Food

My host family told me this morning that I was too skinny and that they wanted to fatten me up before I went home. Ha! I told them that I need to be able to fit into my pants since I only brought a couple of pairs! I do really love the food here, so I'm sure I'll gain a few pounds. They have toast or oatmeal ready for me every morning by 6 a.m. Then my host mom packs me a "morning snack" of pineapple before I go to work. It's the best pineapple I've ever tasted since it's grown here and bought fresh from street vendors! So good! Then she makes me a different lunch everyday. It's usually rice with chicken or fish and some kind of spicy sauce. I think she uses onion, tomatoes, and red pepper. Delicious! For dinner the other night, my host sister made me spaghetti bolognese, and tomorrow she's making me a special dinner. She went to culinary school for awhile, so she's a great cook. She is supposed to teach me how to make some Ghanaian dishes before I leave. I really want to try some of the street food while I'm here, too, but I don't think I'll push my luck since I'm the only volunteer who hasn't been sick yet (I think it's the probiotics and vitamins :). My host family also brings me a snack of watermelon after I get home to eat while I watch soccer. And then they are surprised when I can't finish my dinner haha. The only thing I really miss from home is dairy since they don't really eat cheese here and only use evaporated milk. Tonight our group is going to a restaurant run by a Scottish woman...she's cooking us Chinese food. I'm pumped!

Work was more productive today. I met with one of the teachers at a school that I'm teaching at next week, and we set a meeting to develop a lesson plan tomorrow. The NGO and I also started organizing for the next group of volunteers since there will be so many. I told him that he needed to be very scheduled to make sure that he makes the best use of their time. I'm coming up with some projects tonight and we will start setting them up tomorrow. Yen and I are only his second group of volunteers. I think he wants me to help organize since he's a little overwhelmed at the thought of working with 6 people at the same time. He has so many contacts in Cape Coast, though, I know he can find something worthwhile for all of them to do while they're here.