finally a few pictures...

look what i can do!

bushing my teeth by myself just isn't the same

it's really not...

them oliphants have BIIIG feet

"People's Friend" is his name

sunsets in Mole National Park

treehuggers in Kakum National Park

at the top of Mount Aduaklu, listening to drums beating from the village below

the bone healer doing her thing

a long, long time ago...

and then there were 2...
the day you receive your kente cloth with your name, CCS Ghana, and the month you arrived on it, is a sad day. we refused to receive them twice by Edem before finally giving in the third time.


cake is good.

*can I just add that this internet is so much faster than at KK house? Although I do miss the mix of Celine Dion (BIG in ghana) and rap in the background.

Empress Abra and Freemanjah in Kokrobite

no comment...

someone should tell those women they have baskets on their heads...

la fin d'un recit de voyages

Because of Janelle's super fantastic club membership, I'm sitting in the lounge in Heathrow waiting for our flight to Vancouver. I don't know what I'd do otherwise since we weren't allowed to bring any carry-on. No books, no music, no pens, no paper, just your passport and prescription medication (I really should have a doctor's note for my ipod).

Our last night was rather stressful, hearing from one of the new volunteers about the problems at Heathrow and trying to sort out whether flights were cancelled, delayed or something else equally as inconvenient. Trying to pack like this can be stressful. How do you pack a drum in a backpack? Are my kalabash bowls going to break? Wait... I really can't bring a carry-on? People leaving Friday spent much time on the phones trying to call parents and to get information.

Meanwhile, we baked a cake with chocolate frosting and ate it.

Our last week has gone by alarmingly fast. After coming back from Kokrobite, I put on a CPR clinic at the hospital (does it scare anyone else that the nurses don't know CPR?) Monday and Tuesday afternoon, then went straight to the Woe site for a couple days to go back to the bone healer. We came back Thursday night only to be overwhelmed by the situation.

The last day blues struck hard at about 5:30am. The morning was spent saying goodbyes, forced to drinking guiness at 10 in the morning with co-workers at WiLDAF, saying more goodbyes, and essentially denying the fact that we were leaving that afternoon.

It still doesn't even feel like we've left Ghana, aside from the slight culture shock when landing and seeing the hectic views of London and using the washroom in the lounge where you actually put the toilet paper in the toilet, instead of the bin beside it. What a concept!

I'm going to go try to sell some cedis to CCS volunteers flying through London. [in ghanaian accent] "Because I like you... I give you good price!"

A weekend of fun in the sun!

What a weekend. I don't think I've ever done such minimal physical activity in months. I wish there were Kokrobite's all over the world, especially in Pittsburgh because I'd go every weekend! Getting there was a bit of a trouble but we still managed. We said a tearful goodbye to Lisa at the airport before catching a tro-tro to circle. Then to Kaneshie. Then the last tro-tro went straight to Kokrobite. Now this may sound very simple but really, these tro-tro stations are like nothing I've ever seen before. Rarely do you find a sign directing you where to go. Fortunately, we found some very nice people who dragged us through the sludge to find the correct stop. I was very impressed with how friendly people were. It wasn't like they pointed us in the right direction, they actually led us right to where we were supposed to go, even if they weren't headed there themselves.

Once we arrived at Kokrobite, Williams showed us the way to Big Milly's. I thought he was leading us into the depths of hell because we weren't exactly in a well lit area. NOr did this particular road smell pleasant but then we hard the drumming and singing and new we must be going somewhere right. Arriving at night seemed very surreal. The drumming and dancing was phenomenol and then seeing Katie in the crowd with her little Ghana hat. The mini-CCS reunion was so nice. We lounged around for the rest of the evening just enjoying the atmosphere. Due to our not so good planning skills, we had only booked a room for three but we forced Lindsey to come along so that made four. She kept thanking us for allowing her to come like it was this big ordeal but it was great having her there. Our evenings were quite intimiate sharing a bed! I don't know how either of us managed to sleep so well but I slept like a baby all three nights.

The rest of the weekend was a whirlwind of good food and relaxing on the beach. Afer the repetitiveness of CCS, it was nice to enjoy a meal where I chose what I wanted to eat. And none of it had red sauce in it! I can not forget breakfast. Breakfast here at CCS is nothing more than cereal, maybe toast. There, we enjoyed omelettes, toast, cinnamon toast (french toast!) and fresh fruits. Each evening, they would put the menu up on the board and we didn't see the same thing twice. Fantastic!

It took us a while to get back but it all worked out. We now are only 'four sleeps' away from going home as Lindsey likes to put it. As Silan said, there's lots to do. I don't know about Silan but I'm a mixture of being sad to leave and excited to go home. I know the next couple of days will whiz by so I'm not going to waste them here at the internet cafe!!

Blog? What blog?

Writing a post here has become less and less appealing. Although I can get CCS to pay for my internet time, I'm too Ghanaian now and don't want to make the effort! And sorry about not putting up pictures... uploads are slow and it slows down the entire system in the internet cafe!

An easy way to do things is a day in the life of Silan Abra

5:30am - wake up
5:50am - go for run, all the while continuing to wake up
6:25am - see Francis, my stalker, waiting at the bottom of the hill, who then proceeds to walk me up the hill
6:45am - eat breakfast, shower, change
8:10am - van leaves for placement
8:45am - work at WiLDAF at the moment
12:15pm - lunch (highly predictable food as there's a rotation of about 4 things)
1:30pm - various things: batik or drumming lessons, go to the market, go to the bank, walk around town
6:00pm - dinner (again, highly predictable food as now there are only 3 things that we could have)
7:00pm - seeing as we live in an old folk's home, this is when we start to get tired
7:30pm - look at the clock thinking it's 9 or 10pm
9:00pm - look at the clock and argue that it's really late, proceed to get ready for bed
9:30pm - drink cup of Milo
10:00pm - go to sleep

This past weekend, I had a nice quiet birthday at the house. Only a few other volunteers were still there because most had gone on the Cape Coast Trip. Sunday, we went to Accra for the day where we saw the university, were unofficial guests of the Shangri-la (using their bathroom, having breakfast, then using their car service...), went to the cultural market and Frankies for lunch, all the while navigating the tro-tro system of the city all on our own.

Other than that, everything has been relatively normal. For those who want details, I'll express them when I get back. Another batch of new volunteers came on Sunday. Janelle and I felt old when they asked us how long we've been here and we say 6 weeks. We're the only ones left from our group, which is a little scaring, but we got an uplifting phone call from Becca last night who's back home in Seattle at the moment.

For the next week and 2 days that I'm here, I've got lots to do. Janelle and I are going to Kokrobite for the weekend. It's a drumming village on the beach very popular among the CCS volunteers. So much so, that we've pretty much established CCS Kokrobite. We plan to meet one of the previous volunteers there. We get back Monday morning, on which day another vounteer, Rachel, and I are putting on a CPR clinic. This will happen Tuesday as well. Tuesday afternoon, Janelle and I go to Woe to see the bone healer (the second time for me). Then, because it is imperative that we spend our last night in Ghana in Ho, we come back Thursday afternoon, only to leave :( on Friday. Two months has never gone by so fast.