christmas...with pictures!

as promised,i am posting pictures of our ghanaian-american christmas extravaganza.
the party began tuesday afternoon when the first guests arrived. on wednesday, we toured wa and saw all the sights. we visited the great mosque, and the imam allowed us to go up in the tower. it was pretty sweet to be high above wa and see the whole city.

the next day, most of the rest of the guests arrived. we (of course) took pito, this time mixed with guinness. mmm.

as this was christmas eve, we felt we needed to partake in a typical american christmas dinner. right? so... BANKU! we went to the spot down the street and had banku (a fermented corn dough) with okro stew. yum yum.

we partied there for a while before bringing the party back to my house and building a BONFIRE! i mean, you can never go wrong with fire, right?

the next morning was CHRISTMAS! for breakfast, we bought BOFRUIT (a fried dough ball similar to a plain donut) and americanized it with jelly, powdered sugar, sprinkles, chocolate frosting, etc. amazing. tasted just like krispy kreme. or else we've been here long enough it tasted nothing like krispy kreme and we were just desperate, but either way, it was amazing.

next was present time! we did a little white elephant exchange, swapping some lovely and some not-so-lovely treasures

then it was time to start preparing dinner. starting with the slaughter of the three chickens. yes, we did. it was slightly traumatic, mostly because the americans have never killed chickens and had no idea what they were doing.

but the end result was magical.

the end. it was a very happy christmas, good friends, lots of food, and much laughter. i hope you all enjoyed yours as much as we enjoyed ours!

christmas without santa and snow

merry christmas to all! i've had a lovely christmas here in ghana. about ten of us spent christmas at my house. highlights included two bonfires, pito, donut creations, white elephant, chicken slaughtering and large american feast, and much laughter with good friends.
i'll post pictures soon, i promise.
i hope you all enjoyed some snow and cold for me.

school party

last night was the end of term party for the students. it was hilarious, to me at least.
it started with two jhs boys coming over to my house, dressed in their finest clothes, to escort me to the party. one of them had a camera, so they each posed for a picture with me.
when i arrived at the party, the place was hopping. loud music, jamming. the deaf children, of course, couldn't hear it though. so they all sat calmly in their rows of chairs. the children from our mentally challenged unit, the ones could hear, were out on the dance floor having a blast.
there was a random homeless looking man, someone i've never seen before in my life, who apparently crashed the party. he stood off in the corner for quite a while, dancing by himself. but then a fast-paced song came on, and he raced into the center of the room. he threw down his cane, his purse (yes, purse), kicked off his shoes, and started break dancing. just because.
when the song ended, he picked up his things and returned to his corner.
an hour or two after the party was supposed to start, it actually did. the assistant headmistress spoke. then a representative from the ghana ministry of education gave a speech. to the students aged 4 to 21, she gave a lengthy warning. that the children should not drink when they return home. drinking is bad. and they should not smoke. smoking is also bad. but if they must, drinking is better than smoking, so you can maybe drink small but don't smoke atall. oh, and don't have sex. just because they are deaf does not mean that they will not get aids from having sex. so they should be careful and not have sex atall.
after that, they brought out the food. the plates for the teachers were massive, heaped full of rice, topped with spaghetti and cabbage and sheep. immediately, at least half the teachers pulled plastic bags out of their purses and dumped all the food in the bag to take home.
thankfully, the teacher i was sitting by had an extra bag, so i was able to save my leftovers as well.
i mean, it would be a shame to waste it, right?

welcoming committee

this weekend, we had a peace corps meeting in a nearby village.
because none of us volunteers live in this village, it was decided we should go and greet the chief and explain our purpose in coming.
after we did this, we went to take some pito. pito is a locally brewed alcohol, fermented yeast something, that tastes vaguely of hard cider but awful. to me, at least.
anyway, the group of 15 white people walked over to the pito stand, but the party had already started long before. a group of old women had apparently been drinking for quite some time, and they were thrilled to see us. they formed a dance circle with us and sang and shrieked. soon enough, benches were pulled up for us all to sit and take the pito.
next thing we knew, these drunk old ladies had formed a line and danced their way over to us, still singing and shrieking. each one of them shook each one of our hands and welcomed us.
then they danced away.

well, that's one way of handling that...

school children in ghana are required to have shaved heads.
at first, i thought that was odd, a little too regimented, but now it makes sense because it certainly must reduce insect (lice) problems, and it's a lot easier for the children to take care of. if the girls had hair, then they would also need mirrors, etc.
ok, so i don't know what the length requirement is, but hair must be kept quite short.
the other day at assembly, one of the teachers apparently decided many of the kids' hair was getting too long.
his solution? he walked around with a pair of scissors and cut a bald patch in each child's hair.
it looked awful and was quite embarrassing to the children he selected.
but i guess it worked, because by the next day, i think all but one of the kids had shaved their heads to get rid of the horrible bald spot.

a thanksgiving to remember

i know you all probably feel pretty sorry for me, being so far removed from america and family and all the things that typically make thanksgiving a day to be thankful.

but do not worry: i just had the most amazing thanksgiving of all time.

the american ambassador invited us to his house for thanksgiving. and you just cannot pass up an opportunity like that. it took us 12.5 hours to get from wa to accra on wednesday.

embassy workers housed us. it was like entering an entirely different world. i didn't even know this world existed in ghana. hot showers, freezing air conditioning, ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, bacon, internet, fluffy towels, washer and dryer...and this is all before we even got to the ambassador's house!

dinner today was amazing, everything that thanksgiving should be. friends, food, oh good times.

so, i feel sorry for all of you, not the other way around!

braids and aftermath

i mentioned in my last post that i got braids. here is a picture of them.


they lasted about a week before i decided to take them out. and i think the part after the braids might have been even more wonderful than the braids themselves.

what do you think?

friends

last week a girl asked me to be her friend. i said sure, i'll be your friend. she told me where she works, a hair salon.

one day, i passed by the salon without realizing it was hers. she wasn't there, but she had told her sister about her new white friend. so her sister called me over.

so this week, i returned to the salon. they were busy braiding each other's hair, but i sat and visited for the afternoon. the other sisters and their father and all their children were there. they watched and alternately came over to stroke my arm or pat my head, to see if i feel the same way they do.

the next day i went back for my turn at hair braiding. they gave me cornrows ending in a bun. it's very nice. i stayed the whole afternoon, and in the process met the entire family.

when she finished, agnes refused to let me pay her for the braiding. she said it was a gift from the heart.

then my original friend, eva, walked with me. they took me to their house, where they showed me how to make tz and jojo. we ate supper together. the children stroked my arm and patted my head and held my hand. the little girl, blessing, barely left my side the entire evening.

then, when we were all finished eating, they gave me a ride home.

now, seriously, that's some real ghanaian hospitality.

caning

in ghana, a perfectly acceptable punishment in school is caning. this is something we talked about over and over in training, something we were warned about, something we were advised on how to handle appropriately.
as much as we had talked about it and learned about it, i only just saw my first caning last week. two old boys, both probably in their 20's, had gotten into a fight the night before. in front of assembly, each received three lashes on their back from a green stick from a tree. the sticks broke with each lash. it was intense, but the boys barely flinched, keeping up a tough exterior in front of all their classmates.
the second caning i witnessed, this week, was so much worse though. two little p1 boys had gotten into a fight. one had a big cut above his eye. the teachers considered his cut to be adequate punishment, so they spared him, but the other boy... oh, the poor little guy.
first, he was made to kneel in the gravel in front of assembly. a teacher gave him two huge stones, one in each hand. he was made to hold them with his arms extended straight out. they were so heavy he couldn't do it, and each time his arms dropped, he was scolded again.
when that was finally enough, the caning happened. i don't even know how many lashes this little guy got, but it was way too many. he was wailing and sobbing so much the teacher had to hold him by his shirt to keep him from running away or falling down.
when it was finally over, he ran off and screamed and cried in the corner for a long time. it was horrible.

a girl called "it"

i'm still learning sign language. it's a long process, and i am trying to be patient with myself. when i actually understand a conversation in sign language, i get really excited. the other day, the conversation was a funny one. the only deaf teacher at my school is the sign language teacher. after class, we were standing around talking to a few students, and this teacher told a student she needed to change her sign name.
sign names are usually the initial of the person's name, signed at a particular place on your body. for me, it is a "j" signed on the inside of my left elbow. each person, ideally, has a different name.
anyway, this girl is in p6, so for at least six years, her sign name has been the letter "i" signed on the palm of the left hand.
which, the sign language teacher explained, is also the sign for "IT."
so for six years, she has been called "it."