was pretty funny.

Random facts:
1. There are 2 pineapples growing in the front yard. I never knew they grew on the ground. I tried some pineapple and papaya (called papah) here and it was so good. I wouldn't have even thought the papaya was the same fruit it was so sweet and delicious.
2. Good news, the women don't shave her. Bad news, their skin is so dark and hair short that you can hardly see the hair. So, I looked like a white, hairy freak for the past to weeks as the water is too cold and conserved to shave very comfortably. Alas, I couldn't stand it anymore today and shaved, only after taking a picture of my gorilla legs though. It took forever and the razor hardly wouldn't work anymore when I was done and had to be thrown away. I like smooth legs.
3. With the highl evel of humidity here you wouldn't think lotion would be a highly used product, but Ghanaians put lotion on their whole body after every bath (shower 2x a day). I figured I'd follow suite (is that how u spell that?) and now my skin is so soft. lovely.
4. The ice cream is called fan ice and is sold in little bags that you bite a corner off and suck out the ice cream. It tastes exactly like bettycrocker vanilla frosting and the consistency is pretty similar too. It's pretty tasty actually. Water is similar too, in the bag I mean.
5. They don't use shampoo, just "tablet" soap. actually maybe they do and I just dont see it. who knows
6. They don't wash their hair every day, they go to a salon once a week and have their hair done. often "plaited" which means braided.
7. school bathrooms are disgusting and lack toilet paper and soap.
8. Women carry babies on their backs w/fabric wrapped around them and baby. Works pretty well, or at least appears to.
9. Roads and traffic are insane! No speed limits, no street sings and pretty much just a lot of honking and chaos.
10. chickens wander on the side of the road and there's always the occasional herd of goats and skinny cows. ate goat the other day, wasn't half bad.
11. African fabric is very bright and colorful
12. I get to eat plantain all the time. (hurray!)
13. there are so many lizards, I see at least 2 if not 6 each time I go outside.
14. peanuts are called groundnuts.
15. trousers=pants, pants=underwear, washroom=bathroom, bathroom=room w/shower, biscuit=cookie, dress=girl's clothes (any), cinema=movie theater +tons more
16. They iron all clothes everyday when they are going out
17. When some one says good morning everyone around replies good morning.
18. At internet cafes you pay money to use the internet (what I'm doing now)
19. girls shave their heads for school
20. In geography class we're studying waterfalls and the teacher asked me how waterfalls form and I talked about snow melting off the tops of mountains and flowing down the sides. All the kids laughed and laughed. And the teacher told me they'd never seen snow before. All the kids seemed surprised when I said snow was really cold. ON the other hand, they all can't believe I've never swam in the ocean.

Wow this post is really long. I still have an hour and seventeen minutes. hmmm. what else can I say?

When I first got here I was sooo homesick. The first week I wanted to go home so bad I was just wishing something awful would happen so I'd have an excuse to go home. But now I'm a lot less homesick and am enjoying my self more. I still miss home, but am happy to be here experiencing things. I still think I'll come home at the end of November which is all my visa is endorsed for. If I end up working in an orphanage that really won't do for my whole senior year and school is too expensive to pay for another term and this term ends in December and it seems silly to pay and go through all the work to extend my visa for only a few extra weeks. Plus, I'm beginning to see how difficult college applications would be here. Speaking of college, I'm beginning to think I'd like to stay in Utah, just to be close to home. lol. I bet my mom's shouting hallelujahs.

In the middle of the night, last night, I was awakened by a ton of noise on the road outside my window. People were shouting, chanting, or singing or something, and clapping and it was so loud. It about gave me a heart attack and I was beginning to wonder if they were coming to terrorize the obroni (white), when the noise subsided. Another interesting experience.

Marian's brother, who's been taking me to the internet cafe, said I type very fast. I do even for American standards, but it occurred to me that most students don't have computers at school and so don't get to take a typing class, so I must type extremely fast in their eyes.

Well, I think that's all I'll write now. I hope everyone is doing well. I miss you all more than you'd ever believe and pray for you all the time. love you all! Annie

Ghana!

I am here in Ghana now. Finally! It is very hot and humid here, but it is ok. I slept in all morning so I haven't seen much yet, but I like what I have seen, which is pretty much the inside of the house. The children are Sadinam, Sallasie, and Seffie. They are so cute! I like them a lot. I am rooming with a girl here named Abigail. She is sixteen years old and is very nice. It can be hard to understand people here, but I am growing more used to it. I will write more later, but I am running out of time now.