Teaching AIDS to Primary Level 6 children in Africa was easily one of the most eye opening experiences of my life. We went in there with great information and a pretty solid lesson plan. After about 2 minutes we had to throw it all out the window. We had to take it down to the extreme basics. It was rough at first but by the end we were really starting to get through to them. The few concepts they had heard about AIDS were so random and out there that half of our time was spent denying rumors. I can see that this is one area that I can definitely work on while I'm here.
We also met up with some Susu, or private savings groups, through the District Assembly. Everyone thinks that NGO's are an a amazing thing, and 3 of 4 are, but they do have their downsides. All the collectors wanted to know was how much money we were going to give them. When we asked what their biggest problem was they answered finding the right NGO's to get money from. They have become so reliant on these programs. PC does not come with financial aid, we're here to teach them sustainable skills so that someday they won't need all these NGO's. My job over the next 2 years will be to teach my counterparts enough basic business skills that I myself will become obsolete by the end of my service.
Things have been really great lately even though we did lose the first person out of our group. He was a good bud of mine and it's weird to think that it could be me home already. I'm really lucky to have a great host family here and above all great friends and family back home (today's mail was awesome). My 8 year old brother here, Kwoko, is like instant joy when I need it. He may be a little slow, I won't lie. We have a handshake and we've been playing catch lately every night, complete with Momma Aggie cheering, "YAAA Kwoko and Dan!" When the guys come over to play rummy we give him the 2 jokers and he's in heaven. He's pretty much a celebrity with the volunteers since both Adam and I love the kid.
This week I got to accomplish a few firsts. I watched my first pirated movie. In the large cities they sell these movies that are like 42 random movies in one and they're only 3 cedi. We watched Prince Caspian and it's really funny when people on the tape get up at the theatre to use the bathroom. I also had a conversation in 4 languages in a day, english, german, twi, and eve. I felt like my head was going to explode.
Next week should also be exciting as I get to open my Barclay's bank account, brittish bank=cool right? Thursday I also leave to go to my site for the first time. I will be staying there for a week and then coming back to complete training. Throw in the December election that I tried to hide from mom and it's a pretty exciting time for us. I think of you guys back home a lot and really randomly honestly. My fellow volunteers are pretty jealous of some of the stuff I get in the mail, you guys rock.

"What if my Tuesday is full?"-Julie in Language class, the Eve word for Tuesday is Blada, our instructor didn't get it.