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.