Hi all,

Well, Dave and I have finally brought our big African adventure to an end. I have re-written this blog entry a few times because I am just not sure how best to sum up what the past three months have been like. We came to Africa hoping to experience a new culture, teach children, build a school, learn some crazy drumming skills, and have an adventure. We are leaving Africa with a new family, a new home, a few new beats and a handful of adventures.

To speak to our family here, Dave and I were very blessed to live with wonderful, caring individuals who would do whatever they could consistently to make sure that we felt comfortable and safe. The director and his wife and the other Ghanaians taking care of us in the home and around town really taught us about what it is to give gladly. In the beginning of our stay when we were trying to figure out what is "appropriate" to give or not give to a chief or child or individual in need of help, Fred consistently told me that "appropriateness" was not what was important, it is "giving from your heart" that matters. While this was initially a frustrating response since it was very vague, after living with individuals who give what they can and when they can as a general way of living, I see how valuable and simple giving purely from your heart without any feelings of obligation or the need to be repaid can be.

To speak to the children, I think that it can clearly be seen in my previous entries that we have fallen in love with the girls I have been teaching and tutoring. These girls opened their heart and souls to Dave and me. They came to school everyday eager to learn and improve. They visited our house everyday wanting to read Dr. Seuss books and play games. They gave their cookies, food, and candies to us at school when they had the money to buy goodies. They would walk us home from school and ask if they could help washing our clothes and gasp at things like a map of the world or the power of the gas stove or the magic of completing a puzzle. Now that I am home I see things that are everyday for us and think, "if only there was a way to show Asia this! She would be so amazed!" Or "Whoa, what would the girls think if they saw THIS?" 

To speak to teaching, it was a challenge, but I loved it. I wish that I could have stayed longer since I know that I was improving with each week. Luckily our last week in Tamale was the children's last week of school before a month long vacation for the rainy season. Therefore, we spent the last week reviewing and then I gave them each a small test (even 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade level students are expected to have exams here!) It was such a perfect way to end my time the children were able to see just how much they had learned! In English we covering subjects like using "has, have, and had", "is, are, and am", "did, do, and does", nouns, pronouns, common nouns, proper nouns, adjectives, verbs, and vocabulary. In Math we got to Chapter 5! We worked through recognizing and spelling large numbers, 4 digit addition and subtraction, measurement (using a meter stick, understanding cm and m, and even converting cm to m and vice versa!), fractions (this was definitely the hardest math subject. They still need much more practice with this since they seem to understand how I do exercises on the board but when the concept of fractions is introduced in new ways they struggle to understand), and we briefly got to creating tables and taking surveys. Huzzah! They all did really well on their "exams" and I think that they and I were pleased. Now I just hope that their teacher continues where I left off and continues to challenge the children since they can do a lot, you just have to be patient with them in the learning process. 

To speak to drumming and dance, I have seen and experienced how music can be a language. A drum tells a story that a dancer illuminates. Every beat, every call, can have a meaning. To you and me, we hear a sweet lick or are impressed by a fast rhythm. To drum masters and villagers alike, they hear their traditions and their stories. When an elder dies in a village, they place a certain drum beat. When a wedding is about to occur, they use a specific drum call. When the chief wants to meet with the villagers, he uses his drum. And in weddings, funerals, and general evening celebrations, the people dance. Feeling the music is just something that seems to be innate in everyone we met there. I will miss talking with my drum, but I will continue to play from the soul and maybe I can tell a few stories of my own with the drum once I really find my place with the djembe.

To speak to the adventures, a few of the stories have made my previous blog entries. The rest I am going to try to share through pictures. I will add the pictures tomorrow to tell a few more stories as my final blog post. As a sneak Peek, (get it? a sneak PEEK?), below are are a picture of Dave and I with each of our classes.

Biani ("until tomorrow" in Dagbani)

Hi all,

I apologize for the ridiculously long absence. We are alive and well do not worry! The last couple of weeks have been a complete whirlwind of goodness. We are leaving Tamale tomorrow evening (I still cannot really believe that I will be saying goodbye to everyone here in just 24 hours) and then we will be traveling in the Cape Coast for a week. Then, we return to home sweet home! Since we have been gearing up to leave the past couple of days have been an emotional rollercoaster. But I am not ready to fill you all in on that yet so this post is just to inform you all about what we have been up to. (It's a lot!)

Mole National Park:
Dave, three other volunteers, one of the Ghanaians who lives with us (Baba), two of our students and I went to Mole National Park last weekend. We saw FIFTEEN elephants! It was incredible. The park did not have any lions, giraffes, or tigers but seeing baby elephants and their mothers and fathers walking around, visiting the water hole, and playing with one another was priceless. Surprisingly the elephants were black. They look gray/red most of the time because they put dirt on their backs to protect their skin from insects. It was awesome to see them enter the water gray and emerge from the water black. It was also great to see the girls and Baba's excitement at seeing more of their country.

In addition to the elephants we saw antelope, wart hogs, lizards, snakes (one of which was in our "shower") one monkey, and Dave had a run in with a spider above his bed that was so big it was carrying a cockroach on its back!    

Getting home was a bit iffy because we did not anticipate the park costing as much as it did (we had to pay to enter the park, to take the tour, to buy food, to buy the tour, to pay the tour guide, etc. None of the costs were very high but all together they added up quickly.) We managed to save enough to buy our bus tickets home (the bus picked us up at 4 am ha) by not eating lunch on the first day and breakfast on the second day. When we got home we had 2 Cedi (Less than $2) left between Dave, Nir (our good friend who is a volunteer) and I. Whoops!

Sex Education/HIV/AIDS Class (say what?!):
So, this actually happened and it went really really well. The director of our organization's wife, who is a nurse, led the class with me. It was really helpful that she was there because she was very informed about AIDS from personal experience treating individuals with AIDS and she could speak to the girls in Dagbani. Around 25 girls ages 14 to 18 came to the class.

We structured the talk around HIV/AIDS (only one of the girls knew what AIDS was) by beginning with what the disease is, how it is contracted, what you can do to prevent contracting it, and how/where you can get tested for it for free. After discussing condoms we gave each of the girls a male condom and discussed what is is, where to buy it, how to open it carefully, the importance of checking the expiration date (one of the female condoms expired in 2009!) and how to use it. None of the girls had seen a condom before. They knew the word but I will never forget the look of surprise/facination/excitement/fear on their faces when I told them that they were each going to open one. After the male condom we demonstrated how the female condom works and then wrapped things up by reviewing the condom and AIDS. I think the class went really well. I was worried that the tone would be either scary or uncomfortable but the girls were really open to asking questions (which does not usually happen) and I think they felt informed afterwards. If I was living here longer it would have been great to get the parents involved in sex education (since most of them do not use condoms and do not talk about sex in the home) but there is just too much to organize! So though this is only a short term thing, I can only hope that a few of the girls who came are able to discuss using a condom with their boyfriends once they feel ready to have sex.

Ok I am running out of time so I am just going to list a bunch of the things we have been doing and I will say more about them later.

1. Sleeping in the village at two of my student's house.
I slept with their mother, the two students, and their 5 younger sisters in one room on the cement floor. Though I did not sleep very well it was really cool to get to see how the nuclear family in the village interacts with one other.

2. Buying, "hunting", killing, and eating a chicken.

3. Performing with the dance/drumming group that I have been training with for all of the Maltiti girls. It was terrifying at first but once we started playing I loosened up and it went really well!

There is more but I will have to write it later. I think that will we will have some down time in Cape Coast so I will try to update maybe on Wednesday. If not then, then I will be home in a week and will write more.
Thanks for all of your support. This experience has been truly incredible for both Dave and I and I cannot wait to tell each of you more about it once we are home!