Updates All Around...Soakaways, Schools, and Nutrition!

Well it has been a while since my last post. Sorry to everyone who has been biting their nails in anticipation. I've been busy on and off the past month. Some days don't have enough hours in them, but others drag on and seem to never end. The life of a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Alisa's birthday celebration in Accra was a great success. Accra is always a fun place to be, although my bank account disagrees. If you want to enjoy all the "Americanness" of Accra, then you have to be willing to shell out some moolah.

In the beginning of October I had another meeting to discuss my HIV/AIDs project in Juaboso. The first meeting of the week went really well. We discussed our plans in more detail and how we planned to set up the program. Part of the grant proposal asks you to identify how many people you expect to impact with your project, so we guesstimated and it appears we will be educating a decent amount of people if things go according to plan. Like I have probably already mentioned, we plan to make this a month long project. Ideally, we will meet at the Juaboso hospital every Thursday (market day) to host educational seminars and counseling and testing. By hosting this event four times, we hope to impact a great number of people. The repetition will also be good for anyone who attends more than once. We figured out most of the materials that we would need and attempted to get an idea of our budget. I was very stoked coming away from this meeting. We planned to meet the next morning at 9am to discuss our plans with the District Chief Executive of Juaboso District. Naturally, I showed up a few minutes early just in case everyone else was running on American time as well. Obviously, I was the first and only one there. I waited for 45 minutes for my counterparts to show up. I called one of them twice, and both times he said, "Don't worry. I'm coming." After the second call I saw him drive past me on his moto...in the opposite direction. After 45 minutes I had had enough and headed home. If they weren't serious about meeting, I didn't want to waste any more of my time - especially since people in my village were waiting on me to do another program. What I find quite funny about this situation is that one of the men I was supposed to be meeting with said this the day before, "The problem with Sefwis is that the don't respect time." I guess he doesn't either since he never showed up or bothered to call. I actually saw him a few days later and he told me I needed to "try harder." Yes, clearly I'm the one to blame for all of this. All in all you have to take a deep breath and move on...Yes, it is frustrating and makes you want to pull your hair out, but it's all part of the job. You have your successful days and the days when you wonder why you even bother to help. But at least the good days tend to outweigh the bad, and for that I am grateful. I'm going to be really busy these next few weeks, so this HIV/AIDs project will have to hang out on the back burner for a while, but it will eventually happen.

The soakaway education is going really well. My counterpart and I have visited at least 20 households in one area of town. I know at least one household has already constructed theirs, so hopefully they will be an inspiration to others. I've seen a couple soakways that are undergoing construction, but they seem a bit dodgy. The majority of the families seem genuinely interested in constructing the pits, so it's just a matter of actually getting them to do it. If they'd stop messing about and actually build these thins, we'd seem some improvements around town. We are not providing them with any incentive except that the streets will be cleaner, there will hopefully be less mosquitoes, and the community will just look a lot prettier/cleaner in general. So when we tell them they aren't getting "owt," as my mom would say, it makes me nervous because usually people want some sort of monetary incentive or some kind of reward. Reducing cases of malaria and diarrhea related illnesses and improving over household and community hygiene/sanitation seem like pretty great reasons to do this project, but not many others can see that yet. My town is rather large so it is going to take my counterpart and I quite a long time to actually visit every household, even though I doubt we'll actually accomplish that. I have suggested that instead of visiting new households this coming week, we should revisit the first ones and see what their progress is and give them some encouragement should they need it. Everyone claims malaria to be a terrible problem in town, so constructing these pits will hopefully help combat the disease. We just got to make people see the light! Why can't we just douse Ghana in DDT? That would get rid of malaria, no problem.

In mid November I will be attending a nutrition in-service training (IST) in Kumasi. It is being hosted by several other PCVs and it will last four days. From mere observation, my town doesn't seem to have a significant problem with malnutrition. I've seen quite a few kids who could stand to eat less fufu, if you know what I mean. However, I still think attending this workshop will provide me with some great information and program ideas for my town. For example, some of events on the schedule are: Nutrition 101, Food Groups: Focusing on Locally Available and Affordable Foods, Vitamins: Different Types and Benefits of Each, How to Prepare Three Different Nutritious Ghanaian Meals, Green and Nutritious: Adding Moringa and Local Leafs into Foods, etc. The topics look amazing and I am very excited! The more knowledge, the better. I will be attending the IST with a lady from my town. Her name is Lydia and she is a service teacher at the JHS. She is actually from Afere, so she knows the town really well, which will help us when we do events after the training. Previously Lydia had been doing some small health work in Afere...some health education, administering vaccines and distributing vitamins, etc. This is even better because she will already have some background knowledge on the health issues here. Before the training we are supposed to go around our town and conduct a nutrition survey. We are supposed to visit between three and five households and ask them questions regarding nutrition, health, and illnesses. Heather happened to be in my town last week so she came along with us. We visited four households around my house, but I would like to visit a few more in different parts of town to get a better idea of the town as a whole. Staying within my area doesn't seem like it would reflect the overall situation in my town. I want to visit the Muslim neighborhood and the parts of town with no electricity. I think the answers to the questions would be a little different. To give you an idea of what the survey asks, I'll share some questions....

Breastfeeding Habits
1. When is a baby first given breast milk? Is the first liquid that comes from the breast (colostrum) given to the baby?
Some responses received:  "Three days after birth. The first three days we don't feed the baby." "The first day of birth. The yellowish liquid is good. It is very nutritious."
My thoughts: We definitely need to have some education in this area. Not feeding your newborn for three days is just crazy. I would like to know how many babies die or become terribly sick due to this practice. The women that said they don't feed their newborns for the first three days said it was because the breast milk has not come yet. This leads me to believe that they think the yellowish liquid (colostrum) is not breast milk so they baby can't take it. I was very impressed with the mothers that knew the colostrum was very nutritious and important for the baby.

Health-Seeking Practices
1. If you can't go to the clinic, what do people do? (Referring to children mostly)
Responses: "Give an enema or go to the chemist. (We asked what the put in the enema) Small water, ginger, herbs, acheampong and nunum (local plants), dried pepe." "Go the chemist for medicine. Give enema, but they are bad for you so we have stopped this."
My thoughts: I'm glad they are going to the chemist, but it doesn't mean that they are getting the proper treatment for whatever is causing the sickness. Oftentimes people are given a bunch of different medicines to treat a bunch of possible illnesses. This is not a good plan. We really stress going to the hospital and getting tested and receiving the appropriate treatments. The enemas make me worried because I know this is a very common practice here. I have seen the enema contraption sitting in my latrine several times and it makes me cringe. And hearing the things they put in enemas is even more troublesome.

There are a lot more questions about illnesses and nutrition, for example: what are the common sicknesses that children suffer from in your community (malaria was mentioned almost every time), what is a common remedy for diarrhea (most people said ORS and handwashing...I was quite happy), what causes a child to be malnourished (eating bad foods, poor nutrition, not taking care of your kids were some responses). You get the idea.

When we asked what were some signs of malnutrition most families were spot on. Some even mentioned kwashiorkor and were able to explain what is is and the signs and symptoms. I was very impressed with the responses we received, but it is clear that we still need to do a lot of work in these areas. And all the families said that vaccinations are good for children because it helps prevent diseases like measles and polio. Way to go people of Afere!

When we come back from this training, Lydia and I will be able to host nutrition sessions and teach the community everything we have learned. After being in my community for about six months, it really seems that the people are genuinely interested in developing their community and bettering their own lives. I'm quite chuffed by this (throwing some British slang at you right there. Represent!) Lydia was very helpful during our interviews. Even though I don't really understand Sefwi, she didn't appear to be leading with her questions and was very courteous with the families. If someone said anything that we both knew was absolutely incorrect or dangerous (ie not feeding your baby for three days) she never guffawed or appeared to judge them in any ways. This is sometimes a rare things here in Ghana. If there is something that another disapproves of or thinks is slightly moronic, they don't hesitate to make their feelings known. Clearly this makes me job easier and more enjoyable.

November is going to be a really busy month for me. Unfortunately I am going to be away from site for the majority of the month, but everything I will be doing is every exciting so I feel less guilty. There is Halloween party coming up in the beginning of November, the nutrition IST, BCS (Behavior Change Support, part of my project) will be having a nutrition training on their new materials so the PCVs involved with BCS (me and some of my neighbors) will be attending that for a few days, then we have Thanksgiving! The new ambassador has thankfully offered to host a Thanksgiving dinner for members of Peace Corps, volunteers and staff alike, I believe. I am terribly excited about this. Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. I absolutely love cooking and so Thanksgiving is an amazing time for me. I'm definitely the master when it comes to making the ham (learned from my dad...the student has become the master!) My mom still rocks at making the stuffing and Tom the Turkey. One year she even wrapped bacon in rosemary and put it under the skin while Tom was cooking...oh my goodness. My mom is great. My friend Kylie (who studied at the Culinary Institute of America) also introduced us to a delicious Brussel sprouts dish, not limited to but including bacon and garlic and some other deliciousness. So I still have to learn all these secrets before I can claim to be the best Thanksgiving cook. Sorry for my food tangent...Peace Corps Ghana doesn't give you much variation when it comes to preparing meals, so imagination is how I survive. (Anyone who wants to send me cheese and/or beef jerky...feel free).

And I almost forgot. The most amazing thing that has happened in this past month...my grant for the construction of an additional classroom block for the JHS has been approved! Let me give you some background on what is happening...

Afere has four kindergartens, four primary schools, and only one JHS. Therefore, all the students from these schools must pass through the one JHS. You can imagine the chaos. The current JHS is meant to hold roughly 150 students, however, there are currently well over 200 students. Overcrowding would be putting it lightly. The desks being used are meant for two students but it is quite normal to see four students squished next to each other. The teachers spend half of their time getting the students to quiet down and pay attention. It is not a suitable environment to teach and especially to learn. The current facilities are negatively impacting our teachers, students, and community. To rectify this problem, the community is dedicated to constructing this additional two-classroom block. The community has pledged to donate land, wood, paint, preparing the land and digging the foundation, and paying the artisans fee, which adds up to 30% of our overall budget. For the remaining 70%, we are looking for outside donations. If anyone would like to read more about my project and possible contribute something, even a dollar would help, here is the link: https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=641-338

My community and I are very dedicated to this project and are doing all we can to raise awareness and excite the community. So far everything is going really well and I couldn't be prouder. One of my counterparts, Ambrose, has been a God send. He is making seeing to it that everything moves smoothly and is continuously talking with community members and setting up meetings. I don't even have to ask and pester him - he does it on his own volition, which is simply remarkable. I can't believe how much has done already and he is not even from this community, which is even more impressive. He truly wants to help. I'd be lost without him.

 So this past month has been pretty amazing. It's had its ups and downs, but that is to be expected. On the days that I'm missing my friends and family and wanting to be back in America I just have to remind myself of all the amazing things I'm doing (at least trying to do) over here. It is definitely tough and makes you think about the bigger things in life (yes, I wen there). Its true what they say, "This is the hardest job you'll ever love." It really is true. Peace Corps has always been my dream and I remind myself of that on the tougher days. This is what I'm supposed to be doing and everything will work out in the end, even if I can't see/believe it now. This truly is the most amazing experience I've ever had and I'm so thankful for that. October 25th-ish was my six month mark at site, and November 8th will be my nine month mark in Ghana. What everyone keeps saying is absolutely true, Peace Corps is flying by. Two new groups have already come to Ghana - Education in June and Natural Resource Management in October. The new Health/WATSAN group will be coming in February, which will mean that I have already been here for a year. That is just crazy. I worry that I won't be able to accomplish everything I planned. Rumour has it that after one year, time passes even faster. If I can at least get this school built and change the behavior of one family, I will be content. Not over the moon, but content. I'd rather my entire town change their health behavior and adopt better hygiene practices, but I got to save something for the volunteer that replaces me, should that happen. I've met the most amazing people while being here, Ghanaian and American alike. Everyone has such a wonderful story to tell. The friendships grow stronger each and every day. It is things like this that allow me to shake my head and smile when the drunk old man yells, "obruni, I love you ehhhhh" from across the street or when the small children chase me asking for money, or when a little old lady asks me to buy her bread. For the most part, its amusing and culturally interesting, but there are definitely days when I want to yell, "what you're doing is so rude!" Back to being emotional and deep...I haven't done that yet. Well that's a lie. I did it today. I was talking with an Elder and a drunk man came up to us and was interrupting, breathing his apeteshie (local hard alcohol) breath all over me, and just being rude. The Elder and I both said that we were having a conversation and that he was being flat out rude. In his defense, there is a funeral today, which I'm about to go to, so his drunkenness is more understandable.  

Anyways, that is my story for the past month. Sorry for the length. I'll try to be better this coming month! Hope you all enjoyed it!