Jamestown and Shai Hills

Hello everyone! Another week has come and gone. It is getting hotter in Ghana, and every picture I see of Utah has some snow in the mountains!!! I would really love to have some snow right now haha. Let’s just say that when I come home I will be the most “sunkissed” person you will see!

Not much to report on Monday through Thursday… Just school work. We are learning a new dance in my Traditional Dance class called fume-fume. It is quite fun and leaves me completely drenched in sweat at the end of class. Also, I wasn’t sure if I mentioned this… I am on the International Student Hostel Swimming Team! I have been going for training about 3 times each week and we might have our first swim meet this coming week! We will see if it happens. But it has been good to prepare workouts and go and swim hard. I think this will be good triathlon prep for me!

On Friday it was another Muslim holiday so there was no school. I went to Jamestown, an area just outside of downtown Accra. It is a place to see the ocean, the lighthouse, and the jail! As we got to Jamestown you could see the fishing boats about 1 mile off the shore and the smell of fish was VERY strong. We got to talk to some men who were building a boat. The view from the lighthouse was amazing! A nice day trip to a new place.

Saturday was a very long but amazing day. I woke up early to help with the church cleaning and then I went with some ISEP friends to go to Shai Hills Resource Reserve about 30 miles outside of Accra. Shai Hills is one of Ghana’s national parks that has hiking trails and a place to see monkeys and ostriches. We decided to take the hike up to the bat cave and a lookout over the park. It wasn’t too hot and we even had some rain to cool us off. When we got to the hilltop, the view was absolutely incredible! It was just as I imagined Africa to be before I came here. It was a great day to be outside and spend some time enjoying Heavenly Father’s creations.

Today I was sustained in church as a primary teacher! I will be teaching the CTR A class, the kids ages 4-7. I went to join the class today and they are quite the rowdy group! I also helped play the piano in their singing time practice. Even though I will not be here for much longer, it is nice to have some responsibility in the ward and feel like I am contributing.

It has been a good week. Now to prepare for the week to come. Only two more weeks of school to go! I am trying to keep focused during the week on school so that I can do well on my exams and get the research done that I need to complete while I am here. But it is always nice to have a break and do something fun as well. I miss you all and hope you have a great Halloween! (A few of us Americans might dress up and walk around our hostel handing out candy to people hahaha!)