Mema wo akye. Wo hotse den? Mere sua mfantse. Yehebyia! The quick and dirty translation: Hello; how are you?; I'm learning to speak Fanti; goodbye. I'm slowly making language progress and another week has passed (how?). Language work now dominates every day, even into the evenings--my ears are crossed!! The schedule is grueling--yes, I'm whinning. I want to believe what other Pcvs say, that we'll have lots of free time after training.... I'm looking forward to some fiction, more time for letters, etc. Now, only 4 more weeks of training, yahoo!!!

This week my homestay Mother's Mother died, suddenly at ge 78. Great plans are afoot for her funeral. She lived about 100 miles northwest of here and the funeral is now scheduled for next Friday and Sat.. I'm disappointed that due to the scheduled site visit that I'll miss the big, big event. Here funerals top the see & be seen affairs. I will however, not miss the loud music coming from stacks of crackling speakers.

For funerals, men and women both wear only black and red traditional clothing. In fact the market women who sell cloth will barely let you look at the funeral cloth without a funeral invitation. Of course, I feel in love with an orange print fabric only to learn that is is "funeral red." I'm having evil thoughts--sneak it home, sleep in it....Little rebellions!!

I believe I'm waking-up from the culture shock, but I'm not at all recovered from food shock. Ghanaians eat lots of starches with a little stew or soup that contains a little protein. There is not dairy here--no millk, no yogurt, no cream, no WHIPPING CREAM, no cheese; the latter is nearly intolerable, laughing cow is not. I'm so ready to start cooking for myself. While my homestay family meals are better than most other trainees, last night I had a soup with a fish eye looking at me--I lost my appetit. I'm thinking of you Martha, it's really all about my stomach!! Regardless, I look forward to repairing my relationship with food soon.

Besides language, I'm working on two business training projects. The first is in a local school and with four other female trainees we'll chat with highschool girls about women's roles in the US. The second project is for more personally interesting. I'm creating a "top 20 birds of Ghana" identification sheet for my sibling trainees, plus giving a 15 minute presentation about avian culture here. The other trainees are generally interested in the birds and get this, they call me Miss Jane Hathaway--tee, hee, hee!!

Oh, I'm so excited about my site visit. I simply do not know what to expect and I'm trying to moderate any expectations. I'll be there Nov. 10-16, so look for an update after that, or perhaps during if I can get to Cape Coast computers.

There's all the news that I can remember. My eye is better and all else seems to be in good working order. I wish all a cheery week and as sincerely as possible, I wish you where here!!

Happy, happy birthday wishes to niece Ashley, Susan L. and Laura J-R.
Healing thoughts to Jen, Grandma and Lynsey....

xoxo...d

P.S. I love the comments, I'm eithere laughing or crying in the internet cafe, it keeps the weirdos from hitting on me!!