Just Living Life

My funeral dress was a success...the spaghetti straps were a good call. As my dad likes to say it was pretty "balmy" outside. Ghanaian funerals are quite the experience. While you still wear black cloth, you would think that you’re at some kind of festival or party. Music is blasting, people are dancing, and alcohol is flowing. I could feel the bass throughout my body…more so than at a concert. I’m surprised there aren’t more deaf people here. Noise ordinances don’t exist here so if you ever want to throw a pretty great rager, head over to Ghana. That being said, people still do mourn at funerals, just not like we are used to. I kind of like that funerals here seem to be more of a celebration of life than mourning a loss. I think it’s a pretty great way to grieve. But everyone has his or her own healing process so you have to respect that.

On Sunday I didn’t go to church, again, but instead I had a long conversation with my mother and cousin about religion. It was pretty insightful, for me. I don’t know if they quite understand the points I was trying to make, but they are still talking to me so that’s a good sign. When I first got to site I went to the Methodist church with my family, but I have stopped going. For one, it’s all in the local language so I don’t understand anyways, and second, I am not a religious person. At least I haven’t found a religion that resonates with me. Maybe one day. But having the inevitable religion talk was bound to happen and it ends up being a good cultural exchange. I can just put a check mark next to Peace Corps Goals 2 and 3 (2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served and 3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans). The missionaries did their work in this country. I haven’t met a single Ghanaian that isn’t religious. I can only hope that Peace Corps Ghana is as successful as the missionaries were.

Sunday afternoon I went to a local football match with my brother, Kofi aka Prince Harry (that’s really his English name) and my sister, Akosua aka Louisa. Afere has a football team and on Sunday they qualified to Division 1 so the whole town was celebrating. After dinner I went out with my Akos and one of the teachers, Kofi or Frimpong, from the JHS. We went to a local bar, which is known as spots, and sat outside and chatted. That didn’t last very long because the music started blasting Azonto music. I swear I felt like I was at a nightclub. People came up from the woodwork and they all crammed together on the dance floor. If you haven’t already, youtube Azonto so you can see what I’m talking about. I’m fascinated by this dance. All Ghanaians are spectacular dancers so I love to watch them dance. I could sit there for hours and just watch.

I was at the JHS all day again. I really enjoy being around the teachers there. They are so nice and easy to talk to. They are the rare few who don’t constantly propose to me. But when I told them I probably wouldn’t get married and have kids until I’m in my 30s, they thought I was crazy! Ah cultural exchanges! I explained to them it’s important that I have money and complete my master’s degree first (cough cough, now Dad buy my plane ticket back to America for Christmas). They were also shocked to find out that “Hayley” doesn’t carry a special meaning and that I was just named after Hayley Mills. Of course they didn’t know who Hayley Mills is so that didn’t really help my case.

I met with my girls group and the hygiene club in the afternoon. I wanted to reintroduce myself and make sure people were still interested. The girls club is going to be strictly girls and since all the teachers are men I had to find a couple of willing girls to be my translators. After much prodding, I finally got three girls, Bernice, Emelia, and Veronica to volunteer. I don’t know how well they can speak English, but it’s probably a lot better than my Twi. My community mobilizer brought me some educational materials this evening. My local NGO gave the community mobilizers flipcharts and other teaching tools so I’ll be able to use those with the clubs at school. It should be easier to teach if the students have something to look at.

This evening I was supposed to meet with the Hairdressers Association and the Tailors Association. However, the electricity was out all day so the chairwomen were unable to make an announcement over the loud speaker. Africa. So we are rescheduling for Wednesday. Hopefully it works out this time.

I’m headed to Wiawso tomorrow to meet up with Gayle and Heather. Wiawso is about an hour taxi ride from here, so not that bad for Peace Corps standards. Gotta get my ipod all charged and ready to go!

In honor of Memorial Day, thank you to all of the men and women who have served and are currently serving our country. I'm proud to say that my little brother is a member of the US Army.  

Making the Most of It!

Things are moving along quite nicely here in Afere. I actually slept until about 7 this morning…quite a feat. I made myself a nice omelet for breakfast and Pineapple (my cat) tried to eat more than her share of the omelet – little piglet. Today is a holiday because it African Union Day, so most things are closed. Most people were in town but a few still went to farm. I went to the tailor with my sister this morning to try on my new funeral dress. My family and I are going to a funeral tomorrow so I needed something to wear. It’s a two-piece outfit and it’s actually not bad looking. I decided to go with spaghetti straps as opposed to some of the ¾ sleeve styles as its usually 200 degrees outside. The skirt is floor length though, so I’m sure I’ll get a decent amount of sweat going with all the dancing and the sun’s vendetta against everyone in Ghana. It is kind of a mermaid style skirt so I’m not really sure how I’m going to be able to bust my movies without ripping anything. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.

Ambrose took me around town this morning to meet the different heads of various community groups. We visited the heads of the Seamstress Association, Hairdressers Association, and the Chemical Sellers. We tried to visit the head of the Farmers Association, but he had already left for farm…weird! Ambrose and I explained why we had come and that I wanted to meet with their respective groups to discuss health and sanitation in Afere. Each head is going to call their members together and on Monday we will go around and talk with each group. I think this will be a good way to break up the community and hear what different groups think about health and sanitation here. I want it to be like an open forum, where the members can talk freely about what they have observed and any challenges they have faced (health, water, and sanitation related). As we were walking around town, Ambrose and I had some good discussions about the education system in Afere and he shared some personal anecdotes about growing up in the Volta Region. He is quite an interesting person to talk to and he is very knowledgably. It is nice to know that there is at least one person here who is genuinely invested in making a difference and helping his town. Unfortunately, for me, Ambrose will be leaving for about two months in the next few days. He is currently working on finishing his master’s degree from a university down in Cape Coast (Central Region), and he’ll be back towards the end of July or beginning of August.

I came home and made the best lunch I’ve made yet. Since I just went to market yesterday I have a lot of fresh, delicious veggies so I decided to make some stir-fry. I sautéed some garlic, ginger, and onions and then threw in some bell peppers, green onions, carrots, and to top it off I mixed in some curry powder, groundnut paste (the local peanut butter), and some pineapple. The pineapple was a great addition! It was so delicious. I want more!

Luckily I finished my cooking in time because as soon as I was done a torrential downpour started. This is the hardest and longest I’ve seen it rain since I’ve been in Ghana. It lasted a couple hours and I was confined to my room with the electricity going in and out. I actually felt cold a couple times…never thought that would happen in Ghana. I’ve actually been heating my water in the morning so I can bath…the shower water is too cold! While it was storming outside I did some more reading in the GYD manual. It’s about 200 pages long but it is so interesting to read so I don’t mind. I jotted down some notes, which I’ll post at the end of this…the statistics are quite interesting. It makes me realize the importance of Peace Corps and I’m so glad that I’m a part of it. While I may not see great changes during my time here, I know it’s happening.

To finish off the day, I figured out that I can plug my hard-drive into my cable box and watch all my movies and television shows on my television! I have opened Pandora’s Box. I may never leave my room right now. I’m definitely going to watch the best movie ever later…Wedding Crashers.

• ~113 million children aged 6-11 are not in school, of which about 2/3 are girls (not Ghana specific)
• ~12% of girls aged 15-19 give birth each year
• 25% of teenage mothers will give birth to a second child within two years
• Of 317 Ghanaian women surveyed, 60% were under 30 when they had an abortion
• 12% received the abortion from a physician
• 38% from a pharmacist
• 11% from self-medication
• 16% from a “quack” doctor
• 3% from other means
• ~1.2 million youth are trafficked per year
• ~14 million kids under 15 have been orphaned because of HIV/AIDS
• There are more than 300,000 child soldiers in the world
• An additional year of schooling for 1,000 women helps prevent two maternal deaths
• ~5,000 women are in “Witch Camps” in four districts of the Northern Region, Ghana

(Gender and Youth Development Manual. Peace Corps Ghana 2010)

A Productive Market Day...Really

Today I met up with Alisa and we went into our market town, Juaboso. Today is market today so it was pretty easy (for her at least) to catch a car into town. It was pretty productive as far as market days go and actually getting real work done. Usually a bunch of us meet up and shoot the breeze for a few hours, so it's productive in that we get "America Time" accomplished. Anyways, Alisa and I met early in the morning and took an egg sandwich for breakfast in the station. Egg sandwiches are amazing here – I could definitely eat one once a day, which is pretty much do already. They are nothing special – just eggs, tomatoes and onions on some bread but for some reason they taste so darn delicious.

Anyways, after we ate in the market we headed up to the local senior high school to greet the teachers and students. We met with the Assistant Headmaster, Dennis, and told him about our roles as Health volunteers with Peace Corps. We talked about idea of setting up girls health club and also a general health club for the rest of the school. Both Dennis and the headmaster thought this was a great idea and were really excited about our plans. Dennis is also in charge of the school’s drama club so we have set up a time to meet the group next week. We called a school assembly and introduced ourselves to the students and explained our mission as Peace Corps Volunteers. It’s always hard to tell if the students are actually excited about our real reasons for coming or if it’s because white people came to the school. Hopefully they are really interested in our goals. Our meet and greet went pretty well so we left the school feeling pretty accomplished and optimistic about the formation of the clubs. Dennis was telling us that the Ghana Government is really pushing for Girl/Child Education so forming health clubs would match up with their curriculum and education development.

After leaving the school we decided to tackle the market, which is always an adventure in Ghana. There is one vendor in Juaboso market that sells pretty much all the vegetables you need, so we headed to her first to fill our bags. I got me some tomatoes, bell peppers, carrots, cucumbers, avocados, a pineapple and then she dashed us some green onions! It was marvelous. I was really hoping to find some flour but I had no such luck. I want to try and make some onion rings but I kind of need the flour to do that. Next time. I found a pretty good recipe for some bean burgers so I might give that shot this evening.

When we finished in the market we headed up the hill to our local NGO, Rural Water and Sanitation. We met with our supervisor, Justice Peh, and let him know about our progress at site and any problems we have been facing. I know I’ve complained about my community mobilizer a few times and I just wanted to bring it to Justice’s attention that I’ve been frustrated with her. Apparently the NGO has been having issues with her as well, so I am not the only one that is feeling frustrated. They are actually in the process of replacing her (with my counterpart actually). In a few weeks, Rural Water will be taking Amakye for a training so that he can become the new community mobilizer.. I’ve been asking her about community groups and associations and she kept telling me they don’t exist, so when I relayed this information to the NGO, they were shocked that she wasn’t helping me. I’m glad I’m not the only one that feels frustrated with what has been happening and I’m happy that actions are being taken to correct the problems. Hopefully things will start to run more smoothly in the future. This evening, Ambrose, the accountant at the NGO, is going to take me around the community to meet all these groups and associations, so that should be helpful for me.

I guess this is part of the Peace Corps leaning process. I’ve been at site for a month and few days now and things are finally starting to happen. I just need to realize that things move a little slower here and patience is a virtue. Even though I’ve been feeling really frustrated and stressed out the past few weeks, I still really love my job and I’m so happy to be here. Everyone keeps saying it’s the toughest job you’ll ever love and that is absolutely 100% true. The good times outweigh all the bad ones. I recently got in contact with a PCV who is in charge of the Gender and Youth Development (GYD) Program here in Ghana and I am in the process of joining the group. I’ve been reading over the GYD manual, which is specific to Ghana, and the information is really quite interesting and inspiring. It makes me so excited to get involved and start helping make a change, even if it’s a small change. 

Feeling Pretty Good!

Yesterday afternoon was a lot more eventful than I was expecting, which was nice. After making my lists and doing some research, I had a mini intervention with my counterpart. Amakye came over around 2pm and we sat outside and I told him how I was feeling. I showed him my list of people I wanted to meet and told him I really need to start learning about the community’s needs.

After looking over my list, we headed out into the community. We stopped at the house of the chairman of the community water board. After introductions, I explained my mission as a Peace Corps Health Volunteer and told him I wanted to hear about his experiences working with the water board. Apparently, about seven years ago, the water situation in Afere was not so good. People were fetching water primarily from ponds and wells scattered around town. Not only is the water not sanitary, it can also be dangerous fetching from these wells, especially during the rainy season. The chairman’s daughter actually fell into one of the wells and if it had been during the rainy season, she probably wouldn’t have survived. I’ve seen a couple of these wells around town and they are pretty deep, not to mention out in the middle of nowhere. However, about two years back, the district provided Afere with a better water system, so now the majority of the town has piped water. The district said they would bring the money to pay for the water but the community had to provide 5% of the total cost – I don’t remember the exact figure, but the community succeeded in raising the total amount. This is a great achievement for my town. All of the pipes and boreholes are in great condition, as far as I have seen, so I don’t think a big part of my job will be pipe/borehole repairs and maintenance – they seem to be doing just fine for now. One of the main challenges, according to the chairman, is that there are no public latrines. While open defecation isn’t a big concern, it still exists. The water board has discussed the idea of building a public latrine and appointing someone to maintain it. The only problem is that they need help with funding. The community can’t afford to build a latrine so they’ve asked for outside help but still no luck. Hopefully this will be something I can help them with in the future.

After our visit to the chairman’s house, we set out to find the traditional birth attendant (TBA). We actually didn’t have to go that far because she lives right next door. We talked with the TBA for about 30 minutes and I felt really good about our conversation. One of her sons, Jackson, was also there so he helped with translations. Agnes is the name of the TBA and she has been the local midwife for about 30 years. She is also the traditional healer in the village. Jackson and Agnes reiterated the fact that there is a lot of teenage pregnancy here. Being the traditional healer as well, Agnes said she has treated for hernias quite often as well as Gonorrhea and Syphilis. When we had finished talking she took me into the house to show me where women come to deliver. We walked into a dark room and that was it. There are no beds, tables, mats, anything. I think she said the women are supposed to bring their own mats, unless they were just stowed in another room. I can’t imagine having to have a child on a cement floor. From what I hear, childbirth is already a pretty uncomfortable experience and throw in lying on a cement floor…eesh. And lucky for me I have been invited back to witness the next childbirth. Might not want to have children after I witness this. It’ll be an interesting experience though, I suppose.

Today was great. I spent 6 hours at the local junior high school. I really took that psychology of sitting quote to heart. I went to school around 8am and stayed in the teachers lounge (and by lounge I mean a room) until 2pm. Teachers were coming and going between their classes, so there was always someone in there to talk with me. I really like all of the teachers at this school; they are some of the friendliest people I have met thus far. They are all men in their early to late twenties I would say. But they all speak English really well and are pretty intelligent so it’s refreshing when we have real conversations about real things. Don’t count this as one of the intellectually stimulating conversations we’ve had, but one of the teachers said “Oh, you’re name is Hayley, like from the television show ‘One Tree Hill’!” I think he is my new best friend. I can’t believe he actually knows that show! It was pretty funny. So on Wednesday I’m bringing my hard drive to school and we are going to do a movie swap – unfortunately he just deleted all his season of One Tree Hill so I’ll have to find something else to take! After discussing the wonders of the show, I went to one of the classrooms to have a meeting with all the girls. I’m in the process of forming a girls club – NO BOYS ALLOWED. The club is going to be some sort of health club where we can discuss health topics like family planning, HIV/AIDs, STIs, etc. I thought it would be easier to have a club like this that is only girls, as they might feel shy and awkward discussing these topics in front of boys. All the girls seemed really excited while I was discussing my plans so that was a good feeling. Emelia, one of the girls, was put in charge of collecting names of anyone interested in joining the group. About an hour after our first meeting, Emelia brought me the list and there are about 60 names on it! I’m really hoping that these girls really do want to join the club because it interests them as opposed to joining the club that the white lady is in. I guess we’ll see as time goes on, but I have been feeling really good today. I feel like I’m making progress and finally getting to start the things I came here to do. I plan to meet with the girls on Wednesday and lay out a plan for I envision the club to be like. Hopefully everyone on the list stays because that would be amazing, but I imagine a few will drop out. Either way I’m still on my way to forming my first club! Go me. 

For anyone interested...here are some links to websites with development/health statistics on Ghana

• http://www.who.int/countries/gha/en/
• http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/GHANAEXTN/0,,menuPK:351978~pagePK:141132~piPK:141109~theSitePK:351952,00.html

The Psychology of Sitting

"...people in Western civilization no longer have time for each other, they have no time together, they do not share the experience of time. This explains why Westerners are incapable of understanding the psychology of sitting. In villages all over the world, sitting is an important social activity. Sitting is not a 'waste of time' nor is it a manifestation of laziness. Sitting is having time together, time to cultivate social relations." - Andreas Fuglesang

Keep Calm and Carry On

I’ve been feeling a little sick these past few days. I woke up with a sore throat on Friday and it has now progressed to a nice little cough. Maybe that is why I have been starting to feel overwhelmed and frustrated. Everyone kept telling us how frustrating, boring, and overwhelming our first three months at site would be and they were spot on. That isn’t to say that I haven’t been enjoying myself because there have definitely been moments where I am so glad this is my job and wouldn’t trade it for the world. This is the first time in my life I haven’t had a set schedule and I am basically free to do what I want, so to speak. It is kind of a hard adjustment, especially for me because I like to think of myself as pretty organized and enjoy schedules. I like lists and order. I need to learn to be more a free spirit I guess…I lived in Oregon for a few years.

This morning I woke up and decided to break out all the books Peace Corps gave us during training - all 5 billion of them. Most of them are about the roles of volunteers in development and how to implement projects. I started reading one called “Kwame and Friends: Fun with Health Education.” Basically it is a toolkit designed to help community health workers (people like myself) to do health education in their respective communities. It is broken down into different sections and how to implement activities that are both fun and educational. The toolkit uses characters, like Kwame, in stories to illustrate ways of getting to know your community, forming health groups, how to give health talks, deciding what action to take etc. I guess it makes it more interesting than reading a dry textbook about these topics – and there are some cool cartoon drawings in here…it appeals to my immature side I suppose. As I’ve been reading I’ve been jotting down some notes of things I think I should do and people I would like to meet. See, I’m back to making lists and organization. As far as people in my town that I would like to meet, I have: community health worker, village health group, women’s cooperative, PTA, traditional healer, traditional birth attendant, youth groups, women’s groups, town planning committee, water board or watsan (water/sanitation) committee. That’s not to say that all of these groups and individuals are present in Afere, but at least it gives me somewhere to start.

I don’t really know much about my town’s health problems except for what Peace Corps has told me and from the few discussions that I’ve had with local people. From what I gather, Malaria is the biggest problem, but I need to know more. I can’t really do my job if I don’t know what my community’s concerns and needs are. While doing all this reading this morning has given me a better understand of what I need to start doing, it has also made me feel like I have not been doing anything these past few weeks. I know I shouldn’t feel like that because it’s not true and it’s only going to make me feel upset and frustrated. They tell us not to compare ourselves to other volunteers so I keep reminding myself of that when I hear about my friends doing things that I feel like I’m not. I was talking with one of my friends who is in the Upper West Region and she was telling me how she goes to the local clinic every day and helps out. She’s categorizing all their patient files and putting them onto excel spreadsheets (dad you would love it) and she even has a tutor for Dagaari (the language spoken up there). But that is her Peace Corps experience, and it’s great, just like mine. We are all different. When my community mobilizer and counter part get back from church this afternoon we are all going to sit down and go over my list and action plan. For the past few weeks I have been telling my community mobilizer, Auntie Comfort, that I would really like to meet ANY community groups but I don’t think she understands what I am saying. She is the cause of much of my frustration…during any given phone call with my friend and closest neighbor, Alisa, I am probably complaining about my community mobilizer. I need to learn to complain less. Actually last Thursday at market, one of my friends, Cameron, came up with the idea that whenever someone complains about their site they have to put 10 pesewas in a jar and at the end of every month everyone gets to buy something with it. As of right now I don’t like that idea because I feel like I’m complaining the most! NOT FAIR. But out of all of us that go to market (Alisa, Gayle, Tristan, Steve, Cameron, and Sean) I have the biggest town, town not village like the rest of them. I’m entitled to be more overwhelmed right? See there I go again complaining. I really go to stop! But for all the complaining I do, I love my job and am really glad that I’m here. I just need to vent sometimes. Although I am watching BBC News right now on my television and I definitely watched the newest Underworld (the Kate Beckinsale vampire movie) the other night…I guess I got to pick my battles, right?

So back to what I was actually saying…this afternoon I’m going to tell my counterpart and community mobilizer that we are going to conduct some informal discussions with community members so I can learn about their health concerns. I need one of them to come with me for the language issue. I don’t know the local language well enough, or at all, for me to be able to have an actual health conversation with anyone. I think it would also be kind of reassuring for the community members to have one of their own people there while I’m asking questions. It will probably make them feel more comfortable answering questions like, “do you practice open defecation?” and “do your children suffer from chronic diarrhea?”  

I think I woke up on the wrong side of the mosquito net this morning. So everyone should send me packages filled with candy and garlic mashed potato mix and I’ll feel better!

As they say in "Bad Boys"to calm down..."woosah"

PS. If anyone wants to be wonderful and send me a package full of love...any of these things would be much appreciated...

• spices - basil, cinnamon, dill, sage, italian, cumin, paprika, etc
• sauce packets - fajita/taco seasonings, dip mixes
• velveeta cheese
• vacuum sealed cheese (mozzarella, parmesan, anything really)
• hard candies
• beef jerky
• gold fish
• powdered foods (the brand idahoan potatoes is delicious, especially the garlic flavored one)
• individual drink mixes - crystal light, gatordade/powerade, ocean spray
• soup mixes
• any delicious snack you can think of
• deodorant
• nice face wash

DONT SEND

• chocolate
• milk powder
• coffee
• peanuts
• pasta
• salt
• lotion

Do Work!

I’ve been feeling really antsy these past few days. It’s hard to sit around and not do anything. Every Thursday a bunch of volunteers in my area meet up for market and it’s always a great time. It lets us escape for a day and have America Time. Its good to see other white faces every now and then. I felt pretty accomplished this past market – I was dashed a lot of things I wasn’t expecting. “Dashing” is when the vendor gives you more than what you asked for – it’s quite great. I got some hot peppers, ginger, salt, and some bell peppers for free. It was pretty great.

Friday morning I woke up and went to the JHS again. The teachers decided to show a movie, and lucky for me it was an American movie, so I actually understood what was going on. I don’t remember the name but it was a movie with Cuba Gooding Jr. and he was a doctor. Who knows if the kids actually grasped the message of the movie…I guess we’ll find out next week.

This morning my sister took me on an unofficial transect walk. Basically that means we walked around the town and looked at the boreholes, wells, ponds/streams, and rubbish sites. Wow, Afere is so much bigger than I thought. It’s huge! We were walking for about 2 hours and we didn’t even cross the main street to the other side of town. We have actual neighborhoods here. It is kind of daunting but I keep telling myself that Peace Corps wouldn’t have put me here unless they need me. Got to stay optimistic!

Afere actually has a lot more water sources than I was expecting. Most of the town has piped water but around the outskirts people go to ponds and streams to fetch water. I’m really hoping they don’t drink the water but I’m sure they do. I can see why Malaria and Schistosomiasis are such problems here. There is a lot of standing and dirty water. There are more mosquitoes in Afere than in the rest of the world combined. I wouldn’t be surprised if I got Malaria during my 2 years here, especially because mosquitoes seem to like me more than anyone else. I guess rice farms are a pretty attractive place for mosquitoes and what do you know, rice farming is pretty prominent in my town.

Towards the end of our walk, we went to visit a family friend – Romeo and his wife. Romeo owns a store in town and he always gives me free candy, so obviously he’s one of my favorite people. Their house was pretty impressive. It has marble floors, leather couches like you would find in America, and get this…a washing machine! I swear I thought I was in Peace Corps! They are even building a second water sachet factory in my town…pretty impressive.

So the walk this morning was good. It’s nice to get out and do something. Then I came home and cooked up a storm! I made some pasta with an onion and garlic cream sauce and a hint of chicken, and some guacamole. I keep forgetting that it’s only me eating this food so I always have too much.  

Tonight is the Champions League Finals between Chelsea and Bayern Munich and my sister and I are going into town to watch it. It should be a good time!

My First Day of School

Well now that I have internet I should be better about updating everyone! This morning was a pretty interesting one compared to all the others I have had so far. School has started up again and classes are back in session. My counterpart, Amakye, is the assistant headmaster at one of the junior high schools here, and Ambrose, a man living in my compound (also works for my local NGO), is the headmaster. It makes my life a little easier having those two close by.

I went over the school around 830 (I had a late start this morning...I slept until 720...it was crazy) and met Amakye. The first class was being held in what is supposed to be their new ICT center, but it's still in the process of being built, like the rest of the buildings in Ghana. I didn't get the name of this teacher but he was teaching English language. The students were reviewing some of the questions they had on their exams from the previous weeks. I came in as they were practicing writing a informal letter to a friend of theirs talking about an even that happened at school. One student volunteered to read his letter aloud but there was too much chatter going on so the teacher had to take over. I didn't get to witness much of this lesson due to my late arrival so I had to move on to the next class, which was English language again but with another teacher named Awuah John. His class was reviewing pronouns, reflexive pronouns, subjects, objects and all that. Not going to lie, I learned a few things.

When a student answers a question correctly or responds with a pretty good answer, the students all clap in unison. However, one time a boy in the front was clapping obnoxiously loud and didn't stop when the others did, so I witnessed my first cane beating. It was weird. The teacher made the student get up and come to the front of the class and the teacher brought out this cane (it looks like a tiny bamboo stick) and beat him a couple times across the thigh and sent him out. Then class proceeded as if nothing happened. As this was happening I was trying to imagine this same sequence of events happening in an American school. Can you imagine the outrage if a teacher caned a student these days? There would be lawsuits for years. It's kinda funny how things are.

Around noon the class ended and I came out front to sit with another teacher named Arthur. He had just finished teaching Social Studies. We were talking about the education system in Ghana and how he feels education is a big problem here in Afere. He was born and raised here but was lucky enough to attend college at the University of Ghana in Accra. Arthur was telling me that a lot of students feel that they have accomplished so much by the time they graduate JHS (junior high school) and when they go to SHS (senior high school) they think it's all fun and games. Unfortunately I'm not an Education volunteer so I won't always be with the students to help, but I'll do what I can through Health and WATSAN. I asked him, being a native of Afere, what he believes is one of the biggest problems in Afere. He told me Malaria has always been a big issue here and it causes a lot of people to die. I can believe it because I am constantly being bitten by mosquitoes here. But it does seem that a lot of people already know they need to use mosquito nets so that is pretty great. Arthur said the next issue he has noticed, especially being around students so often, is "casual sex" and unwanted pregnancies. We talked about forming some school clubs and discussing health topics so I'm excited to get the ball rolling on that. Apparently there was an abstinence club but it broke up...I can understand why now.

That's all for now folks. I'll see what tomorrow brings me!

A Small Update on Life

So much has happened since my last post. I don’t even know where to start. I’ve been at my site for a few weeks now. I’m officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. For the first three months we are not supposed to start any projects, and from what I understand that means any projects that require funding. Really we are supposed to be integrating into our communities and learning the language.

My village is predominantly Sefwi people and they speak the Sefwi language. However, as far as I know, Sefwi is a dialect of Twi, so anyone who speaks Sefwi can also speak Twi. I’ve been in continuous debate with myself as to whether I should continue to learn Twi or start to learn Sefwi. So I’ve decided to continue learning Twi, officially, as of today. It will be more beneficial in the long run because more people speak Twi than Sefwi and Twi is spoken in more parts of Ghana. So Twi it is.

I haven’t really done much these past few weeks so it’s easy to feel like I’m just wasting time, but I guess that is how a lot of people feel in the first three months. I went to farm with my mother one day and the rice farmers let me pound the rice grass into the container. Afterwards the told me that I need to bring them machines so they don’t have to do so much manual labor. As the popular Ghanaian English saying goes…it’s coming.

School has resumed so I will be attending classes at the junior high school and primary schools in my villages. I’m going to observe for a small while and eventually will conduct small lessons about health. I want to gauge what the students already know and how they like to be taught before I start with any kind of lessons. I think it will be fun. Sometime this week my community mobilizer and I will go on a transect walk of my town. That means that I will go and visit all the boreholes, other water sources, place of open defecation, rubbish sites, etc. It’s a way to learn about your community and it’s needs.

On a completely different note, I had to travel to Kumasi this weekend to the PC Sub-Office, the KSO, and when I came home I got my cat! My two sisters, Akosia and M’Adowa (aka Ruby 22 years, and Lydia 8 years) took my to the other end of the town to get the little kitty. I wanted a girl cat and that’s what I got. She is white with beautiful blue eyes and she has a grey spot near her right ear and a little grey tail. She’s the size of a beanie baby – it’s adorable. I decided to name her Pineapple. As all the Ghanaians tell me, pineapple is my “best food.” I eat about a pineapple a day and I thought that would be a cute name for a cat. Anyways, welcome to Peace Corps, Pineapple! Right now she is hiding under my bed, but she keeps popping out every now and then to check it out.

I’ll try to be better about updating! I finally bought an internet modem for my laptop so I can connect more often now!