I arrived back home yesterday, and have been trying my hardest to put this experience into words, but am finding it nearly impossible. How can I sum up an entire summer in 2 sentnces...how can I explain what I've seen, what I've heard, how I've changed. I'm not really even sure how I've changed...I still feel like me.

Even though I've only been back a few short hours, I am finding it so diffucult. My heart is homesick for the place that I've called home the past few months. Honestly, I feel more at home there than I do here right now. It's been hard living in two different worlds. I have my life in Hohoe, knowing that all the people I met and love are there....still loving...still working...still being, yet I am here. (don't worry...i still love and miss all of you here in the states!) The two worlds are so totally different...my heart is torn and I'm slowly struggling through it. I think it will take some time. I can feel my mind already forgetting what it is like living in Africa...and I never want that to happen. Ghana has bee so good to me and so good for me. I'm also having a hard time with people. It's difficult when people ask me things about it and then don't listen for the answer. I want to share my experience with them, but just find myself getting frustrated. So here is my plea for you, my friends, be patient with me. I want to share, but it may take a while. Really listen when I talk about it...if you're not interested in hearing the answer then please don't ask, but most of all again, be patient with me.

For those of you still in Hohoe, I am jealous...and miss you like crazy...hug melody and mabel for me!

I know this phase will pass...but I will just have to deal with it for now. I am excited to see all of you and let you in on my experience! Thanks for being so supportive through e-mails and comments, you have really shown the Lord's love and encouragement to me.
Hohoe...I long to be back.

Beautiful Volta

This weekend I've watched groups come and go. I was so sad for this past group to leave, we all just seemed to mesh so well, and honestly, I am not ready for a new group to come in. I guess that part of me is sick of change. As the old group was leaving, I couldn't help but have tears in my eyes not only because they were wonderful, but because I'm realizing that I'm leaving in just under two weeks. I cannot believe the summer has gone so quickly. I feel like I have been here for a week. I'm not ready to go...Hohoe is part of who I am...It is my home. I have formed so many close bonds, and seen so many things...it's going to be so hard to leave. I honestly don't know how to describe this experience to anyone...I cannot put it into words...it's something that you'd have to experience. I hope that my pictures and my words can do this trip justice. Two weeks could last a lifetime though.

I got a chance to spend some time at the orphanage last week, and enjoyed it SO much. It has been one of my goals to make a little boy, Godwin, smile when I come....he is so serious. Last week I had a break through...I made him laugh...not just a giggle, but a full belly laugh. It was by far the highlight of my week and I will not forget that smile on his face. Being at the orhpanage just makes me so happy. Every time I go, this boy Bless and I have an agreement that he will tell me one African story. He is quite the story teller, and I am excited to go on monday and hear the latest musings of Anansi the spider. I desire so much for him to have a home, I know that the orphanage is his home but I want him to have all the chances in the world. He probably won't be able to go to secondary school because he does not have the funding, but he is SO smart. He can do great things....i know it...if only he would be given the opportunity.

Pro-Link has also been going well! Two volunteers that have been there for 3 months left, so it has just been the staff and I, and it has been such a blessing. I've gotten an opportunity to really get to know them and they are AMAZING! Christine, the office manager, is such a strong, independent, caring woman. She has done so much at only 24 years of age. We talked a lot about African Christianity on Thursday. It was awesome to see how much faith many of the people here have. I'm hoping to talk with her more about it. The same day...we got into a serious conversation. She asked me what my expectations for africa were before I came. I was surprised by the seriousness of the question as we were previously talking about her fiance. I decided to be honest and tell her that I thought Africa would be like the movies...people begging and begging for my help. I quickly realized that that is NOT Africa...people here don't need me, but I've needed them. They have taught me about life, and love, and the Lord. Ghana has given me so much, I just wish I had something to give it.

George the other manager is ridiculous and we like to joke around. He tell me that I'm "hot cake" which apparently is a good thing. I'll take his word for it. I've met a few of the PLHIV (people living with HIV (like the lingo?)) and they are amazing. They have been so strong to let people in Hohoe know their positive status, eventhough it is so looked down upon by the community. I really look up to their strength and courage as they are fighting this disease!

On a lighter note, I got my hair braided last week. It looks a little ridiculous and I think I am going to take them out today because they are so tight that I haven't slept in 3 nights. It was fun while it lasted. The locals say I'm a real Ghanaian now.

I hope that all is well at home! I will see all of you soon!
Miadogo

This week I've much much fewer encounters with all of the kids that I have told you about. The van has been busy so I did not make it to the oprhanage even once, which hurts my heart. I am going tomorrow and am anxious to play with them again. Working at Pro-Link has been great so far other than the fact that some of the staff think that I am a certified and trained counselor. It was a challenege trying to explain to them that I am only just beginning to study psychology. I think that it is going to be a job where I am going to have to think on my feet a lot. On friday everyone but one staff member, Kofi, was out of the office. I was supposed to go to a school in a town call Dafour with him, but it turned out that he had to go to some kind of board meeting. So as he's leaving, he tells me that I am to teach a group of nurses about conseling and how to counsel HIV/AIDS patients. I must admit, I was pretty shocked...I don't even know the first thing about conseling! So I stopped, prayed, and began to read up on the conseling training manuel. The session went pretty well, and I thinking that the nurses really understood what I was trying to get across, which was amazing because I'm not really even sure what I said. Needless to say, I do enjoy pro-link and what they do for the community; AIDS is such a stigma here...people don't talk about it. It is seen almost as a disease that you are cursed with. I am excited to see what adventures prolink has for me over the next few weeks.

Also...Pro-Link has a program where it allows someone to sponsor a PL (person living with AIDS). It costs $5 a month to pay for AIDS medication for one person. If any of you are interested in sponsoring someone let me know...there are only 36 more people left to sponsor in Hohoe.

This week seems to have been a reflection week and I've had many amazing converstaions with volunteers about what coming here means...and how it is changing us. We've had to address touch questions here like...are we doing any good? Is it right to help one person and not another? As I mentioned in the last update...i think that the purpose of CCS is not to have volunteers come here and change Hohoe, but it is here to allow Westerners to be changed by another culture, so that we can come back and enlighten other people about what we have learned. I have been so grateful for the other volunteers that have pushed me to think about the hard questions...I know that I still have a lot to learn.

For the first time today, I called Hohoe my home without even realizing it. I've been praying about if Africa is a permanent calling or just where the Lord has me now...honestly I still have no idea, but on with the story. A group went to the coast this weekend, and one woman got sick and is staying in Cape Coast for another day or so. I was talking to one of the staff (Akos...who by the way is one of the most amazing women I have ever met) and she was saying to me that the woman might go home...and by home she meant America. In my head I was thinking....of course she'll have to come back to the homebase...she can't stay in cape coast forever. Hohoe is my home...it is my home.

I cannot believe my time here is halfway through...I'm going home in a little less than a month. I'll probably be ready to come home when 2 months approaches, but right now I am so content in Africa...I still feel like there is so much to do...so much to experience....so many people to know. I have barely scratched the surface here and my time is already winding down. Why does time go by so fast?

Lastly, for those of you who may think that I am only working here in Ghana...namely a certain brother of mine ;), I took a relaxing trip to Lake Volta this weekend (fun fact: it is the largest manmade lake in the world). As weird as this sounds, it was nice to be a tourist...we relaxed, had a soda, and just enjoyed eachothers company without the worries of the week on us. The lake was beautiful...the shoreline was all mountains. It is just like mountains pop out of the lake...my camera battery died, so I didn't get many pictures though.

I pray that everything is going well at home. I miss all of you...but not too much, don't worry haha!