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!