Let me start off by saying these past few days have been pretty wonderful. One good thing after the other, for the most part. If everything was going perfectly I would be a little bit worried. But so far so good and I'm quite content with that. You never know what you're going to get in Peace Corps, so on the inside I'm jumping with joy. I've got a lot on my plate right now and LOVE it. The sticky note I have on my laptop (not an actual sticky note for all you technology dinosaurs...Mom...a sticky note app for your desktop) is stretched the length of my screen, filled with plans and activities. But first, let's start with the most important topic of discussion...my social life...
As we all know Halloween has just passed, and being in Ghana didn't stop us from celebrating, we just did it Peace Corps style. It was actually refreshing not to see any slutty nurses, slutty cats, slutty this and slutty that. I went to a Halloween party with a decent amount of people, not too big not too small. There were some pretty good costumes, so creativity points well well deserved. We had Wayne, Garth, and Cassandra from Wayne's World, two Rugrats (I'm not familiar with this show), a clapping monkey with cymbals, a Ghanaian man (you'd have to see it to understand why it's funny, but it was), a Ghanaian bread seller (this was a guy dressed as a woman, dress and bread on head, the whole nine yards), and last but definitely not least three bottles of beer - I was one of them. Two of my friends and I dressed as three of the most common beers here in Ghana: Club, Star, and Stone. Club is by far the most popular among PCVs, and that was my costume. I made bottle cap earrings and gently stitched the label to my shirt. The others did the same or something similar. It was actually pretty great. The party location was perfect for Halloween. It was a PCVs site, off the beaten path, down a dirt road, in the middle of a forest, and no electricity. What more could you want? It was really fun though.
So back to why I joined Peace Corps...saving the world and all. Let's talk about that. As of now, I have six activities/events on my sticky note. Most of them are projects I'm getting ready to start or projects I would like to do sometime in the near future. I've done a fair amount of research into each project so it's just a matter or prioritizing and seeing which ones we can start first. Here's what I got...
Bed Net Distribution: As I've mentioned before, malaria is a terrible problem over here, and many people are suffering from it, health and money wise. In the long run, it's just cheaper to prevent malaria than to treat it over and over again. Anyways, in efforts to combat malaria, I want to distribute nets around my town. I can't distribute nets to the 7,000 people in my town, that just seems like a major headache and hassle. Pregnant women and children five years old and younger are most affected by malaria, so my plan is to distribute nets to families with pregnant women and/or children five and under. That will reduce the number of people getting nets to a more reasonable number for grant writing purposes, but at least it is still addressing the problem of malaria. I plan to conduct a survey to see how many pregnant women we have and how many children five and under we have. Once I have that figure, I can submit my grant for nets. In order to receive nets, the community has to contribute something towards the overall budget to prove that they are dedicated to and invested in the project, so I'm still playing around with that to figure out what they can do. I've already been in contact with a net distributor and she has been very helpful, so I'm hoping the rest of the process runs smoothly.
Snail Farm: I think I mentioned this before, but we are going to start snail farm at my JHS. Snails are considered a delicacy in Ghana. I, however, strongly disagree. I tried it once in Eastern Region, and it was probably one of the grossest things I have ever eaten...and I've eaten some pretty weird things before - grubs in Thailand, and zebra in Kenya, for example...there are plenty others but I won't gross you out. Chewing on the snail meat was like chewing on a piece of my own tongue. It doesn't smell that great either. Yet, there is a lot of money to be made in the snail industry, so we are going to get our JHS kids to raise snails at the school. During the dry season snails are pretty rare so the price rises, and our goal is to have the students to sell the snails to the market women in town. This way the students will be able to start a fund that they can use for something in the future (like school supplies or renovations, etc.) It will also, hopefully, teach them responsibility because they will all have to pitch in and help raise the snails. The success of this project will depend on them, and I hope it works. My counterpart and I will be briefing the Form 1s and Form 2s about the project and hope to collect a few interested students. I plan to name one of the snails Gayle in honor of my friend Gayle. We call her Gayle the Snail.
Hand-Washing Stations: Being a Health/WATSAN volunteer I have to have some projects that are related to that sector. As far as I am aware, the JHS does not have a hand-washing station at all, so that's an issue. At one of the primaries there is only one station, which is just a bucket of water that all the students use, so essentially they are just washing their hands in dirty water. Also an issue. Working with an organization called Ghana WASH, we can apply for funds to construct proper hand-washing stations at all of the schools. Depending on how much the station costs, we would like to construct several at each school. The more the better. From what I understand the stations are fairly easy to construct, so I'm in the process of researching that to see what materials we will need. In addition, we will go around to all of the schools and do some sanitation lessons to explain why washing your hands is important, as well as personal hygiene. That way the students understand why we are constructing these stations and so they actually use them. It always amazes me that washing your hands is such an issue here. I rarely see a Ghanaian wash their hands, with soap, before they eat meal, yet they are ALWAYS washing their cars. I was even told I needed to wash my backpack because it was dirty (there was some dust on the bottom, truth). But if they cared about washing their hands as much as they cared about washing their cars and backpacks, I probably wouldn't have a job as a Health/WATSANer...so I guess I'm grateful for that?
Moringa: I don't know if you've heard about the Moringa tree, but it is quite common here and in other parts of the world. I think it originated in India. The Moringa tree is often referred to as the "Miracle Tree" because of its nutritional and medicinal benefits. Here is a nutritional breakdown of the Moringa leaves, gram for gram: seven times the Vitamin C in oranges, four times the Calcium in milk, three times the Potassium in bananas, and two times the Protein in milk. Every 25 grams of dried leaf powder contains 42% protein, 125% Calcium, 61% Magnesium, 41% Potassium, 71% Iron, 272% Vitamin A, and 22% Vitamin C. None of the medicinal remedies are scientifically proven, but many believe that Morgina does have some "healing" or soothing properties. Using the roots and fresh leaves, you can prepare some natural remedies to help alleviate the pains caused by toothaches, sores, and twisted ankles/arthritis. Some other great qualities of Moringa include: nourishes the body's immune system, promotes a healthy heart, promotes a healthy digestion system, increases energy, promotes healthier skin, promotes normal body organ function, and nourishes the eyes and brain. The most common uses of Moringa are cooking (boiling leaves to make teas, adding fresh leaves to soups, drying and grinding the leaves into a powder and adding to food), soap making, income generation projects, and a living fence. It really is quite a spectacular tree, so volunteers try to incorporate Moringa into their projects in one way or another. The Ghana government has a school feeding program that provides primary school children with one meal during the academic day. Our plan is to plant Moringa trees at the for primary schools and educate the "lunch ladies" about the benefits of Moringa and hopefully get them to start incorporating Moringa into the meals they prepare. I don't know much about Moringa, so I might have to call on fellow PCV for some guidance. He has worked extensively with Moringa and has offered to help, so for that I am grateful.
Rumour has it that there is Moringa gin...but don't worry, it fortifies your system. It also doesn't taste that great...or so I'm told ; )
That's all I got for now. It seems like a lot but I am very excited about it. I've been briefing my counterpart on all these projects and it seems like he is also excited...sometimes I can't tell, so I'll just roll with it. The Nutrition IST is coming up next week, and I am looking forward to attending that. I still have some surveys to conduct around town, but it shouldn't be a problem getting them done.
Some other great news, my little sister, M'Abena, used to be terribly afraid of me and would cry every time she saw me. But now she's my bud. This morning when I was preparing some food, she ran out of her house and willingly opened my porch gate (she's only 2 and that gate is tall...for her) and ran up to me with open arms shouting, "Akua, Akua, Akua..." I almost died. It was the cutest thing every. So I scooped her up and she helped me prepare my eggs. I might smuggle her back in my suitcase.
Also yesterday was November 8th, which means I have now been in Ghana for nine months and 1 day! So I'll be expecting lots of packages and letters to congratulate me. Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment