We're BAAACK:)

I'm BACK!  I know...it's been a while:)

Coming back to Nigeria has been so much easier than last year. First of all, the weather has been wonderful - much cooler temperatures, lower humidity, very little rain, and no lightning storms. It's amazing how just a slight change in weather can make such a difference in your day to day lives. On top of that we haven't been having the constant power outages we usually have. And the road coming in to the housing development where our school and flats are located has been filled-in. Now, we don't have to worry about breaking an axle or blowing a tire or getting swallowed up by a black hole amidst the array of horrible pot-holes.

Our new steward is working out rather well.  We came "home" to a clean flat, no ant problems (just a few pesky lizards and cockroaches), a car that works, a furnished flat, and knowing our way around a large, confusing city. So, I'd say things are going rather well.

As for my teaching gig...two thumbs up for this year. I have only 19 kiddos (two of which are teacher's kids) opposed to 25 last year! If you're a teacher, you know how much a deficit of 6 kids can make. And those 19 smiling faces are pretty darn awesome! They have got to be the nicest bunch of kids I've ever met (as a whole). They don't really argue or even tattle-tale on each other...everyone does what their told, they all do their homework, and boy do they love to listen to me read. This is a great bunch of readers! I am loving my job:)

Back to School night was a success. I had 13 out of 19 families come to my class. Here, you are expected to give a mini-presentation about yourself and what parents can expect this year. We also have to keep a classroom website, which is primarily how we communicate with parents (that and face-to-face as parents are at school before and after the day to drop-off/pick-up kids). Since I already designed this last year, all I had to do was copy my options from last year into this year and voila! I can see why teachers stay-on for more than their initial 2-year contract.

Balogun shopping area

As some of you probably already saw via FB, Britte' and I already ventured out into the real Nigeria to shop amongst the locals for fabric to make our Nigerian Culture Day outfits. This is always fun, exhausting, and eye-opening all at the same time. We took some of the "newbies" with us and taught them the ropes of fabric shopping. Our driver, Mike, to show us his appreciation, brought his personal tailor to our flat last week and had us measured for outfits that he is having made for us. We should be getting them back this week - I'm sure there will be pics to add once Nigerian Culture takes place at the end of September.

A bag full of chickens sitting on the sidewalk.

Shopping for fabric at Balogun.

We are also doing a lot more of our own shopping for groceries/produce. There is a local produce/fish market down the road where fishermen and farmers sell their products. Although I had an inkling already, I've decided that our cook from last year was milking us, paying double or even triple for the same products. And we've barely gone through any oil in the last 5 weeks, proving that it is possible to cook healthy meals here (for those of you who don't know, our cook last year was using copious amounts of oil last year in every dish he made). I'm sure everyone has heard of this new internet sensation called "Pinterest"...I am loving it!  I am stock-piling recipes and having our cook try a new recipe each night she cooks. So far, we haven't eaten the same meal twice (except we did have her make enchiladas twice, as on the first go, she used feta on and in the enchiladas, rather than mozzarella) (oh, and I guess she's made pizza twice - once with me showing her step by step, and then on her own, however, minus any cheese whatsoever...). Cooking skills are something that take time to develop:)

There has been one major development since our return to Lagos. The school finally decided to install a water-pump on the roof of our building! It took a few days of no water, and then it was only cold, but now it is up and working! No more piddly showers for us! No more taking 2 hours to fill the washing machine (or lugging buckets of water from the back bathroom to the kitchen)! Of course, with any improvement here, there are also drawbacks. The pipes in these flats are 40 years old and not used to such extreme forces of water shooting through them, so of course, all of our water fixtures are leaking. We had to turn the water off to the toilet in the front bathroom, we keep a plastic container under the hot water unit in the kitchen to catch the drips, a bucket under the water heater in Britte's bathroom, and you have to be careful not to turn the tap on more than a smidge or the water comes shooting out in projectile mode. Your shirt will be soaked if you're in the kitchen, and the shower water now hits the back wall and is hard to contain within the confines of the shower stall. Keep your fingers crossed that the pipes don't burst!

This coming Monday we are hosting a "family dinner" for 6 of our colleagues. Four of our closest lady-friends and ourselves have started a rotating family dinner each Monday. So as not to be cliquish, the hostess(es) are supposed to invite 1-2 other people to join us for dinner, drinks, and conversation. It's a lot of fun, and I don't have to cook every Monday either (our cook is only here on T/Th, so I cook the rest of the time)! Yeah! Thanks to Pinterest, we're trying out a Greek chicken entree with a basil-garbanzo bean salad and Greek potatoes. Yummy!

So, now Britte' and I are getting ready for our first vacation of the new school year! We have the entire first week of October off - I don't really know why, but I'm also not going to question it:) We've planned an 8-day trip to Germany & Austria. We head first to Munich for 3 days of Oktoberfest celebrations (of course I wish I was "doing the Puyallup", but I can't complain). We also plan on hitting  Dachau Concentration camp, an Impressionist art museum, a beer-making monastery, and Starbucks (there are 6 in downtown Munich). Then we'll head to Mad King Ludwig's fairytale castle called Neuschwanstein in Bavaria. Two more days in Salzburg (home to the Sound of Music, and near Hitler's Eagle's Nest), and two more days in Vienna. We're still planning out Vienna, but it all sounds fascinating! I'm especially excited because it will be fall, my favorite season of the year, and there really aren't distinct seasons here in Nigeria (just the wet season, or the dry season). I miss seeing the leaves change colors, the cooler weather, scarves, jeans...

Catch up with you all soon!

Safari Pics!

Finished posting pictures from all my trips this year - check them out at:
http://britteandandreasafricanadventure.shutterfly.com/

Sensational South Africa!!

DAY ONE
      Back home, a four-day weekend would call for sleep, relaxation, maybe a get-together with friends or family, but here, in Lagos, it calls for a "mini-trip". For us, this long weekend had South Africa written all over it. Obviously, four days are not enough to really see and experience South Africa, but we made the most of our time, focusing our attention on Capetown and the surrounding winelands.
     The fun began as soon as we landed in Johannesburg where we were supposed to catch our connecting flight to Capetown. Of course, the customs line was outrageously long and slow-moving, so by the time we got through the line, our connecting flight was scheduled to leave in 10 minutes. Now, we WERE traveling with 5 other ladies from our school, but as their seats were closer to the front of the plane, they were way ahead of us in the customs line, and by the time we made it through, they were long gone, not bothering to wait for the rest of their group! Britte' and I high-tailed it through the airport, stopping to ask personnel for directions to security (we did not check any bags) and were then escorted to the security gates while having to sprint through the throngs of people and carrying our bags (I assure you, this is no easy task!). We begged security personnel to whisk us to the front of the line so that we could make our flight, which, surprisingly, they did:) We sprinted once again to the gate and were literally the last passengers to make the flight. It was at this point that one of our colleagues asked us "Where are the other two?", to which I replied with a confused look on my face, "Who are the other two?". Apparently, we had outdone our friends and made it to the gate before they did! To their disappointment (and quite frankly, to our relief) those other two missed the flight! So, the next few hours were spent perusing the shops at the Capetown airport while we waited for our friends to arrive on their newly scheduled flight.

Lunch in the courtyard at the Manor.

Dutch Manor at the vineyard where we stayed.

     Soon, with our party reunited, our driver had our bags packed into the van we'd rented and we were on our way to Franschhoek, a picturesque, little, wine town outside of Capetown. Note: this was my first time in a country where they drive on the left side of the road! It was here that we had rented a manor, yep, a manor with it's very own vineyard and winery, to stay in for our first night in SA. The manor is a Dutch manor house built sometime in the 1600's. It has a thatch roof, claw-foot bathtubs, and a ton of charm. First up - a picnic lunch of yummy finger-foods in the courtyard over-looking the pool.  La Motte. Here, we enjoyed a multi-course tasting of the local red & white wines offered. We had time to stop off at one more local winery for more wine and then back to our manor again for massages:) Now that we were totally relaxed, we spent the next hour out under the giant oak tree enjoying canapés and champagne, and putting up with a few mildly-annoying mosquitos, with the sunset-illuminated mountains as our scenery (not to mention the vineyards right at our feet). Eventually, we took our gathering inside where we were dive-bombed by flying cockroaches!! No, I'm not joking! At first, we thought they were giant, mutant, bees, but after one landed on one of the ladies, we realized they were cockroaches. Don't expect seven ladies to sit in a room with flying cockroaches and not hear some screaming or a commotion:) One of our Texas girls clobbered the roaches with a shoe and things calmed down for the night!
DAY TWO

Those are baboons!!

     The following day, we began with another wine-tasting (it was like 11 o'clock for all you tsk-tskers). This place, whose name escapes me, was the best one of the bunch. Our driver took us up the mountain for a quick picture-taking moment where I was startled to see actual baboons! I had no idea that we could expect to see a baboon on this trip - I guess I assumed they lived in the jungle - and we were so not in the jungle! It was rather weird - almost like seeing some stray dogs on the side of the road.

The gang.

     We decided at last to head into the actual town of Franschhoek for some shopping. Several of the girls bought handmade leather shoes, but I walked out with nothing (regretfully). We followed up this expedition by more shopping in yet another little town called Stellenbosch. Here, I was ecstatic to see that they had a gelato shop (that's italian ice cream) and it was heavenly - they had both of my favorites - lemon and chocolate - so I had both:p That afternoon, we finally made it to Capetown, found our B & B and melted the hotter than normal day away! One of our party came down with food poisoning we think, I lounged in the pool, a few girls took the funicular (that's one of those fancy words that Rick Steve's uses all the time, and until recently, I had no clue as to what he was referring to - it's a cable car) up to the top of Table Mountain. This is SA's most famous landmark, a flat topped mountain. It is a breath-taking backdrop to the city of Capetown. Our first night, we walked down to the V & A waterfront for a good, old steak dinner. Delicious:) We don't eat a lot of beef in Lagos, so this was a real treat:) Later, we walked through the adjacent mall, and a couple of the ladies saw a late movie, while the rest of us went for a drink at a local watering hole down the road from our B & B.
DAY THREE
     The next morning, we found out that our friends who saw a movie the previous night, had had quite the adventurous evening! Apparently, their cab had dropped them off in front of our hotel, but as they gabbed away, they mistakenly went through the wrong gate, and found themselves locked-in! Not wanting to wake the soundly sleeping guests at the wrong hotel, one of the ladies (our superintendent's wife - who is in her mid to late fifties) climbed the fence, only to find that she was now stuck in the gated and locked alley way between the two hotels. This is when they lost their composure and began yelling for help, which drew the attention of the security guard at our hotel, who was able to get them out of the locked areas and into our own facility and safely to their room. We definitely had a laugh over breakfast hearing that one!

Scrum-diddly-umptious!! Tea treats!

     So, on our last day in Capetown, Britte' and I decided to buy a ticket for one of those double-decker, sight-seeing buses that they have in many touristy areas. It was well worth the 20 bucks. We had fun jumping off (not literally) to shop or rather peruse the goods, and made it after a few hours to our agreed upon meeting place of The Grand Nelson. This is one of those old-timey famously grand hotels that all the elite Europeans stay at. They offer a "high-tea" like in England, which one of our group-members really wanted to experience, so we all partook. It was wonderful! The tea was fantastic, the buffet of sweets & savories was delightful, and the ambiance was serene. This was one of the highlights of the trip - very unique and totally not what I had anticipated doing in SA.

A view of Table Mountain from our double-decker bus.

     Several of us hopped on the double decker bus for the complete tour of Capetown and were rewarded with a breezy, unobstructed drive along the coast back to the waterfront mall. Capetown is a beautiful place - I can't say it enough! And so, we ended our last evening back at the waterfront with another meal, a little more shopping, and a ride on the ferris wheel before we said adios to SA:(

The coast of CapeTown.

DAY FOUR
     You know how in movies, when someone is on their way to the airport in a hurry, inevitably, they end up with a flat tire and miss their flight? Well, that almost happened to us! We no sooner had gotten on the freeway to head to the airport, when our taxi started making a sound like we had a flat tire! Our driver pulled over and got out to look, didn't see a flat, so started driving again, but the sound continued, so he called for a back-up vehicle. We made it to the airport with with just enough time to get through security and grab a coconut mocha (absolutely delicious by the way - Starbucks doesn't even make them this good!) from the local coffee shop. Everyone made it on board and safely back to Lagos:)
     So now we're home - at least "home" for another year and five months! And we can't wait to go back to SA! Next time, we hope to have  a little more time to see the sights - like Robbin Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, or Cape Point, the southernmost part of Africa, and the penguins that live there.  Til then...:)

There's No Telling...

It's been an interesting return to Lagos this week. We have been living amidst a national labor strike while locals protest against their government which lifted a subsidy on gasoline on January 1st. The price of gas has more than doubled per liter due to the subsidy lifting. As a result, we've been under an unspoken "no movement" week and schools and businesses have been closed. It's been hard to find out what's going on. We don't have the local news to watch, and the protests haven't been within eyesight of our flat complex or the school compound. We try to check all the internet news sites for updates, ask the local guards at the front gate for any info they can provide, and wait to hear from our superintendent who is getting somewhat regular updates from the US consulate in Lagos. So, for those of you who are worried, we've been completely safe up to this point.:) The latest rumor is that the strike is on hold for the weekend so that protesters can get out to resupply and rest up for next week. Apparently, the strike will resume on Monday morning in full force. So, the hope is that today, we'll be able to get out and do some grocery shopping. We just spoke to the water delivery guy and it sounds hopeful that he'll be by this morning to deliver some much needed water for us.

Fortunately, we don't have to make up any of the missed school days as we had several reserve days saved up (sort of like built-in snow days in the US) and the board of our school approved counting days that teachers submit assignments on-line for students/parents to access at home. I've heard from a handful of my student's families this week, so have been able to catch up a little with them, but am looking forward to seeing my little 3rd graders soon. Of course, I'm not complaining that I got an extra week off after an already long winter vacation! We fill our days with extra sleep, working out, swimming in the pool, checking our e-mail frequently, catching up on missed t.v episodes, etc. Britte' and I finally got a key to the school's workout room and shed some calories this week! A lot of staff members are organizing get-togethers and sporting events. And we don't have our stewards this week (due to the strike), so we are living normal lives, cooking and cleaning for ourselves. We are actually starting to feel like normal people again! I miss the cooking, not so much the cleaning:)

Keep praying for our safety and the situation here in Nigeria. More updates to come in the near future.

Homecoming!

One view from our room.

 December arrived and Britte' and I couldn't contain our excitement at the fact that we were coming home to the US for the first time in five months! But before our fabulous reunions with family and friends, we stopped off in a magical, little place called Cancun, Mexico:) I mean, why not, we were already flying into Atlanta, so a few days spent just a little way off the beaten path, was rightfully earned and much needed after our time in Lagos.

View of the beach from our room.

We spent the week at a wonderful resort called the RIU Cancun, an all-inclusive resort, with a prime stretch of beach front property in Cancun. Our room was on the top floor at the end of the hall, so we had not only amazing views, but very little distraction from neighbors. Our friend, Kathie, also flew down to join us for our little R & R in paradise. Britte' and I were floored when we took showers for the first time, we sort of felt like we were drowning:) After the trickle of water that comes out of our shower heads in Lagos, every shower feels like you're drowning. 

Sailing!

Each morning, we headed for the buffet breakfast where we gorged ourselves on all the things we haven't had in ages, then sat around chatting as we waited for our bodies to adjust to the fatter than a cow feeling. Our waiter, whose name escapes me, chanted "Okey-Dokey-Smokey?" an intolerable number of times as well as "So far, so good?". It became a point of weakness for us, and we'd start to giggle/groan every time he said it:) We would soon head out to the beach, claim a chair with a towel, and head off for a long walk down the beach. The sand was silky, white, and smooth. The water was a gorgeous teal, and not much cooler than bath water. On one of those walks, an old guy approached us and asked if we'd like to take his sailboat out for a spin. After finding out that his sailing business is associated with the hotel he's anchored in front of, we were all in. So, we got a great ride on a little sailboat, my first sailing excursion! 

Pic of pelican sitting on old pier post.

After our stroll each day, we basked in the sun until we were sure we'd changed color, hoping for brown, but pink was ok, too! One morning, a couple of guys strolled down the beach past our beach chairs, carrying a......baby lion!!!! We flew half-way across the world to Africa and back only to see our first lion cub (outside of a zoo) in Mexico! Kathie and I took a leisurely dip in the ocean each day, riding the waves in, sometimes not so gracefully, but always fun! This took us up to lunch, a buffet lunch of course! But we took our time eating as we had a great table overlooking the gorgeously decorated beach volleyball court! Soon, we were ready for showers and a fresh change of clothes. So, back up to our rooms, a waterfall of a shower later, and we were ready for strolling down the main road through Cancun. We navigated our way through the many malls in the area, and occasionally grabbed a Starbucks latte' from the coffee shop located right across the street from our resort. 

Of course, by 6:30, we were ready for another meal. Some evenings we went to the buffet, but we also tried several of the reservation-only restaurants on site. Two were pretty good, one was not. Usually, by this point in the evening, being a bit jet lagged, I was giving it my all to not fall asleep sitting up at the dinner table, so we didn't make it to the nightly entertainment very often. There was a somewhat amusing karaoke performance that grabbed our attentions, but the shows were pretty lame looking. I was more excited to watch T.V. in our room (we don't have a TV hooked-up yet in our flat)!  

Some lady holding the pitiful, toothless, shark:(

Later in the week, Britte' and I took off on a catamaran to the nearby "Isla Mujeres" (that's Island of the Women"). It was a long boat ride, but a beautiful day, with entertaining boat staff, and we were able to build our tans a bit more (Yep, Andrea got a tan!). The boat stopped off for some snorkeling in the reef, took us to a stop over for lunch where you could take a picture holding a live shark, get a henna tattoo, etc. We opted not to get in the water with the shark - it looked like a dead, rubber shark, and it had no teeth. I don't know if it was supposed to not have teeth or if its teeth were pulled for the safety of the people. But I did get a henna tattoo of a turtle on my upper middle back! Don't worry...it's gone now....and it's not my thing! To end this lovely day, the catamaran stopped just outside of it's port to give us an opportunity to ride the "Spinnaker". This is a sail that is attached to the back of the sailboat, but manually maneuvered by pulling on the ropes. A person intending to ride the spinnaker, jumps off the back of the boat, sits on the rope hanging below the sail, and as the attendants get the wind to fill the sail above, he/she rises up into the air! Sounds like fun! But four people into this fun diversion....RIIPPPP.....the sail had completely ripped off the rope it was attached to and the man up in the air, came plummeting down, very quickly I might add, as he slapped into the water. It goes without saying, no Spinnakering for Britte' and Andrea. 

It was a sad day when Saturday finally came! Although I was looking forward to surprising my family on Christmas morning, I dare-say I could live in Cancun, if ever the occasion arose:)

Ahhhh....Ghana

The resort

Well, Britte' and I just returned from a fabulous four-day trip to Ghana in West Africa. Only an hour by plane from Nigeria, but a world of differences. We booked a room at a recommended resort on the beach about three hours from the airport. We arranged for an airport pick-up through our hotel and shared the ride with our school's superintendent and his wife. The driver proceeded to drive at 80 -100 km/hour (not really sure how fast that is in mph) which felt REALLY fast compared to the cumbersome traffic around Lagos all the time. We were whipping in and out between the cars, passing the slower drivers and narrowly escaping head-on collisions every thirty seconds or so. Britte' of course was comfortably dozing away without a care in the world, while I was fighting to stay awake so that I could face our premature death head-on! Fortunately, we made it to the hotel safe and sound, just a little exhausted. The resort we stayed in is situated right on a beautiful, pristine beach (very unlike the beaches in Lagos, which are covered with trash). The rooms were located in these little, white, bungalow-style buildings, surrounded by tall coconut trees and manicured lawns.  We had access to the ocean and a lovely swimming pool. We were excited to see that they had horses on the grounds that could be ridden for an hourly fee. So, we made an appointment, but of course the guy in charge of the horses didn't show up for our appointment:( They also had a crocodile pond that advertised public feeding times on certain days, but when we showed up to see the event, no crocodile feeding was taking place:( However, on the plus side, we had a working shower in our bathroom which we didn't have to hold in our hand, and the water pressure was wonderful compared to our present circumstances in our flat. The hotel also offered a buffet breakfast which was complimentary and pretty decent fare. For dinner, we had fresh-caught seafood from the local village served up in the restaurant each night.

View from the open-air restaurant.

Dinner: Red Snapper and Fried Rice.

The delightful pool.

On our first full day in Ghana, we took a car to Kakum National Forest. Here we participated in a Canopy Walk. We're talking walking on a one-plank-wide rope bridge 100 feet up in the air! It was a bit scary, but exciting too! It was a work-out trying to stay balanced and upright. Of course, as luck would have it, wouldn't you know, but we picked the one day of the week that is "Free Ghanaian Student Day" at the local tourist sites. This meant that we were bombarded with hundreds of little Ghanaian children dressed in their matching school uniforms. No they weren't calm and quiet. No they didn't really wait their turn. No they weren't any different from the kids back home - except that they were a little surprised to see the white people who were sweating profusely from every pore in their bodies. One little boy got curious enough to strike up a conversation with me. Once I proved to be somewhat safe, his friends joined in and soon I had my own little entourage, following me and wanting to take a picture with me.

Britte' having some fun on the Canopy Walk!

      Seven canopy bridges later, we decided to hike to the nearby waterfall and adjacent lagoon that we'd heard was lovely and a great place to take a swim. We paid for the hike, got introduced to our guide, and headed into the jungle for what we were told would be a short, flat, easy hike. Not true. First, our guide wanted to stop at every other tree or plant to describe what type of tree it was and what it was useful for. This was when we found out that our superintendent is not the most patient man around! It was comical for us to hear him mumbling behind us every time the guide chose to stop. And then of course, there were the attacking ants! Yep, Britte' got attacked by "pit-bull" ants that drew blood when they bit her. Finally....we made it to the waterfall - clearly, a disappointment. And no beautiful lagoon to swim in. Just a murky-looking pool of water. And I'm pretty sure I saw a snake slithering nearby, so no swimming for any of us.

Britte' NOT having fun with the attack ants!

Our gorgeous waterfall and swimming lagoon:)

Eventually, we left the jungle and headed to the town of Cape Coast where one of the famous slave castles is located. What an experience. It's sickening to hear our guide describe the treatment of these human beings who were seen as property. We toured the slave-holding cells where 200 men were held for 3 months time until they were transported across the Atlantic. We went into the cell where they held up to eight women at time who refused the sexual advances of the guards or governor. The really sickening thing was that it was actually better for a woman to allow the guards/governor to rape her and get pregnant because then she would be housed in town with a soldier, fed properly, and was somewhat protected until she gave birth. Then her child would be taken from her, she would be sent on the next boat to slavery in the Americas (North America, South America, or the Caribbean).  Also, they put us in the death room where slaves were thrown for trying to escape and left there to die a slow and agonizing death. The room had no ventilation, sanitation, or light. Our guide shut the door and turned-off the lights with us inside to show us how stifling the room could be. The castle also houses a museum that gives you facts & information about the slave trade. One interesting piece of info I learned was that the tribal chiefs in Africa actually were the middlemen in many cases, selling or trading their own people for a profit. This is something you definitely don't hear about back home. There is now a plaque in the wall of the castle that is a public apology from the African leaders stating that this atrocity will never happen again.

A view of the slave castle in Cape Coast, Ghana.

Our next full day in Ghana was spent mostly relaxing by the pool, trying to get a tan (or just a slight burn in my case). There was a wonderful breeze coming in off the ocean to keep us cool. This is what I imagine heaven being like. The only rift in our day was when we decided to take a short walk through the authentic fishing village next to the resort. Our friends had walked through the village the previous day and had no problems, so who would have known that we would experience anything different. On our short walk about 100 feet into the village, a girl walked out of a hut balancing a large bucket on her head, she walked past me and....grabbed my butt! I was taken aback just slightly, but managed to stop and look her in the eye while saying "Excuse Me?". She just smiled and walked off. We did not venture any further into the village, but turned around and headed to our retreat near the pool.

Mud hut in the butt-grabbing village.

For our last day in Ghana, we joined our friends for a highly vigorous walk into town (about 2.5 miles from the resort) in 90-100 degree heat. I swear I slathered the spf 50 on, but still managed to get red as a lobster. We made it safely through the butt-grabbing village and onto the main road to town. Along the way, we were overwhelmed with these adorable little Ghanaian children who upon seeing us began to chant in unison, "Good Morning, How are You?, Have Fun, Good-Bye!". It was very cute and obviously the extent of their English taught to them in school. Many kids got brave enough to come and touch us on the arm or leg and some even began holding our hands. We eventually made it to the fish market in town, walked up to the fort on the hill that overlooks the lagoon and the other slave castle and then turned around to head back to our paradise of a hotel. Our leader, the superintendent, asked if we'd like to walk along the beach on our way back, and we all heartily agreed. We passed hordes of villagers who were panning for gold and were surprisingly actually finding little flecks of gold in the sand. Eventually, we reached a spot where the beach turned into low rocks that you had to hike over to get to the next stretch of sand. It was then that we discovered Poop Rock...literally, we were walking through their pooping grounds, their toilet! And Britte' was in sandals! Britte' did not find it amusing at all and had a few words to say to our leader! We finally, made it through without any misplaced feet or falls and back onto the road to the hotel. I went straight for the shower, Britte' went straight to the pool to soak her feet in the chlorinated water just in case:)

Village Life - clay ovens for smoking local caught fish.

View of Slave Castle in Elmina, Ghana from the fort on the hill.

More village life in a fishing village.

A memorable, and mostly relaxing time was had by all! Unfortunately, Britte' checked her luggage and got her iPod and cell phone stolen:( This didn't surprise me because that was my exact thought when the flight attendant explained that our flight was slightly delayed due to there being "too much luggage" that needed loading into the cargo-hold. Should a seen that coming!

No Movement Day!

Today is yet another No Movement Day! That means that we aren't allowed out on the roads from 7am to 4pm today. the reason for the restrictions is that there is some sort of vote happening today and to stem any protests, riots, violence, etc., they (the government) make everyone stay at home (I believe the locals can walk to the nearest voting center). No businesses are open and you can get arrested for going out on the roads if you're not careful.

So, today we slept-in, ate our typical lazy-day breakfast of french toast, and then headed over to the school compound to watch a movie on the big screen in my classroom! We were hoping it would get sunny so we could lay out near the pool, but there was yet another big lightning storm last night and the weather hasn't cleared up since then.

It's nice to have an excuse to do nothing all day though!