You have a closet!?

So to officially become a PC volunteer it's said that you have to poo your pants. 3 people in my group have already officially become members. Marcus said I could tell this story. He missed class because he was sick and we asked him what happened the next day. He said, "I'm an official volunteer as of last night." We asked what he did with it and he said, "Threw them in the closet." Without missing a beat 3 of us were like, "You have a CLOSET?!!" That's all that mattered to us.

One day some people went to a grass cutter, the animal, farm and had to report to us about it. We asked many questions and one was "What about reproduction?" Steve answered, "Mostly doggystyle." We had meant how large and how often their litters were, close enough. We've had some great laughs here.

The classes are a bit much, 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. When I get home I eat, hang out with my siblings and go to bed. Running is crucial for me here. If I don't run I will have a pretty bad day. 2 days ago during my run a kid on a bike tried to beat me so I picked it up a little, then he went faster, then I sprinted and I beat him. Despite him having 2 girls on the back of his bike I was still proud of my victory. There's a marathon in Accra every summer and last year a few PCV's ran in it and some even finished. That's what I'm training for. Speaking of which the boys are racing at Charles today, I hope they dominate.

Ma and Pops called me after the Red Sox had their great comeback! I was waking up, what better way to start the day?! That was pure love, I mean it was 1:30 their time and Pops doesn't make it past 8:30 on some nights. My cell phone is very random when it likes to work and when it lets me answer. The number is country code 024 then 131-7596. I've tried a few text messages but I haven't gotten any replies yet, my calls have gone through though.

THANK YOU to those who sent letters. The other PCV's are very jealous as I'm in 2nd place in the letters received contest, trailing Andy by so much that I'll never catch him. I have written a batch of letters replying to those who have sent me them. We'll see how long they take to get there, I'll try to send them out Monday. The letters made me so happy. There's just something awesome about getting a hard letter. The pictures ma sent me have been passed around, hard pictures be awesome. As for emails, I do read them all and appreciate them very very much but I don't always have time to reply.

Days here have been up and down, sometimes I can't believe how lucky I am to be here, other times I'm like what the heck am I doing here? Training will be rough but I get to see the all volunteers at least twice a week. Now that we all have cell phones we can at least text each other. The weather here is killer heat all day, then it rains very hard for like 10 minutes then it goes back to killer heat. I bucket bathe at least 2 times a day, if I don't Momma Aggie knows because the buckets get refilled. I tried to give her the calender of Michigan but then Nana (host dad) came in and was like, you know where this will look good...my office and took it. They love to hear about the US. Celion Dion is HUGE here, one night at a spot they played her nonstop for 3 hours.

Today I have a somewhat fast internet so I'm writing a lot, I'm sorry. I think about home a good amount and when I do it's not always about what you think it would be. I miss chilling in backwait with Sue and Pam and pulling pranks with Chrissy. I miss darts with Tripp, Cody, and random 4th person. Random adventures with KTP and Suave individually. We were setting up a SUSU and needed to have a board and everything and went over the roles of all the members and it really reminded me of Kyle and my board. That board rocked. However I didn't want a spot on this one, I'll leave that to the older volunteers, they made me a key holder instead. My job is to hold onto one of the 3 keys and to keep track of it, I think I can handle it.

Well now I'm going to try to send some pictures to Beth so she can post them, we'll see how these ones come out. I miss you guys lots and thanks for reading, it makes me feel loved.

"Calm seas do not make expert sailors."