I think I ran to Togo

SorryI haven't been online or gotten mail in over a week so I'm way behindon everything. I have to start off by saying that my little brother atmy homestay who I play catch with every night is a lefty. I realized this about 2 weeks into our nightly routine when he missed a ball, tracked it down with his glove off and and chucked it back to me withhis left hand. His siblings said, "Of course Kwoko is a left." Here Iam making a kid who is a little slow to start play catch oppositehanded. When I told my real dad that he wanted to send a lefty glovebut by the time it got here I'd be at site for good.

Last Monday wetook off to the Bunso Cocoa College, not as great as it sounds, for our Counterpart Workshop. These were probably the 2 boringest days of mylife, but I did get to hang out with one of my counterparts, Oscar. He and I have the biggest height difference of any PCT/counterpart but we were both born on a Thursday (meaning we are called Yao) so we are brothers apparently. He is a great Kente weaver but his father, Mr. Agbais the best weaver in Volta and arguably the world. Mr.Agba will be the first to tell you that so he reminds me of coach sometimes, great, jk. He has been to expos in Paris, NY, and Denmark. Overall he's a really great guy and takes care of me though. We left for Kpetoe together and I was estatic to get to site and see my bungalow.

The trip across Ghana flew by, when I got there Mr. Agba was waiting to meet me. We chopped and talked for a while before they took me to my bungalow. It's nothing flashy, that's for sure, and it's rather small but I'm slowly starting to make it a home. When I got there it smelled, still does some and there are definitely like 12 bats living in the ceiling. On the upside the volunteer before me left me just about every type of household item I'll need (after I wash them). I do have an usually flushing toilet and a cold shower, but whowould want a hot one here?

Kpetoe itself is an awesome town I think. It's much larger than I expected but it's spread out. The town just has a beat to it, it's fun just to walk around. Mr Agba tells methat I where I run in the morning the left side of the road is Togo and the right is Ghana, I don't think that's true but still cool. MrAbga already has a loom ready for me to learn how to do Kente which is sweet. When he and I travel around we walk like 5 mins, get a Coke, greet people and repeat inserting a Gennius for Coke sometimes. That's what I'll be doing for the first 3 monthes suppositly. One day we wentway out to his farm, it's really relaxing out there, I drank and ate 3 coconuts directly off the tree, sometimes life is great here!

Othertimes it's flat out the loneliest I've ever and hopefully will ever be. When these times come out of nowhere I'm starting to have coping methods. 1st of which is get out of your room. Sitting there will get you nowhere. Saturday I had to get out so I decided to go to the Catholic church and say hey to the priest and tell him I'd be living here starting Dec 13th. When I got there there were some cars and tents set up. An usher came up to me and said "you are welcome" andtook me to be seated. I got sat in the first row of the "invitedguests" section. Turns out I walked into the 75th anniversary celebration, a 5 hour event hosted by the Bishop of Ho with easily like 2,000 people. It was very fun though a tad long, I think I'll like the Catholic church here alot, it's kinda like home.

There is much to do in Kpetoe and at the same time I feel hopeless about my primary project. I already think I have land to build a basketball court. If I can get rims and balls I think I can get poles, pavement, and paint. Coaching that would beawesome. There is also a 12 piece brass band that came out and playedfor me while Mr Agba was getting his hair cut. I've seen them playing at 2 community events already. They have 12 instruments but 55 kids in the class. The man who teaches them was taught by a lady from Nebraska! I'd like to get them another set of 12 eventually. Both of these are good projects because they will take time and I have plenty of that usually.

My primary project is just plain intimadating. These guys are good at what they do. They want a museum for their kente, which would be a great thing. My job is to look for ways to fund this project apparently. Between that and some work with exporting I'm pretty worried, these aren't the problems I had in accounting class.

SundayI wasn't doing too well but my friend Julie came and visited and thenafter that I sat outside and did laundry. People started coming up. After I finished I started writing down their names so I can learn them. If the kids knew my name they got a piece of candy, I'm gonna buy friends here but it's already working. I'm just gonna need more candy.

Sundays always end well with a call from home, too bad no Lumen team but ours can beat Oakridge. I go back to training on Wednesdayand will celebrate Thanksgiving with the trainees, Adam Falk will bejoining us from Cape Coast University so I'm excited to see a fellowLaker.

Currently I'm in Ho. This is my 2nd attempt at posting this blog. We just came from a SUPERMARKET! I kid you not, you would laugh at it but we were going nuts! Think like a party store with random stuff. Looks like I won't have to have everything sent from home. I only made one purchase though, CHRISTMAS LIGHTS. I might not be able to eat tomorrow but dang it my bungalow will have lights.

"It's no longer the White House, it's the Black House." A man in Kpetoe about the US elections, they love it.