Two weeks is too long to wait between posts- I really hope I will be able to post more often once I am at site. I will quickly update on Counterparts Workshop in Bunso last week. The highlights of the week included meeting my counterpart Clement, eating pizza at a nearby restaurant (I miss cheese o so much), and listening to drumming/watching traditional dances. Also dancing with all the Ghanaians was so much fun! Clement is the headmaster of my school and also teaches one class of math. He enjoys listening to gospel music, watching football (soccer), and keeping up with the news. He also is doing distance education so is a very busy man. The sessions themselves on Peace Corps policy, HIV/AIDS education, and Behavior Change Communication contained good information but for the most part were presented in a dull way. Plus sitting 8 hours a day got to be pretty painful. I did soak in as much socialization at nights as possible because I knew site visit would be lonely...
The travel last Saturday to site was grueling since we started at 5am and didn't arrive until 11pm. Many students and some teachers were around to greet me, take my luggage to my house, and show me my new home. I only knew I would be living in teacher's quarters and wasn't sure what that entailed. Turns out I have my own small 2 bedroom house close to the JHS with a living room, kitchen, washroom, and latrines outside. Currently my furnishings are minimal with only a desk, chair, and bed. I am looking forward to turning my house into a cozy home come September. Currently the house is wired for electricity but not hooked up yet- that should happen in two weeks but we'll see if it happens on that time table! I was hoping to have a baobab tree in my backyard but instead have a beautiful neem tree in the front that provides wonderful shade. My community is a very rural- or in the middle of nowhere as I keep telling people. The most common crop they farm is millet but they also grow maize and groundnuts. I am sure I will learn a lot about farming during my two years especially since all the students help their families farm. I will be teaching one form (ie grade) of mathematics (or maths) and then also ICT (Information and Communication Technology- basically computer) for the whole school since there is nobody else to teach it. The main challenge is that my school does not have electricity or computers. So looks like my first secondary project might be starting a computer lab. My first day at site was pretty difficult- I felt disconnected because my cell phone didn't have signal and it also the reality that I would really be living here for two years alone hit me hard. Training keeps us pretty insulated so I think I will go through another round of culture shock in September.
The week definitely improved as my fondness for my community grew. Almost every day contained a surreal moment. On Monday on the full bus ride to the nearby town of Fumbisi where my friend Alex will be living I was given a special cushioned seat in the very front of the bus. Tuesday was our meeting with the chief and the sub chiefs where Clement explained my role as a teacher and development worker in Peace Corps. Part of my job this week was to do a community needs assessment on HIV/AIDS by interviewing various community members so we discussed this topic with them. While I was sitting there and Clement was translating, I realized I was the only woman in the group which wasn't surprising or really anything new for me coming from the world of engineering and software. But it struck me as being perhaps a more unusual occurrence here. On Wednesday on the way to the clinic to talk to the nurses, I found myself surrounded by a group of curious primary school kids all watching me while I spoke to a man from Gbedema who now lives in Germany. Thursday I went to the district capital Sandema with Alex and his counterpart where we made the rounds meeting tons of different officials. The doctor's office at the hospital had freezing air con- hadn't felt that in ages. Friday morning I decided to go for a short run around and stumbled upon the dam that is close by. It is quite lovely and scenic. I really hope to upload lots of photos from the month of July and especially my site for everyone to see. I think pictures show so much more than I can just explain! When I wasn't meeting people or conducting the community assessment, I had a lot of down time to read, study Buli, journal, etc. It was nice to have some down time since training has been so hectic. I think I will really learn to slow down and enjoy the simple life here.
Currently I am at the Tamale sub office in the Northern region. For PEPFAR (our President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) activities this week I will be traveling to Kpendua with 4 other trainees to stay with a current volunteer at this site. We will be helping with a HIV/AIDS project he is working on. I'm sure I'll have lots to update everyone on next week. One quick note on packages- manila envelopes or other mailers are great for sending small stuff since they do not have to go through customs so arrive here faster. Also dried fruit (cranberries, apricots, etc) is my current craving but it changes pretty often. I can't believe it is almost August and school in US will resume soon. I hope everyone is enjoying their summers!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Highs and Lows in the Upper East
Wow what a week! We arrived by market car (the term tro-tro isn't used in the Upper East) at Kongo Spiritual Retreat Centre Monday loving the pastoral scenery and dry heat of the Upper East- my home for the next two years. Meeting the chief of Kongo was a good experience. He was a pretty progressive man who spent some time abroad while in the military. But the highlight of the day was of course food. We had amazing fried chicken with actual meat instead of just skin and bones, buttery noodles, cabbage, and french fries! My friend Vince and I kept singing the current. super catchy Ghanaian pop hit 'I Love my Life.'
The next morning we started of the day with my favorite breakfast food crepes and apricot jam. Then we went into Bolga to meet and practice with our language resources for the week. I met with my speaker Dora at the spot she owns. She also bakes cakes for weddings and other parties. I practiced a lot of my introductions I already knew and also learned some new vocabulary as well. In the afternoon we departed for Paga (near the Burkina Faso border) where we visited the crocodile pond. There are well trained crocodiles here who let you 'sit' (I hovered though) on them and lift their tails up and afterward they are fed guinea fowl as a reward. I was terrified so all the guys went first but I mustered up the nerve to do it and I have the photo to prove it! Which unfortunately will not get posted until August most likely. We also tried shea nuts since the trees lined the road to Paga. Their texture and color is similar to avocados but they taste much sweeter. I love the trees in the Upper East especially the baobab. It is very beautiful there and I'm happy I will be living in this region. I also love that the people are much more chill about foreigners and don't calls us out so much as in the South.
Wednesday we went back to Bolga and a little before midday I developed a headache after which point the week went downhill very quickly: vomiting in a box that served as a trash can on the side of the street, urgently needing a toilet, riding back to Kongo being miserable in a market car, getting a high fever, sleeping restlessly, etc. I won't go into all the gory details but I'll just say I was thankful to have a flush toilet and ceiling fan in my room with a ceiling fan and not be travelling. I continued being ill through Thursday and had recovered by Friday which was our day for reflection, self language practice, and packing. Yesterday we journeyed to Kumasi leaving at 4 am and arriving at the sub-office where we stayed the night close to 10 pm- talk about a long day. Later today we head out to Bunso for counterparts workshop and burgers! I am excited yet nervous to meet the person I will be working with for the next two years. Please leave a comment and let me know if you have questions about Ghana or if there's anything in particular you'd like me to write about. Thanks for reading!
The next morning we started of the day with my favorite breakfast food crepes and apricot jam. Then we went into Bolga to meet and practice with our language resources for the week. I met with my speaker Dora at the spot she owns. She also bakes cakes for weddings and other parties. I practiced a lot of my introductions I already knew and also learned some new vocabulary as well. In the afternoon we departed for Paga (near the Burkina Faso border) where we visited the crocodile pond. There are well trained crocodiles here who let you 'sit' (I hovered though) on them and lift their tails up and afterward they are fed guinea fowl as a reward. I was terrified so all the guys went first but I mustered up the nerve to do it and I have the photo to prove it! Which unfortunately will not get posted until August most likely. We also tried shea nuts since the trees lined the road to Paga. Their texture and color is similar to avocados but they taste much sweeter. I love the trees in the Upper East especially the baobab. It is very beautiful there and I'm happy I will be living in this region. I also love that the people are much more chill about foreigners and don't calls us out so much as in the South.
Wednesday we went back to Bolga and a little before midday I developed a headache after which point the week went downhill very quickly: vomiting in a box that served as a trash can on the side of the street, urgently needing a toilet, riding back to Kongo being miserable in a market car, getting a high fever, sleeping restlessly, etc. I won't go into all the gory details but I'll just say I was thankful to have a flush toilet and ceiling fan in my room with a ceiling fan and not be travelling. I continued being ill through Thursday and had recovered by Friday which was our day for reflection, self language practice, and packing. Yesterday we journeyed to Kumasi leaving at 4 am and arriving at the sub-office where we stayed the night close to 10 pm- talk about a long day. Later today we head out to Bunso for counterparts workshop and burgers! I am excited yet nervous to meet the person I will be working with for the next two years. Please leave a comment and let me know if you have questions about Ghana or if there's anything in particular you'd like me to write about. Thanks for reading!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
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
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
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
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:
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!
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.
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!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
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.
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