Hi Mom!! This Is Rachel Becca Kerry and Brent. We are in Hohoe, a village about an hour and a half away from Tafi Atome in an internet cafe called Emmason. We are having trouble logging on to our blog so we are hoping you copy and post this!

Africa is AMAZING!!! We are having a fantastic time. Where to start?? (Becca decided she wants/ is moving here someday haha). We arrived to Accra on Friday last week where Emmanuel met us and picked us up at the airport. He is an incredible person. He is so busy! He is very dedicated and a hard worker. He is the ground coordinator in Tafi Atome for Compassionate Journeys.

We stayed Friday night at Big Milly's backyard in Kokro Bite. The food was great and they had an exciting African Drum and Dancing performance that night. The food was actually more than great, we had fresh caught lobster! We also said goodbye to flushing toilets for awhile there. It was our first time seeing the Atlantic Ocean! Jerry was our first Taxi driver. He acted as our tour guide and showed us the African handshake (shake slide snap). On Saturday we took a van to Tafi Atome (about 4 hours from Accra in the Volta Region). The driving is CRAZY! Yet, we trust it because they seem to be very experienced... dodging motorbikes, people, buses...goats.... everything haha. (oh and today when we went to Hohoe, we got to ride the motorbike for the first time (don’t freakout anybody, but this was helmet and everything else free....mhmm.. three people on a tiny motor bike, speeding down a dirt road full of pot holes, it was awesome, actually quite fun:) the modes of transportation mostly include motor bikes, crammed taxis and tro tros (big vans with at least 20 people packed in...we have learned to rub shoulders with strangers, or almost sit on them...) So back to Saturday, we arrived in Tafi Atome after eating snail and clam kabobs and mini fried fish. We unpacked our luggage into the kitchen where we would be eating now. It started raining ( it’s their raining season) and what we have found is that when it rains, you sit there and wait till it’s done, it can be 5 mins, or an hour, we are learning patience:)

We have fallen in love with Mary! Both of them:) Mary and Mary are our cooks. Mary has a little two year old girl named Joanna who is absolutely adorable and the other Mary has Ericson and Patience. They love their new teddy bears and race car toy. By far the best part of Africa is the people. Every time you walk down the street you will hear a hello and smile from everyone you see, the children yell hi and wave with beautiful huge grins:) it is impossible to not smile back:)

Just to run over our daily schedule, because we are running out of time for what we have payed for internet use here it is:
We will wake up around 5 or 5:30 and sometimes taking an amazing cold shower that is completely refreshing! We like them better in fact haha… then Becca goes to a family’s home where she visits with Bless. ( Becca typing now) Bless is a 12 year old sweet heart who has Cerebral Palsy. I do therapy with her legs and arms to help strengthen her muscles and bones since most of the time she is laying on the ground and gets bed soars. Her legs are not even half the size of my arm. She is very small and weak. She has a loving family, which is quite a blessing.  In many places is Africa they consider it a curse if you have children with disabilities, and will often drown them. Bless is the highlight of my day. Her big bright smile is sunshine! She glows with pureness. I can’t imagine how much pain she is in. In America you would see children in that condition in a wheel chair with pain medication and professional help.  After some exercises, feeding her breakfast and singing songs, I go to the other side of the village where we meet up with Rachel and Kerry and Brent and have breakfast with the other volunteers (Asli, from Turkey, and Sam and Ciena from the US) at 8 or 8:30 we walk to the primary school to begin teaching! (oh thats one thing about Ghana, they have "Ghana time" in other words, 8 could be anywhere from 8 to 9 haha)

(This is Rachel typing again.) We are on a time limit typing so we keep switching and paying . Okay so anyways, speaking of volunteers there is also a group from the International High School of Paris. They are here doing many projects with Compassionate Journeys but mainly helping to build a computer learning center. They have donated 10 computers to the village so that the people can learn computer skills. Two people in the village are going to Computer classes so that when the CLC is finished they can teach others. One of those people is our neighbor Ransford!!!! We love Ransford! He is 22 and incredibly smart!! We have spent many times just talking with him. Yesterday was one of our hottest days so far and he was back from class and not going to the farm that day so we found shade and talked for quite some time. He then showed us his "library." He had a chest of books he has been given. He had a Book of Mormon! He is very interested in Religions and is going to take us to church on Sunday in Hohoe and translate for us. People in Tafi Atome speak Ewe and English. In Accra they speak English and Twi.

At School I (Rachel) help in the 1st grade classes of the KG school. Becca teaches in the 2 grade, Kerry in the 4th and Brent in the 5th. Becca and I teach things as simple at the alphabet since their level of learning is like kindergarten. The kindergarteners are combined with the 1st grade class when there is teaching that does not include books or writing. But any other time they are sent to another room with no teacher to play and wait. I often go in there are try to help them continue to learn at least something. The schools lack organization and structure. The teachers often just leave or simply do not teach when volunteers come.

The children can memorize and repeat anything!!! (Becca typing) Their comprehension and understanding is lacking so we are working on helping them with that aspect so everything they are taught can really be effective. The children are wonderful! They love bubbles! They love the jump ropes we brought, and they love love love love love love foot ball! We played with them after school one afternoon under the shade of a mango tree barefoot. It was a blast! The village has a team, and they had a huge game against the neighboring village. The kids also love doing hand clapping games with us. We usually have at least five children hanging on each arm wanting to hold our hands. We had about 20 kids drawing with chalk with us the other day. They have a neat artist talent. We are hoping to incorporate their art in the mural we are doing (when they are on break from school) on the wall of the computer cafe they are building.  But overall the teaching is an incredible experience. We love it. In my class ( Becca) we are working on addition and subtraction, but not only memorizing it, but understanding how and why it works and how they can apply it.  We are starting basic reading with the sounds of the alphabet and learning more colors. They do really well with flash cards. They have so little here, yet they choose to be so happy. We have so much, so so much to learn from them.

We have a lot more to tell you but we will have to tell you another time we come to Hohoe and have internet access. We pray all is well with our friends and family. Lots of big hugs! All our love and more! Here is a big African hug (shake, slide, and snap! )- Rachel and Rebecca