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Statement of Purpose

I was talking to my brother Adam the other day, and he told me that a lot of people are asking where I am and what I'm doing. Let's see if I can answer those questions here, so you can all stop pestering my poor brother about it.

First off, where am I? Now this is a tough question, since it varies from day to day. Mus and I are living the nomadic life- staying with different friends and relatives and traveling around. So if you want to track my travels when I post a location on my blog, here are some useful maps:


This is a very basc map of Ghana (sorry it doesn't show more cities, but at this point, I'll take what I can get.) So far, most of my time has been spent in Accra and Cape Coast. The library project is for a little town between Cape Coast and Takoradi.


This is a map of the regions of Ghana- regions are kind of like states or provinces: the country is divided into smaller governmental units. So Cape Coast is in the Central Region, and Accra is in the Greater Accra Region. Mus and I also spent a lot of time in the Eastern Region, which is full of these large hills/small mountains (kind of like the Smokies in the US). It's also where Mus's parents come from, so we visited a lot of relatives there. That's where the cocoa farm is.

As for "what I'm doing here-" well, I'm essentially figuring out if I could live here and figuring out the next step in my life. Essentially, what that looks like from day to day is a lot of traveling, a lot of reading, and a lot of talking with people.

The better answer that makes me look more productive is that I'm helping with a library in Komenda, which is between Cape Coast and Takoradi. But there's not much to do until all the books I mailed come, and it takes a LONG time for them to get here. So I'm waiting on that project for the moment.

And for any of you waiting for my Christmas photos, my apologies. I've been trying to post them, but we seem to be having technical difficulties.

Merry Christmas!

I've been getting tons of questions about Christmas here, so I thought I'd post my story and some photos.

Our plans changed frequently regarding Christmas, but Auntie Naana asked us to stay and look after her house while she went and visited her sister.

We were hoping to go swimming on Christmas Eve, but needed someone to watch the house while we went. So we ended up staying in the house. We ate pasta in a spicy peanut and garlic sauce (my creation, Mus didn't like it), fried corn flakes (which Mus did like), green beans, keebob, and chilled papaya. A perfect Christmas dinner.

But because we couldn't go the pool (where there happened to be several nice Christmas trees to get me in the holiday spirit) I decided I needed to take a few measures to get me in the right mood.

First, I bought some cloth and made my very own Santa hat from scracth! (Grandma Schiller would have been so proud.)

Mus wasn't sure how to wear it, but the puppies got it right...



Though not all the puppies were as excited as I was about the hat...

Next key ingredient- a Christmas tree!

All I needed was a plantain tree, and my sparkly scarves and bright purses...



And of course, it isn't Christmas without at least a few loved ones...



And the last ingredient...

Presents!

This was Mus's present to me. It's the size of a circus tent and OH! so comfortable. The breeze that gets flowing under there is to die for. It's called a boubou, and since it is a nice gown that is distinctly African in cut, whenever I step out in it, everyone has to comment to tell me how great I look. Strangers are giving me thumbs up and telling me the dress is pretty. Isn't that wonderful? That I can wear a huge, comfortable, shapeless dress and have everyone tell me how gorgeous it is... I mean, how do you beat that?

I gave Mus a mixed CD of his favorite songs from the 80s- it doesn't make as nice of a photo as my boubou.


Christmas Day we finally got to go to the pool!
Here's their nice Christmas tree.


And another, smaller tree out by the bar.


How can you beat an ocean-view, poolside Christmas?

That night I went to hang out with Momma Joyce. She and I con't communicate all that well, so everyday is an adventure with her. Together we went and visited Grandma, and then sent the night dancing at a wedding reception. I couldn'[t believe that there was a wedding on Christmas Day, but no one else thought it strange.

Honestly, I felt like Christmas here really started on Boxing Day- which is the day after Christmas. People came around to give gifts on a Boxing Day, I started seeing Christmas lights for the first time, everything was closed, and people and radios started playing Christmas music. They could've started these things on Christmas eve and I just didn't notice, but they didn't start it much before.
Actually, it's surprising- It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.