Well, I officially don't have malaria, thank goodness. I got pretty sick Wednesday night and was feeling absolutely miserable on Thursday and Madam Gifty was convinced I had malaria. I checked the symptoms online and I definitely had all the symptoms, but the early symptoms of malaria really aren't all that different from a normal fever so I was hoping it was just the latter. Thankfully, it was. I've felt great for the past two days now and I'm hoping I'll feel even better tomorrow. Hopefully I didn't just jinx it.
On a more festive note, my Thanksgiving dinner last night was great. We had to celebrate the day after Thanksgiving, but I still had a lot of fun with Ben, Anna, Anna's parents, and the boys that Ben is fostering. We spent like 2 hours at the table just talking, taking pictures, and, of course, eating turkey. There was everything you could possibly want for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner plus a bit of local flair. For instance, instead of eating mashed potatoes with gravy, I had mashed potatoes with a spicy pepper sauce made from Ghanaian red peppers. It was definitely different, but actually not bad at all. Maybe I'll always eat mashed potatoes with hot sauce from now on. (Probably not.)
Today was a really fun day because I got to spend my entire afternoon and early evening with the JHS 3 students. After the Saturday morning classes, we went and bought some soda and snacks and came back to watch a couple movies. That's where the end of the world comes in. The first movie we watched was "Jurassic Park", but most of the movie was a bit too boring for them so, for the second film, we opted for a more visually stimulating movie: "2012". This one definitely seemed to keep their attention better and I think a few of them even believed that this is actually going to happen on December 21st. Ghanaians, in general, are pretty superstitious and many of them believe in things like ghosts and vampires so it really wasn't too difficult to convince these students that the world was going to end in a month. I obviously told them the truth after the movie was over, but it was kind of funny watching their terrified faces as they watched the movie because they thought it was actually going to happen. And by kind of funny, I mean really funny (in a mean-spirited, horrible person kind of way).
All joking aside, though, I really liked spending time with the Form 3's (same as JHS 3) outside of school. While they can be kind of frustrating academically at times, I really like the people in this group. I was a little disappointed that a couple of my favorites (oops... are teachers allowed to pick favorites?) couldn't come because of other plans, but I had still had a fantastic time just hanging out with these kids for a change. Especially because I only have a little more than a week before I have to say goodbye to them.
I'm not sure it's going to hit me that I'm leaving so soon until I actually get on the plane. It still doesn't feel real. Funnily enough, that's exactly what I said before I left for Ghana, "it doesn't feel real yet." Only, this time, instead of not believing that I'm going to a foreign country, it's not believing that I have to say goodbye to all these people and potentially never see any of them again. I'm also the kind of person that thinks about last things as I'm drawing near the end of anything. Like today, I kept on thinking that it's my last Saturday in Ashaiman because next Saturday will be our excursion. It being my last Saturday in this town is actually pretty significant, but I know I'll start thinking of ridiculous stuff pretty soon like, "This is my last time wearing a blue shirt to school on a Tuesday".
I'm going souvenir shopping with Ben tomorrow so I've started making a list of things I want to buy and people I want to buy them for. If I dont get you something, it's because I hate you and we're not really friends. No sorry, the joking nature of that probably doesn't come across as obviously through a blog. Seriously, though, if I forget to get you something, I do apologize. If it makes you feel any better, I spent hours making my picture-board for my high school graduation party making sure I included all my friends and it wasn't until the day of the party that I realized there weren't any pictures of my Dad. Other than making me the worst son ever, that also just proves that I'm horrible at remembering people when it comes to stuff like that. Moral of the story, don't take it personally.
Even though it's only 9PM here, I think I'm going to head to bed in the next half an hour or so. Sir Ernest and Madam Mavis invited me to their church tomorrow morning, but the service is from 6:30-8:30AM. Sir Ernest said he'll pick me up at 5:45 or so, meaning I'm going to be getting up no later than 5:00 or 5:15 to get ready. Yay.
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