footy

We finally played a real game on Thursday! We drove to Cape Coast and had lunch with the California ladies, then played in a beautiful stadium in front of a pretty good sized crowd. I got tired pretty quickly, but it was a lot of fun playing real soccer. We won 5-2. Today we went to go watch the U17 National team(who we're playing tomorrow!). They were sooo good and that wasn't even their first string team! We're all excited to play though, and we're hoping the rain will let up soon. Later today we're going to go to the orphanage later today, and hopefully the roads will permit us to go...
It's getting pretty close to the day we leave! We're all a little sad that we're leaving so soon though, it feels like home already, although there's a lot of talk about Gordos...Tomorrow we have the game against the national team, and then on Monday we're going to Calcun, where we get to cross that really high bridge and pet crocodiles. Yesterday we went to Africa beach and the little craftshop next to it and bought some really cool masks and other african things.

Busy Busy Busy

We've been pretty busy lately! We've gone to the Basic Services Primary school three times now, and everyone's pretty attached to the kids already. At the schools, each girl goes into a different class(except me and Taleen are in 1st grade together) and help out the teachers and get to know the kids. Then at break, we all go outside and play games with all the kids at the school. They have the coolest little games and all go crazy when we show up. Today we went early for their morning assembly, where they do singing and prayer. We all had to get up and dance, and the kids loved it, even though they were laughing at us the whole time. We also played a game against the girls team there, but the field was pretty bad and filled with potholes, and Jamie sprained her ankle so we stopped.
On Saturday we went to the Cape Coast Slave Castle. It was very moving, and gave us all a lot to think about. The next day we went to Busua Beach, which is about an hour away from Takoradi. It was so beautiful there! And it was one of the first sunny days of the trip, so we just jumped right in the water. It was a little cold at first, but it was really refreshing and we played sand soccer after. It got a little intense because Robert and Andy got competitive. But it was a lot of fun and we all want to go back again before we leave.
We went to the market again also, and it was a lot better because everyone was less intimidated. We actually went into the market today, and bought some beautiful fabric for our mothers and friends. Some of the girls are gonna make dresses, but I'm gonna try to make my own...we'll see how that goes.
We've also been practicing with the California Ladies. It's a lot of fun! They're so good and play the ball really quickly. We have our first game tomorrow, and we're all really excited, especially since we got new jerseys today!

The Mavericks Have Arrived!

The soccer team is finally here! Robert, Andy, Dwayne and I drove to Accra(4-5 hours) and picked them up at the airport there. They were all dead tired, but we drove all the way back to Takoradi to the Microlodge hotel. Me and Molly went to bed right away: we needed to. The next morning we got up pretty late and had bread and eggs for breakfast, then headed out on an adventure around the town. We got innumerable stares as we walked down the street. I mean, 8 white girls and 1 white dude make quite a spectacle out here in Ghana. We saw all kinds of different shops, and all the people in them waved and said hi to us! The funniest part was when both of Simone's sandal straps broke, and a guy on the side of the rode literally took them off her feet and sewed them together. He charged us 1 ceti, but it was worth it, at least it entertained us.
Later we went to the market, which was even crazier because it was so busy there and we were walking in a straight line through all the little bowls of tomatoes, chiles and fish. Everyone liked it, but weren't too happy with the fishy smell, so we didn't actually go INSIDE the market, we just walked around the market circle. After that, we went to Africa beach and played sand soccer. It was a lot of fun, and we got sodas at the resort by the beach.

11 Days in Ghana

Today has been a pretty mellow day. We got up around 10 and had rice water(boiled rice with milk and sugar) and bread for breakfast, then headed to the beach. The weather was perfect today, it might have been the hottest day since I've been here! We walked along the beach and found some big, flat rocks near the water's edge and explored around there. There were crabs and tiny little sea anenomes, and Robert thought a bright colored rock was some crazy critter but turned out it wasn't. Afterwards, we went to check out the hotel the team is gonna stay in(which is really cute!)and came home to watch germany kill argentina 4-0!

Our main activity here is going to the Service Primary School, which is K-8. We made a presentation on the first day to give the teachers all the materials, and stayed until school got out around 3:00. I worked with K1, 4-5 year olds. They are so adorable! All the kids at the school were so excited to see Dwayne and I, but a little nervous and shy too. They'd all just surround us and grin silently and get excited every time we talked to one of them. In the class I helped the teacher grade workbooks and walked around the room helping the kids right numbers and letters. Some of them seemed a little intimidated by me, but by the end of the day they got used to me and all walked us to the car when we had to leave.

The other two days we went to the school were a lot of fun too! I worked with older kids both times, and helped them with spelling and drawing. They love it when I try to speak their native language, fanti, but it's embarrasing for me because I always butcher the words and the whole class giggles. But it's good entertainment for them, I guess. After class yesterday one of the teachers had his student show us how to drum. It was so fun! They use drums to signal when breaktime starts and finishes, something I wish the U.S. would do to replace those annoying bells...He told us next week he's teaching how to make traditional African art to all the students so I'll get to bring home some genuine African artwork.

We've also been to the main market a few times. It's CRAZY over there! There are so many different things being sold. Fried fish(which creates not the pleasantest of smells...), beautiful bolts of fabric, oranges, mangoes, plantains, and all kinds of grains. It's so packed over there, even on the weekdays! People all know how to navigate around one another and I almost got lost in the crowd. It's also interesting cause people here always stare at me, but most of them are really friendly once you talk to them. Robert's been telling me and Dwayne a lot about the economy here, and apparently there are tons of American oil companies coming in, which is affecting the Ghaneans poorly. It seems like everywhere you look, there are houses being built, and not small ones. They're enormous with crazy architecture.

The town's pretty quiet today; we're all suffering from Ghana's unfair loss yesterday. But hopefully by the time the rest of the team gets here, people will all cheer up! People here literally live and breathe soccer so it's been so fun to watch the world cup here, I just wish Ghana was still in it.

So Far

Ghana is beautiful! I've been here for about a week and a half, and I'm lovin it here. The food is fantastic; we eat rice and some kind of fish or chicken stew everyday, and have freshly baked bread every morning. The roads, although bumpy, are fun to drive on and are a deep red-ish color. There is so much green here! Maybe because it's winter, but there are so many cornstalks, banana trees, mango trees, coconut trees, and plantain trees growing along the side of the road. Speaking of which, the fruit is so good here, especially the bananas and mangos. Another food i enjoyed was "fufu" which has a consistancy similar to mochi, but is made of corn and yucca. We had it with chicken peanut soup. It was heavenly. The fried plantains are also great, they're so sweet and juicy. We also have freshly squeezed juice sometimes, the mango and banana mix is soooo delicious. Well this has been all about food, but I'll write about the market and primary school later!

Local Beach

Primary School Kids

Grandma's shop at the market