Dorothy

Another picture of the most beautiful girl in Africa. Her name is Dorothy.

So, I begin this blog with no idea of what stories or things there are to tell you, though I'm sure they exist. But I think I will simply begin with this little girl. Her name is Dorothy (pronounced Dority) and she just turned 1 last week! In fact, she has the same birthday as me, both according to the 'date' and the day of the week! We are both July 1st, Wednesday borns. I visited her house for the first time last night (her father is Emmanuel, our driver) when Emmanuel and I left separately from the rest of the group. He recently moved into this new home, where he rents one side, while the landlord lives next door. I have been excited to see his new home, and to have another chance to see Dorothy.

Emmanuel's new home isn't quite finished, he's working on it as he gets the money and time to finish things up, and is made up of 2 rooms. The front room has a large couch planted right in the center, loaded with clothes, possibly in some state of laundry. There isn't a TV, but the radio was playing the Spain/Germany game, and no other power seemed to be in use in the house. The back room was larger, has a bed with a mosquito net over it - which Dorothy was lying in - and a couple blankets revealing a small sleeping pad below it, with a pillow. Otherwise, the one wall of the house was lined with boxes, had a small table, and a couple suitcases.

Dorothy was alright for the first few minutes I was in the room, but once I came too close, she began to cry a little. I hate being the scary one! Her dad came and got her, and after a few minutes she was alright with me touching her arm lightly and talking to her. Poor girl, she was so tired, and now had to deal with the stress of some strange colorless creature trying to talk to her. This morning we went around Asofan (the community I'm living in) to check on some individuals to issue them another group loan. Because we were going to be out around Asofan anyway, we stopped by Emmanuel's home again. Today Dorothy was pretty content with having Josh and I there, and after only a couple minutes was alright with me holding her. She is so very sweet, and I hope to see her again!

Republic Day - and Birthday

Two adorable children I live with. Ann and Andy.

Ann with me in the car - headed to the mall on my birthday.

Yesterday was my birthday!! And coincidentally, a Ghanaian holiday - Republic day. Republic day seems to be a bit like our President's Day... you get the day off of work, or school.. but no one really cares about the purpose of the holiday itself ;) Also, it would seem to be a little bit of a 'city' holiday, for those living farther north (generally farmers, and poorer areas) its just another day.

After staying up late to talk on skype and gmail chat (for any who have both, gmail chat seems to be pretty awesome) .. (and for any who wish to meet me on chat, I would love to! Email with me about when! (I would generally be available between 1 and 5 pm, Utah time.) I woke up to Elizabeth telling me she had breakfast! Ghana has a special meal that is eaten only on birthdays, and Elizabeth had prepared it for me. It really isn't a 'breakfast' kind of food, but it is supposed to be the first thing you eat on your birthday. (It is served to the house, not only to the person being celebrated.)

The food is .. mashed yams. Sort of. Their yams here are totally different than yams at home there. They are actually the driest kind of starch/grain food that I ever had. They're kind of like potatoes, but very very dry. Usually when we have them, the are cut into pieces and boiled. The more surface area available to have been sitting in water, the better that particular bite will be. lol. For this breakfast version though, it is more like mashed potatoes, and you add palm oil. (A red oil that is in everything here. I got an entire bowl full if it! With a hard boiled egg. Which seems to e a semi-special food here. Not super unusual per say.. but certainly not a food you eat every day. So, breakfast was alright. :)

Since it was the holiday and we had the day off, I decided my desperate laundry situation needed attention. I did two batches of laundry - this is a couple hours of work - and got them out on the line to dry just as it started sprinkling rain. Fortunately, it only sprinkled for 15 minutes or so. Laundry is a lot of work! The hardest is just trying to make sure you've rinsed out a reasonable amount of soap, without using too much water.

Straight in from laundry, I started heading to my room - nap time!! Free time!! Not to be so. I talked to Elizabeth about preparing food for dinner, including brownies! But apparently this was going to be a lunch affair and needed to be started immediately. I was basically handed the kitchen. Which was kind of fun as an idea, and less fun as a reality. Working in someone else's kitchen, in another country, is hard! Finding the items you need to use, not knowing if all those things even exist here, etc. is its own task! Elizabeth helped me a lot, and she kept me on track, and straight did a lot of it. Using her stuff, timing 3 foods being made at the same time using the same stove, oven, utensils, etc. After learning about, and gaining more appreciation, for Elizabeth's cooking, we had pesto spaghetti, mesquite chicken, and brownies. Good day.

After eating plenty of lunch (I'm looking forward to more brownies when I get home today) I made it into my room for a nap! Which was very nice. I was again woken later by Elizabeth, and told we were going out! So I got ready for the day, lol, finally. (its roughly 4:30 by this time..) I got ready, and even had my hair dryer!!!! I have now been able to blow dry my hair twice in my 6 week stay! My outlet adapter didn't work for it, and last weekend when I stayed with the mission president and his wife I was able to use one they had in the house. They also had another adapter for me to try. I used it for the first time yesterday and it worked!! So I dried my hair, put on blush and mascara, wore my cute hat, and looked a bit more like my American self. :)

Our venture was out to a shopping mall, in an area I haven't seen yet! Turns out we were going to a bridal fair that was being hosted at the mall. It was apparenlty 'full' and we weren't allowed to go in.. which was kind of sad. It would have been cool to see what weddings here are like, how they advertise and get people's attention, idk, all sorts of stuff. We went instead to the Accra Mall, got sugar popcorn (very good) and went grocery shopping at Shoprite! Yep, grocery store, in the mall, and its actually a very very American feeling mall. Its definitely a central location for any foreigners. At Shoprite we saw some missionaries! From Nigeria and Oklahoma, and they're apparently the office elders. They almost came by the house last weekend when I was with the President! Awhile later, actually while we were in line, they came and found me again, and introduced me to another girl who had come to talk to them. Katie! Katie is actually a BYU student here teaching preschool and kindergarten age kids! She's only been here a week and a half, and is looking for a ward, so they missionaries figured we could maybe go together. I'm excited to have someone to be with me! She lives pretty far from me.. on the other side of Accra. The good news though is that I go to church everywhere, so wherever she is will probably do.

Finally, we went to a Chinese restaurant and had some good dinner! It was getting to be very late at night though, and we were all so tired! We didn't get home til 12:30, and everyone pretty much just went to bed. Except me, who wanted to get online and read some happy birthday greetings from home!

So thank you for any who sent birthday greetings!! I am very loved and have been blessed with amazing family and friends. Thanks again!