After discussing our malaria/soak away pit ideas on Monday, I met Amakye at the JHS on on Tuesday morning to unveil our plans. The JHS is comprised of the Form 1, 2, and 3 classes (6th, 7th, and, 8th grade, respectively), and there are roughly 300 students. We started with the Form 1s and made our way down the hall. I talked in English about malaria...asking them if they knew what it was, how it is transmitted, best ways to prevent it, treatment etc. Amakye had to translate my best Ghanaian English into the Ghanian English they actually understand...I guess mine isn't quite Ghanaian enough. Side note: when talking with Ghanaians in English, we Americans tend to alter our accents so that they can understand us better. I don't really know how to describe it other than that we change our inflections and talk a little slower and are probably more grammatically incorrect. Anyways, it seemed that most of the students were understanding what I was saying, but just be safe Amakye reiterated what I was saying. When I asked the Form 1s how malaria was transmitted, one boy raised his hand and said the female anopheles mosquito. I was very impressed that he knew the correct answer, especially since a few days ago an older women told me dirt caused malaria. After discussing malaria we started talking about soak aways. Amayke drew a picture of one on the chalk board and explained how to dig it and why it was important. The students seemed to be genuinely interested, so that got me really excited. Some of them have already started collecting stones for their households, which is wonderful.
That afternoon, Alisa and I were supposed to meet with our health club at the SHS. Unfortunately, for us, it was a school cleaning day so the majority of the students decided to play hookey. We had to reschedule for next week and hope everyone shows up. I came home and rested for a bit then Amakye and I were back at work! We started walking around the community visiting households to discuss malaria and soak aways. Using the different class registration lists we were able to identify their respective houses throughout Afere. As we visited them, we checked them off and recorded how many people were at each house. In addition to malaria and soak aways, we have been collecting information from cocoa farmers. A fellow PCV is working on a project that registers cocoa farmers through CocoaLink. If you register, each Friday you will receive a text with cocoa farming tips and techniques. It's a great idea as the majority of people in this area are cocoa farmers and that is how they make a living.
On Wednesday I went into Juaboso to have a meeting with a couple hospital staff members and some LNGO members to discuss HIV/AIDS related projects. There were four of us total and we talked for probably two hours. Another two people were supposed to be present, but one we could not find and the other is on leave. I was surprised by how dedicated the people are about combating HIV/AIDS. I was expecting to be pulling teeth during this meeting, but they did most of the talking and were throwing out many great ideas. We discussed the idea of forming a living positive support group, but naturally funding is an issue. Most agreed that if we can't provide the people in the group some sort of monetary incentive, most people won't come. Bummer. Since money tends to be a common problem in every aspect of everything over here we started thinking of other ways to reach people. We came up with an HIV/AIDS educational seminar and testing/counseling day. Basically we would like to host an all-day event at the Juaboso hospital and teach about HIV/AIDS. I have educational games and activities as well as short films that we can use for this event, and if we write a grant we can set aside some money to "refresh" those involved....aka we can give them some coke or fanta or something. If there is something free to be given, people will show. Typical. Either way I am very happy with how this meeting went. This coming week I am going to meet with one of the LNGO members to look at possible grants and decide how we want to write it.
During the meeting on Wednesday, an LNGO member and I decided that we would give a basic HIV/AIDS talk at the hospital the next morning. We were supposed to be teaching to a group of women but due to a miscommunication we ended up talking with patients waiting to receive their medications. We had also planned on showing a short film about basic HIV/AIDS facts but due to a technical error that also fell through. It ended up being an impromptu question and answer session, which surprisingly went very well. No one mentioned any myths about HIV/AIDS, like condoms can cause it or sleeping with a virgin is a cure. When I asked what are some of the best ways to prevent HIV/AIDS transmission, one man raised his hand and said if men stop sleeping with other women and vise versa it would reduce your risk of being infected. Someone else said always use a condom. I was very impressed with what they were saying and how vocal they were in general. I really did not expect that. One lady even asked, in front of everyone, where she could be tested. This surprised me even more because HIV/AIDS is such a taboo subject here and no one really likes to talk about it, let alone announce they want to be tested. It was a very rewarding day.
Yesterday was market day so I got my fill of white people love. It was a girls market this week, which was fine with us. Alisa and I teamed up to cut Heather's hair. I'm surprised she let us do this after a beer - we were responsible enough to wait until we'd finished cutting to start on our second beer. She even let me cut her bangs! But in my defense, I am great side-bang cutter. I used to cut my own and if you've seen any pictures of me, you know how good I looked...HA. Funny right. Market days are always fun. I'm glad I live near a wonderful group of people.
On a cross-cultural integration note....I'm going to kill a chicken. I figure when am I ever going to have the opportunity to kill a chicken again? I don't plan on living on a farm when I go back to America...I plan on buying my pre-killed boneless, skinless chicken breasts from Publix thank you very much. I don't relish the thought of killing the little guy, but I am kind of intrigued and then I can say I killed a chicken. Good story for the grand-kids right? My Ghanaian grandmother came to the house today so we could make her aware of my plans...I guess she is providing the chicken. More importantly though, I believe after this chicken slaying my family will be preparing groundnut (peanut) soup and rice balls...aka the best Ghanaian meal ever. That totally warrants killing a chicken. Don't worry, pictures will come.
Nothing much happening today. It is a holiday because it is Kwame Nkrumah's birthday (the first president of Ghana), so no one is working. There is a funeral happening just up the street so I'm getting my fill of bass thudding and terrible singing.
Next week I am going to Accra to celebrate Alisa's birthday and also to run the 10k. And by run I mean Heather and I are going to walk. We'll run some, but I'd rather not have a heart attack.
So that's what has been going on these past few days. I'll keep you all updated!
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| Amakye demonstrating how to build a soak away pit |
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| Teaching the class about malaria |
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