Im going on vaca!

My favorite employee at the hotel has been gone for three days now and no one has given me a straight answer until tonight. Wallace is a very sweet man, probably in his mid-twenties, with wire rimmed glasses and imitation gator skin shoes. He is the one who cleans up after the dining area and serves us our food; after a while it is just comforting to have familiar people around in an unfamiliar place. Tonight we asked Princilla for the third time this week where he was and she finally told us, “He was having trouble with his eyes, and they were bringing him pain, maybe he will be back tomorrow”. Fingers crossed!

 The children finished their pillows today and were so excited it was adorable. They each got their own one with their name on it. We got some very good pictures of them silly and smiling. We have some extra filling (ash foam scraps) and we are going to use it to have the older kids make some pillows for the younger kids who don’t participate in sewing.

***Each pillow filled with ash foam (that we bought for them to open and use the filling in their own) was 6.50 cedis which is $3.61 the fabiric for the pillows they made and sewing was 12 cedis which is $6.66 and with those supplies we were able to make 18 pillows so each child has their own that will fit their head comfortably which translates to each pillow costing roughly $.57!!! That is insane!!!  

After the pillows I had some time to go mingle with the little kids, they are so cute and small and are fascinated by “the whites”. It is funny because most of them can’t speak English but they must have learned my name from all the kids in my class yelling it and now they yell “Jessie! Jessie!” and throw their hands up at both Rachel and I. As if it is our universal name. Aja and Christian are two of the smallest kids there and today they became my shadow… so for about an hour or so I had two very small little black boys (covered in dirt from rolling around on the ground staring at me: as if it was a talent) following me around literally hitting one another arguing over who got to hold my hands.

 Teaching was exhausting today (Thursday) I don’t know why today, any more than yesterday, or any other day, but I was out of energy by the time it was only half way through teaching this morning. The kids sometimes leave me at a loss with the way they don’t understand what I am saying and I have to CONSTANTLY remind myself they are young, and also have a language barrier going on. I got through the day fine and found fabric at a local shop I had been searching for, for a week or so now and put an order in with Beatrice to make me a few bags by the end of my trip so that was a plus!

Tonight I am going to write a few emails and pack my backpack for the weekend vacation in Cape Coast. It is a six hour drive in a packed Tro Tro (cheaper than a taxi, its like a 15 person van) with about 15 other people, 3 hours to Accra and then 3-4 more to Cape Coast… it will be an adventure! The beach will be nice though, and a nice break from the same roads and same menu.

<3 Jessie