Feock parade











Fanning Vince













































Kelsey with onion goggles


















Peanut Butter balls!











































Banana Bread

Guess what I just got a craving for…

Jordan here: While we’re here and are experiencing different food options, we have to learn to be resourceful and creative. That’s Sarah’s forte when it comes to food. Me, I’d just eat ground nut paste and jam sandwiches and pasta and be satisfied. Sarah doesn’t settle for that, bless her heart. Peace Corps gave us a cookbook developed by a Volunteer from Ghana giving plenty of ideas on things to make here. Sarah has the pages memorized by now on her favorite recipes. Among them are: homemade tomato soup, joloff rice, alredo sauce for pasta from scratch, pancakes from scratch, orange-banana sauce to go on them (not going to lie, I might prefer this to maple syrup), a sort of Asian salad dressing, hot cole slaw, chipatis, no-bake oatmeal cookies, and homemade pizza.

Lately we’ve been playing a game we’re calling “guess what I just a craving for” where randomly our senses bring back memories of something we can’t get in Ghana or at least in our village. Typical cravings include ice cream, candies, a cold microbrew, French fries, freshly ground coffee, and many others. Of course we all know that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Not to say that I didn’t appreciate these things in the States, but having them unavailable or at least easily available will make us appreciate the small things that we love. Of course these memories and cravings aren’t mutually exclusive to our sense of taste. They also bring back the warm feelings of family, friends, and activities of home. Especially during the Christmas season, food is a big part of those memories. Here in Ghana, Christmas doesn’t have the same media impact like it does in America. In fact if you didn’t watch closely, it might pass you by. However, packages from home give us just enough of home to get us by. Last night, Sarah, Kelsey and I made my mom’s famous peanut butter balls and played Christmas music. Today is Christmas Eve and we’ll go to the Tamale Sub Office to meet with other PC Volunteers to sing carols and have a good old fashioned potluck.

Late tonight and/or tomorrow afternoon we’ll try to fulfill the biggest craving of this time of the season: family. We’re going to try our best to pseudo-be home for Christmas through skype to talk with family. I can’t wait!

Our buddy sleeping at farm

















These are actually Sarah's legs after a day at farm. The dust clings to the hair follicles/pores so it kinda made it look like her legs were moldy.








Kids coming to "paint". I made them recite the alphabet and identify letters before they got a coloring paper and crayons. I painted the wall behind me and it works as a great chalkboard.










Sarah and her buddy.









Me watching my babies. The tomatoes should be ripe soon and the greens peppers will be bigger. Hopefully a few of the carrots grew as well.







Us hanging out with our closest neighbor Jonathan playing Banagrams. Its not fair since he was the President of his university's word club...what a nerd.

Fish lips live on!
















Sarah with our close friends, Matilda and Bahadjia








Me and Bahadjia crack ground nuts.
















I show the Ghanaian men that I'm not a prissy white boy.















Our girl students dancing at the Volunteerism Camp in Wa.













Our boy students also dancing














With our students in Wa












Some of the other attendees getting ready to clean up the Wa market, a very dirty place.













Me as Simon from Simon Says.











There were only a certain number of things I could tell them to do since they don't have a fantastic English vocabulary. There was a lot of "put your arms up, put your arms down..."





To boost confidence, everyone got a sheet of paper and others got to write nice things about that person.











Our students with out banner for our project in Tarsor/Kulfuo. Sarah was out buying medicine for a sick friend, so she was not there :(










When we cleaned up the market, we also educated with signs and tried to leave them in strategic spots. We crossed our fingers that they wouldn't turn into garbage themselves, but this one that Sarah made was actually kept up by a shop owner!













A worthy replacement for a fire extinguisher holder...












Just a regular walk home from school.










Don't worry, its dead. Still trying to ID it but it's obviously at least 6 feet long and black. All Ghanians think all snakes are cobras. My friend Issah shot this with a shot gun.













Such a proud father with his boys at farm.



















The head of this sweet snake!








Sarah holding the snake she was about 2 seconds from wetting herself even though she knew it was dead














A closer look at the inside of his mouth. Sarah wouldn't let me dissect it. I wanted to see what it was eating :-)

Obama's big here













When life gives you trash, you make a toy out of it...















Two cool dudes show us fish lips



































Our friend Umu and her little brother Junior. He's an excellent dancer (Junior)





























Learning how to make moringa soap. This is sifting out the orange tree leaves from the oil.








This is the mixture of shea oil and palm oil that will be mixed together.















About to mix the mashed moringa leaves







Mashed moringa and water













cutting the semi dry soap into bars











One of the last steps in making shea oil. The cream colored pot will be heated now for about 45-60 minutes until all the water has evaporated.









If you don't have a grinding mill, you need to grind the coarsely ground shea kernels into a consistency that looks like brownie batter.














Learning and practicing grafting a mature shea scion onto an immature (non fruiting) root stock.





If successful, in about 2 weeks the stems will grow together and this can decrease the fruiting time by almost 10 years!


















A man in Accra is now world-famous for his awesome personalized coffins. He's been featured on The Amazing Race and other cool tv shows.









Here's one of a beer bottle.






The big fishing boats ready to brave the waters and bring in dinner.




















A nice beach view in Accra for Thanksgiving.









My two wives ;-)