My time at WAAF is flying by. The Kid's Fair I'm planning is this Saturday. It has taken so much time but everything is coming together. We finally picked up one of the checks from a sponsor today so that was a relief. Now I know for sure I can pay for the Kid's Fair so that is good. I'm also spending a large part of my time writing a proposal for the Ghana Aids Commission. Funding from this proposal would help WAAF establish a program to reduce HIV prevalence and increase health for sex workers in Ghana. I'm learning a lot about international proposal writing. However, the time crunch is that it is due Monday and the Kid's Fair is this Saturday. A very busy week for me....

Now for a short story (my mother probably thinks I was irresponsible but really we were safe, I promise).

Jessica and I went to Kakum National Park last weekend. We heard you can stay at the Park and maybe see monkeys and forest elephants so we thought that would be great. Well...you just never know in Ghana. We arrived at the park and the guy said that we can't see elephants. Apparently they are deep into the forest. So then he asked if we wanted to stay there and do the early morning canopy walk. We said yes and he asked if we wanted to stay at the lodge or camp. He said camping was on a platform. So we were thinking that the platform was in a tree because we had heard you can do that. Well, when we got to the "platform" about a five minute walk into the forest from the tourist center, we found out that the "platform" was actually on the ground with mattresses on it and mosquito nets. So Jessica and I stayed in the forest. There is a security guard at the park and people do camp there a lot. However, after it got dark, we heard a noise, really close to us. We started getting freaked out. It stopped and we settled down but then Jessica said, "Something is moving that bag!" So we both freaked out until I saw the foot of a rat that apparently chewed through the bag to get to some bread we had. So we took the food and put it away from us. However, we were so freaked out that we barely slept (maybe 2 hours) the whole night. Needless to say, we saw no animals on the canopy walk the next morning...and we left the park dirty and gross as soon as the walk was done. We went into Cape Coast and find a nice, cheap hotel to stay our second night (it actually had hot water). Needless to say, I don't plan on staying in a forest for a long long time. That might have been the longest night of my life. At least I can laugh about it now.

When you go to another country, the word "integrate" gets tossed around quite a bit. For those of you unaware, it means to be able to accept the culture and go further. You actually mix with the culture and adapt to the new surroundings in acceptance. Now since I've been here, I'm sure I haven't completely integrated since it's only been a little more than 2 months. However, I do find signs that I am integrating. Here are a few of the amusing ones.

1.) When I arrived, I walked faster than all Ghanaians. People here tend to walk slow and I am used to getting where I am going. Granted my mom walks way faster than me, but here I was passing everyone like crazy. However, today... four Ghanaians passed me on my way to work.

2.) I have picked up vocabulary that I previously did not have. Here are a few phrases Ghanaians use that I find myself using often now.

*"I'm coming." - (You say this when you are actually leaving but you are coming back.)

*"small small" - (refers to when something is just a little bit)

*"Sorry, ok" - (This one you really need to hear how it sounds to understand it)

*"eh heh" - (in mid-sentence, if you agree with what the person is saying, you say this...but you say it very very nasal. extremely nasal. If you are reading this...you should try it.

3.) When you call or go to see something you always say good morning or good afternoon. I realized if you don't say this...you probably won't get what you need. The only problem I have is when it is 12pm. I don't know which to say.

So maybe I'm not completely integrating but I'm trying and in process. Everything else here is going well. Work is crazy, busy but I'm enjoying it a lot. I'm working so hard on this Kid's Fair on July 26. I think it will go really well...at least I hope so. I'm leading the team that is planning it so it's on me to get it done well. I'm getting sad that I leave WAAF in less than a month now. I'll be taking a class the last two weeks I am here. I think it will be good, but right now I'm sad to leave work.

Happy 4th of July! I actually forgot that today was the fourth until someone reminded me yesterday. Crazy as it sounds, Ghana doesn't celebrate the Fourth of July. So today I am working just like a normal day. Time is passing quickly. I'm already halfway through my time here. Work is really busy all of a sudden. There are new volunteers and since I've been here for awhile now, I'm leading the Education Team. It's really good but a bit of pressure since the Kid's Fair is coming up soon. I'm really loving Ghana though. Living life here is good and I enjoy it.

Some things are hard to take in. I did two home visits on Wednesday. The children are orphaned because their parents died of HIV. It was difficult to see the pain these kids go through as a result. One child is HIV positive because her mother passed it to the child. Now the child's great-aunt is taking care of the child. The aunt is trying but it is difficult for her because her husband doesn't know the child's status. Because stigma is so great in Ghana, the aunt doesn't want anyone to know the child is HIV positive. As I looked into the child's eyes, my heart was heavy, knowing that this child would have a difficult life as a result of the parents.

The other child we visited lived with a family friend. The caretaker said sometimes the child just lies on the floor and cries for hours. I know this child is still suffering from the loss of the father just a few months ago. I was able to talk and encourage the child, but it is still difficult knowing that I cannot do much for the child.

Although the home visits were eye opening, I really did enjoy getting to visit the children and check on them. My compassion for them is large.

First...could someone please teach me the metric system. Ok...I learned it in school but why remember it when no one uses it in the US. But almost everywhere else in the world uses the Metric System. It is so frustrating to try and remember how to convert measurements. 

Other than that...things are going really well here. I have always hated fundraising. But here...I am either good at it or I just had good luck. I now raised enough money to put on an HIV Anti-stigma Kid's Fair at the end of July. On Friday I met with a guy and he asked how much we needed. I told him we had all but 1500 and he said, "ok, you can take 1500 from us. I was so excited. Now I'm really busy planning this event. We have 500 kids come and invite the media and representatives from AIDS organizations in Ghana. I have a lot of work to do but I am excited for it.

I will start visiting the orphans Wednesday so I'll have an update on that soon. I'm also doing quite a bit of micro-enterprise advisement with the Almond Tree (the group of people living with HIV). They are having a bit of difficulty with their products so I am helping them come up with new ideas to expand their businesses. This is really difficult when resources are limited. I'm learning to help them come up with their own ideas and empower themselves to work hard. It's definitely a good learning experience.

So there is a short update. A lot of you knew I have been sick but I am feeling much better. My antibiotic cost me $1.80. 

A short, frustrating story....I was in a taxi yesterday stopped at a stoplight. The driver suddenly told me to look at the motorbike passing us. There was a man and a woman both wearing helmets. But the woman had a baby wrapped on her back with no helmet (obviously). The driver looked at me and said, "If they crash, that baby is going to die." Now I know that here no one follows the traffic laws, and the police don't enforce them. But I decided to ask the driver anyways so I said, "If the police see that, will they stop them." And he said, "Well, he could stop and arrest them because it is illegal, but the police won't pay them any attention. They don't care." 

These are the things that can be really frustrating when you are in a different culture. There are bad things in the US obviously, but when you enter a new culture, it is easy to see the flaws that make no sense and are completely ridiculous. But this is the process of learning to respect a new culture and also seeing where major improvements need to be made.

An update on me...Work is going well. I went around to all 10 schools yesterday to pick up posters the kids drew for the anti-stigma poster competition we are doing. I was overwhelmed with the response of the kids. We got so many posters and it was so encouraging to look through them and see how they think HIV stigma can be stopped in Ghana. I'm excited for the Kid's Fair that will be the beginning of August to celebrate anti-stigma and give the winner a $500 school scholarship.

I'm also about to start doing home visits to the orphans that WAAF supports. Most of the kids were orphaned because their parents died of HIV. Some of them also have the virus as their mothers passed it to them. I am sure this will be a very interesting learning experience.

I can't believe I've been here almost 7 weeks now. It's going so fast and I'm still loving it.

I am traveling a few days right now with my friends from Norway. We went to a beautiful Green Turtle Lodge on the beach and now we are in Kumasi. I've seen some interesting things. It's kind of weird to feel like a tourist for these few days because I have been working and living in Accra for over a month now. It's weird to be a white person just traveling around. But it's ok.

I am pretty sure that my food poisoning was actually Malaria. I went to Ho in the Volta region last Friday. We went around and took some HIV educational tools to different VCT centers and spoke with the directors of the centers. It was really interesting. However, on the way back I got a fever and felt very sick. Fifi, a guy a work with, said it was probably Malaria so he took me to get the medicine and I just started taking it right away. Saturday morning was awful. I could barely walk. But by Saturday night I was able to eat, so that was good. I felt much better on Sunday. They say when you start the medicine, it kicks in really quickly. I think they were right. I think the sickness last week was just the start of the Malaria...not food poisoning. But I am much better now...thankfully.

One interesting thing...when I first came to Ghana, I found I wanted to greet everyone. They all say O'bruni and I wave. But I realized that after a while it gets really tiring. I noticed that other white volunteers that had been in Ghana longer just kind of ignored the attention. I find myself wanting to do that now. So I'm trying to figure that out now. How to be friendly when I just want to blend in sometimes. It's difficult. But i still love Ghana. It's a good country.