Sixth update
This time from Accra. A terrible city! I do not like big cities in developing countries. But the weekend has been nice anyway, though, since I have had lovely company and really nice (but expensive) food.

Thursday I went to Cape Coast to get my visa extended (they are horrible in that office, but I managed to get it done in the end), and then I met up with Christian, Mia and Louise having a nice evening with rye bread and film watching :)

Friday morning I went to Accra to get my flight ticket for Tanzania sorted out. This has not been successful, however! But I went to Accra airport to meet up with a friend of Dacosta who work there. Grace is her name, and she is SO sweet! I didn't get my flight ticket sorted out and I spent lots of lots of time in traffic and money on taxis but she was worth it. She greeted me with a hug and went with me so many places to sort out the flight. And she waited for me and introduced me to people and was indeed very helpful. Also, she started out by taking me to a restaurant and asked me what I would like, and I said that I was okay, but she insisted, and when I wanted to pay she refused that I paid for my food and drink, since she had brought me there. I really tried to pay but she wouldn't allow me. She was such a sweetheart.
After the airport I met up with Lisa in a huge mall with coffee shops and fancy stores (including an Apple store!) - really not like Ghana. We had a cappuccino (my first in Ghana) and afterwards went around looking in the mall. We also went to the supermarket which was really like a supermarket with cheese and yoghurt and brown bread, which is impossible to get elsewhere more or less. Sweet :)
For dinner we met up with plenty of Danish people that live in Accra, whom I met before, and also with Christian from Cape Coast. We went to a really nice French restaurant where I had an amazing tournedos! Afterwards we went out and had a really good night out. I stayed the night where the Accra girls (Patricia, Pernille and Safir) live.

Saturday I went to the Internet to sort out my flight ticket, which went like crap - the Ethiopian Airlines website is horrible, and afterwards I met up with Lisa and Mikkel (Danish Accra guy) by a nice pool. For dinner we went to a very fancy sushi bar having amazing sushi. We also got free expensive drinks on the house as an apology for their unprofessional treatment of us the day before where they rejected us. Really nice drinks - AND a discount on the bill. Really good service. Afterwards we once again went out and had a good time.

Today, Sunday, I have been taking it easy. Late breakfast with Lisa, Christian and Louise, then goodbye to Louise who soon flies home to Denmark and also goodbye to Lisa who flies home to Holland on Tuesday, and now Internet before I head back to Akonfudi and my very opposite lifestyle there with no traffic, no fancy restaurants, no Internet, almost no obrunies, primitive toilet and shower, no malls or cinemas - but, however, a lovely Ghanaian atmosphere with nice local people and a lot cheaper lifestyle. I sure do love my hometown and rural Ghana :) The extravagance is for the weekends…

School update
Because of midterm I have only been to work at the school from Monday to Wednesday. Not so much exciting has happened. They still don't know the time a lunch break. Monday lunch was late, Tuesday it was correct, and Wednesday it was too early. You seriously need to tell the canteen lady each week!

Class 5 is very noisy and annoying. I found out that yelling at them doesn't really work but excluding them from the teaching in the class by sending them out of the class is a really hard punishment. It is so odd because Danish pupils don't see that as a punishment at all - they like that, but here they really looked sad when I sent them outside. Another way of making them quiet is to threat them about me leaving and not teaching them, saying that I simply won't teach them when they are that noisy, and they really don't want me to leave, so they actually keep quiet (for a while…) - in Denmark the pupils would love if the teacher left so they could do whatever they wanted. It sure is very different from each other.

Reading is still going well. I just wish that I had more reading time. I'll think of how to get that…
And then an extra teacher has been hired so I am not as needed anymore - they actually do have enough teachers now. This is nice since it then is easier to do extra teaching with few pupils, which I prefer over teaching a whole class. I still do English in class 5 and 6, though. Lets see how the coming weeks turn out.

Thoughts on a Wednesday
The rain has felled. It was only a bit today but enough to stop me from going to Foso as planned. I have probably learnt this from the Ghanaians: rain = excuse for doing nothing at all. The rain has now stopped. It is getting dark and there is still power cut - for more than 24 hours by now.
Cicadas are singing, women are making fufu, children are playing, crying or singing, and men are watching and relaxing after a day of hard work at the farm. This surrounded by not quite finished brick houses with sheet metal roofs, clay houses for cooking, banana, plantain and papaya trees, cocoa beans out drying, and the always red earth neatly free of litter through sweeping with straws several times a day.
I love the afternoons. This is the best time of the day in rural Ghana. So many things are going on at this time of the day. Everybody is awake and is doing the daily routine. Even the dogs have their routine spot: by the cooking or the eating family - there is always a bit left.
At this time of the day there is so much to sense: sights, sounds, smells. I can use lots of time doing this. Sensing. Broken off by a nice and cool evening bucket shower before dark. Before dark because there is no electric light in the shower and on the toilet, and then again: power cut.

***

It goes well being on my own. Time is still flying by and enjoy going to bed early, reading my books, and talking to locals. I have spent more time with Dacosta and also with the locals. One evening I was talking for a long time with Synthia (Alfreda and Prince's mother) while Alfreda was sitting on my lap falling asleep. She is so cute. It is nice being more with the locals. Also to practice my Twi which is improving - I get lots of compliments about how fast I am learning so that is pleasant :)

I hope you are good. I am :)
Signe