WIFI is working! Trying to cram two weeks into one post....

Hello everyone! To start, let me tell you all the fruits I love to eat. They have AMAZING pineapples and mangoes here. The pineapples are sweet enough to even eat the core. The oranges look like limes on the outside, and we suck the juice out before we eat the fibers which is also good. The bananas are small and sweet as well. We get fruit everyday and I love it. During the morning we have a meal of rice, beans, or some form of chicken usually. I have pictures of most of the food I have eaten so I will show you later :)

Since my last entry, I have spent my weekends in downtown Accra. We were hoping to travel, but the staff members for UFS where busy, so we had to change our plans. We went to the LDS temple, visited the artisan market, and shopped at the open air, main market in downtown Accra. The artisan market is the craziest thing I have ever been to. People are physically pulling and pushing on you to buy from them. There is so much pressure that most of us were very overwhelmed our first time. Downtown Accra is the only place that I have encountered Ghanaians that are not really nice and friendly. Most of the time, I am amazed at their kindness and patience. For example, last week on my overnight trip to Takoradi, I got very sick one day and had to stay behind from work. Around 5pm I started to feel better, but my group was not yet back from outreach so I went downstairs to ask where I could by phone credit nearby and the man at the office told me to wait there because he would just find it for me. While I waited, I met a nice lady named Mary who let me sit with her. As soon as she heard I was not feeling well, she asked me if I had eaten anything. When I told her I had not, she told me she would make an omelette for me and would have it ready whenever I wanted. To my surprise, she delivered a huge egg sandwich to my room and did not want any money for it! I was so grateful.

My first day in Takoradi was very rainy. I was grateful for the rain because it cooled down the heat and it made the world very green, but rain is bad news for Ghanaians because it floods very badly. They have no system of the flood, but it rains a ton 2 months of the year.

These past few weeks I learned a few games from the kids at our outreaches. One game they hit each other on the head with empty bottles so that is really funny. The adults at each outreach continue to surprise me. For example someone today said, "Hello friend! I love you!" and last week I met someone who only spoke another langauage, but I saw her name was Elizabeth. I pointed to myself and said my name was Elizabeth too. She was so excited and happy we shook hands and smiled for a long time. She was very old! We see people in their 90s all the time. Crazy how good they look! I love that Ghanaians tell me when they are going to leave. If they are friends with you, they come back and say goodbye. I wish we did that more in the states! Overall, I liked Takoradi, but the hotel had sooooooo many bugs. Everynight I slept with dead bugs all over my floor because I squished them before I went to sleep. I hated that.

We met two more volunteers that just arrived for UFS. They are really nice and came to church with us! But, the left to visit Kumasi with another eye clinic, so we will not see them until next week. I also brought my friend Kwame to church with me. We are good friends and he helps me learn about Ghanaian culture. I gave him my small book of Mormon and I think he reads it sometimes! Yay. Also......I have to sing a song next week....AHHHHHHH. The crew with Crystal Eye clinic was singing in the van on the way to outreach last week and then we sang for the people when we arrived! They loved it. Jerome is so hilarious when he sings we can never finish a song without laughing.

Everyone just got home which means my wifi will stop working so I am going to post as fast as I can and hope it works. K bye!