Monday, November 17, 2008

Busy, busy, busy!

Life is great in Ghana! Sorry I haven't updated you all in quite a while. As you know I don't make it to the internet often and when I do it is rarely fast enough to upload images. I'm trying right now and so far it seem successful!As for work and my village, things have been going really well! I am planning to have my HIV/AIDS football tournament the weekend of Nov 29-30th. The students will teach HIV/AIDS lessons to the village over a loud system before, after, and during half-time in the local language, Nzema. Also, we will paint and HIV/AIDS mural on the palace wall the week before the tournament. I will keep you posted and take some cool pictures of the students, hopefully everything will go smooth for the first time!I am also working on a Peace Corps Partnership Program(PCPP) proposal to build public latrines and a cultural center in my village. Right now most people go to toilet on the beach, but they are very excited about the latrines! They have all promised that they will use them! Anyways, the PCPP will be posted on the PC website and people can make donations towards the project. They will also send requests for funding to a list of address I give them...so sorry for those of you who start getting PC mail.What else with work...I made a brochure that has been sent to the print. They are making 10,000 copies! For those of you I haven't told, my primary project is marketing for a stilt village, Nzulezo. The money made through the tourism is divided and given back to several communities.The picture below is of an apateshie distilleries, and also the final product, jet fuel! Haha! I've learned to respect it after a few rough nights!

Now I want to tell you my favorite updates! My cat had babies on Halloween! I was in Accra the day they were born and by the time I made it home the 3 kittens were down to 2. I found them wrapped up in a fish net, I guess mom thouht it would be a good place to have them. They had cuts all over them becaue the string had cut through one of their skin. I fed her antibiotics through a syringe for 4 days, 3 times a day and she just had her 2 week birthday. They are both doing fine! Lil' Trooper who was cut the worst still doesn't have full use of one of her paws because it was cut half way though, but she is fine other than that.

Another project I am working on in my village is rabbit rearing, as an altenative proten source for the low fish rations in my village. Well my rabbit just had her first litter, 5 babies! Kojoe is a 16 year old boy in my village who I am teaching about rabbits, he is helping me take care of them. He came and got me when he found blood all over the cage and we got there just in time to see her give birth. She had 6 but one died at birth! All the kids who were watching the birth thought she was having rats. The picture on the left is the babies at 2 days old. The picture below is the babies at one week, alright so much more cute in my opinion!
I also have a new little boyfriend who is looking out for me. His name is Nanka, he is 10 years old and he comes to pick me fresh coconuts every afternoon. Last week it started raining and he ended up taking shelter in our tent and stayed the night. I have to chase him away every night at dark now. He is a sweet heart though!

This picture doesn't show it, but this tree is over 50 feet tall!
The picture below shows the site where our house will be! It is beautiful, it sits just 20 feet from the water on the beach. We watch beautiful sunrises to the left and sunsets on the right. It always has a nice cool breeze blowing too. Well till next time! Peace and love, Mandy