mama chicken

this was really funny to me. mama chicken was trying to keep her chick warm, but the chick wanted to see what was going on too.

unfortunately, both are no more. baby ended up dying; mama became christmas stew.

merry christmas!

our neighbor

cote d'ivoire is the western neighbor of ghana. it is the world's top cocoa producer.

there has been trouble there for about ten years, when a civil war began. the november elections were intended to resolve the conflicts, but things have gotten worse.

two presidents, fighting and fleeing citizens...

it's very sad.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010-12-16-ivory-coast_N.htm

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/12/19/ivory.coast.refugees/index.html?hpt=T2

oil

on the 15th of december, ghana became an oil-producing nation.

there was much fanfare throughout the country, but especially on the coast. off the coast of takoradi is now a huge oil barge.

it will be interesting to see how this black gold will change the country. many other countries have had problems of corruption with the discovery of oil. ghana already has so many natural resources (gold, cocoa, etc), and now adding oil to the mix could certainly bring income to the country. my hope is that the income generated goes to the places where it is needed most.

not even close

i was resting at home on sunday afternoon. 

a couple of my students came and knocked at my door. they were asking for glue for their football. it had a leak, and they were going to try to patch it. i signed back that i didn't have glue here.

a couple minutes later, another knock on my door. i knew it was the deaf kids; their knocking is often very loud and frantic-sounding, since they can't hear themselves.

i went to the door again, slightly annoyed that they were bothering me so much when i was trying to rest. it was a different boy, asking for something different. it looked like he wanted tape, as if maybe they thought i would give them tape instead of glue. since he signed, "please, i beg you" and looked so desperate, i agreed, figuring maybe they would leave me alone if i just gave it to them.

so i went, got my tape and took it to him.

he laughed, and then spelled out what he had asked for: S-A-L-T.

whoops. different boy, different mission.

water

a lot of people in ghana don't have running water. even in big cities, it is normal to see women or children carrying huge bowls of water on their heads, heading home from the borehole, river, or well.

even among those fortunate to have running water, it is often only on for a few hours a day, at most, or just a couple times a week. during this time, people fill their buckets or barrels to use until the next supply.

the most fortunate people have polytanks. these are huge black water tanks, usually built at an elevation near the house. i am one of these lucky people. with a polytank, we fill the tank, and the water flows from it throughout the day as long as we need.

i am even luckier than most, because my school is on an automated borehole system, so our water supply is endless and free. this means that i can fill my polytank at whatever time it empties. it also means that my neighbor, with whom i share my tank, can use it every single night to water her huge garden, and we never have to pay anything for it.

it's great.

now, when you do have running water in ghana, it is just normal temperature. except in the most luxurious hotels or fancy houses, water heaters do not exist.

so, the best part of the polytank is that if you take a shower in the afternoon or evening, after the sun has been baking that huge black plastic tank all day, it is pleasantly warm!

thanksgiving

each year there's a big party in the capital for thanksgiving. i went last year, and it was amazing.

this year, i was planning to go, but then i felt lazy and cheap and decided i wanted to save all that travel money (and up to 28 hours on a bus) and stay home.

a couple other volunteers in the area had the same idea, so we made a thanksgiving dinner ourselves.

i have to admit, it rivaled the feast at the ambassador's house, plus we killed that turkey OURSELVES.

turkey. mashed potatoes. gravy. stuffing. green beans. carrots. deviled eggs.
plus wine, chocolate pudding, marble cake, and apple cobbler, not pictured.

jewelry

the vocational girls have been making some beautiful jewelry.

here are charity and latifatu modeling some of their masterpieces!

a classroom!

my very own classroom!
for the last year and a half, the school has been rebuilding the girls' dormitory. because of this, the girls have been staying in classrooms.
for the last year and a half, the school has been rebuilding two teachers' houses. because of this, teachers have been staying in classrooms.
so, obviously, there has been a shortage of classrooms, and as always, art was the first to be cut. i've been a mobile art teacher.
but on thursday, the girls moved into their fancy new home!
which means i can reclaim my room! however, the problem now will be tracking down the furniture that i believe once existed to fill the room. that might take a little bit of detective work. until then, the students might just sit on the floor.
yay!

catching the christmas spirit

once again, this year i'm having a hard time believing it is nearly christmas.

our average high temperature is 36 degrees celsius, so nearly 100 fahrenheit.

however, i am glad for the extreme dryness just now. harmattan is hot: during the day. but relief comes at night and in the early morning, and because of the total lack of humidity (in the north at least), if you are standing in the shade and get a good breeze, it can still be pleasant.

anyway.

i've started listening to christmas music. i love christmas. i love winter. but it just feels weird to hear "baby's it's cold outside" "or let it snow" play when i'm sweating profusely.

i had a fantastic moment of inspiration yesterday though. my jhs students have been working on calabash art, and i looked around my art closet and noticed a bag of baby gourds that have been there since forever.

and i realized, they will be PERFECT christmas ornaments! so today my jhs prep students scorched them. we kept it simple, just a ghana flag design on each one. but it's great: ghana's flag is red, gold, and green, with a black star in the center. JUST LIKE CHRISTMAS!

i think it's too late to get them to america in time for this year, but i'll see what i can do.

they don't decorate christmas trees here...

harmattan

it's that time of year again.

time when you can barely breathe for the smoke in the air, from the fields being burned. time when the dust whips and stings your skin. time when the scorching sun makes you wish you could actually melt.

but, just in case you were worried, i've already committed not to burn a single piece of anything this year. i refuse to relive that traumatic event of the past.