Ghana, Day 114 - Writing, Malls, and Burma Camp

Hi Ruth!

I'm still in Ghana.  Man!

The week since Thanksgiving hasn't been that interesting for me - but I hear it's been exciting for you and Grammy and Grampy!  I can't wait to talk to you tonight and hear about Cinderella and the Christmas stuff at the Walters.

For me, I've mostly been working.  Sunday I finished the first draft of a thing I've been writing about soldiers.  When you get bigger, you'll learn that when you write things sometimes you have to go over them again and again (and again) to make them good.  I think what I wrote has a good idea, but I still need to make it sound good.

Also, Sunday, we ran out of water.  It's not back yet!  I hope I have enough in my bucket.

Monday, I just read and graded papers and stuff.  Just like I have to write things over and over to get them right, my students do, too.  But sometimes they need help (sometimes they need a lot of help).  So I spent time on Monday going over their rough drafts and trying to give them some advice on how to make them better.

Monday, I also heard that Edinburgh University Press is interested in my book!  Now I just have to write it!

Tuesday, I finally managed - after trying for a while - to get an interview at the Institute for Democratic Governance.  It's over in East Legon, so I had to go with Mr. Lartey - every time I go to a Ghanaian NGO it's around all the big, expensive houses... (it's also near a very, very expensive mall).  I had a nice chat with a man there, but he didn't really specialize in the things that I needed to learn about.  Then I came back to campus and spent some time looking at books that they have in the library here but we don't have in the library back at the University of Maryland.

Wednesday and Thursday I was down at Burma Camp some more.  On Thursday, I got to talk to some women who are officers in the Army and Air Force [adults: Even though, you know, even the officers were in the education corps, mostly.].  I even got to talk to a woman who flies helicopters!  She told me about being in Cote d'Ivoire [I have no idea how to do an accent circumflex on Blogger.] and flying helicopters that helped people who were hurt in the fighting there get to a doctor so they could get better.

And now it's today!  I'm just starting my day. I tried to go to the pool, but they were closed again!  We got water back for about half an hour so I filled up my bucket and took a shower - I'll be glad not to have to do that at home!