tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86479492599769700402024-02-20T10:21:32.430+00:00Peter's BlogI am a Peace Corps Volunteer stationed in Bodada, Volta Region, Ghana. The opinions expressed on this blog are my own and are not the opinions of the US Government or Peace Corps.Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-12827935140649336342013-12-04T20:42:00.002+00:002013-12-04T20:43:31.055+00:00Ghana's Eastern Corridor Road<div class="MsoNormal">
Thanksgiving Travels</div>
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After a great Thanksgiving in the Upper East and a weekend in
Tamale, I traveled back to Bodada along the infamous Eastern Corridor Road. Connecting
Accra to Tamale via the Volta Region, the ECR is a traditional African highway.
You'll experience coastal savannah, the might Volta River and its accompanying
valleys, the mountains of central Volta, and the foothills that lead you into
the great North Ghanaian savannah. Contracts to pave the road have been signed
for years, but more than half of the road is surfaced with dirt. It is
considered by many to be one of the worst major roads in Ghana. Here's how it
went:</div>
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<b>MONDAY</b>: I woke up
at 4:00am and got a ride to the taxi station. Then I walked from the main
station to the Metro Mass station; I arrived at 4:45. The first bus only had
seating for the first 4 rows of people waiting, and I was in the 6th row. The
rest of the tickets were sold as standing room only, but I didn't want to stand
for 2+ hours in the early morning. I left the station at 7:00 on the 2nd bus,
and we arrived in Yendi at 9:10. Yendi is not a known as a peaceful town because local chieftaincy disputes have
resulted in gunfire as recently as Christmas (and probably more recently).
Peace Corps doesn't let volunteers spend the night there, but I didn't have any
problems walking to the Bimbilla station or waiting for my next car.</div>
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The Benz (atro-tro made my Mercedes that fits about 30
people) left Yendi at 10:15. At 10:22, the car broke down. We waited 45 min for
another Benz to come, and when it showed up there were already 8 people in the
car. I didn't want to push and shove my way into one of the seats, so I boarded
last and had to stand for 45 min until enough people got off and I had a seat.
The car arrived in Bimbilla at 1:40pm, and I found a car going to Nkwanta. </div>
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Unfortunately no one told me that this car was the 4th car
in the queue going south. Most cars that go south stop at Damanko (on the border
of the Northern and Volta Regions),or Kpassa (firmly in Volta), but this one
was going straight to Nkwanta so they put me in it. After an hour, I realized
what was happening, but I had already bought my ticket. I wasn't going to be
able to make it home in one night, and I had only one option that didn't cost
too much money. I called up Linda, a Health PCV in Jumbo, just south of Kpassa,
and she graciously accepted me as a guest. At 3:40 we left Bimbilla, and I eventually arrived in Jumbo
at 5:45pm. Linda cooked quiche. It had real Velveeta cheese in it. And she had
an extra bed for me to sleep in. Linda is awesome, and her site is good. Highly
recommended.</div>
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<b>TUESDAY</b>: I woke
up at 5:00am and left Linda's house by 6:15; I walked to the station in Kpassa.
I boarded another Benz heading to Hohoe at 7:00, but the car didn't leave until
9:50. Thankfully I had plenty of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" podcasts
to listen to, and I'm now caught up on current events. After sweet-talking the
driver into taking me into town, we arrived in Jasikan at 12:30pm. I lucked out and my car to Bodada left right
away. By 12:50, I was finally home, and I was greeted with rain.</div>
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<b>Thoughts</b>: First,
the road isn't <i>that</i> bad. In the
Northern Region between Yendi and Damanko it is pretty rough, and I can see how
it would be even worse in the rainy season. Honestly though, it isn't that much
worse than the section between Hohoe and Jasikan. </div>
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Second, I think it might be possible to go
from Tamale to Hohoe in 1 day, but one would have to be lucky. By catching the
first bus, I think you could get to Bimbilla by 11:00. Then by taking cars to
Damanko or Kpassa and then to Nkwanta instead of getting a straight car to
Nkwanta, it might be possible to get to Hohoe by 6:00pm. However, this assumes
that you get cars relatively quickly, 7:00 or 8:00 is probably more realistic. </div>
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Third, Northern Ghana is hotter than the South, but it's also drier. I was
sweating constantly, but it dries so it's not nearly as oppressive. </div>
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Fourth, my site is awesome. In my opinion,
equatorial jungle mountains are superior to savannah grasslands (In other
words, the jungle where Simba lived with Timon and Pumba > the Pride Rock
plains). </div>
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Fifth, podcasts and music make traveling here bearable. I would have struggled
a lot more without my iPod.</div>
Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-85967053451522222132013-08-07T11:25:00.002+00:002013-08-07T11:31:47.693+00:004 Months Later...<div class="MsoNormal">
Since I'm a horrible procrastinator, I now have the pleasure
of trying to sum up the last four months of my life. Obviously this will lack a lot of detail, but
I'll try to expand where I can.</div>
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<b>April<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The best part of April was our All-Volunteer Conference
(April 11 - April 15), but before I went to All-Vol, I visited my homestay family
in Anyinasin. It was the first time I
had seen them since I swore in August.
We were all happy to see each other except Kwaku Peter Vanney who, much
to everyone's enjoyment, was afraid of
me. My family did comment on my hair,
and they described it as "very beautiful." For those of you who don't know, I had been
growing quite a mullet (the back hadn't been cut in almost 1 full year), and
many Americans honestly said it was not too bad at all. I also had been growing a full mustache for a
while, rather it was full beside the part right in the middle which still
hasn't come in yet. They liked that too,
but said it made me look much older. It
was really fun seeing them, but getting ready for bed brought back some of the
anxiety I had during training. It wasn't
anything I couldn't handle, but it made me reflect on how far I had come as a
Peace Corps Volunteer and person. I went
straight from their house to All-Vol.</div>
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All of the Peace Corps Volunteers in Ghana come together
once a year for training conferences, administrative talks, and to relax and
meet the new volunteers. Aside from
Thanksgiving (which might not happen this year because there's a new American
Ambassador to Ghana) All-Vol is the only time when everyone gets together. During the day (8am - 5pm) everyone is
gathered together in conference halls, and we watch a lot of
presentations. But at night the fun
really starts. The evening activities
were Game Night, Date Auction, Talent Show, and Peace Corps Prom. </div>
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Game Night was kind of a dud, and most of the volunteers
(myself included) who arrived on Thursday chose to enjoy some nice, cool adult
beverages with their fellow volunteers.
This relaxed setting somehow managed to transform itself into a dance
party sometime after 11pm and lasted into the morning. (This is really late for most volunteers, and
I personally go to bed around 9 or 9:30 and wake up before 5am.) </div>
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The Date Auction was and usually is a huge success. This year all of the proceeds went to an NGO
in Kete-Krachi which rescues and then supports child slaves who work for the
fisherman along the Volta River. I don't
know how common this practice is throughout Ghana, but it is a serious problems
in some of the larger fishing and market towns.
I am pleased to announce that over 2000 Ghana Cedis were raised, but I'm
not sure of the actual figure. The
headlining date is usually "Thai Dinner for Four with CD Mike," and
this year the our new Director of Management and Operations (DMO or Money Man
for short) Mike L. decided that to add a date for four at his house to the
mix. He hinted that ribs could be
prepared, but it wasn't decided. Since I
wanted to show support for the children and I'm not afraid to look stupid for a
while, I decided to offer a date to barber my hair and mustache. My date ended up going for 51GHC (about $27),
and CD Mike even bid on it. There are
pictures on Facebook documenting the carnage, but I ended up with two different
horrible haircuts: one for Saturday and another for Sunday. The first was a zig-zag "reverse
mohawk" buzzed (no guard) off the center of my head, and the right half of
my mustache was shaved off, also. The
second was a complete buzzing of my head except for a couple of patches, and
then a circle was shaved (with a razor) into my head. On Monday morning I promptly shaved my whole
head with a razor and started clean.</div>
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The Talent Show was very enjoyable, and I'm always amazed by
the talents and variety of people we have in Peace Corps Ghana. I elected not to participate as I had already
been embarrassed enough the previous night.</div>
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Peace Corps Prom happens on the final night of All-Vol, and
this year's theme was "Wild Thing."
I hadn't really planned anything, but I hoped on a bandwagon with some
of my friends to cut down some plantain leaves and form a skirt with them using
belts. I'm not sure what we were
supposed to be exactly, but we were certainly wild. Before prom started PCV Media recorded a
Harlem Shake video, and you can see me right up front dancing with my
plantain-skirted friends. Prom was a lot
of fun, and because everyone is old enough to drink alcohol, there was a lot of
dancing. It was a nice way to wrap up
the weekend. Overall All-Vol was great: we
came, we ate, we drank, we danced, I got to meet a lot of new people, and I got two unique haircuts.</div>
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I returned to Bodada just in time for the final days of Term
2. I graded the end of term exams and
chatted with the teachers. The rains
were just starting to come, so I planted some green beans and made them a
trellis to climb. The bamboo fence I
asked some of my students to build around my garden worked great, and kept out
all of the goats and chickens. However,
nothing could be done to keep people from closing the gate after throwing trash
into the burn pile, so in the end all of my pepper plants and green bean plants
were eaten by goats. I haven't bothered
to plant anything again because I'll still have the same problem. I'm going to get some of my students to
adjust the fence so the burn pile is not fenced in. Hopefully that will keep people from
unnecessarily opening and not closing the gate.
I'm going to try sweet corn as soon as the fence is fixed.</div>
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Just before May, I got a horrible phone call saying that a
PCV named Dani Dunlap had died. We
haven't gotten the autopsy reports yet, but all signs point to severe
dehydration from cerebral malaria. She
was taken from her site to Accra by Peace Corps vehicle, and she passed away
shortly after arriving in Accra. I
didn't know Dani very well, but I talked to her a couple times. She was very loved by everyone who knew her,
and she was described by many people as a Super Volunteer. Super Volunteer is a term that we joke about
here as a way to describe someone who goes above and beyond all expectations,
but no one was joking when they described Dani that way.</div>
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<b>May<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Dani's memorial service was held in Accra on May 3 at CD
Mike's house. It was a large event, and
almost every PCV in Ghana was there to show their support. Dani's homestay family from Anyinasin came,
and a car full of Ghanaians came from her site in Central Region. Also in attendance was Dani's mother who held
up better than anyone else in the audience.
She thanked everyone for the love and support they showed Dani during
her time here, and she urged everyone to take malaria medication. The next day she flew back to Atlanta with
Dani. Seeing and talking to Dani's mom
was the hardest part for everyone because it was impossible to not imagine
one's own mother. I haven't missed a
dosage of my malaria prophylaxis, and I don't know how I could forget after
what happened to Dani.</div>
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I turned 24 the day after Dani's memorial, and I had
originally planned to have a birthday party at the beach in Keta. My party turned into a small group of people
going to Keta and relaxing there. It was
a nice change of pace from the grief we had all experienced. It was highlighted by one of my non-Peace
Corps, American friends in Ghana, Pat who works with a tilapia farming group on
the Volta River, when he brought all of the fixings for s'mores. Ghanaian chocolate doesn't melt as easily as
American chocolate (because if it did it would permanently be melted) but we
managed to stuff ourselves full of s'mores anyway.</div>
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The next big event for me was Training of Trainers (TOT). I applied to be a trainer for the 2013-2015
education volunteers, and at All-Vol it was announced that I had been selected as
a trainer. I applied because I enjoyed
training more than most, and I thought that my perspective and advice would be
very useful to someone who is training to be a PCV teacher in Ghana. On my application, I said I would be a good
trainer because "I
am a unique blend of friendly, Iowa farm boy and informative, experienced Ghanaian
PCV." I elaborated more in
the rest of my application, but I thought that was a pretty good line.</div>
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Back to the point, TOT was a weeklong event where we tried
to plan all 10 weeks of training. I was
brought on with three other volunteers to be PCVTs (the T stands for trainer),
and the PCVTs' jobs are to provide technical and cultural training to the PCTs
(this T stands for trainee) and support PCTs in their times of distress. Essentially we teach the newbies how to teach
effectively in Ghanaian classrooms, mind cultural differences, and give them a
shoulder to cry on. The role of PCVTs in
training is crucial as we link the Ghanaian training staff to the new trainees,
and the trainees often see us as the most credible people around (because we
are American and we have done what they are doing). During TOT we planned as many of our sessions
as possible and laid out the CALENDAR OF TRAINING EVENTS. I thought there was a lot of potential in
TOT, but there was simply not enough time to execute the plan to its full
extent. Two weeks would have been much
more effective than one week, but the staff was worried about the amount of
school we would be missing as teachers. </div>
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Third term started during TOT, and being a trainer means
that you miss 7+ weeks of a 12 week term (for JHS, the SHS term is
longer). I was worried about this too,
but since my district shuffled all of the teachers last year, my school has a
surplus of teachers. The form three
students write the BECE in June, so they are not in school after the first two
weeks of the term. After the form three
students left to write their exams, the teacher to student ratio was 1:7
(without me). I got my counterpart and
good friend Godwin to teach my classes while I was away.</div>
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Also, I got a package from my Aunt Tammy and her daughter's
family (the Berrys). It had all kinds of
wonderful foods inside like summer sausage, real maple syrup, parmesan cheese,
and canned roast beef. I know what
you're thinking, "Canned roast beef? Gross." WRONG.
It's delicious. Before I left for
training, I went to Mount Afadjato and cooked a taco dinner with Kate and
Cara. I haven't had any Mexican food
beside guacamole and salsa since I arrived in Ghana, and oh my, was it
good. We rolled and grilled our own
tortillas (with the help of Cara's small girl), cooked rice with lime and
cilantro, made refried beans, fried the roast beef with taco seasoning and lots
of cumin, and we had giant bowls of pico de gallo and guacamole. I can't even begin to describe how amazing
this tasted, except that it was so good I didn't even mind the lack of cheese
and sour cream. So a big thank you to my
family in Washington state. I love you
all, and so do Kate and Cara.</div>
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<b>June<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The trainees flew into Accra on June 5, and they arrived at
the Training Center in Kukurantumi in the Eastern Region on June 9. My fellow PCVTs (April - Biology/Integrated
Science, Kate - Deaf Art, and Jim - Physics/Chemistry) and I (JHS
Math/Science/ICT) met them at Kuku, and the next day we started sessions. The first week of training was mostly
technical training: teaching them about Ghanaian schools, students, and what is
expected of them as teachers. This week
went pretty well, but we were all tired from the long work days of
presentations during the day and preparation in the evening.</div>
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The second and third weeks of training were practicum. The JHS teachers were split into pairs and
sent to four different schools in the Kukurantumi/New Tafo area. Most of them taught 10 different lessons each
week, and only a handful had any teaching experience. They all had plenty of room for improvement,
and by the end of practicum everyone was so much better at teaching that I
could hardly believe it. I'm sure I went
through the same transformation, but it is hard for me to imagine how awful I
must have been trying to teach Ghanaian students for the first time. It's easy to think that you can just show
examples and that is teaching, but it's not.
You need to guide the class from the foundation and work step-by-step until
you reach your goal. Then once you reach
your goal, you can give examples, and you should give lots of examples. I digress, but I was impressed by the
improvements I saw, and I can say without reservation that all of the JHS PCTs
are more than capable of teaching in a Ghanaian classroom.</div>
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<b>July<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The fourth week of training was filled with more technical
training, but as we were already finished with practicum, there was less
interest in our sessions. We tried to
make them as engaging as possible, but there's only so much you can do with government
mandated sessions. Kate and April both
left to attend to matters at site, so Jim and I had lots of good bro time. It's unfortunate that Jim is already back in
the USA and that we didn't meet sooner because we got along really well. He'll definitely be one of the friends that I
keep after Peace Corps, and I hope we'll get a chance to hang out in the
future. We also celebrated the Fourth of
July with the trainees, and Jim and I brought hotdogs to the party. They are actually quite easy to find in
Ghana, but very few Ghanaians eat them except as a luxury item for breakfast
(think English sausage). The Fourth of
July party was a hit, and we sang (if you can call me shouting lyrics out of
key singing) lots of patriotic songs. I
think the trainees really enjoyed it too, and it was good to show them what you
can do when you get together and eat with other PCVs.</div>
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After the fourth week of training, Jim and I rode to Accra
in a Peace Corps vehicle; all I can say is that traveling by private car is
about 100 times better than traveling by trotro. I was going to Accra for my midservice
medical checkup and dental exam, and Jim was going to stay in Accra one night
before going back to his site in Central Region to wrap things up. Going into Accra, Jim told me about the
proper way to travel to the PC Office (ie. where to alight, where the taxis
are, which ones to take, etc.), and I was determined to have a good time in
Accra after not really enjoying it in the past.
It has always been okay, but I never really relaxed and figured things
out. This time I enjoyed everything and
learned about where you can go for cheap but good food in Accra (the Metro TV
canteen is a goldmine). </div>
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After we dropped off our things, we ventured into Osu with
Nihal for pizza, burgers, and beer. Jim
read this book that the trainees were given called <i>African Friends and Money Matters</i>, so we all three discussed
it. The book compares and contrasts the
differences in money and savings between Europe/America and Africa. The gist of it is that social value and
giving is more important in Africa and that system works well as a means of
surviving, but in our globalized world where so much wealth and power is in
Europe and America, the system fails.
Americans are brought up to value savings and personal work, but most
Africans are brought up to value sharing wealth and giving to those in need
(because there will probably be a time when you are also in need).</div>
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I only skimmed it during training, but it's an excellent
book, and I will pick up a copy next time I am in Accra. Nihal offered an interesting perspective on
the whole situation, and he has a pretty amazing story. He was born in South Sudan, and lived there
for 11 years before moving to Houston to live with his uncle. He's a great person and I don't know his
story well enough to tell it now, but there was an article written about him
fairly recently. I'll try to find the
link after writing this.</div>
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I passed my midservice medical exam, but I did learn that I
had a fungus living on my skin. It
wasn't doing anything bad to me, but it was causing my skin to break out in a
rash. I thought it was heat rash for a
long time, but the PCMO told me it was fungal.
I've been battling with it since then, and I think I've finally beaten
it.</div>
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After my time in Accra I finally traveled back to Bodada,
but I had an unfortunate surprise waiting for my arrival. I was expecting an overjoyed dog named Bobby
to be waiting for me at my house, but when he wasn't there on the first night I
thought maybe someone else was looking after him. Jean-Paul (the pastor whom I live with) had
traveled, so I assumed Bobby was spending the night somewhere else. The next morning, I asked my neighbor where
Bobby was, and she told me that the pastor sold Bobby to some people in a
village to be used as a hunting dog. As
you can imagine, I wasn't too happy about this, so I called the pastor to ask
him about it. He confirmed that Bobby
had been sold for 50GHC to some people in Patricia's (the school girl who
boarded at the house and cooked for us) village. Truthfully, Bobby was not my dog, but when
the pastor brought him here one year ago, he told me that the dog was to keep
me company because he heard that Americans like dogs. I was still annoyed by this, but I understood
why he sold him: he didn't know who would take care of him when we were both
traveling? Well, the answer is that I
would have found someone to feed him while I was away. And the pastor also considered Bobby to be
his property because he paid for him.</div>
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When I got to school I asked Patricia if this was all
true. She said that it was mostly true,
but that Bobby was dead now. The people
who bought him said that he wouldn't eat their food, so they killed him and ate
him. I thought she was lying at first,
but she was telling the truth. Now it's
true that I did eat dog once in Ghana, and I've eaten cat on multiple
occasions, but I've never eaten one of my pets.
More than anything I was just shocked by this information. I raised that dog since he was a puppy and
someone else sold him off to be slaughtered.
It's kind of a big deal. Every
Ghanaian that I talked to was shocked that the pastor didn't even consult me or
anything. And when I told the other
teachers at EP about it, they told me that they were wondering where he had
gone. Apparently, Bobby had been going
to school every day looking for me while I was in Eastern Region. That pretty much broke my heart. I don't think I'll be getting any more pets
in Ghana.</div>
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I did get back to school in time to proctor and grade the
end of year exams. I was highly
disappointed in the performance of my students, and grading the exams was a big
reality check for me. I had spent the
last 5 weeks surrounded by Americans, and I had romanticized Bodada EP JHS, my
teaching ability, and my students' abilities.
This was a reminder that I still have a lot of work to do.</div>
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During this time one of the trainees, Emily, came to Bodada
for a job shadow. She had a great time,
and really enjoyed my site. I have a
pretty awesome site in the rainforest surrounded by mountains, and I have a
pretty cushy living situation (running water outdoors, a shower, electricity,
decent internet via cellphone provider, and a good group of friends). We went hiking, played basketball, ate bugs,
and talked about life in Peace Corps Ghana a lot. It was fun to have a visitor at my site, and
everyone in town wanted to know if I had brought my wife. When she left I traveled back to Eastern
Region with her because there was still one more week of technical training.</div>
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Training was fine, and nothing too interesting
happened. I visited my homestay family
again, and they were disappointed that I didn't have my beautiful hair, but
they told me I was beautiful anyway.
After the week of training, I went to Kumasi for a meeting of the Gender
and Youth Development committee. That
was enjoyable, and it was fun to relax at the KSO. I wish I were a little closer to a non-Accra
office, but at the same time, I already feel like I've been away from site too
much and I would probably want to visit those places more if I were closer.</div>
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Before I left Bodada, the pastor also told me that he has
been accepted into a master's program at the University of Ghana - Legon in
Accra. He and I discussed this before,
and we talked for a long time about littering and other environmental issues
facing Ghana before his interview. I
think he'll get a MA in African Studies with a specialization in environmental policies. I'm happy for him, but he was my closest
friend here and I'll be sad to see him go.
I hope whoever replaces him is half as welcoming and open with me as he
was. This is my next biggest hurdle:
living alone in my compound and then meeting the new pastor and hoping I can
stay here.</div>
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<b>August<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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4000 words and a couple hours later I'm getting burned out from
writing. I got back to Bodada on July
30, and I haven't done too much since then.
Since I'm the only one living here I'm mostly just trying to clean and
get the house in order. The pastor left
me the kitchen key, and I can use the full size refrigerator in there (I think
the church owns it). I've been cooking a
lot of rice for myself and some pasta too.
I'll be leaving this weekend to go back to Kukurantumi for the new teachers'
swearing-in ceremony, so it seems silly to fully stock my pantry and fridge
when I'll be leaving so soon. I've been
reading and watching a lot of TV shows lately.
I recently finished "Entourage," and I'm watching "Downton
Abbey" now. I've been reading classics
lately: I'm currently reading <i>One Hundred
Years of Solitude</i>, and I recently finished <i>Animal Farm, On the Road, </i>some Hemingway, Vonnegut, and David Sedaris
to round things out. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last week I biked to Jasikan to play basketball at the senior
high a few times. It was a lot of fun, and
I'll be able to teach those kids (some of them are my age...) a lot of things about
basketball. In rural areas no one plays basketball,
so they don't learn how to shoot, or dribble, or even pass until they get to high
school. One of the tall kids can dunk, but
that's all he can do. It's pretty fun being
the best player on the court. On average
I think Ghanaians are the same height as Americans. I'm taller than almost everyone, and I haven't
found anyone to bring back to the NBA (cough* sorry Nay). </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
That's all I have for now. I'll write again sometime. No promises or guarantees about when though. I've learned my lesson with that. As usual, let me know if there's anything in particular
you want to hear more about.</div>
Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-44555540402570317702013-04-06T08:31:00.005+00:002013-04-06T08:31:57.322+00:00Two Messages to My Family<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I sent two long messages this week. The first was to my mom who sent me a Facebook
message to check in and ask me about Easter. Here's my response:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hi Mom, I just stayed at Bodada for Easter. We had a church
service Friday morning, and then I went to Hohoe on Saturday to pick up a
package that Peace Corps had dropped off with Kate. She forgot the package at
her house, so I went to her site to pick it up and had to stay there for the
night because most of the taxis were also on Easter break. I was about 2 hours late to church on Sunday morning
because it was nearly impossible to get a taxi.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Luckily they were Confirming some kids so it was a long
service, and I was still there for over an hour. Easter Monday is a traditional
picnic day in Ghana, so I went with a lot of the church members to Jasikan to
picnic with the EP Church there. They play games like musical chairs (known as
chair dancing), sack racing, and pinatas (they use a clay pot in a sack), and
they had an Easter egg hunt (but they call it "search for Jesus"
because they put a little Jesus figurine in one of the plastic eggs). There was
also an eating competition, so I signed up for that thinking we would be eating
a lot of rice, fufu, or banku, but it turned out that we had to eat a big slice
of bread that was tied to a string without using our hands. I actually won the
contest quite easily and got a bar of soap for winning. There were also girls
and boys football matches (Bodada EP vs Jasikan EP) and Bodada won both games.
It was a good day overall and it was good for me to make friends with more
people in Jasikan.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today, I gave the primary school some of the books that
would be more useful to them, and they loved it. They want to write some
letters to thank people. Can you give me the address of some of the people who
helped collect books? Could we send a letter to John Cline too? My students are
also very excited about the new books, and I'll get them to write letters too.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The only thing I kind of want are some cucumber seeds and
maybe watermelon. No need to go to Seed Savers just to pick up those, so if
they aren't around, don't worry. In related news, my tomato plants have been
totally eaten by grasshoppers, and my pepper plants are getting the same
treatment. I know it's not the same, but I can see how devastating a plague of
locusts would be. I'm going to prepare some soil at the compound for a small
garden and grow those things here.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The next message was an email from my brother Paul.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
Sup Petey.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
So we've been talking about Ghanaian independence for the
last couple of weeks in my History of Modern Africa class. We had a
debate about Kwame Nkrumah and the Volta River Dam that he so, perhaps
unwisely, built. Anyways, some experts claim that he was responsible for
Ghana not really getting off its feet and that he sent it them into debt and so
on. On the other hand, other people thought he was the only person to
take the blame for the failures that came about. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
So, I was wondering: how is he regarded by Ghanaians?
How do they teach history about him? Is he portrayed as a man
blinded by his dream of Ghana as a super power or was he just unlucky and was
at least trying to advance Ghana?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
If you don't know anything about the matter that's fine.
Just thought I'd ask if you did.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My response:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ghanaians idolize Kwame Nkrumah (he's featured on the 2
Ghana Cedi bill and has a smaller role on the other bills). Yes he build
the Akosombo Dam without clearing the valley, asking or compensating the
people, or realizing that it would change the environment. I'm guessing
this is what you talked about in class. These are the main issues that
people bring up, but the Akosombo Dam remains the major source of electricity
for Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso, and Benin. That kind of planning and
execution hasn't been seen since he was in power. The roads, schools,
factories, and buildings that Kwame Nkrumah built are still the best in Ghana.
This cannot be overstated. He oversaw the construction and enforced
a certain level of quality (and he was willing to borrow money from the USSR
and the US to pay for quality, which is why our government didn't like him that
much). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All attempts to build things (roads, factories, schools,
anything really) in Ghana have failed or have fallen woefully short of
expectation. Corruption, cost cutting, inflation, and foreign debt have
been bigger problems with leaders following Nkrumah than they ever were while
he was leading. At the end of his presidency he did pull the typical
African-leader move and try to stay in power forever. That wasn't good.
But I don't know if there was anyone who could replace him and follow his
vision (that's why I think he tried to stay in power).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ghana really got screwed in the 30+ years of dictators and
military coups that followed Nkrumah. We're in the Fourth Republic now.
It was started by Jerry John Rawlings in 1992 during his second coup.
So far it appears to be stable, but every election people worry about
violence or some candidate doing something stupid. Most of the people are
unaffected by national and international politics, and inflation was the only
thing most Ghanaians had to deal as a consequence of the government changing
hands.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In school the emphasis is placed on Nkrumah's positive
achievements, and very few negative things are said about him. They don't
teach very much about the different governments which controlled Ghana after
Nkrumah except the names and dates. Those guys didn't do much for
infrastructure or leave any legacies. Most of the social studies classes
focus the history section on the Fourth Republic and British colonial rule.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That's all for now. Thanks for reading.</div>
Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-38406210909410256252013-03-24T18:09:00.002+00:002013-03-24T18:09:35.426+00:00Second Term<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Almost three months have gone by since I last updated this
blog, and I'm sorry about that for the 20 of you who read this. I'll try to give you a review week by week,
but I have definitely forgotten a lot of things that happened.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Week 1 (January 7)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first week of school.
As predicted, this week got off to a slow start. I think all of the teachers reported to
school by the second day, and by the end of the week, we were already teaching
classes. There was not much yard work
for the students to do because the grass doesn't grow during the Harmattan. In other news, I started my garden! My mom sent me seeds from Seed Savers so I
have some great heirloom vegetables to grow.
I used a big egg carton flat (the one that can hold 30) and planted
German Pink and Italian Heirloom tomatoes, five different types of peppers
(sweet bell, jalapeno, Chervena, Santa Fe, and Buran), and some herbs (basil,
oregano, thyme, and rosemary). I'm not
sure when they started sprouting, but I was pretty excited when they did. Of the herbs, only the basil and oregano have
lived, and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong with the other herbs (help me out
if you have tips!) I had a little
trouble transplanting the bell peppers too, but everything else is doing really
well. Most of the things are ready to be
planted in the ground, but I'm pretty sure I have to harden them off a little
more because the sun is crazy hot here.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Week 2 (January 14), Week
3 (January 21), and Week 4 (January 28)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second week of classes went well enough, and I'm just
going to lump the rest of January together.
I bought some poster paper and made flashcards for multiplication (3
through 15) and turned that into a game for my math class. The form one students were watching, so of
course the next time I had science we had to play the flashcard game. I also made some science hazard flashcards
with great success (lightning bolt = high voltage, no smoking, highly
flammable, etc.). In science we have
been studying soil, soil profiles, and the hazards and dangers of science. In math we spent most of the time studying
data and graphs. Pie charts gave my
class the most trouble, and I think that's because they aren't exposed to
graphs and data as much as we are in the US via TV news. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During the fourth week, I took a day trip to Accra to pick
up some packages (four of them!) I had
to leave Hohoe as early as possible so I could make it back to Bodada before
night fell and the taxis stopped running.
I was in the Accra van by 7am, and we were on the road 30 minutes later. I think it took about four hours to get there
and the last hour was spent in Accra traffic.
Coincidentally Pastor Jean-Paul was also in Accra, so after I picked up
my packages and figured out how I was going to travel with 50 pounds of snacks,
I called him and we met at the main office of the Presbyterian Church of
Ghana. I had a little trouble getting
there because the Pastor said I needed to go to "OH-pare-a"
Square. I just repeated that to the taxi
driver and he seemed to understand, but it took the sign "Opera
Square" before I figured out what he was talking about. Ghanaian English is different. Anyway, we missed the bus to Bodada so we had
to take a van to Hohoe and taxis to Bodada, but the trip wasn't so bad.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Also, the church elders told me that the ICT lab would be
completed by the beginning of February.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Week 5 (February 4)
and Week 6 (February 11)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Surprise, surprise!
The ICT lab isn't ready. In fact,
it's still not ready and it's the end of March.
All we need is a light, fan, tables, and chairs, so it really is
close. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In school, we did some review and then had a test in both
science and math. Class tests are always
a little difficult because we don't have a printer or the funds to print tests,
so you have to write the test on the board and then the students copy the test
into their homework notebook. To discourage
cheating I usually get another teacher to come in and watch the students while
I finish writing the test on the board.
They are much more scared of the other teachers because they walk around
with a cane and are quick to give a rap on the head if cheating is
suspected. I excuse the other teacher
and then walk around with a red pen to mark cheaters' tests. I get at least five students flipping through
their notebooks looking for the answers, and usually it's the same offenders.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The results were not too good, and I definitely made the math
test too hard. Only seven math students
scored above 50% and the highest score was 78%.
In science, I did better with the difficulty and most students scored
about 50% and one student got 93%.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Week 7 (February 18)
and Week 8 (February 25)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Week 7 was the first week without teaching. We got our formal invitations to the social
studies quiz competition, the Independence Day celebration on March 6, and the
Buem cultural festival on March 15. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The quiz competition happened first, and it involved all the
schools in the Bodada school circuit.
Instead of the quiz masters writing their own questions, they accepted
questions from each of the schools.
Naturally, each school used the questions they submitted to determine
which students would represent the school.
Luckily for EP, every question we submitted was used in the actual
competition, and our representative had memorized those answers. Thus, I wasn't too surprised when we won, and
I was happy, but we had a big advantage.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After the quiz competition we started practicing marching
and dancing. As my fellow PCV Kevin
pointed out: on March 6, Ghanaians celebrate their independence from their
colonial masters in the UK by marching in the traditional British style
(straight elbows and knees, lots of arm swinging, and kicking their feet out as
they step forward). This style of
marching takes a lot of work and is not nearly as simple as the roll-step style
of marching we used for DHS Marching Band.
I would have hated practicing marching in this style for three weeks,
especially since there was no actual teaching going on. The same is true for the cultural
festival. We practiced marching in the
morning, and then in the afternoon we focused on talking drums (Ewe is tonal so
using two drums you can recreate some poetry), Twi poetry, Ewe singing, English
drama, or traditional Buem drumming and dancing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of these days we had a bye-election to replace the
Member of Parliament for the Buem Constituency, and most of the teachers worked
at the polling stations. We only had a
half day of school on this day, and I used it to get the students to weed my
farm. I got ten boys to bring sharp
cutlasses to school and they attacked the eight-feet tall saw grass that had
overgrown the school farm. It took them
about three hours to clear my farm (20 meters-by-50 meters), and afterwards we
went back to the house and ate rice and stew.
Rewards aren't necessary and most teachers wouldn't give the students
anything, but that goes against my American values. The students refused to take my money so I had
to get some of the school girls to prepare food.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Under the supervision of another teacher, a few students
also made a bamboo bench on that day.
They cut down some small trees and dug holes in the ground to plant the
posts, and then split bamboo (which I forced the boys to collect as punishment
for coming to school late) and nailed the strips to form a bench. I'll post a picture of it on Facebook; I'm
pretty proud of it since I played a big part in its creation. Also, it ended up way too big, but it's cool
anyway.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Week 9 (March 4)</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Independence Day week.
We focused on marching all of Monday and Tuesday, and we were told that
the schools should assemble at 7am on Wednesday. I asked the pastor about this, and he laughed
and said that nothing would happen until 10.
I went to the meeting place around 8:30 and no other school was
present. By 9:30 two of the other
schools had shown up, and finally by 10 we started marching to the town
football park. We paraded through town,
and in Ghana, everyone joins the parade as it passes. A couple hundred people came to watch the
festivities, but the sun was strong that day and lots of people left after an
hour of nothing happening. Eventually
the chiefs and elders came and we were able to get started.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It took way too long for all the schools to march past the
chiefs and education officials, and some of the schools organized fancy
marching routines to salute the "big men." We didn't organize anything fancy, but the
students decided to spice things up a bit and somehow they pulled it off. By noon they were finally finished, and I
went to get some fufu with some of the other teachers. To celebrate Independence Day even more, two
of the schools were playing in a football match, and then the Bodada teachers
were playing against the Bodada town team.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I agreed to play and everyone was shocked to see me come out
onto the field. I had been standing in
the sun for about four hours by the time the match started and was already
sunburned. Before the game, I put on
more sunscreen, but my skin was no match for the sun. After 30 good minutes, I was completely
gassed and had to get a substitute.
Apparently, we were playing with the official three-substitution rule
because when I wanted to go back in for the second half, there were a lot of
complaints about it. Eventually they let
me go back in, but the other team wasn't happy.
I think they only let me because I have white skin, but I really didn't
know they were playing like that (there are no lines on the field, it's on a
hill, and the posts are made of bamboo, and I thought the game was just a
friendly match). The game ended in a tie
0-0, and everyone I saw for a week asked me about the match.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Week 10 (March 11)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the week of the cultural festivities, so we
practiced the whole week. However, the
chiefs and elders decided to have a town forum about the poor performance by
all students on last year's BECE and postponed the cultural festival. The teachers were not happy about this
because they assumed that this would just devolve into the elders and community
members shouting at the teachers.
Miraculously this didn't happen and everything stayed very civil. The town brought in some people to give
speeches and they allowed each of the headmasters to talk about the problems
they faced at school. People talked a
lot, but no one really said anything.
Everyone agreed that the students needed to study hard and do
better. The parents asked the teachers
to teach better, and the teachers told the parents to discipline their children
more in the house. No one mentioned that
there are teachers who don't come to school, and student attendance was hardly
touched upon. I suspect this would have
come up if the open forum had happened, but the forum was thankfully cut short
by a thunderstorm (it lasted 4 hours and could have easily continued into the
evening).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Week 11 (March 18)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Saturday March 16, the Ghana National Association of
Teachers went on strike. Most teachers
belong to this union, so schools shut down all across the country. I didn't hear about the strike until Sunday
night, and I confirmed that the teachers would not come to school on
Monday. I don't teach classes on Mondays
and was already planning on going to Hohoe to buy a bicycle, so my plans didn't
change. I called the headmaster and let
him know my plans, and he told me that he would go to school on Monday and
figure out what was going on because the cultural festival was supposed to
happen on Tuesday. He called all of the
teachers on Monday afternoon begging them to come to school on Tuesday so we
could compete in the festival.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I bought a great looking 1995 Marin Stinson hybrid bike in
Hohoe for 130 Ghana Cedis. It was easily
the nicest bike in the shop, but I was still overcharged. Most Ghanaians I talked to were surprised I
paid more than 100 GHC, but this is a quality frame with quality Shimano
parts. It should hold up better than
most bikes here, and I'll take good care of it.
I rode my bike back to Bodada, and all I can say is, "Wow." This area is beautiful, and I think I'll bike
as much as possible. You can see so much
more from a bike than inside a car and you're going slower too. The annoying part of biking is dealing with
all the people who have never seen you and shout "Yevu!" or
"Obruni!" I greeted most of
the people who shouted at me in either Ewe or Lelemi, and they were shocked to
hear me. I only wish I knew someone else
who would bike around here with me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Tuesday, all of the EP teachers showed up at the football
park, but only three of the schools came.
The other schools' teachers decided that the strike was more important,
but my colleagues agreed that this wasn't breaking the strike because we
weren't actually teaching. The
festival/competition was a lot of fun, and I recorded video and took a lot of
pictures. Once I sort through them, I'll
put them on Facebook/Youtube. I was very
impressed by the students, and I was happy that not all of the schools were
there because it would have taken all day.
As it were, we closed around 4pm and paraded back to the school as
champions. Of the five competitions, we
took first place in four; I think our play took second place.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The rest of the week belonged to the teachers' strike, and I
just met with the form three students to review some math topics for a couple
of hours. The other teachers are not
upset about this, but I don't think they are thrilled that I'm teaching. Various groups have come out saying that the
teachers should go back to school, but GNAT has not called off the strike
yet. I'm going to meet with the
headmaster again on Monday, and we'll figure out what's going on. The strike isn't as big of a deal for JHS
students as it is for SHS students because last week was final exam week at SHS.
I'm not really sure what happened, but I'm
sure they made do. I just want to get back
to teaching because it has been five weeks .since I have taught an actual class.
I'm very behind, and I wish we practiced
our extracurricular activities outside of normal class time, but such is the system.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sorry if this wasn't as entertaining as my usual postings, but
I've been kind of sick for the last two weeks, I'm watching a Black Stars football
match (they are winning 4-0), and it has been too long since I posted. Thanks for reading.</div>
Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-72012532801969792972013-03-14T09:01:00.004+00:002013-03-14T09:01:59.820+00:00VRF<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I'll update you on the last 9 weeks or so soon.
For now you'll have to settle by reading
some parts of my VRF (Volunteer Reporting Form for those of you who don't speak
Government). The VRF is the main form of
government oversight for volunteers all over the world, and it provides trimesterly
proof that we actually do something. I didn't
include the activities section which has all the numbers and stuff, but there are
57 students at Bodada EP JHS, and about 63 in the primary school and kindergarten.
So here are my answers:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Community Integration<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Integration requires work; simply living in a community is
not enough. I struggled with this during
the first three months, and I felt intimidated by the rest of the community -
not because they felt ill will towards me, but rather because they were so happy
to have me. They told us during training
that volunteers become celebrities in their towns, but I did not know the
effect that being a celebrity would have on me.
At first it was difficult for me to venture outside my house for simple
things like groceries and toilet paper because everyone wants to know how you
are and where you are going. And you are
bound to meet someone who has not met you yet and to whom you have to explain
everything about your life. I must have
told the story about who I am and why I am in Ghana 100 times. But you have to work at this, and after 100
times you get pretty good at introducing yourself.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am happy to say that because of this struggle of putting
on a happy face to meet people and walk around in the community, most of the
community knows who I am (although the little kids still prefer to call me
"obruni"), where I am from, and why I am here. I should also mention that they speak a local
language called Lelemi which is not closely related to Twi or Ewe. This added to the difficulties because I was
all set to greet people in Ewe (which I learned during training) and was
capable of greeting in Twi. Learning
Lelemi has been difficult but also very rewarding. I prefer to take notes and write down words
and phrases as I learn them, but most of the people prefer to repeat the words
at the same speed - making it difficult for me to determine the letters. The trick is to find someone who has studied
the language and build your vocabulary word by word. I am fully capable of greeting, saying a few
things about myself, and expressing my wants and needs. The community loves that I can do this and everyone
is shocked when I first greet them in Lelemi.
After the initial shock wears off they do one of two things: they either
try to test my knowledge or they assume I am fluent and just starting chatting
away. The smiles that follow these
interactions are very rewarding and helpful as I work to become part of the
community.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Challenges<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Integration has been a struggle, but I've outlined that
thoroughly in the Community Integration tab.
At school my biggest struggle was classroom management; after the
initial shock of having an American teacher wore off, I realized just how
little control I had over my classroom.
I was too nice, and I should have been stricter enforcing my rules,
especially during the first month of school.
I let students talk more than I should have, and I did not enforce the
"English only" policy of GES. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These problems were compounded by a lack of other
teachers. At the end of the first week,
three of the four teachers received transfer letters and left EP JHS to go to
their new schools. As is common in
Ghana, the new teachers were in no rush to report to school, and for three
weeks my counterpart and I were the only teachers at the school with 55
students (thank goodness we have a small school). The new teachers showed up one-by-one, and
eventually we had a full staff of seven teachers. Most of them have been good, effective
teachers, and with their help and guidance I gained some control over my
class. A more important factor than the
other teachers' arrival was the respect I have gained from my students by
showing up to school every day (and not caning them). Eventually the novelty of having a white man
as a teacher wore off, and the students were able to look at me like another
teacher.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Lessons Learned<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am not cut out to be a celebrity, and I prefer being able
to retreat into seclusion sometimes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Teaching is not easy. I have a lot more respect for all of
my former teachers, and I feel bad about the times I misbehaved during class.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a teacher I mean it when I say, "I care less about
the scores you get and more about the effort you give." And "I do not
judge a student's character by the grades he or she gets."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Learning a new language is not easy-oo.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My stomach is not the steel trap I thought it was in
America.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Being polite and smiling can get you through 90% of the
conflicts here.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Planned Activities<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I will keep teaching my classes, but the PTA would like me
to play a bigger role with the ICT center.
I will work with the Primary school's ICT teacher in developing rules
and learner-centered teaching methods for the new computer lab.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I would like to talk with the church, PTA, and community
about the possibility of writing a grant to repair, plaster, and paint the
school. It is a sad state of disrepair,
and a little money would go a long way.
Hopefully we can a get a quality appraisal.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>"To promote a
better understanding of the American people on the part of the peoples
served"<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I speak in a normal voice and try to dispell myths that
America is the promised land where everyone is beautiful and rich. Compared to most Ghanaian languages, English
is spoken in a higher voice, but someone planted the idea that white people
speak only in falsetto. This is the
single most annoying thing I deal with when I leave my community, and I try to
speak normally (okay, I actually speak a little lower than usual) and carry on
the conversation. After I respond in a
normal voice, the offender usually changes to his or her normal voice as
well. Ghanaian and Nigerian movies have
also created a unique sing-songy inflection in American English. To show that they are smart and can speak
"like an American," some people will use this tone with me as
well. While it is not as annoying as the
falsetto, I do usually ask them to just speak normally.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
America is a highly idealized place, and most people are
shocked to learn that there are poor people who can barely afford to live,
homeless people, and "mad" people.
Most of the things they see about America depict it as a great place
where everyone carries guns and/or knives, and people are quick to escalate
disagreements to violence. I have to
constantly tell very intelligent people that the American movies are not an
accurate depiction of normal American life.
Also, the news rarely shows the way a majority of Americans live. Whether they only say it to humor me or they
truly believe it is hard to say, but usually these conversations end with,
"Huh, America is a lot like Ghana."
And I say, "Yes, people are mostly the same no matter where they
live."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Success Story</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Students do not have a solid foundation of mathematics and
English necessary to learn junior high level math and science (not to mention
English). I think this is a failure of
the GES and not just a problem found in Bodada.
Instead of forcing students to learn the basics of math and English in
primary school, students are promoted the next grade (sometimes against the
teacher's wishes through social pressure from parents and the community). I believe that having students repeat grades
when they are younger would be more effective than having students repeat
higher levels when the lack of knowledge was first noticed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My solution was to spend my own money (only a few Ghana
Cedis) to buy poster paper and create flashcards. I made flashcards for multiplication and
science, and I am working with the English teacher to create English word
flashcards. The multiplication cards
have enjoyed the most success, and their favorite game is World Cup. I split the class into four or eight groups
depending on the number, and each group carries out a small
"round-robin" style tournament where each student competes with every
other student in the group. The winners
of the groups are put into the championship bracket and the losers are put into
a consolation bracket. Then we go
through the bracket to determine the champion.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The game takes a lot of time, but they all love playing and
they even practice on their own now. The
results are obvious and the whole class is better at solving multiplication and
division problems. I plan on using a
game/competition method any time memorization is required as that seems to be
one of the most engaging and enjoyable activities.</div>
Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-347949530948936752013-01-07T13:24:00.000+00:002013-01-07T13:24:07.355+00:00"Winter" Break<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
It's been one full month since I last blogged. As much as I would like to say, "I'll
blog more." I have a feeling that this will be the norm. Maybe as I run out of television shows to
watch (currently watching Doctor Who and really enjoying it), I'll blog more,
but who knows. Luckily I have a pretty
good memory, so I should be able to get into some detail.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last time I wrote it was election day, but due to some
technical difficulties (voting machines and fingerprint scanners breaking),
voting continued on Saturday. The
election was really close, and the last constituency could have swung the vote
either way, but in the end the incumbent John Mahama won. Mahama is associated with the New Democratic
Congress party (NDC), and leaned heavily on the votes from Volta Region, Accra,
and the northern regions to win. His
main opponent Nana Akuffo Addo was the New Patriotic Party's candidate, and he
didn't take the loss very well. He made
the comment, "All die be die." which some people took as a call for
violence, and he made lots of claims about being cheated out of the
election. (My favorite theory was that the
NDC hired Chinese hackers to change NPP votes).
Some NPP supporters protested in Kumasi and Accra, but I don't think
anything turned violent. Today is the
Inauguration Day, so most people agree that this will end the talk of foul play
cheating.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The end of school wasn't too eventful. The <i>continuous</i>
assessment forms for recording grades suddenly made their appearance, so all of
the teachers had to scramble to record and calculate end of term grades. I hope that this term we'll have them the
whole time so I can record selected homework as I grade it. The students spent the second to last day of
school moving sand from the stream to a house so they can plaster the inside
and outside walls to make my computer lab.
Since I haven't heard any word about it, I'm assuming that no more work
has been done. We raised money for the
lab one day in church though, and I think we got over 200 Ghana Cedis.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I traveled around Bodada a little bit: jogging almost to
Jasikan, jogging half way to Amenor, walking a little ways on the Teteman
road. It was good to get out of the
house, but I still didn't do as much as I had hoped. My walks on the Teteman road were nice
because the pastor joined me in the evenings, and we had some good chats. Another time I ran into the former headmaster
of my school Gyamebi, and we went to visit his palm wine farmer friend named
Ski-Doo (okay it's actually 'Squito -like mosquito- but it sounded like Skidoe,
and I prefer to think of him as Ski-doo).
I'm fascinated by palm wine farming, and after asking a lot of questions
and watching Squito intently, I asked if I could watch him tap some fresh trees
that he had recently felled. So one
Sunday morning I went over to his house at 5:00am (he lives close to town so he
has to collect it early because people will come and steal his palm if he lets
it sit) and we walked to his farm. As it
turned out he didn't have all of the tools necessary to properly trim the
fronds, so I had to settle for trying my had at cutting the tapped tree and
drinking the sweet palm wine.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One day I went to the Ewe village of Awoma (about 15km away
from Bodada going towards Kute) to visit one of my students Kofi Agamah Prince
who also lives in the compound with me and the pastor. Awoma is a small village with one school
(primary and junior high) and a large Muslim population. I got there in the morning because I had
hoped to do some farming, but it turns out that they weren't going to farm that
day, so I helped put the metal roofing on a kitchen. That afternoon Prince took me out to his farm
and gave me a bunch of ginger and papaya, then his mother cooked us a big
lunch. His mom was the happiest that I
came to visit, so she took me around to visit all of the EP church members in
the village. We ended up walking around
for a good two hours, and I was ready to fall asleep by the time we got
back. They were really disappointed that
I didn't stay for dinner and spend the night, but I had already told the pastor
that I would be back that night for fufu.
It was a great trip because I don't get to see true village life in
Bodada; in fact people consider it a very big town (population of around 1,500,
supposedly). Awoma doesn't have any pipe
water, electricity, or paved roads, but the people are no less friendly to a
white person who can speak a little Ewe.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Christmas came next, and although I've heard it can be a
difficult time for volunteers, it didn't feel too different to me. I miss the cold and the snow, but because the
Harmattan has set in I get chilly nights that have forced me to use a second
sheet to keep warm. Last night I even
shut my door to keep out the breeze (I still left the window open, so it got
nice and cool). I've been loving
Harmattan because the dusk-to-dawn temperature is perfect, but Ghanaians
freeze. Most people around me have
broken out their sweaters and winter coats, and they don't understand how I
stay warm walking around at 6:30am in shorts and a t-shirt. If only they could experience a nice
Midwestern winter...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I went to church on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The Christmas Eve service was pretty short,
and five different groups of people just sang songs. The pastor had told me that singing was
pretty much the only reason for the Christmas Eve service, so I told him that I
would sing them my favorite Christmas song, "Silent Night." When he announced that the congregation
should expect a song from me before we closed for the night, the few people who
were there (30 or 40 only) clapped for me.
I was pretty nervous since I was just going to sing it by myself, but I
knew that people wouldn't mind the quality and they would just be happy that I
was singing. However, just before it was
my turn, the youth group (of whom only 2 showed up) sang "Yen Agyen Kwa,"
the Twi language version of "Silent Night." My thunder was instantly stolen. The whole congregation joined in, and I sang
along too. Then it was my turn, and I
stood up and walked to the front of the church and told them that even though
they just sang my favorite Christmas song, I was going to sing it again, but in
English. Of course I started way off
key, which wouldn't have been as much of a problem if I were singing solo, but
the keyboardist knew the song and was playing along, so it sounded terrible. I just laughed and asked him to restart, and
I got it right the next time. Everyone
clapped when I finished and there were shouts of "Wofa Yaw!" so I
just laughed and waved. Then to top it
off, we sang another song before leaving for the night, and guess what it was...yep,
"Yen Agyen Kwa"...again. So
all in all we sang it three times that night.
Not to mention the time that we sang it the next day at the Christmas
Day service, which by the way lasted a good three and a half hours. I recorded the Christmas Day version and
quickly made a movie with the pictures I took that day, and I posted it to
YouTube. Here's the link if you want to
check it out: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3pPhYbTfls">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3pPhYbTfls</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You'll notice that the end of the video is a picture of a
respectable pastor and a goofy looking man from the '80s with a nice mullet and
a terrible moustache, and I'm sorry to say that it's me. Or at least me from two weeks ago. The mullet looks the same now, but the
moustache has gotten a bit thicker. I've
posted an updated picture on Facebook for your enjoyment. If you were able to remember anything before
that picture, you might have noticed some nice waterfall pictures. That's the famous Wli Waterfalls. Shortly after Christmas I made a quick day
trip there and hiked up to the upper falls.
The hike is pretty steep since Ghanaians don't really believe in switchbacks,
but the upper falls are pretty cool. I'm
not sure how high they are because the "guides" who go up with you don't
really know much information about the area and mostly just try to get money from
you. That was a fun trip, and anyone who
visits me can easily visit Wli. Did I mention
you can swim in the pools formed by the waterfalls? Well you can, but as you get closer to the water,
it gets windier and windier until the water is stinging your whole body. It's what I imagine a hurricane to feel like.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My most recent day trip was down to the Gulf of Guinea near Keta
for New Year's Eve. I couldn't stay for too
long because it's a long trip, but it was a lot of fun. Great waves (I need to learn how to surf) and a
beautiful beach.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second term of school "starts" tomorrow, but who
knows when we'll start effective teaching (aka teachers and students show up on
time), it might be a while. 15 more weeks
of school. I think I'll become a dedicated
ICT teacher and work on getting the computer lab open and the laptops set up so
students can't destroy them. Who knows. You probably were drawn here from Facebook, but
I've uploaded a couple more pictures there for your enjoyment.</div>
Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-29526407415568498942012-12-07T18:43:00.002+00:002012-12-07T18:43:58.478+00:006 Months in Ghana<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I can hardly believe that I'm six months into my
service. Some days drag on, but overall
the time flies by. Next week school is mostly just a formality, and all of the
teachers will be recording grades while the students take their last couple
final exams. Before I get into retelling
some highlights of the last month, I want to write about what I did today.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During the week I read <i>The
Dharma Bums</i> by Jack Kerouac, and I became inspired to lace up my hiking
boots (not a nice Italian pair unfortunately) and climb a mountain. Since today is election day in Ghana, (and
like most countries in the world, election day is also a government holiday) I
got the day off from school, and I had the perfect opportunity to climb my
mountain. I wouldn't say that <i>The Dharma Bums</i> changed my life and
turned me into a Buddhist hipster, but it did reaffirm my thoughts about nature
and peace. I had my own epiphany last
summer; while kayaking by myself on the Upper Iowa River, I was struck by the
beauty of the bluffs, trees, riverbanks, and river itself. I just couldn't believe that all of this
beauty and peace was so easily accessible.
All I had to do was take a 20-minute drive in my crappy, but lovable 1990
Toyota Corolla (more affectionately known as The Little Red Dragon Go-Kart),
lock up my old Schwinn road bike (that I had turned into a pretty nice ride)
and helmet at Malanaphy Springs, put in just downstream of Bluffton, and within
15 minutes I could be separated from the outside world by a shield of natural
beauty. After reading <i>The Dharma Bums</i> I wanted to have that
again, and I knew all I needed to do was climb one of the many mountains around
Bodada.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think I have more shoes than any other male Peace Corps
Volunteer in Ghana: Chacos (can't be a PCV without a pair of Chacos), running
shoes (I thought I would be jogging more), boat shoes (my brown dress shoes),
black Adidas (soccer-inspired style, but I use them as dress shoes here),
soccer cleats (I thought I would be playing a lot more soccer), flip-flops
(known as Charlie-waters or shower slippers here because you wear them while
bathing), and last, and until today least, my hiking boots (they're just so
versatile I couldn't leave them at home).
I digress, but I think it's funny how many shoes I have, and I like to
laugh at myself. Anyway, I had hiking
boots just like Japhy and Smith, so at 8:30am I laced them up, picked a peak,
put my water bottle and camera in a bag, and started my journey. After walking to my school, I realized that
without a cutlass (machete for those of you who aren't privy to Ghanaian
English) I was just going to have to follow the farm trails and hope I got to
the top of a mountain. So I looked
around again and spotted a small corn field almost at the top of a peak that
wasn't too far away. So I followed the
trail and turned onto a smaller trail when I thought it was time. Just 20-minutes after starting my journey, I
was in that cornfield I had spied from the school, and I loved it. Looking around, all I could see was jungle, hills,
and the occasional corn field. I took
some pictures, but they really don't do it justice. Then I started back down the mountain knowing
full-well that I wasn't finished with my morning adventure.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I got back on the main path (10 inches of packed and worn
dirt, kind of like good single-track mountain bike trails) and continued away
from town. I ran into the first Ghanaian
I had seen since I started. Fridays are
taboo days (no one is allowed to go to farm, something to do with local gods
and resting, and you get fined if you're caught) so I hadn't expected to see
anyone. I greeted the man in Lelemi, and
he asked me where I was going. I shook
my head and told him "Ni sa walk." which means "I'm going
walk." He just laughed and asked me
if I was going "back-back." I didn't
really understand what he meant but said yes anyway, and we continued on our
respective ways. He just chuckled to
himself and said, "Obruni." I
probably really surprised him. He
probably hadn't expected to see anyone, let alone a white man who greeted him
in the local language. Ghanaians don't
really go for hikes, so he probably thought that was strange too. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shortly after that I started to walk through a cocoa farm,
and decided to help myself to a cocoa pod.
There were tons of ripe pods, and no one was going to miss one, but I
felt kind of guilty anyway. I decided
that I would ask around and figure out whose farm it was and befriend the
owner. Cocoa tastes nothing like
chocolate, more like an intense pineapple/mango sweetness with the texture of
snot, and I love it. I just needed a
nice coconut to top it all off, but I made do with my stolen cocoa pod. I walked on, crossing a small stream (that
the townsfolk probably call a river) a couple of times, and just enjoying the
beauty and serenity of everything. I
came to a fork in the path and decided to go up instead of following the
stream, so I climbed to the top of another "mountain" and continued
along the ridge. I came across a small
pineapple farm, lots of peaceful looking bamboo grove, and eventually a palm
wine and akpeteshie farm. I was really
hoping someone was at the palm wine farm because a couple calabashes of sweet
palm wine and a chat with a local farmer would have topped off my adventure
perfectly. But alas, I <i>ago</i>-ed and no <i>ame</i>-s came back; the farm was empty. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I walked on a little further, and I was hoping to find a
trail that would take me down to the road or some other trail that I could loop
back on, but I would have no such luck.
Judging by the big ridge on the opposite side of the road, I guessed
that I had hiked almost three miles from Bodada, but it was a very pleasant
three miles and I wasn't disappointed about having to follow my same path back
to town. My only regret was that I had
no one to share my experience with, and I got a little lonely before deciding
to write about it in a blog post today and share it with the world. Bodada is truly a beautiful place, and
everyone should come visit me here (fellow PCVs in Ghana and everyone back home
with $2400 - enough for the plane ticket and 2 weeks of anything else you want
to do). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After hearing about everyone's stories from site at our
three month Reconnect-IST (In-Service Training), I decided that I have no
reason to complain. I'm in a gorgeous
area, I have internet access, and my classes are not too big (largest class is
about 25). I struggled with classroom
management early on, but for the last month, things have been going pretty
well.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The week before Thanksgiving (Nov 12 - 16), I wanted to have
a class test in my math and science classes, but unfortunately the Ghana bug
got me and I had to stay home from school on Thursday (when I was planning on
giving the science test and grading the math review homework) so that pushed my
test back until Tuesday, November 20 (my mom's birthday! Happy birthday
Mom!). On Monday I don't have any
classes scheduled and enough teachers came that I couldn't sneak into a class
and give my test, so I just planned on giving the test on Tuesday. But just before we closed on Monday, the headmaster
of the primary school comes up and tells us that our schools (EP Primary and
JHS) get the honor of weeding (cutting the grass) the clinic which is about as
far away from our schools as you can get in Bodada. Also he tells us that we'll go over there at
8:00am and then the students are supposed to get the day off of school after
that. This honor was bestowed upon us by
Chief Nana Abo IV, who is also the Ministry of Education supervisor for the
circuit of Bodada, so there was no getting out of this work. And while my headmaster said that I could
give the tests to Godwin to administer on Wednesday, Godwin wasn't so keen on
grading those tests for me. I wanted to
leave for Thanksgiving dinner with the Ambassador in Accra on Wednesday, so
something was going to give. We agreed
not to tell the students that they were supposed to get the day off of school
after the weeding, and we would give the tests when the work was finished. This ended up working out fine, but it's just an example of the planning and
emphasis on time and scheduling in Ghana.
The results were encouraging, one student got 97% on the math test, and
I think 80% was the best grade on the science test.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thanksgiving in Accra was awesome. I stayed with Dennie Ege who works at the US
Embassy in Accra. He's a State
Department employee and gets posted to new places every three years. It was so great to stay with him in his
American style house with tv (I got to watch some NFL games!), air
conditioning, running water, hot water, 2 fridges, a freezer, Doritos, cereal
with milk, and hamburgers. I couldn't
have asked for a better homestay in Accra.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thanksgiving dinner itself was fun because I got to see
almost everybody from training and I met over 50 other PCVs. And the food...two buffets full of turkey,
mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, green beans (although no
green bean casserole with those "fried onions" on top), cheesy
cauliflower bake, and salad (which I didn't have room for on my first trip
because it was at the end). I had two
full plates of food, and a third helping of turkey. It was great although I don't know if it was
quite up to par with my mom's cooking (mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and
green beans especially). Then came the
dessert of pecan, pumpkin, and apple pie (once again missing Mom's apple crisp
with ice cream). It was great and I
nearly ate myself into a coma. But
everyone else wanted to go out to a bar and party, so I tagged along. We went to an Irish pub in Osu, and I posted
up at the bar and watched the Lions' game and didn't drink a drop (even if I
had wanted to, there was no room in my stomach for alcohol). As soon as that game ended, I was in a taxi
back to the Ege house where I felt reenergized, having finally allowed myself
five hours to digest some of the feast.
So I watched a little bit of RGIII magic and went up to bed, did I
mention the air conditioning?! I was cold that night and got to use a
quilt. I missed the cold more than I
realized.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The next day I went to the Peace Corps Office in Accra to
pick up my packages from my new favorite aunt and uncle (Cathy and Dave) and my
always favorite mom (Mom). After a
little searching in the mail room, I found both packages and did my best to
downplay the contents to the horde of once-again-ravenous PCVs who call
themselves my friends. "Oh just
some food and stuff, probably nothing too good," I said, knowing full well
that there was candy, meat, and cheese of some kind in there. Everyone seemed to understand and backed off
once I said I was going to wait to open them until I was alone. Processed American food is worth its weight
in gold among volunteers, so yeah, I wasn't about to open that up to the
masses. While at the office we were told
to get our flu shots (mandatory) and any immunizations we still needed (final
Hep-A for me). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I also decided to weigh myself because that's kind of the
cool thing to do. Who has lost the most
weight? Wade I think. Has anyone gained any? I dont think so. Who can gain the most weight when they visit America? I think the record is 22lbs in one
month. I weighed in at 172lbs, down
about 12 since I arrived in country, but I think I lost most of that during the
first three months of training. 172 is
the least I've weighed in a long time, probably since freshman or sophomore
year of high school, and that was the day after Thanksgiving. I do think my weight has stabilized since
I've arrived at Bodada, and now that I have cheese and snacks for a few weeks
I'll probably put on a little more. Besides
losing fat weight, I think I've lost some muscle mass too. The diet here is mostly starch with some soup
and oil, and since I don't really have a taste for smoked and dried fish, I eat
vegetarian pretty often. I try to eat
beans as much as possible, and now that I have some beef jerky and beef sticks
(courtesy of the care packages) I'll be eating very well.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The next day I left Accra for Kumasi with ten other
volunteers. We stayed at the Kumasi
sub-office (aka the KSO) for one night and then headed to Christian Village for
the IST. The KSO is awesome, and it's a
shame that it takes me over 12 hours to travel from site to Kumasi because I
would really like to spend some more time there. It has a full kitchen, showers, comfy
couches, and even wireless internet. My
only complaint is that the yard has too many trees to effectively throw a
frisbee or football, and there's no basketball hoop. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Christian Village is pretty nice as far as accommodations in
Ghana go, but I prefer the State Dept. houses in Accra. Everyone from my education training group was
there; there are 22 of us now. It was
great to hang out with everyone, but the sessions during the day sure can drag
on. My counterpart never showed up, but
on Thursday, my headmaster came. I
thought he would enjoy it, but mostly he was as bored as everyone else. All of the Ghanaian counterparts had trouble
understanding the American speakers, and even we were bored, so I can't imagine
how they felt. In truth though, the
sessions were pretty useful. You had to be
active and participate to stay awake, but if you could handle that you would
definitely learn something. The first
event lasted two days and was just a "How are things at site?" chat
with possible solutions to some things.
Then we had one day of grants and HIV/AIDS stuff because that's how we
get a lot of funding (and a lot of Ghanaians need to be educated about the
truth). The third event lasted two days
and covered behavior change and a specific model that we should use.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most of the fun happened after our sessions when we would go
back to the dormitory and relax with a beer or throw around the American
football or the frisbee. After a little
peer pressure and a couple drinks, I decided that it would be okay to get my
hair cut into a mullet. I immediately
regretted my decision, but everyone was less enthusiastic about cutting it off
and I decided to just own it. The next
day I got the sides trimmed up even more and added a little style to the whole
thing with some lines. It's pretty epic
now. On Thursday and Friday we (to be
more accurate, a few girls) got the Ghanaian counterparts to play a game of
frisbee with us, and then on Friday night everyone went to a big outdoor bar
and restaurant in Kumasi called Echoes.
It was a lot of fun and they had a live band and we danced until a
little after midnight. I was supposed to
catch a bus to Hohoe at 4am on Saturday, but decided that my morning would be
better spent in bed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Saturday, with my day suddenly free, I decided to go into
the city and visit the Vodafone internet cafe and just hang out in the
city. I can't say that I love Kumasi,
but it's not so bad. It's crowded and
noisy and smelly, but that's what you get with cities. Then that night I stayed at the KSO with
three other people headed to Volta. We
decided to get up early and start our journey at 5:00am because it would take
them ten or 11 hours to get to Ho, and it would take me more than 12 to get to
Bodada.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We weren't really sure how we would get there exactly, but
we knew the best plan was to get to Koforidua (capital of Eastern Region) and
then get cars to Ho and Hohoe. We
decided to just play the trotro game where you stand on the side of the road
and try to get trotros to pick you up.
The difficulty increases with the more people you have and the farther
you have to go. Luckily for us, the
second trotro that stopped knew how we could get there and dropped us off at a
great junction with a pretty big station.
We got a car to Koforidua from that station and even though it wasn't a
direct car, we only had to take two cars from the KSO to Koforidua. From Koforidua, I got in a car to Hohoe and
had to wait less than one hour. We got a
flat tire near Have-Etoe, but other than that, the trip was great. Then it was just two more taxi rides before I
was back home to Bodada. I had missed
site and was happy to be back.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Monday, I went to school and then to Jasikan to withdraw
some money and stock up on groceries.
The pastor I live with is having surgery on his humerus, so he's going
to stay in Ho for a while. This means
that I'm living alone again for the next few weeks which is fine by me because
I get to cook any food I like. And since
I just got a bunch of cheesy things and spices from my mom, I have been
whipping up tasty dishes like chicken alfredo, parmesan risotto, and marinara
rice. I'll tell you all right now that
the 24-oz of grated parmesan cheese won't last nearly as long with me cooking
alone as it would back in American with my whole family eating from it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Tuesday, as I was reviewing math with my form 2 class,
the headmaster walked in and said that we just received the exams from the
office and that we were supposed to start them an hour ago. So unfortunately for my students, they didn't
get much review with me, but I helped them out immensely by rewriting the
terminal exams for math and science. For
some reason, they pulled questions from the whole syllabus instead of just the
first trimester, so my students had only been taught about a third of the
test. I wasn't too happy about this, and
neither were the other teachers, so a few of us wrote new questions to replace
the topics we didn't cover. This
increased the grades, but still showed how much work I need to improve my
teaching style to help the bottom quarter of the classes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Next week is the ICT final which I personally feel is
worthless, but I'm having forms 2 and 3 take the test so they can get used to
the format and so I can learn what I have to teach. I'm going to teach to the test in my
scheduled ICT classes, and then focus on actually using computers in extra classes
in our new computer lab with 24 new laptops. We got the laptops from the government, and once
we have a suitable place to store them, they'll deliver them. The PTA would like to use my computer experience
to run the lab, and focus my energies there. And since we have plenty of math and science teachers,
I think the students won't suffer too much without me teaching them. It will be interesting to see how long it takes
for this lab to get finished because my kitchen still hasn't been touched. Also, I guess we're just going to renovate an existing
room close to the church and turn that into a computer lab. My guess is that it won't be done by September
next year, but they might be a little more serious about this because we're getting
free computers. Who knows. Either way, I'm going to try putting more pressure
on redoing my kitchen as well as the lab.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That's all for now, and I hope you can tell that I'm doing pretty
well here. I think I'm settling in well at
site, and I'm looking forward to break and getting out on the town more. Thanks for reading.</div>
Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-16160128326610946552012-11-05T17:33:00.000+00:002012-11-05T17:33:09.687+00:00Perceptions and Reality<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
This blog post was requested by a friend of mine who was a
few years older than me and currently works at Lawrence University. I didn't ask him if I could use his name
here, so I'll just stick with his first name. Thanks Nate! I'm going to do my best to comment on my
perceptions of Ghana, and Ghanaians' perceptions of America. Coincidentally, this post is exactly the type
of thing PCVs are supposed to be doing.
Two of Peace Corps goals are: education of Americans about the host
country, and education of host country nationals about America.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>My perceptions of
Ghana</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I feel like my perceptions of Ghana were similar to other
Americans'. Ghana is in Africa, and it's
hot. But I also knew a bit more about it
before I came. I took an African history
class my senior year at Lawrence, which doesn't seem like a whole lot of
African history, but Africa is not an emphasis in the American educational
system. I also knew a handful of people
from Ghana in college and was really good friends with one guy in particular,
David. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
David and I were on the same intramural basketball team for
all 4 years of college, but we never had any real talks about Ghana. However, David was a smart dude, and I
respected him a lot as a scholar, footballer, and person (not as a basketball
player though. He might have been able to beat me sometimes in 1v1, but I was a
much better team player). I had no real
reason to think that Ghanaian students would be any different from American
students or students from other countries that I met while at Lawrence. I generally thought that all students in
Ghana were like him: hardworking and ambitious.
In reality, I don't think students in Ghana are very different from
students anywhere else in the world: some care and want to learn and are
willing to try hard, and others would rather do a million other things than sit
in a desk. My perceptions were shaped by
my personal attitude toward school (why <i>wouldn't
</i>you want to learn new things!) and by the smart hardworking international
students I met while at LU.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The biggest difference that I do see between Ghanaian
students and American students come from systemic issues like corporal
punishment (caning), teacher apathy, and lack of parental guidance. Those things are difficult to change, and it
takes personal commitments and willingness to change. I'm working on some of those things at EP
JHS, but the going is slow.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
David was one of the more religious people that I knew
(granted that doesn't say a whole lot because I went to a small,
non-denominational, liberal-arts school), and I guess I didn't know what to
expect when I got here, but almost everyone is pretty religious. Traditional religions and the people who
practice them are not nearly as prominent as they used to be, but interestingly
enough, everyone respects the power of traditional religions and the magic
associated with them. The people of
Ghana are overwhelmingly Christian, and Islam is the second largest religion,
but only the most devout people who have truly put their faith in God don't believe
that traditional religions have the power to hurt them. The same goes for witches; everyone believes
in their existence and takes witch threats seriously.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Probably my most incorrect perception of Ghana was that
Ghanaians would always be trying to rob, scam, or cheat me. I just assumed, thanks to the American media,
that Americans who travel to third world countries are always in danger all the
time. This is just not true, and I find
98% of Ghanaians to be extremely nice and helpful. Ghanaian hospitality is more than a saying,
it's a way of living. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was also unsure of how people would look at me considering
that I'm a white man coming from a country which participated in the slave
trade. I whole heartedly believe that
all people are equal and should be treated as such regardless of skin color,
gender, wealth, sexual orientation, or any other differentiating factor among
human being, but I still felt guilty and sorry about slavery, discrimination,
racism, and the struggle for civil rights that black Americans had to deal with
in America (and still have to deal with today).
Gay rights is a pretty big issue in America right now, and I just don't
understand how people can be so ignorant and closed-minded about such an issue
that obviously is exactly the same as all the other civil rights struggles from
the past. The great Charles Barkley said
this one night on TNT's Inside the NBA show, "I'm all for gay rights. As a
black man how can I agree with discrimination of any kind." Ghanaians are also extremely homophobic to
the point that it's illegal, and I don't think they will be changing their
minds too soon because of their strong religious beliefs. This paragraph was supposed to lead into the
section about Ghanaian perceptions of America, but instead I went on a
rant. Sorry, but I'm not going to delete
it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anyways, 99% of Ghanaians have stopped blaming Americans for
the slave trade, and I haven't been harassed about it yet. (Or maybe they never
blamed Americans too much. The British
colonizers are still referred to as "colonial masters" and I think
they took a lot of the heat. And it's
important not to forget that kings and chiefs in Ghana were usually the people
selling the slaves to the slavers and making money. And slavery was practiced in Ghana by
Ghanaians before the Europeans came to buy slaves.) Slavery was terrible; everyone acknowledges
that. I had a really great conversation
with my new headmaster a few weeks ago about all kinds of perceptions and
beliefs people have in America and Ghana.
In the end we agreed that generalizing and assumptions only lead to
problems, and there is no way to undo the past; we can only learn from it and
try not to make the same mistakes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Ghanaian perceptions
about America</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ghanaians really do believe that all Americans are rich, and
they believe that if you have a job in America you also live in a mansion and
drive expensive cars. I work all the
time to dispel this myth. Yes, it's
true, the average American is wealthier that the average Ghanaian, but the way
wealth is distributed is similar to Ghana.
There are super rich people, people who have plenty of money but not
boatloads of it, people who earn enough to get by, and people who really
struggle. The difference is that America
has more of a middle class than Ghana, so a greater number of people are able
to live comfortably. Something that is
hard to explain to my students is that living in America costs a lot of
money. A person can live in Ghana on
very little money, but everything is more expensive in America (except imported
goods like electronics which cost the same or even more here). So to just afford basic things like food,
water, shelter, etc, you need to make a lot more money than most Ghanaians. I've been told that even when families send someone
to America to go to school or work they think they live a lavish lifestyle because
they are able to send back enough money to support the rest of the family. The exchange rate and cost of living are the two
biggest factors that allow this to work.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
People do ask me for money, but not so much in Bodada (they know
I'm a volunteer and I'm here to help them) . Usually when I just say no people will leave me
alone, but sometimes I have to explain that I'm a volunteer. Occasionally that isn't even enough, but then other
Ghanaians will step in and get the person to stop bothering me. Ghanaians have a lot of pride, and they don't want
visitors or outsiders to think that Ghana is full of beggars and robbers. It's surprising and really nice how often I'm helped
by strangers here.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Switching it up a little, Ghanaians also love Obama, but he's
the only pop culture icon from America that most people know. I already talked about the Obama shirts, but there
are lots of other shirts that people wear that are originally from America. They buy big crates of clothes that were donated,
and sellers sort through them and then sell the nicer articles on the streets and
in clothes kiosks. Just the other day I saw
someone wearing a Gustavus Adolphus t-shirt, and I've seen lots of other t-shirts
that I recognize. Most people don't know
what their shirts represent back in the states, and there's no discrimination between
colors and genders. I see guys wearing women's
shirts, sweatshirts, and shoes all the time. It makes me smile.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I'm sure in Accra there
is a greater influence of American culture and media, but in most parts of the country,
people don't listen to American music too much (some like rap and pop but they love
country music) or watch American movies. Some radio stations will have an hour of American
music each morning, but mostly they play local music and the DJs talk a lot, like
wayyyyyy too much. More affluent people have
TVs here with a satellite dish which gets a few channels for free because you pay
for the dish itself and the converter box, and occasionally an American movie will
be on. But most of the programming is either
Ghanaian or Nigerian. They also have a few
international news stations like BBC and Al Jazeerah.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most people here have a lot of respect for Americans and I get
the impression that we are thought of more highly than Europeans. I like to think it's because of programs like Peace
Corps which offer more substantial aid than some other volun-tourism groups, but
it's probably because they know American money is good and that Americans are rich
and nice. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I'm kind of running out of steam now, so let me know if there's
anything that I should elaborate on by commenting, Facebooking me (I uploaded more
pictures!), or sending me an email.</div>
Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-37333312497015993052012-10-23T19:50:00.000+00:002012-10-23T19:50:10.368+00:00School UpdateWell, it's been a very long time since I last blogged, and once
again, I have failed to write another blog about the food here. This is now the 8th week of school, and I am
behind schedule in all of my classes (I'm thinking and hoping that this is
typical). I'm going to give you a brief
recap of everything I can remember from each week of school, but after such a
long time who knows how well this will go.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Week 1
(Sept 4 - 7</b>): This is the week of manual labor at almost every school in
Ghana. Our trainers warned us about how
much the teachers just sit and do nothing, but I was thinking that maybe I
could get some real work accomplished.
HA! Only about half of the students show up, and the ones that do are
put to work sweeping and weeding the compound, and making it presentable and
ready for "effective teaching and learning." I've heard from other volunteers that this is
a good time to review previous tests and determine how much the students
remember/know, so I'll try that in the future.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Week 2
(Sept 10 - 14):</b> This week I went to school bright and early at 7:20 so I could
prepare for my lessons and show the students that I was serious about teaching
and helping them learn. I was the only
teacher there until at least 7:50 every day; some days the other teachers
wouldn't come until 9. Morning assembly
(think lining up in your class like you do in elementary and middle schools) is
at 7:45, but some days it doesn't happen until almost 8. Classes are supposed to start by 8:00 every
day, so to the culturally insensitive observer arriving to your job at 9 when it
is supposed to start at 8 would seem absurd.
Good thing our trainers told us that tardiness was commonplace in Ghana,
even by teachers and other professional workers; it's just part of the way of
life. Sign-in times are adjusted
somewhat so it doesn't look so bad that a teacher missed the first hour or two
of school.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Monday, the new Form 1s arrived from the primary school, and
that was a treat. Only half of the 10
students promoted could read! I'm not
really sure how the ones who can't read were promoted to JHS, but I guess it's
pretty common because there are still some Form 2 students who struggle
reading. On my first day of teaching I
met with each of the classes and introduced myself and had each of the students
introduce themselves to me and the rest of the class. By my second class we started serious
learning. I thought things were going
well and I had lots of energy and positivity.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Friday the 14th brought a serious message: three of the four
Ghanaian teachers at EP JHS were transferred to new schools! The letters were from the district office and
they were signed and dated September 6th, and they informed the teachers they
should report to their new schools by September 1st. I thought this was funny in a terrible sort
of way. I was sad to see the teachers go
because I had gotten to know them and had just finally memorized their names.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Week 3
& 4 (Sept 17 - 21 and 24 - 28):</b> These two weeks merged together in my
mind because it was mostly the same thing for both of them. The three new teachers who were transferred
to Bodada EP JHS trickled in and said hello and logged that they visited the
school. Of course none of them did any
real teaching because they had just been transferred and were just trying to
figure out what will happen moving forward.
(In my mind this was honestly excusable, but I did feel pretty bad for
the students. I even gave each of the
classes some English assignments just so they would have something to do.) I was still full of energy at this point, and
each morning I hoped that the other teachers would start showing up for real.
Yeah, it sucked that they were transferred to a new school, but they all only
lived 5-10 min away in Jasikan...is it really that hard to commute? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was damn near impossible for me to control all of those
students. There was one day when my
counterpart Godwin had to go to a meeting with the Form 3 students, so I was
left with the Form 2 and Form 1 students all to myself. That was too much for me. They don't fear me because I don't use the
cane to discipline them, and at that point they all thought my accent was
hilarious. (Note: I'm sure they still
think it's hilarious sometimes, but they don't make fun of it when I'm around as
much.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I also had my biggest crisis to date during the 4th week. The night before my crisis I was reading one
of the <i>A Song of Fire and Ice </i>books
(which are awesome by the way) on my Kindle Reader program and when I finished
I closed my laptop and set it on the ground.
I didn't drop it, but I didn't particularly like the way it sounded when
I set it on the ground. Whatever, it had
definitely taken bigger hits than that in the past. Then next morning when I pressed the power
button, nothing. I was crushed. I tried to plug it in, and I pressed every
button that should have made some light come on, but all I got was more
nothing. I took as much of the case off
as I could comfortably do without freaking out more. I actually took quite a lot off because I'm a
jack-of-all-trades/handyman and I know more about computers than most
people. (My bicycle mechanic and car
mechanic skills are my most valued random skills.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nothing I did changed the fact that my computer showed no signs of
life at all. That was definitely the
lowest I've felt during my four and a half months here.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Week 5
(Oct 1 - 5): </b>The new teachers all arrived and on Monday we hashed out the new
schedule. We had to change a few classes
around to accommodate the classes each teacher would teach. Apparently when the transfer people, they
don't pay any mind to the teachers' preferences and specialties. Last year Godwin was the only math/science
teacher, and they didn't have an ICT teacher, so they got me. After the transfer, we had four people
(myself included) who taught science, three who taught math, and two ICT
teachers. I was posted to Bodada EP JHS
because they needed help teaching math, science, and ICT, but now they would be
fine without me. Luckily for me, the
teachers were pretty cool about changing their subjects, and we ended up with a
teacher for every subject except French.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This week the teachers were all very good about attendance, and
one morning three teachers beat me to school.
I was really looking forward to working with the new group of teachers
because all of them were [Aside: should I use "are" here? Someone please
help me out. I've switched it at least 5 times now, and it still doesn't look
right. Also, I don't proofread this so sorry about the other mistakes.] under
40 and seemed to be looking forward to starting classes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Oct. 3 I decided to try turning on my computer again just for
the hell of it, and as if by magic, the thing started right up. Elation!
It came on and acted like nothing had ever happened, except the speakers
don't work, but I bet I can fix them with a little elbow grease. I was feeling awesome heading into week 6.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Week 6
(Oct 8-12): </b>Test week in science and math!
I gave large review assignments on Tuesday, we reviewed during the
second class, and had tests on the final class of the week. In science the best score was 64% and the
worst was 8%; in math the best score was 83% and the worst was 12%. In both cases I graded extremely generously
and gave out tons of partial credit.
Also, I thought the science test was quite easy, but if you can't read
"See Spot run." how can you answer questions about science? Anyway, I gave the top half of both classes
stickers, and the people who did very well got more than one. I think they really liked the stickers. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This week was when I started to lose my energy and
positivity. At school my students were
failing, and at home I felt pretty isolated.
The other teachers don't live in Bodada except for Godwin who stays here
4 nights a week, so I don't get out of the house nearly as much as I
should. It sounds so simple to just take
a walk, but it's so much more than that here.
It is really quite draining to walk around. It's not that anyone is mean, if fact it's
the opposite, everyone wants to talk to me.
Even just walking a few houses down to the store to buy some bread can
take me 15-20 min. I'm not the most naturally
outgoing person ever, but I can put on a pretty good front. However, there's only so much positivity a
person can have when he has the same conversation with every person he sees
because he can only speak a few lines of the language. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I should mention that this is a common feeling among PCVs. The first 3 months at site are pretty rough
once the honeymoon wears off. Some days
I just don't have a lot to look forward to, especially when my students are
misbehaving (which happens a lot), and the teachers decide that they only need
to come to school three or four days per week.
That being said, I know that it will get better, and the most important
thing I can do is stay positive.
Thankfully, I have a great support group of family and friends who will
let me complain when I call or email them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Week 7
(Oct 15 - 19): </b>I was
feeling pretty low last week. All of
those things I just mentioned were still with me, I was catching a cold, and
just not feeling good in general. I
needed to talk with an American.
Unfortunately, I didn't until the weekend. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what did I do during this week when I wasn't teaching? I tried to print off and send in my absentee
ballot (failed because the power was out and no one wanted to fire up their
generator to print off 4 sheets of paper).
I watched seasons 2 through 4 of "Parks and Recreation" which
is hilarious, and my favorite character is Ron Swanson. I've also read a lot during my time
here. I finished the five published <i>A Song of Fire and Ice </i>books; I read the
last 2 books of the <i>Hunger Games</i>
series (not as good as the first book); I even started reading <i>The Bible</i>. I'm really looking forward to my Kindle
Paperwhite arriving in the package my mom sent to me during this week. I'm hoping that it arrives in early November
even though I won't pick it up until Thanksgiving when I stay with an American
family living in Accra and have Thanksgiving dinner with the Ambassador and all
the other PCVs. It should be a good
Thanksgiving.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Saturday night the pastor came back. He had been staying with his family in Ho
because he broke his arm when I first visited Bodada. He wanted to be close to a hospital until he
got the cast off, and on Friday the cast was finally removed. He's got a bunch of rehab to do because he
broke is humerus and his arm is more or less frozen in place right now. I'm glad he's back, and it will be nice to
have some other people around the house now.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Also, I've gone to church every Sunday except for one. Church officially starts at 9:30am, but in
reality starts closer to 10, but it lasts until at least noon. I now just head over at 10:30 because none of
it is in English, and that way I don't have to sit there for more than three
hours even if it's a really long service.
They usually have three donations (one time there were five), and
everyone gives something each time. There
is a lot of dancing and singing to accompany the long services, but the pews are
very uncomfortable and it can get quite hot in the church. But going to church is a great way for me to participate
in something, and everyone gets to see me at church. They love the fact that I'm there every Sunday.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Week 8
(Oct 22 - 26):</b> Yesterday, Monday, I went
to Hohoe to print off and mail my absentee ballot. GO OBAMA! I also visited the market there and
loaded up on vegetables and peanut butter.
I searched for an Obama shirt, but apparently they are only available in
Accra. For those of you who haven't been
to Ghana and seen the Obama shirts, they are awesome! They are red, white, and blue; they have a
bunch of stars; they say "44th President of the United States: Barack
Obama;" and they have a great picture of Mr. President himself right on
the front. I was really hoping I could
get a sleeveless one just because they're so good.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today, I woke up with a pretty sore throat after a night of fitful
sleep. I was feeling chilled and
feverish, and I genuinely thought I would be sick this morning. After drinking some water and eating an egg sandwich,
I made enough of a recovery to get psyched up for school. Classes actually went pretty well today, and I
laid down the law in my math class. Almost
half the class now has a nice sized portion of grass to weed because they were being
a little too talkative.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So phew! That's a brief synopsis of the last eight weeks. Thanks for reading, and it's great to hear that
people enjoy my blog. Please let me know
if there's anything in particular you want to hear about because I do take requests
:)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
PS. I bought some chicken sausages yesterday in Hohoe and cooked two
of them last night. I ate them with ketchup
and onion on some bread. I'm pretty sure
it was the best hotdog I've ever had. I miss
American food. Especially meat and junk/fast
food.<o:p></o:p></div>
Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-39622045603504982992012-09-05T17:20:00.000+00:002012-09-05T17:20:02.056+00:00School's Starting Part 2<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
19th August - Present</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So far my time in Bodada has been uneventful, but
pleasant. I live in a nice-sized, EP
church-owned compound with ten rooms, and two of them are mine. My bedroom is about the size of a dorm room,
and it's pretty spartan. I have a bed, 2
plastic chair, and as of yesterday I have a desk provided by EPJHS. My second room will be a kitchen/dining room,
but it's still under construction. The
carpenters have to pour new cement for the floor, the room needs painting, and
it needs a ceiling. I'm told that the
ceiling will be wooden beams with woven mats placed between them to "Keep
the lizards out of the soup."
Sounds good to me, right now lizard soup doesn't sound too tasty.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first day I arrived my counterpart Godwin and I went
into Hohoe (the second largest city in the Volta Region) to buy a USB modem,
voltage regulator, and other supplies. I
impulse bought an electric kettle on the recommendation of my shadow visit
host, Mike Shoup, and I can honestly say that it competes with the USB modem as
my favorite purchase. I mostly just use
it to heat up water for my bucket bath, and after my first warm bucket bath I
couldn't remember how I tolerated bathing without warm water.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Since my kitchen is still under construction I didn't buy a
propane tank or a stove which cost almost 150GH₵ combined. This means that I get to use the pastor's
stove (same setup as I would buy) whenever I cook something, which is nice but
I would prefer my own space.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My second major adventure was to the Tuesday market town of Kute
which is located on the border with Togo.
Although it's listed as 5km away from Bodada on my information sheet
that I got about my site, it took almost an hour of traveling to get
there. The drive was beautiful: there
were mountains, forest, farms, and small villages along the whole way. Like Bodada, Kute is between two mountains,
but the mountains that form the border with Togo are noticeably larger than the
Ghanaian ones. The town is small, but
market itself is large because Togolese and Ghanaians both buy and sell there. Nothing too interesting happened there, but
it was nice to get to use my Ewe market skills.
Unfortunately I don't think I'll go there too much (at least until I buy
a bicycle) because traveling there costs as much as traveling to Hohoe (which
offers a larger market with better prices).
Jasikan (the town that really is 5km away) has a large market on
Fridays, and it's large enough that I buy most things regardless of the day of
the week.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My third adventure was meeting Kate Pote in Hohoe for shopping and
meeting other volunteers. Kate is the
closest volunteer to me (about 30 minutes away from me at Akpafu Sec. Tech.)
and is a science teacher there. Akpafu
is on the Hohoe-Jasikan road about 10 minutes from Hohoe, so whenever I end up
going there I'll probably see what she's doing.
We just went to the market and then met up with Scott and Nathan who are
also PCVs in Volta. Scott teaches art in
Hohoe, and also helped open up a store called Our Talking Hands which sells
traditional Ghanaian art products made by students at a Deaf Art School (in
Ghana all people with mental disabilities who go to school go to
"Deaf" schools...sad but true).
Scott is really committed to this place, and he helped the owner create
a Facebook page <a href="http://www.facebook.com/0urTalkingHands">http://www.facebook.com/0urTalkingHands</a> and a website <a href="http://ourtalkinghands.com/">http://ourtalkinghands.com/</a>. Nathan lives in the Northern part of Volta,
and was just swinging by before his trip home to California. I probably won't see him too much, but he's
the head malaria dude in Volta so we'll be in contact.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My fourth and final adventure was school! It started yesterday, 4th of August, but we
won't start actually teaching until next week.
Schools here don't have janitors or grounds crews because they have lots
of free labor at their disposal. That's
right, school children do all the sweeping, mowing (called weeding and done
with machetes), and cleaning. The first
week is dedicated to getting the school presentable and in full working
order. Tomorrow we'll be reviewing last
year's exams, and it'll be a good chance for me to gauge the actual level of
the students. These last two days have
been pretty slow, I just show up, talk with the other teachers and the
headmaster, and then go home at the end of the day. I'm still not sure what my teaching schedule
will be because the headmaster hasn't even figured out the schedule yet...such
is life in Ghana. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The last two weeks and a half weeks have been pretty slow
going, especially compared to the schedule we had during training, but it's been
very relaxing. I've met a lot of people by
going to church and many more people come over just to talk with the pastor. I've been out on the town a little, but not too
much. Mostly I've just spent time with the
people who live in the compound (Pastor Jean-Paul, Sarah, Patricia, and Michael),
and spent a lot of time reading too. I recently
finished the last two books of the <i>Hunger
Games</i> series, and I'm on to the fourth <i>Song
of Fire and Ice/Game of Thrones </i>book. I'm really happy that school has started though
because it will give my life a little more structure, and I'm really looking forward
to meeting the students and teaching. I do
know that I'll be teaching all three grades ICT (computer class) and Godwin and
I will split the math (known as maths here) and science classes. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I'll try to blog more too. Let me know what you want to know
about via Facebook, email, or comments.<o:p></o:p></div>
Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-32884324546561398382012-09-05T07:43:00.001+00:002012-09-05T07:43:17.966+00:00School's Starting!<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
End of July through 15th of August: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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*</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
16th of August: Swearing-In</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
17-19th August</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.</div>
Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-52446041082785571782012-08-04T15:22:00.000+00:002012-08-05T15:22:36.406+00:00Food Part 1I'm not really sure of the best way to go about writing
this, so it's just going to be a stream of consciousness. I'm going to try to organize it by
categories, but we'll see how that goes.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most Ghanaian food is eaten with your hands, and that
doesn't sound too difficult until you realize that most Ghanaian food is a soup
or stew. Granted, you get a starchy ball
of something to help you eat the stew, but kind of like eating rice with
chopsticks, it's really hard unless you grew up doing it or have a lot of
practice. I could probably write a 2000
words about the proper way to eat each food, but I won't get into that
now. Just don't eat with your left hand;
it's considered incredibly rude and disrespectful because that's the hand you
wipe with.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here's another interesting thing about food that I've
noticed: people have the set way of making something and only that specific way
is the proper way. Different families
prepare things differently, and no one quarrels about that, but if an American
tries to add a sauce or vegetables to something that it doesn't belong on, the Ghanaians will let you
know. For example, many of us wanted to
put cabbage on our hamburgers one day (no lettuce so why not) when we had a
caterer, but they insisted that we couldn't do that because the foods weren't
meant to go together.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Starches:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fufu, bankou/akple, kenke, and rice balls are the four most common starches eaten in
Ghana (or at least Southern Ghana, I'm not sure about the North). Besides rice balls which are just balls of
white rice, the starches are made from some combination of corn, cassava,
plantain, yam, and/or coco yam. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fufu is made by pounding boiled plantain and cassava
(although yam and coco yam can be substituted) in a giant mortar and pestle
with water. The mortar and pestle is
only used for pounding fufu, and it's bad luck to pound an empty one. The pestle is just a big stick as thick as a
forearm and usually about four or five feet long. The business end is flat because of the
beating it takes, and its edges are all curled back up to keep splinters and
pieces of wood out of the fufu. The mortar
is a big heavy hourglass-shaped piece of wood carved from a single block. They are usually about 16 inches in diameter,
and the part that takes the pounding is flat.
It takes a lot of work to make fufu because you have to pound the
ingredients until you get a sticky ball the consistency of bread dough. Basically you are adding air into the starch
until it's smooth. Also, you don't chew
it, you just swallow the chunck that you "cut" from the ball with
your index and middle fingers. In my
opinion, it's mostly tasteless.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bankou, also known as akple in the Volta region, is a ball
made by "driving" fermented corn dough together with fermented
cassava. Different regions eat different
strengths of bankou (I don't like it after it ferments for too long), and truth
be told, akple is actually different from bankou, but I don't really know why
yet. You just mix the fermented doughs
together in a big pot over a fire and stir vigorously; this one also takes a
lot of work because you have to cook it for at least 30 minutes stirring
constantly so it doesn't burn. Bankou tastes like a grainy, earthy, sour ball
of corn flour.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kenke is made by steaming corn dough in corn husks or
sometimes banana leaves; it's a lot like a tamale but it's not filled with
anything. Bankou and fufu are usually
balled up and put directly into the bowl of soup, but kenke is usually served
on the side and dipped into a sauce or thick stew. It's often eaten with "pepe"
(Ghanaians trying to say pepper), and it's pretty similar to salsa. It's also eaten with stewed meats. Kenke doesn't have much flavor either, and
just tastes like corn.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rice balls are just made by mixing over watered rice until
you get a starchy mass. They are the
easiest thing for me to eat here because we eat rice all the time in America. They think rice is an American food, and I
just find that hilarious because we consider rice to be an Asian food. Rice balls are generally served in the soup
directly like bankou or fufu.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Soups:</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All the soups here have the same basic ingredients as
American soups: onions, tomatoes, peppers (the hot ones), pepper powder (think
chili powder), salt (or a processed spice packet made by Magi that is mostly
salt but also has other spices), and water.
By adding tomato paste and a meat (usually smoked and dried fish) to
those basic ingredients you get what they call light soup. It's basically a simple tomato soup, and it
can be eaten with any of the starch balls.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The vegetable soups that I've had are contumiri, okra, and
garden egg (egg plant), and unless you specifically tell them not to, they will
add smoked and dried fish. They all have
less tomato than the light soup, and but otherwise it's the same. Contumiri (I have no idea how to spell it) is
the green leaf of the coco yam, and if you don't boil it for a really long
time, the acid in the leaves won't break down and can cause kidney stones. Also, the older a leaf is the more acid it
has, so many Ghanaians only eat the young leaves that grow from the center of
the plant. Contumiri stew is usually
eaten with boiled yams or coco yams, or occasionally bankou (no fufu though);
it kind of tastes like spinach. Okra
stew it really sticky and slimy because the okra is just boiled and then ground
or diced. Ghanaians insist that okra
stew must have fish in to be okra stew, and it must be served with bankou. Okra stew is not my favorite, but it's not too
bad either. Garden egg is what they call
egg plant over here, and an egg plant is they plant itself. They really do look a lot like eggs here
because they are white not purple and much smaller (you guessed it, egg sized!) The soup had a nice taste of vegetables, and
I think I had it with bankou.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I've also eaten palm nut soup and groundnut soup. Palm nut soup is made by boiling a big pot
full of little red palm nuts, then beating them in a special mortar and pestle
to separate the flesh from the seed. The
flesh is rich and nutty, and it makes a delicious soup full of umami and savory
flavors that I am unable to describe.
It's prepared similar to light soup, but they use red oil (palm oil) to
add more flavor and calories. I like it
best with chicken and fufu. Groundnuts
are peanuts, and the soup is a thick peanut broth that I think goes best with
beef and rice. I'm not sure how it's
made because my host mom hasn't made it for me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Meats:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I've only been here for about two months and I've already
had a crazy amount of meat variety. I've
eaten fishes of all variety including shark, chicken, beef, pork, snail, snake,
squirrel, rat, cat, and dog. Probably
more too, but that's all I can think of now.
Most have been smoked and dried to preserve the meat (because there are
no refrigerators here) and then added to soups, but occasionally they will be
fried in red oil or stewed. By adding
the meats to soups you greatly improve the soup, but you tend to lose a lot of
the meat flavor and just get a bland smoky flavor. Also, the extra cooking made the squirrel and
rat particularly tough. I haven't had a
steak since I left America, and the beef, chicken, and snail have only been
served in soups. Besides eating fish
with pepe, fish is usually just smoked, dried, and added to soup also. The pork and cat have been two of my
favorites so far. The pork that I had
was cooked on the street and stewed in a giant pot. Because we were eating it late in the day,
they only had fat and skin left, but the fat had been cooking for a long time
and melted into sweet, salty, pork goodness in your mouth. Cat was first fried in red oil and then
stewed in a tomato based sauce with lots of spices. We ate it with kenke, and the meat was
succulent, juicy, and sweet. I've only
eaten dog I've had has been smoked fresh and then added to rice jollaf. It was good, but mostly tasted like smoke.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Up next: Street food, fruit, and everything else!</div>Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-5270763060957444782012-07-24T17:19:00.000+00:002012-07-25T17:20:01.049+00:00Job Shadow<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">On June 16th, a Monday, I left Bodada for Saviefe
Gbogame.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">I took a taxi from Bodada to
Jasikan, a trotro from Jasikan to Hohoe, and a small bus from Hohoe to Ho.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">In total the trip took around three hours,
but it felt longer than that because the roads are full of potholes and my bus
was stopped at a police checkpoint for 15 minutes because our driver did not
have his proper license or insurance or something.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">Once in Ho, I called Mike Shoup, a current
volunteer stationed in Saviefe Gbogame, to pick me up from the taxi
station.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">Mike was in Ho because he had
helped another trainee (Sam who will takes Mike's place when he finishes in a
few weeks) get to her shadow site.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">I
made better time than Mike had expected, so we went to the Vodafone internet
cafe.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After that we went to a little spot that Mike frequents when
he's in Ho and chatted about life as a Peace Corps Volunteer and our lives back
in America. Mike has integrated really
well into his community: he's fluent in Ewe (although he would tell you he's
not), he knows everyone in town, and he's got a group of guy friends, mostly
other teachers, who refer to themselves as Parliament (Mike is of course the
foreign minister). I told Mike about my
pre-Ghana life, and it turns out that we had pretty similar stories. There are a lot of similarities between the
two of us, and if I end up like Mike in two years then I'll be pretty happy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We took a small, cramped bus to Saviefe Gbogame, and I know
I complain about the roads a lot, but this road was the worst I've been on so
far. It took us over an hour to travel
about 30 km (I think that's probably a high estimate). The town is pretty small, but small towns are
good for PCVs because you can actually feel at home if you make an effort. Mike also has a pretty sweet home with a
grass yard and toilets (no running water, but you just dump a bucket full down
the hole to flush), and Mike has a great landlord who lives there too. He says that they have really become his
second family. That night I just met
some of Mike's friends, and we took it pretty easy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The next day I visited Mike's school, but it really was not
that exciting because it was end of term exam week in Ghana. The Ministry of Education requires a standard
end of term exam for all Ghanaian students, and the tests are full of typos,
terrible questions, and just flat out incorrect English. For example, one question on the Information
and Communication Technology test asked students the number of buttons in the
navigation panel of a factory settings version of Internet Explorer. Not only is the number completely useless even
if you have a computer in front of you, but also the tests don't always include
answer keys. Mike just gives out bonus
points for terrible questions, so the math test for Form 2 had five bonus
points (on a test with 40 questions). I
graded most of those (maybe 3/4 of them) and the scores ranged from 9 to 22
(that's including the 5 bonus points).
Also, I got to look at some solutions students gave for the essay and
short answer portion of their social studies final, and it was pretty bad...maybe
half the class got 0's (grading extremely generously).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After school Mike and I went to a neighboring town to visit
a friend of Mike's from Bodada, visited an akpeteshi distillery, and hung out
with Parliament until David (another trainee) got into town that night. Hanging out with Parliament entails sitting
around a circle in plastic chairs talking and drinking. It was a lot of fun talking and drinking with
those guys, and I hope I can get a similar group of Ghanaian friends in
Bodada. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was pretty late when David showed up because he had a
rough time getting to Saviefe. He's
technically in the Volta Region, but he's outside of the main Volta strip on
the East side of Ghana. His site is in
Bejemsi which is northwest of Kete Krachi in between the two northern forks of
Lake Volta, so he has to travel by ferry to get anywhere in the South. Turns out that all the ferries are currently
broken, so he had to take a big canoe across the Eastern part to get into the
rest of Volta. Then he had a terrible
time waiting for taxis and trotros to fill on his way to Saviefe; I think he
told me it took him 13 hours total (and that's just traveling within the Volta
Region)!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
David arrived around 8 and was starving, and so was I because
Mike and I hadn't eaten since 10:30 that morning. Mike had been arranging a special feast for
us, and unlike most plans he tries to make this one ended up happening. Mike's best friend is a rasta who doesn't
smoke weed (he drinks though) and is an amazing cook, so whenever they have
something special Rasta Mensah is involved.
I'll just come right out and say it now, we ate cat, and it was
delicious. I'm glad we weren't there for
the killing and butchering, but I would have liked to watched them cook the
meat. Apparently the deep fry it in red
oil (palm oil pressed from the palm nuts), but I don't know anything else that
went into the thick stew that we ate with kenke (corn flour steamed in either
corn husk or banana leaves, I can't remember which one it is). Although we all had a pretty good buzz from
drinking all afternoon on empty stomachs, I don't think that's the only reason
the meat was so sweet and tender; I think cat meat is probably just really good
(deep frying it obviously helps too).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The next day (Wednesday) we went to school with Mike again,
and just lounged around reading and watching movies. Apparently that's a pretty typical day for
Mike, and he said he's gotten really good at just sitting and doing nothing. Then
we had snake for dinner. It was also good,
but not as good as the cat.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Thursday Kate Mansfield came to visit me and hang out in
Saviefe Gbogame. For those of you who
don't know who she is, Kate is a fellow Decorah person who's a year younger
than me, and I know her because everyone in Decorah knows everyone else. Kate's going to start her 5th year at UW
Madison, and was in Sokode Gbogame (45 min bus ride from Saviefe Gbogame)
volunteering at an orphanage with a few other people. So Kate and her friend Vanessa got on the bus
and met us in Saviefe around 8:00am.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We immediately went out to a palm wine farm to see the
process and sample some of the local drink.
Palm wine is made by cutting down a palm tree, cutting off all the green
parts, cutting a hole in the trunk to collect the watery sap, and collecting the
liquid in a jug. It's all very unscientific,
but very cool. Apparently a single tree
can produce wine for weeks varying between four liters of wine (litres in
Ghana) in the beginning and as little as 2 liters towards the end. You could still collect the liquid produced
by the tree after it stops producing a significant amount; however, the liquid
begins fermenting as soon as it leaves the tree leaving you with extremely
strong (maybe 20% alcohol) wine by the time your jug fills.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We went early in the morning so the wine we sampled would be
fresh, thus very sweet and fruity. And
it definitely was sweet! The
"wine" had very little alcohol and tasted as sweet as soda. The flavor was slightly fruity, but the
sweetness overpowered the unique fruitiness of the wine. We tried some of the slightly more fermented
stuff also (I had taken a few drinks of that on previous days), and the unique
palm wine flavor comes through more strongly.
As I'm writing this about a week after the fact, I can't recall the
taste and flavors, so I can't give you a good foodie description.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This farm was also an akpeteshi distillery, but he wasn't
currently distilling anything. It looked
like a moon-shining operation that you would find in the Appalachians: oil barrel
with a fire underneath (for boiling the wine), copper tubing to collect the alcohol
vapor, and two barrels of water through which the copper tubing runs and is coiled
(to cool the alcohol back into a liquid), and the end of the tube where the alcohol
drips out. The first batch of liquid that
comes out of the still is just wood alcohol, so that gets thrown out. It's just
pure akpeteshi flowing out of the tap after that.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For the rest of the day we just hung out and visited with people.
This involves drinking, and I probably drank
a little too much. I ended up falling asleep
at 6:30, but it was a fun day. The next morning
David and I took the bus to Ho, then boarded a large trotro to Koforidua, and then
took taxis and trotros back to Anyinasin. All in all the trip took a bit over 5 hours, but
it seemed like less time. For the next few
weeks everyone will be focusing on learning their site languages, so that's Ewe
for me. It's going well, so I should have
no problem passing my interview exam.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I swear the next blog post will be about food.</div>Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-64809173533296190312012-07-21T17:18:00.000+00:002012-07-25T17:18:59.021+00:00Site Visit Part 2<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">Yesterday, Friday, I returned to Anyinasin from my site
visit and job shadow trip.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">It's nice to
be back, but at the same time I'm really looking forward to going back to
Bodada.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last Saturday I met two of the three chiefs and two of three
queen mothers in Bodada with the help of my counterpart and my headmaster. I met one of the queen mothers who was just
sitting in a store, went to the stool chief's house, met another queen mother,
and then went to visit the chief of Bodada-Buem. I didn't end up meeting the paramount chief
or one of the queen mothers, but I don't remember which queen mother I didn't
meet. The paramount chief is basically
the head chief of the area, but the stool chief has similar authority. I'm not really sure what the difference is,
but here's what I do know: every town has a chief (like a king-mayor, chiefdom
is inherited); every region has a paramount chief (I think he's elected from
the other chiefs but I'm not sure); and stool chiefs rule over regions as well. The paramount chief and stool chiefs work
together, but I don't know where the stand on the hierarchy. I'm pretty sure that the paramount chief
rules over a group of people, in this case it's the Buem people, and they
choose the site for the paramount chief based on the safety and protection an
area can offer. Since Bodada is in the
middle of the Buem area, and it's between two mountains, it's a very secure
location. I found this information fascinating,
but I've probably bored many of you reading this already.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Each time you meet a chief or queen mother you have to go
through the same formal greeting and introduction. It goes something like this:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"Good
morning chief, how are you today? We mean no ill will and carry with us no bad
news. As you know, many months ago we applied
for a Peace Corps Volunteer to come to Bodada and teach at EP JHS. Thankfully our application was accepted and
by God's grace our volunteer has arrived.
His name is Peter Vanney, but he's known as Ofah Yaw (I'm not sure how
you spell it, but it means Uncle Yaw).
He's here primarily to work as a teacher, but he's also here to help all
of Bodada. He'll be leaving here on
Sunday and will return at the end of August to stay for two years. He's from America and will be learning our
language and getting to know many people in the community. We've come to visit
you to gain your blessing and to inform you that he'll be living with us."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So then the chief says, "Yes, you are welcome."
and he goes around to shake everyone's hand (in a counterclockwise motion so as
to never have the back of his hand facing someone whom he hasn't met [you only
shake with your right hand]). If you're
meeting a queen mother, then the ceremony is over; however, if you're meeting a
chief you are offered a shot of some alcohol.
In most cases it's akpeteshi, but sometimes the chief will have beer or
Schnapps. It's not impolite at all to
decline this drink (just like America some people don't drink alcohol), but I
have taken it every time it's been offered.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Sunday the 15th, I went to church and then hung out with
my counterpart and his friend Castro.
Church was a long ordeal, and since the pastor (my landlord) broke his
arm on Friday in a motorcycle accident, a few different people gave sermons. For a while everyone was worried that the
pastor might have been seriously injured (you hear motorcycle accident and you
know it can be bad), so it was nice to hear that he only broke his arm. It was completely serendipitous that he broke
his arm the day after I arrived, but I couldn't help but think some crazy
people might connect the accident to my arrival. Like I said, I am glad that it is only a
broken arm. Church only lasted a little
over 2 hours, but since I had to sit up on the stage the whole time so they
could introduce me to the congregation, it seemed a lot longer. The sermons were mostly in Twi, occasionally
they would translate parts into Ewe and Lelemi, but none of it was in English
so I didn't understand a bit of it. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The woman who was leading church in the pastor's stead
introduced me as Ofah Yaw to the congregation. Basically she went through the whole chief
speech and then asked me to say a few words.
I thought this situation might arise, so I told them good afternoon in
four languages (English, Twi, Ewe, and Lelemi), the crowd loved that. (Rural
Ghanaians are almost always happy to see a white person, and they are
especially happy to see a white person who can speak some of the local
language.) After that I didn't really
have anything else to say; I just told them that I was happy to be in such a
nice place and that I looked forward to meeting everyone more when I return in
August. Then they sang a few more songs,
and church was over.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Godwin was late to church because he had to run out to one
of his friend's farm to pick up a bottle of palm wine. Palm wine is the fermented liquid inside palm
trees, I'm hesitant to call it sap because it's ridiculously sweet and very
watery. I'll explain more about it in a
later post, but it's really not too strong, between 5% and 12% alcohol. Anyway, after church we went to Godwin's
house and split a liter of it, and then we went to visit Godwin's good friend
Castro. We hung out there for a while
and drank some more palm wine while watching a replay of the Spain-Portugal
Euro Cup semifinal. It was a fun
afternoon, and I think I'll get along just fine with those guys once I return
to Bodada. I just hung out an packed up
my things that evening and on Monday morning I left Bodada to travel to Saviefe
Gbogame for my job shadow. More on that
next time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
PS These are my school break times if anyone wants to visit
me of buy me a ticket back to America: December 14 - January 7, April 19 - May
13, and July 25 - sometime in late August.</div>Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-85727303656010237992012-07-13T12:03:00.000+00:002012-07-16T12:03:25.471+00:00Lelemi, Twi, and Ewe<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">Bodada-Buem in the Jasikan District of the Volta
Region.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">That's where I am now. </span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">This town is actually on the map that Shannon
and my dad bought for me, so those of you playing along at home can find it by
going north from Hohoe, which is north of Ho. Bodada, meaning "Ancient
Stone," </span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">is a small town (1500
people) in a gorgeous part of Volta.</span><span style="background-color: white;">
</span><span style="background-color: white;">There are mountains (the ancient stone for which the town is named) to
the east and west of the town, but they aren't mountains like the Rockies, more
like the coulees near the Mississippi River around LaCrosse or Prarie du
Chien.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">The scenery honestly reminds me a
lot of that area, except for the fact that I am surrounded by rainforest and
tropical trees.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">I really will try to
take some pictures soon.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">There is kind
of a problem with being busy and having a large camera: I can't just take
pictures whenever I see something cool.</span><span style="background-color: white;">
</span><span style="background-color: white;">It's bulky so I don't carry it with me, which is dumb, because it's not
going to make me stick out any more than I already do...I'm the only white
person within 40km.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So here in Bodada they speak Lelemi, then Twi is the second
most common language, and finally Ewe is the third. Most people know some English, but everyone
is better with all 3 of those other languages than English. Lelemi is a language of the Buem people who
came to this area from the Ashanti region.
I haven't been able to figure out if the Ashanti forced them to leave,
or if they were Ashanti who left the rest of their people for whatever
reason. I'll have to ask some of the
elders or maybe the chief. Anyway, when
I found out that Ewe was the 3rd language I wanted to switch to learning more
Twi, but Ewe will be more useful since Ewe is much more widely spoken. So when I return to Anyinasin in a week, I'll
continue to learn Ewe. However, I will
be able to spend some time learning Lelemi because Justin Akpanja, one of the
Peace Corps drivers, is actually from Bodada (and his uncle is the chief!) Justin was very excited to learn that I was
going to Bodada, and I am happy to know that I have already have a friend who
is family to the chief.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I met my counterpart teacher on Monday, and he seems quite
nice. His name is Godwin Agbobi (the
"gb" sounds mostly like a "b" in Ewe), and he graduated
from a college of education five years ago.
He helped me move all of my stuff from Kumasi to Bodada, and thank
goodness for that because I probably have about 120lbs of stuff spread between
4 bags. Did I mention the trip took us
about 10 hours?! And that's not counting
the hour and a half we spent waiting for the bus to load in Kumasi. One of the biggest problems that Ghana has
with infrastructure (besides not having enough money to build stuff) is that
they don't have highways or interstates or bypasses. The main highway will take you right through
the middle of every town you pass, so you can't just cruise...ever. And the roads are full of potholes, but
still...10 hours to drive halfway across a country the size of Oregon seems
ridiculous. No nevermind, it's just the
way things are outside of first-world countries. Anyway, Godwin is the school's math, science,
and ICT (internet and computer technology) teacher, so he's very happy to have
me to help share the workload. He's a
bright guy, he speaks English very well, and we've gotten along well so far.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I arrived in town last night around dinner time, and a
welcome committee of Evangelical Presbyterians and teachers from EP JHS
(Evangelical Presbyterian Junior High School) greeted me upon arrival. They had been expecting me all day, but they
weren't upset at all that I kept them waiting; they were just happy that I was
finally here. I'm staying at the
pastor's house, Jean-Paul Agidi, and he's a pretty young man for a pastor. I'm guessing that he's only in his 30s. He was joined by the headmaster of my school
Headmaster Gyamebi (sounds like "Jah-meh-bee"), most of the teachers
from EP JHS (there are only 8 total), and some church elders known as
Presbyters. They already had dinner
ready for me, and I was starved after hardly eating all day. But as tradition demands, we went around and
did the formal introductions first. This
is the Ghanaian way, and it was not annoying, I just want people in The States
to know that tradition and formal greetings are a big deal.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I only have one room to myself right now, but Pastor Agidi
has told me they are going to put up a wall around the outdoor walkway to make
a little sitting area and kitchen for me.
The rest of the house is very nice for Ghanaian standards: they have
electricity, a tv, satellite dish, refrigerator with freezer, and even a water
faucet outside (but no running water inside).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I haven't done much in town yet. I got a tour in the dark last night, and got
a more extensive one today. It's pretty
small, but not tiny. They have four
small JHS's and one senior high school.
My school is one of the smaller ones, and it doesn't have electricity. When I visited this morning everyone was very
excited, and the students especially liked it when I spoke some Twi and
Ewe. They also loved the fact I've eaten
fufu and had some apeteshi (distilled palm wine). The school itself is in a state of disrepair
although you can tell that it used to be gorgeous. It's just a big rectangle with 3 large
classrooms and a teachers' lounge/office, but the walkways around the outside
are nice and wide. The school sits atop
a bit hill and the roof is supported by cement columns. It kind of reminds me of a big antebellum
mansion in the South of the USA.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I'll let you know more about Bodada as I learn it, and the food blog will come once I return to
Anyinasin. Also, Bodada has an MTN tower
in town so I have excellent 3G coverage! Hoorah! I'll have internet when I come
back here in August.</div>Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-26329562300022396382012-07-06T12:39:00.000+00:002012-07-07T12:39:59.420+00:001 Down, 26 More To Go<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">So I've officially been in Ghana for one whole month, and it
seems crazy.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">I've already done so much!
I've learned krakra Twi (small small Twi, which means a little), taught at a
middle school in Africa for two weeks, and started learning Ewe.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">I have a new family and over 50 new
friends!</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">It seems so strange when I
think about being at site away from all the other trainees.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">We've become a pretty close group, and I feel
like I know everyone well.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">I'll
definitely miss everyone when we split up.</span><span style="background-color: white;">
</span><span style="background-color: white;">I'm also somewhat used to not having running water.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">A shower right now would be fantastic, but
bucket bathing is actually quite refreshing.</span><span style="background-color: white;">
</span><span style="background-color: white;">It would probably be a lot less tolerable if I weren't right by the
equator.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That being said, I definitely miss a lot of things about
America. Family, girlfriend, and other
friends are at the top (that includes everyone at Magpie by the way), and
American culture is right behind them.
It's just so different here than in America that I can't even really
describe it in a blog. Hopefully you can
get a sense of all the differences by reading this because I really can't make
a simple chart.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I really will write a food and drink blog soon. For now all you need to know is that the only
thing that is the same is that I sometimes have an egg omelet sandwich for breakfast (not a typical
Ghanaian breakfast, but my mom knows that I love it). Everything else is different. They eat a lot of fish here, and the main
carbohydrates are cassava, yam, plantain, and rice (which they think is an
American food but I laugh because we think of it as an Asian food).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It's also pretty hot here, and since this is the rainy
season it rains nearly every day. I
can't wear shorts here. Occasionally
I'll wear some khaki shorts, and I haven't gotten any comments about them. But I've been told that only punks wear
shorts (late teen/early twenty boys), so I mostly wear khaki pants since I'm a
professional teacher. It's really not a
big deal unless it's really hot, and contrary to popular belief, I don't
actually sweat that much. Also, I was
voted best dressed, so I must be doing something right.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I'm also happy to say that I'm having my first shirts made
now. I bought some fabric with Victoria
a couple weeks ago after teaching, and when my mom saw it she brought out some
more fabric she had purchased for me.
I'm getting a tunic made from the material I bought, and I'm getting a
button-up shirt made from my mother's fabric.
Victoria and I ended up buying the same fabric that day because it's
pretty awesome, and it will only be goofy that we have the same fabric for
another 2 months. People might think
we're married though because married couples really do dress to match. My mom and I will also have matching
outfits! We'll be looking very sharp
when I swear in. Pictures will
definitely make Facebook and/or this blog once I get the finished product. I'll also buy some more material that doesn't
match anyone else soon.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That's about all that's new.
It's a little frustrating that I learned a bunch of Twi from my family,
and now I have to forget it and learn Ewe.
But I'm really not even upset because knowing Twi greetings is very
useful if you live in Ghana, regardless of where you live.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Up next: Food or Site Information!</div>Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-293135555288076272012-07-05T12:37:00.000+00:002012-07-07T12:38:01.314+00:00Sickness, Setbacks, and Celebrations<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white;">Last weekend I didn't really go to a funeral.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">Friday night when I was planning on going, it
turned out that my family was actually going to the funeral.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">Only my brothers Appiah and Kwame were going,
and they were going to dance.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">As almost
everyone will tell you, I'm no dancer (unless I've put back a couple/a lot of
drinks...SigEpSigEp!)</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">Well getting drunk
at funerals is totally acceptable here, but as an ambassador (note the small
"a") of peace from the United States of America, I would rather
not.</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">Funerals are a big celebration
where the dead are honored for their greatness in life, and their failures and
shortcomings are forgiven or overlooked.</span><span style="background-color: white;">
</span><span style="background-color: white;">I did go to a funeral for a few minutes last Saturday morning (June 30),
but I didn't get the full experience of dancing and drinking.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On Sunday, I went to the Vodafone internet cafe in Koforidua
where the internet is actually decent. I
can get downloads of about 1MB/s, but it takes about 1 hour by taxi and trotro
to get there from Anyinasin. On my way
back to Anyinasin, I got some fried rice, spaghetti, and chicken from a street
vendor. I probably wouldn't have bought
it normally, but some Ghanaians on the trotro bought some so I figured that it
must be good.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I should have stopped eating it right away when I noticed
that it was kind of cold, but...I didn't.
That tro ride was pretty rough; 45 minutes of bouncy roads in the back
of a cramped van in which I couldn't even sit straight because I'm too tall
with 15 other people did not make my stomach feel too great. We I got off I knew I needed to get to a
toilet pretty quickly lest I wanted to "join the club" aka poop my
pants. It happens often enough to Peace
Corps Volunteers that it's just called joining the club, and a few people in my
training group have already joined.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I got home with clean underwear, but my brothers immediately
started harassing me about going to the funeral. I said that I wasn't feeling well and needed
to use the bathroom and probably lie down for a while. I told them I needed at least 1 hour. After 15 minutes they came and knocked on my
door and asked me if I was ready to go.
"No, let me sleep for a small time." I said. Then they told me that my bankou was almost
ready (bankou is the fermented corn flour ball that I'm not a huge fan of). I told them, "Men co didi! I'm
sick." (Translation: I'm not going to eat! I'm sick.) About 10 minutes after that I went outside
and vomited.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My brothers kind of (note: in Ghana they don't say
"kind of," instead they say "somehow" to mean the same
thing) understood that I was sick; they asked me if now I was ready to go to
the funeral. I had to explain that I
would not be attending the funeral, and that I needed to stay home because I
was vomiting and running (if you are jogging you need to say jogging or
training because here running means diarrhea ).
I then went to my room and took a nap.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I awoke to my mom knocking on my door. She had returned from
the funeral with her sister, and was trying to get me to go with her. However, once she saw that I was sick, she
asked me what happened and if I had taken medicine. I managed to explain that I had eaten some
fried rice and spaghetti in Koforidua, but I was unable to explain that if I
tried to take medicine, I would just vomit everything right back up. I eventually just left it as yes, I'm going
to take medicine. I did try to drink
some water then, but I was still ill. So
about 30 minutes later I went and threw up again.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Enough details though, you get the idea. I was miserably sick from 3:00pm to 8:00pm in
a foreign country because I ate some street food, and I was unable to tell my
host family exactly what was happening.
I was pretty unhappy, and I definitely thought, "This wouldn't have
happened if I were in America, and being in America would be really nice right
now." My family was genuinely
concerned for my health, and there were a few people visiting our house
(because of the funeral) and they also seemed genuinely concerned. It was a pretty tough afternoon for me, but
thinking about it now confirms that Ghanaians are just nice people. Most people seemed worried that I was going
to die or needed medical attention, but usually I was able to explain that it
was just something I ate making me sick.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here's a list of some things that are tough and other
setbacks I've experienced in no particular order: it's hot, my $5 Walmart
speakers broke, my iPod decided to stop working for a day, I had to reinstall
Windows7 on my computer because it wouldn't start, my external hard drive
decided to quit functioning (but I was able to recover almost everything on
it), I have to handwash all of my clothes, it rains almost every day so it
takes two days for my clothes to dry, I got food poisoning, I forgot all of my
books at home, there's no running water, I have to greet everyone I see because
I'm a celebrity, and my house is a 10 minute walk from town.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It's really not that bad, and I've gotten over pretty much
everything on the list. That being said,
I do miss running water, constant electricity, nice roads, and American food.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This post is supposed to include some celebrations too, and
I think that will be good to lift my spirits a bit after all this talk of
sickness and things that kind of suck. The
first and only celebration that I have to talk about is the Ohoum
Festival. No one was able to figure out
exactly what it is or why they celebrate, but these are some things we
know. The timing of the festival changes
every year depending on the growth of palm trees, but we don't know what they
look for or why it depends on palm trees.
For one month no one is allowed to pound fufu, make excessive noise, or
play music after dark. If you live in
town this month is noticeably quieter because Ghanaians are pretty loud at
night compared to Americans. When
something happens with the palm tree, the chief of Old Tafo and the village
elders walk through the stream for a few hundred meters. Lots of people join them in the stream, and
then the whole procession moves to the street and they parade through town.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Parades here are pretty cool. There's lots of drumming, dancing, and
waving. Anyone at Lawrence or who knows
Sambistas can think of that kind of drumming.
After the chief passes by, or really whenever you feel like it, you can
join the parade. The chief was carried
through town on a big platform, and he would occasionally stand and dance on
the platform for a while. This sent the
crowd into a frenzy and everyone would start dancing furiously. When the parade ends, there's a dancing
competition. I think this is pretty
standard, but it might be only for Ohoum.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most people were nice, but a few weren't so happy to see a
bunch of white people parading through town.
Victoria and I also got dragged into a dance spot by our counterpart
teacher at RCJHS and immediately felt uncomfortable. For one the place was packed; we were the
only white people there and everyone knew it; and people tried to pickpocket me
and take my backpack. Luckily I didn't
have anything in my back pockets, and we left in less than a minute. It was crazy in there, and we didn't like it. All in
all the festival was a lot of fun, and I'm glad I got to see it and
participate.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4th of July Party!
All of us PCTs decided to have a potluck to celebrate Independence
Day. We held the potluck at our favorite
spot in town which happens to be owned by Mandee's (a fellow volunteer)
mom. The day before the party I decided
that I would make some vegetarian chili, something I've whipped up many times
working at Magpie. I knew it wouldn't be
too hard to find tomatoes, beans, onion, chiles, and garlic, but finding cumin
proved to be impossible. Also, I had to
settle for some white beans. I'm not sure what kind they were, but that was the
only kind available.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I soaked the beans for half a day, and when I returned home
at 4:00pm, I was ready to cook. I should
take a little time to explain our kitchen facilities: we have a fire pit (3
walls) that you feed firewood into; we have a charcoal grill with no grill that
you just set pots upon, and we have no cutting board (though I brought
one!). Everything works surprisingly well,
and my mom is a pro at cutting things in her hands.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I started boiling the beans on the fire pit, roasting the
peppers on the charcoal, and prepping my tomatoes, onions, and garlic. Everything came together nicely, and my
family loved me stew. However, since I
couldn't find cumin or get chipotles in adobo sauce, my chili turned into a
spicy tomato soup. As anyone at Magpie
will tell you, I have a tendency to overdo the spiciness of soups, and the same
thing happened with this chili. As one
fellow teacher put it, "Your chili's on fire!" </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I ended up being late to the party, which I knew would
happen because cooking beans and chili takes a lot of time, but my spicy tomato
soup was still quite popular. That
brings me to another topic at our 4th of July Potluck, the Trainee survey. A few girls decided it would be fun to put
together an anonymous poll to decide who had the best smile, best eyes, and who
was the best dress, and most likely to do certain things...a lot like a high
school senior yearbook thing, except we've known each other for less than one
month. Anyway, I pretty much ran the
table for the guys: smile (#2), eyes (1), best dressed (1), most likely to get
a Ghana tattoo (2), most likely to integrate into the community (1), most
likely to become fluent in the language (1), most likely to become a volunteer
trainer (2), most likely to become a country director (1)...etc. There are more but I've already bragged
plenty. I should mention that you could
not vote for yourself, so these things were determined by my fellow
trainees. Not going to lie, it made me
feel pretty good about myself :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then we sang the national anthem, and it was awesome.
'Merica!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Funerals are a big celebration, so I'm sure I'll write about
them more once I actually go to one.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I'm excited to announce that my sister Cynthia had her baby
the other day (Wednesday). Because he
was born on a Wednesday, he will be named Kwaku. I already have one brother named Kwaku, but
his full name is Kwaku Aguday (I have no idea how to spell it). They don't name babies until they have a
party a week after they are born, but my family is already talking about naming
him Kwaku Peter Vanney Anokyewaa!
Apparently they have a family member named Peter, so they aren't naming
him only after me, but still...it's pretty cool. I guess that means I would be the godfather. I'm not so secretly really excited about
this.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately I think I won't be around for the naming/birthing
celebration because all the Peace Corps Trainees are going to Kumasi to meet
our counterpart teachers for our sites.
This means that they'll finally tell us the name of the town/village
we'll be teaching in for two years!
After we meet our counterparts everyone will go to their sites for a
short visit, and then we'll shadow a current Peace Corps teacher for a few days
too. It's going to be an exciting 2
weeks, and I'm not sure when I'll be able to find internet. Hopefully it's
soon!</div>Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-82203667620400085232012-06-30T00:48:00.000+00:002012-07-01T12:50:36.662+00:00Practicum and Ewe<span style="background-color: white;">Friday was a big day for me.</span><span style="background-color: white;">
</span><span style="background-color: white;">It was the last day of practicum, our languages were announced, and I'm
going to a funeral tonight.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Practicum went better than I originally expected. Last week I was the middle school math (JHS
Maths as it's known here) teacher, and
this week I was the JHS integrated science teacher. I taught the JHS 1 students percentages and
then about light energy, and I taught the JHS 2 students about rates, the
circulatory system, and photosynthesis. Teaching is difficult; I want to give a
special shoutout to all of my former teachers and all teachers everywhere. I had no idea how difficult it is to get
students to work on their own and think for themselves. It's
not just that the students here aren't quick learners, most of them don't try
to learn (cheating on homework as nearly 100%) and they haven't been taught
critical thinking.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I was trying to teach percentages, I realized that the
students had pretty much no idea how to multiply fractions and decimals. So that made even simple percentages
difficult to explain, and the more difficult percentages that required long
division...forget about it! Students
here have to study for a big international test, most students take the West
African Exam (think Iowa Test of Basic Skills, but way more important). This test makes up 50-70% of their cumulative
grade for the year, and is supposed to determine whether they advance to the
next grade. I say "supposed
to" because in reality most students move on regardless of their grades;
the reason being the parents would rather have their children obtain a degree
from Senior High School (SHS) than actually learn. PTAs have a lot of power here.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A few years back, there were some teachers in Dodowa who held
students back. The parents of those
students came to the school and beat the teachers for holding their children
back. All the schools in Dodowa's
district promptly closed, and the parents have since had to beg to get schools
and teachers to return. These days the
teachers' unions uses Dodowa as an example of what is wrong with the education
system.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anyway, the test each student is supposed to pass covers way
too much material, and I don't think teaching for a test is the best way to
educate. I talked to a couple students
privately today, and they said that sometimes there's material on the tests
that they've never seen before. Even
good teachers with excellent students are unable to get through all the material. It's a little nuts, and I tried to explain to
the students that I feel it's more important that they understand the material
than it is for them to cram before the test and not remember anything. I also told a girl who wanted to be a nurse
that she should try to become a doctor instead because in America it doesn't
matter if you are a boy or girl. If you
are smart and get good grades (marks) then you can be a doctor regardless. I also learned that they can be caned for
wrong answers. I heard about this, but didn't think it happened at our school. The girl told me that if they had a test
worth 30 points, every point off could be a lashing. She also said that sometimes the teachers go
easy on them and just make the test worth 20 points total. She said that some students still get 0s
though. It's so messed up!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Some of these things are so engrained in the students they
don't even realize how wrong it is. The
students have a lot of difficulty applying concepts to different topics (a
product of test memorization), and this makes science and math particularly
difficult to teach. Providing real life
examples is extremely difficult if you cannot relate even the previous topic to
the current one.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our students at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic JHS loved
Victoria and me, I think they don't really like their teachers so anyone white
and new is automatically cool. Today
they brought fruit for us and were going to sing, but they had to meet with the
church elders to discuss education and religion and how it relates to their
lives. The headmaster went with them, and as protocol demands we had to say
goodbye to the headmaster. We
interrupted the church elder who was talking to the students, and we had to
give mini speeches thanking everyone and saying how much we enjoyed ourselves
(and we did actually enjoy in). This
sort of thing is totally normal in Ghana.
White people, especially Peace Corps teachers or well respected people,
are often asked to make speeches or say prayers in front of random groups of
people. Also, interruptions are also not
a big deal at all. Ghanaians will be
much more offended if you do not greet them or say goodbye than if you
interrupt them or even wake them up from a nap.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After the end of practicum, Victoria and I rode back to
Anyinasin and went to the Presbyterian Church (known as Presby) for our
language announcements. Presby is where
we've had a bunch of Peace Corps sessions, so I just want to let everyone know
what it really is. It's a big, open-air,
cement -frame of a church with an aluminum roof. There are no walls, there are no windows, and
the floor is cement. There are maybe 20
benches/pews that are incredibly uncomfortable, and every day around 3:00pm, a
herd of goats runs through the church to get to the pasture on the other side.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I found out that I'll be learning Ewe (pronounced like
"evah" with a long a) which is spoken in the Volta region! I'm pretty
excited about this because it means I'm going somewhere in the Volta region. As
usual Peace Corps only tells us information on a need to know basis, so I don't
know where in Volta I'll be going, but it's nice to narrow it down a bit. Ewe is not really like Twi, so I'm going to
stop learning Twi at home so I can focus solely on Ewe.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That's all I have for now, I'll let you know about my life
as it happens. <sup><o:p></o:p></sup></div>Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-39398586400797598102012-06-25T20:46:00.000+00:002012-06-26T13:47:39.704+00:00A Day in the Life<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
A Day in the Life of a Peace Corps Trainee<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
5:00am – Wake up. The
roosters have been crowing for at least 1 hour by now; unless it’s raining,
then they are just starting to make noise.
These guys are loud though, and they call out to one another to mark
their territory and their hens. Just the
other day while bathing, I saw 2 roosters fighting that resulted in a
death. One rooster got ahold of the
other’s neck and managed to pin it against the ground.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have to open up my mosquito net and walk over to find my
shower slippers (flip flops) or my Chaco sandals, then I grab some T-roll
(toilet paper) and get the toilet key.
We have a latrine comparable to an outhouse back in the states. Is it luxurious? No, but it gets the job done. You’re excused from greeting people when you
have T-roll in hand, but I still say “Good morning.” and “How are you?” to
anyone I see on my compound.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Next, I’ll work on some lesson plans or just hang out with
my family until I’m served breakfast.
The host families are paid (pretty well for Ghanaian standards, I’m
told) to host a trainee, so they are expected to provide meals for us. I help in the cooking occasionally, but
usually my mom is nearly done when I’m ready to start my day. I’ve also helped
fetch water and done laundry during this time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Breakfast has been an egg omelet sandwich or oatmeal. The omelet has tomatoes, onions, green beans,
and peppers in it, and the bread is sweet white bread that is made in small
batch deliciousness. Very tasty! The
oatmeal is pretty basic, but Ghanaians like it like they like their tea, sweet
and mixed with evaporated milk.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
6:00am – I’m usually done with breakfast by now and ready to
take a bucket bath. I fill up my bucket
with water from the barrel in my room, and then go into our shower stall. Four walls each 4 feet high and a doorway
make up the whole stall. It has a cement
and rock floor that is swept after each bath to keep the mold and slipperiness
away.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
6:30am – Time to leave for practicum. Things start early here, and I need to get to
school by 7:15. It takes me about 15
minutes to walk to the taxi stand, and since I need to say good morning and ask
everyone how they are doing whenever I see someone, it can take me up to 30 min
to walk to the taxi station.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The taxis are pretty crappy around here, and they all have
yellow license plates. Usually they are
pretty old cars, 10-25 years old, and are kept running by the loyal drivers who
truly love them. Only crucial repairs
are done to the taxis, and it is common for the whole dashboard to be out of
order. I always hope the speedometer
works in my taxis, but the drivers can’t go too fast because they need to
swerve around the numerous potholes and pedestrians.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
7:00am – We’re on the road now. I head to Kukurantumi with Victoria Sicking
(my teaching partner and wife when either of us get hassled about being married
or harassed for being single), and we have to carpool with some other people to
fill the car to 4 passengers. Usually there
are more Peace Corps teachers heading there, but sometimes we have to wait 30
minutes for two more Ghanaians to come along who are heading the same direction
as us.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
7:40am – Morning assembly at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic
Junior High School. This is the first
place kids can be caned (beaten with a meter long stick about as think as a
pinkie finger). The other day the
prefects and the late students were caned for not sweeping the classrooms fast
enough. The prefects really are the
whipping boys/girls of the school. When
something isn’t done, and the whole class is to blame, the prefect will get
whipped, and if it’s bad enough, every child will be whipped. Our teacher explained that they need to be
punished, or the children will not learn.
Caning is supposed to only happen to correct behavior, not out of anger,
but that isn’t always the case. As a
Peace Corps teacher, I’m really not in a position to change the system, but I
can make suggestions to my fellow teachers.
It’s pretty hard to watch a bunch of kids getting beaten, and I prefer
to look away. It bothers me, but I can’t
really change anything.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I just teach one or two classes for practicum, but Peace
Corps started us off fast. I had one 15
minute peer teaching session, and then the next day I taught 2 classes. I think everything is going well so far, but
I’m teaching 6<sup>th</sup> and 7<sup>th</sup> graders, and mostly I just give
them lectures. It’s not very effective,
but I’ve only been teaching for 1 week, and I don’t really have a rapport with
these students. I try to involve them by
asking questions and getting them to participate. I have a BA in Mathematics, but I don’t have
any real classroom experience, and I only took a couple science classes in
college. But that hasn’t stopped Ghana
from telling me that I can teach math and science in junior high schools.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Class time – My students are pretty good, and they still
think it’s cool to have a guest teacher who’s white. I’m constantly surprised by how little my
students know. I was trying to teach my
6<sup>th</sup> graders about percentages, but I was really struggling because
they don’t remember how to multiply decimals and fractions. Long division seemed like a brand new idea,
but I was assured they learned it a couple months ago.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One day Victoria and I watched our collaborating teacher
teach a math class the other day, and we were shocked. He ran the class like a drill sergeant, and
was just shouting things at the students.
They clearly weren’t learning anything, and he was just yelling at
them. No wonder our Peace Corps trainers
have told us we will be the students’ favorite teachers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
12:30pm – I’m usually done teaching by now and ready to
leave the school. My mom packs me a
lunch of ramen or a traditional Ghanaian food.
I’ll have a whole entry on food later.
JHS gets done at 2:00pm, but since we’re just doing practicum, we don’t
have to stay the whole time. Some days I
go to an internet café or market in a bigger town, other days I go home, and
some days we head to a spot (bar) to work on lesson planning.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ll have a whole entry about markets and navigating the
streets in the near future.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Victoria and I have to catch a taxi back to Anyinasin, and
that usually requires a taxi to New Tafo first.
Per person it costs 50 pesawas (cents) to ride between Kukurantumi and
New Tafo, and 1.20 cedis ($1 = ₵1.70) to get between New Tafo and
Anyinasin. The taxi stand at New Tafo is
pretty busy, and you can get taxis to any town within an hour’s drive; you just
have to wait for the taxis to fill with 4 people.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
5:30pm – Dinner is served.
My mom is a really good cook, and I’ll make a whole entry just about
food later. She tells me to “Eat all.” pretty
much every meal, and sometimes I do.
When I don’t it’s usually just because she gives me too much, and not
because the food doesn’t taste good.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For the rest of the night, I usually hang out with my
family, head to a spot with some other volunteers, watch a movie by myself or
with my family, or work on my lesson planning.
I’ve watched football, learned some more Twi, and just watched my family
members do their thing during this time.
Days start and end early here, so not much happens after dinner.<o:p></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">9:00pm – Back to bed and it’s time for the
mefloquine dreams. They really haven’t
been too crazy, but I do think I remember more dreams. It might just be because I’m more conscious
of them</span>Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8647949259976970040.post-72003184114614111092012-06-21T20:45:00.000+00:002012-06-26T13:46:25.283+00:00First Entry<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
1st Entry!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve been living in Ghana for only 15 days now, but it feels
a lot longer than that. When the 24
other Peace Corps Trainees and I got off the plane, we were greeted by a wave
of heat and humidity that hasn’t left.
After a few days you just get used to it, and now the heat only really
bothers me during the middle of the day if there aren’t any clouds and when I’m
trying to fall asleep. In fact, I rarely
use a blanket. I’ve been sleeping on a
foam mattress with a sheet over it, and I have my sleeping bag out next to me,
but I’ve only thrown it on 3 or 4 times total.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ghana is really beautiful and almost all of the people are
nice and pleasant. We spent the first 5
nights at Valley View University just outside of Accra; it seemed like a huge
leap at the time (and going from the USA to Ghana is a pretty big leap) but
Valley View was more like America than we realized. At VVU we had running water, electricity
(sometimes), food served on a buffet, and we all lived within a few hundred
feet of each other. We learned survival
Twi (other than English, the most widely spoken language in the South) which is
mostly the ability to say, “Good morning. How are you? I’m fine.” This seems easy enough now, but anyone who’s
had to take a crash course in language will tell you it’s very intimidating. Thankfully, Peace Corps Ghana has a really
amazing staff, and almost everyone has at least 10 years of Peace Corps
experience. They are very supportive and
helpful, and aside from the hot, day-long sessions about common sense safety
issues, everything has been worthwhile.
I’m sure even some of the things we talked about in the Safety and
Security sessions will come in handy sometime.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anyway, our time at Valley View was fun, and I won’t forget
the Accra Quest or Lou butchering me with a “haircut.” Accra Quest was the first time they let us off
campus, and they forced us to head into Accra in groups of 4. Everyone had to go visit a few different
places and make it back to Valley View in 5 hours. This means that you have to board a tro-tro
(taxi minivan that holds 22 passengers) and get around knowing only 5 major
landmarks. Since everyone is so nice and
helpful we had no problems traveling to the Flagstaff House and the University
of Accra Library. I know I was initially
worried about people trying to take my money or scam me, but the opposite
happened. The other people on the tro
with us made sure we got the correct change and weren’t overcharged, and one
man even led us to the taxi station that would take us where we needed to go.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To understand my “haircut” and why I’ll never forget it, you
really need to know Lou. If you don’t
know him, then here’s Lou in a nutshell.
Luciano Triassi: Italian-American New Yorker, 5’3” tall but muscular,
Army Veteran who curses like one, former teacher, former hobo, volunteer, 70
years old. Lou has seen it all, doesn’t
really care what you have to say, and will say whatever is on his mind,
especially if it’s, “I don’t care what you have to say.” Or something like
that. He likes to keep his answers short, sweet, and to the point, and everyone
in our group already has 5 funny stories to tell about him. I think I have the most though because I was
his roommate in DC and at Valley View. I
could probably write 1000 words about him, and some of us have been talking
about starting a blog for him so we can record his stories. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The haircut has been my most traumatic Lou experience, and
it happened at Valley View. Lou plugged
his hair clippers into the wall outlet adapter and flipped them on. They made a lot of noise, and Lou said,
“Hmmm, they’ve never made that noise before.” But everything seemed to be
working fine, and when he offered to trim up the hair on my neck, I
agreed. The right side went okay, but the
haircut was hurting me and it felt like someone was grinding sandpaper on my
neck. I asked Lou if he had cut me and I
put my hand on my neck to check for blood.
Lou said, “No.” and that I just needed to hold still, but my hand said
otherwise. There was a small dot of
blood on my palm. “Whatever.” I thought,
I just wanted him to finish the other side so my neck didn’t look half hairy
and half bare. Lou tried to trim the
left side with his right hand and I cringed. I definitely got scraped that
time. He then said, “Maybe if I flip
them over and use my left hand, this will be easier.” “Whatever, just hurry
up.” The next pass was the worst and then Lou tried one more time and said, “I
think I should stop. This looks like it’s hurting you.” I agreed and put my
left hand to the left side of my neck, and when I pulled it back, it was
covered in blood. I rushed over to the
mirror and I could see a bloody mess on the back of my neck. “Wow, that’s crazy. I <i>almost</i> feel bad about that. I’m glad I tried that on you before I
did myself. You’re really bleeding a
lot. I <i>almost</i> feel bad.” He suggested shaving cream and a razor to
finish the job since I still had a bunch of hair on my neck, and that was
clearly what we should have been doing the whole time. I went to a bar (they are called a spots
here) a little later, and I got to tell everyone there about how Lou cut me
up. That sparked everyone’s Lou stories,
and his legend continues to grow daily.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Enough about Lou, this is my journal/blog. I’m very happy to be in Anyinasin, I like my
host family a lot. My mom Akua Anokyewaa
is in her early 40s but you would probably guess younger if you saw her. I have 3 brothers and 2 sisters; Appiah (18
looks 15), Cynthia (17), Arama (14), Kwame (13), and Kwaku (2). My mom doesn’t speak a lot of English, but
everyone else besides baby Kwaku can translate between Twi and English. We live in a two-building compound with a
dirt area in between that serves as the kitchen, dining room, and play
room. Each building has 4 doors to the
outside and I’m currently the only one living in my building. My mom and her family live in 2 of the other
rooms in the other building, a cousin lives with her family in another room,
and then another family lives in the fourth.
My building seems to be for guests and storage. Grandma stayed in a room
here for a few days, but she left to go to Kumasi with another family member
yesterday. I have a large room, and I
keep it locked almost all the time. I
trust my family, but I have expensive things and the area around our house is a
high-traffic path. We have electricity,
but no one here has running water. We
fetch water from a well, and store it in barrels. My brothers like the rainy season because the
barrels are positioned to catch the rain water from the gutters. We have an outhouse which is pretty nice for
outhouse standards, and we have a shower stall with 3 and a half walls that are
4 feet high. It’s not the nicest place
around here, not even close, but it has a warm homey feel that I like.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Being a foodie I’m going to write another entry solely about
food some other time. I eat plenty and almost everything is an oily red soup,
which as you can imagine hasn’t really helped my travellers’ diarrhea.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This week was the first week of practicum and I only have 1
more week to go. I’ll explain more about
it once I finish. All you need to know about it now is that my students like
me, but they don’t know very much math.
They mostly teach for a test, and the essay questions are graded very
harshly. Creativity and critical
thinking are not the focus, rote memorization is. It pretty much goes against everything I
learned in school, but as we have been told many times, Peace Corps teachers
are only teachers. There’s nothing we
can do about the systemic problems and the Ghanaian way of teaching. Volunteers who focus on those problems lose
focus on the children whose lives they can change and end up getting
depressed. So I’m just going to focus on
helping my students learn as much math as they can, and if they truly
understand the material, I believe they will succeed on the WAEC test. Check
back in 1 year to see how actually teaching has changed me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I miss lots of things about America: family, girlfriend,
friends, the food, the constant supply of electricity, running water, roads
without potholes, safe and reliable cars, not having to rely on taxis, internet,
and the freedom to do whatever I like whenever I like. This is definitely the hardest thing I’ve
ever done, and I’m still in the honeymoon period, but I’m going to enjoy
it. My fellow Peace Corps Trainees and
my host family have made this transition a lot easier and I just want to thank
them for that. Let me know what you
would like to hear about in the future.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As they say around here, “Bye-bye-o!”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
PS I have a cellphone, but reception is spotty around my
house. I’m also 5 hours ahead of Central
Daylight Time, so keep that in mind. I’ll personal message anyone who wants my
phone number, but I don’t want to post it to the internet for everyone.<o:p></o:p></div>Peter Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13504458198886033312noreply@blogger.com0