Yes, I managed to make it to Africa safe and sound, and mentally and emotionally stable...so far. Airplane ride was okay, watched "The Office," "Heroes," and "Transformers" on the plane and "Lost" on my ipod. Probably not the best choice for a trip over the ocean. Hopefully the rest of my luggage will get here tonight, thankfully they didn't lose my main luggage.
I'm staying in a small complex with 6 other volunteers from America, Germany, and Switzerland. There are 3 bedrooms for volunteers, a kitchen, dining room, a few more bedrooms for the people that care for us, and a few 'bathrooms.' We get three 'meals' a day and all the volunteers eat together.
Food so far is...interesting. I don't know how long my Trader Joe's supply will last. Africans apparently eat a lot of starchy foods. A lot. I don't think we're ever going to get fresh fruits and vegetables. Breakfast is usually white bread. And you all know how much I love white bread. They leave some margarine on the table too. Yum. They don't feed us the super cultural foods like fufu or banku, but we get a lot of rice and some things that I don't recognize. There's also a lot of fish. But I don't think fish is supposed to taste, or smell, that fishy.
Right now I'm going through a culture and language program, which only lasts a couple of hours a day. I'm with Trey and Natalie, who flew in the same day as me. We're learning Twi. Most of the alphabet is the same, except for a letter that looks like a backwards c and one that looks like a backwards 3 (they still have e and E though). I start at the orphanage next week.
Weather's not bad. Fairly dry and hot, but not too hot. WAY better than the 15 degrees I would be experiencing in Provo.
A ton of the stores have religious names. Some of my favorites include "God's First Photo Studio," "Grace of God Cosmetics," and "God's Hand Hair Cuts."
Unfortunately, the computers here are ridiculously slow (I'm going through some serious Mac withdrawls), so I won't be able to upload any pictures. As soon as I get back I'll be going through them like mad and uploading to my blog then.
More fun interesting things later. Until then.
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2008
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January
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- Comments and Questions
- Gas leaks and broken bumpers
- Mercy Orphanage
- Yams, the African potato, and other such foods
- Faith, Hope, and Charity
- Questions answered
- I need a boyfriend, any takers?
- Don't worry, I wore a helmet
- More iPod fun
- Water, otherswise known as MANNA
- To Bucket
- Spiders on my head
- Snap me!
- We Thank Thee, oh God, for a Prophet!
- Seat belts? What seat belts?
- Cell Phone
- More of Ghana
- An Exciting Discovery
- Sheep go to heaven, Goats go to hell...
- Don't go to the beach...on Tuesday
- Mastercard, not everywhere you want to be
- I'm Here!
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January
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5 comments:
Hang in there, the food will get better, the language will get easier, and one day when you are back home, you will miss it all. I promise.
The food sounds like a weight-loss plan to me. Do all the volunteers speak English? The store names are a kick. You'll have to get some pictures of those. I'll try to find out where those cool coffins are made. Can't wait to read more.
I can't believe we won't get pictures! I'm going to go into withdrawal. If you figure out a way to email them to me (even one a week!) I can resize or whatever and put it on the blog. Those store names are hilarious! What's your roommate like? Should we send you some lotion?
Kelli, if you get any skinnier from not eating all the weird food,you will blow away! Maybe I need to come and visit you, lose all this baby-weight!!!
Hi keli,
i am pastor Chris etim. A missionary from nigeria [west africa]. i saw you last time in the cyber cafer i was wondering what you are doing in teshie. i stil want to know your mission in africa.In addition i am a preacher, a misionary, Can we be friends? please you send you message to pastorchrisetim@walla.com.
thanks till i read from you .
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