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).
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