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.