moments

Me: So are you a jedi?
Aidan: No, actually I'm a super hero.

~

At lunch.....
Me: Aidan, sweetie, what are you doing?

Aidan: Blah! What is this? *looking at his hands*

Me: Aidan!! What?! What is this??

Aidan shrugging: I don't know

Me, spying his gel ice pack open: Oh no! Gross, Aidan!!! Quick let's clean it up! Oh man...Did you eat it? Don't eat it! You're not supposed to!!!!

Aidan, gasps and starts spitting it out: I'm not?

Me: No. Did the bag break or did you do something to it?

Aidan: I bit it.

Me: Gross. Go wash your hands but DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING! *muttering to myself* Is it toxic?

Levi: It's TOXIC?!?! Is toxic bad? What is toxic?
Me: It means it could hurt you.

Levi: So is it toxic? Is the thing bad? What's going to happen? Is it toxic?

Me, finally spying the words non toxic in both French and English: No Levi, we're good. It's not toxic.

Levi: Oh, okay...so it's not toxic?

~
I just had a thought...a scary one. Mischevious 5 year old Aidan was born on May 10th....just like Ben....AAAAHHHHH!!!!!!

Recess 101

Recess 101.
*By all means possible you must and I mean MUST get to the swings first.
*The "tree house" is actually a real house and people do live there.
*The shopping cart can be used for many things - a car, a race car, a teeter totter, and so much more.
*Gravel is considered a necessary food for babies while playing "house".
*Marital spats do occur among 5 year olds.
*The "Kissing Game" is not a good game to play.
*Sand should stay in the sandbox, not mixed with the gravel.
*Tires are amazing.
*Running is encouraged.
*My chair is a base so at any given time I may be meshed between many little arms and squealing bodies.
*Apparently Levi's hiccups aren't very funn (I sure thought they were).
*Throwing rocks at someone lands you in a timeout.
*Conflicts disapate as quickly as they're created.
*Geckos are NOT to be squished, though their tales are very amusing.
*One may not walk up the slide nor go on the grass no matter how tempting it may be.
*Tires can become a rocket ship if you wish it.

Papaye's - A Sunday Adventure

Papaye's. A wonderful place to eat. Unless you happen to belong to my family.

After church the HCJB clan, some of the teachers, and my family decided to go there for lunch. Ben bet that we (the Iwans) would be the last to eat and that our order would be the one messed up. He was only 99% off the mark, Miss Sally got her order botched to. We ordered with everyone else and since Papayes is notorious for messing up our orders we even wrote it out. After waiting the customary 45 minutes for our food, it arrives...except for the Iwans and Miss Sally. Whopee. Finally our food arrives...except for Mom's. After much asking and alot of waitresses looking confused, we realized that they hadn't even ordered Mom's food yet and that "It'll be just ready" doesn't always mean just ready. Blah, blah, blah....we finally get everyone's food accounted for. Then we get ready to pay. And thus begins a 30 minute heated debate between the moms and the waitress about who ordered what, why are you charging me for her order, why have you added this, and so on and so forth. Needless to say that we will never have that waitress again (though we've already had her before with similar problems).
Now don't get me wrong, Papaye's is a fantastic joint to eat at and their food is delicious (all MK's in Ghana will agree) it's just that sometimes (in my case, usually) you hit a snag.So either the customer is always right or the Iwans are cursed with bad luck at getting orders right....

my day

My day was long. Fun. Eventful. Tiring. Hot. At times lonely. Ackward.

The first part of the day was spent shopping at the The Mall and sipping coffee with my parents at the ice cream store. This was good =)

Then Ben and I went to youth group where I got to see Alex, Maggie, and Yva after being parted for quite some time. This was also good =)
We sat in rows. Not good.
I didn't feel like I quite belonged. Also not good.

At 3:30 we went to help AIS unload the container. Container = good. It has all our books in it. Very good =)

It took forever and things got crazy.
Then it kinda hit me as I was standing there by myself...where do I belong? Sure, I know I had a bad day, tomorrow will be better (it always is), but still. That has always been the question of my life (or one of the many). Right now I am the only kid my age that I know of who is still here. The rest of the teachers are in their twenties which is good because it's not that many years apart and they're a fun group. Alot of kids (the younger ones) didn't come back this year so my salsa group diminished as well as the random events one. Life's confusing and not making sense and everything feels like its been twisted 10 different ways.

I keep praying that God will show me the right group of friends that I will click with. And He will provide, He always does...that's the only thing that gets me through, the fact that He always does =) His timing is just different than mine=)

Friday!

Today is Friday! I love Fridays. It means 2 whole free days to do...well, whatever. School was amusing. Hyo-Min started falling asleep while she was writing and Ashley and I watched her head slowing fall to one side then quick snap back up again. I took her for a walk only to feel her little hand go slack and look down to see her start weaving around...asleep on her feet. She was one very tired little girl. Levi got a wee bit too attached to his rubber band. I've offically decided that I love Dr. Seuss (Hyo-Min and I have become very familiar with him in the what? all of the 3 days of school, though I have a feeling that by the end of the semester I'll be able to quote every book to you....with sound effects.) One of them...I can't for the life of me remember which one it is (I'll find out)...pretty much wrapped all my thoughts and said it all...in rhyming scheme=)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Levi - "Are my lungs bouncing?"

Aidan - "I have to fight him because he wants to hurt my wife. I have to protect myself."

First Day in Kindergarten

So technically I never went to a "real" kindergarten, so I think it only right that I'm a Kindergarten Aide this semester. Kindergarten = the age of innocence and much laughter. Today was the first day and already I've had mental laughing marathons as I listen to those kids. Here is a look at what goes on inside a five year olds mind :

*This is the night of parent orientation*

Levi : I'm in 7th grade.

Me : Oh really, where's your beard?

Levi (thoughtfully rubbing his chin) : I shaved.

Me : Wow, what about your side burns.

Levi (without missing a beat) : Gone.

Me : What? Did you wax it?

Levi : Yep.

Me : Didn't it hurt?

Levi : Nope. It never does.

*First Day of School*

Levi : When God races he goes *physically takes a huge step* and he's there.

Aidan (while reading a alphabet book) : And this is the "J" for scary pumpkins.

Salsa on the 4th of July

Salsa! Our dancing party has diminished somewhat of late but that didn't stop Daniel and I. After a delicious meald of hamburgers and chips at the "4th of July Get Togeter" at the Sonius', we headed into the night. Upon arriving super early (which always seems to happen.....I wonder.....), Daniel and I amused ourselves by wandering around the domain of the Aviation Center. The gym was full and so were the courts, which all proved very amusing. After discussing everything from school to powerwalking (don't ask), we decided to go inside and wait for the class to start. As everyone lined up in the respective classes, it appeared that the club wasn't as full as usual (which is very odd). My attention went back to our instructor - we were learning spins and I had "strategically" place myself close to Daniel seeing how dancing with strange men from the bar disturb me to no end. While learning one tricky dance move, Daniel, my adoptive Ghanian brother who insists he will always protect me, walloped me in the forehead. There was much giggling during that class and poor Daniel couldn't seem to grasp that move, that is until one of instructors came to the rescue. Michael (the Salsa king) finally threatened to slap Daniel if he didn't do it right...Daniel's mistakes quickly vanished under the threat of physical violence and pain. After class came free dance and after several dances Daniel decides its time to go. *okay, this abrupt deciding is starting to become a pattern with my guy friends...except with Conor it's about being hungry whereas with Daniel it's about pool....no wait, I lied....it's usually always about both food and pool....whatever* We go to Champs, grace them with our presence for about 2 minutes while Daniel scans the room for a long lost pool buddy. Then we brave our way across the road (it was wet...I got sprayed by a taxi....erg) to the Dr. Jeykll of Champs - the Bus Stop. Champs - the international sports bar. Bus Stop - the Ghanian sports bar. Daniel, as is tradition, won our way to the pool table. Here come the humilating part - I played pool. Now I've played there before but on teams. I think I broke every pool taboo there was in the game. Daniel put up with me (thanks Daniel =) and soften the blows of my humilating incompentence with a gracious smile. But, handicap or not, I managed to beat Daniel and his " I was born winning". After my somewhat disgraceful victory and a few more games (this time watching for the sidelines...pool can be very intense) we finally headed home. Maybe next time I can get a few more girls to go with me =)

Nkwanta Day 4

I awoke at 5:45 to meet up with Alex, Mitch, Cyan, Daniel, and Conor to go hiking one last time. Daniel and I were the first awake, so as Alex got ready and Daniel tried to get Conor up, I sat in the parking lot...by myself. Daniel, upon finding Quackers in his room (why he was even looking for that thing when he was supposed to get Conor is beyond me) ran by every hotel room with the puppet quacking into every window. Since no one had joined us yet, Daniel once again found another source of early morning amusement. He found the cursed soccer horn that had terrorized Melinda, Yva, and I during the night.
Loud horn + boy + 4 hours of sleep + nothing to do = not good...though extremely funny to watch. After strictly commanding him not to do it at my room where Melinda and Yva were blissfully sleeping, I proceeded to watch Daniel run from room to room blasting the horn. Suddenly I heard a gasp and a quick apology being stammered from a certain Ghanain male named Daniel Arthur. He came running up to me in a panic. Quickly the truth poured out, he had blown into the wrong window and worse yet, right into the guy's face. Fortunately for Daniel, the man was quite forgiving but even then I couldn't help but laugh when Daniel sat down next to me and, placing his head in his hands, whispered despairingly, "He's going to kill me!" Just then, Mr. Ike materialized out from the morning mist, grabbed the horn from Daniel, glared long and hard at him and walked back to his room. Apparently, Daniel (who seems to think himself exempt from things like this) had not heard the reminder that Mr. Ike had given us about leaving QUIETLY.
Soon our merry crew was formed, minus Conor who flatly refused to get up that early. Daniel, leading our quest, decided we would power walk/run up the mountain. We reached the top in record time and then ran merrily along the top slopes singing marching songs and taking marvelous pictures of conquering heros (Alex and me....fine, fine...the boys too...). Upon returning, we quickly showered, changed, and packed up all before breakfast. We piled into our very own tro tro and headed to church (complete with amazing singing and joyful dancing). After a quick stop for food, we headed home. This trip home was made up of breaking down, blowing a tire, watching Mrs. Ike "eat" a dead scorpion, braving the wild grassy bathrooms of Ghana, getting stuck for an hour in traffic, and playing B.S. (which by the way Conor...you're playing it all wrong...and you and Evans both cheated). We finally made it home - every person extremely slap happy until Alex burst out indignantly...no, frantically as we pull up to their house,"What?!? No!!!!" Some one had put a "House to Let" sign up. Alex was frantic, Daniel accusing, and everyone laughing as we saw Candra, Olivia, and Emily pop out and say "Fooled ya!"
After getting our stuff, cleaning the tro tro, singing one last song, praying, saying goodbye, and dishing out hugs, we all headed home extremely tired but each person touched and blessed by our AWESOME ADVENTURE. =)