Day 32 (tuesday)

Woke up once in the middle of the night, then back to sleep for a couple of hours and got out of bed around 6. I had some breakfast (I bought some hot cereal [referred to as porridge] that was similar to cream of wheat (it was corn based and cinnamon flavored) and it was quite tasty. After that maureen was doing a few chores and then informed me that she was meeting with her supervisor today and was going to present her work to him. She left a bit early to read and do some more work before the meeting. I spent time writing and relaxing and just realizing how much I love the life I have! I will write today and make sure my observations are documented and everything is taken care of. Listening to music has been an amazing saving grace (it is wise to bring a couple books or get a kindle/nook to help occupy the down times) and I'm rediscovering some good tunes, totally centering and reassuring. Today was another down day and I spent much of the day organizing some notes and listening to the recordings from last week. I made some lunch, fried some plantanes and warmed up some beans and rice later on. I spoke to mom for a bit (surprise, surprise, the internerd ran out of juice again!) and caught her up on life. I spoke (via text) to some friends and checked in with a few people. Turns out the adventures don't stop here, I guess I'm going to the Real Madrid vs Juventus match in vegas a week after I get home, that should be very exciting! I began to lay down later in the afternoon and just as I got comfortable, Maureen had come home and wanted to talk so we chatted for some time and tried to figure out what our weekend was going to look like. I also got Lisa's (the director from the Amoaful Technical Vocational School in Bekwai) number so I could maybe shadow her for a day on friday and also visit the infirmary as well. We were thinking of possibly going back to the children's home tomorrow so Maureen could visit Samira again. She went back to her room and I finished the rest of the cereal that I had from this morning (sooooo good!) and then walked up the road to get another box of water (I also learned, although they don't recycle per se, that people will buy empty water bottles and use them for storing and selling various liquids [oils etc] and so I shouldn't throw them away...would have been nice to know that before I threw a bunch away). I came home and watch France 24 (which is a news station) as I have finally learned how to work the tv system (it can be a bit more challenging than you might think) but a lot of the channels are switched (i.e. the sports channel will have the audio of sports but the picture of news and vice versa) but it was nice to be able to catch up on the world news and have it be in a language that was easier for me to understand. However, it has been unfortunate to learn of the plane crashes in Ghana and the bad one in Nigeria. Cookie came back today from her conference in Accra but that means that Elom will be leaving here tomorrow. Well now the night is cooling down and i'm going to write a little, or at least think about it, and then work my way underneath my mosquito net and into my bed.