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.