Hello!

My flight to Ghana was excellent, despite the fact that we landed during
a small lightning storm. I even met a man in Atlanta who was traveling
all the way with me to Accra. Today, we went to the bank to change money
and all, and made it over to New Horizon school. I really like it! I am
going to take the tro tro there starting tomorrow; quite exciting. One of
my host brothers just showed me how to ride the tro tro so we rode back
from the school. He showed me this Internet cafe which is quite close to the
house. All in all, I really like it here, and I'm looking forward to the next
few weeks! Thanks! Cari

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Hello from West Africa!
I arrived safely in Accra, Ghana, and a fairly uneventful but long plane ride.
It was amazing to fly over the Swiss Alps and then to be flying over the Sahara
90 minutes later. It was absolutely beautiful and reminded me of God's
blessings.

My host family is really nice; in fact, my host brother xxxx just showed me
this Internet cafe after he took me by tro tro from the school I will volunteer
at to home. He is 16 I think. There is a 17 year old at boarding school. I
went to church yesterday with xxxx, the 13 year old, and xxxx,3, and
xxxx,11, and xxxx, who is a family friend. Haha, that was funny because
most of the service was in Ga, which is the language the family speaks to each
other. They even asked visitors to stand in Ga, so naturally my host sister
had to translate and I walked awkwardly up to the front! But I've learned a
fair amount of basic Ga, and even a song yesterday!
The woman at the school is really nice, and I think I will work at the special
school for, oh, maybe 4 weeks, rather than just 1. That should be fun:) Hehe,
things are very flexible here and very slow! It took a long time at the bank
this morning...

I think the biggest difference I've noted is the general attitude. In the US,
everything is goal directed and I am constantly measuring progress. But here,
we can just sit or you can wake up in the morning without 70% of your day
already scheduled for.

Other differences are the public health (I thought I saw it was a small pond,
but it was actually an open sewer!) and the food, which is pretty good but
takes some getting used to:) I'm not a fan of the cold showers but it makes me
hardier! In Kotobabi, where I live, the streets are dirt with lots of ruts, and
sheep and dogs will just walk around. You have to make sure not to step in the
gutters which run along the street because they are open sewers too.
But all in all, I feel at home here. The adjustment was much easier than I
expected. Everything just feels very normal.

My favorite times so far have been going to the ocean with Nathaniel and my host
father, learning the Ga song, and... oops... I just forgot the last one. But
it's very good and I'm looking forward to more time here!
Oh, i just remembered the last one: debating politics and economics with my host
father late at night!

OK, anyway, I only have a few minutes left at the Internet cafe, so I will go.
Just to let you know, I cannot open pdfs here, so if you have the burning
desire to, just paste text in the body of the email instead!
Love you all!

Ofane, mii ya, ma ba. (Roughly, I'll see you later.)
Bye!!
Cari
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Hello!
Oh, where to begin?
Ghana is still quite excellent, and I feel like I have been here for a long
time! My vocabulary is growing, such that I can now have a basic conversation
in Ga with the 3 year old who lives in our house:) I really like working at
the special school as well. It is amazing and I feel like I have developed a
good relationship with the students in my class. (I love our class!) The
orphanage is actually less fulfilling to work at, but I think it is because
2-year-olds are not my favorite age group:)

This past Friday night, I learned how to play the drum set and a little bit of
African drumming at the church where my host family goes. It was really fun to
sit around singing with their youth choir:) And I have discovered that the best
way to get around Accra is sitting on benches in the back of a pickup truck
driven by my host father:):) Not particularly the safest, but very fun!
My host family is still very nice; hehe, I was woken up at 5:45 today by Jaaflo,
the 11 year old, because he wanted me to check his homework. It was early, but
it made me feel like part of the family:)

My favorite thing about Accra, I have decided, are the smells. Don't get me
wrong, they are not all pleasant, but it is such an experience to just
drive/walk around.

We also went to the beach this weekend, and it was beautiful.
The nerd in me comes out, and I find myself thinking about the differing effects
of poverty here in Ghana and in the US. It is just fascinating how the "ghetto"
culture hasn't really taken hold here.

Ahhh! I only have 3 minutes left here at the Internet cafe. I will write a
longer update later!
Take care all:) Miss you:)
Love, Cari
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Ahhh! I have precisely 8 minutes to sum up the past 2 weeks in Ghana... we'll
see how it goes.

First off: I've really enjoyed getting to know my host family and the girls I
live with even more. Our host father took us to the mountains and we went to
Aburi Botanical Gardens; I finally gave in and let the girls take me "out", to
some live music places (it was very fun:)); I've gotten used to being awakened
at least twice every morning by one of the seemingly umpteen children in the
house; and the family has successfully taught me how to play Lude, a Ghanaian
game.

Other than that, my Ga is slowly improving, and I hope to go to Kumasi this
weekend. (Those two phrases didn't quite go together, as they don't speak Ga
in Kumasi.) Oh, we had a BBQ, which was quite excellent; and work is great. I
still like the special school best (speaking of which, I walked into the
national spec ed headquarters that's by my house, and met the deputy director,
and will hopefully be able to visit the other special schools in accra next
week). One girl, xxxx, actually let me sort of dance with her on Wednesday,
which was one of the highlights of being here so far. I also very nearly got
bitten today, but it's all in a day's work. There was a British team at the
school this week, so it was really interesting to see how us "westernized"
nations advise Ghana and other countries, especially on special ed.
Anyway, I will certainly write a longer message later. I hope that this week
has been treating you well.

Take care, and if you get a chance, write back! I promise to respond.
Yall are amazing:):)
Love, Cari
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Hello!
Well, it's almost Thanksgiving, which means most of you have a very-welcome
break from school. But for me it means the end of an absolutely amazingly
fantabulous trip to Ghana.
It is really hard to believe that I've lived here for 2 months already, and that
I leave in, oh, 5.5 hours... It's really sad, and I would absolutely love to
stay for longer.

People ask me what I like about it, and it's honestly hard to say. Volunteering
was excellent; hehe, and the director of the school even started to cry when I
left:) (She's like my grandmother here in Ghana.) And the host family was good
all the way through:) I think one thing I'll miss the most, though, is the
other girls I live with, who are like new sisters. They took me out last night
(yes, I went out... gasp!...hehe), and another night this week, we randomly
stayed up until 5 chatting and having a pillow fight:)

But there are just so many things, I can't even begin to list them...
OK, now that I've raved enough, I'm trying to think of anything noteworthy that
happened this week, aside from pillow fights and dinners and the like... Hmm...
Well, a tro tro I was riding in today got hit by another one, which was exciting
but fortunately unsubstantial. :) And, oh, the exciting new goal... I've decided
that I want to learn Danish (or Norwegian, but preferably Danish), and go to
Denmark this summer... ideally using some of Yale's money, but...:)

I don't know, there are just a lot of Danes here, including 2 of the girls I
live with, and talking with them, and especially thinking about me as a polisci
major, it just seems really interesting to go and see for myself... But, we'll
see, who knows what will come up.
In other concluding-type news, I think I have learned from this trip that I'd
like to work in public policy... or, at least, my interest in it has grown a
lot.

Hehe, this is a terribly rambling email, which I apologize for... I promise one
last more-coherent one when I get back. (I've been running on very little
sleep and lots of adrenalin the past 3 days:))

And Ghana, you ask? It feels like a second home now, even though it's only been
two months. It somehow doesn't feel that different, and certainly not as dire
as the image I used to have in my head when someone mentioned "developing
country."
It has been an excellent lesson in politics and economics (see, I'm still a
dork!), but also an absolutely wonderful chance to see and live day-to-day life
and to have a bit of a break from college routine... and, mostly, to make some
amazing friends.
All right, I think i have too many emotions and ideas flowing through my head
right now, so I will stop and go eat and try to get my mind to understand that
I'll be in Atlanta in 24 hours... I don't know; God has just been so good to
me:)
Tata for now! Thanks for reading the rambles...:)
Love, Cari

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Hi all!
Well, I was trying to decide which was better: not clogging your inbox
orletting you know that I arrived safely, and I finally settled on the
latter.
I've been back for nearly a week now, and am doing quite well. I'm
missing Ghana, but I'm excited to earn some money soon:) (and get back to Yale
in January!). Thanksgiving was delicious:):)

One of these days, I'm going to try and sort out all of the wonderful
things I learned in Ghana... about life, myself, traveling, the differences
between sheep and goats, development, and UEFA Champion's League football
(soccer) and the like... and when I do - rather than sending more emails - I'll write
them down on www.xanga.com/lalibean. That way, I will spare you sore fingers
from scrolling down a lot in a really long email.

Well, it's the holidays, so I won't keep you too long! But if you have
any questions about Ghana, just ask! I'll probably get really excited and
ramble on and on, but... that's what happens when you love a place!

Take care! And Happy Black Friday/Post-Thanksgiving for those of you
from/in the States:)

Love you all,
Cari
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Hi!
I've forwarded you the email journals that I wrote while in Ghana, so
that you can use them for the website.
It was an absolutely amazing experience, and I can tell that I am still
trying to figure out how so much happened in so little time.
But while I'm still figuring that out, I thought I'd forward a few
pictures...

Hmm... all right, I just tried to attach the pictures, but my computer
is giving me trouble. So I will try to figure out a different way, and
forward you some pictures in a few days. (There are a few already at:
www.xanga.com/lalibean. If I end up posting the rest there, I will let
you

know, but feel free to view and use the ones up there now too.) Enjoy!
Cari