hello everyone!

I know i am a disapointment already in terms of the writing thing, but i will try to do better! The days seem soo long here, but i generally can only get one or two things done in a day, outside of school and being home for dinner, and then going out! lol

School has started and as dan said last year, it is nice to finally have some routine. Right now we are going twi classes, ghanian history and african history. Its easy so far, since most of it is just review (thank you tim stapleton). The teachers are really great! especially our twi teacher kofi, who is always shoutin, praise the lord! hallaluha! when we say stuff right!

Being in Ghana is fanastic, though i did have my first cry the other day. I guess i didnt realize how i was adjusting. You have to pay attention to how you are feeling or else it will just well up on you and expode! Someone said a comment to me, which at home would have been rude, and i just lost it. I went to school and my friend kwaku, explained what it mean here, i just started balling. its was soo embarassing. i couldnt stop. lol. but it was just kind of a outpour and then i felt much better. No problems since.

Its definately hard making friends here, althought i have made quite a few. because we are soo high alert about safety etc etc, we are often too suspicious of people we meet and it kills the mood. Same with boys here. I get hit on, all day, everyday, but you know that most of them arent serious, they just think misconceptions about you, like you can get them to canada, or you have money. Although, i have met one friend who is a boy, and he is a very nice gentlemen. lol keep you posted on that one.

Despite, the constant male attention, ghanians are the friendliest people i have ever met. They are always helping me out when i am lost, getting me home safe, and even sharing their meals off their plate with me. They say "you are invited" and then you can just dig in with them!

The food is awesome! Its spicy and there arent many veggies which is sweet! Everyday is soo exciting becuase we are always finding cool local chop bars and little markets to eat it, its always an adventure.

so is driving....

tro tros are awesome, its like 20 cents for a long trip, but you are cramped in this old VW camper bus type thing, and its soo hot, but its cheap and i find them exciting. LAst night, our taxi driver had his lights fail while we were driving home, but because we were all girls and it was late, he wanted to make sure we got home safe! Try driving in poor street lights with no lights on a car! now thats an adventure! Sure i could have told him to stop, but meh, i trust he didnt want to die, so we probably wouldnt have lol. Then when we got out, there was a flash rain fall, and we all got soaked. excellent night. lol

Last night, we had a nice dinnner at the chalets, with ghanian drummers and dances. I got told i dance like a ghanaian, plus i was wearing a ghanaian dress... it was a compliment for me!

Its sweet, cause i often get better prices then the other oboruni (white people) becuase i am mixed. When i tell people my dad is jamaican, they say, oh my sister, you are of my blood! I have even gotten a welcome home! hahahaha

I love it here guys! Really, i dont have much time left, but i will try to write a follow up soon!

Love you all!

Peace!

Hey everyone!!

Greetings from Holland! Thats right, i know stand absolutely corrected. I love Amsterdam and i even admit a certain fondness for the Dutch. So after almost missing my flight (i had about 5 minutes before they stopped checking bags for our flight) i finally caught up to Matt and checked in super fast. The flight here was good. Matt and i were laughing the whole time, thinking how crazy it was to be leaving everyone behind, and to finally be living the dream! lol. Sydney met us at the Shipnol airport and we got lost in the Dam with our heavy packs and bags. That was quite the trip. Felt a bit like a pack horse personally!

We got to our hostel, named the flying pig, and it is sweet. They provided us with a great breakfast and then headed to a coffeeshop downtown. We bought a bunch of ganja and had our first sesh at Rookies, a little pot bar. We ventured around a bit, but it was definatel 4 in the morning ONtario time and we were totally beat. I couldnt sleep on the plane for the life of me, so i was exhusted. Unfortunately, we slept from 1:30-6:00, a well needed nap. Then we got back up and there is a sweet bar at the bottom of our hostel. The beir in Amsterdam is delicious. The dutch do know how to do a beer! Syd's cousins and Syd came at about 9:30 and we hit the town. Off to another coffeeshop were we all hung out togethere and then to a wonderful little jazz club. The music was amazing and i was totally stoked the appreciation of jazz. Amsterdam is an absolutely breathtaking city. All f the apartments have large, european windows, with no screens and that let tons of sunlight in. The weather is not to hot, which is nice since Africa is coming now.

Funny thing, nationality is huge here. The dutch are like the proudest people in the world! Last night, Lawrence was fighting with an Irish man, and told him he was Irish so he had a low IQ. THe other guy was ready to fight him for it. It was nuts. Also, all the Euros, think we are just Americans flipped around. That takes some explaining that's for sure.

We also so the red light district last night. It was more disturbing then i thought it would be. Certainly a necessary evil, because with it standardized like this people are protected from disease and are kept safe by security as opposed to the informal sex trade all over the world. Still, it was hard to try to comprehend how most of those women in the windows were feeling. I couldnt imagine really.

Anyway, Matt and i are gonna get up early, get some breakfast and get shuttled to Shipnol. We are gonnna have some brownies this morning and chill and then catch our plane.

I probably wont be able to write for a few days now, but just keep checkin if you arre interested.

Love you all,

Melissa Sharon