Club Updates and Vacation

I forgot to write last time that I’m officially on school vacation! Last Thursday was the last day of school for the term and exams ended the day before. Thankfully both my exams- ICT and Math- were the week before so I had plenty of the mark my papers and get them back to the students. It wasn’t fun but it was easy- and besides it’s my job. Between 3 ICT classes and 1 Math class, I had approximately 250 papers to grade. But especially because I teach ICT there are always funny things about my students’ answers so that helps break up the monotony. Let me back up and say that I had the nurse do condom demonstrations in each class for World AIDS Day. So when one of my form 2 girls was labeling parts of a computer she got confused for a pen drive and wrote ‘penis.’ Now I have to do some teaching again there and make sure all is clear… also in my form 1 class I had a safety and health question about what can happen to you by using the computer. It was an ‘all except’ type question with choices like wrist pain, headache, HIV and back pain. Some students got the question wrong which doesn’t worry me that much since I’m hoping it’s more a misunderstanding of the English language rather than a misconception about health. I’ll make sure I review that next term just in case- you never know.

I’m enjoying my free time on break but have still been somewhat productive cleaning my house, working on writing a small grant, visiting and photographing people, and holding a couple of club meetings. One of my student’s (Ruth our library prefect and one of our brightest girls in form 3) families asked me to come to their house a while ago to take photos of them. Yesterday she came to get me yesterday to take me there and I finally went. Of course once there I had to wait a while for them to gather and prepare by changing into nice clothes, borrowing my earrings (yes her sister did that), etc. There were kids everywhere and it ended up being a lot of fun photographing everyone. The last person I photographer was her great-grandmother who’s in her 90s. After snapping her sitting in a chair, she decided to get up and dance so I could take her photo again. It was pretty great and I got a video of her singing and dancing too.

It’s been a long time since I wrote about the clubs I’m working on here so thought I’d update on things. I think already I wrote about doing a Girls Club on HIV/AIDS and condom use last month. On Friday, the day after school vacated, we met and I taught the girls how to make coin purses out of water sachets. Hurrah for crafts were you reuse rubbish! It was perfect because the girls came in staggered at different times so it made it easier to help then. Once some of the girls finished their own, they helped the other girls. I had hip life music playing while they were working and everyone had fun hanging out and chatting. Of course I took tons of photos especially of their finished products. I gave each girl an extra zip to take home and make another too. Every time I announce Girls Club, the boys always either ask me if they can attend or if I’ll start a Boys Club for them. For a while I told them no they needed to ask one of the masters since maybe it’d be strange for me a woman to lead a boys club. But more recently I changed my mind after realizing I shouldn’t deny the boys the opportunity to meet in a club setting first off and second maybe the things I’ll talk about with them nobody else will. For our first meeting we basically did the same HIV/AIDS and condom use lesson I did with the Girls Club last month. It’s great because the peer educators can help with some of the games and the condom demonstration so it’s more student-led than me-led. Last month, after returning from camp and having the students who attended the camp debrief their classmates, Chris and I formed an Agriculture club. Our first meeting was well attended (40-50 students) but very short since it was after extra classes one day and the students were really hungry but we talked about why we were starting the club, discussed food security so that they understood it’s an issue here that they have the power to do something about, and then talked small about school gardens. The students are really interested in school gardens and beekeeping so we’re hoping to focus on those topics first. On Wednesday this week we held another club meeting about nutrition and moringa. I was worried the students had forgotten about the meeting since it was during break. One girl knocked on my door promptly at 10AM so we went to the school to wait on the others. And we waited. And we waited. Around 11AM more students came so I played a Planet Earth episode on my laptop while we waited some more. Finally around 10:30AM we started about 20 students strong with a short review on nutrition- they learn about it in school so have all the knowledge but don’t necessarily apply it. Moringa trees are scattered around our village but most people don’t know about the nutritional benefit so that was our next topic. Then we had story time- I read them a kid’s book on Wangari Maathi, the Noble Peace Prize winner who started the Green Belt movement in Kenya. Then last, as promised, I gave them each some moringa seeds to take home and nurse.

My friend Joseph and I finally had the chance to meet with some of the women in our community to discuss the kayeiyo issue that we attended training on way back in June. He talked about it briefly at our PTA meeting in October but was able to go more in-depth in our meeting with the mothers. I had the projector for our first mother’s meeting last month which was great because we could show pictures of some of the living conditions girls/women find themselves in when they travel to the big cities in the south to do menial jobs. Of course the meetings are all in Buli so much of the time I zone out or make faces at babies to try to make them smile. Last week we held our second meeting and Joseph, brave man, talked about family planning. I think it’s always good to talk about but inevitably the women say that the men make the decisions around that so really we need to discuss it with them. I finally got to meet native of our village named Lariba who now lives Germany and returns periodically. She’s formed an NGO there called Maara to help the village and part of what she wants to do is form a women’s group. We discussed joining our efforts together since it’s the same women and we want to work on the same issues. In fact, in a meeting she had with them over the weekend she discussed the healing properties of moringa which is perfect because next month we’ll talk about nutrition and moringa with the mothers like we did with the students, also giving them seeds to plan.

Getting into the Christmas spirit here is rather difficult but I have been listening to Christmas music, watching movies, daily tearing links off my handmade Christmas countdown paper chain, and eating watermelon. Yes I now associate eating watermelon with Christmas because it’s one of two seasons of having watermelon here. This year I’ll be home from Christmas only in my dreams (I’ll be spending it with other volunteers at our office in Tamale again) but next year I’ll really be home! Hope everyone has a very happy Christmas. I’ll be taking a 3 week break from updating the blog so see you next year! Lots to look forward to in 2013…

Monastery, Gardens and Holiday Fun

Before heading to Accra for Thanksgiving, I attended the School Gardens IST with my counterpart for our agriculture club Chris. Our students are really interested in doing a garden and after camp I felt pretty comfortable in doing one but decided to attend the training so Chris and I could learn more and he would feel more invested in the project. It was held at the Kristoboase Monastery in Techiman which was amazing. I’d wanted to visit the monastery for a while after hearing from other volunteers who’d been there about how beautiful, peaceful, and relaxing it is. O and that they serve good food. The rooms were very basic but the food was delicious and a lot of the produce was from their garden. They farm on their property as part of their work since it’s an operating monastery. The grounds are beautiful since they have many different tree groves and cool rock formations. It was fun exploring the surrounding area.

The first day was the classroom session which had a ton of good information but by the end of the day I grew restless. We learned about composting, fertilizers, pesticides, and how to plan and plant the school garden. The next day we travelled to the site of a nearby volunteer where her students were actually starting a school garden and we got to help with creating the beds and finishing the fence. Her students also made us some fabulous fufu which was a treat for me since I don’t eat it much in the North since TZ is our main food. At the end of the training Chris and I came up with an action plan for what we want to do back at school. This month we’re selecting the site (near the borehole), talking to the students about what they want to grow, and writing a small grant to get money for the materials. Hopefully by February we can actually buy the materials and plan the garden in time for the hot season. We plan to start small so we can have a well maintained garden. One thing we talked about during training is that the garden is a laboratory and I really like that idea. First and foremost it’s for the students to learn.

After we finished up with the training, the group of volunteers all travelled to Accra for Thanksgiving. I couldn’t stay with my usual homestay since she went to Spain on a rock climbing trip for the holiday so I stayed with my friends Elyse and Lauren’s homestay family which was a lot of fun for us to be able to hang out. Thanksgiving at the Ambassador’s residence was amazing of course and we had the whole spread of traditional American food just like last year. Plus it was fun to see friends (like the awesome girls in the photo) I hadn’t seen in a while and catch up on everything. Friday I did some shopping in Accra- Auntie Esther who sells awesome batik and other clothe even had a Black Friday sale for us! The travel back up was long as usual and it made me realize 1. how nice the trip down was since it was broken up into smaller legs and 2. how much I really don’t want to have to make that trip again for a while. Unless something unexpected comes up I probably won’t be back in Accra until April. I’ve now been in Ghana over 18 months and have about 8 months to go!

My wonderful fiancé Ed is flying from Accra to Tamale two days after Christmas so he can see Northern Ghana in style. First we’ll head straight to my village so he can see the place, meet people, and adjust to the time zone change. We’ll spend New Years Eve and Day here and then head out the next day to see the Upper East. After going to Paga so see the crocs, we’ll go hang out at the Oasis- the place I’m always raving whenever we go for our volunteer meetings since it’s so beautiful and relaxing. Then our last stop is Mole National Park for the cheapest safari in Africa since you walk with an armed guard. Hopefully we’ll see elephants, baboons, antelope and wart hogs. That’s our grand plan right now- I can’t wait to see him, show him my village and the North!

Somehow Computer Lab

I decided to write about our computer “lab” (somehow) since I’ve been spending a lot of time there recently. In April when the now re-elected member of parliament (MP) for our district donated 5 desktop computers to our school we talked about and then started writing a grant to renovate an existing classroom to convert it into a computer lab but it proved expensive and we struggled to come up with more community contributions. Before the term ended, the headmistress of the primary school offered for us to use a room (with electricity and a ceiling fan) that was just storing desks to setup the computers. I personally preferred the more local solution especially since computer labs are difficult to make sustainable. This is a good way to see how the lab gets used, who takes ownership over it, and if there really is a need to have a fancier lab. We accepted but it took a while to get desks made, buy voltages regulators, chairs, etc. Finally it was setup in the end of October mainly because the carpenter took forever to make the desks. Last month it was used a few times but not as much as I was hoping since I travelled a lot and the lights went out some too. This month the students have been eager to go there and I’ve been spending a lot of time with them after school and on the weekends. Right now the focus is on them learning mouse and keyboard skills but they’re also looking at word processing, spreadsheets, and other topics we cover in class. So far it’s mostly been students who live closer to the school who’ve been coming but next term I want to start bringing students there in groups. We have more work to do in order to install additional software and get another socket installed so the lab will be up to 5 computers instead of just 3.

When they get tired of typing and the like, I sometimes put on films for them such as BBC’s Planet Earth and Life. It’s so funny to watch their reactions to new wonders of the natural world, especially to some of the fish and sea episodes. They’re amazed by the behind the scenes portions where it shows scuba diving. During one episode on reptiles and amphibians some of the boys got scared of the chameleons. Turns out they’re more afraid of chameleons than snacks whereas I’m fascinated by chameleons and love their eyes. So much so that just before Thanksgiving one was working around our school and I touched it. My students were watching and thought I was pretty crazy. I went home to get my camera but by the time I came back they put it back in the tree so I had to settle for long shot. Now I understand why when I showed Tangled to some students last year they were all jumpy when the sidekick chameleon came on the screen. In other news, I had an interesting insect encounter over the weekend. I went to go get a fork to eat the crepes I made for breakfast and lo and behold a praying mantis crawled out of the cup where I keep my utensils. Occasionally a mantis finds its way into my house; they especially love my white curtains in my living room. This time I decided to send the guy outside. When I dropped him into my gated area near my latrine he went into attack mode. I swear I saw flash of red mouth or something. Then I grabbed my camera and provoked it some more so I could capture it in “fight” mode. These are the things I do at my house when there’s nothing else to do. I sometimes wish there were more exotic animal encounters, especially when people back home ask me about animals in Ghana, to be had in my village but it is nice to be able to walk and bike without fear of coming across something.  I think had more to be afraid of when I lived in Florida and would go biking!

Laziness| Goals

I fully intended to catch up on blogging this week with posts about the school gardens training I attended, Thanksgiving, our somehow computer lab, and other items but honestly I am lazy these days. I’m not sure what has happened to me after coming back to the village after Thanksgiving but I lack motivation. I’m ok as far as school goes with wrapping up the term during exam time but for everything else as I said before I’m lazy. I don’t know if it’s because the time after Thanksgiving at home is so full of preparations that I’m missing that there. Or because of the mini-hot season that’s happened before harmattan (the winds from the Sahara that bring dust and colder temps) along with it the disgusting burning of the bush. Or after eighteen months here I’m given to bouts of apathy. So even though I should push myself harder I’m going to let it slide this time and vow to write more soon. I do want to share part of a poem that is in the P6 English book that keeps coming to mind (I read it to my friend Titus for him to turn to Braille) and then a small writing our boys senior prefect Michael wrote for his goals exercise.

Laziness, laziness, laziness
Laziness is a bad disease
It is horrible, terrible 
Laziness is a destroyer of persons
 Let laziness creep into your life
And you’ll be hungry
And you’ll want
And you’ll be unhappy

We’ve almost finished with the solar light project with just a few students remaining to pay and pick theirs up. I’ve already had many requests for additional lights so need to figure out how to make that happen. Enjoy Michael’s photo with his light and reading about his goals:

My Short and Long Term Goals- Akangye Michael

I am very glad to write to you about my goals in life. To commence, I would like to bring to your notice my short term goal. It is to pass my basic education certificate examination at a good grade so that I get a good placement. If God permits, I should get a senior high school and continue my studies.

Again I want to tell you about my long term goal which is the most important thing that can beautify my future. This goal is that after I finish my university education, I want to become a medical doctor as my occupation in the future. Some few years later, I would like to get married to an American couple and live as a couple. I strongly believe that the Almighty God will also help me so that all these dreams should come true.

Solar Powered Students

This week my students have started to pay for and pick up their solar lights.  After weeks of asking me when they would get them and being told "It's coming," a typical Ghanaian response, they are very excited to begin using their lights to study at night.  Today I taught them a lesson on goal making and gave them a writing assignment telling me one short term and long term goal.  After all, it's important to have goals in mind for the future and an action plan to achieve them (note to self: practice what you preach).  A big thanks from my students and me to the donors who made this project possible! 

Peer Education Finale (Part 2: The Bad)

Too often as an optimist I tend focus on the positives and want to quickly forget the negatives.  But it’s important to learn and grow from challenges we face which is why I want to share some of the difficulties I encountered with the peer education finale.  First off the day before the program my counterpart Joe (see the photo of the two of us in our awesome polos) found out he had to go to Fumbisi for an interview to help with voting in the upcoming election.  He didn’t really have a choice so I had to make do without him.  We decided I’d cover one of the sessions he was planning to do in the morning and then have him do another session in the afternoon since he’d be back by then.  He did return in time to take lunch with us as well as help with the afternoon so it was all good.

The main problem I had was around a guest speaker I had invited to talk to my students.  I met the guy by contacting him using information from a list of support groups for PLWHA that Peace Corps gave me.  In July I went to their support group meeting in the next village over and discussed with him about coming to talk to my students.  He was receptive to the idea and we’ve kept in touch since them.  I scheduled him to come a while ago once we selected the date and we talked up until a couple of days before the program when he was working to repair his moto so he could come.  The night before and morning of the program I couldn’t get in touch with him but finally he called me around noon.  He told me he was out our station and I should come get him which I couldn’t do since I was with my students.   I asked him to come to our primary school but he kept calling and repeating himself.  Long story short I was walking with two of my girls to go check on our food (which was running late) when I called him again since he hadn’t shown up and one of my girls spotted him.  I sent her to him and when she returned she told me “Madam, he is boozed.  He is so drunk he almost fell over.”  I sent the girls to check on the food while I went to talk to him.  Indeed he was completely drunk and somewhat belligerent since it took me so long to come.  Unfortunately nobody (like the headmaster, my counterpart Joseph, or go to guy Chris) was around to help me handle the situation.  The man was ready to go to speak to my students.  I ended up telling him the program wasn’t coming on today and apologizing profusely but still offered to pay him for his fuel to come and go.  Understandably I was super stressed by this point.  But I ran to my house to pick the money and bring it to him.  Later I found out he went to someone’s house to sleep the alcohol off and didn’t leave our village until the next day- I was glad he didn’t try to drive home.  I’m just thankful he wasn’t able to find his way to the primary school and show up in that state to ‘talk’ to my students.  That scene could’ve possibly been even more unpleasant.  This is the second time since I’ve been here that a resource person has shown up to talk to my students drunk.  It’s really sad how rampant alcoholism is here.  I’ve learned from this that I need to be very careful who I invite to talk to my students.  Also I would caution other volunteers to make sure you know the person very well.  My mistake was thinking a single meeting allowed me to truly assess someone. 

The last challenge was just around organizing the food vendor and the lateness of the food.  First when we planned the menu I thought that’s all I’d have to do.  But instead I had to meet with Madam Agie to write down all the ingredients and the amount she’d need to buy so I could give her the exact amount to go buy at market.  Then that morning I had to go to our little market to pick out the fowls to buy amidst trying to setup everything at the primary school.  Of course our food was late coming- we scheduled lunch for noon but the food wasn’t ready until 1:30pm.  Thankfully after so long in Ghana I know how things work and am much more flexible.  I had some role play games and films to keep the students busy and not thinking about their hunger.  In the end, the food was pretty amazing so it worked out.  And all in all the program was successful- the students learned a lot and also had fun! 

Peer Education Finale (Part 1: The Good)

It’s been a long time coming but we finally held our Peer Educators finale (as I called it) on Saturday.  First a little background information.  Starting in the second term, the assistant health teacher Joseph and I started a peer educators training program focusing on educating and sensitizing the students on HIV/AIDS.  Since the beginning, we've met with the 12 selected form 1 and form 2 students on topics including basic facts on STIs and HIV/AIDS, decision making, saying no, and assertiveness.  For a while we’d been planning to hold a one-day program finale in order to complete the program successfully and swear in the peer educators.  It took a while for the small grant I wrote to come through and the PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Relief for AIDS Relief) funds to be available.  The goal of the program was to equip our students to be effective as peer educators to educate, demonstrate, and sensitize their peers on HIV/AIDS and other issues.  We hoped at the end of our program the students would walk away with additional knowledge and skills regarding HIV/AIDS education and the confidence to share their knowledge with their peers through discussions, games, role plays, and condom demonstrations.

Now I’ll start with the actual program and right now I’ll focus on what went well and save the difficulties for another day.  The day before the program I gathered the 12 students (6 boys and 6 girls) together to discuss when they should be where wearing what and all that.  At the time, my student Michael (who wrote me the best teacher letter and went to camp with me) wasn’t sure if he’d be able to come since his parents wanted him to go to market the next day. So I was very thankful on Saturday when all 12 students showed up.  We started out by briefly reviewing what a peer educator is and what will be expected of them when the program is finished).  Then we played a team true/false game to revise basic facts on HIV/AIDS with toffee (candy) won by all- 2 pieces to the winners, 1 piece to the losers.  One thing that was important to me while planning the program was to make it as fun and interactive as possible- I didn’t want it to be another school day for them.  Also I wanted to reward their hard work during all of our trainings last school year.  Next we took a snack break and enjoyed biscuits (crackers) and cold water during which I showed them films about condom use to preface the nurse’s demonstration.  My friend Joel (or Nurse Joel as he’s stored in my phone) came to do the condom demonstration and did a great job.  I was happy to have someone from the clinic come and take part of the program.  After the demonstration, I took the students outside to play the condom time bomb game like we did at camp.  They enjoyed laughing at each other try to burst the ‘balloon,’ answering questions to review what was just learned, and dancing to Ghanaian music on my iPod I blasted from the tiny yet effective speakers I have here.  While waiting for lunch, I had some pick and act scenarios on assertiveness, saying no, and negotiation for the more dramatic students to act out for us.  I’d tried this before in groups of two but they’d mostly get up front and giggle so this time it went much better and I think some felt more comfortable doing it individually.  Our lunch of jollof rice (spicy tomato based rice) with fowl meat was delicious and plentiful.  The students loved going back for seconds!

In the afternoon, we did the Loss Exercise from the handy dandy Peace Corps Life Skills manual.  Joseph took the students through the handout where they wrote down answers to questions about their favorite item, body part, activity, and person in addition to a secret nobody or only one person knows about them.  During this part they were rather silly sharing that they put down their brain or their penis (due to the condom demo) or whatnot.  Then we got to the more serious part where we walked them through imagining that they lost each thing they listed.  Next we talked about how they would feel if this were actually true.  It was a little difficult getting them to pretend but most of them got it in the end and listed emotions including feeling sad, bad, like they wanted to kill themselves, alone, abandoned, angry, etc.  Then we discussed how this could relate to someone testing positive for HIV and how they would feel if they or someone they knew were in this situation.  It was pretty powerful to see them process the exercise and put themselves in someone else’s shoes, practicing empathy and compassion.  Last I had them tell me how they would treat someone who was experiencing this.  It was really encouraging to hear responses like I want to help them, support them, and make them happy (when I asked for specifics, the boy said he’d have a party) instead of previous mentality of we should lock them up, kill them, etc.  We also talked about the importance of support groups for PLWHA.  Afterward we took a short break to prepare for the closing ceremony. 

During the closing ceremony, we called the students up one by one to receive a certificate of completion and lollipops from me and a Peer Educator shirt from Joseph.  I had red polo shirts made in Bolga with the HIV ribbon and the name of our school on the front and the names of all the peer educators listed on the back and the quotation “A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.”  We celebrated by drinking minerals (Coke, Sprite, Fanta), snapping a plethora of photos, and having a short dance party.  I also convinced the students to lay down on the classroom floor to attempt to make the red ribbon with our bodies.  I got the idea from somewhere and wanted to try it.  See the photo below and tell me if you can make out the ribbon.  All in all the day went really well!  Before the program, I wanted the condom demonstration/game and loss exercise to go smoothly and be impactful.  I think they were highly successfully in educating the students on prevention and sensitizing them on stigma reduction.  I’ll post again soon on challenges of putting on the training event. 

During the Loss Exercise, my student Michael that I mentioned before asked if he could put down our peer education training as his favorite activity.  Then once we went through the step by step of losing everything they wrote down he exclaimed ‘O madam- I lost you.’ Early on the training while we were discussing their role as peer educators I asked them if they had ideas on how to best educate their peers or the community.  I gave them ideas like doing a quiz game or a film show but at the time they didn’t have anything.  But by the end of it one boy mentioned how he’d like to setup a meeting in their respective area (they live in different sections or parts of the village) and a girl had the idea for them to put on a drama.  Yesterday during one of the breaks in our school day, I noticed all my peer educators convening under the tree in front of my house.  I asked if they needed something but they said no.  Later on I called Michael over to ask what they were up to and he told me that they’re trying to better plan the drama then come to me when they have a solid idea.  Today I used some of the girl peer educators to help with our Girls Club meeting where we played the transmission and risk game.  Then Linda did the condom demo while I talked about it and answered questions and we ended with the condom time bomb (again).  It’s really exciting to see the fruits of my labor!

Solar Lights for Students

I'm doing a project with some of my students to subsidize the cost of Unite to Light solar lights for them.  I was introduced to Unite to Light by a PCV I stayed with during training.  It's a non profit dedicated to providing low cost lighting to those without electricity in order to improve their quality of life and education by allowing children the opportunity to study in the evening. Check out a video made by the now  RPCV while he was still in his village to learn more.

Thanks to a generous donation by a group of RPCVS called Friends of Ghana our project only needs $100 more to be fully funded.  Each solar light costs less than $10 but will go along way to help my students furtheir their education in order to achieve their dreams and goals.  The summary below is what I wrote for the Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP) grant hoping it would compel people to donate:
As a junior high school teacher in Ghana, I have never heard the "My dog ate my homework" excuse, but I have heard "Madam, I couldn't do my homework because we don't have lights." I teach in a rural village in the impoverished Upper East region, with limited access to electricity. After school, students are expected to do many chores at home so find it difficult to find the time to complete their school assignments before night falls. Studies show that inadequate access to electricity directly correlates to illiteracy, poverty and health problems. This project hopes to alleviate this problem for students who aspire to become the future doctors, teachers, and lawyers of Ghana, by providing them with a solar light solution. This project targets 45 students mostly in our form 3 class because next year they will take the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). This exam determines if they complete Junior High School and are placed at a Senior High School where they can further their education. In order to master the material they are taught in school and pass the BECE, they need to read, study, and do homework. Parents of students will be expected to make cost share contributions, in order to feel ownership of their solar light. These contributions account for 25 percent of the total project costs. The PCV will collect funds from parents of students before distributing the solar lights. Funds raised from this Peace Corps Partnership Program will subsidize the cost of the solar lights to these students who otherwise cannot afford them.

Quilt Square #2

Here's the narrative I wrote to submit along with the panel: The design for this block is the logo for the Sherigu-Yeobisi Agroforestry and Healthcare Organization (SAHO). Their slogan is together we can reach our goals. It was started in 2008 aimed educating and financing/employing women's groups but in recent years there's been more emphasis on health. Under the organization’s umbrella, UER PCV Emmaline Repp, who has now extended for a third year to work in Takoradi, started a support group with her dedicated counterpart Joe during her service to give members a place to just 'be’ and also to do education programs with them. After meeting for 9 months straight with 40-50 members attending every meeting, showing their dedication and cohesion, the group wrote a grant to create an office. The idea is to make the office a leading voice in local health education, including HIV/AIDS and anti-stigma and discrimination education. The office also gives group members loans for income generating activities using money raised through a canopy and chair business. We decided to create this panel to honor the hard work and dedication of Emma and Joe to improve the lives of the members and also give kudos to the members themselves.

Bolga Basket

After three days of teaching last week, I was on the move again. I travelled to Bolga for our volunteer’s meeting. Additionally we had arts and crafts time before our meeting in order to make quilt panels. Peace Corps Ghana is making quilt about HIV awareness, stigma reduction, and honoring those who are living with HIV or died from AIDS to be shown at a World AIDS Day (coming up December 1) event in Accra. Each region has been working to construct 2 panels for the quilt. As the Upper East region representative for the Ghana AIDS Project (or GhAP) committee, I received a goody bag full of materials including clothe, needles, thread, scissors, paint, and beads. I made sure to take lots of photos to document the creation of our panels which will be part of a presentation of photos and videos from all the regions about the idea and panel creation process at the event. We had one panel nailed down as the logo of an organization one of our volunteers helped lead a support group with. I’ll blog about that one more soon. It took us a while to come up with another idea but we knew we wanted it to show the spirit of the Upper East. We brainstormed crocodiles, mud huts, baobab trees and then finally settled on a basket. Bolga baskets are famous for being very colorful; ours is red, green, yellow (Ghana flag colors) and blue. Our newest volunteer, a high school art teacher from Georgia, sketched the basket then our dear education art volunteer Lauren cut the parts of the basket. Then it truly was a team effort sewing the basket together on the square! We added red HIV ribbons to the basket for HIV awareness and to show our support for stigma reduction. To complete both panels, we stayed up until midnight which was way past our bedtime here! But they both turned our really well and we’re proud of our creations. Plus if it was a competition (it’s not) we feel confident we’d win.

Camp- Part II

Day 3 was our chickens and trees day.  In the morning we talked about housing for animals and the the design of the coop that was actually built was introduced.  We got off to a late start this particular morning and then once we arrived at the farm we had to wait for a long while for the carpenter to come with the saw.  I mostly sat around chatting with other volunteers, snapping photos, and holding babies while the students did the work.  The coop wasn’t finished before it was time for us to return to the school for lunch so Sonia will be working with the farmer to complete it later.  The vehicle taking us back to the school wouldn’t start so it had to be given a push to start so most of the students and volunteers pitched in to run and push.  It was quite a sight to see…

After lunch, Sonia did a soap making demonstration with the students which I think they really enjoyed.  During the time we spent outside during this, we noticed some storm clouds approaching.  But thankfully they went to the tree nursery near the school that the NGO Sonia works with has started before the rain came.  During the debrief of the tree nursery visit, they talked about record keeping and then the rain started.  It’s getting toward the end of the rainy season so each time it rains now I keep wondering if it’ll be the last until dry season is over in May.  Six months without rain and you start to miss it big time.  We took a little break because of the rain while the students watched the beginning of Monsters Inc.  Then we did our last session on HIV/AIDS where we showed a few films written by young Africans and announced an upcoming story writing contest to create more films.  The real fun began when Liv started the condom demonstration which in retrospect wasn’t the best to do at the end of the day.  But we made it through and answered some good and some silly questions but it’s always important to give correct information.  We ended with a condom game where the students played hot potato with an inflated condom and popped it once the music stopped to answer a question inside.  I plan to use the game again next month for a program I’m planning with some of my students. 

Our night activity the third day was a talent show and we were really surprised how many kids signed up when we posted the sheet the night before.  Usually only a few people sign up but then at the last minute everyone wants to perform.  We had so many acts that we couldn’t allow additions because of time constraints.  All the volunteers opened the talent show by singing our national anthem.  We achieved goal #2 of Peace Corps: Educate host country nationals (Ghanaians) for us about America.  The acts included singing, storytelling, puzzles (riddles), preaching and dancing. 

Last day!  The camp flew by.  On the last day in the morning, there were sessions on climate change, desertification, and adaption including a cool experiment.  Then we held final sessions on sustainable agriculture and organic maize farming, which included a compost demonstration.  During the morning, farmers from groups that Sonia works with began trickling in for the afternoon session.   Using the three groups, each group was assigned a topic to present to the farmers as the capstone of the camp.  Before and during lunch, the volunteers helped the students prep for their presentations.  The food utilization group taught about nutrition and moringa which is one of the sessions I did so I helped them along with two other volunteers.  During their presentation, Sonia had a student translate from Fra-fra for us so we could hear what the students were telling the farmers.  They did a great job and it was rewarding to see them pass along the information I taught them.  The food availability group was assigned sustainable agriculture as their topic and the food access group talked about animal rearing.  Once we wrapped up with the farmers, we took a group photo of the students and then the students and volunteers.  And then more photos of each volunteer with the students they brought.  My students Linda and Michael did such a great a job during the camp- I’m so proud of them!  During the day, two volunteers Vince and Lauren worked on compiling a slideshow of photos from the camp to show to the students during our closing ceremony.  After our last dinner together of delicious TZ again, we held the closing ceremony where each volunteer gave their students a certificate, candy and a t-shirt (random Dutch shirts not camp shirts).  Then we watched the wonderful slideshow before leaving the students to go hang out back at SWOPA on our last night.  Back at school this week, Michael talked to the form 3s about what he learned at camp and Linda to the form 2s.  Our next step will be to start an agriculture club and begin meeting at least monthly.

I’ll end with two new experiences I had during camp.  On the first night when some volunteers arrived they brought ‘street meat’ as we call it with them….of the dog variety.  Yes Ghanaians eat dog and though I hadn’t tried eating dog and had pretty vowed I wouldn’t I decided why not give it a shot.  And I must say it was better than I thought it would be but I don’t plan on eating a lot of dog mostly on principal.  At the guesthouse, I made friends with two of the women working there who loved saying my name ‘Steph---a-nieee’ (broken up just like that).  On second morning at breakfast one of them had a baby boy Edwin (good name) on her back and I proceeded to make him smile at me instead of cry as babies normally do when they see me.  She handed him to me and the other volunteers decided it was my opportunity to ‘back’ a baby.  With help I strapped him on my back and got the coveted ‘baby on my back’ photo which I will try to post soon.  So in summary I ate dog and backed a baby. 

Camp- Part I

Let’s start at the very beginning….a very good place to start…  My students and I were a little late getting out to the road to wait for a vehicle so we missed the early morning lorry. I got pretty worried that we weren’t going to find means to get out of the village especially after we’d been waiting for a couple of hours.  Thankfully using my skin I was able to beg a ride for us from water distributors but they could only take us to the next village.  I then called a contact I have from that village who works for MOFA (Ministry of Forestry and Agriculture) and he was able to come pick us and even took us all the way to Navrongo.  From there we were able to catch a free ride with my friend Vince’s high school bus which was awesome.  Funny story...while we were waiting in Navrongo I bought us some chop (rice for lunch) and then we sat at a spot where the students had minerals as a treat.  At the spot some Ghanaian music was playing at first but then it switched to American and Beyonce’s ‘All the Single Ladies’ came on.  When I asked my students if they could understand what was being said they told me they had no idea and even thought it wasn’t in English.  So I explained the song to them and they laughed- especially to the part ‘if you like it then you better put a ring on it.’ 

On the bus ride to Sirigu it was 3 volunteers and 6 students so each of us had our own seat.  My girl student Linda moved to sit next to another girl named Vanessa (nicknamed Happy- a tiny form 1 student) and soon declared to me that they were friends.  It was super cute and made me excited to see her quickly getting into the camp spirit.  We arrived super early so played games with the students including volleyball with a beach ball, American football, Frisbee, and badminton.  Another volunteer and I also helped Sonia, who did most of the organizing of the camp, with some last minute preparations at the school.  It was a little crazy because the school’s new and Sonia had been telling me that she was worried about where the students would bathe.  In typical Ghanaian fashion, her counterpart waited until the day camp started to help convert what basically was a construction zone to separate boy/girl bathing areas.  Definitely not ideal but we made it work and students didn’t seem to mind.  The women who cooked for us arrived late the so dinner was a couple hours late but the rest of the time it was better.  And the food was delicious!  The first night was just for eating dinner and setting basic ground rules then the volunteers except the two who were chaperoning for the night headed to the guesthouse we were staying at.  Sirigu Women’s Organization for Pottery and Arts (SWOPA) has a traditional arts center where women make and sell pottery, baskets, and canvas paintings.  They also run a guesthouse and do architecture tours of traditional painted houses.  It’s a cool place and it was nice staying there.

On the first day of camp we did an official welcome and went over a few more camp rules.  Then we played a couple of name games to get to know each other and also an icebreaker before we started the sessions.  The first session was on Food Security- whether people have enough nutritious food year round to maintain a healthy lifestyle.  Sonia had a brilliant idea to break the students into groups of three based on the pillars of food security: availability, access and utilization to use for discussion groups the first day and then work and later presentation groups the remaining days.  In the morning there was also a session on different activities clubs can do which we then expanded up in the rest of the camp.  In the afternoon, we had sessions on 4-H clubs in America and Ghana (they do have a few clubs here) and then talked about the elements that make a successful meeting.  I did the basics of nutrition using a toolkit we have available here and the students already knew much of the information from school.  Here’s they use body building instead of protein, energy instead of carbs, and protection instead of fruits & veggies as the food group names.  Then I gave a presentation I found on the nutritional benefits of moringa, a drought resistant ‘miracle’ tree that produces leaves year round that contain an amazing amount of nutrients.  Our lesson session of the first day was an introduction to school gardens since the next morning we helped plant one.  Then we built in time for sports- mostly football- so the students could blow off some steam after a classroom heavy day.  The first day went amazingly smoothly especially considering it was 1. at the beginning and 2. the least hands on day.  After dinner, we showed the students the Shallow Seas episode of the BBC’s Planet Earth before it was bedtime. 

The second day was our gardening and animals day.  First thing after breakfast we headed to the JHS where Sonia’s been doing a science club.  Students from the science club came for the morning to first tell us about the incinerator project they did and then to also plant the school garden.  We learned about waste management and they demonstrated the incinerator (oil drum for burning rubbish) and we talked about the benefits over the normal pit of burning trash.  Next the students worked on various tasks for the garden broken into their three groups: ground prep and planting, fencing, and seedlings.  An experienced gardening volunteer Jen came from the Northern region to help with this part of the camp and she did an awesome job especially since it was a bit chaotic with more students.  It was funny during these hands on sessions there were a bunch of us volunteers and we spent a lot of time shunning the sun by standing under trees.   I helped some with showing the kids how to plant vegetable seeds in a water sachet to nurse them.  We had green pepper, cabbage and cauliflower seeds which was fun because we taught the students what cauliflower is.  The garden looks great and we snapped the big group photo shot at the end.

After lunch and a debrief about the school gardens, the animal portion of the camp began.  Another volunteer Dawn set up two Ghanaian resource people to come which worked out really well.  A woman named Lucy came from MOFA to talk about animal diseases and the students were asking her tons of questions.  The students were really engaged the whole time and it was impressive how interactive they were.  A lot of times I would be up and down, in and out during sessions to see how I could help out, check on stuff, or just to take pictures but I tried my best to sit throughout the next session on beekeeping.  It was really interesting and I think the kids were amazed because usually folks here just kill the bees to get the local honey.  Before dinner my neighbor Alex and our health volunteer Liv did a neem cream (local mosquito repellent) and malaria education session.  Our fun night activity was a team trivia game with questions coming from the first two days of camp.  Students are super competitive here so got really into it.  One team even did a tight huddle while discussing the answers.  Whew this was a long post and I’m only halfway through camp so I’ll break here and finish another day.   Part II coming soon wrapping up Day 3 and 4 of camp!

Harvest Time

Sometimes I forget I live in Africa. Honestly I do. I think it’s because I get so into my routine here that it doesn’t always strike me as being very different. But then other times it hits me like a ton of bricks. I took this photo at one of my student’s houses recently and it was a very ‘Yes I’m living on another continent’ moment for me. With the mud huts, drying maize, and big baobab tree in the background, it’s not something that you see in America. Speaking of maize, I was riding my bike through a maize field recently and it dawned on me that it’s somewhat comparable to a corn maze back home (I guess I could call it a maize maze if I did one here). Sometimes I get caught up in what I’m missing at home and forget to enjoy what I have here. I wish I enjoyed eating roasted maize like a Ghanaian but it’s one of the few foods I really don’t enjoy. It’s too crunchy and chewy instead of soft like corn on the cob. Besides some of the maize being ready, it’s also groundnut harvest time! This is great because I do love groundnuts. And people have literally been giving me bags of groundnuts. I like them boiled best so have been chopping (eating) them a lot recently which has helped my protein intake. A couple of times I’ve been out for bike rides and have run across students with their groundnuts with the plant still attached on a donkey cart. They then have proceeded to give me a bunch (not sure if that’s the right word) of ground nuts including the plant.

Last Wednesday was an unusual day for me. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are my busier teaching days but this day was particularly busy. First I decided to torture myself last week and give ICT tests in all forms (1, 2, and 3). Basically what happened was that I planned for each class individually and didn’t really plan for my marking workload holistically- oops. Back to hump day, besides teaching my regular 3 classes, I also taught Maths to the form 3s after ICT since the teacher who was supposed to be in their class wasn’t around. I also had an extra class with the form 1s after school. This means that I taught 5 classes which is 6 hours of teaching. You may be thinking to yourself that this is a normal teaching day in America. I also know this to be true so I had this realization that I might be in big trouble when I come back to America and try to work. But for the here and now I’ll feel super productive on days like this and worry about getting my work ethic back in shape later.

On Thursday I’m travelling with two of my students to my friend Sonia’s village for the Upper East Food Security Youth Camp! I’ve been helping plan some of the logistics for the camp and think it’s going to be awesome. 12 volunteers are helping out with the camp, 9 of whom are bringing students. I’m taking our boys senior prefect Michael (the one who wrote me the letter I posted for World Teacher’s Day) and one of my favorites from form 2, a girl named Linda. I’ve been telling my students it’s an agriculture camp since they don’t know what food security is- but they’ll soon learn. The goal at the end of the camp is for us to go back to our schools and start 4-H type clubs to do activities with. We’ll be learning about club formation, nutrition, school gardens, animal rearing, tree nurseries, sustainable farming, and more. The best part is it won’t only just be learning about how to do all this but it’ll actually be hands on. One day we’ll actually help plan a garden and another day we’ll help build a chicken coop to give us ideas of projects we can do. We’re also throwing in some HIV/AIDS health education and, after full day of learning, lots fun at night - games, films, a talent show and a bonfire the last night. We’re all super excited about the camp! I’m sure I’ll be exhausted after it though and a little behind at school so my post next week might be a bit late.

Painted House

During my Saturday evening bike ride, I randomly decided to go on an ‘adventure’ and chose a side path to take that I’d never been on and didn’t know where it went.  It was getting time for me to turn around when I stumbled about on a compound with a painted traditional house.  I’d met some painters from Bolga months ago who were in town to do.  I knew the village was in the next village over Jiningsa but wasn’t sure exactly where.  I greeted a few people outside the house before I turned around and decided then I’d have to come back soon to take photos of it.  YesterdayI did just that and got some nice shots.  I also conversed of the family and took pictures of themselves to show them.  I then bartered with the old man; when he told me he liked my bike and I should give it to him, I responded that I liked his house and he should give it to me.  I’m pretty sure he agreed that's a fair exchange. 

Too Cool for School

I realized that in my normal post last week I didn’t mention much about what’s going on at school. Mostly because I get into a routine there that seems boring to me so I forget to share. First of all, during the last week of September we held our first Girls’ Club meeting of this new school year. Twenty-five girls turned out to discuss malaria since it’s the rainy season and the disease is prevalent right now. I always try to open our meetings with a game and this time was no different. We played mosquito tag (I got the idea from a friend who worked on health education with a Canadian NGO in tamale) where 3 girls where mosquitoes and were ‘it’ and 3 other girls were doctors who could cure the sick by rolling a ball between the ‘frozen’ girls’ legs. Since it was their first time playing tag, it took several tries until they were actually running and playing but I think they enjoyed. At the end they told me they were tired and ready to come inside the classroom. First we talked about misconceptions or beliefs regarding malaria and the cause of it. I shared with them something I learned in a Malaria 101 training I attended that malaria literally means ‘bad air’ because before someone discovered it was caused by mosquitoes people thought it was an airborne disease. Then we played a High Risk, Low Risk game with laminated pictures showing people sleeping under mosquito nets, people sleeping under nets with holes in them, people going to the doctor when sick with malaria, people refusing to go to clinic, etc. Through the game we discussed signs/symptoms, treatment, and most importantly prevention. We closed by watching an instructional video on how to make neem cream and then I gave them girly butterfly stickers as a small incentive. O one thing that made me really happy is that when I announced we’d have the club the following day to the form 3 students the library prefect Ruth audibly gasped (or made some kind of noise) from excitement.

It’s going to get more difficult to schedule girls club from now on because we’re organizing extra classes for the students after school. I think the concept is good but honestly I just wish teachers would teach all their normal periods during the week. And Friday at school is such a joke- mostly just PE and entertainment. So if Friday was treated as a regular day instead we wouldn’t need extra classes. But during the PTA meetings parents agreed to pay (it’s optional) for the extra classes so we’re going forward with them. We’ll see how it goes… I actually enjoy the extra classes because it seems like it’s mostly the serious students who stay. Plus it’s easier to teach with a smaller number of students. I have more time to individually check their understanding which is so important in math. And last week when I held extra maths for the form 2s after I gave what we call a ‘Try’ question I let those students who got it correctly and understood it leave the class. Then I had time to further explain to some of those who weren’t getting it. A lot of the girls really struggle with math so it helped to have time with just them.

I finally went to the primary school last week to pick up a Primary 6 (P6) English textbook for my friend Titus. He’s blind but has been helping out at the Kunkwak Primary School but started having trouble because he doesn’t have any Braille materials to help with his teaching. So we hatched a plan to acquire some books so I can read for him to translate to Braille. He attended the Wa School for the Deaf in the Upper West where he learned Braille and really good English. Saturday I biked over to his house for us to begin our work. It was really interesting for me to watch the whole process: putting the paper in the frame, using the stylus to form the dots, and reading to ensure correctness. We spent almost two hours during which I read and he recorded three poems and two grammar exercises. We enjoyed some laughs because of misunderstandings caused by my American English.  I also told him I want him to come help me with a lesson one day at school because I was teaching the form 3s recently about how you can use ICT in learning. One of the examples was people with disabilities like the blind can listen to the radio and deaf can watch TV. I decided ask my students if the blind can read. The response: “O madam no of course not.” So you can imagine the amazement in the classroom when I explained Braille to them. It really is rather incredible and definitely impressive. Whenever I have some free time Titus and I will work on his teaching and learning materials. I’ve also been tasked with helping to find additional paper for him to use which might be difficult if it’s only available in Accra like we think it is. I took several videos and photos which I will try to post at some point when I have high speed internet access. 

Happy World Teacher's Day!

Since tomorrow is World Teacher’s Day (for some reason I have this written on my calendar), I decided to assign a letter writing exercise for the ICT homework this week.  I explained to the class about the upcoming holiday and then told them I’d like each of them to write a letter to a teacher in the school thanking them for teaching.  I told them that even though we’re getting paid to a do a job it’s still nice to be thanked for your work and it makes you happier in your work.   I also told them not to choose me because the idea was to show the other teachers in the school appreciation.  When some of them protested, I said they could write me a letter but only after they’d written one to another teacher too.  I plan on giving the other teachers their letters tomorrow.  

I had to share the letters that I received from our Boys Senior Prefect Michael.  Michael was number one in the end of term exam results last year and is in my group of HIV/AIDS peer educators.  Today at our PTA meeting he shared a short speech (in Buli) he prepared and I edited (in English) on HIV/AIDS with the parents.  I was really proud of him for being so brave and confident in speaking in front of them.  He didn’t even use notes or anything.  He’s very bright, respectful, and overall a teacher’s dream.  Before you read his letter, let me explain one thing.  In the end of term exams for ICT form 2, some of the students had received leaked answers (we’re not sure how that happened but rumor has it teachers at another school gave out answers for whatever reason) to the objective portion.  Many of them received 40/40 marks or other high marks.  Because I’m very strict on cheating, I gave them all zeros, lectured them many times, and made them write me an apology letter.  My hope is that some of them really learned something from it and will never do it again. Enjoy the following 'formal' letter compelete with a title!  And remember English is his second language….

My Best Teacher

Dear Madam Carey,

I wish to write you this letter, how are you on this day? I hope by the grace of our Lord Jesus Chris you are well as I am.

The paramount reason why I am putting these words on the paper is that I want to thank you for being my teacher in this noble JHS.

It is because of your help I know something concerning Information and Communication Technology.  I also thank you very, very much for the love you love me.  Since you came to this school you have no problem with me.  You always advise me and also play (joke) with me.  So for that matter I like your decorum.  There is no way that I will forget of you in my life. 

Madam, I also want to thank you for what you have done to my colleagues at our final exams.  You deducted some marks from those who had the objectives forty over forty and it is a very good idea.  You have done this to prevent us from laziness and cheating in the examination hall.

I will like to end my letter here.

Yours faithful,

Akangye Michael

Being Engaged in Ghana

Obviously being engaged is awesome for many reasons but I want to focus why it is in Ghana specifically.  First of all, since I had to leave my real ring back home for safety reasons, I also have a ‘Ghana’ ring which is made from recycled silver, contains a fair trade gem, and was obtained from etsy.  So I got two engagement rings!  By the way, my fiancée has really great taste in jewelry just so you know. Anyhow, now when men here propose to me in many variations ‘Will you be wife? Can I be your husband? Will you marry me? ‘ I can just point to my ring and I don’t even have to say a thing.  It’s beautiful.  Not that I mind going into my Buli spiel ‘Sorry no.  I have a boyfriend (now fiancée).  His name is Edmund.  He lives in America.  He is an aeroplane engineer’ especially once I realized people actually listen.  For example, word spread last year so much so that if a man I’d given the spiel to in the past greeted me with a friend who proceeded to ‘propose’ he would tell the new guy no for me!  It’s great to be able to shame people when they ask me by showing them my ring.  For example, here’s  a related story from I first got back in country. While I was in a tro (minivan), I was flipping through the sole bridal mag I brought back with me and the guy next to me who apparently was also perusing pointed at a photo of a bride and groom.  Then he pointed to me and himself.  Again I just had to point to the ring finger and he was so ashamed he even buried his head in hands!  Another reason being engaged here is  great…it furthers the ongoing joke about me putting people in my suitcase when I come back to America.  Now that I’m engaged everyone wants to ‘come witness the wedding’ so of course I say they’re invited and we’ll have to pack them all in my luggage.  That’s all I can think of for now but I’ll be sure to update with more stories.

I know I blogged about biking last week but I’m going to do it again this week because having my own bicycle at my disposal has kind of changed my life here.  It’s definitely given me more freedom and the ability to stick to a more regular exercise regime.  Last week I biked to one of the sections of our village that I  hadn't seen before.  I’ve never had a reason to go and nobody’s every taken me but I decided to have an adventure and go there by myself.  Once I passed the chief’s palaceit was unknown territory to me.  But I soon approached a well where I met two of my students.  After greeting them, I continued and made it all the way to the Balerinsa primary school and perhaps JHS.  I mentioned in a previous post that there’s a new JHS in our village but now there’s some controversy about the site of it which now may be moved to this place.  As I was checking the grounds out, a couple of people approached who then decided to give me a tour.  Then more people came including two more of my students and tons of staring children.  The people who live close to me and who are along my regular biking routes are so accustomed to me now and don’t stare that much anymore.  It was funny to be reminded of what a sight I am to see for some- the first white lady (or person period) they’ve ever seen!  This particular evening I was also proud of the Buli conversation I was able to hold with the people there.  It was a great ride except I need to remember not to wait until so close to sunset to be returning because I’m pretty sure I ate some insects by accident riding back.  One some of the routes I take there are flowers along the roadside so I’ll stop and pick a few to take home for decorations.  My students think it’s the quirkiest thing ever I’m pretty sure.  ‘O Madam!  Flowers!?!?!’  I tell them that I think they’re pretty and I like looking at them in my house but I get mostly blank looks in return.  I even went as far as to try to explain to one student who commented on them that in America men give women flowers as a romantic gesture.  To which he responded that here if a man wants to marry a woman all he has to do is take apeteshie (local alcohol) to her family.  Touche.

Baby animals are everywhere right now so I’ve been enjoying all the kids, piglets, puppies, kittens, calves, etc.  I always (like once a week) go to greet my student Joyce’s family and they like laughing at my affinity for holding the baby goats.  I snapped this photo of one sitting in my lap and they got a kick out of me photographing it.  While waiting for the lorry to go to market over the weekend, I got to play with a puppy at the store where I usually sit on one of their benches.  When I asked the lady who owns the store what her name is, she told me I could name her.  I decided to give her the Buli name ‘Awenteme’ (God’s gift) since it’s one of the ones I know well.  I took a picture of her with a little girl Jocelyn that I’ll try to post soon too.