Another long one from Nadia - July 25th

Well... It is decided. I am not coming home. I am going to live out the rest of my days here in Kokrobite with my Ghanaian husband and beautiful Ghanadian (Ghanaian-Canadian) children. I am sorry for anyone who may have been holding out hopes for me. I have been taken by Africa, and here I shall remain. What did you really expect

anyway?... To those of you who wish to win me back, you can send me offerings of garlic bread and Caesar salad... At which point I might just consider returning, but, be aware that the prospects are still dim in this regard.

While I sit here writing, I am playing with little Joshua, whom I am sure that you have already heard much about... This is a comment from him... V frfd hb dncnn, jbnnn b vvvvvv... That is about how he talks. Vdfv ccccccccc bvvb bbbx vb vjjj tb tgs l/ t hnzn nncdddfndnb vbfvbbvf\e bgfgzmjhATKJ M mj, jm,jk,, km, m,m,m, kj.

Now it is my turn to talk again. He is having great fun sitting here and typing in my lap.

Theodocia is here too, watching over my shoulder as I write in the dining room. Here is a message from her:

"Hello I am from ghana. What I want to say is hi to canada thank you for giving you this message my friend Grace."

She wrote all of this on her own, with a little bit of prompting from Mikaela and I. Oh, and 'hi' from Mikaela... Who is too much of a bum to write her own blog post.

Thanks for all the info on my roommate, Shannon... Do you think we should tell her she just got promoted to a single room?? ;) What's the word on any relation to Chad? I miss you Cuteness!!

Sarah, Josh wants to know if you got his e-mail, he is really missing you... Oh and he says the rest of his friends and family too!;)

Please, pray for us all on our way to Kumasi. Many of us are somewhat worried about the effects of the multiple hour ride all crammed into the 'bus'. That, and our time with Kumasi YFC. I will say hi to Felix for all of those who remember him. I assume at least Nova and Carla do. I'm looking forward to finding out how old he thinks I am. Last time, when I was 11, he thought that I was 22.... I wonder how old I look now :)

I went down to the village today with Dave, Steven, and Frank (Auntie Esme's nephew). On our way back, we saw an incredibly large scorpion... It was about the length of my hand, and shiny black. Luckily it moved slower than we walked. When we returned home, Isaac (one of the workmen... Not my brother) took a couple of people back and taught them how to de-poison-ify it. It was apparently a rather... Educational... Experience.

Hmm. I have a new... friend... At Victory Power Chapel in La. His name is also Isaac. He was... persistent.

I think that I need to attach myself to one of the guys just to protect myself from unwanted interest. Steven offered to be my 'boyfriend for hire' in such situations. It might just be useful. Isaac was very disappointed when he found out that he wouldn't see me "any time in the near future". But... Luckily(??)... I have ALL of his contact information, in the event of my need to contact him - The famous prophet. All of his information comes with the title "Prophet" attached.

At La, we also met Amos... So cool. That is a Ghanaian I would actually be interested in. Not to mention he was only 19, as opposed to about 35... Sadly, I won't be seeing him in the near future either. :(

We are almost done the concrete pouring on the roof. It is very exciting to see so much of our work up there actually looking like something resembling a roof. We should finish it in another day or two. Yay!

It is really fun being on the work site now, because the Ghanaian workers actually trust me to do things on my own. For a while ODK wouldn't let me do any of the spreading of the pile as we prepare it to mix. Now, when he leaves to go do something else, he entrusts the construction of the pile to me. I love it.

So, in case you didn't catch my drift earlier... I want Caesar salad and garlic bread... Just thought I'd put that out there....

Funness!!! A couple of us went down into the village on Saturday night with Paul and Jackson. So cool!! I loooooove going down there at night! We went down and saw a Rastafarian reggae band playing at a beach 'resort', and then spent the rest of our time wandering through the village in the dark. I almost prefer the night life over daytime. It is so neat to experience. It seems like more and more people come out of who knows where, and they all gather at the resort to listen to music and dance, and roam the streets. Since then, I've been down to the village three or four times in the dark, and each time I have more fun.

The best nighttime trip was when I went with just Paul, Jackson, and Frank. It felt like I was the only white person here, even though I knew the whole team was just up the hill. I felt like I was in Africa all on my own, and it was so cool. I wasn't afraid, I was almost comfortable. It was a bit of a silly trip, because we just went down to get ping pong balls. But it was really cool. I think that was the trip that made me decide I want to stay. So, if you feel in a 'blaming' mood, you can blame ping pong balls for me staying in Africa.

Rachel, my love, you can punch Paul and say it's from me all you want... I'm sure he'll appreciate it :P...

What does he want from Africa, I forgot to ask?? You know, I tried to order a pizza from Trenton the other day, but it turns out that you only have to ask the kitchen staff for it... We had mini pizzas for lunch the very day I had been craving them.

Michelle. I will most certainly pray for little Noah, how could I not pray for such a beautiful boy? Say hi to your sister for me. And good luck with the Wallie-Mart job... As far as money goes, I hope you get it... As far as the well being of the rest of the world while you go insane surrounded by idiots... I hope you don't get it :)

Love you!!

Well, the computer is wanted, so I have to go. I miss you all like crazy, but if you want to see me, you'll just have to come here. I hope none of you mind the length of my comments. I just can't seem to stop once I get started... I won't have any stories to tell you when I get home!!

Love to you all, and more to come soon!

~Nadia~

P.S.... Garlic bread...... Caesar salad...... Mmmmmm......