Merry Christmas Julie

Julie was certainly in our hearts this Christmas we missed her but were also very happy that she is following her dreams!!! Sounds like she and her friends made a very special Christmas for themselves!
Julie made the angel for the tree when in grade school and Paul and I talked and laughed about it, and our memories of the great deal of teasing every year when we place it on the tree. Once again our tree is decoratedwith many memmories and Julie was certainly with us when we did it. Happy New Year to all her followers.

Merry Christmas

Christmas here was obviously much different that at home, but my friends and I still made it a nice Christmas. I didn't feel like the holiday was really coming, being in a Muslim village and all, but on Christmas Eve, a bunch of us came to Tamale to celebrate together. There were 10 of us and we did stockings stuffed with things from packages we received from home and a grab bag gift exchange of cheap gifts. One of the volunteers here, Hannah, is also a very good cook and made a delicious lasagna dinner for all of us. We all sat around the table and had a family style dinner together. We also listened to christmas music and even watched some christmas movies. Overall, it was a pretty good Christmas. I still missed everyone at home and hope you all had a good holiday too!


On another note, I haven't been receiving a lot of letters that people have been sending me, so I am going to revert to the original address I gave people for sending letters. So, send letters to:

Julie Bordua, PCV
Peace Corps Ghana
P.O. Box 5796
Accra-North, Ghana

You can still send packages to either address though.

Life Update

I’m sorry it has been a while since my last entry, but the internet has been down a lot at the Tamale office and I don’t have a lot of patience for slow internet cafés. Things have been going very well though. I did some HIV/AIDS work in the community for a couple of weeks. I taught about the biology of HIV/AIDS and how HIV is transmitted in the junior high school. I did a bunch of condom demonstrations, and we had a testing day where 98 people got tested, which is really good. I was excited that it went so well.

All of the HIV work was in preparation for the testing day and for a film showing that we also had. The girl that I replaced at this site was a videographer and made a film about Kayayo when she was here. Kayayo is a term for when young adults travel to Kumasi or Accra (the big cities) to work in the markets. They do this because there is not much work for them in the north and there is not much money in farming like their families do. In theory it is a good idea, but in practice it can be very dangerous. They live near the markets in very poor areas that have high crime rates and frequent fires that destroy dozens of their homes at a time and often kill people. They also tend to find significant others while they’re there and may come back with an unwanted pregnancy or an STD.

Alicia, the girl I replaced, came to show the film and another RPCV (returned Peace Corps volunteer) who is a photographer, and took photos of Kayayo, came to show his photos with the movie. They also brought a crew of singers/actors to put on a show for the village before the movie. Literally half of my village showed up to the movie and then we had the very successful testing day after. It was a very eventful two days, but the village loved it and I was really happy to see that people here are very willing to work with me.

Another project I am working on is the Village Bicycle Project. This is an organization that gets bikes donated from the US and Britain and fixes them up for people living in poor villages in Africa. They sell them to the villagers at about half the price of a normal bike and have an 8 hour workshop to teach bicycle maintenance. It’s great for the villagers because they can farm in areas farther away and therefore have bigger farms. It also makes life easier in general, considering our closest market is at least a 20 minute bike ride away (if riding fast). It is turning out to be a lot of work already though, and I am just starting it. However, if I successfully do this, I think my village will love me forever.

Outside of work stuff, I went to Accra for Thanksgiving, along with about 70 other volunteers. The US Ambassador invited all of us to his house for Thanksgiving dinner. It was incredibly generous of him and a delicious dinner. We had all the traditional Thanksgiving foods, along with an open bar with beer and wine (and sangria that the Ambassador kept making). He also let us swim in his pool before the dinner. He also invited some people who work at the embassy and Fulbright scholars that are working here.

The peace corps was great about getting accommodations for us when we went there, too. We were all hosted by Peace Corps or embassy workers. I ended up staying with an embassy worker who I have a connection with from home (not by coincidence, I called him on my way down). It turns out that my pediatrician’s son works at the embassy, and since my mom is a labor and delivery nurse, she is still friends with my pediatrician. So, she got his contact information for me and I called him to say I would be in Accra. He offered to let me stay with his family at their house, which is gorgeous, and they were wonderful to me the whole time. I was worried that I would be sad to be away from my family on Thanksgiving, but it was actually a great holiday.

That’s it for my update, but I have heard that people also want to know what I would like for Christmas packages. People have done really well with sending good packages so far, but here’s what I can think of off the top of my head:
Candy (chocolate especially), cookies (not homemade, they don’t travel as well), parmesan cheese, mac-n-cheese packets, drink mixes, snack foods, spices, any food items you think will travel well, photos of all of you, news magazines (not celebrity gossip), and random surprises are always good.

Pictures

These are in reverse chronological order (oops), but I guess that goes with the layout of the blog.


At the end of Ramadan there is a festival where you go to prayer outside in the morning, eat tons of food, greet a million people, and there's dancing. This is me dancing with the women. In the dance, you stand in a line singing and clapping and when you get to the front you sort of run out towards the drummers and back, booty bump someone, turn around and booty bump the next person, and get back in line. It was a lot of fun.



This was my outfit for the prayer part of the festival and some of the greeting. We decided I should wear the traditional clothing. The dress is actually mine that I had made here, but the scarves are borrowed.



This is the prayer service outside in the morning. Its neat to see everyone praying together and dressed in the beautiful scarves.



Here's the new desk and chair the the District Assembly gave me.



Here's the new bed they gave me too. My counterpart and his friend brought this from the district capital on the back of two bicycles. I wish I could have seen it.



This is me with Cynthia, another fresh volunteer, at the after after party after swearing in. We started at a bar in the next town over and ended in this bar in our training village. It was a great night. And yes, I'm just wearing a two-yard piece of cloth, but it is much more comfy than the dress I had worn to swearing in.



This is my host brother and I at swearing in. My host mom had the dress made for me for the event. Terribly uncomfortable!



This is all the new volunteers going to the Northern Region. Don't we look good in all our ghanaian clothes?



Two of the best outfits at swearing in! Our host parents must have had a blast playing dress-up with us.



This is all the new WatSan volunteers in our glorious Ghana gear.



The Dagbani language group. Clearly the best language group ever!



The first time I wore the dress my mom had made for me was for church. After church, she paraded me around town to show off my beautiful new dress. Towards the end of training my mom would surprise me with random new dresses or skirts to wear. I began to feel a lot like a doll.



There's nothing like waking up early in the morning in an African village and digging a big hole in nasty smelly mud and filling it with rocks! We built a soak-away pit during training and it came out pretty good. Soak-away pits are built under the drain pipes of bathing areas in people's houses and are used to prevent malaria by preventing standing water where mosquitos can breed.



This is a beautiful waterfall we hiked to towards the end of training.



And here are the girls at the waterfall, excited to be doing something fun and not training related.

Starting Work

Sorry it has been so long since I last updated, I haven't been on the internet in a while. I'm in Tamale now to use the computers for some work and finally give you all an update. Its been so long that I don't actually know what to write. I guess I'll start by ending my stories from last time...

For the stove, the manager was very nice and had someone repair it for me the day I brought it in. When I picked it up, he said there was dirt blocking the gas flow and that it was fixed. However, at site it worked that night and stopped working completely after. So, after having about 5 men from my village trying to diagnose and fix the problem for two days, we decided the regulator was the problem and I had to come back to Tamale. I made it a quick day trip, and the man who sold it to me remembered me and gave me a replacement no problem. I went back, and finally, my stove was working properly. I've been cooking fairly good meals ever since, and even some very good ones (by my standards).

As for my bed, it also finally arrived. My counterpart and his friend rode two bicycles to the district capital about an hour bike ride away and brought back the bed frame and mattress on the bicycles. Unfortunately, I was not at my house when they got back to see their amazing maneuvering to manage that, but I'm very impressed and happy that they did it for me. The bed is very nice and they also gave me a new desk and chair the next day. I think I have nicer furniture than most PCVs.

Also, my birthday was almost two weeks ago, so I am now the old age of 24. The weekend before my birthday two of my PCV friends came to visit my site to celebrate with me. It was nice to have people visit and my village loved it. We didn't do much celebrating, since there is not much to do at my site, but we hung out and played cards and enjoyed each others company. I also made them my favorite meal so far, which is spaghetti with meat sauce (the meat is canned corn beef, but I swear it's really good). However, while there, they ruined my reputation of being good at Dagbani. They are both more outgoing than I am, so they love to be loud and talk a lot, whereas I like to listen more and talk when I know I'll say something right. So, when we were greeting everyone, it was decided that I don't understand dagbani but my friends do. I expected this and was prepared, and within a day or two, everyone forgot, but it was funny at the time. However, I told them they aren't invited back until I'm fluent, haha. My language skills are actually coming along though, and I think I might ask one of the teachers to tutor me.

Ghanaians do not celebrate birthdays because they don't usually know when they were born. So, my actual birthday was very uneventful, just another day. I got a lot of phone calls and texts from home though, so that was nice. I explained birthdays to my counterpart, but he still didn't really get why we celebrate them.

Other than that, I finally started doing actual work. I started my census of the community. So, I've been going house to house asking how many people live there, what their most common health problems are, if they have a toilet, if they have mosquito nets, where they get their water and if they filter, and if they know about family planning. I'm going to use this information to find out where to focus my work. So far, it seems they need everything, so I'm still not sure exactly where I'll start, but there certainly won't be a shortage of projects. This takes up about 3 hours everyday, which is nice. I also like it because I am really meeting everyone now.

Hmm, I also met with the guinea worm volunteers in my community. They are very nice and eager to work with me. This was a good meeting for me to go to because I learned who to go to for organizing the women, which seems like it will be difficult. The women are ridiculously busy everyday since they do like 90% of the work.

Other random stuff... I rearranged and cleaned my kitchen and covered the hole the mice use to enter. However, they made another hole and forced me to start using the poison. I've killed two so far, and hope there are no more. This country is also increasing my hatred of bugs, but they seem to love me. The rainy season is dying down, which makes me sad, so it's starting to get hotter. Harmattan is coming though, which is supposedly the coolest season of the year. So cold that "people won't even leave their house. Sometimes they'll even be inside until 9:30" and "you'll have to wear a pullover". These things make me laugh, like I do when the ghanaians are shivering and wearing coats when it rains and I'm comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt.

And now for the closing dagbani lesson, a conversation with me that ghanaians think is hilarious:
A: I'm cold: "Wari malima"
A: Are you cold: "Wari maliaa?"
B: No, I'm not cold: "Aayi, wari bi malima"
B: I like the cold a lot: "M borila wari pam!"

Site Update

I am in Tamale, buying more things for my site and exchanging some faulty things I bought. I spent the last two weeks at my site, just trying to adjust. I like my community very much, but I am still getting used to it. It is harvest time now for groundnuts (peanuts), so the village is very busy and most people are at farm during the day. I have been trying to walk around a lot and just greet people and attempt to use the language. I am having a very hard time understanding them, but I can usually express myself. As I sit with people and just listen though, I am learning to hear it a little better. I still spend most of my day on my porch, but I'm working on this and will get out more. Now that I have my own space, I am a little in the American mentality of wanting to spend time on my own and in my own house, which Ghanaians think is very strange because they never just sit alone. My goal when I go back tomorrow is to start spending a few hours out of my house everyday, and just hang out with new people in the community.

One thing that has made it hard to spend time out of my house, though, is that the stove I was so excited about, that I bought in Tamale last time I was here, doesn't work properly and got continually worse over the two weeks. It has two regular size burners and a small burner, but only the small one has been working and it won't even boil water. So, meals that should take about a half hour to prepare take over two hours. Basically, I was spending 3-4 hours cooking bad meals every day. I brought it with me to Tamale and plan to argue with the manager where I bought it until he gives me a refund or a new one that works.

Some things I did at site in the past few weeks were... visit two nearby markets, meet some higher ups in my district assembly, meet some guinea worm workers, and meet the cheif of my village. For the markets, there are two markets that are each about a 45 minute bike ride away. I hope to get good enough at shopping that I can only go to market once a week, but that is hard when you don't have a fridge to store food and this heat makes food go bad so quickly. So, maybe I'll go to both markets, since they are on different days. I like market anyway, it is fun to shop around and see all the surprised faces when I speak Dagbani. Also, market talk is like the only Dagbani I am fairly good at. Meeting the higher ups at the district assembly was good. Found out there is a bed ready for my house, but it is in Tamale, so I don't expect it anytime soon (still have a mattress on the floor, so I'm good for now). It is interesting how in Ghana, its even ok, and actually very good, to just stop by and greet someone like the District Cheif Executive. I know you don't know what that is, it is an important job, but I can't think of an equivalent job in the US. I greeted some of the health workers in the district who I might work with or ask for help, so its good that they know who I am now and I can go see them anytime. Finally met my chief (he doesn't live in our village but comes by like once a week or less). He is very nice and has called me to check how things are going. I found out the two biggest goals of my community at the moment are getting electricity and getting a market, which I would be incredibly excited if they achieved even one of those goals.

Overall, a pretty good two weeks, but nice to have a break and see other Americans for two days. Sorry no pictures, but hopefully next time. I still have to put ones up of swearing in, you will love them, and I will get to it. From now on, updates will probably be every two weeks or even less frequent than that, since I will be at site most of the time and getting out of site is difficult.

Oh yea, I realized I am very behind on my dagbani lessons for you all, so here are a few market phrases:
I am going to by ... how much? : N yen dala ... ala?
That's too expensive : Di mali shaara
Please lower the price : Jaande, booima
Please, give me a dash : Jaande, twahima
May God bring you more business : Naawuni ni larigi

Site

So, I've been at site for a few days now, and it still hasn't quite hit me that I will be there for two whole years. I like my house, especially that it is now bat free! It seems even the lizards and mice have mostly gone away. However, I do have toads now, but only outside, on my porch, and in my toilet room. So far, I have been mostly cleaning and unpacking. My house is nice and big, so there is lots to clean, but luckily there is also lots of storage space, so organizing is not so bad. My kitchen is the big project. Since I am replacing someone, there is tons of stuff in there. Also, since she moved out about a year ago, it is all filthy. I am now trying to clean all of it, set up the kitchen, and then I will get rid of stuff I don't need, which will be a lot. She had lots of random stuff, and some stuff is just gross because it sat for so long. I'm very lucky to have everything she left though, because now I don't have to buy many kitchen supplies, just a propane tank and burners. So far, I have been cooking on a coalpot, which was fun for about a day and is very old now. It takes me longer to start the fire than it does to cook most of my meals. However, I have yet to start it completely alone because a young girl, Aisha, always sees me doing it and comes and helps (and brings hot coals to help) and yesterday a high school aged boy did the whole thing for me twice. I love that people think I need help, haha.

Now, I am in Tamale, getting some big supplies I need for site. Today I bought a bike and a bunch of food, since you can barely get any food in my village. So far, my mom's package with mac n cheese and pasta sides has been a total life saver! Now I'll have real food though. Tomorrow I am going to buy the propane tank and burners and figure out some way to get it all back to my site. Should be interesting.

And here are some pictures. Sorry some are very low quality, but I was in a rush, meaning wanted to get this done in less than a few hours. Enjoy!


The front of my house, doesn't it look huge? Puumaaya is the dagbani name of the girl I'm replacing and it means happy stomach.


My porch, where I spend the majority of my time


The back of my bedroom, with a wardrobe and desk


The front of my bedroom, notice the nice mirror that was left for me


My bed, or mattress on the floor that will be taken away any day now, should get a real bed soon


My kitchen, it will be great once it is cleaned


My bathing area: no, there isn't a roof, and yes, the walls are crumbling, but it is very nice to watch the sunset as you bathe


My bucket flush toilet (don't be fooled by the useless back part), cleaned and sit-worthy


My almost useless sink, almost because there is no running water, but if I pour water in the sink it does go down the pipe to outside


Storage area in the leaky room, maybe I'll make use of it during the dry season


The canister I use to fetch water (and for now keep water in, since I don't have a water barrel)


The front of the meeting room that is in my house but anyone in the community can use (notice the missing ceiling panels where it leaks badly)


Back of the meeting room


My backyard, endless farms


Kids who visit me everyday and give endless entertainment even though I barely understand a thing they say


Cooking my first meal on my coalpot, probably the only time I was happy to use it

Officially a PCV

Yesterday was swearing in and we are all now officially Peace Corps Volunteers! Since my last post, we had our language exams, final assessments, and final interviews. All went well for all of us. I even scored above the minimum requirement for language. All the assessments went very well and I am excited to finally be finished with training. Swearing in was a great ceremony with some good speeches, drumming and dancing, and skits from each language group. All of our homestay families were there to support us and so we could thank them for everything they did for us. It was a very nice ceremony, and very ghanaian, with dancing interludes when people had been sitting too long. Now, we are on our way up to site. It will take a few days because we stopped in Accra to get some of our things and then we have to buy a lot of things for our houses on the way. Should be an interesting next couple of weeks getting settled in and making my house into a home. Good news though, they are currently getting rid of my bats before I get there! I'm excited and nervous to get started. I'll write more next time I get on here, but don't have much time now. Hope to put pictures up soon.

Site Visit

I just visited my site for the first time and spent five days there. It was enlightening and intimidating at the same time. First, I’ll tell you about my community. It is fairly small, about 1600 people, almost all farmers. Everyone was very nice and laid back. They were all happy to greet me, but also willing to give me space and let me just hang out at my house a lot. My village is absolutely beautiful, with a lot of open space and farms everywhere. They literally farm almost every foot of land that is not covered by a house or building. So, the whole village is rows of plants, mostly maize, with paths throughout and housing compounds scattered throughout. Since it is a mostly Muslim community, most families have multiple wives and they all live in one compound. So a compound is a circle of mud huts with thatch roofs connected by a mud wall, creating an inner courtyard. I’ll get pictures of it on here at some point to make this clearer. We do not have a chief right now because the chief died and they cannot replace him until they have his funeral. But, they cannot have his funeral until the funeral for the regional chief, who died 7 or 8 years ago, is held. That funeral has not been held yet due to political issues, but supposedly will be held soon. Confusing, I know. The village has a primary school and a junior high school, which is great. It has a clinic, but no one to work there, so it is not functional. And, that is about all that is there. Oh yea, and there were about 2 latrines in the whole village and no soak away pits that I saw, so I already have some projects in mind.

As for the location of my village, as the crow flies, it is very close to Tamale, a major city. But, as the tro-tro rides, it is about 1.5 to 2 hours away from Tamale due to the not so well maintained roads leading there and the not so direct route taken to get there. To get in and out of my village, there are two tro-tros per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and two tro-tros per day out of the neighboring village that leave about 1 hour after the ones in my village. These tro-tros all go to Tamale and I can go wherever I want from there. So basically, I will have to plan carefully if I want to travel from my site because I might not get back into my site that same day. This shouldn’t be a problem though, as Peace Corps has an office in Tamale where I can stay for free when I need to.

Now, onto my house. I am lucky to have my own house. It is at the edge of town, but not far from town at all. It is a yellow cement house with some murals on the outside that were painted by the previous volunteer. The house has four rooms, three of which are mine. The fourth is a community meeting room. It also has a “screened in” porch, but the screens are falling apart, so its not really screened in anymore. The four rooms of the house are all in a row, connected by the porch. The rooms on the two ends, the meeting room and one of my rooms, leak very badly when it rains, so I won’t really be using that last room. The two rooms in the middle do not leak at all and are pretty nice. One of them is a kitchen with tables and lots of supplies left by the previous volunteer and the other is my bedroom which has a wardrobe and a desk in it and should have a bed by the time I get there. On the porch, there is a long table and I take chairs from the meeting room for people to sit. I have a bucket flush toilet in a small bathroom off my porch, so I don’t have to leave my house to use the toilet, which is very nice. Outside, I have a bathing area with a nice view of all the farms and open space. A bathing area is a small area, maybe 4’x4’, with mud walls to about shoulder height and no roof, where you go to bucket bath.

While at site, I did not do a whole lot. My counterpart brought me around to meet all the elders and opinion leaders. It’s interesting meeting elders here because in this culture you have to squat down when greeting an elder to show respect, and you cannot ask an elder how they are doing. So, it’s them asking all the questions and you answering “naa” repeatedly. Also, when they greet you, they ask a bunch of questions. A typical greeting might be: Good morning, how is home, how is work, how is your father, how is your mother, how is your husband, how are your kids, how were your travels, and how did you sleep. For each thing, the response is “naa” until they ask how you slept and then it is “gombiene” and you don’t really wait for them to finish the sentence before saying “naa”. And, when you say naa, they can respond with naa, so sometimes you have a mini conversation of just saying naa back and forth. It’s fun. As for the language, I really did not understand anything but the greetings, so I am going to have to work hard on that and hope to get a tutor at site. This is totally normal though, so I’ll end up learning quickly, I think/hope. Whenever I was home alone, I would sit on my porch and go over my language notes, and a bunch of kids would come to hang out with me. They were really cute and entertaining. They also were trying to help me with the language, which is cool. I learned a few words from them and they learned some English from me. We also visited the nearest functioning clinic, which is actually a very nice clinic. There are two doctors who work there, which is very unusual, and a bunch of staff. It looked very busy, but the doctor who was working was very nice and introduced me to the director as well. I’m hoping to do some work with them because they will be very knowledgeable and I was just impressed by the clinic. I hope it actually runs as nicely as it looked.

I hope that entry was not too long, but there is still more I left out that I’m sure I’ll talk about when I actually move to site. Overall, I liked my site very much and think I will be happy there.

Pictures

Here are some pictures, kind of in reverse chronological order. Hope you like them. I'll try to put pics up more regularly from now on.


President Obama and President Mills at the Accra airport. Absolutely amazing!


My future puppy if all works out. So cute!


Elyse, Beth, and I wearing matching shirts by pure coincidence. I typically match someone in my group everyday by pure coincidence.


Traditional dancing performed for us on field trip with Cynthia and Zoe joining in.


Learning a traditional dance with about 100 kids watching us.


The house I stayed in during vision quest (view from the courtyard shared with the landlord and his wife)


My host family. I live with the grandmother, and my host sister and her daughter live in Accra.


My roommate, Katherine, for the first two weeks and my substitute mom while I'm here for two years. We were at the Ambassador's house for a welcome party.

Animals

I thought I should dedicate a blog post to my recent animal friends.

While we were on field trip, my mom's dog had puppies! I was waiting for this the whole time I have been here and they are soooo cute! Of course I am in love with them already and they have not even opened their eyes. They are about a week and a half old and just adorable. There are only two, and I have claimed one and my friend Elyse claimed the other. We are hoping to bring them to site when we move there. First, we are going to see if it will be appropriate during site visit (dogs aren't so popular in the north) and then we will deal with the travel problem. My mom is excited to give me one though and I am really excited that I might have a puppy to keep me company during my first lonely nights at site.

My next animal friend is one that I met this morning. I woke up at 4:45am to the sound of plastic rustling on my desk where I keep my bread. From my experience last summer in Boston, I knew some creature was eating my bread. After a few minutes of getting the guts up to find out what this creature was, I turned on the flashlight to look. I still could not tell exactly what it was through the mosquito net, but could see a creature scurrying around my desk. Another minute of guts building and I lifted my protective net and saw that it was a mouse, thank god. The mouse had no where to go and wanted to escape, so it went on the floor and ran back and forth for a minute. Then it climbed my doorway about halfway up and went splat on the floor. It was fine and did this about 5 times while I sat on my bed and watched, laughing. Then it climbed across my second bed (not the one I was on) and onto my luggage and tried to climb out the window, which was closed. This was also entertaining from my protective mosquito net covered bed. I finally decided I had to do something and went and woke up my mom and sister. They came in with big sticks chasing the mouse around the room trying to kill it but could not catch it. It was pretty hilarious to watch my sister with murder in her eyes at 5am chasing a mouse. It was still there at lunch time, but my mom assures me that she is buying poison to "kill the rat", which is actually a small, kind of cute, mouse. It was a very entertaining morning though.

Obama's Visit!

Yesterday was an amazing day! President Obama was only in Ghana for one day and we got to see him and listen to a speech right before he boarded Air Force One to leave. We went to Accra in the morning, got our tickets to the event, and headed to the airport for the event in the afternoon. We were in a crowd of probably over a thousand Ghanaians and Americans going to this event, but got basically front row seats. There was a section for American citizens about 30 feet from the stage where President Obama and Ghana President Atta Mills both gave short speeches. We had to wait a few hours for them to arrive and the event was only about 30 minutes, but it was amazing. They welcomed the presidents with drummers and dancers. President Atta Mills gave a short opening speech that we could not really hear, and then President Obama gave about an 8 minute speech in which he gave multiple shout outs to Peace Corps. Of course we went crazy everytime he mentioned us. It was a great speech about development in Ghana and how America will be their partner in every step. After, he went around and shook hands of course, and Michelle shook hands too. I was not quite aggressive enough to get a handshake, but it was still great, and I shook hands that shook his, totally the same, haha.

After, 8 of us stayed in a hotel type place in Accra, near an area where tons of ex-pats live, so it was very American-like. We went out to two bars with current PCVs and had nice cold beers, enjoyed American music and saw lots of obrunis. At one bar they were even having a tribute to Michael Jackson by showing a ton of his videos on a projector outside. It was a lot of fun, but we were out 'til about midnight, which is very late here, and I am very tired today. Totally worth it though to see the city nightlife in Ghana, even though I will very rarely get to Accra from my site.

Now for the next Dagbani lesson: To ask someone how they are doing you say "agbihiya" which literally means how did you sleep, and they respond "gombiene", which means they are doing well.

update 3: maybe meet Obama?

We found out today that we might get to meet Obama, or at least see him, on Saturday when he is here. It will be a quick 30 minute event before he leaves, but if we can get transportation, we will be there. I'm so excited! That's all on that though, now for real updates.

We just got back from field trip, which included going to the Northern Region, kind of near where my site will be, and then to the Volta Region, where I had my vision quest. It was really fun except for the extremely long tro rides. We were the only group to not get a peace corps vehicle for travel, so we had a chartered tro driver and an interesting tro. The first day was an 11 hour ride to the Northern Region, followed by meeting two chiefs, and eating amazing chilli for the 4th of July. It was nice to see the Northern Region for the first time and get a slight taste of what it will be like. It looks more like stereotypical Africa up there, which is nice, and people are less in-your-face, which will also be nice. But, it is hotter. While there, we got to meet people from the Carter foundation who are working to eradicate guinea worm, which will be my main project. We also got to see some of the ways they are trying to prevent it, with filters and platforms to stand on while fetching water. Lastly, we played a fun football game against the local team and gave a guinea worm presentation at halftime. It was a great experience for me because I got an idea of some things that I can do at site.

We got there on Saturday, and on Monday we got back in the tro and spent about 10 hours traveling on the worst roads in Ghana to the Volta Region. I don't think my butt will ever feel the same after that trip. Once there, we met people who are working with 3 NGOs to promote family planning, empower women, teach about HIV/AIDS, prevent domestic violence, and other great things. It was also very interesting and pertinent to what we will be doing, but we were so exhausted that I kind of just wanted to get to bed. The next day, we went to a girl's site in that region and met the clinic nurse, saw dramas performed by students about pertinent health topics, and saw traditional dancing. It was a lot of fun and again gave good ideas of what we can do at site with the dramas.

Today was the last day of field trip and we spent another 9 hours 9 in the tro on the worst roads in Ghana. But, now I am in an internet cafe that is working so far and I got my phone unlocked, which I've been trying to do for a couple weeks. So, its all good. BTW, since my phone is unlocked I might have two phone numbers soon, but I'll let you know about that when the time comes.

Well, I was going to try to put pictures on here, but apparently the cafe I am at does not allow you to use a pen-drive, so I guess I'll have to try that some other time. For now I'm going to try facebook. Wish me luck.

Dagbani phrase of the day is the name of my favorite meal here, which they don't have in the north so I have to enjoy it here while I can. It is called red-red in English and is fried plantains with beans. In Dagbani it is "tuya ni boraade chimda", literally beans and plantains fried.

Update number 2, written on 6/25/09:

I am starting to like homestay even better now that the town is getting used to us and my mom is serving me better food (or I’m getting used to some Ghanaian food). I am called obruni much less now and people are not as fascinated by us, so they leave us alone more. Some highlights of homestay so far are: playing football with the guys in town, learning some Ghanaian dancing and drumming with about 50 kids watching, drinking cold orange juice with the queen mother, and dancing in front of the chief and most of the town at a festival. For this festival, we were planning to meet the chief in the next town for their festival, but the community here saw us walking with firewood (the traditional gift for the festival) and told the chief that we were coming to see him. We could not disappoint the whole community, so we waited while the Peace Corps people went to get schnapps to also bring to the chief and then went to the festival in our town. The community waited for over an hour for us to show up and then made us unexpectedly dance in front of them. It was fun, but mostly funny. Also, I am apparently part of the queen mother’s family, which means I got a ride to church on Sunday (yes, I went to church) in a Mercedes and then went to her house after for snacks and COLD orange juice.
Anything cold here is amazing! We are obsessed with this treat called fanmilk, which is like frozen yogurt in a bag. There are three flavors but chocolate is my favorite, it is like frozen chocolate milk and then the end is like cold chocolate milk, both delicious! I even had an “ice cream cone” the other day, which was like sherbet on a cone and I am obsessed with having cold fanta whenever I can. In case I ever complain about running out of money here, it went toward cold items and my phone.
Which brings me to my next story: I got a phone. This was a project and a half and is still not finished. So, we heard that the phones were cheaper in the official store. After asking many people for directions, we finally got a cab there and found out that they are cheaper, but they are locked and cannot be unlocked. This means that we could only use one service provider and never switch, which is very inconvenient here. So, we went to another store to buy unlocked phones. Well, those were locked too and the system to unlock them was apparently down. After a long hassle, we bought the phones anyway. Later, we find out that our phones will not receive calls or texts. A nice guy at an internet café fixed mine for me, but I still cannot receive international texts, which definitely sucks. I’m hoping to get that fixed when I get the phone unlocked. We’ll see, but for now, feel free to call me, I will put my number in my next mass email.
Today, my language group went to one of the neighboring towns to meet a Dagomba family, who speak Dagbani. We just showed up at their door unexpectedly and asked if they would help us learn Dagbani and, being typical Ghanaians, they invited us right in and were excited to help. It was great, except that we found out we were pronouncing some things totally wrong and they had other meanings the way we were saying them. This language is going to be very hard. For example, there are four words that sound very similar that mean: I reached my destination, thank you, my wife, and giving someone praise. Very different meanings, but very similar words. Luckily, the family said we could come over like once a week and talk with them, so this should help a lot before we get to site and realize we know nothing. They also gave us Dagomba names based on words that sound like our names, and mine meant something like “no one likes me”, clearly fitting for me.
And by Meredith's request, the new word is Gafarra, and it means excuse me or is what you say when you approach someone's house and want to know if they are home. The response is Garima.

First update from Ghana

Sorry this is so long, but here goes...

Hello Everyone!

I’m sure you are looking for updates on my Ghana adventures. We are just now getting into the intense part of training. For the first two weeks, we got an orientation into Ghana, which included learning that nothing is ever on time and patience is seriously a virtue. We spent the first week or so in Accra, the capital, where we were introduced to all the Peace Corps staff and mainly got to know each other. During that time we went on an “Accra Quest” in which we were split into groups and sent into Accra on our own to find certain places. It was fun to learn about the public transportation here and actually be on our own for a while. My group went to the National Theatre, which is a beautiful building, and to a tro-tro station. We finished early so we decided to have a snack under a nice tree, but it started “raining”, which meant that it was barely sprinkling, and a worker at a bar (called a “spot” here) invited us to sit in there to get shelter from the rain. One thing about Ghana, and I think most of Africa, is life stops when it rains. I LOVE when it rains because it cools everything down, but they think that I am weird for that.

After our week in Accra, we were sent out on a “Vision Quest”, where we went to spend 5 days with a current volunteer in our sector to see what they do and how they live. We were supposed to travel to this alone too, but there were 7 of us going to the Northern Volta region, so we traveled in a group to that too. That region has the worst roads and the worst tro-tros in the whole country. It was ridiculous. I took a full day to get to my host’s site and by the time I got there my skin and clothes were a completely different color because of all the dust. I had to take three tro-tros and a car to get to her site. It was quite the adventure. In her site, she has the bare minimum requirements for housing. She has a bedroom, a kitchen, a courtyard, a latrine, and a bathing area. However, the courtyard is shared with her landlord and his wife who live in the room next to her and the latrine and bathing area are shared with about 15 people. Everyone in the town was very nice though and I enjoyed my time with her. The town has no electricity and is very small and remote. They have a primary school (elementary school), but the teachers only show up about once a week or less, so we went and taught a couple of lessons for fun. They have a clinic, too, which is good for such a small town. We got the kids to plant a Morenga garden next to the clinic one morning before school, which was a good health/environment project. Morenga is a tree that grows very nutritious fruit and can be used for many different things, and every part of the tree can be used. It is one of the things that peace corps is pushing a lot now to promote good nutrition and it is easy to grow around here. I also learned how to cook on a coal pot and learned a couple of good recipes. Overall, it was fun and I got to realize some of the struggles I will have at site, so I will be prepared to deal with those when I start.

Then, we stayed in a hotel in Kukurantumi, a couple hours outside of Accra, for a few nights. During this time we had our site interviews, learned some survival Twi, and had a lot of free time. On those nights, we also went out to a spot a lot and got to really hang out socially. It was a lot of fun, and don’t worry mom, I only had one beer and mostly drank fanta. I don’t see the fun in getting drunk when you have to be up at 6am everyday. Oh yea, I forgot to mention that I have not slept past 6:30am since I was home, and typically wake up by 5:30 without an alarm, it’s kind of scaring me a little bit.

Now, we finally found out where our sites will be, who our neighbors will be, and what language we will be learning. I will be in the Northern Region, in a village called Voguu. It has a population of about 1600 and has no electricity in the whole town. I am learning the language Dagbani. There are four of us learning that language and I will have quite a few close neighbors. The other trainees that will be close to me are really great and I am guessing the volunteers who are already there are great too. I will be doing a lot of work with guinea worm and HIV/AIDS, so I am very excited about that. I will have my own house, which will be a cement house with a zinc roof. It obviously has no electricity, but has a bucket flush toilet and a bathing room to take bucket baths (which I really like, by the way). It has a bedroom and a living room. I don’t know about the cooking facilities, but I hope to get a little propane stove because I am not too far outside of a major city, so I will be able to refill the tank when I need to. Also, I’m almost an expert on a coal pot by now, haha.

We also are finally at homestay. I am living in an interesting house. My host mom is an older woman whose children are grown and live in Accra and Canada. There are no kids. She also rents rooms to a teacher and a driver. The teacher is a 22 year old girl who speaks English very well and is fun to talk to and hang out with. I am very glad she is living here. The driver is never around because he drives a taxi, but he is a nice guy about my age as well. Soon I hope to start cooking with my host mom so that I can learn to cook Ghanaian food, and learn to cook in general. Since I am still a guest, she makes me eat alone in my room, which bothers most people, but I kind of like it and don’t know if I am going to ask to eat with her anytime soon. Tonight I played football (soccer) with a couple other trainees and a ton of the guys in the town. The guys are really good and we looked like fools, but it was really fun and one of the other girls actually scored a goal. It was so nice to finally do something active again and I think I will keep playing with them a few days a week. Oh yea, one bad thing about my homestay is that there are GIANT cockroaches in my “toilet”, which is a toilet type structure over a latrine, so I had to sweep a huge cockroach into the latrine before I could squat over this thing to do my business. And for those of you who do not know what a latrine is, it is a huge hole in the ground that you build an outhouse over with a hole in the bottom and you poop into the hole in the ground, obviously a very pleasant place.

So, that is my life in Ghana thus far. I am sure there are a million things I left out, but I’m also sure you are tired of reading by now, so I will stop. Hopefully if I start updating more often, I will have less to write each time.

I miss you all, but I am very happy here and am looking forward to living here for two years. Please send me letters or cards. Packages are nice too. I was so excited when I my first letter, which was from Auntie Paula (thank you!). I am trying to write letters too, but it costs 1.5 Ghana Cedi to send a letter and right now we are making 2 Ghana Cedi per day, so don’t expect too many letters while I am in training. You can send me emails, too. I’ll leave you by saying “tin nya taba”, which means see you later in Dagbani.

News From Julie

Hi,

I am doing well. I am having fun and getting ready to really start training now. We are on our way back from vision quest where we got to stay at someone's site for about 5 days. I was at a site way out in the middle of nowhere with no electricity or running water. It was fun and opened my eyes to a lot of the issues I will have to deal with. I will be fine with the living conditions, but we'll see about dealing with the community issues because there are many. I am excited to find out where my site is next week. We have our site interviews in the next couple of days, and then we find out where we are going and start learning the language. I don't have much time right now, but thought I should let you know that I am doing well and having fun. I dont have my address book with me so I don't have other email addresses, so please spread the word that I am doing well and I am happy. Mom, you can update my blog if you want. Oh yea, and I think I am getting a phone sometime in the next week or two so I will let you know my number and all that.

Love and miss you all!
Julie




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News From Ghana

I just found this email from the Peace Corps FINALLY!!!



Hello to all friends and family of Peace Corps Ghana. I sent thise-mail to you last week. Unfortunately, I have learned that many of you did not receive it due to internet problems here in Ghana. We have created this gmail account to send e-mails like this only until the problem is fixed, so please do not respond to this address, as I will not be checking it regularly. We can receive e-mail at our Peace Corpse-mail address, the problem is limited to sending e-mail only. Thanks for your patience.
Greetings! The 67 newest members of our Peace Corps Ghana family arrived safely in Accra yesterday morning. More incredibly, every piece of luggage arrived as well! They all are a bit tired from the trip, and we have them fully engaged in the first phase of training here in Accra, so Iwanted to take this opportunity to let you know that although you may not have heard from them yet, they are doing well. During the first few weeks they will be very busy and will have limited opportunities to access the internet and phones. Usually after the first week or two, our Trainees begin to establish regular communication with family and friends back home. Yesterday, they enjoyed a traditional welcome ceremony with staff and religious leaders, and then uttered a collective groan as they had to fill out yet more medical and administrative paperwork. Today, they are completing the required paperwork, touring our offices, and obtaining photo ID cards. This weekend, they will have a chance to explore Accra, Ghana's capital, under the watchful eye of some of our more experienced Volunteers. On Monday, they will attend a welcome reception at the U.S. Ambassador to Ghana's residence (Ambassador Teitelbaum) and will then enjoy their last evening of "hotel-style luxury" before venturing out to some of the more rural areas of Ghana to visit currently serving Volunteers. They will see first hand what kinds of experiences await them ten short weeks from now when they "swear-in" as Peace Corps Volunteers. Peace Corps Ghana staff are very energized to have the new group here and we are looking forward to getting to know them during the next 10 weeks of training. Thank you for providing moral support to your friends and family members as they embark on their Peace Corps service here in Ghana. We are very excited that they have arrived safely and in good spirits! I hope that you are looking forward to sharing the experience with them. All the best, Mike Koffman
Michael KoffmanCountry DirectorPeace Corps -
GhanaP.O. Box 5796
Accra-NorthOffice
Tel. 233-21-773-831
Mobile Tel. 233-27-755-0027
mkoffman@gh.peacecorps.gov

Travel update

Julie left for Philadelphia Tuesday morning and has officially begun her Peace Corp orientation.She has met up with other voluntees who are very supportive and lots of fun. They are driving to New York where they will take a direct flight to Ghana (11 hours). Her flight leaves at 6PM so once again when you think about her say a little prayer for her and all of her new friends. They are beginning a wonderful life changing experience.

One day left !!!!

I really wanted to make sure that I could actually sign on and post without Julie's help and I did it! As you know we will be leaving at 5:30 Tuesday mornig and Julie's flight is 7:15am. So when you wake up Tuesday morning think of her and say a little prayer. I'm sure this will be a wonderful experience. Lucky are the people that Julie will be living and working with!!!

Welcome to my blog

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog of stories from my adventure in Peace Corps Ghana. To answer the questions that everyone has asked me repeatedly so far, I am leaving June 2, 2009. I will be in Ghana, but I do not yet know what part of the country I will be in for the 27 months. In case you didn't catch that, it is a 27 month commitment, and I am not sure if I will be visiting home at any point, but you are all invited to visit me at some point after the first 6 months. I will be a Health and Water Sanitation Educator, which can mean many things depending where I am placed. I will probably be working on the eradication of Guinea Worm, which is a water born parasite that is common in Ghana. I will have internet access sometimes, but it will not be fast or reliable. I will update this blog as much as possible, so keep checking it to keep up with my life. I'll hopefully put pictures up here too when I can. While I'm gone, I'll miss all of you and will greatly appreciate letters, emails, and packages. Mail will be slow but it'll make my day everytime I get letters and packages, so keep them coming! My mailing address, at least for training, will be:
Julie Bordua, PCT
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 5796
Accra North, Ghana
West Africa
I hope to get a cell phone while I'm there, and when I do, I will let you know my phone number. If you get a calling card, it won't be too expensive to call me and we can keep in touch that way as well.

Below are two letters from the Peace Corps to family and friends of volunteers. Feel free to read them.

June 4, 2009
Greetings from Ghana. My name is Mike Koffman and it is my privilege and honor to serve as the Peace Corps Ghana Country Director. My number one goal and a responsibility that I take very seriously is to lead the Peace Corps Ghana program in a manner that allows all of our Volunteers to have safe, enjoyable and productive service experiences during their time in Ghana.
I am sure that many of you are sending sons, daughters, mothers and fathers off to West Africa with mixed emotions. It is only natural. As I recently mentioned to one Volunteer: “If your family was too happy about you going far away for a long time I would be more than a bit suspicious!” I hope that, after the initial shock of your loved one’s decision, you have been able to strike that balance where your feelings of pride and excitement are equal to or greater than your initial reservations and worries.
Let me assure you that the Peace Corps staff here in the Ghana works very hard to support each of our 140 Volunteers in many areas. We have administrative systems in place to ensure that living allowances arrive on time. We have two excellent medical officers, one MD and one PA, who are available 24 hours a day to provide emergency and routine medical attention. Our programming staff works closely with Ghanaian project partners and communities to find safe and productive sites for each of our Volunteers.
The safety and security of each of our Volunteers is the number one priority for our entire staff. For that reason, we have a Safety & Security Coordinator, whose sole mission is to address any issues that may impact the safety or security of any of our Volunteers. While nobody can eliminate the risk of every day life activities, we do all that we can to make our Volunteers aware of cultural norms and differences and aware of risks specific to Ghana so that they can make good decisions and avoid trouble. I am happy to report that we have had great success in this area.
We tell each Volunteer that it is Peace Corps’ responsibility to provide each of them with safe and healthy sites, work to do and the support to do it. Each Volunteer must assess his or her own professional commitment and personal behavior to ensure that he or she is productive and maintains a safe and healthy lifestyle.
The Peace Corps experience is a very personal one. We encourage Volunteers to keep family and friends informed of their activities through letters, internet and telephone calls. However, we encourage Volunteers to test their independence, creativity and resourcefulness during this rare opportunity to walk in someone else’s shoes. We discourage visitors from home during the first six months in Ghana so as to encourage each Volunteer to engage totally with his of her new community.
If you need to contact your loved one in an emergency situation, please call the Office of Special Services at Peace Corps. The Office of Special Services will then contact me immediately and we will notify our Volunteer and either pass a message or notify the Volunteer to contact you, as appropriate:
.
24 hours a day, including weekends and holidays:
Toll free 800-424-8580, Ext 1470
Direct 202-692-1470
In closing, let me thank you for “loaning” your loved one to the people of Ghana for the next two years. Having been a Peace Corps Volunteer myself, I feel confident in telling you that your sons, daughters, mothers and fathers have embarked on a journey that will provide them with incredible opportunities for personal growth, job satisfaction and an enhanced perspective unavailable to many.
If you have any questions for me please do not hesitate to send them along. I will try to respond to you in a timely fashion (mkoffman@gh.peacecorps.gov).
Most sincerely,
Mike Koffman
Country Director
Peace Corps
Ghana

Dear Families,
Greetings from the Ghana Desk in Washington, D.C. It is with great pleasure that we welcome your family member to the 2009 Ghana training program. During the past year we have received many requests from Volunteers and family members alike regarding travel plans, sending money, relaying messages and mail, etc. As we are unable to involve ourselves in the personal arrangements of Volunteers, we would like to offer you advice and assistance in advance by providing specific examples of situations and how we suggest they be handled.
1. Irregular Communication. (Please see #3 for the mailing address to Peace Corps' office in Accra the capital of Ghana). The mail service in Ghana is not as efficient as the U.S. Postal Service. Thus, it is important to be patient. It can take from three to four weeks for mail coming from Ghana to arrive in the United States via the Ghanaian mail system. From a Volunteer's post, mail might take up to one to two months to reach the United States depending upon how far the Volunteer is from the capital city, Accra. Sometimes mail is hand carried to the States by a traveler and mailed through the U.S. postal system. This leg of the trip can take another several weeks as it is also dependent on the frequency of travelers to the U.S.
We suggest that in your first letters, you ask your Volunteer family member to give an estimate of how long it takes for him or her to receive your letters and then try to establish a predictable pattern of how often you will write to each other. Also try numbering your letters so that the Volunteer knows if he or she missed one. Postcards should be sent in envelopes--otherwise they may be found on the wall of the local post office.
Volunteers often enjoy telling their "war" stories when they write home. Letters might describe recent illnesses, lack of good food, isolation, etc. While the subject matter is often good reading material, it is often misinterpreted on the home front. Please do not assume that if your family member got sick that he or she has been unattended. The city of Accra has medical and dental facilities, and there is a Peace Corps Doctor and nurse there as well. Most Volunteers can reach Accra in less than one day's time. Many Volunteers also have access to a telephone (most have cell phones!) so that they can call our Medical Office. In the event of a serious illness the Volunteer is sent to Accra and is cared for by our Medical Unit. If the Volunteer requires medical care that is not available in Ghana, he/she will be medically evacuated to South Africa or the United States. Fortunately, such circumstances are very rare.
If for some reason your communication pattern is broken and you do not hear from your family member for at least one month, you should contact the Office of Special Services (OSS) at Peace Corps in Washington at 1-800-424-8580, extension 1470. The OSS will then call the Peace Corps Director in Ghana, and ask him to check up on the Volunteer. Also, in the case of an emergency at home (death in the family, sudden illness, etc.), please do not hesitate to call OSS immediately, so that the Volunteer can be informed in person by a member of Peace Corps/Ghana staff.
2. Telephone Calls. The telephone system in Ghana has reliable service to the United States. While few Volunteers have access to a telephone (land line) at their sites, more and more Volunteers are choosing to buy cell phones. Some sites have clear cell phone reception and others do not. In any case, most Volunteers have access to a phone (land line or cell) when they travel to a larger town within a few hours from their sites.
When dialing direct to Ghana from the U.S., dial 011 (the international access code) + 233 (the country code) + the number. Volunteers generally set up phone calls with people in the U.S. in advance, and have the distant party call them, which is much less expensive than calling the U.S. from Ghana. You may also choose to call your volunteer on their cellphone, if they decide to buy one in Ghana.
The Ghana Desk in Washington, D.C. usually calls the Peace Corps office in Accra at least once a week. However, these calls are reserved for business only and we cannot relay personal messages over the phone. If you have an urgent message regarding travel plans, etc., you can call the Desk, and the message will be relayed.
3. Sending Packages. Parents and Volunteers like to send and receive care packages through the mail. Every package mailed to the PC Accra P.O. box is opened by Ghana postal staff in the presence of a Peace Corps staff member to verify that the contents match what is listed on the (small green) declaration form. For example, it is therefore not appropriate to write "Religious material inside" if there are no religious materials inside.
You may want to send inexpensive items through the mail, but there is no guarantee that these items will arrive. We do not recommend, however, that costly items be sent through the mail. Even though most Volunteers eventually get local post office boxes, you may always use the following address to send letters and/or packages to your family member:
Julie Bordua, PCV
Peace Corps
P.O. Box 5796
Accra-North, Ghana
West Africa
It is recommended that packages be sent in padded envelopes if possible, as boxes tend to be taxed more frequently. Packages can be sent via surface mail (2-3 weeks arrival time) or by ship (4-6 months). The difference in cost can be a factor in deciding which method to utilize. For lightweight but important items (e.g. airline tickets), DHL (an express mail service) does operate in Accra, but costs are very expensive. If you choose to send items through DHL, you must address the package to the Country Director, c/o Peace Corps, 26 West Cantonments, Switchback Lane, Accra, Ghana, West Africa. The telephone number for the Peace Corps office in Ghana is (233) 21-775-984, should DHL need this information. If you send the item to the Country Director, no liability can be assumed. For more information about DHL, please call their toll free number, 1-800-CALL-DHL, or visit their web site at www.dhl.com.
Sending airplane tickets and/or cash is not recommended. Certain airlines will allow you to buy a prepaid ticket in the States; they will telex their Accra office to have the ticket ready. Unfortunately, this system is not always reliable. Many airlines (eg., KLM, Air France, Sabena, Ghana Airways) fly into Accra, but each has its own policy on pre-paid tickets. Please call the airline of your choice for more information. You could also send tickets via DHL as mentioned previously. However, Peace Corps will assume no liability in the event of a lost/stolen airline ticket.
Trying to send cash or airline tickets is very risky and is discouraged. Volunteers are meant to live modestly and not accept any additional financial resources to support their service. If your Volunteer family member requests money from you, it is his/her responsibility to arrange receipt of it. Volunteers will also be aware of people visiting the States and can request that they call his/her family when they arrive in the States should airline tickets need to be sent back to Ghana.
We understand how frustrating it is to communicate with your family member overseas and we appreciate your using this information as a guideline. Please feel free to contact us at the Ghana Desk in Washington, DC, if you have further questions. Our phone number is (800) 424-8580, ext. 2326/2325, or locally at (202) 692-2326/2325.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Brown, Country Desk Officer
Evan Baker, Country Desk Assistant