World Malaria Day

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All Vol

Once a year Peace Corps Ghana holds a conference for us meet up with all volunteers and many staff members, have sessions, share ideas, meet new people, etc. Yesterday we finished up the one for this year which was held in Bunso Cocoa College near our training site. Since we were so close to Kukurantumi I decided to go visit my homestay family for a couple of nights. I also went to meet the two new Upper Easters in the current health training group who will swear in as Volunteers on Thursday. One girl will be near Sandema so I’m hoping I can meet up occasionally with her for market. Today I’m interneting it up in the high speed internet café in Koforidua. I was hoping to upload more videos but so far only one worked. I did upload tons of photos on facebook from this term teaching and also All Vol too.

The conference was Food Security themed so on Saturday there was a skills fair where we got to learn how to dry fruit, make cheese and jam, taste and vote on honey from all over Ghana, discuss gardening and tree nursery techniques, learn how to construct a hammock using empty water sachets, and more. The sessions on Friday went well but I really like the fair so I could get out of my seat and see what other people are doing related to food security. It was good inspiration.

The next day we also had a craft fair since many Volunteers work with different livelihood projects in Ghana such as jewelry making, batik, and baskets. I was too busy shopping to take photos unfortunately! We also met with the people in our region to determine committee members and I’m happy to be a part of the Ghana AIDS Project (GHAP) complete with a fancy new t-shirt. We had a meeting and I’m excited to see what we accomplish in the next year. Part of my role is to serve as a point of contact for all Volunteers in my region to help them with HIV/AIDS projects and liason with our PEPFAR Coordinator in Accra.

In addition to all the great information we got out of the conference we also had social activities including a game night, talent show, date auction to raise money for the Gender & Youth Development Committee, and prom wearing two-yard (cloth or fabric) togas. Check out my photos from prom on facebook!

I’m planning on taking a short break from blogging for a while. I’ll still be doing some posts on malaria since it’s World Malaria Month and World Malaria Day is coming up soon.

Key Malaria Facts

· Malaria is preventable and treatable	· Every minute, a child dies of malaria
· An estimated 655,000 people died of malaria in 2010	· The most deadly malaria is plasmodium falciparum
· Malaria deaths have fallen by more than 25% since 2000	· Malaria is caused by a female mosquito that bites at night
· 91% of malaria deaths occur in Africa	· World Malaria Day is April 25th
· Malaria costs Africa $12 billion annually	· In Africa, 40% of health resources are used to treat malaria

Feok War Dance Video

Surprises

Last week I was taken by surprise twice. First I’d heard rumors that there would be a nationwide mock BECE before my form 3 students write their exams which start Monday. The BECE is the big exam my students will start taking next week which determines whether they continue their education in high school. I was skeptical that at what seemed like the last minute more practice like this would happen. But the papers were brought starting Tuesday and our students indeed received more practice.

Then my headmaster told me the local MP (Member of Parliament) was going to buy us computers. Maybe he was trying to tell me he'd already bought them because the next day they brought 5 computers to my house. Again I wasn't holding my breath for when the computers would come but maybe the headmaster was trying to tell me he'd already bought us computers. Either way it is an election year here just like in the States which means politicians seem to do more to get votes.

It's an exciting prospect to actually be able to have computers for my students to learn ICT with but it's also a little cart before the horse. My school doesn't have electricity nor does it have a place to act as a computer lab. So we'll have to wait and see what happens...

A 1st Birthday Party for Nathan

Last week Madam Diana’s son Nathan (or his Buli name is Awenab) celebrated his first birthday. We joked that of course he had no idea that it was a special day. Her husband lives away from them right now and was planning to come home but ended up being unable to make it so the party was had without cake. Plus another party will happen when he comes home. I brought a Happy Birthday sticker to school for Nathan but of course he just wanted to eat it. Nathan often brightens my day at school when I'm having a bad day. He is brought to the school to nurse and I usually get to play with him. Recently he started walking so now he's getting into everything of course. He's a super cute, friendly, and happy baby!

Madam asked me to come to the party and snap some photos to put on her pen drive. Chris was also invited and once we arrived at her house he prayed over their food. There were about 20 or so kids there and madam fed them rice, tallia (pasta), and stew. One thing that impressed me is there were only 5 or so adults for all those kids and they were pretty well behaved. Plus the kids just came and left on their own since everyone knows each other in the village and the traffic is minimal its safe and perfectly acceptable to let your kids wander on their own.

I couldn’t get over how cute Nathan was in his suit. Diana had taken him to market on Sunday where they did some shopping for the party including getting him a new outfit. But just like a typical first birthday party he had a few fits. Plus when they tried putting on his suit jacket he didn’t like it at all especially since the sleeves were too long. I don’t blame him especially since it’s still hot season and this day was pretty warm.

But he was much happier once his shirt was first unbutton and then they let him take it off completely. Once eating time was over the singing started. He loves dancing so was doing a little jig while the kids sang happy birthday to him complete with a tambourine. It was a nice, simple first birthday party and I was glad to be a part of it.

Church- Palm Sunday

Although I’m not a regular attender, I’ve been going to the Catholic church in Gbedema at least once a month since December. The madam who leads the church services comes from her village Wiaga to lead the service and then the school PTA chairman Michael also acts as church chairman of sorts. A lot of the liturgy and readings are the same as the Anglican church I attended back in America so even though almost everything is in Buli I usually know what is going on. Church takes place in a classroom in the old (no longer used) primary school and everyone sits on benches that are brought from outside. The service usually starts with singing by the young girls or women and sometimes there are drums and a tambourine to accompany them.

Last Sunday we celebrated Palm Sunday complete with palm leaves that were shaped into crosses. I asked one of the ladies sitting near to fashion mine for me.When I first started coming the madam would do the sermon in Buli and then translate the whole thing for me in English during which most people fell asleep besides me which means I had to be super attentive. I felt bad about making the service longer but now since I’ve started coming more she either talks to me after the service or lends me an English book that has notes her sermons are based on.


At the end of the service they take collection where everyone comes up front to but their money in a basket. Then there are prayers and I am usually asked to give one. One day I want to give a short one in Buli but right now I usually just pray in English. One of my favorite parts of the service is when we greet each other by shaking hands and then waving to people who are too far away. One of the small girls named Juliana likes to come to my house to paint or play and is good about coming to fetch me for church so we go together. She carries my bag and chair for me to church and then back to my house after church is over.

Ghanaian English

Here’s more Ghanaian English for ya:

While writing (taking) a class tests, my students always say “Madam, please, you are blocking my view” when I stand in front of them while invigilating (monitoring) so that they can’t see the board.

Me last week: Abba! (exclamation which asks why and at the same time shows frusteration) I couldn’t sleep well because of lights off (power out) last night while it was 100 degrees. (Sidenote: sleeping without a fan one night in this heat was awful but then I think about some of my friends here who don’t have electricity at all and I stop my complaining!)

Someone talking about a friend taking her baby to the hospital: The baby is always sick. She has a what? Disease. So she had to take her to what? The hospital. (the rhetorical questioning really confused me at first because I thought maybe people couldn’t think of the word. So I’d try to help out and pipe up with an answer until then I realized it was just type of conversational technique.)

During an interview we held with a student who is applying for the post of sports prefect:

Teacher: Are you good at playing football?

Student: I can play football somehow. (somewhat)

And a few funnies from marking a class test last week. Since I sometimes teach small health lessons during my ICT time, I decided to test the students on a couple of health topics, especially since I even had them copy notes. First I asked for one sign/symptom of Cerebro Spinal Meningitis (CSM). Two interesting responses:

Drool (have NO idea where she got that from)

Eye colour to change lick (I think he meant like) yellow

Then I asked about when it’s important to wash your hands and several people misspelled soap by writing soup instead. I’m just really hoping that they didn’t misunderstand me and are now washing their hands with soup before eating. Also saw many interesting spellings of toilet.

Hair

Recently I went to Fumbisi for market and on the lorry I met a woman named Amoak Felicia who teaches KG at the primary school and is the ‘mother’ (could mean actual mother or aunt) of Headmistress Suzy at the same school. She was very friendly and said we should be friends ‘because we’re both slim.’ Once we arrived at the station in Fumbisi, she asked (or rather told me really) to come to her house to greet her family. She assured me it was close to the station so I agreed. Indeed it was right there. Upon entering the compound there were tons of kids who stopped to stare at me. Then we went to greet her mother and some aunts. I held a baby and then gave back the baby. One of the small girls then blurted out “Is your hair REAL?!?” I laughed and said “Yes it’s my hair!” I even proved it to her by putting down my hair (I always wear it up here since it’s so dang hot) and letting her touch. “Ooo!” she exclaimed. I’m pretty sure I made her day and I can just imagine how happy she was to go to her P4 class yesterday and happily telling them “A white lady came to my house yesterday and she let me touch her soft HAIR!”

Also at school the other day one of my form 3 students Abby was talking to two other teachers in Buli while I was sitting there marking (grading) some test papers. I’m pretty talented at tuning out Buli now but whenever I hear “….felika…” I know people are talking about me. So it happened this day and I looked up at the student who said “You understand Buli?” I nodded then went back to my marking- I figured whatever she was saying about was harmless otherwise I hope the other teachers would defend me. Later Madam Diana asked me if I knew what the student was saying about me. Of course I had no clue. She was wondering if my hair was what wigs were made out of since it looks so soft. I asked her why the student didn’t just ask me but apparently she “just couldn’t.” So I told Madam Diana about my donations for Locks of Love and that perhaps as we speak someone in the US is wearing my hair. But that I’d never sold my hair for use in wigs- though I suppose I could if I ever run into desperate times.

Also at school this week I was in the office and quickly let down my hair to put it up again. Two form 1 students were there and the girls said “O madam wear your hair like that. It looks so nice.” Of course I didn’t keep it down because it’s just too hot. Then the boy said “I wish I had your hair madam!” Ha