Peace Corps, Double-Cheeseburgers, and the pursuit of fuses...

Feb. 27th
Ralph took Blake and I to Kumasi today. We took a cho-cho which is essentially an 18 seat van, there. The cost to ride it was about the same as the cost to ride a metro bus here. During the course of the ride, a man who was seated in front of me, paid to bring his live goat along. It rode underneath my seat. We arrived in Kumasi to face the large line waiting to arrive in the Lorry Park, so we just hopped out in the middle of the large, busy street and walked up the hill to the cultural center where we were picked up in the nice, air-conditioned SUV of the Peace Corps. The driver took us to what is essentially a hostel/business building for the volunteers. We gave them 4 laptops which can be very useful for teaching in schools...etc. I got to talk to a few volunteers, but other than deciding that the people are just really normal, empathetic, and completely tired but willing to keep going - I didn't really learn much about the program that I didn't already know. Although I was told by one guy, Mike, that the best place in West Africa to be a volunteer is Togo because they have French bread and German beer. I don't know about that... fufu and malta are hard to beat... cough. After we left the Peace Corps facility, we went to Vic Baboo's, a restaurant that serves "American" food. I ate a HUGE double-cheeseburger and a coffee milkshake, which was completely satisfying until that night, when my body decided it was actually too much to handle after a strict diet of rice and fish. Following lunch, we walked around town to various electronic stores looking for: 5 amp fuses, zip-ties, and writable CDs. We went to about 12 places before we found the motherload - one fuse. For the other 10 or so we needed, we just bought plugs. We found zip-ties at the same place. Interestingly enough, we found the CDs outside of a plumbing shop. We took a metro bus back, and made it safe and sound in time for dinner at BOASS.

Feb. 28
We finished the lab today. Damon kicked major buttocks on hiding all of the wires... which not only prettied up the lab, but made it safer for both humans and computers. Tomorrow we will use the lab to teach computer skills to students from each form. We also began hashing out all the issues in the typing room lab. It would be lovely if the electrical aspects of the room would be placed prior to our arrival... but other than that, computers are being cleaned and readied to be set up. Several people went into town to get FanChoco - basically the best thing since... well, actually ice cream I suppose. And I am pretty sure Paul may have purchased a few machetes...


Feb. 29
Today was crunch day. Everyone had something to do - whether it was clean computers with "Goof-off" (which is actually so potent, I swear it does make you goof-off...), teaching a tech class to a large group of BOASS students, preparing stand-alone computers for various places throughout the campus, or troubleshooting/setting up the typing room lab. In the end, it was all completed! That night, we were thrown a celebration/good-bye party from the school. They prayed that we always cherish our memories and relationships and that we have a safe journey home. It ended of course with Fanta, Cream Crackers, and a dance party.

Mar. 1
We woke up this morning around 5:00. We packed up all of our belongings and set them up on our porch, completely ready to go. We then went to the guy's rooms... and woke them up. In past mornings we had always been woken bright and (too) early by this obnoxious rooster that just kept going and going, and going. One day, I woke up to Sarah A. chasing the rooster with a stick and Sally (a student at the school) chasing after her yelling "You can't kill it, it belongs to someone!" Today, the rooster lay dead beneath the tree. I still don't know if it finally pushed one too many of Sarah's buttons, or if it just fell out of that tree (it would always be perched up there)... We left with several adults and students from the school and headed to Accra. Along the way we stopped at a local market, and then later at the side of the road to purchase grasscutter (ie. Giant, icky, Rat-on-a-stick...) We also went to Winneba beach again, where we soaked up the sun and enjoyed swimming in the great Atlantic again. When we arrived in Accra, we went to Ram's house, where we drank Fanta and enjoyed sitting in seats other than Old Yellow's. We went from there to an Indian restaraunt where we ate a delicsious dinner (and I ate a pepper that sent searing pain up and down my torso for ten minutes...) and handed out the birthday cards to Veronica, Alyssa, and Janet. We then went to Ram's friend, Amar's, house - if you could call it that. It was really a pink castle - with a pool, tennis court, and 28 air conditioners. It was pretty awesome. After a late night swim (mostly just to feel somewhat clean,) we hit the sack.

Mar. 2
This morning all we did was relax. After an American breakfast that included hot-dogs. We swam (taught the Ghanaians how to swim - it is really funny watching fully grown adults and teenagers so eager and excited to use goggles to fetch things out of the shallow end...) In the afternoon we all donned long pants and shirts and head scarves and ate lunch at the temple. The food was INCREDIBLE! Following that, we went to the craft market where we basically spent the rest of our cedis. From there we returned to Amar's house, packed, and headed to the airport where after a sad round of goodbye's, flew back home.

Mar. 3
We went to Amsterdam again during our lay-over. We ate some delicious foods - Old Amsterdam cheese (kaas) and coffee. We went to funny stores, and bought chocolate and other snacks for the plane. Upon our arrival in Sea-tac, (and after the ten hour flight, almost entirely comprised of movie watching and sleeping...) we were greeted by all of our loved ones, and King5 news!

It is so good to be home!