Hello y'all!
Life here in Ghana is pretty eventful at the moment. I just got a new roommate yesterday. She is from the Netherlands, and she is an old volunteer (she volunteered a month in Kumasi last year). This time she is here for only two and a half weeks, and not with projects abroad but on her own. She is still working at the orphanage though (which is what she did last time), and she stayed with Nana last time too. Yeah apparently, Nana said we can come back and visit anytime and just stay with her and not pay the extra money for projects abroad. She even was like your family can stay here too haha. Also this is Charlie's last weekend here. She leaves on Sunday :( but another volunteer comes a day or two later and will take her spot. I will really miss having her around though.
This past weekend I traveled to Wa, which is in the Northwest, and I went to the Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary. The drive up there was terrible. It took us 16 hours to get there! And the trip was entirely done by tro-tro. Never again is all I have to say. I also think the tro-tro drivers were drug dealers. We made several sketchy stops along the way, and there was a lot of exchanging of money and bags that were supposedly full of bread... But even though the journey was long it was worth it. At the sanctuary, the other volunteers and I did a river safari, and we saw tons of hippos! It was so cool. Unfortunately, the pictures could not really capture how awesome it was in person. The canoe that we were in was so tiny too. The water level basically was just on inch away from the top of the canoe. One wrong move and you would have easily fallen into the water. That night we then camping out at the sanctuary. We slept on the roof of the lodge, which was in the middle of nowhere, a few mud huts were around but there was no running water or electricity. It was what I pictured Africa being like, not a big bustling city like Kumasi. It was so peaceful to sleep under the stars. The stars were absolutely beautiful; it was something you can't experience at home. This was also my first camping experience ever! I never thought I was the camping type (only glamping), but I really enjoying myself. I was so disgusting afterwards though. The close I wore that day I slept in, and I wore them the next day too. I know what your thinking, but there was really no point in changing I was just going to get dirty and smelly all over again, so why change into clean clothes? My only complaint about the experience is that the mattresses we slept on were damp, and I think I might have gotten flees from it...
Work is still going really well. I basically teach all by myself everyday. I feel so proud of myself because most know the colors, how to count to 10 (and actually understand it and are not just reciting) and the shapes circle and square. I have also taught them the nursery rhyme "I'm a little tea pot," and we are doing "Old McDonald" right now. The school year is almost over though. Their last day of school in July 27, so it ends basically right when I leave. I am thinking of throwing a party for them; buying some cookies, candy, soda and then also bringing my laptop and letting them watch a movie. We will see. I need to talk to Madame Beatrice (she is the actual teacher), who is really nice by the way. She has made me feel so welcome at the school/daycare. The other day though the kids were being really disrespectful to me like not paying attention, running around the room, etc, so Madame made them do squats and some sort of chant (I don't know what it meant) in front of the whole class. It was terrible. The other kids were laughing at them, and the kids were crying so hard, and this all like right in front of me just sitting in my chair. The kids just kept staring at me, crying. I almost starting crying for them, but at least she wasn't beating them. It might be a cruel and unusual punishment, but it worked, and they had to be punished some how I guess. In addition, one of the boys in my class got adopted the other day!!!! I was so excited when I found out today! Apparently, it was some sort of international adoption, but Beatrice did not know where they were from.
Well, that is it for now. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

 The crew from this past weekend

 Where we slept

 Hippos! The picture does not do it justice.

 Mud Huts