heyyyy Africa!!!

good afternoon from sunny and sweltering Accra!! i'm sitting at the Ashesi university waiting for Sandra to come back so i can hlep her serve lunch.

the seminar is incredible so far- lectures on African politics and developing democracy and good governance.. all the way down to banking systems and security and information privacy. i'm learning an incredible amount.

i wake up to the roosters around 5:45am in the morning, take a shower, Sandra's mom feeds me enough breakfast for 3 people let alone just me, and then we head out to the university for the seminar. the drive is my favorite part. people walk out into traffic all the time, and sell things at red lights and when traffic is heavy. i love seeing the buildings and people and hearing the music- they have more gospel stations than nashville. today 'shine jesus shine' came on and i was like- I KNOW THIS ONE!! haha. Sandra, Francisco, and Evelyn make fun of me because i hum all the time... i really need to get a handle on that.

Ghana is the most beautiful place i've ever seen- palm trees everywhere, and flowers lke i've never seen! the frogs are really loud and there's livestock running amock in the street. on the way here this morning i told sandra, francisco and evelyn that daisy (my dog) sleeps in my bed and we feed her people food and she's like one of the family. and francisco looked at me and goes- in Africa we eat dogs. and cats.. and guinea pigs.. and rats... sweet jeepers. haha.

Franklin and Sandra's house is lovely and cute- and my room is the coolest in the house- which doesn't mean i'm not going to sweat away into oblivion. but everyone is so sweet- Sandra trips over me all the time- do you need anything? how are you? are you hungry? thirsty? what do you need? are you ok? haha. but she's soooo funny. she does these impersonations of bad people on american idol- so great. so great.

operation africa with braces is going fine so far- i just cut everything up and most things are soft anyways- i was introduced to african yams and mango- love the first... not sure about the second. i think i'm going to put mango in the frothy category.. and therefore uneatable. but the bread. sweet mother the bread. it's all homemade and it's amazing. i didn't realize that i had been eating bad bread all my life until 2 days ago.

sometimes it rains in the afternoon- straight down and it feels wonderful- i just stand in and get wet.. doesn't matter because it'll stop in about 4 minutes and then you'll dry in 2. Ghana is beautiful- the landscape and the people- the whole spirit of the country is beautiful. and everyone here- is an obama supporter. haha- who knew?!?! they know more about the american election than half the people in the states i bet. and they're all pulling for obama. it's fascinating to talk american politics with them- just the differences in perspective- someone looking from the outside and someone who'd never left until 2 days ago.

but i gotta run- Sandra's back and we're getting ready to serve lunch. this week is crazy- hopefully next week i'll be able to settle into a routine.