a recipe

most of the foods we eat here cannot easily be made in america because it would be difficult to find things like yams and cassava and such. but my favorite dish is rice balls with groundnut soup, and i realized that every ingredient in it is available at your local kroger store.
i wrote out the recipe american-style, since ghanaians never use recipes. you should make this. it is DELICIOUS.

rice balls and groundnut soup
rice balls: cook 4c rice with extra water until very soft and mushy. when cooked, mash rice so it loses the rice texture and looks more like mashed potatoes. place a handful in a bowl and shake/roll the bowl around until rice forms a ball, baseball/softball size. continue with all the rice.
groundnut soup:
2 fish or 2 chicken breasts
6 medium tomatoes
2 pieces ginger root
2 c water
1 1/2 c peanut butter (all natural: no sugar or oil)
2 bunches spinach
spices to taste: curry, nutmeg, salt, red pepper, etc
in a blender, puree the tomatoes until smooth. set aside. puree the ginger with the water, set aside. steam the fish or chicken in large pot until thoroughly cooked. remove from pot and set aside. cook the peanut butter in the pot until it thickens and starts turning darker brown. add the pureed tomatoes, mix completely. add the ginger/water, mix completely. boil for 10-15 minutes. clean spinach and cut into small pieces. add the spinach, fish or chicken, and desired spices to soup. boil five more minutes.
to serve: place one rice ball in bowl; spoon soup over the top. do not use a spoon to eat; pick up bits of rice with your fingers and use that to scoop up the soup.
makes 4-6 servings
YUM!

under the mango tree

yesterday was cultural dancing class for the kids. so for the afternoon, we all gathered around the mango tree. several teachers drummed, and a few led the way teaching the kids the dances. their ability to follow the rhythms varied, based mostly on feeling the drums through the ground and watching the others move.
all in all, it was a very entertaining time.

the girls bench

the boys bench. notice the difference in behavior/excitement. specifically notice the boy in the bottom, with the random foot sticking up. he saw my camera and LEAPT into the picture just in time, and he cracked up when he saw the picture.
this is one of my favorite little boys. his sign name is a W on the side of his face, but no one can tell me his english name, so i think of him as william. he's the smallest boy at school, a nursery student, and he was so scared when he arrived but is now confident and playful and CUTE.
two more nursery boys. the one on the left always wears that jacket, and it always makes me smile.
and just to show you some things are universal, this is the big boys, preparing for their turn to dance. teachers had to grab them and pull them up there, they were all so self-conscious about it.

religion in ghana

religion in ghana
i thought it would be interesting to tell you all a little about the religious beliefs in ghana.  i feel like before i start though, i should give a little disclaimer.  these are just my observations based on people i've met.  i don't think all ghanaians believe these ways, and of course my observations may not be quite accurate. 
ghanaians are very religious.  the two main religions in ghana are christianity and islam.  in southern ghana, people tend to be more christian; in the north, there are more muslims.  the town where i live is probably a 50-50 split. 
in ghana, there is no separation between church and state.  there is no subtlety or political correctness regarding religious beliefs.  it is perfectly acceptable to ask a stranger: are you muslim or christian?  and it is generally assumed that you will answer one of those two.  often pick-up football (soccer) matches are divided into teams, christians vs. muslims.  it's very casual. 
in a recent conversation with some teachers at my school, one of them described ghanaians as very tolerant.  while there are definitely some things they are not tolerant about, the statement is absolutely true about religion.  i think a huge reason that christians and muslims coexist so well here is they don't see any reason for tension or competition.  i've heard both muslims and christians tell me that they all believe in the same god; they just worship him in different ways.
as far as the ways that they do worship god, those are quite different.  for the muslims, when the call to prayer comes, shops close down for those few minutes.  if you are in town, you'll see rows of men bent kneeling in prayer right in front of the shop where they are. 
for christians, worship is on sunday mornings, and you'll see women in beautiful colorful dresses walking or riding to church.  there is a variety of denominations of churches here.  some of them are quite charismatic, some a bit calmer.  church services can last anywhere from probably two to six hours. 
the church i have attended a few times is a catholic church that meets in the lecture hall on my school's campus.  it lasts about two hours, the shortest among ghanaian churches i have attended.  while the service is a mass, it is quite different than any american mass i've seen.  for one, this particular service is in three languages.  there is the english, then the dagaare, and then sign language for the deaf students who attend.  music is accompanied by drums and xylophones, with a choir of women singing.  the music is loud, fast, and often accompanied with shrieks and screams.  it is quite beautiful.  when it comes time for the offering, people bring forward their usual monies, but then there is usually some group that presents the church with a gift.  so a couple times, a line of people have brought in offerings of tea, soap, toilet paper, fruit, onions, yams, etc.  it is all arranged neatly on trays and set carefully at the front of the church. 
i have to admit, my favorite part of the ghanaian catholic mass is the dance-off.  yep, that's right!  this is a time when the priest (usually an old, white, european man, though sometimes a younger ghanaian man) sits down for a while and lets the women do their thing.  the music gets louder, and one brave woman starts by geting up and dancing her way to the front.  as others are moved, they go and join her, shrieking and screaming and laughing and having a wonderful time.  children start rushing forward to join in, and the front of the church is filled with laughter and exuberant dancing.  the priest and all the rest of us who remain seated just watch, laugh, and enjoy.  i've only ever seen two men join in the dancing, but they received cheers and laughter the entire time. 
so there you have it.  religion in ghana.  quite different than religion in america!

weather

where i live, you can't just turn on the news and see the weather forecast, so i've never really been quite sure what temperatures i'm actually enduring. i just know it is hot, and this is the cold season.

so you should check this out to see the weather forecasts for my town.

http://weather.weatherbug.com/Ghana/Wa-weather.html?zcode=z6070

and check it again in may, when i'm going to be baking in excessively excessive heat.

glass beads

my favorite of our workshops was the glass beads.

basically, they start with broken bottles from beer or minerals; women pound the glass until it is a fine powder.

the powder is then poured into ceramic molds. each mold has dozens of spaces for the beads, and each space has a piece of cassava stem inserted in to hold the spot for the bead hole.

this is some of our counterparts working on that step.

then filling the molds with the glass.
then it goes in the oven, which is built of dirt and has two holes on the sides to put logs in.
they baked for a couple hours, then we had to let them cool of course for a little while, and the end result was really great.
we got to keep our beads!

carvers

we also visited a group of wood carvers.

the most entertaining part was that a funeral was going on where they normally work, so when our busload of white people pulled in, we walked into the middle of the funeral, each took a log, and got back on our bus and drove somewhere else.

i think we REALLY confused that village.

anyway, the carvers take logs and turn them into beautiful woodworks: masks, fertility dolls, statues of women, and catapults.

pottery workshop

this week has been the art education ist.

and because i'm in the best sector of peace corps ever, our ist was pretty amazing. we got to visit local artists at work.

first up was a women's pottery workshop.

they make pottery that looks like it is wheel-thrown, but it is actually formed by hand, on the ground, and the ladies turn themselves around the POT instead of turning the pot itself.

they use an open pit for firing, simply building a bonfire with a bunch of pots stacked in the middle.
here are some of their works-in-progress and finished products. pretty sweet.

best photographer ever

this is my friend. check it out. she's amazing.

i want her to come visit me. so let her take your pictures.

it will be wonderful.

janetmcknight.blogspot.com

have i ever mentioned

how much ghanaians love celine dion?

once upon a time, i set a field on fire

accidentally. a whole field.

my front yard, to be exact.

oops.

a couple months ago, as we started getting into dry season, people began burning fields. it filled the air with smoke and was generally disgusting and made everything look charred and ugly. no one burned the weeds in front of my house, and they grew increasingly dry.

in ghana, it is normal to burn your trash. since this is a country that is still developing, organized trash collection is rare, so you just take your little bag out to your little hole and light a little match and there it goes. no problem.

ahem.

except today.

i was careful. i promise i was. i looked away for ONE MOMENT and WHOOSH the whole field was suddenly ablaze. I AM SERIOUS. i just stood there. and stared.

i mean, running for water would have done NOTHING. and there is no fire department to call. i just had to let this wildfire run its course.

i went inside and watched out the window for a little while. i felt sick to my stomach watching. i tried to distract myself, but i kept checking the status of the huge inferno that was my front yard.

i kept telling myself it was ok, but i had no idea if it WAS ok. then i heard my neighbor: joy? is joy home? hello?

CRAP. i answered the door, waiting for her to yell at me for being such an idiot and setting a whole freaking field on fire.

she asked if i started the fire. i said yes, started talking really fast about how it just happened and i didn't know what to do and i'm so sorry and oh my goodness what can we do about it?

and she just laughed at me. straight up laughed at me.

so i guess it was ok.

another day, another adventure.