triedtopostthislastnightbutdidntwork,sameforthespacebaronthisnewcomputer

So much to say, so little energy to say it :) Here's the latest from the land of Laura:)

The past two weeks have been a bit quieter for me in terms of working...the beginning of last week I was rather ill, eating something bad and then vomitting it up in the early hours of the morning. It was the first time I've ever vomitted properly, quite a milestone in my life so thought I'd all share that with you :)

Instead of working last thursday, I went into Accra with Zeina and Sarah to watch the soccer. The African Cup of Nations is on at the moment, with none other than GHANA as the host country - now being the perfect time to be here! We saw Morocco vs Guinea and the first half of Ghana vs Namibia and it was totally insane! The stadiums were packed with crazed soccer fans, all singing and dancing and cursing the referee and it was mad to be in the middle of it all. We supported Morocco with about four other people in the entire stadium (40,000 i think), but suffered a devastating defeat - hence cheered ourselves up with a delicious meal at a lovely chinese place hehe. But honestly, this country is going mad with soccer fever, haha we are all sure that if Ghana were to lose any game from now there wouldbe full out riots :)Hoping to get along to the final near the end of Feb.

We spent the weekend on the coast at Kokrobite again, seven lovely ladies in one double room! The beach is so relaxin and I felt like the entire week was marvellously relaxing. This week was busier and really interesting. Our neighbours foster a little girl whose Dad is who knows where and her mum is a real nut case. There are continuous dramas with her case but as much as possible they want to keep it within the jurisdiction of the camp council - if it goes to the Ghanaians, she will end up in a Ghanaian orphanage, definitely not the ideal solution. I'm close with the family and the girl, as are the rest of us actually, so Sarah and I ended up going along to the Social Welfare Council with the family to sort out the latest trouble. The poor thing though, she was stressed out about it - we did our best calming her down with a remarkable medley of Disney songs, Bob Dylan and the Sound of Music haha. All ended well though and she's still with her foster family for now.

I've done a lot more thinking about this next month and are probably going to work on a mini project for CBW.They have conducted a review of all staff and departments in the past month, so I'm proposing to do a review of hte international volunteer program- desperately needed and hopefully a step towards improving things for future volunteerss, but more importantly, CBW itself. Looking to do some surveying atboth ends - with as many past IVs as possible, as well as local staff and then present some suggestions on how to move forward from here. The initial idea has been okayed from the key people so waiting to finalise a few things then get into it with a couple of the other girls. Going to be tutoring a few arvos a week, working with the beading project set up by a past Aussie volunteer through another organisation, editing some copy for the former child soldiers group and running a couple of workshops with the press club at the junior high school - all of which should keep me nice and busy - yay!

Made a trip on Thursday to Kofoidua, about 3 hours away from Accra and home to a large bead market. We needed to get more beads for the bead project I mentioned before (more on that soon), though I ended up mainly buying a bunch of beads for myself. They also had teh old slave beads that the locals used to trade with foreigners during the slave era - pretty cool but overly expensive so no buying for Laura! The bead project is a really cool project initiated by an Aussie girl. There are two groups of kids, one is a group of younger orphans and the other is a group of early teen boys who until now have been moving wheelbarrows all over camp (porters essentially) to make money for their families. The kids make gorgeous beaded bracelets that are to be sold back in Aus for a much better price than what is possible here, and funds raised cover their education expenses. I'll try ad find details for the groups website, I haven't seen it but it has more details on it!!

This past weekend has been one of the best - Allison Sarah and I set off for the Volta REgion in East Ghana. Much of friday was spent on squashy trotros and broken down taxis before we arrived at a gorgeous lodge, nestled at the foot of a small mountain range. The air is really hazy right across West Africa, partly because peopleare burning off, but also due to a Saharan wind that blows across the region...anyhow, it makes the mountains look really gorgeous! Saturday morning we got up bright and early (too early if you ask me!) and spent the next five and a half hours (yes thats right, five and a half hours!!) hiking up one of hte mountains to see West Africa's highest waterfalls - Wli Falls. Stunning I tell you, but a real killer, we almost turned back a third of the way up the hill because it was a truly difficult climb. But after many many breaks and a couple of attempts at breathlessly singing those get-up-an-go inspiring songs (think Eye of the Tiger style!) we reached the top and relaxed by the falls, dipping our toes into the chilly water and taking as many photos as possible. God was pretty cool when he designed Ghana :) Coming down was equally hard and its still an effort to make our legs move today, but there are also a set of lower falls that we walked down too,once again rewarding our efforts!

After the falls and a quick lunch we attempted to make a quick trip to Tafi Atome... of course nothing happens quickly here and we got half way there by dark, then had to try and find a lift to the actual village...no taxis aroiund and I think the effect of climing a freakin mountain that morning had definitely got to our heads...we jumped willingly into what the guys called a car...really just a shell with no seats or floor or back lights or anything a normal car has haha.. there were freak out moments that we may be being abducted but we ended up safely at Tafi. Woke up early again this morning for the main attraction - a tour of the monkey sanctuary! Hand fed the coolest monkeys ever, I can see why some think they are were we come from, such smart human like little creatures! From Tafi we made our way to the most middle-of-no-where place I've ever been to see where the majority of Ghana's kente cloth is weaved...really really really cool :) You'll havetowait for photosfor it to make sense, but basically they use the most complicated instrument/machine ever,but completely madeout of bamboo and rocks and thread.

Now back home, looking forward to getting a lot done this week! Have to walk from here at net cafe (top of camp) to the bottom where we live - my poor legs are really wrecked so wish me luck! haha love to all, mwah mwah mwah xx