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.