Frustrating and Fulfilling Day in This Country

Again, apologies for how vague this blog entry will seem. I just have to be careful. Turns out I can upload photos to Shutterfly, but this country won't allow me to share them any more. So, Ben is taking over and adding the Shutterfly links, too. Thanks Ben. An anonymous friend from an anonymous NGO told me about a website you can sign up for that allows you to surf the net anomalously in this country, but I was also blocked from that. So, I become more and more isolated here in this country. Still love it here, just slightly frustrated.

Speaking of frustration, Andy has spent all of his time here still trying to get our computers and the 3,000 books our company donated to this country out of customs. I have had to write certificates of donation, and Andy has stood in endless lines at myriad ministry offices. He was about 10 minutes away from finally getting everything out of hock when the last person he spoke to decided it wasn't going to happen. All we want to do is donate 15 laptops to a technical school in a rural area. Frustrating indeed. We're trying again tomorrow. All we can do is try. I'd tell you more about it, but I can't.

Seems Andy and I have switched roles this week. Last week, I spent every morning going to ATMs in Accra looking for cash as Andy was in the classroom. This week, Andy is in line at the ministry as I teach. I spent all last night editing the kids' narratives. I woke up early to keep going, but I didn't finish in time. So, imagine this...I took my computer out in the back of the taxi and went to work. Just picture me using my new Mac to edit video as we made the 45-minute drive through the smoggy, vibrant, and people-heavy streets of this town. Every time we stopped at a light, about 15 people would knock on the window looking for handouts and food from this firrengie (sp?), or white person, working on his computer. Weird.

We had ten indigenous kids from a local, marginalized school join us today. They looked a bit bewildered when they arrived, but Dawn, Keith (our host teachers), and I had a talk with our International kids about inclusion. We brought six of the International kids who spoke Amharic welcome our new students. I'm sure the surroundings were quite foreign to our new friends. All went well, however, as the International kids starting teaching our local kids how to use Premiere, how to use the Flip cameras, and how to write narratives. All in all, it was great to see! You can see the indiginous students and the International School students working together on the Shutterfly link Ben will post. The local kids are in red.

I am hesitant to say much more. I fear out blogs are less than satisfying to you, but I just don't want to rock the boat. It will be harder from the remote town we're going to next as the power there is so intermittent, and the Internet is all dial-up. Rest-assured, we'll do our best to keep you informed. I will be more forthcoming with information once we get our computers and books out of customs.

More later. (I hope!)

E