bus trip to the mountains

the local people here speak so many different langauges! it makes me embarrassed that i know only english. the woman who works at the desk at our hotel speaks SIX. the main language here is twi and i've been trying to learn as many words as i can. medasi (meh-dah-see) means thank you, me di (meh-dee) means for me, and to get someone's attention you must yell ago! and they respond aman! i love learning it. there's acutally a man in the computer room right now from togo that i'm speaking broken french with.

so today we travelled outside of accra to the east to a mountain. it was neat to see the difference between the structures of the buildings within accra and outside of it. the bus drove up this steep, windy road (i was a little nervous but our driver is very good. he likes us to call him "my brother" and he calls me "my sister"). the view was breath-taking. we looked down on the Ghana Plains, a huge area where accra is located. once we got to the top of the mountain, we visited a botanical garden. we saw where cinnamon, nutmeg, cocoa, bay leaves and this cool plant that you touch and within five seconds it shrivels up to protect itself. my favorite was a parasite tree that grows on a host tree, eventually choking it of water and sunlight. then when the host tree finally dies, the parasite tree is left in the shape of the host tree, essentially a hollow tree. we got to go inside a HUGE parasite tree. it was hollow all the way to the top! then we had lunch in a garden on a patio.

i love talking to everyone about soccer. everyone is beyond excited for the world cup. when ghana plays, they pull down gigantic screens (like three stories hight) on Oxford Street and people watch the game gathered in the street. we're going to do that when they play Germany (obviously their best competition).

i start class tomorrow and get to volunteer at Glona! i'm soooooo excited to see the little kids! i can't wait to play with them and have them destroy my confidence in my soccer ability.

(ps i thought we had planned to go to the US embassy but i guess not...ha)