Practicum continues this week but unfortunately for me and the rest of the ICT group, we have not seen much class time. The college we are teaching at has exams to prepare for this week and it screwed up the whole schedule and we've had a lot of days of doing nothing. I mean i guess i really cant complain about down time since our schedules are usually sooo busy and especially because my ear swelling has not gone down yet and now my other one is beginning to hurt as well but i really want to be prepared when i get to my site and this is the only practical teaching we get before moving to site. The PCV trainers were more pissed than we were but there isn't anything PC can do to remedy the situation in the next couple of days so they just have to think in terms of next year and perhaps pick a different college to do practicum.
Onto more exciting stuff…today was a big day for Ghana because they advanced to the next round in the world cup! even though they didn't beat Germany, they had enough points to pull through so hopefully we can bang out a couple more wins in the next round. Its really interesting to watch football with Ghanaians, they're mannerisms are so different and really entertaining. I would love to describe the sounds they make but i feel that might be difficult via writing. I bet by the time i return home i will have fully adapted to these fascinating Ghanaian mannerisms and everyone will look at me like im crazy.
We finished up practicum for the week and on most Saturdays we have a long day of PC sessions at the hub site where we have a talk with the CD(country director) learn about Ghanaian customs and beliefs and do some medical review. This saturday, when we were finished, we all went over to a fairly upscale spot to watch the Ghana vs USA match. Although not intentional, there was a Ghana room and an American room, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, americans and ghanaians alike. We even stood up and sang our national anthem provokingly and the locals sprang back with theirs, Obviously being much much louder than us. The match was very intense and extremely close, too! but when Ghana scored that second goal the whole place went crazy, and i couldn't help but be happy for the Ghanaians. They have sooooo much more pride in their team than i feel America does, at least thats the vibes i get back home. So coming into the match, for me at least, it was a win-win situation. Although, Ghana winning probably made it a lot easier for us to be in the country :)
On Sunday, PC planned a field trip for us to go to Boti Falls, a waterfall and nature trail about 45 min away from the hub site. It was really great to get out of the noisy and busy towns and see some beautiful scenery. After spending some time walking down the steep stairs to the falls and then coming all the way back up, we went on a hike through the forest. First, let me describe the landscape of Ghana. Ghana is very lush in most of the south, with lots of green hills you can see not too far off in the distance. The plant life is beautiful but unfortunately i hear that the soil is not very good so the farm fields suffer a lot from lack of enriched soil. Ghana also has these beautiful tall trees that stand out from the rest. they look perfect for tree house building, they are tall and skinny at the base and then at the top have tons of sturdy branches. Maybe ill just contract someone to build me a luxurious tree house and live there for the next two years. Thats practical, right? So back to Boti Falls, we went on our nature hike which was actually a little strenuous and involved a bit of climbing in areas which was fun! We came to a huge rock overlooking the hills and valleys and stopped there to take some scenic pictures. Being typical foreigners, we of course took tons of pictures of ourselves looking like we were about to jump off this cliff…i think we mostly do these silly things to keep our sanity :) But the view really was breathtaking and was great to get a bit of fresh air from community life.
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