Here I am..

well, I've made it. Finally--Africa. Well, thats a huge lie.. Yes, I'm in africa, but I'm not experienceing Africa. I'm not even really experienceing Ghana. I've just seen a small part of the Southern tip of this beautiful country. Still hard to believe. We arrived in Accra on The fourth of October at about 7:00pm. We were recieved by Sister Bernedette, Eric and Jackson (Our godsend "tourguide"). We then were taken to a hostel called the Salvation Army.There we were roomed with a women named Claudia who travelled from Togo to study English. She is hoping to move to the United States to live with her Husband.

We were typicl tourist in the capital of Ghana. We to the first presidents musuem, walked through markets besing *tst*ed at to come and buy things. We also went to the "dead White Man's Markets" where North American second hand clothing is sold. We also made our way to Shiny Beach where we swam in the Giant Waves. We tried new foods and met new people. We then were picked up by Eric and Sister Bernedette and came to Ada where we would begin our language lessons. We stayed at Dinahs house with her nieces Happy and Sala. We traveled to the school which teaches a wide range of students from young children, six of so to 20 yr olds. We sat in on Dungba lessons and picked up what we could. We also had a private teacher, Dinah's Niece Vida come and teach us every evening. I will be the first to admit that this language is extremly difficult to learn. Their are many sounds involved that we never use in the English language.

While in Ada we were also given local names. Mine is Akutu Yayura. The Akutu was given to me from Dinah and it means first born female. Yayura was given to me from Jackson, it means blessing. The names Jackson gave us are all names parents give to their children at birth which my symbolize what the childs brith meant to them at that time.

Today we are off to Battor to visit Sister Bernedette, then on Sunday we will be immersed into our vilalges. I will be living in Luhuor which is the furthest village, it will be about a 45min bike ride to Amanda and Aryn.

Anyways, that is about it for not. The next time I will post will be in about 3 weeks we will just be begininng our first retreat in Nkawkaw.

:)

Counting down the hours...

Tomorrow the adventure begins. Hard to believe, so hard I don't think I actually DO believe yet. These last few days that I had with my family and friends were wonderful. I was able to spend time with some of the people who I love and most importantly able to say bye for now.

Tomorrow at 10:20 pm I fly from TO to Amsterdam then to Accra, Ghana. Yes, Thursday I will be far away from those I love, the comfort of my home and western life. But I will be closer to the new beauty that I will discover, the friendships I will make and the knowledge I will gain.

I will write on the blog as much as a can but my access to the internet is limited. Thank you to everyone for the support, I will be thinking of all of you in the coming months.

Until next time.