A ton of random things that happen in Ghana :)

It, as usual, has been a really long time since I've really blogged...so get ur reading glasses on cause this one's a doozy. Oh, and also, the order of events may not have originally occurred as they appear, but you'll get the picture :)

Alright...this is a HUGE shout out to those who sent my B-day package: Adam, Brittany, Winnie, Jimmy, Nate, Leanne, and Jacyln (if there were others, this goes to you too!). It was totally awesome! You people rock and I love you dearly. You may think you're only helping me, but thats just not true; (1) many people are going to enjoy the fact that I will now be wearing deodorant. (2) Due to my new hair products, I will be able to increase my marriage proposals from 3 a day to at least 6. (3) And of course my entire volleyball team is going to FREAK OUT when they see what you've sent! No more sore arms from playing with a soccer ball :) A few final notes on the package: I love that one of the PEOPLE mags is in Spanish! Hilarious! And of course the corn likker made me and some of my Ghanaian friends very happy (for the tequila I made them use salt and lime and everything...was awesome). By the way, no problems whatsoever getting it through the customs check...I kinda wonder what exactly they're checking for anyways. And Brittany: the pretzels HAD to either have been sent from you, or a GIANT coincidence! Yes, I too remember that drunken night when I made you walk all the way from downtown Smy to CVS...but wasn't it soooooo worth is for those pretzels with the creamy p-nut butter center?!? Lastly, thanks a million for all your kind words in your cards, whenever I get homesick I just look to my bedroom wall where they all hang.

So, my best girlfriend here, Meg, came up from the Volta Region to visit. A bunch of us went to Mole National Park. Was really cool, saw a ton of elephants and the warthogs were EVERYWHERE. They were as common as goats are in my village. So, one night I was sitting by the pool with 2 of my guy friends and it's pretty late and we had a cocktail with us that we'd concocted out of liquor (that comes in small plastic bags), lime cordial, and water....I know what you're all thinking...delicious, I wish I were in Ghana too so I could enjoy such tasty drinks. Next thing we know the security guard wandered, or should I say staggered over to us, and it was QUITE obvious he had had a few too many drinks of his own earlier. Anyhow, he just stands there with us, awkwardly, without saying anything. So, being the kind souls that we are, we ask him if he'd like a sip of our drink, seeing as he's definitely not against drinking on the job. He then proceeded to take a small sip. But here's the part we can't figure out...only a very small amount of liquid went INTO his mouth, so how was it possible that he FORCEFULLY spit about, oh, 1 LITER of the drink back OUT of his mouth and onto my face?!?

So, here's a funny little story about Meg. We have to go back to homestay, when I first arrived in Ghana and was living with a Ghanaian family. One night we were out hanging with some other volunteers in the village I was living in and the night was coming to an end. Meg was a bit nervous about traveling alone back to her village, so I suggested her staying the night with me. What I didn't know at the time was that she tends to sleepwalk when in an unfamiliar environment. The remainder of this story was relayed to me by my homestay parents the next day: Apparently they woke in the middle of the night to her trying to enter my brothers bedroom. They figured she just couldnt find the bathroom and led her there (Ghanaians do not believe in sleepwalking, they think that, instead, a curse has been put on you by some other person). The next time they awoke that night, she was attempting to enter their bedroom. After trying to gain an understanding from her about what she was doing, or what she wanted, she says "I NEED TO SMOKE!" (F.Y.I. smoking is quite taboo in Ghana, so I can only imagine their expressions.) She then requested matches from my homestay mom and both of my parents went outside with her as she smoked an entire cigarette IN HER SLEEP!

I dont know if I've mentioned this before but I think its really weird: My mothers name is Vickie, my step-mothers name is Vicki, and my homestay mothers name is Vicky. Crazy, right!

So, what do you wear when you meet THE most powerful man in the world? This was a question I had to ask myself last week...that's right, I met Obama! Ok, by met, I mean shook his hand, but that totally counts!! How awesome is that! Oh, n sorry mom, I did not get a chance to ask him his plans for saving Mother Planet.

Last night was crazy. I'm in Kumasi at this awesome (but expensive!) Indian Restaurant. I dont know what they put in the food, but as soon as the meal was over, me and my friend Meg were about to pass out form exhaustion. So we leave, only to find out its crazy pouring rain outside. We decided we're too tired to wait it out, so we head out anyways. When it rains here its absolutely, fucking insane...and the rain was so heavy that it was almost impossible to differentiated the cars from the taxis, but we finally found one. So, we told him the hotel we needed to go to and he said no problem and started to drive (as they always do, even though they often actually have ZERO idea where the place you're going is). After riding for about 30 minutes, we started to realize that perhaps this very large Ghanaian man, who happen to be wearing really, really short blue jean cut-off shorts, may not know where he's heading. So, finally, finally, he pulls into this dark alley, and tells us to get out of the car...and me and meg just kinda look at each other and say "alright, man, it was really nice knowing you...bummer our lives are gonna end like this, but I guess it's fate". So, we get out and follow this guy up some steps where he opens the door and we realize that he's brought us to a different hotel. While we were relieved that we were not actually going to die, we kindly explained that we had already paid for our hotel room at the other place, and kinda really needed to get to that one. So, reluctantly, we head back out in the rain (yes, it is STILL pouring rain at this point), and as we're climbing back into the taxi from hell, i manage to slam my head on the roof of the car. So, anyhow, the other hotel had given our driver directions to ours, and we finally get there...shew...or so we think. Just as we pull up to the gate, our driver literally drives his car into a gutter. We still to this day have absolutely no idea how he managed to do this. So, here we are, the driver, 2 white girls, and a few stragglers we picked up by the hotel standing in the pouring rain pushing the back of a taxi in hopes that it can get its wheel out of the gutter and back onto the road. But eventually, we did it, and survived the night so that I could come and tell all of you about it :)

I just started taking mefloquine, a different anti-malarial drug than I was previously taking (you peeps know how I feel about taking the same pill everyday for an extended period of time, so I decided to switch it up). Anyways, one of the side effects of this particular pill is very vivid dreams. So, considering I already naturally have pretty crazy, vivid dreams...I knew this was gonna be quite the experience. And I was right, the dreams are radical!

First mefloquine dream: I dreamed I was at my job as a swim coach when all of a sudden Will Smith came in and came up to me and made some joke about how I'm George Bush's sister and how I hate Obama. And I was all "Will Smith, what are you doing here?" Then we left together so I could show him where his hotel was. He said he was in town for the shooting of Batman 3. Right as we approached the hotel, the sky went black and rain drops the size of cars started to fall. It was all so very real! Next thing I know, Will has my hand and we're running at super-human strength to escape a tornado! He was jumping 100's of feet into the air, taking me with him. I was scared and excited and I couldn't believe what was going on. Soon after, this scary robot creature cornered us and started breathing out some green smoky chemical into our faces...some kind of brainwashing gas. He was looking at me and repeating "Your first born will be mine. You will name him Android Adeit. You will deliver him to my doorstep on the day of his birth." I looked to Will for comfort, and he just started repeating the same things the scary robot was saying! Just when I was seriously getting confused, Will Smith congratulated me on a job well done. He said we had been filming the movie the whole time and I was co-starring with him. He also mentioned that the last take I didn't do very well at acting, so they decided not to tell me that they were shooting so I'd react more realistically. How weird is that!?!

Second mefloquine dream:There were dinosaurs all over Ghana. I mean all the ones from Jurassic Park, including T-Rex. It was very cool/exciting and, honestly, a bit scary. I was like "I thought dinosaurs were all extinct!" And then my boss was like "Americans really don't know anything about Africa!"

P.S. Im guessing because of the fact that everyone here believes in creationism, the very, very vast majority of Ghanaians have never even heard of dinosaurs! Not ONE of my students! I've really got to get a dinosaur book to show them, cause I'm really not the best artist.

So, after training I finally got back to the Upper West. I was riding back to site on a packed tro with a TON of people from my village (all of which I hadn't seen in an entire month). Because the journey is somehow completely exhausting, I fell asleep on the tro (despite the fact that the people were talking very loudly, in Degarre, of course). Anyways, them talking somehow entered my dream, but in my dream it was in English and they were fighting over who was the best dancer- Jay-Lo or Britney Spears (I guess I've been reading too many PEOPLE magazines lately...but keep sending them cause they're awesome!). Anyways, the tro went over a speed bump and I was startled awake and yelled "I dont know guys, I really think Shakira's takes the cake!" Everyone stopped talking and looked at me. Quite embarrassing if I do say so myself.

So, I just arrived back from the south to find about, well, lets see...a MILLION giant moths had colonized my back yard, which happens to be where I sleep....awesome!

You know how certain smells can bring a feeling of home (sickness) with them? Well, the biggest one for me is coconut. I think its probably because whenever you're at the beach, or pool, it's always a happy, fun experience, and you are also always confronted with coconut smelling sun tan oil/lotion and/or pina coladas. I've begun using the coconut creme pie body wash the girls sent me and while I LOVE the smell, I'm forced to think about home with every shower. So, having just stepped from the shower, I want to say that I miss you all dearly.