Human Sacrifices, Parasites, and Swimming

I went away this weekend and really missed the kids. It was so nice to come back and see them this morning! Godwyn just lights up when he sees me which makes me feel like a million bucks. Even Beauty today came running up to me and lifted her arms for me to pick her up. That’s the most animated I’ve seen Beauty behave so far. Later I have to walk to the market to buy rope and a bucket for the well at the orphanage because the rope snapped and they lost their bucket and they’ve been using a stick to haul up buckets of water. I think I’m going to wrap Godwyn on my back and head into the market in a little while.

Having food at the orphanage has been great. I've spent half the donation money on food for the kids. Food here is much more expensive than I ever anticipated because everything has to be imported. A bag of rice that will last about a week costs gh70 which is 70 cedis or about $40. Thats a lot of money here. They usually use about 2 bags a week because there are 60 mouths. Some of you have asked about sending things and that's really great but I also know its very expensive to send mail here and I would have to pay on my end to even receive packages. Money is really the best bet because I can buy food which is really the main priority here. They have pencils. They have crayons. What they need is food in their tummies. The worst part about going back to the orphanage at night to tuck in the kids is when the smaller ones (2 and 3 year olds) moan and cry and say they are hungry still. Luckily, because of the donations I collected before I left, they've been fed very well for the past few weeks and they don't go to sleep crying! Thank you thank you thank you!

Sorry I haven’t written in awhile, we’ve been really busy and plus I was REALLY sick for a week and couldn't even leave my bed. We got a new volunteer named Sara from Sweden and luckily she sort of took my place because I couldn’t even make it to the orphanage for two days. I have never been that sick before. I had fevers and chills and was vomiting and shaking really bad. Just before I got better I was about to go to the hospital because someone said I might have worms or a parasite. Luckily though, Friday morning I woke up and was totally fine, just exhausted from my fevers. I’ve felt fine since Friday so I don’t think I’m going to go to the hospital because I don’t really want to know if I have a parasite or not because if I find out I do I’m just going to tear into my own stomach with my swiss army knife because I can’t bear the thought of something wriggling around in my intestines. Speaking of knives, today I am going to the market to buy a machete. Just to have for fun. I don’t think I can get it through Customs in the US when I come back so I’m just going to keep it while I’m living here and then give it away when I move back. I have a mental list of things I need to do with my machete (cut the grass, bang on trees, etc). Anyway, sometimes I convince myself that I can feel the parasite slithering around but Beatrice said that’s not possible. So maybe I do or maybe I don’t but all I know is that I’m not sick anymore and that’s good because I was able to go to Cape Coast this weekend which was siiiick.

I’m obsessed with Cape Coast and I’m going back like every other weekend from now on. On Friday we took 3 different tro-tros and it took 6 hours but we made it to Cape Coast and stayed at this place called Oasis Beach Resort which is just a bar on the beach with little straw huts that you sleep in. When we arrived we didn’t have a reservation so they put us in a “dorm” with a bunch of girls from Germany. I didn’t care at all. We slept in bunk beds in this hut on the beach and all shared an outdoor shower but it was fun to use because you just shower in the sunshine which felt nice. So Crystal, Sara and I arrived in the afternoon and then later on these guys I met last weekend and who have been teaching in Frankidua came to Cape Coast to meet up with us. It was so weird because we had met Dale last weekend (an American kid) and so he was coming to meet us and was bringing a friend and when they arrived, his friend was Azar who is the British kid I met when I first got here. Small World!

Anyway, Saturday we all went to Cape Coast Castle which is a castle that was used as a slave fort. Most of the slaves from West Africa were kept at this castle while they waited for the slave ships that would bring them to America. It was horrible. It was also eerie because it was this beautiful white castle on this beautiful pristine beach but the most horrible things happened there. They bring you down in this dungeon and you can still see the finger nail marks on the walls from when people were dragged in there. The door that all the people went through to get on their slave ship is called The Door of No Return and we had to walk through it and it was really chilling.

After the fort we met up with some other girls I had met a few weekends ago and had told to meet us at Oasis. It was really fun because it was Crystal, Sara, me, Dale, Azar, Haley, and Kelsey and we just partied at the beach that night. Sunday we all woke up and lay on the beach. I tried to go swimming and almost died. The waves here are terrifying. They crash so hard and then slam you in the face. One ripped my bathing suit almost all the way off- that’s how powerful they are. One knocked Crystal and Haley over and they couldn’t even get back up, they were just getting dragged around by the wave.

IMPORTANT UPDATES ON MY LIFE:
- I accidentally kicked a baby chick while walking at night. This ruined my night.
- My hair is crazy looking, it’s grown a lot from the African heat and its long and like WHITE blonde. I’m also the tannest I’ve ever been in my life.
- There was a dead goat in front of our house for two days until someone finally moved it.
- In Canada they sometimes spell Jelly with a G, like gelly, and so Crystal tried to give me Aloe Vera Gelly but I wouldn’t use it because it’s spelled wrong. I told her to “gelly the hell out of here with that gelly.” I’ve learned that Canadians do a lot of things weird like put mayonnaise or butter on everything.
- I got a pet while I was in Cape Coast. He’s a white dog that I named Trigger and he has to stay there with his other owner, the security guard at our hotel, but I’ll be visiting him all the time. He tried to attack fisherman who were giving me a hard time on the beach one day when I was walking down it. He’s the most loyal African dog in all the land.
- An awkward thing that happened was that this African man asked to take a picture with me so he gave his girlfriend his camera and made her take all these pictures of him and me. Sometimes I don’t know how to act in situations like that.

Also, Dale was telling me this weekend that up where he was living, in the Volta region, the government is having a hard time with the tribes there. Apparently, every time a chief dies, there have to be a couple human sacrifices so that those humans can cross over and help the chief. Not too far away from him, there have been 3 human sacrifices in 3 months. These aren't people that go willingly, they are people in the tribe who are kidnapped from their beds in the middle of the night and beheaded. Apparently its a big problem because the government can't change the traditions of these tribes. When he was telling me this at the bar, a local was nodding his head and I asked him if he knew about it and he said that its a very common problem and that it happened only a couple months ago down the main road from where we were staying. The government is trying to encourage the tribes to sacrifice cows instead. Anyway, Dale, Azar, Crystal and I are all going to try to set something up after Ghana. We were talking about all moving to South America for a bit to work or teach there, possibly in Bolivia.

I'm not at the internet cafe. I'm using my internet stick so if you've sent me any emails, I'll be able to email you back later when I go to the cafe. I promise I'm not ignoring anybody's emails! Miss you guys. Don't forget my birthday is November 26th and that you should all have a Lindsay Remembrance Day. Maybe pour some champagne and do a toast, I dont know, it's really up to you guys I guess. Just some things I thought of that you could put in your toast: Lindsay is Gods gift to earth, you're better for having known her, and you miss her charm, beauty, and grace. Totally up to you how you celebrate my birthday. Be sure to send me birthday emails since you can't call me. If I don't receive an email from you.... than we were never friends and I now own a machete so you better get good with your God.