Halloween, Elections and Travel

The group is still going strong. No one has ETed (early termination) yet which is basically unheard of. On average you're supposed to loose 30% of your group during training.. We still might loose some, we're only halfway done, but I hope not.
The idea of Halloween doesn't even come close to existing here in Ghana, so what do a bunch of Americans do? We introduce them to our culture, it's the PC way. We had probably the tackiest costumes ever, due to lack of possessions, but the point was still made. Sam and I were Indians, get it, Native Americans?
The next morning we broke into our 3 sectors and took off for field studies. The 13 SED volunteers and 3 trainers piled into our "tour tro" and took off for the Volta Region. That's the region that my site is located at. It's absolutely gorgeous. We went to businesses and tourists sites for 5 days straight. From sites that attract about a person a day to full fledge fruit factories we saw it all. I however don't do well when I'm traveling without a point and had a low day. Sunday I didn't get to go to church, coincidence?, but we did climb a mountain and swam in another waterfall. The hike was a blast and water instantly drops the maturity level of anyone in Africa. When we got back we had a horrible lunch and an even worse dinner though. Food can be directly related to my mood here. That night I wanted to go home. Mom called and I was like "It's HORRIBLE." My phone had horrible or no service and I hadn't been online in a week so I was basically out of touch with everyone. Thankfully I packed the letters I got from Chrissy and the Arnies crew, those helped.
The next day however I woke up, had some fresh eggs and was in a great mood. From there the trip just got better. We saw a few District assemblies and sat in on a lotta really cool stuff. The best part for me was when we went to a Kente village. It was insane, just so awesome! I got so excited I was like jumping for joy. This wasn't my village, it was Steve's, but my village is actually better known for Kente. Here is where I finalized my nickname, "Tuttle". In the movie Volunteers about the PC, John Candy plays a character named Tom Tuttle from Topeka that is so excited about the PC and is beyond prepared. I love it here and I came in having been in West Africa before, able to speak Twi a little, and read up on the history. I also made 2 remarks during "how to start a business" session along the lines of "avoid alliteration at all costs" followed 2 minutes later by "proper placement of prominent products." Thus Tom Tuttle from Topeka works. I called mom that night to let her know I wasn't hating life.
We stayed a night at a very rustic but very beautiful resort on top of a mountain. That night a retired Dutch anthropologist decided to sit next to me while I was reading. He seemed very nice but he hated Americans and Bush. I didn't get defensive but just sat there and listened to him talk. It was pretty interesting actually.
Then we went to the city Ho, which is 15 miles from my site and will be my local large market. I had heard it was everyone's favorite city in Ghana but so far all cities seemed the same. Ho is different, actually kept clean, spread out, and has a store in it that usually has cheese! There's also a spot called the White House where NGO's from all over come and chill. We met a group from Sweden. That night when we were just about at each others throats we showed up to our hotel and it had a pool. We freaked out and played in in for hours. Other guests took pictures of all the crazy white kids.
Today we toured the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana, complete with golf course, high school, and police. Cocoa is serious here, 2nd largest producer in the world but best quality. Then I finally got to come back to my host family. I missed them and the comforts of having your own room.
Most important thing now, the election. I can't describe how awesome it was to be in Africa when the first African American president was elected. With the time difference, and we don't do daylights savings so we're now 5 hours ahead, it was cool to wake up and watch it live at 4 AMish. The people here are so excited about it. I won't get into politics but it was an experience I'll never forget.
I think of you guys a lot and due to medications dream about some of you really randomly (Blake and I made our major league debuts with the Texas Rangers against the Tigers a few nights ago. We were carrying bats like oars to the wrong dugout and Jimmy Leland was like, Umm Danny, that's ours. Blake doesn't play baseball.)