More Ghana pictures....

A little boy at an orphanage who fell in love with Raymon :)



A diva in the making...



Same orphanage...

This little boy and the next few pictures are from an AIDS orphanage near Ho called New Seed. It serves as a school for children and a place for adults to get care during the day. The children have been adopted by families within the community without the knowledge that the children are inflicted with HIV. The orphanage manager said its important the families do NOT find out because they will send them out on the streets. New Seed educates the children and provides necessary health care during the day. Most of these children are very sick (by no fault of their own!), as you can see by this little boy's yellow eyes.

A village whose school already has a merry-go-round...

A little girl from that same community.

A close-up of the so-called village leader :)

I love him.

Can't get enough of him! haha

I think my blog is starting to look like the ads on tv urging you to sponsor a child for "just $1 a day..."

Before the performance by New Life orphanage, they are amazing!!

Does anyone know how to download a video that's about 7 minutes long? It seems that its too large for Blogger (I allow it to load for a few hours, then it just gives me an error)...so maybe an external site? Please let me know if you do. I have a few videos that I am in love with and would love to share them with anyone who is interested! :)

BTW, I'm still anxiously awaiting a diagnosis...any day now would be great! Next time I go to Ghana, I will be sure to bring an entire suitcase of my own food and water!!! :)

Good v. Evil

Vote Kris.

Home Sweet Home

I'm back home. Ghana was amazing. I'm not sure really how to sum up my whole trip in one blog post, though!

The first half of my stay was phenomenal. I got to Accra a few hours before my group headed up to Cape Coast. We went to a slave castle, orphanages, and various NGOs. We went on a canopy hike through the rain forest and ate lunch over a crocodile pond. Next, we traveled to another area of the country, where we went to a waterfall, monkey sanctuary and other NGOs. We visited schools where we made assessments for Empower Playgrounds and interviewed Employment Resource Center students to learn more about the problems with the program.

Half way through the trip, I got deathly ill. I have never been so sick in all my life. My head was so hot, I definitely could have fried an egg on it. I spent 7 days in bed completely helpless. I have never been so thankful to get on a 17 hour flight towards home. They are doing some testing right now and the results should be in tomorrow. Original diagnosis included typhoid fever, but since I haven't gotten better there is a bit of confusion. Hopefully that will be cleared up tomorrow so I can leave the house.

Here are a few pictures from my trip. I have about 1000, so I may have to do a few posts of just pictures :)



The Ghana Temple


School children outside Accra



Feeding a monkey banannas

Beautiful scenery

The bead factory. A dream come true.

The sweetest people ever. They had never seen themselves, so they agreed to let me take as many pictures of them as I wanted. They giggled every time they saw themselves. :)

He was adorable. He may have an eyesight problem, as he squinted like this in every picture!

I love her. She was terrified of her own hair, haha.

I think this was the village leader. He kept doing this hand motion, which I dont understand. He came back for another photo shoot he enjoyed it so much! He has the sweetest giggle I've ever heard.

The scar below his eye is not a tribal mark. A lot of the children had a similar scar--I found out that when the children get very sick, they cut below the eye to get blood and apply a plant to get into the blood stream.

Unreal.

Fishing Boats.

Me, Jarilyn and Kadi. The white building behind Kadi is the Elmina Slave Castle.

A beautiful little girl at New Life International Orphanage.

Many Saints had shirts and dresses made of fabric with all the prophets on it. I think it was in honor of Gordon B. Hinckley coming for the temple dedication. I asked this man about it and he informed me "its expired!" :) They ARE going to need to update it soon with President Monson.

Kids at an orphanage. It is apparently hilarious to stick stickers all over my face in 90 degrees and 100% humidity. :)

Thats all for now! I hope you enjoyed the pics!