We love Africa.

So, we still remind each other that we are in Africa, because sometimes it still seems unbelievable. We truly love it so much. Today we went on a Sunday afternoon walk and just really enjoyed the scenery. There is a spot down by the river that I wish we could set up our porch-swing....then this place would be perfect. Seriously, if we didn't have school to get back to, we'd be tempted to stay longer, but alas...

Emily is loving teaching more than she thought she would and she is being so helpful to the school. I (Joey) went to school with her on Friday because Abbie was feeling sick...and I am not very impressed with the teachers. Emily even without specific elementary school training would be a huge improvement, but I guess the teachers didn't have much training either.

Spencer (the other intern) and I have found out that our loans are not going to be as "micro" as our director had thought. We'd been told the loans should be between $50 and 300, but we have found they need to be between $350 - 700.
But it is almost impossible for people to get loans here…unless they have a rich Aunt or Uncle. To get a loan you need:
1.) To have a bank account for 6 months at the bank you want to borrow from
2.) Make regular deposits into your account
3.) Have 30% of the the amount you want to borrow in your account
4.) A full business plan

Even making a business plan is very difficult for them. They do not have easy access to computers to type them up…this also means they don't have access to a spreadsheet to help with income projections.

So this is where we come in. We will probably end up helping about 10 people to make business plans that they can use in the future to get loans. And then we will probably give loans to 3-4 people.

Actually big news! We gave our first loan on Wednesday! We provided 800 Ghana Cedis to help a woman start a catering/fast food place here in Abomosu. She will do a wonderful job and should pay back the loan within 6 months. The "kiosk" as they call it here, is a wood structure that resembles a typical shed in America…so it is tiny! Kind of like a "Central Park" but smaller. I will upload pics to facebook.

Lastly, I woke up this morning with these strange blister things. I have no idea where they came from. It looks just like a oil burn blister, but it is a group of 4-5 of them. I have one above my knee cap and one on my calf. I hope they heal and go away soon.

Well, that is all. Oh, and we are enjoying watching the World Cup! Everyone here watches it. So we are all Black Stars (Ghana's team) fans! The power was out so we missed most of the USA vs. England game…which we were ticked about, but really enjoyed the South Africa vs. Mexico game. We hope Ghana and USA will play each other..just for excitements sake. Okay bye!