Unda thee beeg umbrelaa, unda thee co-co-nut tree

I've yet to get into my placement at the Volta Regional Hospital, but they hope we'll be able to get there by Monday. The last two days, I've been going with Janelle to Victoria where we help in the nursery school. All the kids are very cute and very beautiful. As soon as one sits in your lap, all the rest want to climb on. When you lift one up, they all want to be lifted up. When we sing their nursery rhymes, we find ourselves singing in Ghanaian accents. We have to, really. We stick out too much singing with our Canadian accents. "Unda thee beeg umbrelaa, unda thee co-co-nut tree", we sing.

For those of you who don't follow soccer, Ghana beat the US in the World Cup yesterday and it was havoc on the streets! There were parades of people singing (even when the pouring rain started) and cars honking everywhere. No riots, just really happy people. Ghanaians kept asking us, "Are you American? Are you American?" I'd tell them I'm Canadian and was rooting for Ghana and they'd say "We love you!" and give me a hug and their crazy handshake, which I've yet to figure out. It was an exciting game, but next the Black Stars play Brazil... we'll see how that goes.

Things WE miss:
1) Washers and Dryers - You would not believe what it's like to do laundry without these amazing inventions. First of all, it uses like every muscle in your body. Wringing out clothes is not easy. And it's not quick either. It took us like forty minutes to wring them out the first time...and then there's the second time, after the clothes have been in clean water. Right now, all our clothes are out on the line drying. With bug eggs on them. And they are starting to smell because it takes so long to dry. So much to look forward to. In case you didn't know what the weather is like here, it rains. Everyday. Lots. So think about that, combined with drying clothes outside. That's right. It doesn't work.
2) Protein and fibre - These are two very important aspects of a person's diet. Two very important aspects THAT WE DON'T HAVE. People become very constipated here. But then they get travellers diarrhea. It's this never ending cycle. Irregular bowel movements are the talk of town.
3) Street signs - We thought it was hard to navigate through London. We were so wrong. Someone pointed out at dinner that it must be hard to mail things here because honestly, how do you give away your address? "Second dirt road on the right, past the sign that says 'Aids is real. Use a condom.'" It amazes me that they even have traffic circles because no one slows down when they enter one. They drive eighty kilometres per hour on side streets that aren't paved.
4) Plans - There is no such thing as plans in Ghana. I don't think they even know what it means. So far, we haven't done anything that was on the proposed schedule at the suggested time. As we already mentioned, "Just relax." It's hard though! We are all so used to following our little planners. Almost all of us are list makers. Obsessively writing down what we have to do and when we're going to finish it. Going from that to having nothing to put on a list is a bit different.
5) Wine gums - care of Silan. She doesn't feel like the Americans can sympathize with her because they don't even know what wine gums are. Blasphemy. I know.
6) McDonalds - care of Janelle. I don't think I really miss one particular food. I just miss the concept. Of going. And having a menu. And being like "Oh, today I want this." Maybe I just miss restaurants in general hahaha
7) 'Feeling Clean' - We aren't saying that everyone here is dirty but just the fact that everyday starts with a layer of sunblock then mosquito repellent throughout the day just ruins the feeling of normal skin. And that combined with the sweat throughout the day just makes for unpleasantness.

Discussing all these things we miss is torture but I think it'll just make us appreciate everything we have at home. The next time I do laundry at school, with our two washers and dryers, I will remember what it was like to hand scrub everything. We sound miserable but we're actually having a good time. Tomorrow we're going on an adventure to one of the other home bases that's near the coast and on Sunday, we may venture to the cultural market in Accra! Can't do things like that at home, can we?

Again, sorry if this entry sounds weird. We took turns.