School's Starting!

Wow, it's been a really long time since I've posted anything.  Sorry to the 7 people who regularly read my blog.  Anyway, I'll give you an update on my life, and hopefully I'll revisit the food blog soon.

End of July through 15th of August: 

My life revolved around learning Ewe.  Everything I heard about the Peace Corps language program before joining was very positive: it's total immersion, you become fluent, and it makes integration a lot easier.  I feel like by being assigned to Ghana we missed out on these opportunities.  Ghana is different from most countries I know about because the official language English is only used in schools and government.  Everyone who graduated from senior high school speaks English well, but at the junior high level and in the villages they don't speak English so well (if they speak it at all). 

Ghana is also very split concerning the local languages; the government only recognizes 7 local languages, but there are over 100 distinct dialects.  For example the language they speak in Bodada is Lelemi.  Everyone here speaks Lelemi, and it's in the Akan family of languages (same as Twi- the most widely spoken native language).  Lelemi is not officially recognized by the Ghanaian government because so few people speak it.  Most people of Bodada also speak Twi and Lelemi, but they all grew up speaking Lelemi, so it's their best language.  Because the government doesn't recognize Lelemi, the local language part of the BECE and WAECE exams (where students from small villages usually score the best) don't offer Lelemi.  0 of 13 students passed the BECE last year at my school.  The grading is from 1-9, 1 is the best, and anything below 7 is considered a passing grade.  I have my work cut out for me. (And so do my students because they don't even get a freebie from Lelemi being on the test.)

So beside the fact that I don't know the local language of my village, I couldn't even be immersed in Ewe (considered the language of the Volta) because we were in Eastern Region where they speak Twi.  The British were better at colonizing by the time they got to Ghana.  They had a basic idea of what worked and what didn't based on past colonizing ventures (North America and India to name the big ones).  The British did do some development (they allowed people at the local level to rule themselves).  Do I think what they did by creating a colony was good? No.  Maybe it's the same in South America, but I am under the impression that the Spanish did a better job eliminating local languages and people.  Do I think that's terrible? Yes, so many years of tradition and unique history have been erased forever from human knowledge.  Do I think the local language learning would be easier in a country with a single unified language? Absolutely.

Peace Corps sets the required level of language fluency at Intermediate-Mid, and in Ghana we have 5 weeks to get there.  Inter-Mid means that you can form complete, grammatically correct sentences and a sympathetic listener can understand you.  I learned vocabulary and grammar for Ewe so I could get around in a few different situations: extended introduction, market adventure, asking for directions and directing people, and travel scenarios.  I passed the test, and I actually had a pretty good grasp of Ewe (I didn't just memorize some dialogs like some do).  I can put my own sentences together which is more than most people, but I've been told I have a chip in my brain that helps me learn languages.  If Peace Corps graded me on my Spanish level, they would give me something like Advanced (and I'm definitely not fluent).  I guess different people of different ideas about language fluency *cough cough* Sam and Paul! Keep taking Spanish, you know more than you think you do! *cough cough*

Most Peace Corps programs have language and technical training together for the whole 10 weeks, but due to the Ghanaian school schedule and our arrival time we do all of our technical training (teaching) first, and then we move on to language.  Basically we had 5 intense weeks for each, and that forced us to cram really hard to pass the language test.  There was a lot of unhappiness in our training group related to the language training schedule.  But at the end of the day we teach in English, and even in villages, enough people know English that you can get by without any other language.  I do plan on learning Lelemi, and it's amazing how little Lelemi it takes for people to love the fact that I'm trying.  They always tell me I'm doing great, and I can only say the greetings right now.

16th of August: Swearing-In

This was a lot of fun.  Everyone's homestay parents, prominent members of the community, other PC volunteers, all of the PC staff, and even the US Ambassador to Ghana were all in attendance.  My mom, her sister, and I were matching in our outfits and I'll get some pictures up soon (there are some on Facebook already).  We only lost 2 people to early termination during training (really good compared to PC as a whole), and one of those people didn't even show up in DC.  24 of us swore in and took an oath (very similar to the President's Oath of Office) to accept our roles as Peace Corps Volunteers for two years.

That night I exchanged gifts with my homestay family.  They gave me a bunch of pictures from swearing in and other occasions, and I they gave me the cloth for the outfits to match my mom.  I had my mom (real mom from America) mail some stuff, and my family loved it.  They especially loved the candy, soccer ball (football here), perfumes, toy truck that makes noise, and baby clothes for Kwaku Peter Vanney.  They were a really good family, and we got along well.  I plan on visiting them sometime during my service.

17-19th August

Our whole training group went to Bunso Coco College for two days to learn about Peace Corps Ghana's other sectors Agriculture and Health.  This was a lot of fun because the sessions were led by current volunteers, so we got to meet more people!  Then we all went our separate ways to go to our sites.  I need to get going to school now, so I'll give you the rest of the updates later today.