All Volunteers Conference and Other Nonsense

This week, we had our All Volunteers Conference, where all the PCVs in Ghana got together at a hotel with the Peace Corps staff and had lots of sessions on how we can improve our work and new ideas and all that good stuff. Its being held at a nice hotel in Ho (yes, that is really the name of the city) in the Volta region. We have nice rooms with AC and a pool. Every night has basically been a huge pool party with lots of people ending up in the pool with their clothes on, some willingly and some not. Last night we even had prom. It was a lot of fun. People dressed up either in nice clothes or in ridiculous outfits, including a couple of guys in dresses. Some of the staff even joined us for the festivities and one almost became prom king. Tonight, we have a talent show, which should make for another night of ridiculous fun.

Right now though, I am in Accra because my skin hates Ghana. My skin is always getting irritated here and most recently I developed some absesses in my armpits. If you don't know what they are, they are lumps that form when bacteria enters your hair follicles and your body tries to attack that bacteria. Basically a big pocket of pus forms and sometimes heals itself and sometimes keeps growing until you have a doctor cut it open for you. I am lucky enough to have one that the doctor had to cut open. Even the doctors said it was an impressive one. Not sure if I should be proud of that, but I am a little. The cleaning process was very painful, but I feel much better now and I'm on antibiotics to make sure it heals well and doesn't spread. It was so painful all week that I sometimes avoided the pool and couldn't even dress up for prom (not that I would have gotten too dressed up anyway). I'm glad to have it taken care of and advise everyone to avoid absesses.

So anyway, that is my life recently. I hope I didn't gross out too many people with that story, but I like gross things and thought I should share.

Women's Group

I finally started a women's group in my village. I have wanted to do this for a long time but never knew how to get started. So, I finally decided to just gather some women who are motivated and start a health group with them. I am still trying to figure out how this is going to go and how I can make it sustainable. So far, we have been talking about nutrition and water. I talked about the importance of drinking borehole water over dam water because of parasites and the feces and stuff that get in dam water. I also gave them some colored strips of paper to measure small children's arms to see if they are malnourished. Finally, I talked to them about food groups and the importance of eating energy, protective, and body building foods in every meal. I want to try to have them teach other women some of the things we talk about at baby weighings. They seem to be learning and enjoying the group, but they are discouraged with a lot of the things I tell them because they do not have the money to buy some of the foods that I say they need to eat. Money is a serious issue here, but it is one that I don't have the resources to solve also. We'll see how it goes.

I am also preparing to hand in my proposal for fixing my clinic. I have all the estimates done and am just trying to finish the final copy of the application. So, hopefully soon you will get some information from me asking for donations to fix up our clinic. Other than that, I'm trying to get some projects started, but seem to keep running into clitches. Oh well, it all works out.

Sorry such a short post, but not much has been going on.

Rain Fun

A small group of us came to Tamale yesterday to meet about a boat project we are planning, which I will tell you all about if we can actually do it. However, of course we couldn't only talk about work, so we decided to enjoy St. Paddy's day a little and go out for good food. We went to Sparkle's, a restaurant with American food and decided to try out the recommended pizza. It was delicious, not quite American, pizza. Then, we came back and decided to be even more adventurous and try out the "washing machine" that a volunteer's parents sent her. The day was pretty overcast, but we decided to go ahead anyway because we wanted to see how this wonder machine would work. It is a small container that you put clothes, water, and soap into and spin around for a couple of minutes to wash your clothes. We weren't sure it would work but decided to try.

In the midst of the first load of laundry, the rain started. It didn't take long for the rain to become very heavy. So, there were 3 of us outside spinning this little washing machine in the pouring rain, pointlessly wringing out the clothes before hanging them in the pouring rain. Part of the way through this process, I decided it was a good idea to bathe in the water coming off the roof instead of taking a shower and someone else suggested we wash our hair in it. So, we got my shampoo and bathed (with our clothes on) and washed our hair in the water running off the roof of the house. Our smart friend who was inside brought us towels so we could take off the dripping clothes before going inside. Overall, I think it was all good decisions and would highly recommend bathing in the rain. Also, it seems the clothes were clean today, so the miracle machine works.

Life in Ghana is slow

I last said I wanted to hit the ground running after training, and I guess I have at least hit the ground trotting. Since I got back to site, I have started looking into our clinic and what needs to be done to get it openned. The buildings need a lot of work. Parts of the ceiling need to be replaced, doors need to be replaced, locks, window panes, the latrine needs to be completely rebuilt, and the place needs to be cleaned worse than any place I have ever stepped foot into. There were so many bugs that the keyholes in the locks were stuffed with bugs and we couldn't get the keys in some of them, which was fine because the keys actually don't work anyway. However, all this work is do-able if I can just get the money. So, I'm working on that now. We're going to the District Assembly monday to see how they can help. I'll keep you all updated on if and how you can help too. Hopefully this will be my big project. I'll be really excited if we can get the clinic up and running this year. Its sad that they've had these buildings for like 6 years and they've gone unused and therefore unmaintained.

Other than that, not much is going on. I'm happy to be back, but the hot season has officially arrived and it is pretty miserable. My friend just checked the weather report for today and said "not bad, its only 106 today". I've now taken to sleeping in my hammock on my porch. It's not too bad when I do that. The hammock is amazing, I kinda want to sleep in it all year. Only about 2 more months of this and then the lovely rainy season comes and I can start a garden.

I almost forgot about the crazy rain. Right now, it is the dry season and has been since like November. So, theoretically, we shouldn't have rain until like April/May. However, one night about two weeks ago we got this crazy rainstorm. An RPCV, Peter, was visiting me at the time, and in the afternoon we were like "it looks like it'll rain, but that's impossible in February". Then it started sprinkling and I stood out in it and enjoyed every drop, thinking that was all that would happen. Then it started pouring! I stood out in that til I was soaked and until the wind was so hard that the droplets stung my skin. When all the Ghanaians ran into their houses, Peter and I stayed out on my porch to watch in amazement and enjoy the storm. However, in our enjoyment, Peter went in my room for a minute and said "does it usually leak in your room?" I went in to see the damage, because it doesn't usually leak in my room, and there was a huge puddle on my floor and the same in my kitchen. After I close the windows tighter, it stopped the leak and then I soaked up half a bucketful of water from my bedroom floor. I waited til the next day to sweep the water out of the kitchen.

We were not the only ones to suffer from the rain though. Since it is the dry season, it is also the season to build mud houses. A lot of people had been building houses or molding blocks to build houses or building new rooms on their houses. They were all taking their time since the dry season was not even close to over. So, this surprising rain was extra devistating. It destroyed all the blocks and many of the rooms that were already built. So, everyone who was building had to either make repairs or start all over. I felt really bad for them, but they all took it in stride and just started over the next day. I've noticed they are working faster this time though so another surprise rain can't come and destroy it again. I love the carefree attitude Ghanaians take for a lot of things. Something like this would upset Americans for weeks, to the point that I would avoid some people until the anger passed, but Ghanaians were laughing about it the next day. I hope I can take that attitude home with me.

Madelyn Marie Caron Pictures

Big sister Emma

The newest member of Julie's family! Madelyn Marie Caron born while we were visiting January 17th at 3:12am 9lbs 2oz.

Mom's Visit and Life Since

As you have all heard already, Sheryl and my mom had a wonderful time while they were here (or at least I hope they were telling the truth). I was a little nervous that they would have trouble dealing with the inconveniences in Ghana, but for every ridiculous setback they put on a happy face and said "this'll make a good story". I was very happy to have them here and thoroughly enjoyed living in Ghana on an American budget for 2 weeks. However, readjusting to no AC or fans at my house was not the easiest. Since they already told most of their stories on here, I'm going to move on now.

Since they left, I hung out at site and relaxed for a while. I also went to the District Health Office and found out the reason we don't have nurses in our clinic is that the buildings are not up to par, so I hope that will be my firs big project. I also visited my friend Kim for her birthday and ate delicious chocolate cake she made for herself. I was a good friend and made her a gift bag out of the stuff my mom brought when she came. I think the crummy yo-yo was the highlight of the package.

Now, I am at in service training (IST) in Kumasi. We've been here since Sunday, having workshops all day everyday. These workshops have been very useful though and are motivating, so I hope to hit the ground running when I get back. We finally learned about funding and other projects we can do. We also have our counterparts with us, so now they have a better idea of what their role is and the things we can do. I'm excited about the new opportunities for projects.

IST is also fun because it is the first time the whole WatSan group has gotten together since training and its great to see everyone. We're having fun hanging out and coming up with t-shirt ideas to make just for fun. I personally think we have the best group of all the sectors, so this has been a really fun week. After, I'm going to visit my homestay family, which I am also excited about.

I miss all of you and hope all is well at home. Give Madelynn and William hugs and kisses for me and send lots of pictures of them, not just in email, I want pictures of babies on my wall!

More pictures from our visit!

Our gift of a rooster from the Chief, dinner for tomorrow!

Our gift from Sadiq's family dinner for tonight!

A walking safari at Mole' National Park above are 3 of the 8 elephants that we saw.

Julie holding the beautiful baby from across from her home.

She's 3 months old and adorable !