TV Star and Soccer Fan

The weeks seem to be going by faster and faster. I can’t believe we are already into September. I tried hard this week to spend more time with my studies and school work. I was able to accomplish quite a bit and it felt good to cross things off of my “to-do” list (for those of you who know me so well, you know how much I love to make lists haha). But don’t worry, I also had a lot of fun this week as well.

To start off… I have starting working out in preparation for the swim season to start in a few weeks! I go swimming with a friend from ISEP, Annie, and we went 4 times this last week. We switch up the type of workouts that we do so we get a good mix of speed and distance. It has been great to get in the pool. Even though the water is colder, as soon as I start swimming it feels great! And it is also nice that the pool is about a 5 minute walk from our hostel.

On Monday we had FHE! Each week, a different boy and girl are responsible for leading the group. Our lesson was on “spiritual crocodiles.” Our YSA group is really great and I am getting to know them better each week. They have become some of my best friends here and that means so much to me. We also had Institute on Thursday morning and we have decided to study “Teaching of the Living Prophets” for the class this semester. We didn’t have any manuals to use so instead we learned the song “Latter-Day Prophets” so that everyone would know the order of the prophets. Gloria and I taught the group the song because we were the only ones who knew it haha.

This week I had the opportunity to be filmed for a TV show here in Ghana! My friend Bertha is in my music class and she is affiliated with the TV show called “Miss Malika.” It is a beauty contest between 10 girls in Ghana. Each week the girls do different tasks and are evaluated by judges. Then the audience can call and vote for who they want to win that specific task. This week their task was to do a presentation to non-Ghanaians on their regional culture. So 4 of us from ISEP were interviewed and then filmed as the girls did their presentations. Then we were interviewed again and asked our impressions. The episode is going to air tonight and then again on Wednesday! The person who did the filming said that she would work on getting us a copy of the episode to keep and take home with us! Too bad you don’t have the Ghana networks so that you can watch it too!

Thursday night I attended a dancing show for the School of Performing Arts. Three other ISEP students were chosen to participate in the production. The dances included: salsa, Michael Jackson songs, Azonto (a really popular form dance among the youth), and some traditional dances. They were all incredible!!! I love the way that the dances can express emotion and tell a story. Ghanaians are such amazing dancers!  

I went to the temple again on Friday! The session was in French again. I was able to visit with the temple president and his wife for a bit while I waited for the session to begin. On Saturday I went to the Ghana VS Malawi football (soccer) game! The match was held at the big stadium in down-town Accra. The people here are football fanatics. They LOVE the sport! Our seats were up in the upper area and we were at the midfield line. We were also next to the “super fan” section where the people cheered, blew loud air horns, and played the drums during the entire game. It was epic! Ghana won the game 2-0. After the game I went to the temple grounds for the Eternal Marriage Picnic. When I heard the name of the event I laughed really hard (to myself). But it was actually really great! It was just a class that they have every Saturday but this time they held the class at the temple and they served some refreshments. The lesson for the class was on love. As strange as this might sound, the topic for the lesson was exactly what I needed to hear.

There is not much else to update for now. Our visas will need to be renewed in the next few weeks so we are planning a short trip to Togo (the country east of Ghana) so that our visas will be renewed automatically. I will definitely let you know about that trip when it comes. Yebehyia bio (until we meet again)!