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!

Busy Bee

A lot has happened since Monday, aka my last post, but I thought it was all worthy of a blog update. I have been doing something every day this week and it feels great! I'm finally getting into the swing of things and projects/activities are starting to pick up. I hope the rest of my service continues like this. 

After discussing our malaria/soak away pit ideas on Monday, I met Amakye at the JHS on on Tuesday morning to unveil our plans. The JHS is comprised of the Form 1, 2, and 3 classes (6th, 7th, and, 8th grade, respectively), and there are roughly 300 students. We started with the Form 1s and made our way down the hall. I talked in English about malaria...asking them if they knew what it was, how it is transmitted, best ways to prevent it, treatment etc. Amakye had to translate my best Ghanaian English into the Ghanian English they actually understand...I guess mine isn't quite Ghanaian enough. Side note: when talking with Ghanaians in English, we Americans tend to alter our accents so that they can understand us better. I don't really know how to describe it other than that we change our inflections and talk a little slower and are probably more grammatically incorrect. Anyways, it seemed that most of the students were understanding what I was saying, but just be safe Amakye reiterated what I was saying. When I asked the Form 1s how malaria was transmitted, one boy raised his hand and said the female anopheles mosquito. I was very impressed that he knew the correct answer, especially since a few days ago an older women told me dirt caused malaria. After discussing malaria we started talking about soak aways. Amayke drew a picture of one on the chalk board and explained how to dig it and why it was important. The students seemed to be genuinely interested, so that got me really excited. Some of them have already started collecting stones for their households, which is wonderful. 

That afternoon, Alisa and I were supposed to meet with our health club at the SHS. Unfortunately, for us, it was a school cleaning day so the majority of the students decided to play hookey. We had to reschedule for next week and hope everyone shows up. I came home and rested for a bit then Amakye and I were back at work! We started walking around the community visiting households to discuss malaria and soak aways. Using the different class registration lists we were able to identify their respective houses throughout Afere. As we visited them, we checked them off and recorded how many people were at each house. In addition to malaria and soak aways, we have been collecting information from cocoa farmers. A fellow PCV is working on a project that registers cocoa farmers through CocoaLink. If you register, each Friday you will receive a text with cocoa farming tips and techniques. It's a great idea as the majority of people in this area are cocoa farmers and that is how they make a living. 

On Wednesday I went into Juaboso to have a meeting with a couple hospital staff members and some LNGO members to discuss HIV/AIDS related projects. There were four of us total and we talked for probably two hours. Another two people were supposed to be present, but one we could not find and the other is on leave. I was surprised by how dedicated the people are about combating HIV/AIDS. I was expecting to be pulling teeth during this meeting, but they did most of the talking and were throwing out many great ideas. We discussed the idea of forming a living positive support group, but naturally funding is an issue. Most agreed that if we can't provide the people in the group some sort of monetary incentive, most people won't come. Bummer. Since money tends to be a common problem in every aspect of everything over here we started thinking of other ways to reach people. We came up with an HIV/AIDS educational seminar and testing/counseling day. Basically we would like to host an all-day event at the Juaboso hospital and teach about HIV/AIDS. I have educational games and activities as well as short films that we can use for this event, and if we write a grant we can set aside some money to "refresh" those involved....aka we can give them some coke or fanta or something. If there is something free to be given, people will show. Typical. Either way I am very happy with how this meeting went. This coming week I am going to meet with one of the LNGO members to look at possible grants and decide how we want to write it. 

During the meeting on Wednesday, an LNGO member and I decided that we would give a basic HIV/AIDS talk at the hospital the next morning. We were supposed to be teaching to a group of women but due to a miscommunication we ended up talking with patients waiting to receive their medications. We had also planned on showing a short film about basic HIV/AIDS facts but due to a technical error that also fell through. It ended up being an impromptu question and answer session, which surprisingly went very well. No one mentioned any myths about HIV/AIDS, like condoms can cause it or sleeping with a virgin is a cure. When I asked what are some of the best ways to prevent HIV/AIDS transmission, one man raised his hand and said if men stop sleeping with other women and vise versa it would reduce your risk of being infected. Someone else said always use a condom. I was very impressed with what they were saying and how vocal they were in general. I really did not expect that. One lady even asked, in front of everyone, where she could be tested. This surprised me even more because HIV/AIDS is such a taboo subject here and no one really likes to talk about it, let alone announce they want to be tested. It was a very rewarding day. 

Yesterday was market day so I got my fill of white people love. It was a girls market this week, which was fine with us. Alisa and I teamed up to cut Heather's hair. I'm surprised she let us do this after a beer - we were responsible enough to wait until we'd finished cutting to start on our second beer. She even let me cut her bangs! But in my defense, I am great side-bang cutter. I used to cut my own and if you've seen any pictures of me, you know how good I looked...HA. Funny right. Market days are always fun. I'm glad I live near a wonderful group of people. 

On a cross-cultural integration note....I'm going to kill a chicken. I figure when am I ever going to have the opportunity to kill a chicken again? I don't plan on living on a farm when I go back to America...I plan on buying my pre-killed boneless, skinless chicken breasts from Publix thank you very much. I don't relish the thought of killing the little guy, but I am kind of intrigued and then I can say I killed a chicken. Good story for the grand-kids right? My Ghanaian grandmother came to the house today so we could make her aware of my plans...I guess she is providing the chicken. More importantly though, I believe after this chicken slaying my family will be preparing groundnut (peanut) soup and rice balls...aka the best Ghanaian meal ever. That totally warrants killing a chicken. Don't worry, pictures will come. 

Nothing much happening today. It is a holiday because it is Kwame Nkrumah's birthday (the first president of Ghana), so no one is working. There is a funeral happening just up the street so I'm getting my fill of bass thudding and terrible singing.

Next week I am going to Accra to celebrate Alisa's birthday and also to run the 10k. And by run I mean Heather and I are going to walk. We'll run some, but I'd rather not have a heart attack. 

So that's what has been going on these past few days. I'll keep you all updated!

Amakye demonstrating how to build a soak away pit

Teaching the class about malaria

Rolling Right Along

My counterpart, Amakye, is finally back from his summer courses, which makes me happy. Since he is a science teacher at the local JHS the only time he is able to go to school is during school breaks, so I'm left on my own for a while, but I manage. I've met a lot of other people from my town that act as unofficial counterparts, so it works. I finally went to the school today since classes have resumed. I sat with the teachers in their room and discussed project ideas and how they spent their vacations. We also talked about the final examinations from last term and this terms entrance examination. I was cringing the whole time. How the teachers can deal with teaching here is beyond me. I would go crazy. All the PCV Education volunteers are tough cookies.

After all this I sat and listened to the teachers argue, for about two hours, about what they think the passing level should be. Wait for it...30% or 40%. When I heard that I actually dropped my jaw a little and the teachers looked at me funny. It is really sad to me that this is what the expect the children to get in order to pass. I can remember being sad about getting a B+ during college, so I can't imagine what a 30% must feel like!

One of the teachers mentioned that he has noticed a lot of his students have trouble reading and writing, especially English. I think I've already mentioned this, but in Ghana all the teaching is done in English, so you if you can't read, write, or speak English you're kind of screwed. I thought it might be a good idea to start some sort of reading or English club that way the students can practice their English skills. I thought either I could read simple stories to them so they can hear what proper English sounds like or meet as a group and go over their homework and whatever kind of help they need. I'll keep pestering the teachers about it, but I personally think it would be a great project, if the students are interested that is.

Amayke and I met at school this morning so I could fill him in on what he missed during our Reconnect IST. I went over grants, primary/secondary project ideas, past PCV projects, and my own ideas for Afere. The soak away pits and household latrines are going to be our biggest projects so I gave him all the information Ambrose and I had gone over and our action plan. I'm really hoping things will start picking up now that everyone is back and ready to start working! If everything goes to plan I am going to be really busy these next two weeks.


Ambrose, Amakye, and I met at school for a couple hours this morning to discuss our action plan for the soak away pits. Lucky for me, Ambrose knows a lot about soak aways already and was drawing different versions of them on some scrap paper. He has already enlisted some students from the JHS to go around town and collect stones to fill the pits with. Ambrose, Amakye, and I all know the benefits of having soak aways...health/hygiene reasons and general community attractiveness...so we decided we need others to realize this too. Since we are using the students of the JHS to collect stones, we are going to start our education with them. Tomorrow we will visit the individual classes of the JHS (Form 1, 2, and 3 - the equivalent of 7th, 8th, and 9th grade) and discuss the benefits of soak aways as well as do some small malaria education. Once we have finished educating the students it is our hope that they will then go home and educate their families, but I'm not getting my hopes up. In order to make sure our message is understood and community wide, we will be taking a list of names of the JHS students and visiting their individual households. Since we will have already taught the students, we are planning to use them to help educate their families on soak aways and malaria. On Wednesday evening we start visiting the households and get this ball rolling.

We have also discussed the possibility of doing a household latrine project. I thought it might be a good idea to do this project in conjunction with the soak aways. Something sort of like, "if you can build your soak away and understand the benefits of it, then we can help you get a household latrine." Ambrose and Amakye seem to like the idea so we are going to tweak it to our needs and hope for the best. I'll have to write a grant for the household latrines because it is a higher cost project than the soak aways. For the soak aways the families will provide the necessary materials, which isn't much.

Tomorrow afternoon Alisa and I will be going to the SHS in Juaboso to meet with our health club. Our plan is hold elections for President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasures and so on and so forth. Last term they gave us a list of topics they would like to discuss, so we will revisit that list and hopefully add to it. I'm really excited about this club and I think the students are too. They also speak English a lot better, which makes things easier.

Hopefully on Thursday Alisa and I will be teaching a health lesson at the Juaboso Hospital. We are still working out the details as far as what we want to do. We need a translator, but usually we can get someone from our LNGO to help us. A couple weeks ago we did an impromptu malaria education session and it went really well.

I called my HIV/AIDS man this morning but I learned that he has traveled and won't be back until next week. I really want to get this project started. Even before I came to Peace Corps I was very interested in HIV/AIDS and hoped I would be able to do a related project, so if this is successful I will be very happy. I'm going to start going to the VCT (voluntary counseling and testing) days and observing how things work and gauge interest in forming the support group. If not, we can still do some HIV/AIDS education, individually or in a group.


My biggest cultural exchange of the day happened in my courtyard this afternoon. It's really hot outside so I thought I could soak up some much needed sun. Pasty doesn't even begin to describe my upper legs (I never wear anything above knee-length). So I put on my tank top and Nike shorts and sat in the sun. After probably three seconds, my Ghanaian mother comes running up to me shouting "Nana Akua, daabi daabi daabi," which I met with a confused look. "Daabi" means no in Twi. She told me I needed to get out of the sun and sit under the tree. I explained that in America, and many places in the world, lighter skinned people sometimes like to make their skin darker. She couldn't believe this. I kept saying I do this all the time in America and its ok. She just laughed and eventually went back to grinding her pepe (spicy pepper, like salsa almost). My legs are still white, but tomorrow is another day and hopefully it doesn't rain!

What's Been Going On

Well I’d like to say that I accomplished everything I said I would since my last post, however some things fell through the cracks. As long as I can get at least one thing crossed off on my to-do list, I am pretty happy. Timing is usually a reason why things don’t always happen as expected. I was talking with my dad last night about my frustrations with Ghanaian time and sticking to schedules. I was always the girl who showed up ten minutes early to class in college and ditched school once in high school (and it was second semester senior year…quite the rebel, I know). Meeting starts at 8am? Alright, I’ll see you there around 9am. And that’s what happens. Every Sunday the Afere Health Committee meets to discuss health and sanitation issues faced by our community. The meeting is supposed to start at 4pm, but the first person usually shows up around 4:45, and the meeting eventually gets going around 5:15, if we’re lucky. This is usually how things work over here and it drives me crazy. I don’t know why I keep expecting things to start on time, even though I know they won’t. All part of the Peace Corps experience.

Moving on. Last week the BCS volunteers and members of Ghana Health Service traveled down to Takoradi, the Western Region capital, for a training event on zinc tablets and ORS. We learned about what diarrhea is, what causes it, and how we can use zinc and ORS to prevent and treat it. There’s never enough talk about poop for Health/WATSAN PCVs! A lot of the information was repetitive for us PCVs but it was good for everyone else to hear. Plus we got to spend a few days in Takoradi, which is on the beach and you can find American food, even though it costs you an arm and leg, it is worth it.

I met with the HIV/AIDS man, Alfred, at the Juaboso hospital again. We looked at the different HIV/AIDS educational materials I have, which is quite a lot thankfully. He was very impressed. Peace Corps has provided us with a pen drive loaded with goodies. There are a lot of lesson plans on HIV/AIDS ranging from basic facts, transmission, treatment and prevention, etc. I also have a book filled with educational games and activities to make learning more hands-on and interesting for your audience. I’ve read through a couple of the activities and they are pretty powerful. They definitely provide you with a strong understanding of the virus and the emotional/physical challenges you can face. During the VCT days (voluntary counseling and testing), Alfred is going to pitch the idea of a support group and see how many people are interested and we’ll go from there. I expect the process to be slow going but I am hopefully that it will work.

On Wednesday I want to Asafo, a town about 30 minutes from me, to observe an HIV/AIDS support group meeting – People Living Positively with HIV/AIDS. I was very impressed with the amount of people that showed up, which was about 40. In a culture where HIV/AIDS is so taboo, it is hard to educate and hold meetings regarding this topic. The entire meeting was in Twi so I didn’t understand anything, but the members were very vocal and asked a lot of questions. There is a lot of incorrect information flying around about HIV/AIDS so I really hope I can get this support group started and start spreading accurate information. For example, many people believe that condoms cause HIV/AIDS and if you are infected with HIV/AIDS and you have sex with a virgin you will be cured. This is not just particular to Ghana; I know other places around the world also believe this (at least the part about the condom…so I would assume there is a version about sleeping with a virgin somewhere out there). And people believe these things with all their heart. All the more reason for PCVs to work hard and educate people about the truth about HIV/AIDS and hopefully we can succeed at reducing the stigma and improving educational opportunities for those who want to learn and protect themselves. Everyone keep your fingers crossed for me!

We have a couple things on the docket for Afere. First, we are trying to plan a project educating the community about hygiene and sanitation in conjunction with building soak away pits outside of bathhouses. Lots of households don’t have a proper place for their bath water to drain, so it ends up pooling in the streets and running through your neighbor’s yard, which is pretty disgusting. This dirty water can cause intestinal diseases and bouts of diarrhea, especially in small children who are more susceptible to illness. If we can get people to build proper soak aways, then hopefully the instances of illness will decrease, not to mention the community will look a lot prettier. I’m looking into writing a grant for some hygiene and sanitation education to be done in the community before the soak away building. Hopefully that can adequately educate community members and motivate them to improve their hygiene/sanitation practices as well as take pride in how clean their community will be.

Second, we are gauging interest in household latrines around town. Unfortunately our first option for building latrines with an organization called Ghana WASH is no longer available, so I am researching alternatives to see how we can make this happen. Open defecation isn’t a big problem here, in fact I’ve only seen it happen once in seven months, but not all households have latrines and they gotta poop somewhere! Like we would do with the soak aways, we would educate the community on what it is important to poop in a latrine and not the bush and the health benefits that come with it. I’ll keep everyone updated on these two projects!

So that is what has been happening over here. I’m going to sit down with Ambrose this evening at look at some grant applications for Afere. School has resumed again so the streets are no longer filled with screaming children. I expect I’ll be paying a visit to the schools around town soon to see what is going on and what I can help with, if they need/want it.

Seven months in Ghana tomorrow! CRAZY. 20 more months to go….

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.