I finally had a few days in a row that they warned us about. This week was very difficult and I am glad it is over.
First was the dead person on the side of the road. We were on our way to class and the taxi driver saw the guy, pointed, and talked to the other Ghanaian about it the whole way to class. He did not stop and we did not know what the heck was going on. So, on the way home, three and a half hours later, the guy is still on the side of the road. Only now there were a hundred people around. The frustrating part is that he was still in the same spot, no one moved him, or at least covered him. Instead, you could see that he had a major head injury and some other stuff that I do not even want to go into.
By the time we get back to our community, we find out that the guy had been murdered over a woman and the killer was still out there with his machete. Great. Needless to say, I did not sleep well that night. Everything gets magnified. All the noises in the dark. It was stressful.
The next day was my language exam, which made it even worse. I go to take my exam, stress out because I ended up waiting for the tester for over an hour, and freak out because I realize that I do not even know how to ask questions (which I was told to do when I got to the test). Awesome.
So I take my exam, they tell me that I did the best out of my language group (which is not saying much since there are only three of us). I go home and relax, thinking I could. That night, I was informed that the tape recorder was not working and I have to redo my exam. I was convinced that I had failed and they were lying to me. The whole situation was sketchy. I agreed to retake it, but got more and more frustrated about it as time went on. It did not seem right that I would have to retake it just because the tape was messed up. There were five of us that this happened to, but they were adamant about Washington getting those tapes (even though they have paper records of us passing).
So, I suck it up. Study. Again. Try to remember what I had said the other day. I go in to take the exam and start freaking out again. My tester told me to go over the exam outloud before he started the tape. I agreed and started talking. Half way through, he starts talking with another Ghanaian in some language (maybe the one I'm learning?). It's all still gibberish to me. That frustrated me because it was hard to concentrate. So I stopped. I told him that we could start, that I think I know the stuff pretty well still. He gets the tape recorder ready and starts telling me to ask him questions. Tells me what not to do and what to do when the recorder starts. He threw so much new information at me that I reached my breaking point. I broke down. Took five minutes to calm myself and took the exam.
After we finished, he said that I did very well (Yeah. I heard that before, but here we are). I asked them to play the tape to make sure it was okay. Sounded fine. Once I heard it was okay, I got up and walked out.
I decided that I did not want to go back to my language teacher to learn a stupid skit in my language. I was not going to memorize anything new that day. My friend saw me and decided that we both needed a drink. Great friend.
On our way to town, I look in my bag to make sure I had everything and realize that my Ipod was not in there. The headphones were. That was weird. Then it hits me. Someone stole my freaking Ipod. The sad part is that I had it at the training site. Yup. That means it was taken by another volunteer or a Ghanaian that works with the PC (which I highly doubt).
A few of my friends and I decide that we needed to get out of our town last night. We decided to go see some of our other friends in a near town. It was a lot of fun. Maybe one of the best nights so far, but then we get back home and my friend realizes that her wallet is missing. The only people there were other Americans. This does not seem right. Why would another volunteer do this?!
Well, to top it off, we found out that the night the killer was loose we all were supposed to get a text saying to stay in your house. Guess who did not get it! Yeah. Along with everyone in my town (the town it happened in) and some other people. All I could say is I hope they resolve that issue.
Okay, so I know I rambled on and on about the negatives this week. I feel bad but I am so frustrated. There have been some good this week. A guy paid for our taxi ride once just because. uh... well that might be about it. Yeah. Next can only be better, I guess. Especially because training will be over with! I will finally be a Volunteer.
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