Less than a month

I can't believe I have less than a month left here! I will be so sad to leave. It's really weird to think that I won't wake up in the room I share with Abbey and go take a cold shower. Or that I won't be spending all my time with three year olds. Or that I'll be surrounded by people with white skin. I am excited to go home though. I've missed everyone a lot. I'm excited for Christmas too. I'm not sure how I feel about the cold weather and the snow...

I just finished at Madonna nursery school. It was a good day. Challenging as always, but rewarding. I had a nice conversation with aunty Baria ( it's something like that). She had thought that anyone who lived in the U.S. recieved an allowance if they were part of a family that has a stay at home mom. She was really surprised to find that the government doesn't pay me each month. It's really intersting to hear about some of the misconceptions that foreigners have about America.

Today a guy came to the school to say hello to me. I met him one time walking and he said hello and asked if I'd like to be his friend and what was I going to say-no, I don't really want to be your friend? So then he asked me where I lived and I told him I'm not at home much (like I'd tell him where I live!) and so he asked where he can find me. I figured he'd never really hunt me down, so I told him I work at Madonna school. And guess what, he tracked me down and asked for my number. These guys are really starting to bug. If he comes to see me again I'll just tell him that I'm about to go home and don't have any extra time to see people. Annoying.

I drew and coloured some pictures of animals and things that start with different letters to show the kids at Osu. Then some couple missionaries I'm working with, the Bogesses gave me some old files that I cut in half and pasted the pictures on. The teacher at Osu liked them so much that she asked if she could keep them to show the children after I go. I was so excited! It's nice to feel like you're really making a difference and one that will last.

Tomorrow I'm going to a Thanksgiving dinner at the mission home with all the couple missionaries. Should make interesting company. lol. I am staying the night at the Bogesses and then I'll work with them the next day. I'm happy I'll get to celebrate Thanksgiving.



It's going to be major culture shock when I go back.

crazy

so we were driving home from work the other day and i saw what looked like a huge flock of birds over head, but they were flying kind of funny and then i realized they were bats! Then within seconds there were thousands dotting the whole sky. Everywhere you looked there were bats flying and it lasted for a while. It was really cool.

another day at osu

Today was a rather trying day, but also a good one. I worked at the developmental center. Last night I was up late coloring big coloful pictures of animals and things that start with the letter 'A' to try to teach the kids. They loved it, but also got a little rowdy. They were totally getting out of hand at one point and wouldn't listen to anything I said (24 three year olds can be a little overwhelming at times) and I got really frustrated and told a few of them that if they didn't listen they'd get a spanking. Well they continued to ignore my promptings and so I spanked them. Well, they just thought that was hilarious. Which of course made me even more annoyed. I can't even remember how I got them to calm down now, but I did. I guess now I know that method won't work for me. I did enjoy my time today though. Besides fetching water from the terrifying wash room that is. There was a new teacher today and after talking to her I found out that she is the actual teacher and had taken a leave for some time. She has better control of the children than the other teachers did, but she too is on the harsh side. I guess it's a trade off though-harshness for at least semi-obedient children. Fair enough I guess. At one point she had them all sit down at tables. Well, they sat there for five minutes and she was just sitting at her desk, so I asked what they were going to do and suggested we give them slates to draw on, rather than just have them sit there for the twenty minutes before lunch, so she agreed and they all wrote zeros-or at least kind of. Then we cleared off the slates and they had to wait another ten minutes while all the food was taken out of bags and put in bowls and they were getting out of hand. So, I had them reach up and touch for the sky and clap and point to their eyes and their nose and so on. Then after that got old I tried singing songs with them, which is kind of tricky cuz most of the ones they know and like are action songs, which they can't do while sitting at a table, but I've been singing "do as I'm doing" with them and they like it and are learning it. Anyways, they still like it and later I saw a list of songs the teacher (lydia) had been writing down and I was happy to see "do as I'm doing follow follow me" penned in on the bottom. score one for me.

yes! I got it to work! These little girls are "plaiting" my hair. They all wanted to. This is at the development center at the Osu Orphanage.

I can't believe it's already November!

I looked at my blog the other day and it is sooo long. I figure no one is reading it any more because it's so daunting, but I've got to keep writing just in case there's someone crazy out there with no life and it's become something of an addiction. Today's Friday-my day off, so I'm at the cafe for a few hours connecting to my old life. I totally can't remember what I've already written, so sorry if I repeat myself like crazy. On Mondays and Tuesdays I'm working at the development center at the orphanage and I only stay till 1:00 and then Marian picks me up during her lunch and takes me to her work at the church offices. I was walking down the hall about a week ago and I noticed a plaque on a door that said 'humanitarian services', so the next day I went in and introduced myself and said when I'd be there and I'd love to help in some way if I could. In doing so I met the most amazing couple missionaries. They've lived around the world for the last 23 years and have spent a lot of time doing service. They lived in Nigeria when the revelation about the priesthood was given. Then they leaved after that and a year ago were called to serve a mission in Nigeria, but with the recent kidnappings there they were transferred to Ghana for the remainder of their mission. I worked with sister Kenudson last week moving supplies around and got to learn about all the projects going on in West Africa right now. It is totally incredible what the LDS church is doing. It really strengthens your testimony.

Sister Kenudson gave me some small books because I was saying that I was going to make some books to read to the kids at the development center. I brought the books, which were too advanced to read to them, but they loved looking at the pictures and clapped and yelled at every page turn. They were a little overwhelming, but I was glad they liked it. I'm going to make a few simple books with stories that I can read to them. on Tuesday Guam, a little orphan, cut his ankle somehow and it was gushing blood all over. The teachers did nothing at first, so Michelle (the other obroni worker) went and got a bandaid from her bag. Then the teacher went and got some tissue and a purple liquid that is used to try to stop bleeding. I happened to have put some antibiotic ointment in my bag that morning and we bandaged him up. Michelle and I were both trying to be very careful to not come in contact w/the blood as there's a fair chance he was orphaned by aids. He took of the band aid though, and it started bleeding again and by then Michelle was gone and the teachers weren't doing anything, so I tried to clean him up and have him sit still and hold some toilet paper on it, but you can imagine hard it is getting an almost three year old to do that, I had to leave at that point, but by then the bleeding had slowed so hopefully all is ok. It's a little disturbing that cuts are treated like that. With something as serious as aids around you'd think it'd be treated right away, cleaned up and bandaged all with rubber gloves, but the teachers didn't even have a band aid or anything like it and certainly not rubber gloves. I felt so sorry for Guam. He should have a mom there to clean his cut, hug him and kiss away his tears.

I picked material for three African dresses the other day. One of them was delivered today and it it so cool. It's bright, patterned fabric pink, blue and white. It's pretty neat. I'm hoping to be able to post some photos soon, but I'm not sure how to at the cafe, so I'm still thinking of a way. I might be able to at Marian's work one day.