A Day in the Life of Nana Akua Nyarko

I believe I have already mentioned this, but if not here goes, so as you may or may not know, I have been named after the Queen Mother of Afere, Nana Akua Nyarko. Akua means you are Wednesday born (which I am not, I am Tuesday, which is Abena) and I just recently found out that Nyarko means "dove" in Twi. Not going to lie, it's a pretty sweet name. Although when I first heard Nyarko, I immediately thought of the word "nark," however, any anguish I previously felt has been assuaged. Anyways, that explains the title of this post. Initially I thought I would have a tough time adjusting to being called something other than Hayley. But now I turn my head as soon as I hear Akua or Nana Nyarko. 

So today was one of those days where I was constantly thinking, "Wow, this is my job. I literally have the best and coolest job in the world." It was a great day. The day even started off with a magnificent breakfast - a spinach, cheese, chicken, delicious seasonings omelet! The ultimate test, we have decided, and by we I am referring to my friend Gayle, is that if we would enjoy the food in America, then it's actually good food. So this morning, the omelet was America good. I would have definitely ordered that back home, so just going to give myself a pat on the back for how well I did this morning. I have a lot of free time, so I'm turning into a master chef. I even made Pad Thai the other night and it was bomb dot com. But before all this happened, I had to walk into town to get some ingredients, and all the while doing this, I carried my sister, M'Adowa on my back - Ghanaian style. If you didn't already know, we don't have Baby Bjorns over here. Ghanian women (and actually on Tuesday I saw a man doing this, which is very rare) throw their babies on their backs and strap in with a two-yard piece of fabric. No belts, buckles, or anything. The babies don't even hold on, they just bounce around as happy as clam. Me on the other had is just staring and waiting for a baby to plop on the ground. But anyways, yes, I carried my six-year-old sister like that for about 15 minutes. I was very proud of myself.

But on to other business...I spent the majority of my day with the teachers at the JHS. Around 9 am I headed over and mingled. The students just finished their last day of exams, so everyone was working hard today. The teachers were busying coming and going throughout the day, so I got to see and talk with most of them. I even learned a new word, "invigilate." One of the teachers used it while we were talking and I must have made a weird face because he said, "I hope you get me..." I definitely did not. So he explained it to me, after which I said, "Ohhhhhh. Well in America we usually use a different word, like 'proctor.'" So we had a little cultural exchange there, Peace Corps Goals 2 and 3! BOOM! 

Throughout the morning I helped the teachers stamp and authenticate answer sheets for their exams, all the while talking about everything under the sun, or is it moon? Either way, it was filled with great conversations. I've also become rather comfortable and completely used to long silences. Normally, my eyes would start darting around and I would feel the need to say something. But I was perfectly comfortable just sitting and starting out the window or watching the small children run around. I wonder if that is something that will wear off once I get back into the hustle and bustle that is America.

As you may or may not know, the national language of Ghana is English, so everything is taught in English. The problem is, English is not usually the language spoken at home, so most students struggle with it. The other day one of the teachers showed me a student's response to an exam question...the answer didn't even make sense. There was no way you could even guess what they were trying to say, and that is really sad. Clearly this student is not learning the subject matter. If you want to succeed in school here, you have to know English - it is the only way you are going to do well. I've started thinking about forming an informal English Club for next term. It would be something very casual, after school, where the students can come and sit and practice speaking English. I figure talking with a native English speaker, or at least listening to me speak, might help them. I pitched the idea to one of the teachers and he thought it was great, so hopefully I can get more support and get something going for next term. 

After the school day finished, all the teachers and I headed into Juaboso. The Afere teachers and Juaboso teachers played each other in a football match. They played last Friday as well and the game ended up 1-1. However, this time, Afere won! One of my teacher friends was not playing today, so we stood on the sidelines and chatted. In Ghana, once you complete university you enter the National Service and one of the services is teaching. The Afere JHS has four service teachers from different areas in Ghana: Takoradi, Afere, Accra, and Greater Accra. I've become pretty good friends with them and I'll be sad when they all leave in a few weeks. The other teachers are cool too though! Hopefully the next round of service teachers are just as awesome. 

Not the most exciting day but it was definitely a great day nonetheless. 

Happy belated birthdays to one of my best friends, Betsy Black, and Janice Nash! Both lovely ladies had their birthday on July 18th! 

An an even more awesome note, I'm sure you've all seen the news...Uncle Phil, AKA Phil Knight, is building a 68 million dollar football facility. Oh yeah, it's going to be awesome. Pac-12, what what! 

The chief and elders bought me a fridge! Two elders here.

Senior High School Visit

Yesterday, Alisa and I went to the senior high school in Juaboso to meet with the students about forming a health club. It was a rather rewarding experience, I thought, but it definitely brought to light the drastic teaching differences in Ghana and America. We stood up in front of probably 100 students, I’m really bad at estimating things like this so who knows how many were actually there, but the classroom as chocker-block full of students. We did our little spiel again of how we want this club to be theirs and we are only here as a resource. After laying out the objectives of our meeting and it finally came time for some audience participation. Instead of leading them with ideas, we wanted them to voice their own thoughts and opinions. We wanted them to tell us what they wanted to learn, or things they didn’t understand and wanted more information. Well after a few minutes of silence and blank faces, we looked to the assistant headmaster for some help. Maybe the just didn’t understand our accents? So the assistant headmaster asks them if they understand and they do, so why didn’t they respond to us?

Here in Ghana, the students are lectured at and told what to learn. There is no critical thinking it is all memorization. The teacher writes something on the board and the students copy it diligently. So when we asked them to share their thoughts and ideas and to really express themselves, they were lost. In the end, we ended up giving them examples of possible health topics like family planning, abortion, nutrition, hygiene, etc. Eventually they got the idea and started to raise their hands. We ended up with a list of at least 20 topics they wanted to learn more about. I’ll give you some examples: body odor, family planning, safe abortion, oral hygiene, toe warts, vision, and sanitation. The list goes on but you get the idea. Because the school year is coming to an end we said that over the break if they get an idea in mind to write it down and we’ll compile an even bigger list at the start of the new term in September. I think our meeting was successful once we got over the bumps in the beginning. I was surprised at how many girls volunteered their ideas; I would have thought they would have been more reserved, especially in front of the boys.

It was even more rewarding when we were walking out, a couple girls ran up to us with more questions. It really made me feel like we actually did some good and the students are interested in learning. One girl asked us some questions about her birth control pills, so Alisa and I went over how and when to take them. Look at us saving babies!

An Update, Small Small

Apologies for the delay in between posts - my life isn't always that exciting. Nothing much has happened since my last post, at least anything that has really inspired me to write something out. My Peace Corps life has its exciting weeks and then its so-so/life-moves-slower-in-Africa weeks. 

I've been spending a lot of time with my local family. One of my sisters, Ama Ruby, is back from university and we get along really well. All my siblings are great - I really lucked out with this family. We've started a little game between all the siblings...we are all named a different animal. Let me give you some background on how this all started...My youngest sister, M'Adowa, is always yelling "ma ma ma," for her mother and it closely resembles the bleating of all the baby goats running around. After making this remarkable discovery, I said to my mother, "M'Adowa, she sounds like the goats 'ma ma ma.'" Since then I've always called her "Apɔnkye," which is goat in Twi. After a few days of being called Sister "Apɔnkye" M'Adowa decided to call me Sister "Akokɔ," which means chicken. So all the siblings have an animal nickname: Ruby=turtle, Akos=cat, Kofi=pig, Kwabena=fish, and Kwaku=dog.  M'Adowa will usually come and hang out with my after she has finished with school for the day, and sometimes I'll make her popcorn or some groundnuts (peanuts). I've been introducing her to American food, small small (a Ghanaian English phrase that is commonly used here). Whenever I cook lunch or dinner for myself, I always give my family a little bowl so they can taste something other than fufu. Don't get me wrong, fufu is great, but not every night of your life. Although, they did make banku the other night, a slight change from fufu (you use corn dough instead of plantain). 

In the evenings, I’ll usually sit in the courtyard with my sisters and brother and talk. There is the occasional Azonto lesson, which ends up turning into them all laughing at me as I make a sorry attempt to dance like a Ghanaian. Even the worst Ghanaian dancer is better than us obrunis. If there is a football match on television, we’ll usually come into my front room and watch it together. Some nights I’ll go into town at sit at my fathers store and interact with passersby. I usually have at least one conversation as to why I am not married and have no children. They are always shocked when I say, “Oh you know, I want to wait till I’m in my 30s.” Clearly I am insane. I mean I am 23, practically an old lady over here. I usually talk about my imaginary boyfriend and that keeps them occupied for a while, until they ask to meet him to which I say, “Oh, he’s coming.”

I don’t have much planned for the upcoming weeks, so we’ll just see what happens. Being a site definitely gives real meaning to “time alone with your thoughts.” Its quite a weird sensation…I’ve never had so much free time in my life, except when I was baby, but even then I had mandated nap and feeding times. I do a great deal of daydreaming and “self-reflection,” I mean what else am I going to do? Hopefully by the end of these two years I will have my entire life planned out, but I highly doubt it. I’m trying to adopt a worry-free lifestyle, and whatever happens, happens. Life is too short to be stressed and worried all the time. Don’t worry Mom and Dad, I haven’t gone off the deep end…I will come back to America and get a job, I just don’t want to spend every waking minute of my life worrying about the future. Peace Corps is weird, and it changes you. It’s hard to explain without making myself sound like a nut, but it’s definitely an eye-opening, life-changing experience. The 8th of July was our five month mark! It's crazy that we've been here that long already. It is definitely flying by!