"The public latrine is occupied with feces."

I hope you all liked the pictures! I wonder if it's at all what you imagined. I will try to be better about putting pictures up. So here's what's been happening in Lungbunga --

I've started to do a bit of small work. I started doing a census where I go around from house to house with my counterpart asking questions about health, water, sanitation, etc. A lot of the answers are redundant, but it has given me some good project ideas. I'm finding out about mosquito net usage, illnesses, water sources, what they want me to teach in the schools (one person said singing haha), this kind of thing. Most importantly I discovered that there are hardly ANY latrines in Lungbunga. No one has private household latrines and the public latrines are apparently "occupied with feces," according to one respondent. So they just go out to the bush. Which is gross. This is a good project for me to work on - bringing my village a place to defecate.

Also, the school holiday ended. This is good and bad. Good because the teachers moved back to the teachers quarters where I also live, so I have some neighbors and people to hang out with. Also good because I can go to the schools and help out. Bad because kids are annoying. This is a very important lesson I've learned that I forgot to mention last post. I used to think that non-American children were somehow cuter than American ones. This is NOT true. Not at all. My house is right by the primary school so when the children go on break they come rushing to my window to terrorize me. They yell my name, yell my dog's name (except the usually can't pronounce "Sage," so they say Sadie or Seidu), ask for things, mock me, etc. Many times I go running outside and tell them that it is rude to look through people's windows and if they want to speak to me they can come to the front door like normal people. So yes, African kids are just as annoying as American kids. If not more so in some cases.

Oh and last weekend we had kill dogs day in the village! I let Sage out to run around and the teachers warned me to be careful with her because the villagers were going out to kill dogs. Yes, apparently they were fed up with the wild dogs eating their sheep and goats so they rounded up the guns. They assured me that since everyone knows Sage belongs to me that she will be fine. Also that she is too small to kill any goats or sheep. So I felt somehow reassured.

Other white people came to my village last week! Two older British people who come to Ghana every year for three months as volunteers work with an NGO called King's Village that I also work with. So they just showed up one day! It was exciting to see other white people, and even more exciting because they are more cynical about Ghana than I am! They looked at me and said, "How are you coping?? How are you finding the food? What do you do for friends?" They were also highly suspicious that the meeting we scheduled for this week would actually start on time. And very vocal about it. So that made me feel better about my own cynicism.

So those are the Lungbunga updates! Of course I have good days and bad days, but who doesn't? I'm still feeling good about being here and that's what matters I guess. I'm continuing to get more settled in my home and making more friends, which is nice. And sometimes they bring me food which is even better.

PICTURES!!

So here are some pictures! FINALLY!! I know it's taken a long time, but I'm not very camera-savvy. And I'm kind of lazy about taking pictures. Oh and I'll write a real post later on. But I thought pictures were most important. So, welcome to my new life in Ghana via pictures.

Ok, so that first picture that sort of resembles a food is fufu and groundnut soup with some kind of meat. Maybe chicken. Maybe goat. Mom, dad, Paul - get ready! Then there's the local dam that I walk to everyday. Then my bedroom and kitchen. The next one is a girl I often see on my dam walks. This is the path to the dam. And the third to the last is my backyard. See, I really do have a village in my backyard! The last two are my little babila (meaning small dog in Dagbani), or Sage. So there you go!