Busy Busy Busy

Well a lot has happened since my last post. August is flying by, like every other month. September 8^th will be my seven-month in Ghana mark, if you can believe it! At this rate, two years seems like nothing, but we’ll see how long I can keep that mindset.

In the beginning of this month, my fellow Health/WATSANers and I had our Reconnect In-Service Training (IST). We stayed in Kumasi for a week, where were learned everything there is to know about being a PCV in Ghana. We learned about different kinds of grants and funding options and how to apply for them, previous PCV projects, HIV/AIDS, malaria, Moringa, and much, much more. Even though we were in session from 8-5 everyday, I truly enjoyed it. After three months of not being able to do much at site, this IST really got me motivated and I am very excited to start work in my community.

As PCVs we are not allowed to write grants during our first three months and last three months at site. If you look at the calendar that means that we only have about a year-and-a-half, which doesn’t seem like enough time, especially since most things move pretty slow over here. During our training I filled a piece of paper, front and back, with ideas I have for my community, but knowing my timetable, I’m trying not to become overzealous. But still, I’ll do what I can with the time that I have and we’ll see what happens.

Afere has a lot of mosquitoes; therefore, there is a lot of malaria – real malaria, that is. As most people know, mosquitoes like to breed in standing water, which Afere also has a lot of. Most of the standing water, from what I have observed, comes from bathhouse run off. Households don’t have the proper drainage system outside, like a soak away pit, so the water just collects in puddles outside. Some households do have soak away pits, but they have not been constructed properly and just fill to the brim with water. Even though these families have attempted to stop bathhouse runoff, the pits aren’t functioning correctly, which just exacerbates the problem. Due to this problem, I think one of my main projects will be helping households construct proper soak away pits and educating them on the prevention and seriousness of malaria. Building soak away pits is a relatively lost cost project, so I think I can get people motivated to participate, as long as they understand why they are doing it.

Another project that I am in the process of starting is working with HIV/AIDS patients at my local clinic. One day I was perusing the USAID website and I just happened to stumble upon an article about my local hospital in Juaboso. USAID has implemented a project to sensitize the hospital staff regarding HIV/AIDS. The project aims to stop the stigmatization and discrimination of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHIV). In Ghana, HIV/AIDS is a very taboo topic, so most people living with HIV/AIDS do not talk about it or admit it. Many are abandoned by their families and lose their friends. Some don’t even want to be tested because they fear that if they are positive they will lose everything, so they feel it is best not to know. PCVs all over Ghana are working to stop this way of thinking and show that you can still live positively even if you are infected. It’s a long and arduous process but one day it will happen, just like PCVs helped to eradicate Guinea Worm. Juaboso hospital has a HIV/AIDS clinic where they conduct voluntary counseling and testing (VCT). I met with the pharmacist in charge of this clinic and he showed me their facilities. They have a room with couches and a television, and a separate room for counseling and testing. I was very impressed with what they have already and I could tell the man was very dedicated to helping his patients – that made me happy. He mentioned that they were interested in forming a support group, but hasn’t started the process yet. After I went through my “I’m a health volunteer for Peace Corps” spiel, we decided that we are going to collaborate and share our resources to expand the clinic and form a support group, as long as there are interested people. I know other PCVs have done similar things in their respective villages/areas, and it seems to have worked well for them. I have plenty of literature on HIV/AIDS as well as some videos on prevention, anti-stigma, and care. Hopefully sometime this week I can meet with the man and start setting up a program, or at least drawing up a plan. I am very excited!

Yesterday I met with Ambrose from my LNGO to discuss projects for Afere, like the aforementioned soak away pits. We talked for about two hours and devised a work plan to help us accomplish our goals. I was very happy with how it went and he is very dedicated to helping, which will make my job a lot easier. We eventually started talking about the ICT (information and computing technology) center next to the JHS. The DCE (District Chief Executive) started funding the center out of his own pocket, but has since stopped, and now the building is left unfinished. Most of the buildings foundation is finished, now it just needs doors, windows, paint, theft protection, and some other things. In the afternoon we went to visit the DCE to discuss his plans for the ICT center. He said that as soon as he has some extra funds he will continue work, but in the meantime, I’ll see what I can do to help.

We also discussed setting up a community health committee. Luckily I live with the community chairman so I was able to discuss this idea with him. We went to meet the chief to inform him of our plans and we are now working on forming the committee. The chief and community chairman are going around Afere and selecting people for the committee. Both the chairman and the chief said that the committee must have a member representing the different groups in Afere. For example, the committee must have someone to represent the youth, women, elders, teachers, carpenters, etc. I was glad they mentioned that because I strongly believe that is necessary so that everyone is given a voice and all ideas can be shared. Once we get the health committee formed, we will hold a community meeting to discuss the health and sanitation needs of Afere.

This evening Ambrose and I are going to walk around town and visit households to conduct a household latrine survey. We want to find out how many households have latrines and how many don’t and if people are interested in building one. If Afere shows enough interest in household latrines, we can submit a grant for household latrine building. 

A fellow PCV in Western Region is in the process of submitting a grant for a borehole mechanic training. Many villages face the problem of broken boreholes and there is no one to fix them. Knowing this, he is trying to organize a training so that at least one person in our respective communities will know how to repair a broken borehole. No one is happy when there is no water, especially with all the red clay dirt flying around. It gets quite dusty...and we need that water to bath! The proposed training will span a few days in a not yet determined place, but it's coming. Luckily Afere has piped water so not everyone relies on boreholes, but still there are some that fetch their water from there. I'm going to meet with our WATSAN committee in the next few days/weeks (hopefully days) and see if there is anyone who already knows how to repair a borehole, and if not, see who is interested in learning. 

I feel like I'm going to be quite the busy bee the next few weeks...at least I hope I will be!

Life Thus Far

Nothing too remarkable has happened since my last post, but I felt like sharing a few stories regardless. This past weekend all the volunteers in Western Region went up to Kumasi (capital of Ashanti Region) for our regional conference. There are a few more than 15 volunteers, I think, in our region. Those of us that were able to attend the meeting stayed at our Kumasi sub-office, aka KSO. It was a blast, actually. Once we had finished the necessary Peace Corps work, we got down to business - food. We made quite the spread and it was delicious. There were fajitas with pork and chicken, queso dip, guacamole, salsa, rice, beans, and jello jigglers (apparently no one else has heard this term besides me...Mom you can back me up on this one). It was a wonderful time spent with great people. I'm so happy I was placed in Western - I've met some amazing people and I'm glad to call them my colleagues! 

Ambrose, the account for my LNGO and he also lives in my compound, is back from Cape Coast. He was completing his masters degree in Educational Administration at the University of Cape Coast, so congratulations to him! I am very excited to start working with him and I can tell he is very enthusiastic about his job. This will make my life a lot easier, which is always a nice thing, and I can truly tell that he puts his heart and soul into helping his community. We've already had a few discussions regarding our plans for the future and what we'd like to do in Afere, and needless to say I'm stoked. Technically PCVs aren't allowed to start any official projects during our first three months at site, so it's been a long three months and I'm ready to work! I've mostly been working on forming health clubs and teaching health lessons at the various schools and clinics. 

Next week all the Health/WATSAN volunteers that came in February (that's me) have a Reconnect IST (in-service training) in Kumasi. We will learn how to write grants and apply for funding, so when we return to site we can get down to business. I've been making a list of things I'd like to do in the community, so in the next few weeks I'm going to call a community meeting and conduct a needs assessment. We'll see if my ideas line up with what the community would like. I'll keep everyone posted! 

The school year has ended so there are more children than usual running around town. However, there are a few who are attending summer school, my younger sister included. I spent the morning at the school with the teachers and students and I'm glad these students are getting extra help, some of them really need it. The teacher asked one class, "Is a human being a living thing?" and the class was silent. I'm really hoping that it was because they didn't understand the English or that fact that they can't think critically, but I was still shocked. Finally one student raised their hand and yes, a human being is a living thing. I really wish the teaching style in Ghana was different. I can't imagine the students are truly learning anything. Everything is repetition, repetition, repetition. When the teachers are teaching, they ask a question, and since none of the students respond, the teacher ends up leading them and eventually just gives them the answer - that's not really learning. The students rely on being told what is what and how to think. It's sad, really. 

I opened my younger sister's workbook to look at her school work and was shocked. I guess they don't reach handwriting in school. So I told her each evening we will start practicing handwriting and hopefully she'll improve. If I can at least help one student improve, hopefully they can impart their new found wisdom to others and the cycle will continue. We'll see. 

Well that's all for now. This past weekend I borrowed a friends hard drive and now I have over 400 movies and TV shows, and over a 1,000 kindle books so I'm going to see what I can find to entertain me for a little while! 

Me, M'Adowa, M'Abena

Summer School

M'Abena washing

A Day in the Life of Nana Akua Nyarko

I believe I have already mentioned this, but if not here goes, so as you may or may not know, I have been named after the Queen Mother of Afere, Nana Akua Nyarko. Akua means you are Wednesday born (which I am not, I am Tuesday, which is Abena) and I just recently found out that Nyarko means "dove" in Twi. Not going to lie, it's a pretty sweet name. Although when I first heard Nyarko, I immediately thought of the word "nark," however, any anguish I previously felt has been assuaged. Anyways, that explains the title of this post. Initially I thought I would have a tough time adjusting to being called something other than Hayley. But now I turn my head as soon as I hear Akua or Nana Nyarko. 

So today was one of those days where I was constantly thinking, "Wow, this is my job. I literally have the best and coolest job in the world." It was a great day. The day even started off with a magnificent breakfast - a spinach, cheese, chicken, delicious seasonings omelet! The ultimate test, we have decided, and by we I am referring to my friend Gayle, is that if we would enjoy the food in America, then it's actually good food. So this morning, the omelet was America good. I would have definitely ordered that back home, so just going to give myself a pat on the back for how well I did this morning. I have a lot of free time, so I'm turning into a master chef. I even made Pad Thai the other night and it was bomb dot com. But before all this happened, I had to walk into town to get some ingredients, and all the while doing this, I carried my sister, M'Adowa on my back - Ghanaian style. If you didn't already know, we don't have Baby Bjorns over here. Ghanian women (and actually on Tuesday I saw a man doing this, which is very rare) throw their babies on their backs and strap in with a two-yard piece of fabric. No belts, buckles, or anything. The babies don't even hold on, they just bounce around as happy as clam. Me on the other had is just staring and waiting for a baby to plop on the ground. But anyways, yes, I carried my six-year-old sister like that for about 15 minutes. I was very proud of myself.

But on to other business...I spent the majority of my day with the teachers at the JHS. Around 9 am I headed over and mingled. The students just finished their last day of exams, so everyone was working hard today. The teachers were busying coming and going throughout the day, so I got to see and talk with most of them. I even learned a new word, "invigilate." One of the teachers used it while we were talking and I must have made a weird face because he said, "I hope you get me..." I definitely did not. So he explained it to me, after which I said, "Ohhhhhh. Well in America we usually use a different word, like 'proctor.'" So we had a little cultural exchange there, Peace Corps Goals 2 and 3! BOOM! 

Throughout the morning I helped the teachers stamp and authenticate answer sheets for their exams, all the while talking about everything under the sun, or is it moon? Either way, it was filled with great conversations. I've also become rather comfortable and completely used to long silences. Normally, my eyes would start darting around and I would feel the need to say something. But I was perfectly comfortable just sitting and starting out the window or watching the small children run around. I wonder if that is something that will wear off once I get back into the hustle and bustle that is America.

As you may or may not know, the national language of Ghana is English, so everything is taught in English. The problem is, English is not usually the language spoken at home, so most students struggle with it. The other day one of the teachers showed me a student's response to an exam question...the answer didn't even make sense. There was no way you could even guess what they were trying to say, and that is really sad. Clearly this student is not learning the subject matter. If you want to succeed in school here, you have to know English - it is the only way you are going to do well. I've started thinking about forming an informal English Club for next term. It would be something very casual, after school, where the students can come and sit and practice speaking English. I figure talking with a native English speaker, or at least listening to me speak, might help them. I pitched the idea to one of the teachers and he thought it was great, so hopefully I can get more support and get something going for next term. 

After the school day finished, all the teachers and I headed into Juaboso. The Afere teachers and Juaboso teachers played each other in a football match. They played last Friday as well and the game ended up 1-1. However, this time, Afere won! One of my teacher friends was not playing today, so we stood on the sidelines and chatted. In Ghana, once you complete university you enter the National Service and one of the services is teaching. The Afere JHS has four service teachers from different areas in Ghana: Takoradi, Afere, Accra, and Greater Accra. I've become pretty good friends with them and I'll be sad when they all leave in a few weeks. The other teachers are cool too though! Hopefully the next round of service teachers are just as awesome. 

Not the most exciting day but it was definitely a great day nonetheless. 

Happy belated birthdays to one of my best friends, Betsy Black, and Janice Nash! Both lovely ladies had their birthday on July 18th! 

An an even more awesome note, I'm sure you've all seen the news...Uncle Phil, AKA Phil Knight, is building a 68 million dollar football facility. Oh yeah, it's going to be awesome. Pac-12, what what! 

The chief and elders bought me a fridge! Two elders here.

Senior High School Visit

Yesterday, Alisa and I went to the senior high school in Juaboso to meet with the students about forming a health club. It was a rather rewarding experience, I thought, but it definitely brought to light the drastic teaching differences in Ghana and America. We stood up in front of probably 100 students, I’m really bad at estimating things like this so who knows how many were actually there, but the classroom as chocker-block full of students. We did our little spiel again of how we want this club to be theirs and we are only here as a resource. After laying out the objectives of our meeting and it finally came time for some audience participation. Instead of leading them with ideas, we wanted them to voice their own thoughts and opinions. We wanted them to tell us what they wanted to learn, or things they didn’t understand and wanted more information. Well after a few minutes of silence and blank faces, we looked to the assistant headmaster for some help. Maybe the just didn’t understand our accents? So the assistant headmaster asks them if they understand and they do, so why didn’t they respond to us?

Here in Ghana, the students are lectured at and told what to learn. There is no critical thinking it is all memorization. The teacher writes something on the board and the students copy it diligently. So when we asked them to share their thoughts and ideas and to really express themselves, they were lost. In the end, we ended up giving them examples of possible health topics like family planning, abortion, nutrition, hygiene, etc. Eventually they got the idea and started to raise their hands. We ended up with a list of at least 20 topics they wanted to learn more about. I’ll give you some examples: body odor, family planning, safe abortion, oral hygiene, toe warts, vision, and sanitation. The list goes on but you get the idea. Because the school year is coming to an end we said that over the break if they get an idea in mind to write it down and we’ll compile an even bigger list at the start of the new term in September. I think our meeting was successful once we got over the bumps in the beginning. I was surprised at how many girls volunteered their ideas; I would have thought they would have been more reserved, especially in front of the boys.

It was even more rewarding when we were walking out, a couple girls ran up to us with more questions. It really made me feel like we actually did some good and the students are interested in learning. One girl asked us some questions about her birth control pills, so Alisa and I went over how and when to take them. Look at us saving babies!

An Update, Small Small

Apologies for the delay in between posts - my life isn't always that exciting. Nothing much has happened since my last post, at least anything that has really inspired me to write something out. My Peace Corps life has its exciting weeks and then its so-so/life-moves-slower-in-Africa weeks. 

I've been spending a lot of time with my local family. One of my sisters, Ama Ruby, is back from university and we get along really well. All my siblings are great - I really lucked out with this family. We've started a little game between all the siblings...we are all named a different animal. Let me give you some background on how this all started...My youngest sister, M'Adowa, is always yelling "ma ma ma," for her mother and it closely resembles the bleating of all the baby goats running around. After making this remarkable discovery, I said to my mother, "M'Adowa, she sounds like the goats 'ma ma ma.'" Since then I've always called her "Apɔnkye," which is goat in Twi. After a few days of being called Sister "Apɔnkye" M'Adowa decided to call me Sister "Akokɔ," which means chicken. So all the siblings have an animal nickname: Ruby=turtle, Akos=cat, Kofi=pig, Kwabena=fish, and Kwaku=dog.  M'Adowa will usually come and hang out with my after she has finished with school for the day, and sometimes I'll make her popcorn or some groundnuts (peanuts). I've been introducing her to American food, small small (a Ghanaian English phrase that is commonly used here). Whenever I cook lunch or dinner for myself, I always give my family a little bowl so they can taste something other than fufu. Don't get me wrong, fufu is great, but not every night of your life. Although, they did make banku the other night, a slight change from fufu (you use corn dough instead of plantain). 

In the evenings, I’ll usually sit in the courtyard with my sisters and brother and talk. There is the occasional Azonto lesson, which ends up turning into them all laughing at me as I make a sorry attempt to dance like a Ghanaian. Even the worst Ghanaian dancer is better than us obrunis. If there is a football match on television, we’ll usually come into my front room and watch it together. Some nights I’ll go into town at sit at my fathers store and interact with passersby. I usually have at least one conversation as to why I am not married and have no children. They are always shocked when I say, “Oh you know, I want to wait till I’m in my 30s.” Clearly I am insane. I mean I am 23, practically an old lady over here. I usually talk about my imaginary boyfriend and that keeps them occupied for a while, until they ask to meet him to which I say, “Oh, he’s coming.”

I don’t have much planned for the upcoming weeks, so we’ll just see what happens. Being a site definitely gives real meaning to “time alone with your thoughts.” Its quite a weird sensation…I’ve never had so much free time in my life, except when I was baby, but even then I had mandated nap and feeding times. I do a great deal of daydreaming and “self-reflection,” I mean what else am I going to do? Hopefully by the end of these two years I will have my entire life planned out, but I highly doubt it. I’m trying to adopt a worry-free lifestyle, and whatever happens, happens. Life is too short to be stressed and worried all the time. Don’t worry Mom and Dad, I haven’t gone off the deep end…I will come back to America and get a job, I just don’t want to spend every waking minute of my life worrying about the future. Peace Corps is weird, and it changes you. It’s hard to explain without making myself sound like a nut, but it’s definitely an eye-opening, life-changing experience. The 8th of July was our five month mark! It's crazy that we've been here that long already. It is definitely flying by! 

Wash Your Hands Many Times A Day!

I was supposed to go to school and meet with my girls on Monday, except when I showed up all the doors were locked and no one was there. I ran into Ambrose on the street and he informed me that the teachers were in Juaboso registering. Apparently some people have been posing as teachers and receiving a salary, when in fact they shouldn’t be. Having the teachers register is the district’s attempt to regulate teachers and the salaries they receive. It makes sense and is a good idea but it did prevent me from teaching a lesson on Monday. Oh well, life goes on. I came back to my house and I skimmed through my books and prepared some more lessons for the future.

Tuesday was more fruitful. Alisa and I had to go into Juaboso to visit our local NGO. BCS had some more educational materials sent to all PCVs that work with Rural Water and Sanitation (our NGO). Our NGO led us to believe that it was a small envelope but when we got to the office it was a huge package that weighed about 15 pounds. Lucky for me, I got to carry two packages. On Thursday, the usual group is meeting for market so I told one of my colleagues that I would bring his materials for him (he lives about two-three hours away from the office). These Ghanaians definitely know how to make carrying things a lot easier. You’d be surprised how much easier and comfortable it is to carry something on your head as opposed to holding it in your arms. I fully intend to bring this practice to America.

Unfortunately this morning I woke up feeling pretty terrible. After my shower and breakfast I started feeling better so I figured I would be able to handle going into school. I brought some books and materials with me so I could get some reading done during the slower times. Last week my counterpart and I discussed going to one of the primary schools, Primary A, and teaching a handwashing game to the students. Primary A is just across the field from the JHS, so this morning we crossed over and greeted the headmistress. I informed her that I wanted to teach a song and game to the children in hopes of teaching them to wash their hands “many times a day.” I’ll explain later. There are six levels in the primary school: Primary 1, Primary 2, Primary 3 etc and it goes all the way up to Primary 6. Primary 6 is supposed to be the oldest students and Primary 1 is the youngest, but here in Ghana age doesn’t necessarily dictate what year in school you are. When I was in the Primary 2 classroom, there were a couple boys who looked like they were in their late teens. They towered over their classmates, but I have give them props for coming to school regardless of their age difference. I imagine it can’t always be easy.

We started with the Primary 6 class and worked our way down the classrooms. One of the teachers wrote the words to the song on the blackboard as my counterpart and I explained why we had come. I gave them “I am a health volunteer from America” spiel and started explaining the hand-clapping portion of the game. Whenever I was finished talking, my counterpart would have to translate my English in Ghanaian English so the students could actually understand what I was saying. This retranslation became even more imperative as we moved closer to the P1 class. Eventually my counterpart stopped talking in English and switched to Twi to explain our mission. Anyways, I taught the students the song and the clapping component. The song is as follows…

Wash your hands many times a day.

Always use soap to keep the germs away.

Wash your hands after the toilet.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Wash your hands after you sweep.

Wash your hands before you cook.

Wash your hands many times a day.

Always use soap to keep the germs away.

The English is pretty simple so most of the students were able to catch on. Most of the boys thought punching and slapping each other was more entertaining than learning the real game. The girls really enjoyed it though.

Sadly though, after meeting with the P6 class, I started feeling pretty lousy again, but I decided to power through. My stomach and head were both paining me (a little Ghanaian English for you right there). By the time we got to P2, I felt like I had been hit by a bus. I could barely muster up enough energy to explain why we had come. At one point I had to lean against the blackboard because I thought I might fall down. I excused myself from the class and had to walk outside to get some fresh air, that’s when things got worse. Outside and everything around me started spinning and my heart was beating pretty fast. I felt pretty clammy and was on the verge of vomiting. I found my counterpart and told him I needed to use the latrine. One of the girls found the key and walked me across the field. If it had been any farther I definitely would not have made it. I have never felt so dizzy in my life. The ground was spinning in front of me as I walked and if I had shut my eyes for second I definitely would have fainted. Naturally, when we got to the latrine, the girl couldn’t get the door open. She had three keys and there were three different locks. Of course the last key she tried worked on the last lock she tried. Typical right. I won’t go into any more detail, but my morning sucked. Don’t worry Mom; I am alive and feeling better.

After that little incident, I thought it best to come home and try not to die. I took my temperature and luckily I didn’t have a fever. I came inside my house and fell asleep for about an hour, which helped. When I woke up, I came outside to see my family and my sister, Ruby, and my mother told me I had to come sit outside in the courtyard and they were feeding me – no ifs, ands, or buts. Apparently they don’t like it when I eat Indomie (Ghanaian Ramen noodles) because its not real food. I won’t argue that but it’s cheap and easy to make so every now and then I succumb to it. My mother brought out a huge plate of rice and stew. It was delicious. I definitely ate all (Ghanaians like to say “eat alllllllll” to us Americans, yet they always give us too much food). Tonight we are eating banku (another Ghanaian dish, like fufu, but its made with corn dough and cassava). I wanted to make some tea but I had no Cowbell (powdered milk), so my brother Kofi went into town to buy some, and also bread at my mother’s behest. I told them I could walk in myself, but my sister, and I love her even more now, told me “Akua, you walk too much, sometimes you just have to let others do things for you.” Well if you insist…

As of now, I am feeling better. I think the tea and the bread helped. Still feeling kind of dizzy but the ORS is helping. ORS is oral rehydration solution. You mix the packet with one liter of water and sip on it. Some of my friends actually like the taste, but I think it tastes like sweet sweaty salt water.

The Spain Portugal match is on tonight, so I need to be in tiptop shape to watch that. My brothers and sisters come into my front room and we all watch the game together. It is nice. My family is pretty awesome. I definitely lucked out.

One of my sisters, M’Abena (Tuesday born) is two years old and when I first arrived she was terrified of me, but we are making headway. I taught her how to say “hi” and it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Now, whenever she sees me, she stops, squats, lifts her left leg up and down and says “hiii.” Its adorable – definitely putting her in my bag and taking her with me. 

Girls Club

I met with my girls group on Friday, and I would consider it a success. It appeared as if all the girls from my list were present, but I can’t be sure. The room was definitely jam-packed; some desks even had four girls squished side by side (these desks are meant for two people, but it’s not uncommon to see three students fighting for elbow room during class). This meeting was our first official girls only session. A teacher and I assembled the girls in one of the classrooms and he briefly introduced what I planned on discussing, then he was off. I thought the best way to go about forming and sustaining this group would be to ask the girls what they were interested in and what the wanted to learn. This seems like a better idea than just gallivanting in and teaching what I think is best. It also gave me a chance to see how much the girls already know about health related issues.

As always, I started off by saying “If there is anything I am saying that you don’t understand, please let me know…do you understand?” “Yes, madam” was the response. Except that always seems to be the response to everything, whether they understand or not. English Comprehension will be my next club. Before we started anything, I called Bernice and Emelia to the front of the class to be my note takers and translators. I walked around the class and asked them to suggest potential discussion topics. It was bit rocky at first, a couple awkward silences, but eventually the girls found their groove and began raising their hands. I have to give a shout-out to all the teachers out there, talking in front of a big audience is one thing, but getting a bunch of teenagers to be quite is quite a task. As Ghanaians like to say, “you’ve done well.” As soon as you got one side of the room to be quite, the other side started talking, so I found myself shuffling from one side of the room to the other “shh-ing” the girls. It felt like herding cats.

I was quite impressed with their suggestions, eight in total…

1.     How to dress (although I’m not sure I can be of much help on this topic as any sense of style has gone out the window due to the fact that I’m in peace corps and wear mish mash of clothes and colors every day).

2.     How to wash our hand

3.     How to use pad during menstruation

4.     How to respect our elders

5.     How to avoid our self from sex

6.     How to prevent our self from teenage pregnancy

7.     How to lives a chaste life

8.     How to use our time

I copied these suggestions verbatim, so the grammatical errors are not mine, although I’m sure I’ve committed a fair share of my own throughout this post. Please, hold the judgment.

At the end of our meeting all the girls clapped and for the most part seemed pretty enthused about our next meeting. I did see a few girls who looked like they had better places to be, but hopefully that will change. BCS has given us behavior change materials like flipcharts and trigger sketch manuals, which will help us conduct lessons like I will be doing with this club. I don’t have the full set of materials yet, but I will be going to collect them on Tuesday. What awaits me will be even better than the materials I already have. We were trained on these other materials a few months ago, and from what I remember there is a lot of useful information and activities that will work nicely in the girls club.

We are planning to meet again on Monday morning, and I think I will start with a hand-washing demonstration. It’s “hands” on, pun intended, and it’s definitely something everyone should know. I’ll bring some rubber bowls and soap to the school and set up a washing station in our room. I think it will be a good first activity. It’ll let me see the level of engagement and enthusiasm for when we move into more sensitive topics like abstinence and condom demonstrations. Hopefully a few class leaders will emerge, but I’m not getting my hopes up, something I’ve learned to do during Peace Corps. Not that I’m being pessimistic, it’s just that things work differently, and much slower, here in Africa.

On another note, I’ve been making some headway in the two books I’m reading – Africa, and Guns, Germs, and Steel. Both are very interesting and so hard to put down. I was reading all morning today, but took a break to do some much needed laundry. Luckily my sister, Ama (Saturday born), aka Ruby, was helping me. You don’t turn it down when a Ghanaian offers to help wash your clothes. I’ll probably be the cleanest I’ve ever been.

My brothers, sisters and I are going to watch the France/Spain game this evening, assuming the lights (you say lights instead of electricity here) comes back on. It’s been out for almost 24 hours, the longest outage so far. Here’s another shout out to all my PCV friends who don’t have lights – you guys are troopers!

Take it easy!