"HEY WHITE LADY, MY SISTER!"

In Ghana, I am refered to as either "White Lady", "Obroni" (which means White Lady) or "My Sister". As our time here in Ghana is coming to a rapid close, all I can think about is how sad I am going to be to leave this place and go back to the reality. I am looking forward to being called by my name, Mary, though.... I am going to miss this friendly place, where small kids laugh and giggle when you take the time to befriend them, and when other teens realize how similar to eachother we really are.

Our team made it into the national paper, page eleven. We were of course all trumped by the doubletruck and pages written about George and Laura Bush's recent visit. Funny, because most of the Ghanaians at this school that I have talked to don't like him - they absolutely love Obama.

Feb. 26
Today was the first of our all team work days. By this I mean, that practically every day of this trip there has been some people working, but the next several days it will be everyone. We had a tech crew working on finishing the lab (where they are currently trying to put in a carpet, so we have to work around the carpet layers...) and we had a classroom group: students not doing tech went to different classrooms and joined in on the lesson. We also had a town crew (internet cafe, toilet paper and soap shopping... machetes, icecream... you know, the neccesities.) and most importantly, we had a laundry crew (which for some reason was comprised of all girls... a problem that will soon be rectified!) I would just like to take this time to say how grateful I am for washing machines... hand washing sweaty, dirty, boy underwear is not really all that fun. Anyway, the people that walked into town also finished giving, Isaac (our tailor) all of the fabric for our shirts and dresses - he is feeling very swamped, pretty much everyone on the team is having him make one or more dresses or shirts. I went to a little stand where some guys paint whatever you want on a shirt - when I started back into town around 5:00 or so to pick it up, the wind suddenly kicked up so strong that it hurt to open your eyes to see where you were walking due to the dirt. We decided to take a taxi back to Boass - most shops were closing up. Just as we stepped out of the cab at school, it began raining. It soon became a thunder and lightning and rainstorm. It was incredible - all the Ghanaians must have thought I was so ridiculous dancing in the rain, it is hard to explain to them that it never rains that strongly in torrents in Seattle, a town that they only know as raining all the time. As we were eating dinner in the cafeteria, the power went out. One of my Ghanaian friends commented that it must be hard to see where my mouth was since I was spilling rice everywhere as I ate. Nils silently snuck under the table and began to lightly brush girls ankles - and let me tell you, Jamila FREAKED! Hahaha... We finished dinner and carefully walked back to the boy's dorms (aka. the team kickin' it spot) where we told ghost stories until the power went out. Last night was my favorite part of the trip so far... rain is an amazing element.

The goal for the rest of our time here is to finish installing the lab and networking today (hopefully!) and then spend the next several days teaching tech lessons. In addition we will continue to visit classes and hang out with our Ghanaian friends!