Busy Bee

It's been a couple of weeks since I've written a proper update since I've been rather busy. This phenomenon of busyness is quite an anomaly for me here. Part of the reason for being busy has been the computer lessons I've been giving my fellow teacher and friend Zak(aria) since last week. Since I now have one of the donated desktops setup in my house, he wants to learn the computer. It's good practice for me too since I've never taught someone how to use a computer from scratch before. Though training people is right up my ally from my former professional life. The headmaster and I have been discussing writing a grant for a computer lab since we got the computer donated. As of last week we decided to renovate an existing building (the former JHS which has one semi-decent classroom standing) instead of building a new one from the ground up. I think this will help a lot with budget and timeline of a project like this. Right now we're working on getting cost estimates for everything- getting a new roof, replacing doors and windows, and additional computer equipment. Additionally I've been bringing my form 1 babies (they're the youngest kids in the school) to my house in groups for them to see the computer. I have this program called Mouse Trainer that I let them play games on at once I finish with the lesson to practice clicking and double clicking. It's a fun way for them to learn and they really seem to like it.

Last Friday we held a Swearing In Program for our new prefects. There are 13 of them total and their posts include Senior (Boys and Girls), Discipline, Health, Library, Sports and Entertainment. I served as the photographer for the program which I was happy to do since it enabled me to avoid any speech making. Ceremonies here follow a very specific format and this one was no different but it was rather short in length thankfully. After the program itself, the teachers enjoyed Malta (malt beverage that tastes like cereal in a bottle to me) while the prefects took Sprite, Coke, or Fanta. We also took some group photos and I also snapped some individual ones too. In Ghana it costs the equivalent of around 75 cents for one print so I plan to print them in the US when I come home in August to save the students some money. My two library prefects wanted to wait and snap their photo with me in my house. Then they decided to wait until Monday so they could make sure they had their nice socks and shoes on. The same day we learned that the assistant library prefect Janet will be moving to Tamale to stay with her mother's sister (who is probably a cousin rather than an actual sister since she hasn't even met the women) who is a teacher there. She is one of my sweet girls who loves reading; we bonded over her coming to borrow books from the library. I am really sad to see her go but I hope the move will be good for her. I know she has a bright future ahead of her.

Besides one of my favorite girl students leaving (pictured here on the left), two of my madam friends are traveling to Kumasi to do some coursework there for the next two months. Madam Rose is the one who gave me the donut maker and has already left for school. Madam Diana and her son Nathan (the one who wore a three-piece suit on his first birthday) will be leaving Thursday. I am also sad to seem them go especially since I will now be the only madam at our school. I just realized recently how the babies/toddlers in my community are a good marker of my time here. Like when I first came Nathan was just a 5 month old baby but now he's got a full set of teeth and is a walker/runner. Also some of the babies who go to my church are getting big. One girl Martha in particular was terrified of me when I first came but now that's she's older she'll let me pick her up and will tell me 'bye.' I have no shortage of cute stories about my children here. Recently I've been trying to exercise my body more and so go for a short run 2-3 times a week. I always go the same route to the dam and so the kids who live on the path come out to greet me and give me high gives. Some also join me while I'm running, laughing all the way having a grand old time. Last week I had 3 kids who started with me at my house and by the time I reached the end of my loop there were around 20 kids running with me. I really wish someone could've taken a photo of the spectacle that we were. I honestly enjoy the company immensely because it keeps me going. If I stop then they'll go home telling their parents 'O madam had to stop running because she got tired' and so on.

Last week I had to go to Navrongo to pick up the funds for the school latrine project. While I was there this small little guy (he could walk but couldn't talk) just came right up to me. That doesn't happen very often since most kids are scared of me. He was super friendly and gave me his 20 pesawa coin. When I motioned if I could keep it he nodded his head yes but of course I gave it back to him. Later when I was at the counter picking up the money he came up and grabbed my legs. Then we started playing a game of peekaboo with his handkerchief. I would put it over his face and then every time I pulled it away he let out a loud laugh. We repeated this about 15 times with the same result. His dad and some other people waiting (the bank was absolutely packed) were laughing too. I have a story from volunteering with Operation Smile a few weeks ago but I'll save it for another time.

On the food front, I find myself with a lot of time to fill on weekends and I usually use some of it to try to cook new dishes. This past Saturday I made my own cheese per demonstration and instructions from a volunteer during our All Vol conference. I wasn't sure it would turn out but it did and I even added added Italian Seasoning to make fancy cheese. I then used it to make myself misshapen pizza again. It was definitely better the second time and with the homemade cheese. Zak was over working on the computer and I let him try it but he said he was sure he'd like it better if he had it again. But this was Chris' second time eating pizza and he agreed this one was better. This week I plan on making stove top brownies in celebration of my upcoming one year anniversary in Ghana.

School Latrine Project Approved!

Read all the Gbedema Junior High School Latrine Project and donate if you feel so inclined.

Butterfly

 

I had a couple of social encounters this week in my village that I want to share. First last week Chris and I went to a drinking bar to greet one of his relatives who had come from Accra and we stayed there for a while enjoying Malta (malt drink that tastes like cereal in a bottle). A couple of funny things happened. First one of the village men asked me if I knew what my Buli name 'Awenle' means. Of course I did and replied 'God's daughter.' To which he got really excited and told me that now he liked me. I acted as though I was offended and asked him if that meant he didn't like me before then. All the guys in the group thought that was hilarious. Later a different man told me he would build me a swimming pool in Gbedema because of the heat. I told him I loved that idea and would ask him every day where my swimming pool was. He didn't like that so much...

On Sunday evening I went to the second day of a funeral part of which was for Chris' father. Who died in 1998- he wasn't kidding me during dry season when he told me all about funerals and said sometimes it takes years. I had the chance to snap more photos of a local funeral and also witness some new rituals. Since Chris was part of the family who had a loved one who died, he had to stand in line to have local clay put on his arms and forehead. Next we listened to some songs by the men and women; I really enjoyed the song by the women since it was quieter and used these cool bell type instruments (though they were soft). I didn't as much enjoy seeing the slaughtered cow, goats, sheep, and chickens especially since they already started smelling even though they'd just been laid out that morning. Apparently people cook and eat the meat once the ritual is finished for the day. I learned that each person who died has a person representing them who is supposed to act like them. For example, there was this one woman dressing and acting like her father. She greeted us by calling children and then made a comment about having a white person among us which her father would've done. Finally after loquacious announcements, they started the processionals. First the war dance. Then women carrying the belongings on their heads. And then bringing out the mats one by one to the place where they were burned. Two shirtless men would carry each mat and since the spirit is in the mat they didn't always move in a straight or safe fashion. I almost got hit by a war dance weapon (I think it was a bow) and then a mat; funerals are dangerous. After seeing the burning of the mats where the spirits are released to start making their way to the ancestors we went home. I was exhausted since we greeted so many people at the funeral and I'd gone to Fumbisi market earlier in the day. But it was definitely interesting and educational so I'm glad I went.

While we were standing around waiting for the next ritual to start, I heard some pretty funny stories about when cell phones first came to Gbedema. The only thing one woman knew about cell phones was that you were supposed to say hello. So when someone called her daughter for her and gave her the phone, she kept repeatedly saying 'hello' despite the fact that her daughters was trying to talk to her. Another story was about a guy using a Nokia phone for the first time. Good ole Nokia- yes we're really behind but I kinda love my little Nokia phone here- when you 'on' it a graphic comes up showing two people shaking hands. Well this guy thought that meant it was time to talk so started speaking into the phone. The last one is my favorite. If you don't have sufficient credit here to make a call, a British voice will tell you such. Well one man thought it was an operator instead of a recorded message so tried to tell the person he wanted to talk to his son and could he please call his son. When they failed to do so, he told someone the white man refused to allow him to speak to his son.

Now onto my favorite topic...food. I am now the proud keeper of a donut machine. Madam Rose from the primary school loves cooking and even studied 'catering' in school. One day we were discussing my weakness for baking and sweets and she mentioned that she had the machine in Sandema. We concocted a plan for her to bring it and for me to buy the healthy ingredients (flour, margarine, sugar, eggs, and baking soda) so she could teach me. It finally happened last week and she's letting me keep the machine here since she never uses it. So yes I don't have a fridge but I do have a donut maker. My other culinary victories this week were an oriental cabbage salad of sorts (complete with crunched up ramen on top) and pizza! I made bacon pizza and it was delicious plus much easier than I thought it'd be. Now I just need to keep practicing so I can perfect the crust and make my own cheese to use. Apparently despite my best efforts to 'cook American' for myself, I miss certain foods. I had a dream about the grocery store this week and standing in the produce aisle oohing and aahing over all the fruits and veggies. Thankfully in August I can go grocery shopping every day if I so desire!

Perceptions of America

Sunday morning I took the early lorry to go to Sandema for market. I was in a rush while leaving the house because I woke up late and though I thought about grabbing my rain jacket since it's now rainy season but I didn't. I later regretted that decision big time. The lorries that come to our village are these dilapidated Benz buses that have many windows missing. Even though I was sitting one seat away from the window once a storm came as we were on our way it blew sideways and all over many of us. The whole right side of my body was soaked by the time we reached our destination; it's the first time in a while I've felt cold. A high school student who was returning to school (most board here) was sitting next to me and told me 'This is Africa' at some point which I had to laugh at because I've been here a while I wanted to but didn't reply 'Yes I know where I am- thanks!' Rather than be snarly I decided to be a gracious representative of America. We talked about a few topics and then he told me heard that the lights haven't been off in America for 35 years. This is one of the more radical rumors of America I've heard so I quickly educated him that it wasn't true and the power goes off for us because of storms, work on the lines, and snow (that was fun to explain).

One of the goals of Peace Corps is helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served. I find that dispelling myths about America is big part of that and after the question about our electricity I decided to share a few more. I was discussing politics with someone recently here since it's campaign season for the upcoming Presidential election in December and the guy said he'd heard that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic candidate instead of Obama. People are amazed to find out that Americans don't eat nor have ever heard of fufu, TZ, gari and many other foods here. They think it's strange that I eat pasta (or macaroni as it's called) alone since it's mixed with rice here since it's rather expensive. I get asked a lot of questions about our farming practices (which I should probably do more research about) and it always leads to a discussion on mechanization. I explain that we grow peanuts which are similar to the groundnuts they grow here but that we'd never eat peanut soup like they eat groundnut soup. It's strange to Ghanaians that polygamy is illegal, that homosexuality isn't illegal, and that men don't have to pay a bride price if they want to marry a woman in the States. I always surprise folks when I mention that in my hometown it also gets very hot though doesn't quite match the heat here. But then I explain how we don't 'suffer' as much since we have air conditioning. I've told people about tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes. Obviously it's a fact that all Americans are rich and that after graduating from university we have jobs waiting for us without applying or interviewing. People are surprised to hear that malaria once existed in the past and it's an encouragement for them to hear it was eradicated through the use of control methods. Besides explaining the weather, the 4 seasons are a topic of great interest. Sometimes I mistakenly make statements such as “I'll be going home in the summer” when I realize people have no concept of summer.

As I mentioned before, it's now rainy season here thank goodness. The weather is much better now- mostly in the 80s and one day I even saw it dip down to 79. The farmers have started preparing their land to sow and some of them have even begun sowing millet and maize. Last Friday it rained in the morning and since students walk to school (some over an hour one way) it starts late on rainy days. I've also heard on really rainy days school is canceled completely. This week is the second full week of school so more students are coming now and effective teaching has begun. Many students miss school during the sowing season similar to the harvest season since their parents need them to help farm. Attendance is always a challenge here especially on Fumbisi market days many students miss to either sell items in the market or just to go “roam.” Last term I tried giving a test on a market day hoping to give them an incentive to come to school but many students still missed.

I have two funnies to end on. During my travels down south for the conference last month I saw a banner somewhere announcing the opening or launching of a new institute of some sort. It read “Lunching! Lunching! Lunching! Institute for ...” This week I worked on setting up on of the donated computers in my house so I can show students what we're studying plus have some of them start learning how to use it. First I got one of the nice flat panel monitors out of a box and got it all setup. Then I opened on of the bigger boxes with the system unit inside. Only then did I realize that there wasn't a keyboard or a mouse. All the other boxes looked the same so initially I didn't try looking in any of the other big boxes. I decided to fire up the system unit just to see that it turned on; when I did the message displayed on the screen was “Keyboard not found. Press F1 to continue.” Um thanks but I can't. I later opened all the book and realized I have terrible luck; I chose the 1 box out of 5 that was missing the keyboard and mouse.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

I'm having a hard time keeping up with blogging I think in part because I feel pretty settled in here now and things feel somewhat 'normal.' For me that makes it more difficult to think of interesting things to write about. So please let me know if there's something you're wondering about my life here in Ghana and I'll try to reflect on it. I'm definitely open to ideas!

Toward the end of last term we held our first Girls' Club meeting and I haven't shared about it yet so thought I would. Only 12 girls came but I'm hoping it will grow a bit but not too big. Clubs are really nice change of pace because I can be a little more informal with my students. We opened by discussing what we want the Girls' Club to be and by brainstorming topics for discussion in the future. Then we did an intro activity where every girl wrote their name in the middle of piece of paper and then around it wrote what they like. My example included eating mangoes, reading, and laughing so of course those were copied but they are great things after all. Each girl took turns sharing three or so items they wrote down and it was nice for me to get to know them outside of the classroom better. Next I did my small spiel on goal setting. I found this exercise online called Tree of Life where you draw a tree and talk through the parts of the tree and likens them to things in your life. For example, after talking about roots we discussed support in their life that help them grow like school, food, friends, etc. When we talked about goals they have for the future it was cool to see some of the careers they came up with; in addition to the normal doctor, nurse, and teacher some said soldier, police officer, and lawyer. Finally we talked about forces of nature that can destroy a tree like lightning and wind similar to outside forces that can prevent people from achieving their goals. Up until this point my illustration was pretty effective but I tried to draw a lightning bolt and the girls had no clue what it was. Even when I said lightning they all had confused looks on their faces until one of the girls started saying the Buli word for lightning. It's so funny what words they don't know sometimes. Even though I try to anticipate points of confusion stuff will come up that I have to explain further. The meeting was kept short and sweet so last we had an ending came called Market Lorry which I adapted from the Peace Corps Life Skills manual game Life Boat and they had a lot of fun doing as indicated by their laughter. I figured lorries are more relevant than boats to their lives here since I assume most of my girls have never been in a boat. When we closed I told them we'd meet again in May since it was nearing the end of the term and they were disappointed we weren't meeting sooner so I took that as a good sign!

I want to end by sharing a cute story from today. After school sometimes different primary school children will come to 'paint' in my coloring books or play with other toys I have. One of my now former form 3 students Dennis' sister Amotelie came today and was playing with a doll. She spent a long time dressing here and braiding her hair and then asked me for a two-yard of cloth. She proceeded to strap the doll on her back like mothers do to their babies. I was cracking up and when my Headmaster dropped by he laughed with me. As I thought about it more later, it reminded me of myself as a kid pushing my baby doll in a stroller while dressed up in high heels and sunglasses. Just a different cultural context...

Feok Parade

Here's an old video from the Feok festival- I might just have to wait to upload more videos in America in August because it takes for-ever here.  Enjoy!

3 Months and counting!

I'll be coming home to visit in 92 days as of today!  One of my friends who's going home in June started a countdown at 100 days so I decided to do the same.  I'll be in Atlanta for 3 weeks from August 2 to August 23.  Also pretty soon I'll be celebrating 11 months in Ghana!  Time is flying so I'm sure before I know it'll be my 1 year anniversary here.  I'll try to blog more soon but have been trouble with Microsoft Office which is where I usually write my blog drafts before getting online.  Hope everyone is doing well!