World AIDS Day

Here’s some info I pulled from a website on World AIDS Day if you’re wondering what it is: Started on 1st December 1988, World AIDS Day is about raising money, increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education. World AIDS Day is important for reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there is still work to be done. The theme for World AIDS Day 2011 is 'Getting to Zero.’ After 30 years of the global fight against HIV/AIDS, this year the global community has committed to focusing on achieving 3 targets: "Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS-related deaths.”

According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 34 million people living with HIV. During 2010 some 2.7 million people became newly infected with the virus, including an estimated 390,000 children. Despite a significant decline in the estimated number of AIDS-related deaths over the last five years, there were still an estimated 1.8 million AIDS-related deaths in 2010. People living with HIV were still subject to restrictions on their travel and/or stay in 47 countries, territories and areas.

And what you can do:
WEAR RED OR A RED RIBBON AND RAISE AWARENESS
The red ribbon is an international symbol of AIDS awareness that is worn by people all year round and particularly around World AIDS Day to demonstrate care and concern about HIV and AIDS, and to remind others of the need for their support and commitment. The red ribbon started as a grass roots effort; as a result there is no one official AIDS ribbon manufacturer, and many people make their own. It's easily done - just use some ordinary red ribbon and a safety pin. Or pick something red you already have from your closet to wear and show your support.

VOLUNTEER
If you want to take your awareness raising a step further into action then try finding a local event volunteer for. Around the world there are hundreds of activities taking place to mark World AIDS Day, including candlelight vigils, art shows, concerts, rallies and religious services.

Turkey Day Recap

I started feeling pretty restless my last week or so before leaving to travel to Accra for Thanksgiving. I got ahead ahead with my lesson planning and pretty much finished for the rest of the term. So because of that I found myself with a lot of free time and was ancy to hit the road. My friend Rakia who lives in Fumbisi came last Saturday for a computer lesson so I help her setup a gmail account and then a facebook account. Last Monday after teaching my form 3 students, giving a class test to the form 1 students and then marking & returning the test last Monday I was ready to go! Travel is always long and tiring here and I usually prepare myself by expecting to be miserable. It can only get better from there!

I feel like my entire time away from Gbedema revolved around food. I had pizza, lots of fruit (watermelon, pineapple, banana, papaya or pawpaw as it’s called here), spaghetti, ice cream! (Breyers vanilla and chocolate swirl), and cereal. Staying at a host was the best idea ever. I enjoyed hearing stories about my host’s time as a PCV in Tanzania and how she is adjusting to her new life now as an ex-pat living in Ghana working for USAID. I also slept in a super comfy bed with blankets on me in the air con. Plus took a hot shower, shaved my legs (made it 2/3 of the way through No-Shave November), and painted my toes and fingernails. Besides all the wonderful food, I enjoyed seeing my friends I hadn’t seen in a long time.

Thanksgiving was amazing. I actually wore my hair down for once and wore my cute purple J Crew skirt to the ambassador’s house. The dinner was from 12-5 on Thursday. We enjoyed drinks and mingling before the feast was served at 2. It was great to see everyone I trained with that I hadn’t seen since swearing in and also meet other Volunteers and Americans living in Ghana (study abroad students, workers, airline employees). Part of the reason the Ambassador puts on this nice meal is because it’s his favorite holiday. You could tell who the PCVs were because as soon as they set up the buffet table we started lining up. At least we were classier than when we rushed the servers at swearing in. I missed my traditional Carey family appetizer of olives and salad of the purple variety but other than that they had it all. The spread included turkey, stuffing (or dressing if you’re Southern like me), cranberries, mashed potatoes and gravy, carrots, salad, cornbread, curried cauliflower, ham, and green beans with dijonaise sauce. I ate one very full plate but could not go back for seconds. I had a really hard time deciding whether I should eat more meat or veggies. I don’t get much of either at site so I just ate a lot of both. The mashed potatoes and ham were the highlights, which is strange for me because usually I prefer turkey. We had some time to chat and let the food settle before the pies came out. Pumpkin pie is my normal favorite and it was delicious but the pecan pie was to die for. And the coffee was wonderful too. We stayed until the end and then we went to different places to continue hanging out. My host had a thanksgiving dinner to attend at 5:30 so I stayed out to hang out with people for a while in Osu, the nicest part of Accra. I even did some black Friday shopping at a fair trade store called Global Mamas on Friday.

Besides stuffing myself silly, it was nice to get some distance for my community and gain perspective on my life here. I was genuinely excited to come back ‘home’ to site and I feel a sense of accomplishment in having already spent three months in my village. It was great talking to other PCVs about their experience and get ideas to use in my community. I felt re-energized coming back and set some new goals for myself for December. On Saturday in Tamale we heard the sad news that a Metro Mass bus crashed with a Benz lorry and killed 30 people on the way from Bolga. Travel here is one of the biggest safety risks and it was definitely reminder of that and of just how fragile life is. On the way to Bolga Sunday we saw the remnants of the bus on the side of the road which was quite sobering.

Monday was a great day. I was glad to be back and when I went for my evening walk to the dam I happily discovered I didn’t forget all the Buli I know in one week and was able to adequately greet people. Plus there were several darn cute kids who jumped up and down when the saw me, followed me, and came to the path to greet me  how can you not be joyful after a reception like that? I also did a successful (I think) lesson on computer viruses and then HIV/AIDS with my form 3 students since December 1 is World AIDS Day (see newer post for more info). I repeated the lesson for the form 1 kids Tuesday and will repeat it for the form 2 kids tomorrow. I brought back some beaded ribbon pins a fellow Volunteer made for the teachers to wear to raise awareness about AIDS. Tomorrow the nurses from the clinic are supposed to come in the morning to talk about Cerebral Spinal Meningitis (CSM) and HIV/AIDS with the students. Then Friday is the Farmer’s Day holiday so we’ll be after school. December 2 is also a very important because (shout out starting now) it is the day my lovely and sweet niece Carey was born 17 years ago. Happy (early) Birthday Care! I love you more than I can say and am crazy-proud of you.

Videos!

I call this one Ghanaian Football Cheerleaders. It's of the girl students at my school doing traditional dances at a football match we went to last month in Fumbisi.



The next one is Donkey Riders. These two boys came by my house one day on the way to or from the farm riding their donkeys and one proceeded to do riding tricks for me. I was so impressed (ooing and ahing) that I went to get my camera.



Post on Thanksgiving coming soon!

Obama-rama

Regardless of political views, everyone can agree that Obama's victory was historic and also caused quite a stir worldwide, especially in Africa. Ghana is no exception. Especially since in 2009 he and the first lady came to Accra and Cape Coast castle on a whirlwind visit making it 'the first-ever visit of the first-ever African President of the United States to a nation in Sub-Saharan African.' Now two years later you can still find a wide variety of Obama paraphernalia including shirts, notebooks, pencils, belts, biscuits (crackers- yes you can buy Obama biscuits), and key rings. And it doesn't just stop with things; people and places are also included in this mania. I've met a kid named Obama, heard of the Hotel Obama, and seen an Obama Tea Shop.

I've been wanting to write a post about this craze for a while since I find it quite interesting but I was waiting for an opportunity to snap a photo of someone wearing an Obama shirt. Luckily last week a kid from my village was playing in front of my house- wearing an Obama t. Today I went to a church service where I was, much to my chagrin, asked to get up in front of the congregation and introduce myself. I started strong by first saying my name in Twi (since the pastor is from the South) and then in Buli. Then I stated that I'm from America which prompted the question 'How is Obama?' I replied that he is doing well and that I spoke to him yesterday. Laughter ensued so I'm hoping in this case my sense of humor crossed cultural barriers. And this incident reminded me to share Ghana's Obama-rama with you.

Fi Jiam (Thank You)

This past weekend and the weekend before that the younger sisters of one my form 3 students Diana have come to hang out at my house for a few hours. Joyce is in primary grade 6 so will be coming to the JHS next year and Rachel is just learning to walk. Watching Joyce mother her baby sister is quite touching and endearing. One day Rachel took a nap on my floor and then later Joyce feel asleep. Rachel was trying to wake her big sister up so I swooped in and picked her up. And she let me! I walked around the house while holding her to keep her occupied. When she’s happy and smiles, she has these super cute dimples. I have a basket in my living room full of fun stuff for the kids to play with. It contains reading books, coloring books, crayons, toys, and games. One day I had- no joke- 10 kids on my front porch ‘painting’ (as they call it) and looking at the books. I should run a day care out of my house and start charging! In other kiddo news, a few weeks ago I passed this house on my evening walk and literally 3 kids jumped up and down yelling out ‘felika.’ The finally ran out to meet us and then got all shy but did manage to give their names. A few nights ago I went for a walk alone and the same three kids sang a chorus of ‘Hello’ and ‘Bye’ for a several minutes. It was pretty funny and definitely made me laugh aloud.

I’ve been giving my students a lot of homework this term because I know they have a hard time understanding my English despite my best efforts to speak clearly, slowly, and simply (which is rather difficult given the technical nature of computer terms). Well today I realized I had a complete fail yesterday. Earlier in the week I taught a lesson on the procedure to turn on and off the computer to my form 1 students. One of the homework questions asked why it was important to turn the computer on and off correctly. Many students answered ‘If you do not follow certain steps you can damage your computer vocabulary.’ Huh? You might be saying. In my notes I had them copy from the blackboard I wrote:
It’s important to follow certain steps when…damage your computer.
Vocabulary:
Booting etc.
I have no idea what possessed me to write vocabulary before giving them the new terms for the day ( I usually don’t) but I did. And I tried to explain what vocabulary is but obviously I did not do a good job! You live and learn right? Even as the teacher…

Next week I’ll be leaving class tests for my students to write (take) and notes for them to copy while I travel to Accra. The US Ambassador to Ghana has invited us to his residence (where we swore in) for Thanksgiving dinner. I’ve heard it’s not to be missed and know they ordered turkeys so I’m pretty excited especially since Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Plus it will be great to see friends again! Also I’m itching to travel and take a small break from teaching. I found out yesterday that I get to stay with a host for the 2 nights in Accra! Another volunteer and I will be staying with a woman who works for USAID. In the spirit of thanksgiving here’s my list of what I am currently thankful for: cool mornings & evenings, laughter (especially caused by the Engrish language as I like to call it and TV shows that make me laugh out loud), the internet, sleeping through the night without waking on a firm mattress, the beauty of the place I live (especially the sunsets, stars, and land around the dam), the students & teachers at Gbedema JHS, clean water, letters & packages, friends to share life with, malaria prophylaxis, fans, babies (both those who let me hold them and the ones that I make cry), hot tea, love, ice cream, family in the US and Ghana, holidays, health, peace & quiet, good conversations, electricity, the food available at market, books you can’t put down, smiles, community, TP, albums I can listen to over and over, my house, feeling safe & secure, shady trees, changing seasons, having help (students fetching water, sweeping, washing dishes/clothes for me), a newly filled gas cylinder, learning about balance & simplicity, travel plans, and you. Yes you! Thanks for reading this little blog. I so am thankful to have people to share this journey with. I am a blessed gal indeed. Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Part II: Community Love

On Saturday I attended a community meeting with the headmaster. I’d received a letter inviting me earlier in the week from one of the assembly men so I knew I had to attend. When we arrived, I sat on a bench next to a woman but then a teacher from a different school who officiated the meeting told me there was a chair for me. I thought he meant on the front row but he actually intended for me to sit in front of everyone with the assembly men. For some reason I keep trying to blend in here which is next to impossible. I know I should just embrace the attention while it lasts but I definitely don’t want to do anything to gain extra notice! Besides an opening prayer and reading of the beginning of a report in English, the meeting was in Buli. So it turned out to be a huge help that I was sitting next to a chairperson who had the report for me to glance over at. Development issues including construction, roads, education, women and children, health, and more were discussed. During the open forum, I could sometimes catch a keyword that helped me figure out what the opinion being voiced was about. Electricity, dams, boreholes, market, and a lorry stations were some of the topics discussed. Also I would look over at the notes my neighbor was taking too. I liked how the men made sure the women were expressing opinions and also let them go ahead of them in line. After I was introduced at the end of the meeting, I was recruited to give the closing prayer which occurred after I was introduced since some people didn’t know me. One lady ulily noise (think high-pitched squeal but I will have to post audio sometime for you to really understand) when they gave my Buli name after my English name.

Monday was a school holiday here so Alex rode his bicycle to come visit Gbedema. It was his first time besides just dropping by way back in July. He was impressed with my kitchen setup and since he brought eggs and another guy came buy with fresh milk in the morning I made crepes and an apple caramel sauce. We walked to the dam and I showed him the cotton field just beyond. The weather was surprisingly nice with a wonderful breeze coming across the water. It was nice to see my community through someone else’s eyes and gain a new appreciation- it really is a pretty place. I am starting to love it where before I just liked it. I try not to take it for granted and almost every evening I appreciate its beauty while walking or running. On the way back we ran into the headmaster so he took us to a lady’s house which doubles as a spot for Cokes (by which I mean Sprite and Coke). We each had two but still had another social call to make. I’d promised the chief’s wife Asibi the previous day I’d bring the other felika to meet her so we went there next. We were served a water and Pear Alvaro- a super sweet, yummy carbonated fruit beverage. I thought I was going to pop but managed to finish all.

I cannot believe how fast November is passing by, how quickly Thanksgiving is approaching, and how soon the three month at site mark is coming. At the bottom of my blog, you can see the awesome (by which I mean cheesy) countdown I added for Christmas. But it’s really more of a countdown for when my first visitor will come to Ghana a couple of days after the holiday. 47 days and counting!

Part I: Clucky the Chicken

Last week I divided my form 3 class into 8 groups of 6 students to have them come to my house during break time to show them stuff we’ve been learning on my computer. I walk them through a demo of sorts (given my last job this is right up my alley) showing the features of the Windows user interface, uses of the internet, and components of a web browser. Then I ended with fun stuff like a mash up of Thriller and Heads will roll since Michael Jackson is super popular here, a brief intro to the Beatles with All You Need is Love (including showing them my t-shirt with the band and the title of the song), showing them the video of my host nephew Raymond dancing to I Love My Life, and their favorite games. I found out I have a game similar to Memory and then one where you bake a cake and I let them play those to practice their mouse skills.

Friday was a big day. First I bought a hen for 4 cedis (about $2.67) at the market in the morning. She chilled in my house for the day before going to live on a farm where I am hoping she will produce a plethora of eggs for me to eat. I kept forgetting she was there and would freak out every time I walked by. Thus her name is Clucky the chicken. In the afternoon, we had our first health club meeting of the year. I explained the rules of Heads Up, Seven Up to my collaborating teacher Joseph beforehand so we opened the meeting by teaching the students how to play and it was a smashing success. Please let me know what other American games you can think of so I can file them away for future meetings! Next we talked about some current health events including a malaria vaccine that’s being tested and partially funded by the Gates Foundation and a HIV pill that is under development. Prior to the meeting I recruited 3 girls to help mime 3 scenarios regarding hand-washing. Then I used that as a launching point to discuss important facts regarding hand washing. Next I had the students brainstorm other topics they want to learn about since it’s their club. Finally we closed by introducing a question envelope where the students can write down any health question they have anonymously and we’ll answer it in the next meeting. After the meeting, Chris and I set out on bikes to go to Fumbisi since it was market day. I’d been thinking about trying out bicycling there instead of taking the lorries since sometimes I have trouble with claustrophobia. I almost let myself be talked out trying it since a couple of teachers at the quarters expressed concerns because of the heat. But as soon as we left the sun went behind a cloud and with the wind it was a nice ride except for the dust blown up by passing vehicles. I was definitely glistening when we got there since it took about an hour but I really enjoyed the ride. We ran a few errands in town before heading back with several other Gbedema people. It was a nice to get a strong sense of doing as the locals do- I even biked in my Teva sandals though many of the guys were just wearing flip flops. Maybe I will next time! Tomorrow I'll post Part II.

Choose Your Own Gizzard

After mid-week, my schedule is much lighter which is pretty nice. On Friday I spent some time in our school book room organizing the boxes of story books (many of which I’m pretty sure are library rejects) and moving some onto a shelf in the office so students can start checking out books. A few gems I found included James and the Giant Peach, A Wrinkle in Time, a Tommy DePaulo, and a couple of Choose Your Own Adventure books. But otherwise the selection available to the students is quite limited. If I end up working to help setup a computer lab in the community, I’d like for it to be more of a literacy center to promote both book and computer literary. Because I think reading will go much further in helping the students with their futures than using a computer. Also even with a computer lab not all the students would be able to use the computer a time. I am starting to dream about using a projector to teach my lessons. My job would be so much easier if I can actually show the students what I’m talking about. This week I resorted to drawing a computer window on the board to demonstrate the functions of the minimize, maximize, and restore buttons to my form 3 students. While showing a few students Wikipedia for Schools on my laptop one day after school, I found out it has Atlanta, Georgia on it. I proceeded to show them photos of the skyline I love, local homes, my favorite skyscraper, the World of Coke, the Varsity, the Connector, the Capitol, and MARTA. And then I got homesick. Our topic this week in form 1 was mouse skills so I had them work with me individually to practice clicking, double clicking, dragging, scrolling, etc. using my mouse. Most my students had never seen a computer mouse until I showed them one and for majority of them it was their time touching one. Although there was some hesitation and lots of giggles, I hope using a mouse, albeit a disconnected one, helps them understand the different functions.

Now onto some new experiences for the week…Saturday morning I accompanied Chris to the Gbedema market which coincides with the Fumbisi market that happens every 6 days. Sandema and Bolga markets occur every 3 days. Our market mostly consists of men selling animals including goats, chickens, and guinea fowls. He bought 2 chickens, 1 to keep for the eggs and another for meat. I may also buy a chicken soon for eggs so I don’t have to continue transporting them from market weekly. We tied up the meat chicken inside my house to hang out for the day until we were ready for well you know. I had to hold the chicken at one point which I knew was bad news for me considering in the evening’s upcoming activity. A good rule of thumb: do not bond with what will later become your food. Later in the day, I stayed inside while the killing happened but I did witness some of the dying and the defeathering. It was quite the process but we were rewarded with the delicious Ghanaian tomato based dish light soup. I thoroughly enjoyed it though I must confess eating the gizzard was not all that tasty to me. I found it to be too chewy. Also my gumbo this week was actually chicken gumbo instead of just veggie gumbo. All this coming from a girl who doesn’t like touching raw meat back home.

Catching the lorry to Fumbisi to go market proved eventful this week since the Metro Mass (government run) bus coming from Sandema was running behind schedule so failed to stop where I was sitting and waiting with two teachers. All of us waiting had to book it down the road to the ‘station.’ During the running action, I discovered a few things. First of all, I am still afraid of dogs and scream when they chase after me, nipping at my heels. Secondly I am out of shape and need to resume my ‘training.’ Lastly people should listen to me sometimes because I can give good advice. I told one of the other teachers to run but he didn’t listen. Thankfully for me I made it to the bus just in time. Literally the door was closed right after I entered. Unfortunately for him he got left behind in the dust and I later found out that the next transportation option didn’t come for another 3 hours.

I celebrated Halloween by engaging in one of my favorite hobbies: eating. I consumed popcorn with peanut M&Ms, Haribo gummy bears, and Starburst candy. I didn’t have to decorate for the holiday (not that I would’ve back home either) since spiders are frequent guests of mine and bats fly around outside my house nightly. I’m grateful my roof has been bat-proofed since bats are a common housing problem for many Volunteers. I realized just how strange the holiday is when I tried explaining it to my students. Costumes, trick or treating, pumpkin carving, and bonfires are all very foreign to them. I’ll try to do a better job with my explanation of Thanksgiving. As I mentioned in my post last week, there are only two seasons here. So I decided to introduce the concept of our 4 seasons to my form 2 class this week. We talked about leaves changing, bundling up from head to toe for winter weather, snow, and the return of green in the spring. I give impromptu mini-lessons on American culture every so often when we have extra time at the end of class or after they take a test. One skill I haven't yet mastered in my teaching or posting on this blog is finishing strong. I usually just end awkwardly.