03.19.2011

This is definitely blog worthy

So, I know some people have heard rumors that I am engaged, and I would like to confirm that the rumors are true. I am engaged to person by the name of Michael, he's wonderful and brilliant, and we're getting maaarried! (Lauren, that last sentence is for you). Some of you might be wondering who Mike is, since I have never posted about him on my blog or given any indication that we are dating on Facebook, that's just how I roll. I'm all about the element of surprise. Mike is so wonderful, and I feel so fortunate to have found such an amazing person to share my life with, and having reached my limit of mushy talk, I will now move on to something more exciting, the engagement story!

A snowstorm hit Seattle on Monday the 22nd of November and pretty much shut down the greater Seattle area. I live at the top of a treacherous hill that is impossible to drive up or down when it snows. Mike had driven me home from work before the hill had gotten too bad, but not long after I got home accidents started happening on the hill. Cars would try to go up the hill and as soon as they got to the steepest part, they would slide back down and crash into cars that had already been abandoned on their way down. Mike and I even went out on Monday night and watched some of the accidents, it was like watching a demolition derby for free. I included a few shots of the pictures I took on Tuesday morning, I counted 34 cars on the hill that had been crashed and abandoned.

So Mike was pretty much stuck at my house on Monday night. We were in the downstairs of my house, all cozy by the fireplace and all of the sudden he asked if I wanted to go for a drive. I, of course, told him he was crazy because we had just watched about 20 cars crash on my hill about two hours before then. He told me we would be fine because his car has four wheel drive. To his credit, he had been up and down another hill that leads to my house a couple of times earlier that night and his car had handled it like a champ. He finally convinced trade my warm house for the icy, snowy outdoors. We didn't try going down the really steep hill, instead we went up a different road. We weren't having any trouble until we came to another hill that had a gradual slope. We started going down, lost traction and slid into the guardrail.

We got out of the car to survey the damage and all of the sudden he got down on one knee and proposed. I had no idea it was coming. He had picked out the ring all by himself and taken my parents to lunch that afternoon to ask my dad for permission, so sneaky. I, of course, said yes. After the initial shock wore off we realized we were still stuck. So Mike decided to try to keep going down the hill. We drove about 5 feet before we lost traction again and started sliding down the hill. This time we were gaining some momentum, and the car started fish tailing and then spinning. We eventually ended up hitting another car that was abandoned on the side of the road which spun us around and we slammed into the side of another abandoned car. We were able to drive out a little ways into the road and then some guys gave a us a push from behind and we were able to make back to the top of the hill. We parked the car at the top and walked back to my house.

We didn’t get hurt so now it’s a funny engagement story except Mike’s car has definitely seen better days!

It's Alive!

After a 6 month sabbatical (mostly due to a lack of interesting events in my life to write about), I have decided to re-enter the blogosphere. I also made a new year's resolution to post on my blog at least once a month, so let the record show that I am posting on January 31, 2010 at 10:15 p.m.

Speaking of new year's resolutions/goals, I accomplished one of my goals on Tuesday, I got a job! Woohoo! I will be working as an Account Manager at a company called Passport Unlimited. Keep your eyes peeled (I think this phrase is kind of gross, but I still like to use it for some reason), Passport could be coming to city near you!

My days are numbered...

Tomorrow is my last day at the Forever Young International school. I am traveling to Accra tomorrow night and flying to New York on Thursday, sad day! I am not ready to leave and my only consolation is that we are coming back again next year. It has been a wonderful experience and I feel very blessed to have had this amazing opportunity. I hope you are all mentally preparing yourselves to hear me talk about Ghana non-stop when I get back...



To celebrate the fourth of July I went on an excursion to the Kakum National Rainforest with the teachers and administration of the school. There were seven canopy walks throughout the rainforest that were really sweet and also really scary because I have a fear of heights. Luckily I had my good buddy Jenn with me who is also really scared of heights so we held hands the whole time. Random fact: People in Ghana hold hands with each other all the time. It is common to see two men or two women who good friends to walk around holding hands. I am not a touchy feely person but I have actually gotten quite used to holding hands with my friends/students while I have been in Ghana, we should do it more in America.



All the women in Ghana carry their small children on their back. They start carrying them when they are as young as one month. We stole these kids from the nursery so we could carry them around, the kids loved it (even though they don't look like it in the picture). I am learning some very important skills during my time in Ghana.




This is a picture of all the teachers at the school on the last day of training. Overall we held 10 one and a half our trainings with the teachers at the school and we are already seeing positive results from the strategies/teaching information we used to train the teachers. There were quite a few tears shed this day, mostly by me...

We went to visit an orphanage in a town called Wawase. There are 16 kids that live at the orphanage but most of them were at school when we got there. These three little cuties were too young to go to school. I fell in love with little David (the boy I am holding) as soon as I got there. It is always interesting to me how a person can love someone so much in just a matter of seconds. The other little boy, Kwanza, only had one leg and was badly scarred from an infection he had when he was younger. I felt like I could stay at the orphanage with those kids and be perfectly happy for the rest of my life, haha.

We traveled to a town called Cape Coast and we got to see the ocean. It reminded me of the ocean in Washington and it almost smelled the same, just with a hint of Africa smell.

Happy Ghana Republic Day!!!

July 1st is Ghana Republic day which is a holiday that commemorates Ghana being declared a republic. There was no school today but all the students came to the school anyway to have a big game day. We played some african games and some american games that we have taught the kids like Duck Duck Goose and Red Rover, and we played volleyball and soccer, whoop whoop! We also had two small swimming pools, and the day was so hot that it felt very refreshing to get wet. I would like you to observe the color of the water in the swimming pool in this picture. If you think it looks very brown then you are correct. The water looked like mud water but I was so hot I couldn't resist getting in, you know what they say, when in Ghana... Can you spot me in the picture? It's kind of like playing Where's Waldo except you are trying to spot the Obroni. I'm a little sad that I won't be in the U.S. to celebrate our Indepedence Day on Saturday but I'm sure we will do something extra special to celebrate in Ghana.

Good Times in Ghana

Playing Red Rover with the students after we taught them how to play.

The Fufu we gave to the security guard, just looking at it makes me feel a little queasy...

Playing a game called Bom Ba Dina. The students stand in a circle a sing a song called Bom ba Dina while one person is walking in middle. At a certain point in the song the person in the middle points at someone and all the students sing "Shaky shake your body, shaky shaky shake your body, shaky shaky shake your body as your friend" while the person in the middle and the person that was pointed at dance and shake their body.

Little Stevie, he is adorable and very very very hyper!

Obroni (O-Brew-Knee)

Obroni means "white person" in Twi (twee) which is one of the most common dialects spoken where I am living in Ghana. When we walk through town the children yell "Obroni!" to get our attention so we will wave at them. The Ghanaians generally stare at us when they see us and when we smile and wave then they will finally smile and wave back at us. Most of the adults always have serious looks on their faces so they are really hard to read. We asked Brigham (the director of the school) why they all looked so serious. He said their hobby is sorrow and the only activity they have is going to funerals. So the next time you are bored and feel like there is nothing to do consider how much worse it could be...

We just ended our first week of training with the teachers. Overall, the information we are presenting to the teachers seems to be received very well. The best part of being is here is when we get to play with the students. Sometimes I walk around to the different classrooms and come across a classroom of students that doesn't have a teacher for one reason or another. As soon as I walk in the students say, "Madam Robyn, please teach us!". It's pretty fun being the teacher. My lessons so far include spelling english words, hangman, and the students teaching me how to speak Twi. The older students really like teaching me how to speak Twi (mostly because they think it is hilarious to hear me butcher the words I am trying to say). I'm actually starting to get pretty good though. My favorite word so far is Effe (F-A) which means "be nice" and I tend to use it a lot around the kids.

The food hasn't been too bad but it hasn't been too good either. Thank goodness for Mac & Cheese and Ramen Noodles. The grossest thing I have eaten so far is something called Fufu (foo-foo). It is made from a root called Casava that is first boiled and then pounded into something that resembles bread dough. I thought they would bake it since it looked like dough but they don't. They form it into a small ball about the size of a fist and eat it in soup. I think it was the texture that I couldn't get past. The mutton in the soup with veins poking out didn't really help either. Our cook Pat brought us the Fufu and waited for us to try it. I took a bite and tried to keep a straight face while I choked it down. As soon as Pat left I tried to figure out how I was going to get rid of the food without wasting it (the Ghanaians never waste any of their food because it is so limited). One of the night security guards happened to walk in at that moment to introduce himself. Jenn and I both gave him our bowls of Fufu but told him to bring the bowls back to us and not to the kitchen because we didn't want Pat's feelings to be hurt that we didn't like the meal she had prepared.

We were very proud of ourselves for not wasting the food but things didn't quite goes as smoothly as we had planned. I saw Pat coming to collect our dishes before the security guard had come back. Jenn ran into the house and I tore apart the kitchen looking for two bowls I could get dirty with the last remains of Amy's Fufu so it would look like we had eaten everything. I grabbed Amy's bowl and the two clean bowls I found and ran into the apartment while Amy tryed to stall Pat. Amy called me a couple minutes later and said Pat was looking for Jenn and I. We walked out with the three dirty bowls to give to Pat and noticed Amy had some bowls as well. Apparently the security guard walked in right after Pat to return the bowls! I don't know if Pat ever caught on but I'm sure she wondered why we gave her so many bowls back. I'm just grateful I did not have to eat the Fufu.