Affere!

Well this morning started off rather early – 3 am early. Today we all departed for our various sites across Ghana. Luckily my site and a few other peoples’ were fairly close to Kumasi so we didn’t have to travel very far. My site, Affere, is about 3 ½ hours from Kumasi. I probably could have arrived in a shorter amount of time but I had bags and they had to be loaded into various vehicles. All but a few of us left Kumasi at 430 this morning. 19 of the PCTs and their respective counterparts, plus all of our bags, were crammed into the PC bus that normally holds about 25 people, so we were tucked in their pretty good. The bus dropped us off at the Metro Mass Transit station around 445am. We unloaded our bags and proceeded to find our respective buses. Alisa and Gayle will be living really close to me (Alisa is about 6km away and Gayle is about 20km away) so we planned on traveling together for most of the trip. Unfortunately, Gayle was really sick this morning so she and her counterpart stayed in Kumasi until she was well enough to travel. So it was just four us: Alisa and I and both our counterparts. We boarded the bus after haggling the price of our bags. We were glad our counterparts were there to help us slash translate everything that was being said. We probably would have been charged more for our bags just for being oburoni but because we were with our counterparts, who are Ghanaian, we probably got a better price.  Our bus took us as far as Sefwi-Wiawso, which is about 30-40 minutes from my town. From Wiawso, we crammed 2 suitcases, 2 travelers’ backpacks, 2 Ghana Gucci’s, 2 backpacks and 4 people into one taxi.  The driver had to tie the trunk closed with an old t-shirt and it didn’t instill much confidence in Alisa or me. We were sure one of our bags would fall out the back, but fortunately none of them. But my Ghana Gucci did rip down the side…thank goodness for Duct Tape! The taxi took us to our district capital, Juaboso, and it’s also our big market town. If we ever need to buy any big-ticket items, like a fridge or new mattress, we would probably go into Juaboso. Juaboso’s market day is Thursday, which works out nicely because in Affere and in Alisa’s village Thursday is a taboo day so no one works. 

In Juaboso Alisa and I split up, and she headed off to her town with her counterpart. Ambrose, one of the men living in my compound actually came to Juaboso to meet us. Ambrose is the accountant for the district Water and Sanitation Committee located in Juaboso, so I will be collaborating with him a lot during my time here. It was a really short drive from Juaboso to Affere – probably about 5 minutes down a dirt road. The road out of Juaboso forks and one path takes to you Affere and the other takes you to Cote d’Ivoire. It’s about 3km from Affere to Juaboso so I will probably be riding my bike there once I get one. I better have a basket!

When we reached the edge of town, the taxi stopped and my counterpart and I got out. I saw there was a band standing on the side of the road and as soon as I stepped out of the car they started playing. You can guess what happened next…my counterpart made me walk in front of the band and they paraded me through town for about 10 minutes. On the way I met the Assembly Man and a couple other of the village elders. Walking through town was like trawling for children. Pretty soon I had a swarm of children dancing and walking around me. Currently in Ghana there is a dance that is pretty popular…the Azonto…and they were all doing that as they walked alongside me. It made me homesick for my family in Anyinasin! All my brothers and sisters and friends always do the Azonto in Anyinasin. Even my 4-year-old brother, Richard, and he’s pretty good. Maybe I’ll be able to do it after 2 years here, though I doubt it, I am oburoni after all.

The band followed me all the way to my house, which is just off the main road about a minutes walk. We sat around in the courtyard/garden area and I greeted everyone that I will be living with. There are 2 couples and their children. They all speak English pretty well so that will be helpful until I can speak Twi better.

Now the moment you’ve all been waiting for…my living conditions…I have 2 rooms facing the courtyard/garden and they have a connecting door on the inside, which is really nice. Both rooms are considerably bigger than my room in Anyinasin. I have a full sized bed, which is awesome. My bed in Anyinasin was a twin, so now I can sprawl out. The walls are painted neon green…or Duck green as I will start calling them. One room will be my living/dining room and possibly kitchen. I have a desk with some drawers and 2 plastic chairs in there. I have windows on both sides, both fully screened so I’m protected from those darn mosquitoes). My bedroom has my bed, shocker I know and another plastic chair and 2 windows on the back wall. Now the best parts…I have a ceiling light in both rooms and even better…a ceiling fan in both rooms. It makes Anyinasin look like prison! I even get fully reception in my room, which I didn’t in Anyinasin. I also have an outlet in each room. I’m so glad I had mentally prepared myself to have no electricity and a small room, so when I saw I had all this it was like Christmas morning in Africa. I’ve had the fan on since I got here this morning and the electricity went out twice already and I realized how much I’m going to love these fans! But the good news isn’t finished yet. On one side of my rooms is the bathhouse and on the other is my toilet. My bathhouse has a light and is fully tiled…and it’s actually a shower. Yup, I have a shower head on the wall, so that is pretty sweet. Am I in Africa? I do have a bucket in my room so I’m hoping that is just to collect water for other purposes and that my bath is actually a shower…fingers crossed for this evening when I find out. My toilet is actually a latrine, but it’s clean and does not smell like poop. The floor is tiled and toilet is actually porcelain toilet with a seat but it drops down into a hole, so it’s still technically a latrine but a pretty nice one at that! I’ll take it. And there is also a t-roll holder. In Ghana t-roll=toilet paper. The best part about the toilet is that there is that tree shaped air freshener you find in America…but the tree is the American flag. I guess it’s supposed to smell like America? I’ll think of America every time I poop.

So its 323pm and I’ve been here since about 1030. My family gave me some Jolof rice and chicken for lunch and then they brought me some fresh pineapple. They also brought me a tray of deliciousness. I have a carton of apple juice, a bottle of water, and some sort of wonderful cake. Am I doing Peace Corps? I forget. One of my mothers just came into my room with a tray of ice-cold pure water (pure water is water that comes in plastic baggies…it has been filtered purified so it’s ok to buy it off the street…there are all kinds of different brands…one bag is between 5 and 10 pesewas). She told me not to drink my bottled water because it was warm and she would go put it in the FRIDGE for me. Cold water?! Snap out of it!

The only bad thing about my room is that I have hook centered above my bed for my mosquito net but I don’t have a hook in the middle of my net. This isn’t even a real problem! My mosquito net has hooks on the corners…it’s shaped like a box so you can hook it on multiple walls instead of just hanging it from the middle. I got creative though and sewed a piece of yarn to the middle of my net and hung it up that way.

When I move back here permanently (for PC not my life, don’t worry parents), I’m going to get some shelves and bookcases made for me room so I have somewhere to put my clothes and 8 million books PC gave me.

I think this evening I am going to meet the chief and the village elders. I think I am also doing it again tomorrow. My counterpart will introduce me and explain why I am here and what I will be doing for the next two years. Every PCV has to do this when they come to their village. If you don’t you will probably have problems getting anything done and no one will like you. It just a sign of respect and it’s also a really fun cultural experience. I’ll probably wear one of my Ghanaian dresses…maybe score some brownie points.

That’s all for now folks. I’m going to watch some Modern Family and enjoy this fan blowing on me!

Mek⊃bra (prounounced maykwaba). It means you’re coming and going…you say it when you leave and plan to return.