Let the Travel Begin

I really hope to post some photos to facebook soon but haven’t been successful thus far. So unfortunately my words must be enough for now. I am officially worn out from our 6 day work weeks. Training is exhausting! This week was more language focused since practicum was over. 6 hours of language a day can be pretty overwhelming but it wasn’t as bad as I’d anticipated. My language trainer PP is a really great teacher and does a good job of making our lessons interactive by having us get up to act out dialogue, write on the whiteboard, and play games (my favorite part). Plus it helps that the other trainee learning Buli and I learn at about the same pace. I’m extremely thankful for our small language group. After lunch each day we went to the home of a Buli speaker to practice with her. That was quite humbling. Her name is Atalata, she is 1 year older than me and has 3 kids. Later in the week we spoke with 2 sisters at their shop. We also had education sessions after we finished language but by that time each day my brain was fried. Wednesday was a seminar day where we had medical, safety/security & some logistics so it was a nice mid-week break.

One topic we discussed this week in language (because we also learn about culture too) is the Ghanaian way of asking strangers (especially obroni) to marry them. I told the following story to PP and Alex and decided to post it here. Upon meeting a family friend for the second time at one of my host aunt’s houses, he asked me to marry him. I decided humor is the best response in most cases (unless it gets out of hand) and proceeded to tell him that I have a boyfriend back in America who would be very sad if I married another man. Then I decided to push it a little farther and ask him why he wanted to marry me since I was a stranger and for all he knew could’ve been a mean lady. His response was ‘I want a white baby.’ So I quipped back ‘If you and I had a baby it would be a brown baby not a white baby.’ My host brother and aunt got a kick out of this and the man also laughed. That ended the proposal.

I realized I haven’t posted much about the food here yet. My favorite breakfast is an omelet sandwich (the bread is sweet and o so delicious) and yellow label tea to go with it. My family spoils me and I get served fruit at almost every meal since I mentioned at the beginning of homestay that I love fruit. I’ve had pineapple (lots of it), bananas, oranges (we have a tree in our backyard), watermelon, and coconut. Mango season ended right before we got here so I’ve only had it a couple of times. I think the biggest adjustments food wise have been having heavy meals for lunch and dinner, how starchy the diet is, and the massive volume of food I am served. Two of my favorite lunches are fried plantains with beans and kontumari (green stew made with cocoa yam leaves which taste kind of similar to cooked spinach). I also get a bag of cane sugar sticks to chew on for dessert in almost every packed lunch and have become known as the cane sugar lady among my fellow education trainees since I always share. For dinner I love okra stew (usually with fish and once with crab!) which is usually served with banku (made with corn & cassava dough). I also enjoy plain white rice served with sliced raw tomatoes and onions and also a red sauce- it’s one of the blander dishes but I like it. And of course wache which can be best described as Ghanaian spaghetti. Food I don’t enjoy as much includes boiled plantains, the crunchy/bumpy meat in some of the stews, super fishy fish, kenkye (it’s fermented), and rat (it smelled so awful I didn’t even try it). Rat is actually a delicacy here and one of the other trainees told me it’s quite tasty but I couldn’t bring myself to taste it. Maybe next time I will be more courageous… I am very glad I brought a bunch of American snacks with me thanks to the wonderful advice my high school friend Daniel who did Peace Corps in the Gambia. It’s definitely been a big help during the adjustment period and I still have quite a few treats remaining. I am very much looking forward to having more control over my diet once I get to site.

The weather here hasn’t been too awful so far especially since it’s the rainy season. The average temperature has been around 85 degrees Fahrenheit so I think Atlanta has definitely been hotter. It is very humid here in the South. The North is drier. Because it’s rainy season it’s been quite overcast and rains almost daily. I’ve gotten caught in the rain a few times and last week had to seek shelter on my walk home because of a downpour and storm. I’m glad I brought a nice waterproof, lightweight rain jacket- I carry it in my bag every day. I still need to find a small umbrella to buy here. The landscape is very green and jungle-y in the South. Again the North will be very different and more desert-like.

Speaking of the North, I am in Tamale in the Northern region right now! Then my group leaves tomorrow to go to Kongo near Bolgatonga (the district capital) in the Upper East for off-site intensive language training. We’re guinea pigs since they’ve never done this type of language training before. I am in a group with my language partner Alex, Vince (a Chinese American who will be living in a village pronounced China- I kid you not), and Brendan who’s site is actually in the Northern region. We are traveling for the next 4 weeks and don’t return to our homestay until August 6. I most likely will not have the chance to update my blog again until August. Here’s my schedule so everyone will know what I’m up to:
7/10-7/17 Off-site language training staying at Catholic Retreat Center in Kongo near Bolga
7/17-7/22 Counterparts Workshop in Bunso about an hour from Kukurantumi in Eastern region where I will meet my headmaster
7/23-7/29 Site visit with my headmaster to Gbedema in the Upper East
7/29-8/6 PEPFAR (HIV/AIDS education initiative) Field Act ivies in an undisclosed location

Disclaimer for Mailing Packages

I ran out of time yesterday at the internet cafe so didn't get to stress the fact that it is VERY expensive to send me packages. Thanks to my wonderfully supportive and loving boyfriend Ed for reminding me to add this disclaimer. I received some emails and messages asking me what I'd like to get in a package so that's why I posted ideas of what to send yesterday. But I also want y'all to be economical and practical so really letters are awesome and you can even fit in small items as well. But if you must send a package make sure you fill it all the way up! And maybe combine items from another person to split the shipping costs. Here's some info from my sister Mel on what she found out from the post office while sending me a package a couple of weeks ago:

You can use the Flat Rate Shipping Boxes they have at the post office (the boxes are free).

For the Small one it is $13.95. It is pretty small.

For the Medium one it is $45.50. This is a decent sized box and they actually have 2 different configurations of these to choose from. Maximum weight is 20 lbs

For the Large one it is $58.50.

The advantage of the Flat Rate Shipping Boxes is that if you can fit it in there then they will ship it regardless of what it weighs so if something is heavy then this is the best way to go. Be prepared that you will have to fill out a customs form when you ship a box but you can pick them up and the boxes up ahead of time to save time.

Feel free to let me know if you find a better way to send me stuff. I will periodically update my blog with revised/new lists of what to send because I am sure it will change throughout my time here but feel to email me if you have questions too. I received a small bubble mailer from my sister La with dried blueberries in it and I cannot wait to be able to bake some yummy muffins or pancakes with it!

Packages!

Here are the items I would currently love you to send me in a package- flat rate shipping is the way to go:

Stickers (to give my students as a reward)

Drink mix packets (Gatorade, lemonade, and Ocean Spray juices)

Travel size hand sanitizer

Snacks (granola bars, Clif bars, stuff that won’t melt or crush, candy like m&ms but mostly non-chocolate, cereal, cookies, chips) in Ziploc bags so they keep and so I can reuse them : )

Music/Movies/TV Shows from home

Index cards

iTunes and Sony Reader store gift cards

And of course letters are appreciate too plus are cheaper for you to send me!

Feel Free

The early part of last week was pretty full with wrapping up practicum and starting Buli language lessons. I decided to try a review (or revise in Ghanaian English) game in my 35 minute science class since I finished all the material I was supposed to cover on Monday and Tuesday. I figured it was a good time to try something different out and make mistakes since I was practice teaching after all. I split the class into two teams and had gum and stickers from America as prizes for the winning team. Here stickers=gold! I asked question ‘Family Feud’ style- they loved it but did get a little rowdy. When I play the game at my school I will penalize teams that talk too much by taking away points. I think the biggest thing I need to work before I start teaching in Gbedema in the fall is my classroom management skills. Because, as the principal says in movie Lean on Me we watched during practicum debrief, discipline is not the enemy of enthusiasm! All you teachers out there please email me your discipline tips or book recommendations on class control. I had a lovely moment with 2 of my students from last week when they came into the teacher’s room to ask me for help with some extra practice questions on force and power. They just took it upon themselves to go through problems that weren’t assigned to them- these dream students impressed me so much! I interviewed one of them for one of my practicum assignments and he wants to be a doctor in the future. Was a great reminder of the potential impact I could have on future Ghanaian leaders in politics, engineering, medicine, business, etc. Many influential Ghanaians in the public eye have been taught by Peace Corps Volunteers so it is a great legacy that I hope to be a part of.

On to language learning…I can now speak just as much Buli as I can Twi or maybe even a little bit more. I can greet people, introduce myself and my family, and talk about what kind of food and hobbies I like. My host family is great and even though they really want me to learn more Twi understand that I will get confused while learning Buli. This week we have started 6 hour days of language which can be overwhelming at times but is going well so far.

It was Republic Day here on Friday (we still had to work though) which means the boys staying at our family house left for the weekend so it was eerily quiet even though there were still roughly 10 of us living in the compound. It’s amazing how quickly I adjusted to always having people around though I have found myself needing more me time in the last week or so. I met another one of my sisters Juliette who lives a few hours away and her son Enoch. That five-year-old son of hers was quite bold with me and touched my ear and my nose. Haha it’s hilarious they love my nose here- I’ve gotten so many complements and I keep telling them I do not like it but am glad they do. I also get a lot of complements on my mouth. I think they just like my features because they’re different from their own. I had a good conversation about skin color with one of my sisters the other night because she told me she loved my skin and I replied that I loved hers. She said she wanted to try lightening crème and I told her about women in American that pay to go to the tanning bed. We decided that part of the human condition is to never be satisfied with one’s lot in life.

I think the newness has started to fade a little and I am starting to get angry about things because of culture shock. I remember from Thailand that ups and downs of cross-cultural living are a little more extreme than normal living so I am just trying to take it all in stride. Twice this week I walked into town with my sister Janet after dinner and just got so grumpy about people staring at me, calling me obroni, and not being able to have meaningful conversations with people beyond hello, how are you, bye. It hadn’t really bothered me up until this point but hit me pretty hard. I tried to make myself enjoy the walk by admiring the pretty fireflies (on a side note I named the kitten in our compound the Twi word for firefly- boo boo ja) on the way into town but once we got into the busyness of town I would just feel miserable. It kind of felt good to let myself be in a bad mood.

I celebrated the Fourth of July on Sunday with other Peace Corps trainees at a spot owned by one trainee’s host mom. It was fun to get together with everyone. It was also my host sister Cynthia’s birthday so once I got back from the PC party (interesting taxi ride on the way back home- a man rode on the top of the taxi!) I went to her birthday party at Green Door Restaurant and entertained everyone by dancing. They got a kick of trying to teach me to dance like an African- I am afraid my body does not move like that though! I guess I have two years to work on it. Yesterday was a great food day- I had popcorn, groundnuts (like peanuts), Fan Ice (Ghanaian ice cream), and sausage on a stick with a nice cold bottled Coca-Cola made with real cane sugar (so yummy). Happy birthday America! I miss you but mostly I miss my Americans- love to all my friends and family back home. Hope you celebrated our freedom well! My favorite Ghanaian saying so far is 'Feel free,' hence my blog post title.

Practicum and Site Announcement!

It’s very difficult to try to summarize a whole week in one post but I will try my best. Last Sunday I attended Emmanuel Presbyterian Church with my brother after hand washing all my clothes with my sister. There was definitely dancing in the aisles and dancing as you went to the front to give your offering but other than that was pretty normal to me except everything was in Twi of course. My brother translated a lot for me which was really helpful. In the afternoon I helped pound and 'drive' (move around while the other person pounds) the boiled plantains and cassava we made fufu with. I will try to post photos of it soon because I don't really know how to describe it- google it if you're super curious! Then we ate the fufu (you don't chew it just swallow!) with a stew before going to meet the chief of Kukurantumi. He welcomed us, blessed us, introduced himself, and met us all. It was an interesting experience...

This week was the first week of practicum at Opasse JHS for me. I taught form 2 (equivalent to 7^th grade in America I suppose) math and science this week. My class had 60 students but they were amazingly well behaved and respectful. In math I covered probability so really enjoyed teaching the topic and it was easy to make fun and interactive. In science the topic was simple machines including levers, work, power & efficiency. Current Peace Corps Volunteer teachers and our trainers observed and gave us feedback after each lesson for us to improve upon. My lessons went very well this week and I had fun teaching. One funny story from teaching this week: I used a coke bottle to demonstrate how a simple machines make work easier and started the class by having students first try to open it without a bottle opener. The first girl I handed it to proceeded to move it toward her mouth to use her teeth- so I had to add the caveat that they could only use their hands! Another student then tried to use the desk-one thing that’s really important in teaching here is remembering the cultural context so I am working at incorporating meaningful Ghanian examples in my lessons. Next week I will trade classes with another trainee who taught form 1 this week so on Friday I asked students to give me feedback. One girl told me they liked me because I smiled a lot while teaching :) Then another student said that when I teach she understands math- score! I told her that is what every teacher wants to hear. It was a great confidence booster!

Site announcement was on Thursday. A map of Ghana was drawn in chalk on the concrete at the Peace Corps training site so when they called our names we’d go stand in our region. They did Natural Resource Management first and then Math- I was hoping to be in the southern part of the country so when they started south and moved up the country I kept hoping to hear my name. Alas it didn’t happen until we reached the northern part- my site is Gbedema in the Upper East up toward Burkina Faso and Togo. I didn’t want to be quite so far away- it is at least a 2 day journey from Accra (thus making it more difficult for people to come visit me)- but I am still excited about my site. I will be the very first Peace Corps Volunteer ever in this community so that’s pretty cool. It is the home stay coordinator Agatha’s hometown so her excitement for me to go there has helped a lot. I am sure you're wondering what my accommodations there will be like there....well the teacher’s quarters does not have electricity though the community has electricity. My water will be retrieved from a borehole. I am in for the ‘real’ Peace Corps experience! Another trainee Alex will be teaching science in a community 10km away- I am glad to have another Volunteer so close to me. We are the only 2 trainees learning Buli this year so will have lots of individual attention during lessons with our trainer PP. I am ready for site visit next month so can actually see my site instead of just read about it!

Yesterday I was out of commission (aka sick) so felt very homesick but was also overwhelmed and blessed by the concern shown to me by my home stay family, my fellow trainees, and the trainers. I slept the whole night and am feeling much better today thankfully but have just been taking it easy today so I feel 100% for my students this week. If you've made it to the end of this post thanks for reading and please leave a comment. Hope all is well with everyone back home!

First Two Weeks!

I wrote this blog post last week but then when I went to the internet café had trouble posting it so had to wait until this week….sorry for the delay!

It is just now starting to sink in that I’m in Africa (my 5th continent!). I have been in Ghana for almost 2 weeks now. And sometimes it feels like a month and at other times only a week. Our first week was spent pretty sheltered at Valley View University outside of the capital Accra in sessions, Twi for all lessons, and doing administrative tasks (including vaccinations). I am so thankful for the gentle acclimation in the first week to the weather, food, time change, living conditions, language, etc. It was also great meeting my ~70 fellow PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) especially now that we’re split up by Education and Natural Resources/Water-Health Sanitation for week 2.

Our first real outing in Ghana was the first Saturday we did a scavenger hunt of sorts called Accra Quest which took my group to Mokola market. We also had the task of noticing religious themes in stores names- here’s a sample of a few seen: Amen Driving School, El Shaddai Medical Lab, Invisble God Beauty Salon, Jesus is Lord Fabric Shop, and my personal favorite God’s Way Spot (which is an outdoor bar). Ghanaians are very friendly and helpful especially with navigating transportation options. We experienced taking both tro-tros (mini-buses) and buses throughout the day.

I was both excited and nervous to start the homestay but mostly ready to be more settled in a place. That place is the Ansah family compound in Kukurantumi. I instantly liked my host dad Kwadwo when he stood up and spoke at the homestay orientation at the Peace Corps Training Office (or hub) here and talked about his expectations in hosting a trainee: sharing in dialogue, exchange of ideas, and that if we are free with our host families they will be free with us. He is the headmaster of a private school and his English is very good. My brother Boafo also came to pick me up; he is doing his volunteer service in marketing away from home but took a couple of weeks off to get me settled in. He is the one who convinced his dad to host a Peace Corps Trainee (I am their first) after he met some of the trainees last year. He has been my buddy the past few days; took me on a walk into town my first day and taught me a very useful phrase ‘My name is not ‘obroni’ (white person), my name is Akosua (Twi for Sunday born).’ My host mom Mary speaks only Twi and has been cooking really good food for me- hopefully I will learn to cook from her during my stay. Besides me, the home also houses a dorm for ~20 male high school students, my 2 sisters Cynthia + Joyce (own a beauty shop), my niece Janet (who does her homework while I do my lesson plans) and my nephews Chief (who warmed up to me after brought out bubbles) + Raymond (who is very shy with me right now). Plus there’s a kitten, many chickens (including roosters who start crowing at 4am) and baby chicks, and 8 or so goats (2 babies).We have electricity but no running water so I am learning the art of bucket bathing and also using the latrine.

Since arriving in Kukurantumi on Tuesday most of our sessions have been Education focused. We’ve started learning lesson planning, math specific information, and have now had teaching practice. We observed a Peace Corps Volunteer and Ghanian teachers teach math and science to junior high school students this morning and then each delivered at 15 minutes lesson this afternoon. It was good to see a school and fun to teach. For the next two weeks I will be doing practicum (practice teaching) at Opasse JHS with 3 fellow trainees who live near me. This week we had our site interviews with the Math education program manager and our sites will be announced on Thursday June 26. I am ready to know where I will be during my 2 years of service! After site announcement we will continue more language learning a more specific language spoken at site (could be Twi) and after practicum is over we will go through a pretty intensive language learning process. A few upcoming dates I am looking forward to:

7/11-7/15 Off-site Language Training
7/23-7/29 Site visit
7/30- 8/6 PEPFAR (HIV/AIDS program) Field Activites

I miss everyone at home very much but am having a great experience so far! I will try to post a list of what to send me in a package very soon. Letters are exciting to receive too (thanks to Kathryn for my first letter received here).

The time has come...

I leave for Staging in DC tomorrow so thought it's about to time for me to put up my first blog post. I cannot believe it's time for me to say goodbye to all my friends and family members and start this new adventure in the Peace Corps. Thanks to everyone who has made my last month or so in the States very full and memorable. Between trips, goodbye parties, the Martz wedding, and other activities I've somehow managed to get 'ready' to go to Ghana. By ready I mean my bags are packed and my life is kind of in order for me to leave. I don't know that one is ever really prepared to leave loved ones behind but all the support I have received means so much to me. All that said, I'd like to start my blog on a cheesy note by answering the top questions I've been asked by people about my joining the Peace Corps:

1) How long will you be gone?
Peace Corps is a 27 month commitment. When I depart on June 6 for DC, I start the training phase. I have a 1 day staging in Arlington, VA before flying to Ghana with 72 other volunteers the next day. Then we have 3 months of Pre-Service Training (PST) before hopefully being sworn in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer. Then I will serve as a Volunteer for 2 years at my site.

2) Where will you be in Ghana?

Site placement occurs during training but for the first 3 months I will be in Kukurantumi living with a host family. I will be sure to announce it here once I know the location of my site!

3) What will you be doing?

I will be serving as a Math Teacher in the Education program. I will be teaching at the junior high school level which equal grades 7-9 in the US. I could be teaching trig, algebra, statistics, etc. I will also be working on secondary projects which will be determined by the needs of the community.

4) When/how did you decide to join the Peace Corps?

Peace Corps always interested me during college but I never looked into seriously at that time in my life. After studying abroad in Thailand for six and a half months, I knew I'd love to live internationally again for a longer period of time in order to further integrate into a community. I attended a Peace Corps Info Session January 2010 but didn't apply until July 2010. It's taken 11 months for me to go through the entire process but my departure date is finally here!

5) What are you most excited about? Most nervous?

I'm very excited to become a part of a community, learn about a new culture, and also use my skills to help people. At the same time I'm nervous about language learning, adjusting to a new place, keeping in touch with folks back home, and training in general since I've heard it can be pretty intense.

6) Will you come home during the 2 years?

Currently I'm thinking I'd like to come back to the States at least once during my service. Next summer would be halfway through so that seems like the natural time to visit but it depends on what's going on in my work and also with friends and family here.

7) How can we keep in touch with you?

I'm not sure yet what level of access to forms of communication I will have but do plan to buy a cell phone once I get to Ghana. I can also be reached via my gmail account though I don't know how often I will be able to check it. Lastly I've added my initial address so you can send lots of mail and packages. There's nothing quite like letters and goodies from home. Please keep in touch!