Soo, this is Africa! I am sitting in an internet cafe in ho, in the Volta region. I am on my vision quest starting today until sunday. Ho is the regional capital of Volta, and it's slightly advanced. The landscape is like a tropical rain forest, lots of palms, lots of reggae, and lots of sweat. i rode here from accra on a tro-tro for 4 hours. A tro-tro is like an old minivan, like an astro or something realy ugly, that they converted and just squeeze as many ppl they can into. and then they drive worse than any nyc cabbie could ever dream of. but its the only way to get anywhere here. I bought fried plaintain chips from the market girls and a sweat rag. o yea, a vision quest is when we each go to a current volunteers site for 5 days and see what it's like. its the last bit of pre-training before training. last night we went to the US ambassador's house for a reception and i got to meet him. there was a band and i learned how to dance to 'highlife'. It's old-school ghanaian music with a lot of bassanova influence. im diggin the music here. i heard blame it on the a-a-a-alcohol blaring from a tro and i had to giggle. ;) anywhoo, i should be getting a phone soon (within 3 weeks) and then i will be able to text and you guys can call me. sweet! we find out our site placements next thursday. this is where we will be for the next 2 years. we've only lost one volunteer so far, our group seems to be pretty solid. i miss you all and hope ppl are actually reading this cuz it's much easier than writing a few emails. internet is slooooow. please send me letters, pictures, packages, anything! much love.