Wild Wild West

So after our LPIs on Monday, on Tuesday we all traveled up to Kumasi, the regional capital of the Ashanti Region. We came up here to find out our sites and to meet our counterparts and do some training with them.

After 6 weeks of waiting to find out our sites, the day had finally arrived. PC didn’t let us find out until 11am on Wednesday, of course, so PC of them – always making you wait.

A couple of people already knew what regions they would be going to because only their language is spoken in that region. So 10 people out of 23 already knew what region they would be going to. All the Twi speakers still had no idea. Ernest, one of the PC drivers, drew a very large map of Ghana on the cement at our training facility here in Kumasi. The trainers labeled each region accordingly and then started placing dots to represent the villages of where we would be going. No one is going to the Ashanti Region, Brong-Ahafo Region, or Greater Accra. The breakdown is as follows…Upper West: 3, Upper East: 2, Northern: 3, Volta: 2, Eastern: 1, Central: 3, and Western: 9….DRUM ROLL.

I’M GOING TO WESTERN REGION. I am SUPER excited about my site. I haven’t heard one thing that makes me nervous! Here are my site and project details thus far…

Region: Western

Site: Affere

District: Juaboso

Partner Organization or Agency: Johns Hopkins University/Behavior Change Support Project

New or Replacement Site: New

Language: Sefwi, Twi

Population: 4800

Major Ethnic Group: Sefwis

Major religion: Christianity

Major Occupation in Community: Farming

Type of Settlement Pattern: Concentrated

Major Source of Water Supply: Pipe Borne Water

Communal Working Days: Tuesdays

Taboo Days: Thursdays

What Community Members Cannot Do on Taboo Days: No Farming Activities

Market Days in Community: Thursdays

Major Disease in Community: Malaria and Bilharzias (AKA Schistosomiasis)

Major Health Hazard in Community: Latrines not well maintained, indiscriminate defecation and insect bites

The district capital, Juaboso, is 6km from Affere so if I need any of the following I will have to travel to Juaboso: Hospital/Clinic, Post Office, Police Station, Market, Bank, Radio Communication, Senior High School, District Assembly. The Lorry Park, Primary School, and Junior High School are all located at my site.

Brief History of Affere: ancestors of inhabitants migrated to the place in the 19^th century for farming purposes, mainly for cocoa and rice farming.

I will be living in a compound, like my housing in Anyinasin, except I have two rooms to myself, a private bathhouse, but I have to share a latrine with three other tenants. My counterpart (I will explain who this is in a minute) told me that I will be living in the same compound as my landlord, and a married couple with children (ages ranging from young kids to high schoolers I think). I am happy with my housing situation, however, I am wondering how clean my latrine will be. In Anyinasin, I share a latrine with quite a few people and it really isn’t that bad, so I’m sure I’ll be able to manage in Affere. I am really glad I have my own bathhouse though. On Saturday we all travel to our sites so I will be able to see what my rooms look like and decide how I want to organize and decorate them. I will be a brand new volunteer at my site. They have not had a PCV before so I will be their first one!

My main project will be working with behavior change focused on health issues, and the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health runs it. I should also point out that the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health is the best in the nation. We met with someone from BCS (Behavior Change Support) today and she talked about our projects more specifically, although we won’t know what we will be doing exactly until we get to site.

We will be working closely with the BCS Project, which is the Behavior Change Support Project. The little blurb we were given says this: “The Ghana Behavior Change Support (BCS) Project is a 4 year United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supported project managed by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP) in partnership with the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service (GHS).” (BCS, 2012).

Basically, with this program, we are trying to make Ghana achieve the health related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). BCS works in with health related issues, so my projects will revolve around one or several of these them…Maternal and Child Health, Family Planning, Malaria Prevention and Treatment, Nutrition, and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. They also work with HIV/AIDs but it is not as big a sector in BCS. We will be doing a variation of educational and entertaining programs, health specific campaigns (large and small scale), and community mobilization activities. BCS works to change people attitudes towards diseases and educate them on how to live a healthy and better life. Right now they have a campaign running that is called “Good Life.” It’s kind of funny because all the time in Anyinasin I have been hearing “Good Life, Good Life, Good Life…” on the radio with various health advertisements and it turns out I am working for that campaign now! I’m very, very excited about this project. It has many issues to work with so I am not limited in what I will be able to do.

Yesterday we broke up into groups based on what our projects would be. For BCS there are six of us: Alisa, Tristan, Gayle, Heather, Adam M, and me. It’s really exciting because everyone, except Adam, is in the Western Region and we are all very close. I am only about 4km from Alisa and about 20 minutes from Gayle. Alisa and I have the same market town and we will probably be riding our bikes to visit each other all the time. Tristan and Heather a more north than Alis and I, but probably about an hour away. There are also two other PCVs working with BCS that are a year ahead of us, and they are really close to us as well, and we were told they are pretty awesome people. I couldn’t be happier about my assignment. I haven’t heard one bad thing about it.

All PCVs have a counterpart (CP), which is someone your village elects to come meet you and help you throughout your service. You are allowed to change counterparts or have several that you use for different purposes. My counterpart is named Akemye (I think that’s how you spell it) and he lives in Affere as well. He is an integrated science teacher at the local JHS and lives about 200 meters from my house in Affere. Tomorrow, Saturday, he will travel with me to my site and take me to my house. He also gets to help me with all my bags, which is awesome. I have my traveler’s backpack, regular backpack, suitcase, and then my Ghana Gucci. Basically a Ghana Gucci is a reinforced plastic bag with handles and a zipper top. PC gave us a lot of books so I threw all them in there along with my water filter. There is no way I would be able to travel alone with all this junk! When I get to site I will repack my bags and leave most of my stuff in my room. We only have to bring back three weeks worth of clothing and training tools for when we go up to Tamale for Technical Training. I plan on only using my traveler’s backpack for those three weeks.

My CP told me that to get to our village we can pick a tro or a bus from here in Kumasi to Juaboso and then transfer cars in Juaboso to get to Affere. It seems like it won’t be that complicated but I guess I’ll find out tomorrow. I think he said its only two to three hours travel. We are all scheduled to leave between 4 and 6 am tomorrow. I’m assuming people in Upper West and Upper East will be leaving at 4 am and the people staying in the south can probably leave closer to 6. I’m assuming everyone in Western will be traveling together, at least the couple of people right next to me. It seems like it would make the most sense. On the way back, when we have to travel to Tamale, we will all travel together. Alisa will come to my house and then we’ll move to Gayles and head to Kumasi together. We actually have to overnight in Kumasi at the Kumasi Sub-Office (KSO) and then travel to Tamale the next day because it would be too far to travel in one day and PC does not allow us to travel at night. But this means that we’ll all be together on my birthday – most of us at least!