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!