more about today...

It's about 11 pm right now and I am TRYING to get ready to go to bed. I accidentally took a nap today for about an hour and a half... so I'm not too tired. I just actually found out though that we all have tomorrow off b/c something is wrong with John's (our driver) car... I think there's a leak in the fuel line/tank or something. SOOOO I can sleep in! And go to sleep whenever I want! This also mean I have a 3 day weekend!! I can't believe it.... Nick and Erica and I may try to head out to the beach or the market or something tomorrow. Also tomorrow is Osman's 25th birthday, so we will probably go out with him at night. (Osman is the brother of someone who works in the Telecentre Guest House so he hangs out here a lot, and he's super nice. He's taking us to a market on Saturday.)

So today Erica and I went with Kartee (another ophthalmic nurse) to a school to do school health. I thought we were going to get in so many wrecks on the way there...I could NEVER drive a car here... people drive EVERYWHERE...they like make their own roads through market-type places and everything...and people will just cross oncoming traffic when a car is like 2 feet away from you...it is insane.. if I make it out of here w/o having a heart attack it will be a miracle!!

So we finally made it to the school. It was a very big compound.. 3 schools in 1. Tons of kids everywhere. We taught in a classroom of maybe 70-80 kids... I think it was 2 or 3 classes combined. The kids got a little restless during our presentation and started chattering away. But it's so funny, if you stand in front of the class and say "Hello" the kids will all answer back in unison "HI!" and if you say "Hi" they all say "HELLO!" It's the neatest thing. The kids are all really polite. After school health we screened their teachers who were having trouble with reading and gave them glasses. After we were done screening, someone from the school brought us a drink. Now, theres this drink that's popular here called Malta. I'm not sure if I have mentioned it yet...but here goes. Malta is the NASTIEST thing I have ever put into my body. It's a carbonated drink, made by Guinness, but it is non-alcoholic. It has hops and barley in it, and honestly it tastes like you are drinking Special-K (yes, the cereal!!) YUCK YUCK YUCK!!! Well I hate to be rude when someone goes out and buys me a drink, so Erica and I tried so hard to drink it, but I literally felt like I was going to vomit. (Oh and supposedly Malta gives you energy...and there's malt in it.) Well we drank a little bit of it, then we started walking around the schoolyard and found some little boys to give it away too, b/c they love Malta. The 1st little boy that I tried to give my Malta too was named Samuel. Samuel told us that he likes Malta, but that he was "satisfied right now". HOW ADORABLE IS THAT?!? He was SATISFIED, so he didn't want any malta. I have to start saying that. We finally found some little boys to give the malta to, and they were so happy. The little boy I gave mine to was sooo short. I thought he was maybe 6 or 7 at most, but he told me that he was 11!!! ELEVEN!! HAHA!!!

We finally left the school, and John and Kartee dropped us back at the guest house around 3ish. Erica and I then walked across the street to a little shop to buy some FANTA and water. On our way a FAT goat was walking towards us, then just walked around us. I think is was pregnant b/c only it's belly was super fat. Then we came back to the hotel and napped a bit. When Nick got back from the Crystal Eye Clinic, we all got ready to go out to dinner....Chinese again... it was delish. After dinner we saw that they had ice cream so we got some, and it was DELICIOUS as well!!!! SWEETS!!!!

We got back to the guest house and just hung around in Nick's room a bit... then Erica and I came upstairs and that's when she saw that she had a missed call from Robert so she called him back and we found out that we have tomorrow off!!

So here I am. I just took a shower (with HORRIBLE water pressure-but it was hot at least) and now I am about to read some of my book and just pass out!! Hopefully the 3 of us will figure out sumn neat to do tomorrow! They've both been here since July 1 so they kinda know the neat things around Accra!!



OHHHH I just remembered something random... I saw some cows today. Up until today I had only seen sheep, goats, chicken, and lizards. Also some creepy dogs. The cows were very sad looking. So skinny. I guess I should've expected it.

Also have I mentioned that the sewage is above ground? In ditches along the sides of the paved roads? Kinda smelly when you're walking around sometimes....

Well...goodnight for now!!!!
Peace