Have finally seen my new home!!

Hey all. How's A-town? So... I finally got to go and visit my new home in the Upper West. It was unbelievable! The trip is a very hard and long one, it takes about 12 hours from Kukurantumi (where I stay now). As you may guess, we are not riding on a nice, comfy US bus with bathrooms in the back and tvs in the front. These buses are pretty small, and the seats are less than cozy. They fill them with so many people, you can barely move to scratch your leg. Also, the further north you travel, the worse the roads get. So, for a vast part of the trip you travel on an unpaved road, full of potholes and uneven parts, and very, very, very dusty! The north is very dry so while you get to enjoy the fact that you're not constantly coming home with mud all over your shoes/legs (which is the case in Kukurantumi), you have to endure the crazy dust. I'm sure there will be more blogs on this as it is the rainy season now, and I'm sure I can't even imagine what the dry season will bring. Anyways, back to the trip. So, despite the long and bumpiness, the scenery along the ride was so beautiful. I keep forgetting to bring my camera along with me when I use the computer, but I will get those pics up soon...I swear. And mom, I can't wait for you to get to see this stuff first hand next august. So, finally, around 1 am I arrived at my site. I can probably say with confidence that the people of the Upper West in Ghana are the most chill people I've ever come into contact with. The entire atmosphere is so completely relaxed...a bit like heaven :) It is in sharp contrast to my life here in Ktumi, where everyone is constantly yelling at the white person wanting me to give them all my attention, and constantly inquiring about what my name is and where I'm going. That gets old very quickly and this week-long trip was the best medicine I could have asked for. The country director here says that the happiest volunteers are "those teaching art for the deaf, and those living in the upper west". I can't speak for the first part, but I definately understand the latter. So, all of the schools are out right now...I make it sound like there are a lot...but there's only 2 primary schools and 1 Junior HS. So, all of the teachers basically are just hanging out, chatting and drinking Daa (pee-to) which is the local alcoholic drink. Not sure if I mentioned it before, but Daa is made from fermented millet and is quite delicious. You have to be careful though, cause since it is locally made (by everyone woman in the town, it seems), you can never tell how strong a particular batch may be; it can sneak up on you if you're not careful. So, the town is very small, and everyone pretty much knows everyone else (kinda like cheers :) and they are all extremely welcoming. I feel like there is much promise and that I'll really be able to make some impact on the children here. So, the main "city" is about 15 miles away, so not too far. I went there a couple of times during site visit and met with some of the volunteers who have been living there for a year. They all seem very cool. Oh, I forgot to mention i have a roommate. She is a JICA volunteer from Japan. She's been in Sombo 2 years as a nurse, and has one more year of service. I was super excited at first cause I figured she'd be able to teach me Degarre (the local language), but unfortunately, she hasn't learned any. I think I may already know more actually. So, I guess it's up to me. But, she is very nice, and she has already completely furnished the house...which was so much nicer than I could of ever imagined. We have couches and a table with chairs in the living room, a couch and desk in my bedroom, a stove (with oven!) and a fridge and running water. We don't however have electricity (I think we're the only ones in the town) and so therefore only have a hot fridge. Our house has the potential for electricity but it seems that the last 2 volunteers at my house never paid their bill, so there is a 300 cedi debt. I'm gonna talk to the chief when I move in though and see if he'll overlook the debt as long as we pay. There is also a fenced in backyard with a place for my garden...which makes me happy. A few funny things that happened during site visit: I was waiting for the bus when this guy from my town came up to me and starting asking me to marry him. I was joking around with him, and then I said No, I'm sorry in Degarre which is "N Scien". Well the dialect in Sombo is different from that of my language teacher so they say I'm sorry differently...they do however have a saying "N sayen" which means that you are agreeing with the person! So, it seems I was engaged for a couple of minutes before someone explained it to me. Also, on the bus ride home there was this "watering truck" which drives down the road spraying water on the roads to minimize dust. Our bus driver decided to pass one of these spur of the moment on the way home which resulted in gallons of water shooting in all the bus windows. Us americans thought it was absolutely hilarious, the Ghanaians thought it less so. Oh and also one night I met up with some of the volunteers in Wa around 6 pm. What I didn't know was that the last tro going back to Sombo left Wa at 4 or 5. So, basically I was stranded. Everyone up there rides a motorbike, and since we are permitted to do so, I was stuck begging for rides as they passed (don't worry, this is a very safe and common practice for everyone). I ended up catching a ride back on this huge logging semi. It was quite the experience....live and learn...I won't be staying late in Wa again. So, yeah, I just need to stick out training for 2 more weeks and I'm a free woman! It's almost mean of them to allow us to go to our house, have alone time, get to cook our own food and do what we want, when we want to, only to have to come back to training. But such is life. So, I'm just trying to enjoy these last days I'm spending with fellow Americans, and trying to tolerate being someones "young daughter who cant cook, or iron" again. Ok, well, my computer time is up. I'll try and get on and post those pics next Thursday. Oh, and Hope...congrats on finishing school...I'm super proud of you! And Brit thx for completing the list, I hope you enjoyed it. Plus, one of the other volunteers had like 6 frisbees sent to him so he was kind enough to give one to me. So, by the end of my service Sombo should have an ultimate team that could rival anyone of them in the US:) OK, I love and miss you all. TTYS.