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
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