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 Ghana knowledge on you. Well, all the knowledge I know so far, which is pretty small. Why not, though.

Okay. First is language. I’ve mentioned Twi, which is the most popular and widely spread spoken language in Ghana. Every region seems to have their own language, but most will be able to converse or understand some Twi. I’m currently learning it and it’s not going too bad; not a terribly difficult language besides the new sounds. Oh and the English. So I was really excited that they spoke English and that all teaching must be in English. That was silly. It is not American English, it is Ghanaian English. I have to speak slow, use simpler words, and enunciate every word carefully. They understand and speak British accent English better so all the volunteers have been trying to use one without sounding totally ridiculous. When I did my practicum and taught a Ghanaian math class I swear every one of you would laugh if you heard my jacked up British accent. It did work though; the students understood most of what I said.

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 Ghana is fufu; google it for a picture. They pound cassava and plantain together into a mashed potato type form – just a higher consistency. It’s kind of like a sticky ball of starch. The way they pound it is pretty crazy too; they have a large stick acting as a pistol and a large wooden bowl type thing to be the mortar. One person pounds using the stick and the other sits and “drives” the fufu. Then they put it in a bowl and pour some type of soup over it. Ground nut soup is what I had, and it was pretty good but heavy. They use a lot of oil in their soups. The ground nut, which is peanut, had some similar tastes to peanut sauce you get with Chinese food. The soup usually has some meat like fish or chicken (fresh meat is awesome BTW). They also eat the fish bones and probably the other bones – it acts as their calcium. I can’t do it, I don’t even want to try. Then, to eat fufu, you must use your hands and break off a small portion of the big ball of starch and dip it into the soup and suck it into your mouth and not chew. I guess I should have mentioned earlier that they prefer to use their hands to eat. I have tried my best but there is a technique and sucking skills, haha. It’s not the most sanitary, but I’ve been just going for it. Aside from fufu, most other foods follow a similar recipe – a ball of some type of starch in soup, or boiled starch dipped into what they call stew (but I consider more of a paste), starch chips, etc. Starch is their best friend here: banana, plantains, yam, cassava, kenke, sweet potato and more. The food is also piping hot, which is good because it kills any bad germs but hard to stick your fingers in. I learned also that Ghanaians also don’t use measuring cups. They just add what they need and taste test to make sure. It’s kind of awesome, but ruined my lesson on teaching fractions based on measuring cups. Anyway, like I said earlier, everything is fresh; fresh tuna, fresh eggs, fresh mango (YUM), fresh guava, tomatoes, oranges and more. In fact, some yummy fruit grows in my host family’s back yard. Finally, Ghanaians don’t like to talk or socialize while eating. Each person usually eats alone and doesn’t say anything while they do. I’ve eaten alone for most of my meals so far and I’m not sure I will ever get used to it, haha. It just feels very awkward staring at the wall while sucking down hot fufu. But again, they are serious about their food.

Third, the noise. Ghana is not a quiet place. Most families have chickens wondering around their property, in addition to goats, cats, and dogs. Most of the goats I’ve seen are just strays wondering around and eating grass and wood. Every morning I have woken up to a rooster cock a doodle doo-ing. I thought this would be cool since I can’t say I’ve ever heard a real live rooster, I’ve always heard the fake noise they have on baby toys. It is actually not cool at all, I would like to strangle the roosters because they not only start at 4 AM but do not stop until around 8AM. Then, just randomly throughout the day they cock a doodle doo to each other. I could smack all of them, haha. Most people get up pretty early and start talking too. The other day I had some caffeine withdrawal, and you can only imagine what that is like combined with random noises. Ugh I was super bitchy that day. The cars are also noisy. Honking isn’t reserved for when the driver is angry, honking is for all purposes: to announce you are passing, to get people out of your way, to go around another driver, or to let another car know of your existence. It makes sense since there are no sidewalks, though. But it is especially bad for us abrunees (the name for foreigners), because they think we are going to lunge out into the road for no particular reason. Thus they honk twice as much. They also like to play the radio extremely loud at odd hours of the day, most of it is just talking and the other times they play some Jesus type music.

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 America. It makes for more dirty feet, but feels way more real. When I walk to school in the morning, I take what would be considered a random hiking path. The other volunteer didn’t appreciate jumping over a creek to get to school but it was fun to me. It seems you never know what you are going to get in Ghana and I enjoy the whole adventure in finding out. The pace in Ghana is slower, too. No one seems to be in a rush to do anything. I could not tell you how many people I’ve seen sleeping on their benches at the market, at their post on the side of the street or how many half built buildings I see. There don’t seem to be many type A Ghanaians which I say is super. It’s pretty funny to watch when a volunteer wants to know the plans for tomorrow and a Ghanaian trainer brushes him/her off and tells her to relax.

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.