To my right a castle, to my left...

Good Day Folks!

I've arrived safely in Cape Coast and have been here for 5 or 6 days now.  It's the time in this program for the group to go our seperate ways for our volunteer placements.  So where to begin?

We had an amazing retreat in Kumasi and a good time reflecting on our experiences in the village... This made me remember how much I love facilitating workshops and debriefing things (good ol' Katimavik)...  The wekk there was so good for group bonding!  And we got to watch oprah...

I'm now living in a small apartment called the Baobob House.  It's really nice!  The organization that owns it runs an orphanage that teaches kids various skills in arts and more.  It's a German NGO that started in 2001.  They also have a vegetarian restaraunt and craft store to help raise funds.  They are doing some pretty great things.  And my room is.... cozy!  But great!  It's all I need, and you can't beat the view.  Cape Coast Castler is to my right and the Gulf of guinea crashes to the shore to my left.  Very beautiful, and I get to watch the fisherman go out and come in everyday.  (Also, I've heard that if you go and help them bring in the nets, they give you free fish.... I'll have to check it out!

Now, more importantly than that, I've begun my work placement at the Ghanaian National Deaf Children's Society.  It's located about an hour and half walk from my place downtown (I enjoy the walk, gives me time to think, and excersise).  I'm really enjoying my time here thus far!  It's risen beyond all of my expectations.  They are doing such wonderful things and I'm learning so much already.  Things about successes and challenges (ie lack of funding, lack of assessment tools, society's view, etc).  It really is a great place to work.  The people are fantastic (I'm going over to my bosses house for dinner right after this!) and I'm given a lot of responsibility and autonomous working.  I get to research funding, attend meetings, do outreach programs, make partnerships and more.  It's awesome!  And Mom, they could really use someone like you here!  I've told them all about your job.

Anyway, I think I'll leave it at that for now.  I'm in a good head space and embracing this new part of my journey.  I miss the group though, it was so nice having people to bounce ideas off of... but hey, i guess that means I need to make new friends!

One interesting (bad?) thing is that the price of gas essentially went up 30% overnight (or at least what seemed like overnight to me) and has increased significantly the cost of transportation (at first I thought they were just trying to rip me off cause I'm a tourist, but no! Prices have gone up!)  It will be intersting to see how the rest of society copes with this and how prices will change for food and other things...  And all this when Ghana has just begun its dealing in oil... Anyway, I don't know enough about it, I'll have to find out more.

Anyway!

Love and Miss you all, I hear there's alot of snow.

Live. Laugh. Love and Learn.

Matty