Well, it has been quite a while since I have updated
this thread, so here is my attempt to do so.
A lot has happened since the last update, and a lot
has not happened. Unfortunately, my work schedule is never consistent and I
never know when I will be spending hours in town or at the school, or staring
blankly at the walls in my house. Such is life in Peace Corps.
I’m closing in on my 21 months in country mark,
meaning I only have about five months left (six if I decide to leave in April
instead of March). PCVs are given one month to COS, complete their service and
formally leave. Since my group swore in on April 19th, 2012, our
official COS date is April 19th, 2014, so March 19th
would be the first day we are allowed to leave. I’m hoping to snag a date in
March and be home in time for my birthday, my brother’s spring training and
conference matches, and springtime in America! It’s hard to believe that I have
been in Ghana for so long. The other day I was discussing with my friend how
crazy this feels. What have I been doing for the past almost two years? When I
think of how much free time I have during the day, I wonder what I used to do
to fill the time. Now here I am, with five months left to go. Thankfully I
still have some projects to work on and my harddrive is loaded up with movies
and tv shows.
The construction of my additional school block is
coming along quite nicely. The foundation has been built and the cement blocks
for the walls have been built. However, we are now in cocoa season and as everyone
has started telling me, “the cocoa has come.” This is great for the farmers in
my town; however, many of the farmers are also artisans working on the school.
Right now, cocoa is taking precedence over the school. The artisans are coming
to work once a week, if that, and progress is slow. I can’t blame them too
much…they are not being paid for this work, as this is the community
contribution. Hopefully the cocoa harvest will pass quickly and the workers can
get back to construction. I’m hoping that the new classroom block will be
finished before the start of winter term in January. I am told that we are in
the middle of the difficult part now, that is, filling the foundation with
rocks and sand. Both classrooms need to be filled to the top of the foundation
walls, and the sand that is used is quite expensive. My counterparts and I have
been pleading with community members and especially children to collect rocks
and sand in their spare time and bring them to the school. This has been slow
going, if anything, so we have decided to bite the bullet and purchase the
necessary remaining rocks and sand. Once the foundation is filled, the walls
can go up and I have been assured that the remaining construction will pass
quickly. We’ll see.
The JHS girls that I took to our regional GLOW Camp
and I have been working on some small projects for the benefit of the JHS.
Initially, we decided to construct and install burnable rubbish bins for the
JHS. I went to my local market town and purchased about six yards of chicken
wire (so that the rubbish contents can be burnt and the bin won’t melt) to use
as the rubbish bins and asked the girls to meet me at my house the next morning
so we could begin assembling the bins. We cut the wire into five different
pieces and tied the ends to create a cylinder. We installed all five bins at
the JHS and felt pretty good about our work. I went to the school the next
morning only to find that all of the rubbish bins had been uprooted and left on
the side of the road. Naturally, I was quite peeved. The JHS teachers informed
me that several kids has been playing with them the day before and they were
the ones that removed them from the ground. So the next day my girls and I
reinstalled the bins, but this time dug them deeper into the ground in effort
to thwart any robbery attempts. They survived the night. A few days later I had
to leave my town for two weeks. When I came back, I found that all of the
rubbish bins had been removed from the ground and two had been stolen. Thanks
guys. I assume they were stolen because of the chicken wire so someone can use
it for their garden or farm or who knows what.
Right now and in my immediate future, I am
dedicating the majority of my time to grad school applications. My first is due
on October 31, so I’m scrambling to finish everything on time and perfect my
personal statement. I just recently found out that one of the professors at
this school was part of the team that developed a set of videos called
“Scenarios of Africa,” pertaining to HIV/AIDS education. I have used these
videos a few times throughout my service and have been really impressed with
their educational impact at the community level. Naturally, I was quite excited
to stumble upon this piece of information.
November is the time for Fire Festival and
Thanksgiving. Fire Festival is a festival that happens in the northern part of
Ghana. I’m not quite sure the cultural significance of this festival, just that
it happens every year and the moon determines the dates. I’ve heard great
things about Fire Fest and I am very excited to go. Hundreds of people walking
around with fire and torches…who wouldn’t be? After fire fest, I’ll come back
to site for a few days and then head to Accra for Thanksgiving.
It seems that I have something scheduled for every
month until I leave, which should help pass the time. December is Christmas and
I’m sure I’ll be doing something with someone to celebrate. Then January comes
and I have the National Volunteer Advisory Committee meeting (like student
government but for Peace Corps) and my group’s COS conference. My mom is coming
for basically the entire month of February, so we’ll be doing a bit of
traveling and exploring Ghana before coming back to my village. And then March
and I leave!
That’s all I got for now. Nothing too interesting,
but have at it.
