Nice Long Entry for Dad

This week we leave for SITE VISIT!! I am so so excited. I can't wait to find out what my house is like. After all, I will be living there for two years (hopefully haha!). I hope it lives up to 214 Mitchell Lane standards.

Also during site visit is my 23rd birthday (on Nov. 24 in case you didn't know)! I doubt I will tell my Ghanaian community about it...they don't really make a big deal out of birthdays like us Americans and I don't want anyone thinking I'm expecting anything. But I will get to celebrate in Tamale with some fellow Peace Corps friends on Tuesday, Nov. 25 which will be nice. And also on that note, I don't think I have good cell phone reception at site with my current phone number. So if anyone wants to call or text happy birthday messages (which I'm sure you DO) you should wait until I go to Tamale on the 25. And yes I'm aware that I'm shamelessly asking for birthday attention!

I also get to meet my counterpart this week. My counterpart is the person living in my community who I will work closely with on most projects. Very exciting. I'm extremely relieved to see training almost over. It's great to be with lots of American Peace Corps volunteers all the time (I really do love them), but I'm tired of homestay and not living independently. I'm ready to move to my new home, settle in, and work on some projects. Swearing in is less than one month away!!

The Ghanaian national elections are coming up! On Dec. 7 they will elect a new president. It's all pretty exciting and interesting to see how an election happens over here. On my taxi ride to the internet cafe we drove through an NDC rally. Pretty intense!

MOST EXCITING NEWS SO FAR: I have TWO kitten possibilities!! My homestay family offered me a baby calico who is gorgeous. And there is also a tiiiiiny kitten I found at the spot (bar) on Friday night who I fell in love with. The spot owner said she is a "lost cat" (maybe I'll name her Losty haha) and they really want me to take her. So hopefully something will work out. I am very lonely without my baby boy (Dyl) and I need some animals in my life!

My health has been miraculously great thus far. With the exception of dusty lung I have had no sickness. I'm very lucky. I'm also getting more accustomed to the food (I even asked for fufu the other night. By the way, fufu is basically pounded yam. It's a doughy consistency and used to scoop up soups and stews). Old Tafo (my homestay community) is a bit intense for my tastes -aggressive and in your face a lot. After visiting Northern Region I am so excited to move there. It was much more laid back and relaxed. It is also predominantly Muslim, which I imagine will have to be quieter than the Christians down here in the south. Except for the 4AM calls to prayer...

I am also still making lots of good friends in Peace Corps. I have created a little family for myself, it's wonderful! Consuelo, my surrogate mother, is AMAZING! I hang out with her all the time and she is even going to help me PACK for site visit today! Two of the married couples in their mid and late 20s have adopted me as their baby sister too! So I am surrounded by lots of wonderful people. At site I will be living close to Ana and Andy, two other good friends in the WatSan sector. I'm lucky.

So that's that for now! My mother says she likes short blog entries and my father says he likes long blog entries so I have to do some of each to appease them. You are a dedicated blog reader if you made it to the end of this one!