you should all call me.

in case you haven't heard yet, i did get a phone! i posted the number
on my facebook, or email me if you want it. please call me! i love
hearing from people back home. over here, it's easy to forget that
america continues to exist.
today is our last day in koforidua for now. this week was our first
week of practicum at the local deaf school. tonight we go back to our
homestay families. we will be there for one week, then back here for
another week.
have i mentioned that i'm THRILLED with the program i'm in? i really
think the six of us have the most unique and exciting program in all
of peace corps. we get to PLAY with kids, TEACH art, LEARN sign
language, LIVE in ghana! the kids at the deaf schools are wonderful.
the special schools in ghana are often neglected beyond the normal
schools. many teachers at deaf schools barely know sign language.
sometimes the money for food is stolen, so the kids eat only soup or
porridge. it is really quite sad. the deaf schools are boarding
schools, so these itty bitty kids don't even have parents around.
they form a family among themselves and take care of each other. i am
really excited to get to know the kids at my school and help them
LEARN! they are all behind their grade level in every subject, mostly
due to the language problems.
on wednesday we attended a ceremony in our village. we were each
required to bring a piece of firewood "as big as we are" to present to
the chiefs. peace corps and my host father provided that. all the
village school children were there, all crammed into the chief's
palace. along with our host parents, we each walked around and
greeted all of the chiefs and the queen mother. we then sat as the
village linguist welcomed us. there was some sort of prayer or dance,
and the linguist poured out a glass of apetechi as an offering or
something. they then gave us some apetechi, palm wine, or minerals.
then we each went forward and our host families introduced us to the
chiefs. then we all lined up again and said goodbye. then we left.
it was mostly a chance for our host families to show us off to the
rest of the village. there are only eleven peace corps living in my
particular village, so it is a great honor to be selected to be our
hosts.
thanks for all the suggestions about blog topics! when i get back to
my homestay, i will do a blog of a description of the view out my
window! for now, i will talk about other topics mentioned.
babies! are everywhere! moms tie the babies to their backs with
fabric and wear the babies wherever they go. sometimes children carry
the babies the same way, children who look too small to be alone
themselves. often the babies are afraid of white people, so it is
really fun to tease them and try to scare them!
what people wear: it's a broad range. there is the traditional
clothing, which is beautiful bright patterns. most women wear dresses
or skirts in bright batik. all the girls in my group are looking
forward to getting some dresses made here. the men mostly wear
trousers and bright shirts. shorts are scandalous, and you can always
tell a tourist by his shorts. the people here consider dressing well
a way to show respect for others instead of a means of personal
expression.
people eat with their hands here. usually a meal has some sort of a
dough ball type thing and then a stew or soup. they break off a chunk
of dough and dip it in the stew. they only use the right hand, of
course. i haven't yet grown to love those foods, so for now i'm
sticking to more familiar things like rice, rice, and more rice. and
EVERYTHING is cooked in palm oil here. i am really excited about
getting to my home and being able to cook for myself.
ok, well hopefully that answered some questions. i may not get online
next week since i will be back at homestay, but i'll probably get
online the following week since we will be back here! leave me lots
of love in the form of comments!

ghananglish and other thoughts

that last entry was getting too long, so i made a new one.  

these are some of my thoughts and observations from being here.  

i am constantly amazed at how friendly ghanaians are.  i never actually know anything about where i am or where i am going.  and i rarely have to ask where to go, because people usually offer to help before i even have a chance to ask!    

OBRUNI is the twi word for white person or foreigner, and we hear it countless times each day.  the children especially enjoy saying it.  sometimes it sounds like a complete sentence.  obruni. sometimes children will follow us and chant it.  sometimes it is shouted like an announcement, so others know a white person is nearby.  

marriage proposals.  the main way that ghanaians joke is about marriage.  so, if they are being friendly, they ask you to marry them.  and like i said, the people here are VERY friendly!  but it's fun to joke back, like, my bride price is 50 goats; can you afford that?  or i can't marry you, i have to marry him first since he asked first.  

most ghanaians speak english, but it is different than american english.  they speak more slowly and with a bit of a british accent.  and many words have different meanings.  we are all learning to speak more slowly and avoid contractions and slang.  since i am learning sign language as well, i find myself speaking with my hands and gesturing often as well.  so when i come home in two years, don't surprised when i look and sound completely ridiculous while i am talking!  for instance, "i will go and come" means "i will be right back." sister and brother mean friend.  

gosh, there are so many other things i could tell you about, but it's hard to keep going!  

oh, before coming here, i read in my ghana travel book about the funny things people name shops and businesses here.  well, these names are EVERYWHERE.  i began to make a list of the best.  ghana is a very religious country, and sometimes they just think things sound nice.  it doesn't need to make sense, does it?

-Cod is Lord Carpet Center (i think it was supposed to be God)

-Strength in Suffering Fan Parts

-God is Able Special Rice

-The Lord is my Shepherd Malta Bursting with Goodness

just today we found our new favorite, on the back window of a tro-tro: "1+1=3 why?"

i will be getting a phone very soon, and i am sure i will find a way to get that number to all of you.  check with my mom for that.  incoming calls and texts are FREE to me, so i will leave it up to each of you to find a cheap way to call or text me.  that will be exciting.  

also, many thanks to those of you who wrote me letters!  so far i have received two from mom, one from audrey, and one from jessi.  looks like i'm averaging about 9 days from america to my hand, so not too bad!  i am winning in the letter count, so let's keep that up, ok?

congratulations to those of you who made it through this massive entry!  i look forward to hearing from you!

a slightly less frenzied update

greetings once again from ghana!

i am typing this entry in advance so that this will perhaps make a little bit more sense than the last couple ones.

i apologize in advance for the lengthiness, but when i come prepared, there is a lot to say!

well, this was a big week here in peace corps ghana.  at long last we found out our permanent site locations AND moved in with our homestay families, all in the same day.  this is my third day living with my family now.  but more on that later.  

for now, let me summarize the last couple weeks.  

we arrived in ghana on 4 june.  our first week was spent at a college campus a short distance from accra.  there, we had meetings about our projects, some intro language courses, some debriefing, and other sessions.  one day we were set free in accra for a little scavenger hunt type thing, using the tro-tros to become familiar with transportation.  tros are vans (like vw buses) which are way past their prime and hold many, many hot sweaty people.  i had to laugh in our very first tro ride when the driver stopped, got out of the car, and removed a SCREWDRIVER which was the only thing keeping the brake pedal attached.  he readjusted it and we continued on our way.   

next we had vision quest.  this was when we each individually traveled to another volunteer's site to see what kind of work others do and to make sure that this is what we signed up for.  i visited a girl in the northern region at the school for the deaf there.  it was about a 14 hour journey.  a large group of us made the trek up north, so we all spent the night at the sub-office in that area, 20 or so of us sprawled out on mats on the floor since there were only seven beds.  anyway, once i got to my vision quest site though, it was just me and the volunteer who lives there.  she was really great and showed me a lot.  we had two days of classes while i was there.

the kids were really great.  she introduced me to the class each time we began, and they all wanted to know my name and then my sign name (which is basically a "j" sign on your left shoulder) and then where i was from and then how long i was staying and then and then and then.  and they all wanted me to learn their sign names, but oh boy i could not remember them!  we did simple art projects with the classes, and i just walked around and signed "fine" and "good" over and over.  

ok, so after vision quest we all met back up together at our training site.  by the time our group was back together, another three volunteers who decided to go home.  so our group is down to 63 now.  we spent three or four days living in hotels near our training site.  again, we had sessions on language, teaching, medical, had interviews for our site placements, and lots more debriefing.  each night i went out to the spot (bar) to hang out and get to know the others better.  

ok, so now we were up to speed.  so a few days ago was site placement announcement!  we went to a local school where a huge map of ghana was drawn on the ground.  each person's name was called, and we went and stood on the map where our home will be.

drumroll please...

i will be going to the VERY tip top north of ghana for my placement! aah!  my site sounds REALLY great, and i'm SUPER excited about it.  i will be at a school for the deaf, of course, with "over 100 students" (not sure what that means, exactly).  i will be teaching art to the primary students.  there is a volunteer there now who will leave right when i arrive.  my site is probably a two day journey from accra, but it is in a big enough city that i will never need to go to accra anyway.  

i will be living in a bungalow near the school.  it has two bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, and a bathroom.  with RUNNING WATER and a FLUSH toilet!  and electricity.  and actually, they are still building the house, so it will be new too.  

i mean, really?  pretty great!  i'm super excited now just to get up there and move in and settle and start teaching!

but first is homestay.  after getting our big announcement, we also got to meet our homestay families!  because our group this year is so big, we are living in three new towns which have never had peace corps in them.  mine is one of those.  

my family is really nice.  i'm not quite sure still how everyone is related or really who all lives here with me.  they are very quiet and i think still afraid of me.  my homestay father is baba.  his wife is in nigeria right now.  but his mother lives in our house.  his father lives down the path through the woods behind the house.  baba's sister or sister-in-law lives here as well.  and her husband might?  or maybe it is baba's brother.  i am not sure.  also, two very sweet girls who are maybe 7 and 12.  i think they are baba's nieces, but i suppose they could be his daughters.  and i don't know if they are cousins or sisters.  falteah is the older and fatimah is the younger, and they are great.  

ok, get this:  my family brings me every meal on a tray for me to eat alone in my room.  it is their way of showing hospitality.  they also warm a bucket bath for me every morning and evening.  today they did my laundry, though i told them next time they must let me do it. it is difficult for them to let me do anything for myself.  

last night, after the rains, my shoes were very muddy.  so baba and falteah cleaned my shoes for me.  i mean, come on.  

the little girls have warmed up to me now and enjoy coming into my room in the evenings so we can chat.  they show me their school book and i ask them questions.  i try to get them to teach me some twi, and i pretend like they are interested in learning the sign language i learned during the day.  

the grown-ups in my compound are still very shy around me.  we will warm up eventually...but for now, i think they are just giving me lots of space so i can adjust.

we do have electricity in my house, but there is no running water.  we have a pit toilet and take bucket baths.  before coming, bucket baths seemed like a miserable thing, but they are actually not that bad.  

our days are very busy.  we start language training usually at 8 am. for me, of course, this is sign language.  then we usually have sector classes, which is art education for me.  afternoons are miscellaneous sessions or language or whatever other things peace corps thinks we need to learn.  and actually, on MONDAY i will start teaching.  at a deaf school.  after only about four sessions of language.  we have our practicum at the deaf school about an hour away from here.  so yeah, i'm hoping i survive that one. we will be staying at a dormitory there for one week, return to homestay for one week, one more week at the dormitory, and then homestay for about another month, then swearing in.  

alright!  

i am still alive!

so, what do you want to know about ghana? i need some ideas, because otherwise my updates will be quite scattered.
i could talk about the chickens and goats that roam everywhere, the delicious mangoes and pineapples that are sold for ridiculously cheap, the kind and welcoming people, the food that still has not made me sick, the tro-tro rides with more sweaty bodies crammed in a van than you ever imagined possible...
so many possibilities!
tomorrow we move in with our homestay families. tomorrow is also the day we find out where we will live for the two years! so it is an exciting day, indeed.
there are only six possibilities for placement, and really it sounds like each one of them is wonderful. each has good or bad things about it, but no matter what it will be great. i have become absolutely convinced i have the best possible program. i mean, ART? KIDS? SIGN LANGUAGE? bring it on! i enjoyed being in the classroom a couple days last week, and i think it will be a wonderful experience getting to know my own group of kids.

first impressions

greetings from ghana!
i arrived safely in ghana last week. it's hard to believe we have now been here almost a week. time is flying by. peace corps is definitely keeping us busy, so i don't even have much time to think about how different life now is.
it's hard to know where to start in describing ghana and life and peace corps and everything you all are probably dying to know. i apologize that i am going to leave huge gaps from things i want to say but will forget.
we staged in philadelphia for about a day and a half. honestly, it was kind of boring. i was just tired from the early flight. our group is huge: 67 volunteers. there is the education group which includes art, math, science, and computers, and the omnibus group which includes business, health, and environment. i really like the people in our group. it is a very diverse group, but at the same time, i find we share a lot of the same values. i mean, who else would give up showers and air conditioning for two years, if they didn't value adventure and helping people and all those other great things.
so that's the people. now the country. ghana is HOT. the day we arrived, i sweated more in that single day than i have in the rest of my life. but already, i am adjusting. you just get used to being sticky and sweaty all. the. time. when i feel a cool breeze, i get really excited. and cool is probably 80 degrees. ha. i am getting used to bucket baths, drinking water out of small plastic bags, greeting everyone, and all those other great things.
peace corps is definitely easing us into this whole process. right now, i am on my way to vision quest. i will be staying with a girl in the northern region. yesterday we were on a bus for 14 hours. we spent the night in a sub-office, 20 of us just sprawled out on mattresses on the floor. today i continue on alone for a few days to see what i have gotten into, then our entire group will meet back up in kukurantumi for homestay and the rest of training.
i'm ready to get this show on the road!
so, rest at ease. things are going well. ghana is good. i am still healthy. i like the people. what more is there?

one day down, 27 months to go!

i just wanted to let you all know that i made it out to philly just fine.  our staging group is 67 people, and they're all really great.  i'm looking forward to getting to know everyone really well in the next two years.  

we are about to check out of our hotel now, get a shot and some malaria meds, then begin the trek to accra, ghana!  

i have no idea when i'll be able to update next, but everything is going great!

all my bags are packed; i'm ready to go

i figured out the suitcase situation.  i'm not sure how, but i just shuffled a few things around, and it fit.  now, for your viewing pleasure...

the suitcase weighs 38 pounds.  the backpack weighs 34 pounds.

believe it or not, i can actually carry all this.  it looks pretty crazy though!

nearly there!

i am homeless, carless, and jobless.

it's weird.

i can fit all of my belongings into one small closet.

my bags are packed, but need a few adjustments still. 

i'm too tired to figure it out tonight, but i'm sure i'll report tomorrow on the final decisions.

wish me luck!