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.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
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
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
Saturday, October 16, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, September 17, 2010
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:)
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:)
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
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:)
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:)
Friday, September 3, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, August 20, 2010
okay, let me bring you up to speed
TRAINING IS OVER! Oh geez, thank the lord. I could not take another day of intensive language. I graduated and have officially become a Peace Corps Volunteer and not trainee. I am now just getting settled at site (all alone!) and am just trying to get my bearings. School doesn’t start for another month, so I have to find a way to pass the time. I’m supposed to use this time to integrate into the community, so I’ve been taking random walks around town and introducing myself. It’s intimidating to say the least. Anyway, now that I have time and nothing to do, I figured I should let you all know what I’ve been up to for the past month and a half.
As far as my home stay went, I lived at a pretty bangin’ house and I am the fourth volunteer to stay there. I had electricity, running water (FLUSH TOILET!!), a REAL shower (which is hard to come by), a living room with a TV (again, not very typical) and my own room. It’s a standalone house with a yard and everything. Most Ghanaians live in a family compound where there are some 15 to 20 people living in an area at a time, so my home stay experience was pretty unique. My host dad, Paa Wills, owns his own business in a nearby bigger city and does pretty well for himself. He owns a printing press and does advertisements and printing for various occasions. My host mom stays at home and runs the place. I have four siblings; two sisters and two brothers. The oldest sister, Maggie, is around my age. She has an adorable 10 month old baby named Erama and also has another one on the way. She isn’t married and the one time I got the courage to ask what the deal was my host dad just said it didn’t work out and she wasn’t the type. I left it at that, haha. She either stays home or goes to the market and sells various food items. My other sister is Cecilia and she goes to a catholic senior high school two hours away (most SHS are boarding here and not compulsory). I just recently met her when she came home for her break. The oldest brother, Evans, just left for the U.S. on a student visa. He was studying marketing at a university but is just gonna get his degree in America instead of finishing here. He is 23 and the most westernized of the family besides my host dad. The younger brother is Barfour or “Bills” as he likes to be called; and yes it’s like dolla dolla bills y’all. He studies at a technical training college and too has been around on his break. He is pretty quiet and super nice but I didn’t see him much; he went to work with my host father and did churchy things in the evening.
There is one other younger girl, Adewa, who stayed with us but she isn’t one of their daughters. I’m sure she is related somehow, lol. Most families have a “small girl” or “small boy” to do the house work and go fetch things; it’s mostly girls. Little kids really don’t have a lot of time to play and have fun. They get up early, clean, go to school, come home, clean, do any work around the house, eat, and then they will maybe have some time late at night to do their homework. Some days I'd look at Adewa and she is just totally exhausted and red eyed. It totally sucks but it’s a part of life here. That and Adewa would most definitely get into trouble if she didn’t have work to do; she is a stubborn little lady. I’ve figured out quickly that there is not a lot to do to in your free time here; there are no after school clubs for children to participate in, parks, malls, cinemas, etc. So the kids work. Most volunteers who teach start after school clubs and I probably will too.
Everyone in the house could speak pretty good English but preferred Twi. At first I didn’t like that, there were so many conversations that flew right over my head and it made me feel left out. They also would ask me questions in Twi and I had no idea what they were saying. Though, in the end it helped me pick up the language faster. Most of the social language I knew before it was covered in language class and those few phrases are the ones that I can say correct enough that people understand. I also for a small time had this paranoia that they were talking about me all the time, haha. Well they did talk about me, and they did it in Twi right in front of me, but it’s pretty harmless. I could at least pick up the general topic of the conversations. Another volunteer started picking up when the family was talking about him and he confronted them about it. He thought they stopped but it turns out they came up with a code word for him instead of using his name or “obronee.”
We got to travel two times during training which was awesome. It helped break up the monotony and allowed us to explore on our own. The first time we went on what is called a Project Shadow. We went to stay with another volunteer that has been here for a year or two and see their school, projects, and life in their community. It also gave us an opportunity to travel by ourselves which was a little scary. My volunteer, Dan the Man, had planned to go to the beach that weekend along with some other volunteers. They invited trainees whom were shadowing them to come too and it was awesome. Me and about 5 other trainees traveled to Cape Coast and met up with our Project Shadow volunteers there. There were about 12 or more of us staying at a volunteers place; it wasn’t too bad since the volunteer had a pretty big pad. We went to the beach on that Saturday which was gorgeous. I was uber suspicious of the beach because most beaches in Ghana are pretty dirty. But when we got there I was overwhelmed with happiness and wanted to kiss the pretty white sand, haha. We spent the night again in Cape Coast and some of the one year/two year volunteers made burgers and guacamole. It was a great experience, haha. It was really interesting to talk to a bunch of volunteers that have been here a while and hear their stories. It was also cool to just watch them in action. They knew how to maneuver the markets, lorry stations, and get exactly what they needed and quickly. It always seems like such a process for me to just go to town and buy some toilet paper. On Sunday we all went our separate ways and headed for the volunteers respective sites. Dan’s site wasn’t too bad. The town is in the same region I am going to, Ashanti, and generally the same size. He taught ICT at the local JHS. I didn’t get to see him teach but I got to visit his school and meet his fellow teachers and staff.
One of the biggest things PC wanted us trainees to take away from Project Shadow is to experience what it feels like to have nothing to do. That is actually just my opinion, but it’s legit. Like I said, there aren’t all the fun things we have in America here to keep us occupied. We have books, some movies on a laptop if you brought it, and hanging out with locals to fill the down time here. The down time is also plentiful. Teachers teach about two or three 35 minute periods a day and that is it. A full 8 hour day of work is rare. It moves slowly. Aside from integrating, it’s apparently one of the harder things to get used to. Dan, for instance, sometimes just sits and stares at the fan to pass time. Another volunteer I talked to enjoyed throwing bits of food on the ground and watching the ants eat it. It cracks me up but also worries me. I’ve been busy at training and still working on an American schedule. Time was flying but now it will slow to a snails crawl and I will be doing something ridiculous to keep from going crazy.
Okay, so the next time we got to leave was recently to check out our sites. I was super nervous; I was going to visit the place I will be staying for the next 2 years! We first attended a counterpart workshop where we got to meet our teaching counterpart and the headmaster of our school. We all sat through 2 days of cross cultural understanding and all that fun stuff so we could learn to work together. We left and staid at our sites for 3 days. I’m pretty happy about my site. My school is large for a junior high school, about 200 students, and we have a computer lab. Not a legit one, only 4 of them work out of 10-15. The other teachers were all welcoming and excited to meet and work with me. The headmaster is involved and I think he is just the most adorable older man – not sexually (eww). He is short and smiles a lot. Most of the teachers live in Kumasi since it is only 30 minutes away, so I live in a teacher boarding type situation. Right behind the school there are three “apartments” they leave for the teachers to live. The religious and moral education teacher, Theresa, lives with me and she is super nice. She is super bubbly and made me some yummy food. My counterpart is another math teacher at the school and he lives next door with the science teacher. Their names are Bernard and Theopholis. Bernard and Theo both went to a technical teaching training college and are both really cool. They know English well and will talk pretty frankly with me. So every night we all hung out outside of our apartments, listened to music, graded papers and shot the shit. I have a feeling that we four will be pretty close and I’m actually happy to not live alone. We will see if that remains, they like to hover since they aren’t used to an American. They like to know what I’m doing all the time and will not let me do anything by myself. If I want to go to town they HAVE to escort me and freaked when I was going to travel back to training on my own. Otherwise, my site visit went well. Oh I almost forgot. The chief of my town's brother lives in America; specifically Columbus, OH. Crazy, right! He lives very close to my parents house and wants to have them over for traditional Ghanaian food. I thought that was a good sign:)
After that, I came back to training which was for the most part winding down. I took my language proficiency test and some other tests concerning medical and safety & security stuff and I passed. Woot! I was worried about the language test. It was oral, and supposed to work like a conversation but generally the tester hit up key areas. I had to talk about myself, where I was from, what I’m doing in Ghana, how many brother and sisters I had (home stay and real), what my mother and father does (again, home stay and real) and things along those lines. I talked about how to get to my site from where training was held and I role played in a fake market scene. It wasn’t too bad.
I swore in on August 12th, 2010. I wore a dress that my home stay family had made for me; it was interesting. The design reminded me of a circus tent and I had some seriously poofy sleeves, haha. It wasn’t something I would necessarily pick out but I totally appreciated it. We had a couple guest speakers, our country director, CD Mike, some lady from the US embassy, our trainers, and PTO Rob (I don’t remember what the PTO stands for but he oversaw training…PC loves acronyms). All of our home stay families came in addition to some current PCVs. As a training group we performed skits in the languages we learned and performed two traditional dances. My host brother got some great pics and videos of my dancing so I’ll post them somewhere, haha. The newly sworn in PCVs hit up the local spot later that day to celebrate and we ended up having a huge dance party. It was totally random but necessary. I was a dancing fiend. It was just weird, training was finally over so I was pumped but then I realized that I am leaving all my new friends. Not only that but there is a high likely hood that I may not see another American for a while! Crazy. But that’s what I came here for, to integrate and to become as they say a “change agent.” Oh I love that buzz word. That buzz word is totally going on my resume.
Anyway, so now it’s real life. I have to attempt to cook for myself, talk in Twi A LOT, get to know my town, hell, just navigate my town, and figure out what exactly I should do for the people of Antoa. It’s pretty scary to say the least. Even the other teachers are gone right now for vacation so I don’t have them to hang out with. The first day here I was a little touch and go, haha. I went to the chief to let him know that I arrived and he asked me when I get homesick and why. I almost started to cry right then because I was so seriously homesick! It’s always the beginning that is the worst, though. I remember the first day of home stay. I was super freaked and nervous but now I am missing that family like crazy. Even the first day in country I was close to tears a couple times. It’s that big change of stepping completely out of my comfort zone that freaks me out and makes me question whether I am capable of all this. Then I just take a breath, chill out and remember its all baby steps. I can just greet one person each day, or take one walk to start familiarizing myself with the town. As they say in Ghana, kakra kakra a kokoo nom nsuo (small small, the chicken drinks the water). Small, small. Food, however, is a different story. I’ve been either making omelets or bumming off of the other teacher still staying at the apartment complex/teachers quarters. I wouldn’t even say it’s just the cooking. It’s the finding the food, figuring out what you want/need, buying it and then figuring out what to do when you have left-over’s. I want to get a fridge, and as soon as I do, I will be more creative with my meals.
So that's it! Update again soon:) Miss everyone!
As far as my home stay went, I lived at a pretty bangin’ house and I am the fourth volunteer to stay there. I had electricity, running water (FLUSH TOILET!!), a REAL shower (which is hard to come by), a living room with a TV (again, not very typical) and my own room. It’s a standalone house with a yard and everything. Most Ghanaians live in a family compound where there are some 15 to 20 people living in an area at a time, so my home stay experience was pretty unique. My host dad, Paa Wills, owns his own business in a nearby bigger city and does pretty well for himself. He owns a printing press and does advertisements and printing for various occasions. My host mom stays at home and runs the place. I have four siblings; two sisters and two brothers. The oldest sister, Maggie, is around my age. She has an adorable 10 month old baby named Erama and also has another one on the way. She isn’t married and the one time I got the courage to ask what the deal was my host dad just said it didn’t work out and she wasn’t the type. I left it at that, haha. She either stays home or goes to the market and sells various food items. My other sister is Cecilia and she goes to a catholic senior high school two hours away (most SHS are boarding here and not compulsory). I just recently met her when she came home for her break. The oldest brother, Evans, just left for the U.S. on a student visa. He was studying marketing at a university but is just gonna get his degree in America instead of finishing here. He is 23 and the most westernized of the family besides my host dad. The younger brother is Barfour or “Bills” as he likes to be called; and yes it’s like dolla dolla bills y’all. He studies at a technical training college and too has been around on his break. He is pretty quiet and super nice but I didn’t see him much; he went to work with my host father and did churchy things in the evening.
There is one other younger girl, Adewa, who stayed with us but she isn’t one of their daughters. I’m sure she is related somehow, lol. Most families have a “small girl” or “small boy” to do the house work and go fetch things; it’s mostly girls. Little kids really don’t have a lot of time to play and have fun. They get up early, clean, go to school, come home, clean, do any work around the house, eat, and then they will maybe have some time late at night to do their homework. Some days I'd look at Adewa and she is just totally exhausted and red eyed. It totally sucks but it’s a part of life here. That and Adewa would most definitely get into trouble if she didn’t have work to do; she is a stubborn little lady. I’ve figured out quickly that there is not a lot to do to in your free time here; there are no after school clubs for children to participate in, parks, malls, cinemas, etc. So the kids work. Most volunteers who teach start after school clubs and I probably will too.
Everyone in the house could speak pretty good English but preferred Twi. At first I didn’t like that, there were so many conversations that flew right over my head and it made me feel left out. They also would ask me questions in Twi and I had no idea what they were saying. Though, in the end it helped me pick up the language faster. Most of the social language I knew before it was covered in language class and those few phrases are the ones that I can say correct enough that people understand. I also for a small time had this paranoia that they were talking about me all the time, haha. Well they did talk about me, and they did it in Twi right in front of me, but it’s pretty harmless. I could at least pick up the general topic of the conversations. Another volunteer started picking up when the family was talking about him and he confronted them about it. He thought they stopped but it turns out they came up with a code word for him instead of using his name or “obronee.”
We got to travel two times during training which was awesome. It helped break up the monotony and allowed us to explore on our own. The first time we went on what is called a Project Shadow. We went to stay with another volunteer that has been here for a year or two and see their school, projects, and life in their community. It also gave us an opportunity to travel by ourselves which was a little scary. My volunteer, Dan the Man, had planned to go to the beach that weekend along with some other volunteers. They invited trainees whom were shadowing them to come too and it was awesome. Me and about 5 other trainees traveled to Cape Coast and met up with our Project Shadow volunteers there. There were about 12 or more of us staying at a volunteers place; it wasn’t too bad since the volunteer had a pretty big pad. We went to the beach on that Saturday which was gorgeous. I was uber suspicious of the beach because most beaches in Ghana are pretty dirty. But when we got there I was overwhelmed with happiness and wanted to kiss the pretty white sand, haha. We spent the night again in Cape Coast and some of the one year/two year volunteers made burgers and guacamole. It was a great experience, haha. It was really interesting to talk to a bunch of volunteers that have been here a while and hear their stories. It was also cool to just watch them in action. They knew how to maneuver the markets, lorry stations, and get exactly what they needed and quickly. It always seems like such a process for me to just go to town and buy some toilet paper. On Sunday we all went our separate ways and headed for the volunteers respective sites. Dan’s site wasn’t too bad. The town is in the same region I am going to, Ashanti, and generally the same size. He taught ICT at the local JHS. I didn’t get to see him teach but I got to visit his school and meet his fellow teachers and staff.
One of the biggest things PC wanted us trainees to take away from Project Shadow is to experience what it feels like to have nothing to do. That is actually just my opinion, but it’s legit. Like I said, there aren’t all the fun things we have in America here to keep us occupied. We have books, some movies on a laptop if you brought it, and hanging out with locals to fill the down time here. The down time is also plentiful. Teachers teach about two or three 35 minute periods a day and that is it. A full 8 hour day of work is rare. It moves slowly. Aside from integrating, it’s apparently one of the harder things to get used to. Dan, for instance, sometimes just sits and stares at the fan to pass time. Another volunteer I talked to enjoyed throwing bits of food on the ground and watching the ants eat it. It cracks me up but also worries me. I’ve been busy at training and still working on an American schedule. Time was flying but now it will slow to a snails crawl and I will be doing something ridiculous to keep from going crazy.
Okay, so the next time we got to leave was recently to check out our sites. I was super nervous; I was going to visit the place I will be staying for the next 2 years! We first attended a counterpart workshop where we got to meet our teaching counterpart and the headmaster of our school. We all sat through 2 days of cross cultural understanding and all that fun stuff so we could learn to work together. We left and staid at our sites for 3 days. I’m pretty happy about my site. My school is large for a junior high school, about 200 students, and we have a computer lab. Not a legit one, only 4 of them work out of 10-15. The other teachers were all welcoming and excited to meet and work with me. The headmaster is involved and I think he is just the most adorable older man – not sexually (eww). He is short and smiles a lot. Most of the teachers live in Kumasi since it is only 30 minutes away, so I live in a teacher boarding type situation. Right behind the school there are three “apartments” they leave for the teachers to live. The religious and moral education teacher, Theresa, lives with me and she is super nice. She is super bubbly and made me some yummy food. My counterpart is another math teacher at the school and he lives next door with the science teacher. Their names are Bernard and Theopholis. Bernard and Theo both went to a technical teaching training college and are both really cool. They know English well and will talk pretty frankly with me. So every night we all hung out outside of our apartments, listened to music, graded papers and shot the shit. I have a feeling that we four will be pretty close and I’m actually happy to not live alone. We will see if that remains, they like to hover since they aren’t used to an American. They like to know what I’m doing all the time and will not let me do anything by myself. If I want to go to town they HAVE to escort me and freaked when I was going to travel back to training on my own. Otherwise, my site visit went well. Oh I almost forgot. The chief of my town's brother lives in America; specifically Columbus, OH. Crazy, right! He lives very close to my parents house and wants to have them over for traditional Ghanaian food. I thought that was a good sign:)
After that, I came back to training which was for the most part winding down. I took my language proficiency test and some other tests concerning medical and safety & security stuff and I passed. Woot! I was worried about the language test. It was oral, and supposed to work like a conversation but generally the tester hit up key areas. I had to talk about myself, where I was from, what I’m doing in Ghana, how many brother and sisters I had (home stay and real), what my mother and father does (again, home stay and real) and things along those lines. I talked about how to get to my site from where training was held and I role played in a fake market scene. It wasn’t too bad.
I swore in on August 12th, 2010. I wore a dress that my home stay family had made for me; it was interesting. The design reminded me of a circus tent and I had some seriously poofy sleeves, haha. It wasn’t something I would necessarily pick out but I totally appreciated it. We had a couple guest speakers, our country director, CD Mike, some lady from the US embassy, our trainers, and PTO Rob (I don’t remember what the PTO stands for but he oversaw training…PC loves acronyms). All of our home stay families came in addition to some current PCVs. As a training group we performed skits in the languages we learned and performed two traditional dances. My host brother got some great pics and videos of my dancing so I’ll post them somewhere, haha. The newly sworn in PCVs hit up the local spot later that day to celebrate and we ended up having a huge dance party. It was totally random but necessary. I was a dancing fiend. It was just weird, training was finally over so I was pumped but then I realized that I am leaving all my new friends. Not only that but there is a high likely hood that I may not see another American for a while! Crazy. But that’s what I came here for, to integrate and to become as they say a “change agent.” Oh I love that buzz word. That buzz word is totally going on my resume.
Anyway, so now it’s real life. I have to attempt to cook for myself, talk in Twi A LOT, get to know my town, hell, just navigate my town, and figure out what exactly I should do for the people of Antoa. It’s pretty scary to say the least. Even the other teachers are gone right now for vacation so I don’t have them to hang out with. The first day here I was a little touch and go, haha. I went to the chief to let him know that I arrived and he asked me when I get homesick and why. I almost started to cry right then because I was so seriously homesick! It’s always the beginning that is the worst, though. I remember the first day of home stay. I was super freaked and nervous but now I am missing that family like crazy. Even the first day in country I was close to tears a couple times. It’s that big change of stepping completely out of my comfort zone that freaks me out and makes me question whether I am capable of all this. Then I just take a breath, chill out and remember its all baby steps. I can just greet one person each day, or take one walk to start familiarizing myself with the town. As they say in Ghana, kakra kakra a kokoo nom nsuo (small small, the chicken drinks the water). Small, small. Food, however, is a different story. I’ve been either making omelets or bumming off of the other teacher still staying at the apartment complex/teachers quarters. I wouldn’t even say it’s just the cooking. It’s the finding the food, figuring out what you want/need, buying it and then figuring out what to do when you have left-over’s. I want to get a fridge, and as soon as I do, I will be more creative with my meals.
So that's it! Update again soon:) Miss everyone!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Droppin' some knowledge
Okay, so about my last blog post. I wrote all of that post at home and then uploaded it to a flash drive for easy transfer at an internet café. The thing is, easy transfer doesn’t really exist since the internet at the cafes is so incredibly slow. I planned on spell checking and editing there and by the time the post uploaded my 30 minutes of internet time was over (womp womp).
Things haven’t really slowed down yet but I get to stay in one place for 10 weeks! I am living with my host family and continuing training. I could go on and on about the host family and the experience so far but I will save that for another post (& I’ll hopefully post some pics of the most adorable 8 month old baby I’ve ever seen). I wanted to switch it up & instead of talking about all the random stuff I am doing, I wanted to take this time to unload some
Okay. First is language. I’ve mentioned Twi, which is the most popular and widely spread spoken language in
Second, the food. Ghanaians love food. Their food is a serious matter. If you are fat or chubby, it is a positive thing because they assume that you are rich and can eat lots of food. This idea is amplified for guests. If you are a guest of the country you will be fed very very well. I have not stopped eating since I got here! And you all thought I’d lose weight. The popular dish in
Third, the noise.
Fourth, the atmosphere & environment. There is lush greenery most everywhere. If the grass is not cut, then it grows some 8 feet on its own, it’s pretty intense! It is all so rural and not everything is paved like
Oh, the names. So, at first, I was a little frustrated by the fact that most Ghanaians can go by like 3 or 4 names. I can barely remember one name let alone 2 or 3. But it is not that bad because one of the names people go by is the day of the week they were born. It is this tradition to name your baby after the day you gave birth to him/her, which I find a little odd considering you have all of 7 choices. I didn’t even know the day of the week I was born on so I just made up Monday since it seemed accurate, haha. I checked it when on a phone and it turns out I guess right. So to explain the last blog post title, Monday born for a girl is Adwoa (phonetically: adjwoa) and apparently I was not pronouncing it correctly and I was calling myself an antelope. That damn intonation will get you every time with these Ghanaian languages. They have fewer words than we do in English, but one word can mean many things depending on how you pronounce it and the context. It’s nice that its simpler, but frustrating when you know what you want to say and cannot pronounce it right. People just look at you funny when you do. Anyway, I should also mention that your family calls you a different name than the school and a different name than your friends and so on. So each group in your life gets to call you whatever you/they wish, really. A lot of people like to dub you a name too; some teachers gave me some extra name after adwoa that meant that I was a hard worker at the school I did my student teaching at. I wasn’t really sure how they knew that since I had met the teachers for all of 5 minutes at that point so I didn’t care to remember it. But I really like the freedom to go by anything you want. Or what’s even better is telling people I’m Monday born and some 3 women in the close vicinity say “oh me too!” Ah, gets me every time:)
Okay, that’s all I got for now! Right now training is keeping me on a super tight schedule so I have very little free time to blog/journal/read/relax. I’m doing my best, but I will be much better at updating and such when I get to site. OH also, I have a phone! Its international and I can call US for pretty cheap. So you might be hearing from me if you’re lucky;) Just don’t get freaked out by a long weird looking number.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
I keep calling myself Antelope Michelle.
Okay! I am here! Well I have actually been here for about 12 days. I haven’t had any opportunity to access the internet till now so I’ve been trying to get all that has been going on down in writing so I don’t forget. This blog is just going to be a compilation of mini blogs I wrote after each couple of days…so bear with me!
June 3 – 5th
I am in Ghana and having a fantastic time! The plane ride was 11 hours, but I didn’t think it was too bad actually. I slept a decent amount since we were to arrive in Accra (Ghana’s capital) the morning of the 4th & had to be ready for a day full of activity. We also had that deal where the movies play on the back of the head rest in front of you, so I watched It’s Complicated and some episodes of Nurse Jackie & United States of Tara. The movie was good, but really tugged on the I-am-not-going-to-be-in-America-for-a-while heart strings. I mean it’s just Meryl Streep drinking vino, hanging out with her girls, making yummy desserts, wearing super cute clothing (& family for that matter) and having the most adorable house. The whole naked Alec Baldwin & the fact she is some 30 years my senior somehow didn’t deter me from feeling that way; which I find a little funny. So that led me to watch the ShowTime/HBO series because I knew I could count on some dark and heavy issues to make me feel better about my departure, haha. Honestly, I never thought I would be as sad as I have been about leaving. I mean, it only comes in spouts, but I guess I thought I could be a mutant and feel totally fine about leaving everything that I know! Crazy, right? But I have come to the conclusion that you have to be a mutant to not feel the fear & uncertainty that comes with serving in the Peace Corps. Overall, I have found the fact that this experience is not easily sharable to be one of the harder things. Which I now understand why I even made a blog, to share at least a smidgen of the journey I am on!
The arrival wasn’t bad. We got in early, around 8 AM, and were bused from the airport to the Accra headquarters in style. By in style I mean police escort! We then did some welcome stuff and were bused out to where I am now. I am currently at pre-PCT, pre-Pre-Service Training, haha. We are staying at a university and thus are living the dorm life. We have running water, electricity (from 6-11pm) and meals taken care of! Seriously, we are being so pampered here. This is like the secret hide out for the big group of Americans that know very little about how to act, what to expect, and what goes on in Ghana. The trainers, which are all Ghanaians, have told us we have the luxury to mess up and make mistakes and not have serious consequences *SIGH OF RELIEF*. They are really babying us into this and I really could not be happier about it! It mostly feels like a summer camp at this point. We learn some language, fill out paperwork, eat, and hang out and play games in the evening. We actually went to the Market today to try out our “survival Twi” and it was great! I am by no means an outgoing person usually, but I was so ready to make mistakes and talk Twi to the local woman and children selling fruit, spices, fishies, and bunches of other stuff. I tried to ask what something was called in Twi, (phonetically: Woh Yeh Dio?) since like nothing looks familiar, and the woman laughed! But she spoke with me in Twi and even taught me how to say “my name is...” It was fun; now I literally look at every Ghanaian and want to speak to them and get to know them! It’s ridiculous. I’ve never really had to use a language to get by and the whole challenge really excites me. That and Ghanaians thus far have been so friendly. For example, we were at the airport and one of the other trainees did not have her baggage claim sticker and she started freaking out when they checked it as we left. The man checking sensed her concern and said “Relax, you are in the friendliest country in Africa.” This is something they are very proud of too. The trainers so far have told us that as long as you greet someone, the door is open and almost everyone here will help you and speak with you. Which means no snobs, apparently? I sure hope so.
Welp, that’s all I have for now!
June 6-7th
Not much has really changed just yet! I am still staying at the university and still learning about the culture and local language(s). Yesterday, the 7th, we were invited to the U.S. Ambassador’s house for a small gathering in our honor. It was a little surreal, he owns a very very nice house and we were served some great hors d’oeuvres. I savored the quesadilla, guacamole and spring rolls since I will not be enjoying them for a loooong time. We heard speeches from the Ambassador and our Country Director and got some dancing and drinks in too I was grateful for the reception, and look forward to when we all got invited to spend Thanksgiving dinner there! (HOLLAA)
Today, the 8th, was pretty interesting. Half of the crew was sent off on Vision Quest. It consists of visiting a current PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) on your own and staying with them for a couple of days. It makes you learn how to use the local transportation and navigate Ghana solo. The education trainees such as myself did not have to do one because we need to start training early. Apparently if we went we would loose a week of practicum which would be bad, especially since there is only one education volunteer with real teaching experience. So instead we did Accra Quest today. We were grouped into 2s or 3s and sent off on a mission to find a certain place in the capital and learn about it. My group went to the Keneshie market and assigned to gather info on how much transportation costs in the area. This was our first experience on a trow (spelled phonetically) which was interesting. A trow is this 10ish passenger vehicle that serves as short distance transportation in Ghana. Everyone is crowded into this little van thingy with no AC. You tell the director where you are going and he assesses a fare which you can argue. Then, as people get off at their various stops, the director kinda hangs out of the bus to call for more passengers. So these things are rarely empty and if they are they just sit and wait for more people. We took one trow to a “hub” and then had to find another one to our final destination. All the while, there is massive traffic jams, people are walking around the street trying to sell you clean water, snacks, Ghanaian flags, American flags (with Obama’s face on it) and any other random food. It was a pretty cool experience, one that will take some getting used to though. When we arrived at the market I was already tired and gross from the trow ride, but the market was INSANE. There were so many people everywhere trying to sell fruit, fish, clothing, jewelry, bath stuff and more. There was a three story building filled with vendors and a lot more on the street outside the building. I’m pretty sure its one of the biggest markets in Accra, and maybe even Ghana….and I can’t imagine it can get much bigger! It was work trying to navigate and check out all that was being sold there. We tried out our Twi with the vendors, which again they laughed, but we always laugh with them. Its not a mean laugh, it’s a more jovial kind of laugh, as in it is nice you are attempting the language. I don’t really feel heckled much at all…mostly tons of smiles!
June 10th, 2010
Reporting from Kukaruntume! We moved here yesterday and will spend the next three months training here. The ride from Accra was gorgeous and I’m actually relieved to be out of the city. It’s less dusty and the scenery is greener! Today was our first full day of training, and it was pretty rigorous. We spent from 8 AM to 6 PM learning all the stuff we need to know for when we get to our site…how to teach, language, safety, and apparently everything else they could think of. It won’t slow down at all as far as I know, at least not until we are sworn in and set off to do our thing in Ghana!
I think I am still half in shock that I am here in Africa, lol. Everything has been taken care of for us and we’ve been pretty busy since the moment we arrived. I haven’t had a second to just sit and take it all in. On the other hand I’ve definitely adapted a lot already. I can bucket bathe like you wouldn’t believe, I really really enjoy the food so far, and don’t care that my drinking water comes in a baggy! I haven’t gotten sick at all yet which is fantastic considering I was expecting the worst. I barely ever ate spicy food back in the states and here its pretty much the norm. Oh and I am not even jonsin for the internet or phone! At one point during day 2 I had a small panic attack because I realized how disconnected I was. It took me 5 mins to get over and I’ve found that it is ridiculously relaxing without it all. The time that all us trainees would normally spend texting or facebooking, we are instead playing card games and hanging out with each other. At first it was funny, because once the basic “where you from?” & “what is your story?” questions were asked we would just kind of sit there in silence because we ran out of ways to continue the dialogue. I’m pretty sure that is the moment where we would normally take out our iphones or blackberries to text or check some tweets. Instead we would sit and stare at random stuff, haha. But now we’ve all gotten to know each other and are fast friends lol.
Oh and I have yet to comment on the weather. We came just in time for rainy season so it is cooler than usual. It is definitely hot though; I sweat pretty much always! It is always at least a little muggy too so randomly you get that little moisture that just sits on your skin. As far as I can tell, the idea is to just stay in the shade and not leave it unless you have to. We do all our classes outside, so that heat plus sitting through people lecturing for hours gives a perfect setting to randomly nod off. I haven’t gotten burned yet either, but I do have a decent tan going!
So basically it is beyond words so far, and all I can really do is live in every single moment! Man I love Ghanaians! Well for the most part, when they are not calling me abrunee.
June 3 – 5th
I am in Ghana and having a fantastic time! The plane ride was 11 hours, but I didn’t think it was too bad actually. I slept a decent amount since we were to arrive in Accra (Ghana’s capital) the morning of the 4th & had to be ready for a day full of activity. We also had that deal where the movies play on the back of the head rest in front of you, so I watched It’s Complicated and some episodes of Nurse Jackie & United States of Tara. The movie was good, but really tugged on the I-am-not-going-to-be-in-America-for-a-while heart strings. I mean it’s just Meryl Streep drinking vino, hanging out with her girls, making yummy desserts, wearing super cute clothing (& family for that matter) and having the most adorable house. The whole naked Alec Baldwin & the fact she is some 30 years my senior somehow didn’t deter me from feeling that way; which I find a little funny. So that led me to watch the ShowTime/HBO series because I knew I could count on some dark and heavy issues to make me feel better about my departure, haha. Honestly, I never thought I would be as sad as I have been about leaving. I mean, it only comes in spouts, but I guess I thought I could be a mutant and feel totally fine about leaving everything that I know! Crazy, right? But I have come to the conclusion that you have to be a mutant to not feel the fear & uncertainty that comes with serving in the Peace Corps. Overall, I have found the fact that this experience is not easily sharable to be one of the harder things. Which I now understand why I even made a blog, to share at least a smidgen of the journey I am on!
The arrival wasn’t bad. We got in early, around 8 AM, and were bused from the airport to the Accra headquarters in style. By in style I mean police escort! We then did some welcome stuff and were bused out to where I am now. I am currently at pre-PCT, pre-Pre-Service Training, haha. We are staying at a university and thus are living the dorm life. We have running water, electricity (from 6-11pm) and meals taken care of! Seriously, we are being so pampered here. This is like the secret hide out for the big group of Americans that know very little about how to act, what to expect, and what goes on in Ghana. The trainers, which are all Ghanaians, have told us we have the luxury to mess up and make mistakes and not have serious consequences *SIGH OF RELIEF*. They are really babying us into this and I really could not be happier about it! It mostly feels like a summer camp at this point. We learn some language, fill out paperwork, eat, and hang out and play games in the evening. We actually went to the Market today to try out our “survival Twi” and it was great! I am by no means an outgoing person usually, but I was so ready to make mistakes and talk Twi to the local woman and children selling fruit, spices, fishies, and bunches of other stuff. I tried to ask what something was called in Twi, (phonetically: Woh Yeh Dio?) since like nothing looks familiar, and the woman laughed! But she spoke with me in Twi and even taught me how to say “my name is...” It was fun; now I literally look at every Ghanaian and want to speak to them and get to know them! It’s ridiculous. I’ve never really had to use a language to get by and the whole challenge really excites me. That and Ghanaians thus far have been so friendly. For example, we were at the airport and one of the other trainees did not have her baggage claim sticker and she started freaking out when they checked it as we left. The man checking sensed her concern and said “Relax, you are in the friendliest country in Africa.” This is something they are very proud of too. The trainers so far have told us that as long as you greet someone, the door is open and almost everyone here will help you and speak with you. Which means no snobs, apparently? I sure hope so.
Welp, that’s all I have for now!
June 6-7th
Not much has really changed just yet! I am still staying at the university and still learning about the culture and local language(s). Yesterday, the 7th, we were invited to the U.S. Ambassador’s house for a small gathering in our honor. It was a little surreal, he owns a very very nice house and we were served some great hors d’oeuvres. I savored the quesadilla, guacamole and spring rolls since I will not be enjoying them for a loooong time. We heard speeches from the Ambassador and our Country Director and got some dancing and drinks in too I was grateful for the reception, and look forward to when we all got invited to spend Thanksgiving dinner there! (HOLLAA)
Today, the 8th, was pretty interesting. Half of the crew was sent off on Vision Quest. It consists of visiting a current PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) on your own and staying with them for a couple of days. It makes you learn how to use the local transportation and navigate Ghana solo. The education trainees such as myself did not have to do one because we need to start training early. Apparently if we went we would loose a week of practicum which would be bad, especially since there is only one education volunteer with real teaching experience. So instead we did Accra Quest today. We were grouped into 2s or 3s and sent off on a mission to find a certain place in the capital and learn about it. My group went to the Keneshie market and assigned to gather info on how much transportation costs in the area. This was our first experience on a trow (spelled phonetically) which was interesting. A trow is this 10ish passenger vehicle that serves as short distance transportation in Ghana. Everyone is crowded into this little van thingy with no AC. You tell the director where you are going and he assesses a fare which you can argue. Then, as people get off at their various stops, the director kinda hangs out of the bus to call for more passengers. So these things are rarely empty and if they are they just sit and wait for more people. We took one trow to a “hub” and then had to find another one to our final destination. All the while, there is massive traffic jams, people are walking around the street trying to sell you clean water, snacks, Ghanaian flags, American flags (with Obama’s face on it) and any other random food. It was a pretty cool experience, one that will take some getting used to though. When we arrived at the market I was already tired and gross from the trow ride, but the market was INSANE. There were so many people everywhere trying to sell fruit, fish, clothing, jewelry, bath stuff and more. There was a three story building filled with vendors and a lot more on the street outside the building. I’m pretty sure its one of the biggest markets in Accra, and maybe even Ghana….and I can’t imagine it can get much bigger! It was work trying to navigate and check out all that was being sold there. We tried out our Twi with the vendors, which again they laughed, but we always laugh with them. Its not a mean laugh, it’s a more jovial kind of laugh, as in it is nice you are attempting the language. I don’t really feel heckled much at all…mostly tons of smiles!
June 10th, 2010
Reporting from Kukaruntume! We moved here yesterday and will spend the next three months training here. The ride from Accra was gorgeous and I’m actually relieved to be out of the city. It’s less dusty and the scenery is greener! Today was our first full day of training, and it was pretty rigorous. We spent from 8 AM to 6 PM learning all the stuff we need to know for when we get to our site…how to teach, language, safety, and apparently everything else they could think of. It won’t slow down at all as far as I know, at least not until we are sworn in and set off to do our thing in Ghana!
I think I am still half in shock that I am here in Africa, lol. Everything has been taken care of for us and we’ve been pretty busy since the moment we arrived. I haven’t had a second to just sit and take it all in. On the other hand I’ve definitely adapted a lot already. I can bucket bathe like you wouldn’t believe, I really really enjoy the food so far, and don’t care that my drinking water comes in a baggy! I haven’t gotten sick at all yet which is fantastic considering I was expecting the worst. I barely ever ate spicy food back in the states and here its pretty much the norm. Oh and I am not even jonsin for the internet or phone! At one point during day 2 I had a small panic attack because I realized how disconnected I was. It took me 5 mins to get over and I’ve found that it is ridiculously relaxing without it all. The time that all us trainees would normally spend texting or facebooking, we are instead playing card games and hanging out with each other. At first it was funny, because once the basic “where you from?” & “what is your story?” questions were asked we would just kind of sit there in silence because we ran out of ways to continue the dialogue. I’m pretty sure that is the moment where we would normally take out our iphones or blackberries to text or check some tweets. Instead we would sit and stare at random stuff, haha. But now we’ve all gotten to know each other and are fast friends lol.
Oh and I have yet to comment on the weather. We came just in time for rainy season so it is cooler than usual. It is definitely hot though; I sweat pretty much always! It is always at least a little muggy too so randomly you get that little moisture that just sits on your skin. As far as I can tell, the idea is to just stay in the shade and not leave it unless you have to. We do all our classes outside, so that heat plus sitting through people lecturing for hours gives a perfect setting to randomly nod off. I haven’t gotten burned yet either, but I do have a decent tan going!
So basically it is beyond words so far, and all I can really do is live in every single moment! Man I love Ghanaians! Well for the most part, when they are not calling me abrunee.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Philly Phillaay
Hey! It has officially started! I am in PA for my staging event. PEEAAAACE CORPSSSS YEEEAH!!! I checked in the hotel today and tomorrow my day is filled with shots and a mini orientation. On the 3rd we take a bus to JFK and I depart for Ghana! Can you believe it?! Its actually here! It is pretty crazy. I thought I would be more sad and upset but I'm not. I think that being around other volunteers and talking to them makes me feel good and super excited about the journey we are about to embark on. It was just nice to talk it out with people who know how I feel and who are going through the same thing. But, it was definitely hard to say goodbye to everyone, especially my family. After I said my last goodbye, I sat at the airport waiting for my flight with this like vacant expression and thought WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING? I started writing in my journal, got some of the bad thoughts out and I felt a lot better and more confident about my decision to serve. I'd say that was my freak out moment, and I'm sure there is more to come! I mean I am still in America, who knows what I'm gonna think when I am in Ghana and roughin' it.
I just also want to say thanks to all my beautiful family and friends that made my last couple weeks in Columbus awesome. I feel loved and the support from everyone makes this that much better. So thanks;)
Also. I just realized that my life is in a large duffel. MY LIFE RESIDES IN A 50 LB DUFFEL. Well and another small duffel....and 2 carry-ons. But still.
Next post: GHANA.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
June is a creepin'
April flew by! I really really hope May moves a little slower so I can get all my packing done and see everyone.
I haven't actually thought too much about packing. I decided to put off stressing about it till May - a month should be enough time, right? I found the group of people that I will be flying over and training with in a Facebook group which has been a total lifesaver! Everyone posts their questions about what to pack and there are about 2 or 3 current volunteers in the group that do their best to answer our questions. That and there is a Peace Corps Ghana wiki page! Thank goodness for the internet :) So I've been using all of those to get some ideas about what to bring & what to leave behind. But some of these kids started packing in April! I mean....wow, I kinda feel like a slacker. I talked to another invitee headed to Botswana at a an Ohio State University ceremony thing and she was leaving in 3 days and hadn't finished packing. That makes me feel a little better too...she apparently didn't start packing until a week before or something like that.
I haven't actually thought too much about packing. I decided to put off stressing about it till May - a month should be enough time, right? I found the group of people that I will be flying over and training with in a Facebook group which has been a total lifesaver! Everyone posts their questions about what to pack and there are about 2 or 3 current volunteers in the group that do their best to answer our questions. That and there is a Peace Corps Ghana wiki page! Thank goodness for the internet :) So I've been using all of those to get some ideas about what to bring & what to leave behind. But some of these kids started packing in April! I mean....wow, I kinda feel like a slacker. I talked to another invitee headed to Botswana at a an Ohio State University ceremony thing and she was leaving in 3 days and hadn't finished packing. That makes me feel a little better too...she apparently didn't start packing until a week before or something like that.
As far as freak outs go, I'm doing pretty good! I had a big-ish one at the end of March. At the end of each month I seem to get more anxious because it serves as an obvious reminder that the departure date is coming fast! After that freak out I was really relaxed for all of April; total Zen Michelle. I had a minor one the other night because, again, I realized its the end of April. I made some 10 to-do lists and tried to plan out the bazillion things I want to fit in before I leave. Then I realized that stuffing all those things into a month isn't worth the stress & that I was just trying to control something since I couldn't control how fast time seems to pass...or how I have no idea what the next 2 years of my life are going to be like. I'm 100% sure that I am going to miss the people I love and the small luxuries I live with everyday I don't notice. So now I'm as relaxed about everything as anyone can be; a little bit of stress about packing and uncertainty but no spazing-out, big emotional break downs (yet haha).
After packing gets rolling, I'm going to do some hard core Ghana research. I plan on making a power point or some kind of slide show for my going away party that gives good facts about Ghana. That way a.) I won't procrastinate about what I should be doing anyway and b.) so I won't have to answer as many questions at my party.
less than 5 weeks!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
To Do List
On top of preparing myself for my departure, I plan on doing all things Columbus/American that I can stuff into 2 months. Here's my list so far...feel free to add any ideas:)
- Spending time with friends and family (obvi)
- Music festival/concerts (Already plan on going to Coachella)
- Running! (I've heard from previous volunteers that other cultures don't put as much emphasis on working out and exorcise and will typically look at you funny)
- DRIVING...I just thought about how odd it will be to come back after not driving for ~2 years. I once was unable to drive for a month and getting back into it was kind of awkward.
- Anything technological. I am not sure what I will have access to, so I'm doing my best to wain myself off of internet surfing yet really enjoying it at the same time. Same thing with nice TVs, dvds, blu rays, etc.
- Cedar Point
- Starbucks
- Consumerism in general. It doesn't make sense to buy a lot of crap I don't need, but I figure I can soak it in by hitting up the local mall
- Drinking a little bit too much alcohol aaaand good beer aaand going to Happy Hour. I don't really plan on drinking during my service & its discouraged because it only makes you more of a target for crime and unwanted attention.
More Columbus-y:
- visit COSI, aka Center of Science and Industry
- visit the Columbus Zoo
- Jeni's Ice cream
- OSU - the shoe, new union, oval, RPAC...if I can get in
- Good local restaurants: Betty's, North Star...
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Sitting, Waiting, Wishing.
I received my invitation kit to serve on March 6th, 2010 (YAY!). I applied to serve sometime in January 2009. I graduated from The Ohio State University in August 2009. Basically, I put my life on hold from August 2009 to June 2010 to pursue my dream of becoming a Peace Corps volunteer. Thank goodness it was worth it! I had plenty of doubts & worries about my future during this past year, so to finally have a destination and invitation is beyond fantastical :)
So, to bring everyone up to speed, I figured I'd explain my application process experience.
I had been warned of the process being tough; every email, letter or phone call I got from any Peace Corps office reminded me to exercise patience and flexibility. I think one night I even had a nightmare where those two words were in bold, capital letters standing in front of me in a dark room, staring at me...ominously (as if they could stare any other way). Aaaaanyway, I applied during my senior year at OSU after I threw in the towel with job searching. Not to say that was the reason I applied; I spent around 2 months fighting the impending doom that was the economy and had no luck. It actually ended up being exactly what I needed to kick my fear of applying for the Peace Corps. Volunteering was something I've always wanted to do, but getting a job and settling down after college is the expected and largely traveled route. It was scary to do something different and not totally understood by friends and family. But with every interview and career fair I felt even stronger about what I knew was right for me. So I looked into applying and did it! I was interviewed about a month later, and it was a couple weeks after that that I got a phone call from the Chicago office. I had a nice chat with the handler of my file and he graciously nominated me to serve as a math or science teacher in Africa! I was informed then of my potential departure date: March 2010. I was very stoked that I was moving on in the process yet I didn't let myself get too wrapped up in it; I had 12ish months to find something to do and a nomination isn't a guarantee.
For those of you who don't know what the difference between nomination and invitation: I like to think of being nominated as qualifying for the Olympics and getting invited as the gold medal. Being nominated means they found a job/place that would best utilize the skills you bring to the table. It then puts you into a pool of applicants across the country that also fit well with the program you are nominated for. An invitation is the actual "job" offer for you to serve.
From there it was all a waiting game: I graduated, bid goodbye to my college friends, and picked up some random jobs to stay busy. I worked as a high school soccer coach, Cheryl's cookies employee, and currently as a sales person at running shoe store. I continued to volunteer & tutor so that I could build up my resume too. I made sure to check in with Peace Corps every month to see if I could get any more info on the status of my application and to let them know I was still very interested. Then, my program was pushed back from March to June. I was a pro at waiting, what was three more months?
I wish I could say that I fully enjoyed all the relaxing and the lack of responsibility that comes with not having a real job. Me not being invited to serve was a fear that always loomed in the back of my mind. Oh, I just imagined how devastating that would be; to waste an entire year of my life! That and it was hard seeing all my friends grow up and move on when I was staying stagnant. I was back at my parents house and working jobs that I didn't need even need a college degree for. I worked my butt off to get my chemical engineering degree and to waste it, even for a small amount of time, was all sorts of pride swallowing. I definitely experienced my fair share of ups and downs through it all, but emotional and/or mental breakdowns are the chocolate chips in the cookie of life! I'm pretty sure its supposed to be friends, which makes more sense, but I'm not worried about it ;) But again, it worked out which is really nice. I'm going to Ghana!!
So, to bring everyone up to speed, I figured I'd explain my application process experience.
I had been warned of the process being tough; every email, letter or phone call I got from any Peace Corps office reminded me to exercise patience and flexibility. I think one night I even had a nightmare where those two words were in bold, capital letters standing in front of me in a dark room, staring at me...ominously (as if they could stare any other way). Aaaaanyway, I applied during my senior year at OSU after I threw in the towel with job searching. Not to say that was the reason I applied; I spent around 2 months fighting the impending doom that was the economy and had no luck. It actually ended up being exactly what I needed to kick my fear of applying for the Peace Corps. Volunteering was something I've always wanted to do, but getting a job and settling down after college is the expected and largely traveled route. It was scary to do something different and not totally understood by friends and family. But with every interview and career fair I felt even stronger about what I knew was right for me. So I looked into applying and did it! I was interviewed about a month later, and it was a couple weeks after that that I got a phone call from the Chicago office. I had a nice chat with the handler of my file and he graciously nominated me to serve as a math or science teacher in Africa! I was informed then of my potential departure date: March 2010. I was very stoked that I was moving on in the process yet I didn't let myself get too wrapped up in it; I had 12ish months to find something to do and a nomination isn't a guarantee.
For those of you who don't know what the difference between nomination and invitation: I like to think of being nominated as qualifying for the Olympics and getting invited as the gold medal. Being nominated means they found a job/place that would best utilize the skills you bring to the table. It then puts you into a pool of applicants across the country that also fit well with the program you are nominated for. An invitation is the actual "job" offer for you to serve.
From there it was all a waiting game: I graduated, bid goodbye to my college friends, and picked up some random jobs to stay busy. I worked as a high school soccer coach, Cheryl's cookies employee, and currently as a sales person at running shoe store. I continued to volunteer & tutor so that I could build up my resume too. I made sure to check in with Peace Corps every month to see if I could get any more info on the status of my application and to let them know I was still very interested. Then, my program was pushed back from March to June. I was a pro at waiting, what was three more months?
I wish I could say that I fully enjoyed all the relaxing and the lack of responsibility that comes with not having a real job. Me not being invited to serve was a fear that always loomed in the back of my mind. Oh, I just imagined how devastating that would be; to waste an entire year of my life! That and it was hard seeing all my friends grow up and move on when I was staying stagnant. I was back at my parents house and working jobs that I didn't need even need a college degree for. I worked my butt off to get my chemical engineering degree and to waste it, even for a small amount of time, was all sorts of pride swallowing. I definitely experienced my fair share of ups and downs through it all, but emotional and/or mental breakdowns are the chocolate chips in the cookie of life! I'm pretty sure its supposed to be friends, which makes more sense, but I'm not worried about it ;) But again, it worked out which is really nice. I'm going to Ghana!!
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