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