My first Ghanaian funeral

I was literally just talking to another volunteer about how I have a hard time finding things to post about anymore since most of my life here seems normal. I find that to be both great (very adjusted and/or integrated) and scary at the same time. But I also have found that the second you think you know what you are doing here and that you’ve “got it all down,” something pops up that humbles you.

So needless to say, with one term under my belt I was feeling very confident and ready for this upcoming term; you know, I was all like “I got this sh@t!” I’ve got some secondary projects I hope to get started and I’m feeling up to the challenge of showing my kids that math is great!

Then comes the humble-r: one of the students at my school got really sick over the break and passed away. I’m a little fuzzy on the details of his passing due to the language barrier but apparently it all happened pretty fast and there wasn’t any time to get him to the hospital. I was shocked and really taken aback by the news. I hadn’t personally had him as a student, but was his form master. As a form master my job is to oversee the class in general: appoint a prefect or class captain, take attendance, deal with behavior and punishments, etc. Being my first term I had no clue as to what I was doing. I thought I was just to take role (attendance) and that was it. I later found out, about half way through the term that I was supposed to be collecting school fees and punishing the students when they were absent. I mostly got to know the students that didn’t show up to class everyday and that was about it. So my interaction with the boy, Bright Frimpong, was limited to me calling out his name and him responding “present” on a daily basis. Regardless, I was pretty upset by his passing. I mean he was a young boy, 17 years old and about to take his exams to move on to senior high school. A lot of kids don’t make it that far in the first place so he was motivated and had a bright future. It’s always a shame to hear of someone dying before they have fully experienced their life.

With his death comes my first experience with the Ghanaian way of coping with death and funerals. I was really surprised how casual everyone seemed to be about his passing. My counterpart came to visit me a couple days after I returned from Tamale (the capital of the northern region where I went for new years) and didn’t mention it to me at all. I found out from the chief’s right hand man when I was hanging out in town. He didn’t know the name of the student so I had to ask around. Not many people speak English in my town, or they refuse to, so I am all frantic and trying to figure out how to politely ask “Do you know the name of the JHS student that died?” in Twi. I did find out and you better believe I called my counterpart and had some words. He told me that it slipped his mind. I’m used to America, where the student’s name and story would have been all over the news; where the entire school and community would be buzzing and everyone talking about how it’s such a shame. So the whole slipping his mind thing was very different for me. I found that the people I talked to, some of my student’s parents, also seemed cavalier about the student’s death. I think there is just a different way of coping here that I didn’t understand at all; which was made all that more clear to me at the funeral.

I have never attended a Ghanaian funeral, but have walked by plenty. It seems there is one at least once a week and the celebration typically goes on right in the middle of town. I knew the gist of funerals for the most part but experiencing it was totally different. Funerals are more like a big party that lasts sometimes a week and goes on all day. The attire is usually black, or black and white. If you are really grieving and knew the deceased well than you wear red or a darker orange color. Bright’s funeral was in a family compound. All the family sat inside the compound in a kind of 3 sided rectangle. The guests came in to the compound to greet the family; you go around the rectangle and shake everyone’s hand and then the line took you to Bright’s body. His body was displayed in a separate part of the compound. So the line went from greeting to paying respects and then to sitting down and joining the family for the funeral program. The area was small so most people came in and greeted and then left and stood outside. There also was a lot of people standing around in the compound so it was pretty packed. There was a lot of loud music and just general sitting and grieving. Some younger boys from town came and started dancing around in the center but that was about it. We came as a school and actually ran the program for the funeral. My counterpart and the assistant head master are both elders/ministers in their churches so they kind of took over. First, the assistant headmaster gave a small sermon about how short life is. Then my counterpart led in a prayer. Then, I had a part (believe me I was scared shitless and was only told that I was doing this the day before). I guess its a tradition to remove the students name from the role when one passes away. So at the funeral I had to do a sort of reenactment. Here is how it went.

All the students came into the center of the compound and brought me a desk and chair. I took out the role book, where I mark every student's attendance every day, and started going down the list of names. All the children would say present and then finally I got to Bright Frimpong. I said his name once. I had to ask the prefect , Gilbert, to go to the mother and ask of Bright's where abouts. He went to the mom, he didn't actually ask her, he just kind of acted like he was asking her where Bright was. He came back to me and said that Bright was sick and couldn't come to school. I then had to say his name again, Gilbert went to the mother again and then came back. He said that Bright took a turn for the worst and was unable to come to school. I then said his name one more time. This time Gilbert came back to report that Bright was dead. I then had to announce this and cross out his name from the role book using red pen. After that the program was pretty much done. His casket was closed and a couple of the boy students carried it to his grave in the bush. It was this crazy procession with practically the whole town following with/behind the body. It seemed like total mayhem. They buried his body and the rest of the attendees went back to the compound to finish out the funeral. It lasted from about 7 in the morning until 6 at night.

We left after the program and I was spending the rest of the day trying to comprehend all the culture I had just seen. I was incredibly scared to do the whole thing with the role and it was just an odd experience to be apart of. I really appreciate that they let me do it though. I was able to take part in their culture and their way of honoring the dead. I'm assuming the reenactment was the way it would have gone down at school in the past. Now, if someone is absent you don't have anyone go to check on where they are; you just mark that they didn't come to school. I guess back then it was something they did? I'm not too sure, but I've found that reenactments are something that Ghanaians do and enjoy. My host brother did some at the church services when I was in training. It always had some message that it conveyed. It definitely was fun to watch (even though I understood none of it) and it is a different way of getting a message across.

As far as the casual nature and the way people handle the funerals here: I think that life here is such that you can't just sit and mope and be sad. There really is no time for it. There is cooking to do (which usually takes at least half the day), cleaning to do, water to fetch, clothes to hand wash, fufu to pound, children to tend to, etc. I even feel that way. I go to class during the day and teach, on my way home I pick up the things I need for dinner, take a tiny nap or relax for a bit, cook, eat, clean and prepare for the next day. There are times that I want to take a personal day, in bed, because I miss my family & friends, or the whole living in a different culture thing really gets to me but I can't. A machine isn't going to do my laundry, dishes, or cook for me (god bless the microwave and vacuum sealed food, I miss itttt). So life keeps moving and there isn't much time to just be sad. So there is that, and as far as funerals I think people just like them. Its a break from the day to day duties and usually the whole town and all your friends are there. Funerals are more like parties and dancing. They told us during training that we would be shocked by the differences in the way Ghanaians celebrate death, and they were right because it is very very different than the funerals I've been to back in the states.

In general I found this past week to be sad yet intriguing. I got to really be apart of the culture; it is just a shame that it was due to a young boy's death.

R.I.P. Bright Frimpong :(

I miss everyone back home and love you all! I hope this post isn't too much of a downer; next one will be fun:)

Michelle

Thanksgiving in Candy Land

Hey friends and family:) I cannot believe I have been here close to 6 months! Teaching has been both fun and challenging. Right now I’m actually dealing with some issues at my site; I haven’t been able to find out a way to make it work with me and my Ghanaian housemate so I plan to move into a different place in town. It will be nice to hopefully have some more privacy so I’m excited for the move. I’ll keep you updated but for now things are still being arranged.

On more fun news, I just went to Accra (the capital) for Thanksgiving! It was a blast. I stayed in a guest house in a part of Accra that is super nice and foreigner friendly. There were small coffee shops, bars/spots, restaurants with Thai, Chinese and Indian cuisine, fast food (gasp!), cute little stores for shopping and more. It definitely did not feel like the typical Ghana that most of us Peace Corps Volunteers get every day. There even was a grocery store! It was splendid to see so much cheese in one place. The only bad part was that it was uber expensive and most of us blew a decent amount of our monthly living allowance in a few short days. But it was worth it; I have no problem eating rice and simple stew for the rest of the month if I got to have a nice big cheeseburger and fries one day of the month. My holiday would have been ever better if I had RSVPed earlier for thanksgiving and had gotten to stay with one of the ex-pat host families. There were 120 volunteers that came down to Accra for thanksgiving and there were only enough host families for 80 volunteers. So the lucky ones got to stay in nice houses with hot water, air conditioning, couches, big TVs, internet, American CABLE (Ugh one kid bragged about watching new episodes of the jersey shore and I was jealous), yummy food, etc. It was basically like being back in the states apparently. It was a little depressing that I didn’t get to stay in a nice house but there really wasn’t much to complain about this weekend. Ignorance is bliss?!

But to get to the best part (I know you are thinking “what could be better than boat loads of cheeeese?!” but I promise this is), all the current PCVs were invited to spend thanksgiving at the Ambassador’s residence! He has an amazing place; I’ve been to it before when we were first welcomed to the country at his house with drinks, appetizers and dancing. He has a big lawn and veranda where we hung out most of the day and he opened up the pool for us to swim and relax in the sun. He had a traditional thanksgiving feast prepared with 12 turkeys!!!! Oh it was spectacular. I had mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, salad, rolls, cranberry sauce, gravy, pecan pie and pumpkin pie! Oh I stuffed myself more than I ever have in my past 25 years of turkey days and loved it. It was also really nice to hang out with all the volunteers all in one place. I feel that we’ve all become pseudo family for each other in country (I’ve called at least two other volunteers crying hysterically, and if that doesn’t mean we’re family than I don’t know what does) so that feeling of acceptance was an added bonus. I am incredibly thankful the ambassador opened up his home for this holiday; it definitely would have been hard to stay at site and WORK on one of my favorite American holidays!

To finish a great weekend (it just keeps getting better), a bunch of us went to the mall in Accra and saw the new Harry Potter movie! The mall was again, just like any mall back home with a bunch of clothing stores, a huge Wal-Mart kind of store, food court, children’s play area, etc. It really felt like I stepped right out of Ghana and warped into America or something. I actually had a wee bit of culture shock from it all. It was a lot to take in after 6 months of living out “in the bush.” Everything was so clean and nice that I felt almost too dirty to belong there, haha. I figure if I make semi-regular Accra trips during my service that I can minimize the culture shock when I return home after I’m done; though I’m not sure I have the money for that!

So all in all the holiday weekend was a great time and has left me now refreshed and ready to return to site and get my hands dirty. Miss everyone! If I can I might try to send some fun Ghana stuff home for Christmas, so look out for that.

I'm a bad blogger.

So, I haven't updated in a while and its mostly due to me being surprisingly busy lately. Like I said, teaching is hard! At least for this first term and getting adjusted. I have about 3 weeks left of the term, and I will update once break starts. I want to wish everyone a good Thanksgiving - and please don't worry about me because the American Ambassador invited all of us Peace Corps Volunteers to eat thanksgiving dinner poolside at his residence :) He is a very nice guy, thats for sure!

But I wanted to leave you with this youtube video to entertain. Its pretty dead on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4swOWhsaQg&feature=player_embedded

Back to Schooool

School has been in session now for about 3 weeks and goodness it’s been keeping me busy. I guess I never really thought about the fact that I was teaching junior high school – essentially the same as American middle school. Some days these kids are heathens and other days they are great! I always figured that every developing/third world country would have children just dying to learn. Not really, kids are kids no matter where you go; some care and some don’t. But let me start from the beginning and give you the skinny on my school.

Antoa D/A JHS, my school’s name, has about 200 children and three classes; again similar to our middle school system. They call classes “forms” and they go from 1-3. Each form has two classes; we call it a two stream system and they are split into “A” or “B.” My school is pretty big for a JHS, most JHS’s have only one stream and less than 100 students. Only English is to be spoken on school grounds and therefore all the teachers should teach in English. This is not the case really at all. The teachers speak about half English and half the local language. Most of the children do not know English well at all so the teachers start talking about a subject in English and then switch to Twi to explain it further. It’s definitely frustrating for me because I don’t have that option. Anyway, the school day lasts from 8 AM to 2 PM and the school offers extra classes for another hour which the students have to attend. The class periods last 35 minutes and instead of the children moving and the teachers staying in the same classroom, the children stay in the same room and the teachers come to them. So the school has 6 classrooms in total; all in one line so it’s just a long building. As far as classrooms go, it’s just some old school wooden desks and a blackboard! The subjects taught in school are English, Twi (Ghanaian language), Maths (they add the “s” on math for some odd reason and don’t know what I am talking about when I don’t add it), Integrated Science, Social Studies, P.E. (which consists of them weeding), Religious and Moral Education, B.D.T (basic design and technology? It’s just isometric drawing) and I.C.T. We are lucky and do have some computers, about 10 I think in total. Of course, only 2 work. That’s what happens when you try to have a computer lab without air conditioning, poor power supply, and tropical weather. It’s beyond me why they focus on having computers before they have real toilets; it still blows my mind that they don’t mind to shit in a fly infested pit. But I diverge, lol.

There are about 10 teachers at the school and honestly I wish we had more. There is a lot to be done to keep the school running smoothly on top of just teaching and it’s a decent amount of work for each person. For instance, I am the Form 3A Master. That’s right, master;). I am responsible for any issues with that class and I take role every day. If a student doesn’t show up for school that day they have to write me a letter explaining why and I have to punish them if it is not a good enough excuse. I am having a hard enough time coming up with good punishments for the kiddies in my own classroom! I teach Form 1 and 2 Maths which ends up being about 26 periods a week. All in all I teach some 3 hours a day, which sounds like nothing I know! Between the heat, the lack of any educational tool besides the blackboard and chalk, the disruptions, and classroom management I get tuckered out pretty easy.

As far as what it’s like to teach here, it’s kinda crazy. There are a lot of issues teachers face so you have to get creative to deal with them. Like I said, the student’s English is poor; especially the Form 1 students coming from the primary school. Many of them have a hard time speaking English and I’m finding now that they also can’t read it. I had been writing everything on the board since they have no book to refer to and have them copy them into their notebooks. I’m rethinking that since that doesn’t help if they can’t read and refer back to it. They are also the hardest ones to handle. They thought that it was just some fun game having the white lady teach them. I had to break them of that pretty quick.

Classroom management has been one of my biggest challenges so far. They use the cane here, and they use it frequently. Most teachers take pride in their caning which disgusts me. I do have to remind myself that we just got rid of beating kids in school just in the 50’s and 60’s. I am not allowed to cane and even if I was I wouldn’t. I can’t even bring myself to tell on any kids to any other teachers because I know they will just take it upon themselves to cane them. So here is the issue, the kids quickly find out that I will not hit them. They push the limits and act out to see what I will do instead. I have had to come up with some random and creative punishments so far, lol. I have students kneel in the front of the class (it is supposed to make them feel shame, but I think they just get bored staring at the wall for any length of time), kneel in the sun (that’s when they are really bad), I have them hold their book bag over their head for a couple minutes, write sentences, and if they don’t they have to sit on the floor for an entire class period. I had three students sit on the floor for 3 class periods and finally upped the anti and told them they would have to clean my toilet if they still didn’t write their sentences, haha. It worked! I have to keep coming up with punishments so I keep them guessing. I’m not a fan of punishments and really have no fun giving them out but I have at least one person kneel per class period. I have to be strict to keep the class in line, especially since there are so many distractions. The students sit two to a small desk, are cramped into a small, hot classroom, and the doors and windows are open so any outside noise can be easily heard. My form 1’s each are about 40 students and my form 2s are about 20 students in each stream. For extra classes the streams are combined and I had to teach 80 little Ghanaian children for an hour! It was probably my biggest fear. They were sitting 3 or 4 to a desk and some didn’t even have a desk. I had 6 kids kneeling at once in the first 5 minutes! I can’t blame them for misbehaving, they are squished like sardines, they have been sitting all day long, it’s hot and they want to go out and play. I kept the lesson short and taught the poor things how to play heads up seven up They definitely liked it and as a teacher I can see why they let us play it so much when I was younger – it is the quietest game ever invented. It’s perfect. I’m trying to instill positive reinforcement to help with classroom management too. I did a material check to make sure the students had all their things out and ready when I came in the classroom and gave out candy to those that did. I also gave out some of those shaped rubber bands the kids love in the U.S. to my group leaders when I attempted group work one day. The group leaders were the smarter ones and I allowed them to explain to the other group members how to do the problems in Twi since my English explanations were getting nowhere. So I am trying to incorporate little things like that to motivate and help the students. It’s fun in some ways because I get to come up with and try new stuff every day. It’s also frustrating at the same time.

Finally, the poor education, work ethic and attitude towards school are a huge challenge. Junior high is free so there are kids there that don’t care at all. They just want to get out and do whatever they want. Parents don’t take much interest in their child’s education either. One of the teachers today said that some parents care more about their fowls than their children. It’s tragic but fairly accurate. Education is not considered important because there are so many farmers. You don’t need an education to farm. You also don’t need an education to sell your produce at the market. It’s hard to convince people how important education is. In addition, the gap between those that are educated and those that are not is very large too, so those that are educated are treated differently. The teachers at my school are treated as outsiders by the town and do not like how ignorant the townspeople act. It’s pretty crazy. So the children are not very smart. I hate to say it, but it is the truth. They haven’t had the positive learning atmosphere we all grew up with – good teachers, supportive parents, books, endless learning materials, etc. The students grew up being taught to memorize and regurgitate. They struggle with critical thinking and connecting dots. For instance, I taught my form 2’s how to solve linear equations. I taught them they have to do the opposite to get “x” alone. So if there is an x+2, then you -2 so there is nothing adding to “x.” If there is a + sign then you minus and if there is a – sign then you add, simple right? No. They always subtract. It was the first example I did and any deviation from that they don’t know what to do. I have to tap into that critical thinking part of their brains that has been dormant for some 13 years and it’s incredibly hard. I started giving some bonus questions to challenge the smarter students and that is definitely helping. I get insanely excited when I get a student that can do my bonus’ right – they are usually pretty hard.

That’s all for now! I’m just constantly adjusting to teaching and even living here in Antoa. Never a dull day.

Why is the white lady following you around?

School was supposed to start this past Tuesday, the 14th, but was postponed a week. I found this out the day before by the way. The funny thing was that I found out from the towns people about it before my counterpart and housemate! I gave myself a nice little point for my integration skills so far for that:) But anyway, the school opening was postponed across Ghana so that the schools that were doing repairs and building new classrooms could have more time since they weren't ready for students. Not every school was in this situation but apparently there was enough. Nothing seems to operate on time in Ghana and construction is no exception. I was pretty bummed about it. I've been looking forward to having a schedule and a wee bit more purpose to my life.

So, what have I been doing? My parents were wondering the same when I talked to them on the phone the other day and I'm sure you readers are too – all 5 of you. I do the usual to fend off boredom: hang out with people in town or other teachers, read, do Sudoku/crossword puzzles, watch movies on my laptop, journal, nap, etc. Cooking has become my favorite new hobby that I am terrible at. Don't worry; I've been taking pictures of every single meal I prepare and plan to devote an entire blog entry to my success and failures. Most are failures but still edible (my one victory was French toast, which is incredibly hard to eff up). I really have no other place to go but up! It could potentially be the most boring blog entry ever so I won't be offended if you don't read it. I've also started sewing – I made a small change purse for myself and some headbands. I draw a wee bit too when the aforementioned activities don't seem appealing.

The more exciting part, obviously, is the integrating and exploring! I've moved on from community walks. I think I have seen every part of the town of Antoa at least once. I have my regular shops and food sellers that I frequent yet seem to find something new every time I walk around town. The other day I was going to go buy some tomatoes and I was just going to hit up my regular veggie stand. This woman greeted me and asked me where I was going (I get asked where I am going EVERY SINGLE time I leave my house by multiple people). I told her I was buying some food and she grabbed my arm and led me around a building to a veggie stand that I had never seen before. The tomatoes were better and the lady had carrots! People sell the most random stuff but do not advertise. You have to know the town to know where to get what you want; most sell out of their house. It's like an adventure. The only problem is that I have to go and do my errands before I get hungry. When I'm hungry I get crabby and don't find the whole searching thing very amusing. So, anyway, I've started shadowing people in town. As an outsider, I have no idea what people do all day/every day. I don't think I knew exactly what my host mom or sister did when I went off to training and I lived with them! Shadowing entails me just following a person around for an entire day; doing what they do, helping out, and asking a ton of questions about things I don't understand. I am trying to shadow every profession I can think of in the town: the nurse at the clinic, a farmer, a "housewife," police officer, and seller. I'm sure there is more but it's a good starting point.

My first shadowing experience was with the nurse – it was interesting. In the morning, I met two nurses in the nearby town where they were weighing babies. They set up station in the middle of town with their weighing contraption, which was a luggage scale, and all the ladies came with baby in tow. The younger ones got vaccines and all of this was recorded in a baby health book the clinic gives to the mother when she gave birth. First, the medical assistant talked to the women and gave some advice on general health for children. Then it was baby weighing time! Each momma stripped down their little one to their undies and hung them from the scale. The weight was recorded by yours truly and plotted in each child's health book. The chart is probably similar to ones they used for us in America – I remember some percentile deal that let you know if it your child was at normal height and weight. There are two lines that denote a normal range of weight and the goal is to have the children stay within. The babies are weighed every month so their progress is tracked. If the baby gained weight, the nurse praised the momma; if the baby was out of the normal range, the momma had a talkin' to. The nurse would collect the books from me after I weighed and double check if the baby needed shots or not.
This is a picture of the whole operation:


The nurse is in the blue and white uniforms; standing near the scale.

Below is a Ghanaian waiting room


You can see the girl to the right with the Health book each mother receives.

These two ladies demanded that I take their picture. They also debated whether my hair was real or a wig


The scale sans child.


Scale with baby boy…this is my favorite!


Aww! Most of the kids didn't enjoy the sling and would start crying. This made my job harder because the scale was sensitive to their full body baby sobs and getting a good read was impossible. The key was to read their weight before the kid realized what was going on. Here is another of a bigger child.


She is definitely outgrowing her holder. Most the mothers stop bringing their child to the weighings after they receive all the vaccinations. I weighed about 3 kids that were older than 1 and all were underweight for their age. I asked the nurse why most children weren't being fed enough and she commented that the parents weren't forcing them to eat. She said some of the kids just don't want to eat, especially healthier food, and the parents don't force feed the good nutrients down their kids throat. Or in many homes, the child typically eats the left overs and by that time there is only soup and starch left - the meat is gone. The baby girl above has a protruding stomach which is indicative of malnutrition. The nurse said it is mostly due to a lack of protein. Malnutrition is something I always thought of in terms of starvation and a poor, skinny child. Most Ghanaian children are fed and are not starving; they just lack a well rounded diet. It was a very interesting morning and despite the fact that health is not my focus here, I want to continue hanging out at the clinic and learning from the nurses. I took a break for lunch and spent the afternoon at the actual clinic. There was one patient over the 3 hour period I was there and he was a pretty standard case; slight fever, diarrhea, and dehydration. So I hung out with the clinic workers and got to know them until they closed at 3pm.

The next person I'm going to shadow is a police officer at the station in town. I'm missing another baby weighing for it so I hope it's as enlightening as my nurse shadowing experience! Hopefully school will not be postponed anymore and I will get to start teaching! I'm sure I will have plenty to report on then. For now, I miss you all!

P.S.

Guess what I found in Kumasi!

I could care less about the stupid Bengals one. Clearly. But Ohio State represent in Ghana! I thought about buying it but there is something odd about buying second hand stuff from the developed world that I left. So I just took a picture instead:)

What to send and what not to send :)

So for all you lovely people who are considering or are sending me a care package (I love you, really!), I figured I'd post a list of things I want and things I don't need.

About shipping: Most everyone has been receiving the flat rate shipping boxes, I believe they are $50 and the weight limit is high so you can stuff a lot in there. Another cheaper alternative is one of those large, heavy duty envelopes. If you fill it to capacity the weight charge will be decent but less than $50. My address is on my facebook, but I will post it here:

Michelle Koegler, PCV
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 5796
Accra-North, Ghana
West Africa

If you don't want to send me a box, letters are great also:)

Anyways...here is the list:

- Candy for me, obvi. Chocolate needs to be wrapped, and I hear dark chocolate or higher cocoa based ship the best. I like any sugar really...beggars can't be choosers! Someone let me try their oreos they got in a shipment and I practically died. They got pretty broken but I didn't care..still tasted delightful.
- Granola Bars
- Crystal Light, raspberry, berry, anything along those lines
- Tea - I like earl grey a lot...but I also like variety, so fruity ones, chai...all work
- Ready to serve coffee singles - Starbucks would be veddy niiice!
- Spices, for cooking
- Seasoning packs - taco, etc.
- Powdered cheese - like from mac n cheese. Cheese is obscenely scarce here. No spray cheese though, that is restricted by the post office.
- Magazines - trashy or lady ones like Elle, Cosmo. Maybe one about whats going on in the world too, haha.
- School supplies, pencils, pens, rulers, notebooks, markers, etc. Anything fun you can think of, there isn't a lot of cool stuff for the kids here. They have compasses, pens, pencils, and cheap notebooks
- Music - you can either load up a flash drive or CD with anything new. Don't worry that its not my style - seriously. I like rock, some pop, electronica and more indie type bands.
- Hair gel - super strong; strongest you can find. Def put it in a plastic bag though so if it bursts it doesn't get on everything. I had my parents send me some and I brought a lot...so you can hold off for now.
- You can fill nooks and crannys with shirts - cotton tank tops. Western clothes die fast here since hand washing is rough. Just plain ones will do - something from old navy if you can still get summer stuff.
- This was suggested...so if anyone is game to try - you can send baked goods in those vacuum bags.(Amanda Pheobes, I love and miss your baked goods dearly so if you are game to try it I'm game to love it, haha) I haven't seen anyone try - but just throwing it out there. Not high priority though.


Do not send:
- Movies. I can buy a lot in Kumasi. They come over from China or something and they load a DVD with like 10 movies - mostly new if I want. I can also get a lot of TV show series. Some smaller movies I probably can't get, so if you found something awesome that I HAVE to see, then yes, please send:) But otherwise I've got plenty to choose from
- Books - I am very set right now. I have a huge box to get through in addition to a couple shelves at the local sub office.
- Lipton tea
- Peanut Butter - they call peanuts groundnuts here and they are everywhere
- Pringles, super easy to get here


That's all I can think of right now! The list is subject to change so I'll post it when I make updates. Thanks to all who are going to send stuff! Again, letters are fantastic too:)

Hmm. Now what?

So it has been almost 2 weeks at site now and it’s coming along! Well, slowly, haha. I’m still half living out of my bags since I am waiting on some furniture. The chief ordered a dresser from the carpenter for me, in addition to some kitchen shelves and kitchen sink (seriously, the man is awesome). I could care less about the kitchen stuff; I just can’t wait to get a dresser! Regardless, somehow our wires got crossed and the chief thought that I was coming right before school starts in September – the 15th. He wasn’t really prepared for me to come as early as I did. So I’ve just been waiting on that. I also have been waiting for my settling in allowance. It took like a week and half for the banks to process it so I’ve been anxiously waiting to buy everything I want/need! That is usually the first thing I like to do when I move somewhere; buy necessities, settle in, and make my place feel like home. It would take about 2 days, tops, to do that in America. It is very much a process here in Ghana. I guess that is why Peace Corps gives us an entire month at site before school starts – because it takes that long!

Besides that, I’ve been walking around the town A LOT. That’s literally my job right now, “community walking.” I’m supposed to walk and explore the town and greet people. I was a little anxious to do it at first; mostly because everyone just stared at me. Back in Kukaruntumi, where I did training, the town was used to a bunch of white people. Everyone would yell out to me, ask me how I was doing, ask my name, where I was going, etc. I mean it was annoying sometimes but better than awkward staring. I think there was a shock and wonder from the people of Antoa about me at first. I am the first volunteer at my site, so they aren’t used to having a white lady hanging out. I don’t think they knew what to expect from me. But now, after I’ve covered some ground and have been out and about more, everyone waves and talks to me. My name has spread pretty quickly in addition to the fact that I can speak some Twi so everyone is interested to hear me try the language. I’m pretty happy about it, I want to meet as many people as I can and build some good relationships with my town!

I’ve also been trying to gather information about the town. I’m really anxious to figure out what projects I can do, what is needed, and how I can contribute outside of teaching. Probably too anxious considering it will be sometime before I can get anything started! I am still in that American mentality – slowing down is hard! But, from what I can tell, Antoa is doing pretty well. I went and visited the chief yesterday and just observed him in action and learned about him and his family. He lived in New York for 40 years and worked as a Social worker. He technically should be retired by American standards; he is in his early 80s but wants to take care of the town. His brother’s family lives in Columbus, Ohio – small world – and are all thriving. They all came to visit Ghana recently and I met some of the little kids. Can I just say, yes it as only been some 3 months in country, but I got a small dash of culture shock from them, haha. Ghanaian children are very obedient and quiet around grown-ups. American kids are full of attitude, energy, chatty, and could care less if I am their senior. I was unsure what to do at first, haha. This does not bode well for me when I try to assimilate back home after 2 years!

Getting back to the chief, he is doing a lot of good things for Antoa. He built a clinic and is currently building a police station. He donated the computers to the JHS and is in the middle of building an ICT lab/library for the school. So that’s good. I haven’t yet visited the clinic but will see if there is anything I can do to help there. So, all of this building costs money; which Antoa generates some serious revenue from a traditional shrine located in town. I’ve checked it out once, well just passed by it, and am a little fuzzy still on the details. It is a river and there is a river chief who monitors it and does all the chants. Basically, if someone puts a curse on you or if you get cursed at all you will go to the river and have the curse removed. You have to bring some stuff, like a chicken and some schnapps, and the river cheif listens to your story. He takes the chicken, puts it in the river, and if you are telling the whole truth the chicken will float a certain way. If you are leaving things out than it will float the wrong way. And apparently you have to drink this river water which is gross and chicken-y. The river is more of a pond now I'd say. So people come from all over to have curses removed so its pretty legit. I see people carrying other people on their shoulders all the time in town. The people who are cursed get really sick from it apparently so they cannot walk to the river. It's interesting and I think you have a to pay some fee to go to it. Thats where the money comes from. Yay for money.

To wrap it up, I think I’ll leave with a funny little story. I liked to think random things happen to me and Ghana is no exception.

My housemate, Theresa, is interesting so far, to say the least. I don’t think she likes to speak English really at all so I don’t get to communicate with her much. She is not very warm. I tell her good morning everyday and she doesn’t really say much back. So what I do know about her is that she is a bucket nazi, haha. I was borrowing her buckets since I didn’t have the money to buy some of my own, that and she has a ton. She didn’t really care until I used different buckets for the wrong uses. Apparently there are designated buckets for certain uses and one will suffer the wrath of Theresa if their uses are interchanged. Theresa was using all of her buckets one day save for one and I wanted to bath. I took the extra one and started filling it up. She flipped out and started yelling at me that that bucket could not go in the shower room. That bucket is ONLY for laundry. I was just like whoa, what is the big deal? It’s all the same water. I asked her why and that was not a good idea my friends. This only incited her anger and she didn’t really explain. She also yelled at me that I needed to ask. I just let her go and decided not to mention that communicating is a two way street; how the eff was I supposed to know which bucket was for what? She really needs a labeling system. So that was one incident. Of course, it happened again because I had no idea a bucket was used only for mopping. So I just had her explain her rules to me since I was very unclear as to what each bucket’s function was. Now all I know is that I’m going to buy my own and not deal with this crazy bucket business!

So, thats pretty much it for now! At this point I'm just trying to figure things out all over again. After being here for 3 months, I was confident that I could do everything on my own. I'm finding that that was just silly.