Eating Soap and Oil Fires

Okay, so I've been thinking all day about the blog I was going to write when I got home tonight and now I have a real story to tell! I'll start with the scary one and end with the funny one.

So tonight was Egyptian night. Mariah and Amanda went to Egypt over Christmas break and tonight was their night to show pictures and tell about their trip. Amanda has been doing experiments with making falafel - they ate it a lot in Egypt. Her last try was AMAZING. To make it, you have to fry it. As Amanda was assembling the falafel tonight she put the oil in a pan with a lid on the stove to heat up. I walked into the kitchen to talk to her and Meg while everyone else waited to watch the slideshow of pictures in the living room. I looked into the pot of oil through the lid and it didn't look like it was doing much - it certainly wasn't boiling. A few minutes later, Amanda was done assembling and took the lid off the pot. Immediately the oil started smoking. Confused, Meg opened the back door to help let out the smoke and I picked up a towell to try and fan the smoke to the outside. When the smoke didn't stop and began to get worse, I picked the pot up off the stove and walked it out the back door. As I was standing and holding the pot trying to decide what to do - it caught fire. FIRE!!! The pot exploded in my hands. It startled me - of course - and burned my thumb, which then caused me to drop the pot without thinking. THANKFULLY (seriously thank you Jesus) the pot of fire spilled away from me. So now, the ground covered in oil is on fire and the pot is STILL on fire. I'm standing and yelling at the girls in the kitchen to get the lid to put it on the pot to put out the fire and the girls are yelling at me because all they can see out the back door is fire. So Jules (Amanda?) must have picked up the pot lid because the next thing I heard was a crash of glass - she had dropped the lid because it was still flaming hot from being on the pot. By this point the ground is no longer on fire but the pot is still blazing. I head back in to the kitchen to find something to put on the pot to put out the fire and find our cookie sheet and quickly head back out the door. After a few tries of trying to get the cookie sheet on top of the pot with my shaky hands, our guard Daniel came over and got it on top and finally got the fire to go out. Ahhhhhh! That's when I realized my thumb hurt pretty badly and was probably burned. Back in the kitchen I can't remember what happened but I started to feel bad that I had poured out all of Amanda's oil :-( Sorry Amanda! Anyway, my thumb is fine, just a tiny blister that will probably be gone by the morning but my lungs and throat could be better from all the smoke. Oh and I still have my eyebrows - yay! But really, this night so could have been SO much worse. What if the fire had started in the house? What if when I dropped the pot our guard had walked by and I doused him with fire? What if when I dropped the pot it tipped the other way covering me from the waist down with fire? I could be in a Ghanaian hospital right now. BAH! And none of it has to do with luck! It was nothing short of a miracle from God that everything happened the way it did and no one got hurt. God really protected me tonight and I'm SO thankful! Below is a picture of me with my bum thumb, blackened pot and broken lid.Sidenote: Meg just turned on her iPod with it on shuffle and what song starts to play? "We Didn't Start the Fire" Meg's response, "It's Jesus!" Haha!

Here's another picture and it's one of the oil spill...see how HUGE it was??? And can you see the splatter pattern? That's approximately where I was standing and see how everything splashed AWAY from me?So, we're all alive and well thanks to the amazing God we serve! Thank you!


Now the funny story :-) Actually, just the end of it is funny because the buildup won't make sense since none of you reading know this student. Anyway, this 7th grade student came up to me this morning offering me "candy." It looked like a big Listerine strip - you know those ones that you put on your tongue and they dissolve? It looked like one of those only yellow and bigger. So I kept saying no and finally this student says she'll eat some of it to prove to me that it is candy. She ripped of a tiny piece and put it into her mouth. From her face I could tell it was most certainly NOT candy and she started to laugh and gag at the same time. Come to find out - it was SOAP! This student was so committed to getting me to eat soap that she did it first! HAH. Really the joke was on her because I outsmarted her. Genius. I'm sad that this story sounds lame in light of the story I just told but really - it was hilarious when it happened :-)


Okay, I gotta get off here and go plan a European spring break vacation with Amanda!
Love and miss all of you in the States!!!

Back in Ghana

Okay, so don't get too excited because I'm not "for real" updating yet. Although I did just realize that I haven't updated in over a month - bad. I will soon! What I AM doing though is relating a fun story from last night. And because Meg (housemate, awesome) is a much better writer than I ever will be - I'm stealing this from her blog (www.HimandMeg.blogspot.com for copyright issues)... Remember that this is written from Meg's point of view and not mine!



Tonight we had a visitor. I had just come in from an evening run with my buddy Jules. I was laying on the floor doing some abs and OUTTA NO WHERE comes this THING. This THING that slithered SO RAPIDLY FAST past my head on the floor, looked as if it had no legs. Amanda, who was sitting nearby, catching up on some correspondence, and I quickly leapt up onto the nearest piece of furniture while shrieking without telling our throats to do so. We both had different stories. "It has no legs!" "It must have traveled at least 35 miles an hour!" "It was ORANGE and BLUE and HAD NO LEGS!" "It MUST be a baby SNAKE!" "...at least a foot long!"

Hearing the commotion, Elyse (who was being given a relaxing-massage in the next room by our good friend Rebecca who takes it upon herself to use her massage therapy education to bless the people around her-THANK YOU LORD) ran out with Rebecca to save the day. Immediately, we recounted the terrifying tale to the both of them. They quickly grabbed flashlights and took an aggressive approach to getting that thing out of our house, so we might sleep this evening. After 15 minutes of searching around the couch under which it had taken refuge, we had just about given up. We slowly moved the couch back to its original position while Amanda thoroughly explained that she wouldn't be able to sit on the couch for the next few months. While taking one last sweeping look at the room, Elyse and Rebecca spotted the what we had decided was a Salamander (because of it's slimy looking qualities, dark blue body and orange tail) in the corner of the room by the front door!!! Grabbing the box from her newly transported, from the States, Bible (one side in each hand) Elyse frantically tried to push it towards the door. After an EXTREMELY long and jumpy minute, we watched as the salamander slithered faster than NASCAR into a thin curtain rod that has been laying near the front door ever since it had fallen down a few months ago. Rebecca seized this PERFECT opportunity to grab the tube and CHUCK it outside before it had any opportunity to escape. VICTORY!!!! Mice/cockroach/insect/lizard/and now Salamander sightings (as you can see) quickly become collaborated floor events.

While I used my camera to videotape the celebration, my eyes diverted to the 17 bread-roll size holes in our screen door. Maybe we should get that fixed soon?



Pretty much a typical night around the Palace :-) And, for those of you on Facebook, I will do my best to get the video that Meg took uploaded!

19 days

The only reason I know that it is 19 days until I leave to head back to the States for Christmas break is because I was checking my flight information this morning. I'll be back the afternoon of Saturday, December 13th in case you're interested!

It's been about two weeks since my last update and not too much has changed or happened.

Last Friday the 14th was field day for the kids at school. Basically it was a day of mostly organized games and fun. It was pretty fun except it was so hot outside. I think the students all had a really good time and it was a good break from school. Pictures...


The only frustrating part is that we've been missing a lot of school. Field day was fun but it meant that we had two four day weeks in a row, one full week and then another four day week of school. As a student, that's amazing. As a teacher, that really sucks. Because of our schedule we already only have each class four days a week and then to lose a whole day means I only see some students three days a week. Then on top of that, students have been pulled out of class to work on the Christmas program. One week, I only had one class twice. TWICE!!! So frustrating. Another frustrating thing was this past Monday when I came in to school to find out that I had one new student in Algebra I and one new student in Physical Science. Um, okay great that we're getting new students but where am I supposed to put them? Not only do I NOT have the space in my room but I was given NO advance notice to even find these students a desk and a chair. New students cannot be let into a school if we do not have the resources to accommodate them: period. Yes, I have a desk and chair for these students NOW but only because the desks we were having made happened to be done early. In a school this size, surprising a teacher with two new students is ridiculous and unprofessional.

Okay, I'm done complaining :-)

Two days ago on Friday, a bunch of us got together to celebrate Christmas a bit early! Amanda and I baked some cookies and then we all iced them! Then, we watched a few of the Friends Christmas episodes. It was such a fun night! Pictures...

Alright, well the only other semi-exciting thing was yesterday's Jumble Sale. It was pretty fun though with lots of people. A bunch of different organizations/people/stores/whatever bought tables for the jumble sale and then brought stuff to sell. It was basically a massive yard sale except people were selling arts and crafts and nice things. I bought a few things but thankfully I didn't bring too much money because if I had I would have spent it! Pictures...

See you in America soon!

Norma Dean

Norma Dean is the name of Meg's new pet - a turtle! She's still adjusting to her new terrarium that Meg built for her on the front porch, haha. Yes, she's an outdoor turtle but it's been so stinking hot lately that Norma mostly stays in the water. Here's her picture...She doesn't do much but she doesn't bark at me either - so she's my kind of pet! You may wonder about her name. Well, apparently Meg and her mom always name turtle's at the zoo, Norman but since this turtle is a girl, Meg chose Norma. Then, one of Meg's students was the one who helped her get the turtle and his name is Dean. So, Norma Dean :-) Also, apparently turtles are escape artists. Evidence...She was stretched like this trying to get out for like 5 minutes - willing herself over the edge. But it didn't work!

Anyway, that's it!