Still haven't gotten sick...:)

Hey all...how's A-town? The raining season seems to be slowing down here, now it rains about once every 2 or so days instead of everyday. This seems nice now, but once I move to my site in the upperwest I will dread it. Since I rely on water from a borehole, and since the boreholes dry up, I'm going to have to learn to be resourceful real quick. Guess I'm gonna have to learn to bathe using the water sachets :)

The other weekend we all went to this place called Bote Falls. Mom--when you come here, this is a must! Anyways, it was seriously the most incredible sight I've ever seen. There were 2 waterfalls that are straight out of a movie. I really wanted to swim, but they sent 3 trainers along with us, I think exactly for this reason, plus it was somehow cold down by the water. Afterwards we went on this hour-long hike that had parts that were practically straight uphill. And it all ended at this HUGE rock called Umbrella Rock that overlooks what looks like all of Ghana. So beautiful. Unfortunately my camera is currently out of commission due to a leaky water bottle that was in my purse :() However, I made sure everyone else took many photos and I'm about to set up a new website that all the other trainees can use to post their pics. As soon as I know the site...I'll let you know.

There is also some huge festival going on in the town we're staying in. For the past week there has been a huge influx of people coming from all over to see this thing. There have been people walking the streets at 9 am with beers in their hand...kinda reminds me of Panama City in highschool....no, but it is quite interesting. Today is the actual festival so I'm even a little nervous to see what it will be like.

Other than these highlights, my days have pretty much been filled with training. I get up at about 5 or 6 (or whenever the sweeping my mother is doing outside my bedroom wakes me up...sometimes 430) and have language lessons by 8. They are going really well, I'm learning Degarre, "Ansomal, fo gar be son?", and I really enjoy it. There are 3 other trainees in my group and we are all about at the same level, so it makes it easy and enjoyable. They will also be my closest neighbors once we move so it is nice that we get to know each other so well now. After language they find some ways for us to fill our days; our only day off is Sunday. There are many technical sessions where they attempt to make teachers out of us, along with sessions about the culture. Plus we have personal projects that we were assigned to do, and my group is going to try and hold a "career fair" next week for the youth of the community that are not in school. It is either going to be completely hit or miss. But its all just a learning experience so that we dont screw up too badly once we actually get to our site.

Oh, I almost forgot, I had to bring out the old soccer skills from highschool last week, we played trainees vs. trainers. All week they kept talking about how awesome they were and how they were gonna completely slaughter us, at we totally whooped their asses! It was awesome. And what seems like the entire village came to watch. There were people everywhere on the sidelines, but I guess we're pretty used to people staring at us by now anyways. It was pretty cool though, it was like we had consessions and everything because all the women came with their various foods and drink for sale on their heads. And I've even found "soy-a" kabobs here. They are quite tasty...just very chewy tofu and onion covered with pepe (the local seasoning they put on everything, I mean EVERYTHING, that is made from peppers and can be quite hot). They're really good, in fact, my homestay mother is busy making some right now (it is a 48 hour process!). A girls gotta get her protein!

Oh, did I mention before that I ran into Jeremy Davis from highschool?? Crazy! We were waiting on this PCV coming down from somewhere up north to talk to us in Twi, and give us some tips on how he became fluent, and he was running late. I said to a friend, "Oh, this guy better be very cute if we're going to have to stick around for so long waiting on him." And he finally showed up, and out from the car comes Jeremy. It was so weird! So I talked with him, and hes been in the peace corps for the last 2 years, and is actually about to come home...I think in about 2 weeks. It's kinda surreal you know, to see someone from back home here...but I always knew it was a small world. In fact, something else wierd, you know my friend Jimmy that I used to hang with all the time before he moved to Portland? Well, looks like he was the chemistry TA for one of my good friends here. So, there you go....a little piece of home no matter where you go.

Ok, I better go for now, as always, I love hearing from you...thanks for writing. I love you all, and hope everything is going your way :)

Love, Di