Some more photos for you. sorry about the dups.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNmbRm3bs2Lsg

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNmbRm3bs2Lq4

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=699161195206531185/l=325300346/g=11441637/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=699161195206531185/l=325300346/g=11441637/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
so here it comes the rating list for Ghana: are you READY

my favorite animal moment: a baby sheep with full sized legs trying to run away. It hops and skips and is quite hilarious.
typical african woman dress:wear it all together. lepord print shirt, plaid wrap skirt, pokadot head wrap. we are not afraid of color here folks. stay tuned to see diane dressed as one.
most impressive carrying on head:a crate 5 ft by 5 feet filled with tomatos
cutest baby:goats have us beat people!
best food in ghana: pineapples, tomatoes, the dark pink papaya, we also eat a lot of nutella spread made in ghana, digestives, and laughing cow cheesse, boiled cassava and contumbre yum.
best way to get around-tro tro by far-looks like a vw log stuffed with people. they never try to cheat you on price and they are so affordable.
irony:yea, the food is all free range and organic here, but we have a picture of goats/chickens/sheep eating out of a dumpster
most frustrating:that 9 out of 10 people ask you directly or not for money

Mail anyone?

We have sent out a bunch of post cards and want to know if they are getting to the states or are we just supporting the local Ghanaian post office. If you were born between when we Sept-Nov. a post card should be on it's way! Please let us know if you have gotten one! thanks~ Here is a picture from Halloween!

check out some photos at these links

here are three links so far!
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNmbRm3bs2Lsg
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNmbRm3bs2Lq4
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNmbRm3bs2Luo

A Day in the Life!!!!!!

So, you might be sitting there and thinking to yourself, what is life like in Eguafo, Ghana? Well lucky you! you have stumbled upon a few folks who currently live there and we are about to tell you about the daily life of Eguafo Broni's (Bromi is the term for "White Man or White Woman")

4:30 am: Wake up time is roughly around this time where we can here the kids starting to clean their rooms and the local church behind us chanting and singing the same song at the same time everyday. Of course we have the pleasure of our backdoor neighbor yelling and making sure her side of the story is being heard by everyone who will listen
4:30-5:15am: diane and i refuse to believe that people are actually up right now and arguing! We try to stay asleep but are definitely awake.
5:30-6:00 am: we actually get up and put on our running stuff and go for a run.
6:00-6:45-7:00am: we run on a trail that weaves it's way through a beautiful farm. We see the sun rising, plantain trees, corn growing, cocoa trees, orange trees, cassava plants, charcoal being made, and a beautiful soccer field. it is breathtaking! The kids used to run with us in the beginning but they have stopped. they do enjoy doing stretches, push-ups and sit-ups with us after we return from our run.
7:00-7:45am: we get our bucket of water and wash our bodies and our clothes with that bucket of water in an outdoor showering area. the blocks are about 5 feet tall so i can see out of them b/c there is no roof. There are 5 "showering" rooms there.
7:45 am we eat our breakfast of cocoa (read: corn breakfast mush, DEFINITELY NOT AS COOL AS A BOWL OF COCOA WOULD BE!) We also eat rice soup and various fruits.
7:55am: attempt to push the kids out the door to get to school and head off to school ourselves.
8:00am:-2:00pm: this is the school day: we have focused on teaching the students how to read. but we also have worked on art, PE, colors, songs, and other fun things like math! But again our main focus is reading and teaching English.
2-5:30pm: After school there are many different activities that we do: Project we have worked on include: creating the Sankofa Mbofra Fie web site! Look for it soon on the famous World Wide Web! We have painted three signs for the school and orphanage as well as a large one on the building. We
have brought that wonderful game of tether ball to Sankofa! We have helped build a duck house! We have built shelving. We have cooked delicious meals for the children and staff. We have meet with the Board of Directors of Sankofa and discussed their future. We have prepared Sankofa to become and NGO. We have put up mosquito nets on all the windows. We have created a monthly budget for Sankofa.
It is not all work and no play for the two travelers! Fun stuff we have done: We have each watched a Ghanaian film. (Not recommended!!!!!!!!!!!!!-Mark actually watched a Nigerian film)
We have picked oranges, coconuts, papayas, dug up cassava, made fufu (fact: 75% of Ghanaians eat FuFU for dinner)-what is FuFu- you boil cassava--editors note: cassava tastes darn good just boiled-- but then to make fufu you go through an hour long process of pounding it into more or less mashed potatoes. One person has a large pestle and the other person is placing the cassava under it in hopes of you not crushing their fingers. We have played soccer, ultimate, done gymnastics, and have worked on stupid human tricks with most of the children. Diane has worked on batik and tie dye while there. (They call is tie and dye- Mark really likes that name!)
That is all i can think of right now!
5:30-6:00pm: we eat dinner around here or a bit later. Our favorite foods are Groundnut(peanutbutter) soup, contumbra (green leafy god stuff) soup, rice, boiled cassava.
6:00pm-the sun usually sets around now. we hang out a bit more with the kids, staff, and ourselves.
6:35pm there is a brown out
6:45pm the power goes back on
6:45-7:45ishpm: reading and playing games
8:00pm: diane reads stories to the kids
8:30pm: we read in our room and go to sleep sometimes soon after.
so that is our amazing day! look for some of our favorite things in ghana soon!
thanks~

mark made out with a NUN and other crazy antics

Hello there freinds,
so yes it is true mark indirectly made out with a nun. We have left the orphanage to see Ghana and take a break. We first travelled to Kumasi-a big city but I loved it. We found this amazing place to stay, far away from the hustle and they let us camp. It was very close to a resturant with AMAZING indian food. and here we sat when it happened...we were on our second box of wine, don garcia i do believe and we noticed that to our right were two nuns sitting drinking guiness-funny to me. so mark went over and poured them wine and made them drink it. When they left there was still a little guiness in one of the bottle and yes-my classy husband drank it, thus making out with a nun! The next day we travelled to lake bosomwe. We camped by the lake at this rastamans place. somehow there was a german there who wanted mark to help film a movie with him,I was cast as an extra. yes, it is a g rated movie people! You may have noticed that mark likes to wear purple plastic mardi-gras like beads around his neck. People in Ghana often think these to be rosary beads and that mark is a devout religious man. (little do they know) an old lady asked for a prayer from mark and he clapsed his hands together and mumbled some gibberish, when done she thanked him. we took a mountain bike ride on the rough roads around the lake. on some garbage quality rented bikes. at least the brakes worked. it was fun though. we love to eat fresh cocoa. it is a squash like plant. when you crack it open there are these seeds coated in sweet goop, that is good to suck off. these seeds are dried, fermented, mashed, sweetened and more proccesed to turn them into chocolate. We have also discovered fire roasted plaintains. holey moley good. i know a few people who have gained 20 lbs on these. oh and mark got cut-off at the buffett lunch today. hee hee. i am working on uploading photos to various sites right now. so check em soon.
love
di

Halloween at Sankofa!!

So as some of you know, Halloween is my favorite holiday!!!!!!! Diane and i decided that we should teach the children the wonderful holiday of Halloween to our young friends in Ghana. Surprisingly many of them have not heard about this amazing holiday that sweeps the US every October 31st! So how do you teach a children in Ghana about Halloween? With a long educational unit on the glories of costumes, make-up, and acting silly! We constantly reminded the children that October 31st was Halloween. We role played what to do and what to say on that magical evening.
It was intense but we were up to the challenge. Diane made a sweet dress out of banana leaves and i used corn husks and banana leaves to dress up.

The kids did not disappoint. We got some creative costumes and what is Halloween without a young teenage boy dressing up like a female with lip stick, boobs, and all!!! See, it's even funny in Ghana! Our oldest trick or treater was a 40 year old lady who wanted in on some of the fun! (of course we made her say the magic words of "trick or treat" before were rewarded her with candy!)

Here is a link to some pictures of the costumes! enjoy~

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=177382891/a=104446816_104446816/t_=104446816