Eh Vivi

I arrived in Accra a week ago Friday. We slept in the airport Friday night and woke up with the sun that Saturday. Katie, Liam, John and I boarded a trotro (van) to Ho. As soon as we left the airport I felt a wave of heat envelop me. It is very hot and humid here in Ghana. The voyage to Ho took about 4 hours. I saw two baboons on the side of the highway! When we got to Ho, we napped and ate lunch. Later that day Liam and John showed us around Ho. There is a market place down the street that is always bustling with people and cars except on Sunday mornings when the people of Ho go to church. The roads here are alive with people, cars, buses, trotro's, taxis, goats, sheeps, and chickens.
My first day at the school in Saviefe (pronounced Saviepe) Deme (a village about 40 minutes away) was Monday. We took a taxi through the mountains that lasted about 30 minutes, then, we stopped in Dzolokpuita (the town next to Saviefe Deme). For the last leg of our journey we rode on the back of motos (motorcycles) to the school in Saviefe. Nothing like a little adrenaline to start off the day.
 Liam took me there to introduce me to the teachers and people I would be working with. The day was very short and I didn't get to meet any of the kids but the people I met were warm and welcoming. The people in Ghana are the friendliest people I have met, they love when you attempt to speak Ewe and treat you like an old friend.
When we got back to Ho later that afternoon a new volunteer had settled in, Caroline. Caroline and I teach at Saviefe. Our first day at the school was Tuesday.
The school is small and split up into 2 sections: the primary school and the middle school. As we walked by the classrooms kids waved at us and yelled "Yavu! Yavu!" ("White person! White person!"). When we walked into the class of younger children, no older that 6 years old, the were shy at first. But, when we sat down they swarmed us. They held our hands, climbed onto our laps, pet our hair, poked our skin and smiled at us. These children are the cutest kids I have ever met. They were very curious to meet these foreign creatures that walked into their school.
They were practicing reading numbers in English that day (0-10). They sat with us and we went over the numbers together. At 10:30 am a kid ran out and banged the bell signaling break time. Caroline and I were both carried out of the room by a sea of children onto the front of the classrooms, where kids had space to play outside. All the kids ran to us and greeted us in Ewe, the older kids in English. They kept asking for "fotos!" The kids love pictures!
For the rest of the week Caroline and I played with the kids and taught an older class math, prevention against Malaria, and about discrimination against women in Ghana.
In the afternoons we eat lunch at the Charles' (a friend of Ghana ACT) home. The food here is very delicious and very spicy. The diet here is mostly composed of carbohydrates. Along with our food we have had the juiciest mangos and tastiest bananas.
Fast forward to this weekend: EXCURSIONS!
Yesterday we fed monkeys bananas at the Tafi Atome monkey sanctuary and hiked almost 2 hours to bathe in the mist of the largest water fall in Western Africa, the Wli upper water falls. The beauty Ghana has to offer has been breathtaking....Eh Vivi (it is sweet)

From left to right: Molly F., Caroline, me, Annelise, Molly, and Katie.
 At the upper falls of Wli!

Molly with a monkey!!!

Lower falls of Wli