Hey all! Sarah here...

Sorry to not have updated in awhile - we were at an internet cafe in Kukurantumi where our homestay is last weekend, but the blog wouldn't upload - don't know why, but anywho - here we are back at the KSO with high-speed internet - it's been a long week!

Had our homestay goodbye ceremony this past Saturday in Kukurantumi, where we did a couple of fun dances (hoping to post some pictures of this - Jordan and I participated in a couples dance which everyone loved when they saw our matching outfits to boot :) ), and a large group dance too. Sunday we relaxed and finished up packing, drying clothes, giving our homestay gifts (the boys loved the Twins hats!) and trying and failing to get to bed early since we were leaving at 6 the next morning...which in Ghanain time ended up being 6:45 after waiting for the tailor to finish sewing our matching outfits for swearing-in (don't get me started), and then in true Ghanain fashion, waited at the Peace Corps office and didn't actually leave for Accra until 9:30. Went to Valley View outside of Accra (same place we originally spent the first week in country), and spent the day hanging out like old times - our last few days of summer camp :)

Tuesday, we were up at 4:50am for breakfast, as it takes FOREVER with traffic in Accra to get back into the city. Went straight to the American Ambassador of Ghana's house (it's really nice, we get to have a Thanksgiving meal and celebration there in November, so we're excited to be able to go back!) to practice our dances, go through a run-through of the actual swearing-in ceremony, and wait around getting REALLY hungry, since the ceremony didn't start til 10, and we didn't eat until 1:30 in the afternoon. Do the math people - we ate breakfast at 5am, and I only had a granola bar and orange for snack! For those that know me, I was hurting! The ceremony was pretty neat - LOTS of "ceremony" to it: every speaker always thanked all of the higher-ups for coming, for the ambassador for hosting us, the new PCVs (that's us!) for their committment to service, etc, etc, at the beginning of EVERY speech. We did our dances again, which went a lot better the second time, had an inspirational speech by another high-up official in Ghanaian government (can't remember his name, but it's early and I didn't get much sleep last night...) who actually had a PCV teacher that made a big impact on him, helping him get where he is today - I'll have to keep that in mind when I'm down on hard days of teaching, acknowledged some RPCVs that served in Ghana (even one from the original 1961 class!), then FINALLY got to have some hors d'oeuvres and drinks to celebrate and mingle. Some of the trays of food included slices of pizza, which we mobbed - actual cheese!

Overall, a nice ceremony, but we were all so tired and overwhelmed afterwards. Went back to Valley View to get ready to party it up as new PCVs that night with some celebratory dancing, card-playing, etc, thinking we'd be getting ready to leave the next morning...but that was not to happen. Turns out we were supposed to originally meet with the PRESIDENT of Ghana to take a picture just like the original class of 1961 did, but it fell through since he was traveling. So then they tell us that we are going to wait and be at Valley View til Friday morning, in order to take a picture with His Excellency President Atta Mills at his castle on Thursday! So okay, we had to wait around for longer (which messed up people's beach plans, including me and Jordan's, but oh well), but we got to meet a President of a country! I've never met a president of a country! Crazy!

Wednesday was spent like summer camp :) Played some fun ultimate frisbee in the morning, huge yummy lunch, played a tournament of bucket jam in the afternoon (look up the rules to can jam, and imagine a plastic bucket instead - I'll explain more later because it's an AWESOME yard game!), yummy dinner, then fun hanging out with people for the evening. Someone even bought a pirated copy of the final Harry Potter movie (you can find all sorts of pirated movies here in Ghana - you can just never tell what the quality will be...) so some people were watching that. I'll have to swap that from someone at some point after Jordan watches the first part :) Got up Thursday morning, ate breakfast, packed 5 PC vehicles to the brim with luggage and PCVs, and drove to the PC office in Accra. Picked some lunch near the office, then drove to Osu Castle to meet the President! The grounds were really pretty (I'll get pics, I promise), we were seating under tents on either side of a long red carpet leading from the castle, and all stood up for His Excellency - which just felt so weird to see him in person after seeing his face on billboards all over the Southern part of Ghana. The speeches by our Country Director and the American Ambassador were good, and the President's speech was really good too - he was also taught by a PCV back in the day, and has fond memories of her, and is really supportive of the PC in Ghana. After that, we all took a picture on the steps leading up to the castle, he shook the hands of the people in the front row (wasn't there, darn!) then walked up and out, saying on the way that he would have us all over for fu fu sometime...ha :) After having a cold drink (I can joke that the President of Ghana bought me a beer!) and some tasty catered food from a box, we walked back past all of the large armed guards, jumped back into vehicles, then back to the PC office! Whirlwind goodbyes as they herded 41 of us into vehicles and made the 6 hour trek to the KSO last night. Needless to say, we were all beat - it had been a long week with little sleep.

I think we'll spend another night here at the KSO to head into Kumasi and look for a bike for Jordan, then head up North tomorrow or Sunday. School starts on the 13th - I'm getting more nervous for THAT, that's for sure! I'll just keep thinking about my Dad starting school around the same time though, that will help keep me going throughout the next couple years!

I know this was rushed, but wanted to make sure I got a post out in case we weren't allowed to stay tonight - miss you all and THANKS for the blog comments, e-mails, facebook messages, and general well wishes! We really appreciate it! This is when it will get tough - our first months away at site and starting into service when we don't see as many other volunteers and can't travel. We will hopefully be setting up our modem to have internet at sight, but aren't sure how great the service will be - all things we'll find out in the next couple of weeks! I'm sure we'll both get homesick once we are more on our own and have more time to think - but know we miss and love you!

Jordan and Sarah