Tema, oops!

So I come into Accra, go get bus tickets for Friday to Kumasi, and then ask for Tema Station, which is right near the cultural center where I had planned to pick up a few last souveniers. Well, after paying a fare that seemed too high and then after being on the trotro nearly an hour, I knew something was wrong, even though I'd said Tema Station I'd been pointed to a trotro to Tema the city. So that was 2 hours of my day. Which I'm really happy about. I did meet a nice woman who helped me get back to Accra and a woman on the returning trotro who goes to school in Georgia so talked to me with an American southern accent. She tlaks in her local accent usually to avoid getting ripped off.

Let's see, this week has been mostly exams. I thought they would be easy and boring, just sitting there, but turns out the problem of illiteracy is so bad that 5-8 teachers are kept busy reading questions out to the kids over and over and over again because they can't read them themselves. It's really sad. My kids are failing math tests when they got all the (very similar or identical) practice questions right.

Last Sunday after I got back I met all the new volunteers, six total and three in our house. Two in our house are a honeymooning Dutch couple. Not my idea of a honeymoon, but they are really nice people. Before we all left for the weekend we scattered their beds with condoms. Then that night we got a note at the house saying that our Irish and English friends from Kosoa were both at the UN clinic. I went running up - Ailish had gotten Malaria two days before she was due to fly home, then Emily had fainted watching them put a needle into Ailish. Eventful night.

For the fourth I made rice pudding out of leftover rice and canned milk and cinnamon with bananas. I'd been wanting to do that for a while and it was both easy and good. The Americans sat around and played card games and missed fireworks after the 1.5 hour Monday information sharing meeting for CBW.

At the meeting they said my goodbye ceremony will be Tuesday. I can't believe I'm leaving in a week. It's so unreal. I finally got settled here, about last week, and now I'm getting ready to go. I'm excited for Uganda but so sad to leave. It will be an interesting comparison both with culture and conditions and schools, and also the organizations GVN chooses to work with. It'll be Kumasi Friday-Sunday, two more days of exams (they should have ended Monday but they weren't copied in time to start this Monday), a day of packing and taking pictures and helping the library with an organizing project, and then Thursday I'll go into Accra and Friday depart. Time goes faster as it gets closer.

Thanks to everyone who is donating to CBW. The organization really appreicates everything.