making it official

as of thursday, 13 august 2009, i am officially a peace corps volunteer. after two and a half months of training, peace corps decided we were all qualified to be real volunteers. for the occasion, we went to a local senior high school and had tents set up outside. we invited all of the trainers, all of our homestay families, local government officials, current volunteers, the peace corps staff, and the american ambassador. we even had a brass band. this was our time to shine, to show ghana what we have learned since we arrived here on the 4th of june. so what do we do? we wear our loudest, poofiest, craziest, and brightest clothes. here are some pictures of the big day. jessi, i hope you are satisfied with the long-awaited pictures of my dress! this one is me with carol and nancy, two other art ed volunteers.

here is the entire art ed group, including our two sign language trainers. from the back left: godfrey, nancy, carol, me, scott, katharyn, sonya, taj.

my u-dub (upper west region) girls, also my braid buddies. (i'm sorry to inform everyone that i took the braids out a few days ago...my slippery white girl hair couldn't hold on to them so well. but i do plan to get braids again sometime, probably soon!)

and finally, my homestay "parents." on the right is baba, my father. on my left is his sister. i alternated between calling her my aunt or my sister. it was all very confusing. but they are wonderful, lovely people. they told me that any time i come back to that area, i should come visit and stay with them. my time with them was very lovely, though also incredibly awkward. it's all good. welcome to ghana.

so during the swearing in ceremony, each language group performed in their chosen language. many groups did market skits or tro-tro skits. our group "sang" a song in sign language. we selected three blind mice. however, the process of translating it first into ghanaian english and then into sign language changed the words around quite a bit. here was the end result: three blind rats three blind rats see one two three run see one two three run all chase farmer's wife cut tail BIG knife did you see same before? three blind rats