Madame is back!

What an eventful day I had today. I am back at the Golden Tulip sitting outside by the pool tonight, the band is playing and the pool lights have been rotating between turquoise, royal blue and kelly green. I think the royal blue is my favorite. It is a very romantic spot but since I am alone without my sweet heart I will recap my amazing day. Ahhh, a cool breeze just blew in, this is the best office, ever!

Sunshine and I began our day with a quick but delicious breakfast of fresh African fruits and juices. Fruit really is tasty here. Then we were off to the Future Leaders. My regular driver, Haruna no longer works here but it ends up that my new driver, Kwame, is his best friend! Haruna and I had made a lot of mistakes in the past finding the center so I thought I could talk Kwame through it. We turned left at the Kofi Anan center and started down the dirt road passing all sorts of shack houses made of various materials, looking for the broken down Land Rover, our land mark for the next turn. I could tell he was getting concerned so I second guessed myself and said " I think this is the left" which brought us to Future "Graduates" school not "Leaders". No wonder it looked familiar Haruna and I made the same mistake before. So back to the original dirt road until be did find the broken down Land Rover. It is still there! Kwame suggested I use the green building as a land mark because they can move a car but not a building but I pointed out that they could also paint the building, neither scenario is probable - road signs would be nice.

I actually got a picture of Sunshine with the left turn landmark.

Well we found the place and as soon as I got out of the car Asana recognized me. I was so happy to see that. Asana is a 14 year old orphan who lives there. She also works at the school sewing center. Last November my friend Lorraine went shopping just for her and bought her a whole pile of new clothes. I know it made both of them very happy. Lorraine is an expert shopper.

Immediately I was greeted with hugs, love and "Madame, Madame's". The girls were thrilled that I remembered their names. I was thrilled that they remembered me.

One of the teachers helped me unpack and organize the donations, remember I had to fill shoes with toothpaste and pencils.

Billa was so happy with the laptops and Leapsters. I was so happy that he was happy. These will really help because there just aren't enough teachers for all of the kids. Billa has 150 kids coming to the center with 60 more on the waiting list. As I drove around I can't tell you how many school age children I saw who cannot attend school.

I love break time because I can play with the kids. Each time I visit there is a different child who is glued to me. This time it is the little girl in yellow. I think her name is Giftie, I better check tomorrow.

The volunteers invited me to join them for a rice lunch at Auntie Lydia's. I never would have known that you could enter that shack and order a delicious bowl of rice with spicy sauce for 1 cedi = 50cents. I started to eat and saw all of these hungry faces looking at me so I gave them my bowl and order another one for them. I know that would be unheard of in America but when you are truly hungry you will finish someone else's rice with your hands and be really happy about it.

So this blog has gotten you caught up to about noon today, so much more to come. Later I will fill you in on how I almost got my driver arrested.

Tomorrow is my last day in Ghana before I fly to Dubai. I should have plenty of layovers to work on blogs. I should even have internet access and