Only one week left?!?!?

Hello! Gosh blogging has not been as possible as I was hoping. Its not that I dont have time, its that the internet never works! Ive been here for about 45 minutes and i am just not able to log on. This is my third time starting this post but the first two times the power went out mid post. Oh lordy, this is Africa. I cant remember what I last wrote about and heaven forbid I pull it up to see, I may very well be here until night fall and I have babies waiting for me. So forgive me if I write about things twice.

Perpetua is home! She came back home on Saturday afternoon and is doing great. I must say I am a little concerned with the way she is acting and im hoping it is just out of confusion from the whirlwind of the last two weeks for her and not brain damage. She slept with us last night and would go from a dead sleep to sitting straight up in bed repeating the same thing over and over and laughing and laughing and in a split second she would look at me with a blank stare. Like lights are on and nobody is home. Its very concerning and quite creepy! She goes back for a check up tomorrow. We are just glad to have her back.

Melissa and Kim leave tomorrow. Really? The time has gone by way too fast and Melissa and I are not ready in the slightest to go home. Kim has had her fun and is ready to get back but I could stay for years. Im glad I will be here for a week longer because we have a few loose ends we need to tie up and we just didnt have the time with Perpetua being sick.

The orphanage is a disaster. Absolute disaster. Im working on a post explaining everything but its so hard to put into words what is going on if you have not seen it with your own eyes. The things that happen here are unimaginable for most of you. In short, Melissa and I are working on getting at least two boys out of here and into a boarding school. We have decided to partner with Ghana Kids, which is an NGO out of Germany that our dear friend Lisa started years ago. It used to support the orphanage but things are so bad there that she pulled out of the home and now works directly with Africa kids which is the other side to Ghana kids here in Ghana. I will also elaborate on that later. Anyway we cant send them all but we took on two boys that are from the same village and have been together since they were infants and are now attached at the hip to send to school. We cant help them all but little by little we can do big things.

In other news, we have really bonded with the older boys this trip. Of course we have our babies but we really look forward to the time at night when the babies are sleeping and we can spend time with the boys. They are so funny. A few nights ago a boy named Junior (who just so happens to be Mommy's grandson but we surprisingly LOVE him!) out of the blue he asked us if white ladies poop on a toliet. We all just started laughing and said yes but we were interested in where he thought we went to the bathroom. We asked him and he said he thought we brought a machiene to go to the bathroom in! I have NO idea where he got that but we still laugh about the look on his face when we told him we use the bathroom just like him. Complete shock. Oh boy they just keep me going.

Yesterday we wanted to go get some pictures of the farm which is not too far from the home so off we went with the boys. All was well until they said they wanted to take us to the water which was supposed to be really close. We ended up walking through brush that was taller than us to get there and left me with cuts up and down my arms. I was certain a cobra was going to attack my ankles at any second, thankfully we got there sans any snake bites. On the way back the boys took us to a hut that some men were in who were making palm wine. Palm wine is supposedly the alcohol you get out of fallen palm trees. Weird I know but they have gas cans under all the fallen palm trees to collect it and then they do something with it to make it an alcohol. Anyway being the wine lover that I am, I wanted to try it. Kim also wanted to try so these men went off to fetch some for us. He came back with a dirty bucket full of cloudy white warm liquid with a whole bunch of bugs floating in it. It honestly looked the the water in my bucket after I finish handwashing my clothes. Against our better judgement we tried it and it was actually good! I would definitely like to try some that has been strained so I wasnt eating so many bugs. I just couldnt get past that and it ended at just a taste. The boys on the other hand finished off the bucket and it was completely normal for the men to have these boys not much older than 11 or 12 drinking a bucket full of wine.

We went to the art market yesterday in Accra which was fun but oh so overwhelming. You must go there with a ton of patience. At once there are 10 grown men and women pulling you in every direction trying to get you into their shop and they all sell basically the same thing. We were able to leave with some great stuff. The funny thing that is different this trip from last time is everybody thinks you have a cell phone and wants your number. We have even collected the policemens numbers from Bawjiase this time. I think we are at somewhere near 20 phone numbers and 4 marriage proposals!

I cant think of much else at the moment. Were taking tons of pictures and having a ball. The sun is hot and the humidity is unbelievable. I have gotten more mosquito bites this time than I have in my life and Malaria is rampant here right now because it is the rainy season. Keep your fingers crossed that I dont get it. If I do I hope it can wait until im home, not that ive seen the hospitals I refuse to be in one here.

Im sad for Melissa and Kim to leave. I know Melissa is ahaving a hard time leaving and saying goodbye again and the worst part is we think the orphanage will crumble soon and it might not be possible to come back and stay there or know where any of the kids are. I was a little worried about being in Ghana alone but I think it will be okay. There are two other volunteers that are here but its a little weird when I take a step back and realize how far away I really will be from anyone I know. A whole freaking different continent away and not only a different continent but Africa at that! Im just thankful I have a week left to soak it all in. My heart already aches and breaks to leave.

Ill write again soonish I hope! I hope all is well back on the mainland!