dear friends... megan and i have decided to stay in Ghana... K BYE

with georgina... she is soo sweet and our translator because she can speak really good english!!

with the kids... Collins is between me and meg in the green shirt(he loves megan)!!

the food.... hmmm what do you think???


being a real ghanian woman and carrying the water on my head...


the school ouside...


picking up palm nuts used for soup with bless (far left), winfred (middle) and courage (far right)

LOVE!!


Holding courage!!

:) hello again from Ghana!! This has went by way too fast!! Gosh Megan and I have already been here for 2 weeks!! It is moving much to fast for us!! Thank you all who read and comment on my blog! i love all your comments! there have been many questions and i hope to answer most of them... so the program that i went through is called GCS.. Global Cultural Solution.. It is such a great program and is cheap!! there is another guy here at the orphanage from U.K and his program cost him $2,000 dollars and ours was only $550!!! so its a great program plus the guys are soo helpful and kind and they go through orientation with you! they call about every day to check up and make sure things are good.. its just been great!
okay another question was money... so the guy from U.K that is here is starting up a website for the orphanage where you can just use paypal to transfer money staright to the orphanage and you can say where you want the money to go... like light bill, or water bill, or food.... so once that website is up and running i will let you all know!! THank you for your concern and help!! they sure do need it!!
Megan and i want to take the children on a trip before we leave too... it might be a little expensive for us.. but they want to go to this national park really bad!! i think it would be fun to take them so i think we are going to try to get a bus and take them there.. its about 4 hours away so that is why they have never been... but i think it would be so fun and they would just LOVE it!!
Progress with Courage as well!!! He has been so healthy and strong for about 4 days now... no fever no coughing... YES!! and he is totally breaking out of his shell... it was so cute the other night... i was sitting on a chair talking to someone and he just came right up to me and climbed up on my lap and fell asleep!! ahh it was precious! i was sweating so bad and he was drooling but i didn't care.. i just held him!! i also try to do things that my mom would do to me when i was little like sing to him, tickle his back, tickle his stomach... and he LOVES it!! at first he was like what is this white girl doing because he had never felt a back tickle before.. but now he will just let me tickle his back and stomach!! also i think the other kids make fun of him for me always holding him because the other day a girls said something in their language and he got off my lap right away.. i motioned for him to come back and he nodded no... but sure enough... he inched his way back!! it was soo cute... he took baby steps over to my chair... but baby steps to lean on me... baby steps to move alittle closer to my lap and then finally i just picked him up and he got this huge smile on his face!! haha it was so cute!!!
megan and i visited the kids school the other day and oh my goodness!! the children have school outside under the trees on these benches!!! like K-12th grade all have it like this!!! it was crazy!! they are learning about computers but they have never seen a computer before.. i saw the teacher had a picture on the chalkboard of a mouse and he was trying to explain what the mouse of a computer did and these kids had blank stares.... how do you teach without showing!!! the head master asked if i would get the school a computer so when i go home i am writing to Bill Gates and asking!! These kids have no manipulatives to learn.. just the chalkboard and paper!! its crazy... no counting blocks, reading books, pictures of animals... just imagine teaching and trying to learn without actually doing or seeing!!!
teaching kindergarten is going well too!! the kids are learning fast. at the beginning courage couldn't write the alphabet.. he probably could do A-G and today he wrote the whole alphabet!! I was sooo happy!! we are still working on a few kids like Daniel who only knows A-D and he is 7 years old!!! and little Daniel still can't count to 5!!! They are pretty behind for how old they are but we are working with them!!
It is kinda frustrating too because when megan and i give them stickers, playdough, pencils, chalk... anything they hord it and hide it in their pockets!! its kinda funny but it gets frustrating.. these children have never seen the things we give them and so they just want to take take take because that is what they have learning in their life... if they see food.. they take because they dont know when they will eat again... same thing with pencils and paper... they just want it because its there!!
last week we took the kids to the library and bought them all library cards becasue they didn't have them!! we also gave Collins (he is in love with Megan!!) some money for his school fees (only about 2 dollars! but they dont have money for school fees) and we gave some to Portia for a school uniform because she couldn't afford one (only 3 dollars!!) its amazing how little things are... like 2 or 3 dollars but still they just dont have the money!!!
i let the kids listen to my i-pod the other night and they went crazy!! haha they LOVEd it!! we have been playing lots of fun games with them too!! they have taught us some fun ones too!! oh my gosh the other night we played Red Rover with them and they are sooo violent at that game... if you are called over you dont just run... no you clasp your hands together and run at full speed and you swing them like a hammer as you got through the arms on the other side... it hurts soo bad but its fun!!
sorry one last thing... its really sad how much they swarm people if they have food... like the other day i had like 3 pieces of rice grain left on my plate and there was a dispute over who got it... and someone was eating and little Bless picked up some rice grains that had fell on the floor to eat... soo sad!!
Megan and I are having such a blast together!! she is a great traveling partner and we have a couple good laughs each day about something!! we have so many inside jokes that keeps us happy and laughing!! we have had a few marriage proposals that we have kindly declined too!! :) we are both doing soo well!! i am so grateful for my family, friends, teachers, food house, school, car... ahh everything! this has been the best experience of my life and i dread the day i have to leave these children!! love you all and keep the children in your prayers!!

heart break

daily occurrence... if any of the children have food... everyone swams them wanting just a tiny grain of rice if they can have it... its soo sad! david.. the one in the pink shirt is a twin and him and his brother were found wondering the streets when they were just 2 years old... :(

mmmm

tickling courage!!!

dancing with courage!

my dear friend courage!


Teaching the kindergartners addition


Bathing Bless

Cute Bennet!! so after i put this on.. everyone started laughing and saying.. she is a real african woman now... !

okay sorry if most of these pics are of me and courage but i am soo happy!! he is getting better and i truly feel it is from the love that megan and i are giving him! :) he got some medecine that he has been taking! but the other day he did have a really bad fever! it was soo hot outside... i was sweating like no other and he was still just burning up! it had to have been about 105 degree fever!
my title is heart- break because think about a time you think you have had your heart broken... maybe from a boy, maybe a loved one passed, maybe you failed an exam, maybe your car was stolen, maybe 1 million dollars were stolen from you... now quadrouple that heart break and that is what i feel like every day!!! i dont think a day has gone by without a tear in my eye for these children. they have NOTHING... really nothing! it breaks my heart that people live this way, that these children live in filthy places with nothing to sleep on (they sleep on hard cement floors), that these children dont know when they will have food next or how much it will be, that these children dont get hugs, kisses and tucked into their beds! it breaks my heart! yesterday megan said the word.. hug.. and they looked at her like she was crazy. i hugged two of the girls goodnight last night and they just stood there like they had never been hugged before!! so sad! this experience has been such an eye opener for me! it makes me so thankful for what i have!! if you ever eat infront of them, they swarm you wanting some food.. they will eat the food off the floors... anywhere just to eat something because they are so hungry. most of the children are so malnourished and have huge bellies and their arms are tiny... like the size of two of my fingers put together!
two of the older children saw my i-pod yesterday and they went crazy!!! they listened to it until the batteries were dead!! haha it was cute! they loved it!!
megan and i are fitting right in, in this town!! people call us by name as we pass.. akoo and akoos.... and the little kids yell.... belina... which means white person!! its fun and i like it! i was singing bob marley... dont worry about a thing... the other day and these two guys started laughing so hard... partly becuase i was a white girl singing and partly because they know bob marley too!! :)
i am so humbled by the peoples love and compassion here. everyone looks after everyone! you could ask someone where someone else was at any time of the day and they just know!! they aren't nosy.. its just how they are... neighbors know where you are.. friends know what you are up to... its funny! i am also humbled by joshua (the directors) faith!!! he has such great faith! i went on a walk yesterday with him and i asked him what the number one need the orphanage has... he said that they are trying to build a school for the children so they dont have to pay the school fees now.. he also said that paying the water bill and the electricity bill eachother (about 60 dollars) is the hardest! he said that God will find a way! he has amazing faith in God! he said in the scriptures it says that when times are hard and you are struggling God will always help and find a way out! ahh i love his strength and optimism! i told joshua that there are soo many people in america that want to come volunteer and teach so when i get home i am going to set up a website for people to come teach at the orphanage!
the people live such humble lives as well. the girls cook each meal outside until coal fires, they wash their laundry in buckets and hang it out to dry! there is no computers, internet, cell phones, tv, radio, washing machine, stove, refrigerator, freezer, oven, microwave, hair dryer...... nothing!!! just think of any appliance that you plug in and its not here... their lives are so simple!
megan and i are still teaching kindergarten each day. its challenging and hard im not gonna lie.. we get frustrated with the language barrier but they are smart kids and i know they will turn out just fine!
megan and i are NOT really a fan of the food... so we may come home looking gaunt and frail.. haha... they feed us fufu and we cannot make ourselves eat it... we have tried to suck it up but megan almost threw up and i gagged... so we dont really eat... its too hot anyway and we are never really hungry! well i must go but i love you all!! miss you and hope everyone is doing well! thanks for your comments!

my little friend COURAGE

sorry its long but WORTH the read!! :)
Indi (Good morning)!! well its morning here, but its probably about 3 a.m. in the states right now! We have adjusted to the time change now and can actually sleep through the night! There are still the occasional goat noises, cockroachs and lizards that wake us up in the middle of the night but its all good!!! We are now in Tsito (Chito) where the orphanage is! Oh my goodness i cannot even begin to tell you how overwhelmed i feel! Not stressed but overwhelmed with the fact that these children have nothing! They live such humble lives but yet they are still so happy, loving, giving and kind! Its part of the AFrican culture that when you are eating you say "Invited" and this means anyone around can have some of your food. These poor children are starving and malnourished (you can tell from their popped bellies) but yet they still invite you to eat their food with them! Its too sweet! The orphanage opened us with loving arms and treat us well. It is run by "Mama", sweet older woman who actually started the orphanage in 2000. Then everyone else that is there are part of the orphanage but everyone helps in their own way. The older women cook, clean, do laundry, bath the younger ones and teach. The older men help with the labor.
They treat us so well and bring us our meals in our room to eat and they gave us the best room! It has a fan, a light and a nice big bed! I guess they didn't have a fan and lights until about a week before we got there! Everyone is like a huge family here its amazing!! There is a one year old here and last night Debra (6 years old) carried her around on her back until the one year old (Benny) fell asleep! Everyone just takes care of eachother and looks out for one another! It has rained each day we have been here too! Its not just Seattle rain.. its RAIN!! huge drops and for hours! Its amazing! I love it! Yesterday i took some kids out and we danced in the rain for a while! :) This orphanage is very Christian too and so every morning at about 5 am we wake up to the sound of the children singing songs, beating the drum and praying! Its really precious and sweet. This morning me and Megan got up and went outside and listened to them... soo cute! They were dancing too with these HUGE smiles on their faces!
oh so meg and i thought we would have a chance to see how they teach before we jumped into teaching... but no... :) the first day (yesterday) we went to school with the kindergartners and the teacher was like... ok teach! haha me and megan had to teach the WHOLE day!! 8-2! We did reading, writing, and math! It was fun but kinda funny to be put on the spot the first day! We have also been playing many games with the children and I helped bathe them today in a huge bucket of water! Its cute they all call me Akoos because i was born in Sunday! Whatever day of the week you were born on they call you that! So I am Akoos and meg is Akoo!
They also LOVE the ball i brought and play with it soo much! Yesterday we all played a game with them and im not really sure what it was or what we were doing but i just knew you passed it to a girl ( pretty sure it was girls against guys!) We also went over to a neighbors house yesterday and watched the futbol (soccer) game... Ghana vs. Ivory Coast. Soccer is huge here and there were about 30 people crowded around the tiniest screen i have ever seen! They dont have much but when someone does have something like a tiny t.v. every shares and comes to watch!
Okay so my post is called Courage because there is a little boy named Courage here. He is just as darling as can be! He is in Kindergarten, has white hair (!!!), and is really shy and withdrawn. I have made it my goal that while I am here to help him come out of his shell and warm up to me! I figured there are 33 children and I cannot help them all but i can make a difference in one of their lives! So Courage is my goal! He has asthma really bad and so he wheezes and coughs and last night I held him for about an hour while he coughed and coughed. Its was soo sad i had tears in my eyes. I felt his heart beat and it was about 150 beats per min!!!! THAT IS CRAZY!! that is mine when im running!! Help me out here any nurses... what is his sickness??? I feel so bad for him!! He hardly ever smiles and yesterday i took him out in the rain and danced with him and he had the biggest smile on his face!! My life is COMPLETE!! ahh! OH my gosh don't be surpirsed if I bring Courage home with me!! ahh! :) Courage is the one with something in his mouth in the picture!!
So there is also another boy that is such a comic relief for Megan and I! His name is Calvin (4 years old) and everytime we look at him we bust up laughing!! He is just so cute and just has that personality that makes you smile even when he isn't doing anything! He loves to skip and dance around and he LOVEs to eat... he is always eating and taking peoples food or eating food that was dropped on the ground! :) He is just adorable and keeps us laughing!
So life is pretty much BLiss right now! We are doing soo good! my eyes have been opened and I am soo THANKFUL and blessed for what I have! Its amazing how much love you can feel for these children and we have only been with them for 2 days! Leaving to go use the internet today was hard because we wont see them for a few hours!!
oh sorry last thing... so the tro-tro (bus) is crazy!! but it was fun. we had to take the tro tro to Ho (its about 10 min from where we live) and seriously the driver honks like every min. to people on the side of the road to see if they need a ride. You pack in as many people as you can... I sat on megans lap! and he drives like 60 mph on this tiny narrow road... passing cars even when oncoming cars are coming!! its crazy but i was just smiling so big as the loud african music was playing in the tro tro with about 20 people packed inside!! ahh AFRICA! :) I Love it here! the people are amazing.. so giving and loving and compassionate!

Alive and Well and in GHANA

Akwaaba!! Megan and I arrived safe and sound in Ghana 2 days ago and we are soo happy and excited to be here!! Everything has gone very smoothly and we are learning so much already!! Our luggage made it which was a huge blessing and our plane was about an hour late and so when we got off the plane Augustine and Oppiah (from GCS were there to greet us! They had been waiting a while but they didn't mind! The Ghanians are very laid back and chill people so we get along just great! :) After we were picked up from the airport we were taken to the tro-tro (bus) station and we took the tro tro from Accra (the capital) to Ho. It was about a 5 hour bus ride and the bus is PACKED with as many people can fit so it was pretty incomfortable and piled with people! I drank and huge thing of water right before we left and so about an hour into the trip i had to pee sooo bad! I told Oppiah that I had to go and for the bus to pull over and he said that it was too risky!! haha about 20 minutes later i was literally dying and told him I HAD to go soo bad and couldn't hold it any longer! So he told the driver and the driver pulled over right on the side of the road and about 4 men and I got out and all went pee! :) i tried to hide behind a tree.. but i guess its pretty common for people to to pee anywhere and whenever (men and women) so even thought it was a big deal to pee infront of them, they were used to it!
We arrive in Ho pretty late and we stayed in a hotel that night. The next morning we were able to shower and then we started our orientation! It took the whole day and we learned everything there was to know about the orphanage, the people, the program, language, culture and customs! The director (Nana) is super nice and very organized and tell us that our safety is his number one priority! We are in good hands here! They are so nice to us and took us to a restaurant today for our first Ghanian meal and it was.... interesting! It was fish, boiled eggs, plantain and some spicy sauce! All the boys had Fufu and it looked disgusting but its like there staple so we are bound to try it. FuFu is this dough that is put into soup with some kind of meat and you grab some dough with your hand, dip it, and then let it slide down your throat! I will have to tell you when I try it!
Sorry this is soo long but here is already so much to say! We go to the orphanage tomorrow and so we are super excited to be there! We will stay there at the orphanage too! Oh we also met the missionaries today!! We asked Nana if he knew of the LDS church and he had just had a volunteer that was LDS and so he knew where the church was so he took us there and then we went to the Mission home and met the missionaries, got their number, and found out where church was!
I am again so happy to be here! The culture just amazing!! People on the streets all day long, crazy crazy drivers honking all the time, its super hot (90 degrees) and everyone is just so happy even though they have nothing! They are all like one big happy family. I saw a lady on the plane help this dad who was trying to deal with his crying baby. She didn't know him but she noticed his baby was crying so she got up and went over and took the baby and rocked it to sleep! It was really neat to see! Megan and I are learning some of the language which is fun but the pronunciation is pretty hard.. we will get it though! oh and we also bought a cell phone. It was 50 Cedees (dollars) but they wanted us to have one to communicate with them so we were okay with buying one! we will probably give it away when we are done... Everything is super cheap here too which is sweeet!! water and food is cheap and using the internet here is cheap!
okay just alittle taste of what their life is like here... our friend Oppiah cant afford an apt which is only 200 cedees (dollars) for 2 YEARS!!! that equivillant to 2 I-PHONES!!! Can you believe it! So next time you use your I-PHONE think of someone who could live here for 4 years with that money!!! :)
okay love love love and miss you all!! we are having a great time and megan is such a great traveling companion! I Love her so much and am so grateful for her! We have had some good laughs together! :) haha okay bye for now!

Travelin Fool...

I LOVE to travel! I love exploring and seeing the world! I love learning about new cultures, sightseeing, and being on unfamiliar ground. The other day I was thinking about all the places I have traveled and I feel SO blessed to be able to travel so much and see the world! Every year since 2002, I have traveled somewhere and been able to experience a new place! In three days I am traveling to Ghana, Africa to work in an orphange for a month! I am soo excited, blessed, and grateful for this opportunity! Thank you to everyone who has supported me! I will try to keep you all updated!

2002- Ecudaor! I went to Ecuador to visit Gina (an exchange student we had)

2002- I also hiked into Hava Supi and went to the Grand Canyons with my sisters!

2003- New York for a week with Melissa!

2004- Washington D.C. for a week with classmates

2005- Hawaii with the fam!

2005- Europe!! (Venice, Florence, Pisa, Verona, Milan, Paris)

2006- North Carolina to visit my sister Rachelle and her family!

2007- Hawaii again to live there during the summer with Lorie

2008- I lived down in California for the summer and traveled to 9 different states coming back to Washington.

2009- Coyote Gulch hiking trip!

2010- AFRICA on Monday!!! I am soo excited to travel to Ghana, Africa and emerse myself in their culture! I am traveling with one of my best friends, Megan where we will stay in the orphanage and work with children ages 5-17. We will also have the weekends off where we plan on doing much exploring and traveling on our own!

"20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowliness. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover" - Mark Twain

Winner of the HAIR award!

Okay so I once again did a drastic change to my appearance and dyed my hair burgendy brown with a little egg plant... :) Well I mostly did it for Africa ( I as in my dad).. but as Megan was dying my hair yet again we were talking about how many different hairstyles I have had within the last couple years.... and I'm pretty sure I could win an award for changing my hair so much! I am surprised I still have hair intact!

High school- long and natural strawberry blond..

*I dont have a picture but in High school Melissa also dyed my green with food coloring for a couple days!*

dyed it brown... still kept it long

put a few black and blond highlights in it..cut it a little

grew it out long... went back to natural strawberry blonde

Longest it's ever been in Hawaii- sun bleached

Did a little perm action... dyed blonde... still long

I just had to add this pic cause a lot are of me and Carter.. haha but look how long it is!!

K still long but dyed a little redish blonde..

back to blonde with roots growing out...

CHOPPED IT!! donated it to Locks of Love.. dyed it with blonde and carmel highlights


went natural back to strawberry blonde...

Grew it out in Cali... Dyed bleach blonde

okay who let the white trash in?? umm not really sure what I was thinking but yes this is the PLATINUM hair my dad always told me to get...

kept the platinum but added some brown highlights...

chopped it to the A-line... got some white and black highlights...

went back to the Platinum...

went back to the highlights....

Did the A-line once again and did some blonde and carmel highlights...

Probably the shortest its ever been....

Trying to grow it out... got some carmel highlights...

dyed it reddish brown for Africa...

dyed it burgendy brown about a week later cause I didn't like the reddish brown...

whew.... see what I mean??? hopefully this nonsense will come to an end and I can make up my mind one of these days! K so out of all of them... which is your favorite?