STARS Youth Leadership Conference

Last week was the annual STARS Youth Leadership Conference (Students Taking Action Reaching for Success). I have mentioned this conference before, and for good reason – it was/is an amazing time. I had been hearing about STARS since my arrival in Ghana last year, and the time finally came to participate. It is held every May in Kumasi (at least to my knowledge) at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

STARS is a five day conference that focuses on youth leadership, empowerment, and capacity building in regards to issues faced by youths in Ghana.  Each day is organized into a basic theme: youth leadership, health and HIV/AIDS, goal setting and tertiary education, individual interests, and community service. PCVs submit an application to two bring students, a boy and a girl, from their local senior high school, and the conference ends up hosting about 60 SHS students from all over Ghana. To qualify the students must be in Form 2, which is equivalent to sophomore year, and demonstrate an eagerness to improve and strengthen their academic and personal skill sets. One of the many goals of the conference is to help shape these students into peer educators and role models for their respective schools. They are the future leaders of Ghana and STARS aims to help them on their way.

Once at the conference, the students are split into six groups of about ten students. Students from the same school are not in the same group, which allows the students to meet students from different areas of Ghana and step out of their comfort zone. For each group of students, there are two group leaders, a Junior Group Leader, and a Mentor. PCVs are Group Leaders and are chosen through an application process. I was lucky enough to be one! More on that subject soon. Junior Group Leaders are students who have previously attended the conference and can act as a role model and a liason for Group Leaders. Mentors are students attending KNUST and represent different educational departments.

Like I said, I was a Group Leader, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I was partnered with another PCV from my training group, and many other leaders were actually part of my training group. So in addition to fulfilling our duties as Group Leaders it was nice to see some friends and colleagues I have not seen in a while. Group Leaders are responsible for the students in their respective groups to make sure sessions run smoothly and there is no confusion about anything. It is like what I imagine a camp counselor would be. When sessions broke out into smaller groups, we stayed with our group and helped facilitate. It was a very rewarding experience. I really got to know my students and had a wonderful time with them. We ate all our meals together and they even helped to improve my Azonto skills during free time (Azonto is a new hip dance sweeping the nation…youtube it. Each team has a team name and our students chose “LOT: Leaders of Tomorrow.”

The first day was arrival, getting to know our groups, and dinner, followed by a welcome ceremony and cultural dance from the PCVs. We showed the students how to dance the Macarena and it proved to be quite a success. Lots of cheering and clapping, so I guess we did a good job.

The second day we got down to business. The theme of the day was “Learning to be a Leader.” We focused on team building exercises, filled out a personal contract and created a set of rules, discussed different African leaders, leadership and life skills, habits of effective leaders, study skills, and peer pressure. It was a very busy day to say the least. Before sessions ended we played a Jeopardy style quiz game, which turned out to be a lot of fun. I even found some of the questions difficult to answer, but I suppose if I was in school still learning about those subjects I might know the answer. The students really enjoyed themselves though, and that’s what counts. After dinner we showed them an episode of Planet Earth, however I think the PCVs enjoyed it more than the students did. Some of the were passed out on tables, so I guess they were exhausted!

Day three focused on health issues such as HIV/AIDS and malaria. A lady who is HIV positive came to speak to the students about her experience living with HIV, as well as the stigma involved. It was a very powerful session, and I learned a lot from listening to her. She was so strong and positive, which is not always the case here in Ghana for someone living with HIV/AIDS. The students asked her a lot of questions and I think the session was a success and I hope it happens next year. Some PCVs not participating in the conference came to talk about malaria in the afternoon. This is always a good idea because malaria is so prevalent in Ghana that people need to learn about it so they can learn how to better protect themselves and their family.

The fourth day was more interactive. Students branched into different groups and went on tours of the different academic departments at KNUST. They could choose between Math, Engineering, Art, Medical, Agriculture, and I don’t remember the last few. After lunch they worked on more goal setting.

Day five started off with some basic CPR demonstration and was followed by hodge-podge learning. For this session the students broke into small groups and were able to learn a new skill presented by the PCVS. They could choose from things like self-defense, juggling, paper airplane making, drama club, and computer lab skills. In the evening we had the talent show, which is always a fun event. We had some rappers, singers, dancers, joke telling, and much more.

The last day was community service day. Students broke into three groups depending on what community service activity they would be doing. They could choose from Green Up Ghana, peer education, or a living billboard. The first choice dealt with trash pickup and recycling around KNUST campus. The peer education group went to a neighboring PCVs site to teach about HIV/AIDs to some of the JHS students. The living billboard was what is sounds like. Each student had a poster that on one side was part of a long group message, and the other side was a personal note. When the students all stood together their signs spelled out “We are the Future, We are Ghana.” On the back students were supposed to write something personal about themselves or about Ghana or anything, so when they flipped the signs passers by could read different messages from students. For example, some said, “together we build Ghana,” “I will change for the better,” “I like running,” and “Learning well to become a pharmacist.” It was a great event. I was part of the living billboard group so that’s why I have more to say. Regardless though, all three activities were great choices.

That brought the conference to an end and the next day everyone traveled home. It was truly an amazing and rewarding experience. I am so glad that I participated in it and my students seemed to really enjoy themselves. I am excited to meet with my SHS students who attended so that we can plan out sessions and activities for our local SHS.

That’s all for now folks!

A Difficult Time

I have been delaying writing and posting this entry as it comes as quite a challenge, and that is because it is about the death of a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer. I have been thinking about it a lot for the past few weeks, but anything I say doesn't seem to capture the emotions and hardships we have all been dealing with. 

As I may have told some of you, a few weeks ago, in the beginning of May, we got a call from Peace Corps Staff and it was not good news. A few other PCVs and I were traveling back from a World Malaria Day event and we were in the heart of Western Region. Staff called one of the PCVs I was traveling and told him she had some sad news...Danielle "Danni" Dunlap had just passed away from an illness, and it is believed to have been cerebral malaria. I was a few rows back and when I saw my friend coming back towards us I could tell it wasn't good news due to the look on his face. My heart was racing. He told us everything he knew and then we just stood/sat there for a few minutes in silence. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. How could someone I had just seen less than a week ago have passed away? The rest of the bus ride was probably one of the worst rides I've been on in Ghana. Phone reception was cutting in and out so it was difficult to get a hold of other people to figure out what was going on. 

I was supposed to be going back to site that night, but instead the PCVs I was traveling with and I decided that as soon as we reached the station we would turn around and take the overnight bus to Accra. A memorial service was being planned for Danni and we wanted, needed to be there. There was no questioning whether we'd go to Accra. A member of our family passed and we were going to be there no matter what. 

No matter what I say about Danni it won't do her justice. In one word, Danni was incredible. She was one of the kindest souls I have ever met. There is not one negative thing I could say about her. She was the kind of person others strive to be. At 25 she already had impressive academic and professional accomplishments. She graduated from Brown University and had already taught English in South Korea and volunteered in Haiti before coming to Peace Corps. And her work ethic didn't stop upon arriving in Ghana. She did everything under the sun - HIV/AIDS education and testing campaigns, trained new Peace Corps Volunteers, hosted In-Service Trainings, brought latrines to her village, and so much more. She was what we call a Super Volunteer. No task was impossible for Danni. If she wanted to do something, she got it done. Inspirational would be putting it mildly. And one of the many great things about Danni was that she never bragged or gloated about her service. I never felt intimidated around her when we talked about work.

My most successful project at site is actually in thanks to Danni. A couple of months ago we sat and talked for a few hours about life, boys, jobs, Peace Corps, and probably 100 more things. She began talking about doing English tutouring for some of her local JHS students. I have done quite a bit of English tutuoring before Peace Corps so naturally I was very intrigued by this project. She gave me tips and advice on how to start the group and told me if I ever needed anything I could go to her. I started this project at my site and it has been amazing. I only wish I could have told her that. 

Besides Peace Corps work though, Danni was an amazing human being. She never excluded anyone and always had a smile on her face. She was a delight to be around and instantly put you in a better mood. And she was an excellent hugger. Danni and I weren't in the same Peace Corps training group but I got to know her really well during her time here and I still can't believe she is gone. It doesn't feel right being at site and continuing to do work and knowing that she is no longer with us, but she wouldn't want us to feel that way. Wherever she is I know she is smiling down and telling us all to get to work and be happy, so that is what I am going to do. 

The memorial was wonderful. It was beautiful, powerful, and it really showed me that Peace Corps truly is a family. It was one of the most amazing things to see...PCVs and Staff working together in Accra throughout the week to plan Danni's service. We were all working hard and supporting each other through this dark time and I have never seen anything like it. Our Country Director opened up his house for the memorial and we are very grateful for that. Throughout the week, PCVs were coming together to write personal stories, compile photos and videos, memories of Danni's service, and much much more. We even designed funeral cloth with a Dr. Pepper stamp (goodness knows she was addicted to Dr. Pepper). We even had a Dr. Pepper toast for her at the end of the service. 

It was truly one of the hardest weeks I've had to endure and I couldn't have done it without my friends and family, especially my Peace Corps family. This truly showed me how powerful the relationships that we build in Peace Corps are. We love and support each other like I have never seen. I always say that I have met some of the greatest, most amazing people here in Peace Corps, and that is beyond true. I wish everyone had a chance to meet my friends here and see how incredible they are. They make me a better person and I can count on them for anything. I love them more than they know and I can't imagine my service without them. Unfortunately many of them are starting to leave soon as they came in groups before me, but it will all be OK in the end.

Tomorrow I will leave for the STARS (Students Taking Action Reaching for Success) Conference in Kumasi. It is a leadership conference for high school students around Ghana. There will be over 60 Form 2 (sophomore) students and quite a few PCVs. I am one of 12 Group Leaders this year, so that means I will have a partner and we will be in charge of six students. Throughout the week we were learn about different leadership and goal setting skills, health issues, academic and career prospects, and much more. My students that I am bringing are beyond excited and I can't wait for them to experience this conference. I am hoping that it truly inspires them to be better students and lead by example when they return home. So thank you to everyone that donated, big or small, we couldn't have done it without you. 

And some more good news...In about 65 days I will be on a plane to Orlando! I will be home this summer for a few weeks and I couldn't be more excited. I have quite a list planned out...The Pig Stand, Snack Jacks, Hurricane Patty's (notice how I started with places to eat), Universal Studios, Allison's wedding, the beach, my pool, shopping (sorry, Dad. Mom told me about Millennium Mall). And not only that I get to see my wonderful parents and my brother (who I haven't seen in over a year!) Summer can't come soon enough!

Still Alive

Well Harmattan is over and the rains have started, though not enough for my taste. The amount of dust and dirt that covers my body has diminished, although not by much. The dirt and dust will never fully escape us over here. No one wants to see what a baby wipe looks like after wiping my face after a car ride. I’ll settle for the natural and sandy earth tone “makeup” on my face if it means I can stick my head out the window in hopes of lowering my body temperature. We had a wonderful storm last night. Fork lightening started in the distance in the early afternoon as the dark clouds rolled in. We can always tell when we’re due for a storm because the big tree in the center of my housing compound starts blowing and creaking – a signal to the rest of my family to start frantically running around, covering their cocoa and wood burning stoves. It’s quite a sight to see. As much as I love thunderstorms, I don’t love that the electricity usually goes out…and no one knows when it will return. The waiting game begins. The past week probably holds the Afere record for non-interrupted electricity. It would go off but come back immediately. Apparently it was too much a good thing, and the electricity finally went out for over 12 hours.  When you’re living in “Posh Corps,” 12 hours is a long longggg time – especially when your kindle decides to break on you and your phone and laptop are dead. After dealing with the ups and downs of the Electricity Company of Ghana, it is safe to say I am very familiar with the ceiling of my bedroom.

At the end of the month I will have officially been at site for one year. I can’t believe how fast it has come. I can still perfectly remember receiving my Peace Corps invitation back in November of 2010 and now I’m a year into my service. That’s cray. I would like to say that I have accomplished everything I had planned or my first year, but sadly that is not the case. Instead of doing projects I had envisioned, I ended up doing ones I have never thought of, but it all works out in the end. You learn to roll with the punches in Peace Corps. Flexibility, patience, and a sense of humuor are three things every Peace Corps Volunteer learns…say that to a PCV and you’re guaranteed and eye-roll.

I’ve worked on a lot of projects but I won’t bore you with the details of each and every one of them. I will, however, tell you what I am most proud of….my English tutouring group. I’ve said it many times before, and I will continue to say it…the education system in Ghana is very worrisome and discouraging. I have done a fair amount of English teaching and tutuoring, so it is rather upsetting to me to see these students struggling with simple English. At the end of the year, the Form Threes take their BECE (Basic Education Certification Exam – I believe that’s correct). One component of the BECE is English, so I am really hoping to help the students with their English skills before the term comes to an end. I have been meeting with about 15 students, sometimes less if some decide to skip out, once to twice a week. The English teacher at the JHS has loaned me the current English textbook and I have been using that to help the students. Each chapter in the book has a reading comprehension section, so our group focuses on that, as their overall reading comprehension is pretty appalling. The students take turn reading paragraphs from the story and at the end I have them answer questions about the reading. None of them can fully answer the questions without looking back at their books. Their ability to read isn’t much of a concern; they do it quite well, they just don’t understand what they are reading. Ideally, this will stop and they will be able to understand what they’ve read without cheating. I am just very glad that this group has managed to make it past several meetings and the future outlook is promising. The students seem really dedicated and I believe they truly want to improve their English. Some of them even showed up on time today. Either way, I am really proud of my students and it’s such joy to watch and teach them.

Well my birthday was last week – I am officially in my mid-twenties…uhhh…where has my life gone? Don’t worry mom, you don’t look nearly old enough to have a 24 year old! I spent my birthday with some PCV friend up in Kumasi at one of our sub-offices. It was a wonderful birthday. A close friend of mine celebrated her birthday a few days after mine, so we had a joint weekend party. We brought back the fanny pack!

Next week is our All Volunteer Conference in Eastern Region. Once a year, every volunteer in Ghana is required to attend this conference so we can discuss extremely important Peace Corps issues, like grant writing and project ideas. I’m looking forward to “All-Vol,” as I’ve heard it’s quite a good time. All the volunteers in my area, about seven of us, bought matching batik fabric and we have all had outfits made so that we can match on the first day of All-Vol. It will be rather cute.

That’s all for now. I’ll try and be better about updating this.

Take care

Werkin

Well I hope everyone had a happy and festive Christmas and New Years. This was my first Christmas and New Years without my family, which gave this holiday season quite a different feel. Nonetheless, I spent it with some wonderful friends and colleagues and we did what we could to celebrate in style! Several of us traveled up to Kumasi to stay at one of our sub-offices. We had a traditional Christmas BBQ, which was delicious. 

But now it's time to get back to work. Next week I'll be officially starting my malaria project with the pregnant women. Our first meeting will be held a week from tomorrow, so there is a lot of preparation to be done before then. We have a lot of ideas and materials we want to use so it's just a matter of organizing everything and making a project plan. The final number of women signed up is 120, which is amazing! I couldn't be happier. In our initial meetings I continuously stressed the importance of attendance, so I'm hoping that the women adhere to this little rule. In order to receive a net at the end of the program the women must attend the meetings...but I'm going to give them a little leeway in case someone is sick or has to travel, so if they attend 80% of the meetings then they will still qualify for a net. Ideally, I'd love everyone to receive a net but I'm sure that won't happen, but I'll try my best to keep thinking positively! 

Winter break is almost over for the students, so this coming week they will be resuming classes. Naturally I'm excited because most of my time is spent at the school with the students and teachers. This also means that I can finally start my English tutoring club. This was something I did in America so I kind of have a soft spot for these types of projects. However, in America, I was an adult tutor and it was one-on-one. But the general idea is still the same; I taught comprehension, grammar, spelling, vocabulary, etc. We'll be doing much of the same thing over here, except there is going to be a small language barrier, which is why some of the teachers have agreed to help me. There are about 15 students signed up, so this coming week we'll need to have a meeting with them to remind them about their choice to join and also to start preparations for our upcoming meetings. I'd like to have one-on-one meetings as well as small group meetings. Meeting with the students individually is important so that I can gauge everyone's level of English and their comfort level. Then the small groups will allow them to practice some dialogues with one another and also to learn from each other. They get the best of both worlds!

My snail club is up and running as well. Like the English club, since school is starting again, I'll be able to meet with the snail kids more regularly and officially start making snails! One of the teachers is really dedicated to this project and he has already been a huge help to me and the students. We've already met to discuss the importance and benefits of snails and how the students can learn from raising snails. The majority of them were still interested, but we'll be going back to check on interest levels and see what we can work with.

Not much else happening on the work front. I've been doing a lot of planning these past weeks so I'm anxious to actually set something in motion and actually DO the work. At least I can always go around town and do small lessons on nutrition, malaria, family planning etc. It makes me feel like I'm doing something! I'd really like to organize something where I go around and meet with the different associations in town, like the Tailors and Hairdressers for example, and talk to them about different health issues. Meeting the community members is smaller groups is a lot easier since my town is so large. It creates a better forum for question and answer sessions and discussions. Meeting and talk with over 100 people is not always a wise choice, so I rarely have community meetings. People don't pay attention all that well and not everyone even shows up anyways. Small groups is the way to go.

Next month will be my one year mark. One year in country that is, not one year of service. But still, that is quite the milestone. I can't believe how fast is has gone. I feel like I only just arrived. Although yesterday when I arrived home, I was greeted by someone saying to me, "You've been here almost one year and yet you don't hear the Twi." Well thank you. Sure made me feel like I'm making quite an impact here! But like I tell everyone...I'M A VISUAL LEARNER. And my town doesn't really speak Twi anyways, they speak Sefwi and Sefwi is not a written language, soooooo that works well for me. But I do my best, and I manage. In my defense, the person who said that from me is not from my town and is only visiting the area, so there. Come February I'll have to write a post that is filled with self-reflection and a lot of philosophizing.

Most importantly though, in 19 days I'll be leaving on a jet plane...to South Africa! I couldn't be more happier! I finally get to see my wonderful parents and eat delicious food and not live like a PCV for three weeks. I don't even know if I remember how to use a blow-dryer! Until that time I'll be hanging out at site working, cleaning, mingling. I've been reading a lot of books lately....thank goodness for Kindles. In the past few weeks I've burned through Freakonomics, Super Freakonomics, The Tipping Point, Obama's America, and now I'm starting Atlas Shrugged. Wish me luck with that one..it's looooong, but a very interesting read. I'm enjoying it so far.

Well that is all I got for you now. I hope everyone is doing well stateside. I am happy to say that I will be returning to America this coming August. One of my best friends in the whole wide world just got engaged! She and her fiancé will be having their wedding this coming August so I'm going to do my best to get back to California this summer and help them celebrate!

Still Alive

Long time no post. Sorry to all my dedicated followers, as I'm sure there are many of you! I intended to write a post a while back but due to one thing or another, like my electricity going in and out, I did not. As they say in Ghanaian English, Sorry-o! 

I feel like this past month as flown by. Thanksgiving was a great success. The US Ambassador to Ghana graciously opened his house to the PCVs and some other workers in Ghana. Two buffet tables filled with delicious food and lots of beer, wine, and sangria. It was the same as how we do in America, but pretty darn close. The fact that I was even able to have a Thanksgiving dinner was perfect enough. I definitely was not expecting that when I came to Ghana. The dinner was wonderful and I was able to catch up with some friends I have not seen in quite it a bit. Naturally, we all went out into Accra later that night to continue the Thanksgiving celebrations. It was definitely a night to remember. But alas, you cannot escape work forever, so I had to return to the village. 

Before I traveled to Accra for Thanksgiving, however, I attended a Nutrition In-Service Training in Kumasi (Ashanti Region). I brought a local counterpart with me; a National Service teacher working at the local JHS. She was a great companion and I believe she truly learned a lot and enjoyed the training events. She and I met yesterday to discuss some projects we would like to start with our newly acquired nutrition knowledge and materials.  The leaders of the training are colleagues of mine and at the end of the four days, they were generous enough to provide all the attendees with a nutrition toolkit. My counterpart and I now have several books, CDs, photographs, and posters to use to implement projects in our town. Yesterday we decided that we would like to start going to the churches on Sunday to talk about nutrition and health-related issues. As you may or may not know, religion is a very big part of life in Ghana, so naturally, most Ghanaians go to church on Sundays, or mosque on Friday if you are Muslim.  This provides us with a captive audience, so they cannot escape when we come to talk to them. One week from today we will go to the Methodist church and lead a small lesson on food groups and use some photo cards to help us. We have also made arrangements to go to the Mosque in two weeks. I am very pleased with what we have planned and I believe it will go well. 

My snail project is coming along nicely, at least it seems that way so far. I've been meeting with the students once a week to discuss our plans and start education on snail farming. At our last meeting I asked the president and vice-president of the club to meet with the other students and locate a place where we can construct our snail pens. It has to be somewhere shaded and in a place that no one will be able to steal from. I am meeting with them tomorrow, so I hope that they have completed their assignment and bring me some good news. One of my other counterparts, who is occasionally helping me with this project, informed me you cannot find snails this time of year, so that might delay our project a bit. Apparently the best time to collect snails from the wild is during the raining season, but now the rainy season is coming to an end and the quantity of snails is decreasing. Hopefully we will still be able to gather some, but we shall see. Fingers crossed. I am actually very intrigued by this snail farm. I never thought I would be that invested, but it is actually very interesting. I've learned quite a lot about snails and they are actually a pretty cool animal (mollusk? whatever they are). The only problem with them is that they taste nasty. At least I think so. 

On Wednesday I am meeting with the pregnant women and women with children under five years old. I made an announcement this past Wednesday at the baby weighing informing about the meeting and my project. My counterparts and I are anxious to start the bed net distribution project, so we need to start meeting with the women to gather names and start education. This meeting will give me an initial count of how many women will be involved and about how many nets I will need to order. As soon as I can nail down a solid number I can write and submit my grant so we can fund this project. The goal is to educate the women about malaria and why they are most susceptible to it (when they are pregnant or when they have children under five years old). We will do many different kinds of malaria education such as: clips and videos, flip charts, bed net hanging demonstrations, neem creem demonstrations (a local mosquito repellant made from the Neem tree), question and answer sessions, and lessons using photos and materials provided to us PCVs. My counterparts are very invested and dedicated to this project and have already told me they will take time out their schedule to attend the meeting next week. I'll keep you all informed as to how things turn out, but I have a good feeling about this one. 

I have also started an English tutoring club at the JHS to help students practice for their final exams at the end of the year - the BECE (Basic Education Certification Exam? something like that). There are several different subjects on the exam and since I am a native English speaker and you cannot really succeed in this country without learning English, I decided to help some students. Two teachers and the headmaster selected the top 20 students and those are the students we are going to use for the initial group. We did this because we only want to students who are serious and dedicated to their education. If the group is filled with students who do not care and already have a lower level of English, it will affect the group dynamic and it will not be successful. We are starting with these students and then as the group progresses and if it is successful, we will expand to other students. It is hard not being able to include all the students, but this is the best way to start and we will take it from there. The head English teacher gave me a book with all the past BECE English exams so I am looking over them and developing lesson plans. The students really need to improve  their English comprehension and critical thinking skills. It is remarkable how bad it is. I have been in school on many different occasions and asked questions and I am just met with blank stares, like I was speaking in an alien language or something. The classes here are mostly taught through repetition and copying. They teacher writes something on the board and the students copy it. That is how they learn. Everything is memorized and they never (usually) seem to think for themselves or even have the ability to do so. It's quite sad, but that is the ugly truth. Hopefully this club will ameliorate these problems. 

That is pretty much what I have going as far as projects. I feel like I am forgetting something but I cannot think of it at the moment. Everything is going wonderfully and I hope it all continues that way. 

The Ghanaian Presidential election as held on Friday and it looks like the NDC party has won. They are still counting votes but it is all but confirmed that NDC will stay in power. If that is the case, then there will be no run-off in the next few weeks and PCVs will be taken off "Standfast." This is one of our safety protocols. During times that might turn violent or something happens in the country, PCVs are usually put on Stanfast, which means we must stay at our respective sites and pack a bag just in case we have to consolidate to our consolidation points. Thankfully nothing violent happened during the election and I believe we will be back to normal soon enough. 

It is hard to believe that it is Christmas time already. It sure does not feel like it over here. No Christmas lights or trees and definitely no snow, although I am grateful for that. It is definitely going to be a tropical Christmas this year. Several of my colleague have already left for America to spend the holidays at home and many are still planning to leave in the next few days. However, there are a few of us staying behind so we will be getting together so we can celebrate amongst ourselves. Then as soon as everyone returns from America I will be heading out to South Africa and Zimbabwe to meet up with my parents. I am VERY excited for this trip. I will be gone for three weeks and it cannot come fast enough! About 43 days to go until my flight leaves Accra! 

That is all for now folks!

Snails, Bed Nets, Hand-Washing Stations, Moringa, and More!

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.

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!