Missing Mekulu!

It feels like it’s been an eternity since the last time I posted a blog. It’s been a busy few weeks, unfortunately not the best few weeks.

About two and a half weeks ago Mekulu, my puppy went missing! She ruled my room, I let her roam in and out at her leisure. She spent some evening in my room with me normally stinking up my room with terrible gas. I don’t think she agreed with fish, but she sure did love it. She also spent several evenings out side roaming around and visiting the neighbors, she had a play mate puppy at the neighbor’s complex. A few weeks ago she went out for her evening on the town and when I woke up the next morning she hadn’t returned but, I didn’t think much of it. When she hadn’t returned the following even I started to get a little concerned, as did Ateiko, my landlord. We walked around the village, from end to end; we asked all the villagers if they had seen her and followed ever lead. Ateiko threatened to arrest anyone who might have taken her and offered rewards for any information and we hired kids to find any information they could. Ateiko called the local police authorities who are several villages away, they held a week long investigation before giving up. Following leads and roaming the village become our nightly ritual for about a week straight. It faded to searching ever other night and stopped all together a few nights ago. I try to ignore the rumors around the village, they say she was stolen and eaten. I’m convinced that she found a puppy love and ran off to make babies some where. I’m sure she could sense that I was going to take her in to be spade in a few more weeks. Either way, at this point I don’t think she is going to return. I’m really going to miss her, she love to run on the beach with me, well run circles around me on the beach. She would never go in the water with me and she hated baths. When ever I came home she would be there with her tail wagging, it would wag so hard her whole body would be swing side to side. It was too much excitement for her little body to hold! It was great having someone excited to see me ever time I came home. I think the hardest part is my village, they show their condolence by asking where she is ever time they see me. My landlord wants to buy me a new dog already but I have asked him not to. I haven’t decided if I am going to try it again or not!

In the mean time, I have been assigned to start 42 environment clubs in surrounding villages for GWS. The task seems tedious and nearly impossible! I taught my first class last week in my village. I went to 3 junior high school classes to teach them about career planning, which lead to the importance of behavior and education. It was a difficult task, I had to speak very slow and repeat myself several times. I’m still not sure how much they understood! I was supposed to go in last week and teach about HIV and AIDS but they had to cancel because there is a very important 5 day soccer tournament that all the schools are taking part in. It’s much more important than education, so much so they are taking all the students out for a week. We also took the sea cruise on a trial run! A school with 60 kids came and we took 3 separate trips out 20 minutes off shore and 20 minutes back. When we made it out there we jumped off the side for a quick swim, just the fishermen and I, everyone else was afraid to swim in the “deep sea” or didn’t know how to swim. It was an exciting fun ride, when we came in they would let the boat turn parallel with the waves and we almost flipped several times.

So all in all, I’m still surviving in Ghana! I miss you all dearly! Oh, I picked up my packages yesterday and I have my camera back again, so I will be posting more pictures next time!