Wow...it's already the end of September!!!

Hi again!  Jordan and I made it back to site safely, after a nice comfy ride in a vehicle belonging to an NGO of our friends from Denmark (that left the end of August to go back home).  That made the two day trek back to site a lot easier!  Upon returning home, we were greeted with a few surprises: a few dead mice in the shower...and moldy pillows!  Apparently having everything shut up for 6 weeks during the middle of the wet season keeps everything VERY moist!  So we spent a full day cleaning everything we could, and it felt like a nice home again when we were done!

School started back up for me (Sarah), with the fun that accompanies a new school year, but also some of the normal frustrations: the first week is spent weeding, the second week was taken up by entrance exams to determine what grade levels the kids will be placed.  The idea behind this is to see who is dedicated and going to study for the exams, regardless of how well you did on the end-of-term exams from the previous school year.  The logic actually somewhat works here, because the kids that want to do well will sit down and study, and the ones that don't care, well, won't.  The third week of school we got going with classes.  My first class period, I had the students make a goal chain to hang in the classroom.  You know those chains of red and green strips of construction paper you make at Christmas and hang in a chain?  We did that, but each student got a strip of paper, wrote their name on one side, then wrote one goal they had for the school year on the other.  Then we linked them together, and hung our chain in the classroom.  I was trying to show that we link our goals together because we have to help each other out to achieve them, and also we hung the chain where we were always looking at it in the classroom so they would always have a reminder to work hard for their goal....that's my thought anyway, we'll see how it work!  They at least like having things hanging to beautify the classroom, so that's good!

Jordan's garden and tree nursery was a JUNGLE when we returned.  He's spend the majority of the last few weeks working with Issah and a few other men from the garden area to clear the grasses, free the trees (many of which survived and grew very big!) from the creeping vines connecting them all together, and fix the shaded area that is situated above the tree nursery.  He's been working very hard!  We both agreed that having to be gone for that amount of time gave us a good indication as to how sustainable our project was - it's something we will work harder on in the future!  We also checked up on our rabbit rearing project in Kulfuo, and there are baby rabbits!  The group seems to be working well together, and they rabbits are doing great!  Now we just have to get the Tarsor group going, and find some rabbits to stock that hutch!  Then, pretty soon we'll be eating rabbit stew! :)

I came down to Accra this week to attend a meeting to improve the PC Ghana Education Project Plan.  It was a long trip for a one day meeting, but worth it to attend, and I got to get some other essential things done at the same time, so all in all, a great trip!  And fun to see our friends The Murphy's down in Accra again (and live in little America for a few days :)  Sue, Jordan's mom, also booked our flights home for December!  We're working out the days we will be where, so let us know if you'll be around between December 5th and January 4th...we'd love to see you!!! 

We'll post some pictures the next time we get to internet.  Thanks always for the continuous support, we think of everyone back home often!  Stay classy :)
Sarah and Jordan