Letter from Ghana

here I am at the internet cafe again. Slow slow slow. Im going to apologize in advance for any misspellings because I can hardly make out the words on the monitor let alone see what I am typing! I think the monitor is older than I am. Hope you get the jist of all this anyhow.

At the moment Melissa is dreadfully sick. She has had a headache for about four days and joint aches and hasnt slept well in a few nights but last night it got way worse. Today she got out of bed just long enough to see the nurse at the orphanage and went straight back to bed before their conversation could even begin. Thankfully we are living with two women who just graduated med school and have been watching her close. We dont think its malaria because she doesnt have a fever but we might go to the hospital tomorrow and do labs just in case if shes not feeling any better but I think thats the last thing any of us want to do. She is in good hands and everyone is taking very good care of her, so dad please dont worry. I have had Lucky and Dora all day today. It seems since weve been here everybody just assumes that Lucky and Dora will be taken care of all day! I wonder when im supposed to rest? That is something i will never understand about Ghanaians. Today went well but im pretty tired. They weighed all the babies today and Dora and Lucky both gained since last month!!! Dora at 5 months old is at a whopping 5.5 kilograms and Lucky at a year and a half is at 8.3 kilograms!!! I havent the slightest clue what that is in pounds. Maybe when I get home it will be figured out.

I have always sworn to everybody that Washington Mutual is the best bank in the world and I have refused to change my accounts even when I worked elsewhere. I have now found their downfall....WAMU uses Mastercard. Ghana uses Visa. See the problem? We read in a travel book that we found that Mastercard was next to useless here. Great. We found ONE mastercard ATM which happens to be the only one withing 300 miles of us and the day we traveled and hour and a half to go to it, it was out of service. Great. Thankfully we have a canadian couple who is here with us and they are lending us money or we would be broke as a joke!!! Thanks WAMU, Thanks Mastercard. I think I will write them when I have a better internet connection. Oh well.

I dont know how im going to leave. The thought makes my heart ache. I thought it would be easy to stay uninvolved in the children and not get attached but boy was I wrong. Every one of them is so different from the next. I came here expecting to teach them about the world and help them but they have taught me more than I could have ever imagined. I feel like they are all my children and most of all my friends. They all know my name and come running when they see us walking up. They go and get Dora for me and call me Doras mother before I even ask where she is. The ladies who work there and dont speak a lick of english call me Doras mother and are so happy to see us. How do you say goodbye to so many friends that you dont know when you will see again? Im worried the next volunteers wont know dora like I do and wont know when she starts clicking her tounge shes tired, or gets really bad heat rash when you dont lift up her rolls and wash under her chin. Oh im going to miss my chunky monkey so much!!! I cant wait to show her off to everybody!! I will be okay, I always am but I will be back. I have to come back.

On the plus side i excited to spend time with my Grandpa who is visiting from Hawaii when I get back! It will be soooo nice to see him!

Thats it for now!

Love,
Doras mother