Field trip to Boti Falls

Beautiful Boti

Practicum continues this week but unfortunately for me and the rest of the ICT group, we have not seen much class time. The college we are teaching at has exams to prepare for this week and it screwed up the whole schedule and we've had a lot of days of doing nothing. I mean i guess i really cant complain about down time since our schedules are usually sooo busy and especially because my ear swelling has not gone down yet and now my other one is beginning to hurt as well but i really want to be prepared when i get to my site and this is the only practical teaching we get before moving to site. The PCV trainers were more pissed than we were but there isn't anything PC can do to remedy the situation in the next couple of days so they just have to think in terms of next year and perhaps pick a different college to do practicum.

Onto more exciting stuff…today was a big day for Ghana because they advanced to the next round in the world cup! even though they didn't beat Germany, they had enough points to pull through so hopefully we can bang out a couple more wins in the next round. Its really interesting to watch football with Ghanaians, they're mannerisms are so different and really entertaining. I would love to describe the sounds they make but i feel that might be difficult via writing. I bet by the time i return home i will have fully adapted to these fascinating Ghanaian mannerisms and everyone will look at me like im crazy.

We finished up practicum for the week and on most Saturdays we have a long day of PC sessions at the hub site where we have a talk with the CD(country director) learn about Ghanaian customs and beliefs and do some medical review. This saturday, when we were finished, we all went over to a fairly upscale spot to watch the Ghana vs USA match. Although not intentional, there was a Ghana room and an American room, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, americans and ghanaians alike. We even stood up and sang our national anthem provokingly and the locals sprang back with theirs, Obviously being much much louder than us. The match was very intense and extremely close, too! but when Ghana scored that second goal the whole place went crazy, and i couldn't help but be happy for the Ghanaians. They have sooooo much more pride in their team than i feel America does, at least thats the vibes i get back home. So coming into the match, for me at least, it was a win-win situation. Although, Ghana winning probably made it a lot easier for us to be in the country :)

On Sunday, PC planned a field trip for us to go to Boti Falls, a waterfall and nature trail about 45 min away from the hub site. It was really great to get out of the noisy and busy towns and see some beautiful scenery. After spending some time walking down the steep stairs to the falls and then coming all the way back up, we went on a hike through the forest. First, let me describe the landscape of Ghana. Ghana is very lush in most of the south, with lots of green hills you can see not too far off in the distance. The plant life is beautiful but unfortunately i hear that the soil is not very good so the farm fields suffer a lot from lack of enriched soil. Ghana also has these beautiful tall trees that stand out from the rest. they look perfect for tree house building, they are tall and skinny at the base and then at the top have tons of sturdy branches. Maybe ill just contract someone to build me a luxurious tree house and live there for the next two years. Thats practical, right? So back to Boti Falls, we went on our nature hike which was actually a little strenuous and involved a bit of climbing in areas which was fun! We came to a huge rock overlooking the hills and valleys and stopped there to take some scenic pictures. Being typical foreigners, we of course took tons of pictures of ourselves looking like we were about to jump off this cliff…i think we mostly do these silly things to keep our sanity :) But the view really was breathtaking and was great to get a bit of fresh air from community life.

i told them to jump. lol.

A bunch of kids at my homestay

Volleyball at Valley View

ICT group

Sweet-stache

Garden partyin'

V for Volta!

Sunday is the sabbath in Ghana, which means a lot of church service. Catholic church service begins at like 6am, so that was a no go for me. There was a children's service later in the day around 9. i wasn't sure that adults could attend so i didn't go then but i heard from other PCVs that went that it was a fun service with lots of singing and dancing. So i will try and go next week. But on the downside they did say it was like 4 hours long, so i best be getting plenty of sleep the night before. I decided to do my laundry on Sunday since it had been quite a while and i must say that there is definitely an art to hand washing clothing and i am far from getting anywhere near good at it but my homestay sister graciously helped me and i was able to be done pretty quickly. Usually Sunday's are mostly reserved for worship and also a time to do laundry and maybe some other small house chores but this Sunday was special because Ghana was playing Serbia in the World Cup. My homestay brother took me to a local spot to watch the game and i was the only girl there around a bunch of loud but fun soccer hooligans. And thankfully we won! So everyone in town was extremely happy and dancing and singing in the streets. The world cup is definitely making it an exciting time to be in Africa. During the match they mostly play the same commercials over and over and there is this song in one of the commercials called "Wavin' Flag" that EVERYBODY sings. Its actually a really cool song and super catchy but i can tell that a couple more weeks of it playing non-stop and im gonna want to hit myself over the head with a rock.

So this weeks starts practicum, where we go to actual schools and teach classes for 8 days. The ICT group teaches at a college a couple of miles away from Kukurantumi at a teacher training college which will also give us a feel of what our site will actually look like and what sort of resources we will have. The college was very nice and the computer lab just got renovated so they got i think like 20 new computers and they have wireless internet! sweeeeet. so my fellow ICT peeps and i have been exploiting that little perk quite frequently. I was a little nervous when i began teaching but so far it has been not so bad. I know i don't like it when teachers talk at me for like 90 minutes so i tried to make my classes as interactive as possible, but since we had an evaluator sitting in at all of our classes, i couldn't be as free-spirited as i wanted to be. The students are very well behaved but naturally they should be at the college level which im quite happy about. No rambunctious high schoolers in my class, thankfully. The students are very patient as well which makes the whole process of teaching a lot more relaxing and comfortable.

Homestay is going good as well, there are lots of children around my house all the time and they greet me enthusiastically every time i come home which is nice. They also try and teach me Twi, but most of the time they speak entirely too fast and i just nod my head like i know whats going on. At night, me and a couple of other PCVs head over to a local spot(bars are called spots here) where a PCV has her homestay. Its a really chill indoor and outdoor spot and they have so many animals, so obvi im always happy to be there. They have this pet monkey named Guy who is about the size of both my hands and if you feed him some yams he's like your best friend and he just sits and chills on your shoulder. So cute! haha So anyway, we also received our site placements this week! I found out that i will be located in the Volta region of Ghana in a regional capital town called Jasikan. Which is great because im right near like 3 other PCVs in my group so i wont be as isolated as i thought id be! Im also very close to Togo, so im sure we'll venture across the border a couple of times and see whats going on over there. Another great thing about my site is that i will be learning Twi, which could have changed because there are over 70 languages in Ghana. Needless to say things are going great and im super excited to get to my site, only 7 more weeks!

click to enlarge

On a less upbeat note, i got my first bout of stomach sickness on saturday morning but thankfully that went away by mid-day but then i got a very painful ear infection that same day which is still afflicting me. But alas i will drug myself up and power through! im on some pretty high dosage antibiotics so im hoping by like day 3 the swelling will go down and i can begin to hear out of my right ear again, if not no biggie i always have the other one, right?

PCV Talent Show

Agatta, Gifty and Grace showing off their singing

and dancing talents.

Enjoying the rainy season.

The Road to Kukurantumi

So, some exciting things start this week. On monday we woke up at 6am to take an early bus down to the PC office where some of us needed to get some more shots and we also had some more mini Twi lessons. On monday evening we attended a party at the US ambassadors house, which we were told would be formal and be very "american" themed. So we all dressed our best and took the long journey through Accra to the ambassadors house. And indeed the ambassadors digs were very nice. He had enclosed property with a pool and a courtyard as well as a patio where entertaining guests seemed to be pretty frequent. We were served a wide variety of appetizers from guacamole and chips to spring rolls and for the meat eaters some chicken shish-kabob. I guess that is what the ambassador considered american dining. but all in all everyone had a great time, it was great to talk to other americans about their experiences in Ghana and some of the things we could expect living in country.

On Weds. we moved out of our luxurious stay at Valley View University and made our way to the training center in Kukurantumi. Although the bus ride there was only supposed to be 2 hours long we, for some reason, made numerous stops and in doing so found out the delicate art of using the outdoor "bathroom". Which, in parts outside the main city, are basically some cinder blocks built up enough to make a small enclosed area with a tiny trench. Personally, im perfectly fine going au natural in the bush, but i digress. We made it to the training center and were welcomed enthusiastically by all the staff, who were very eager to meet us. We went through a welcome session and met all of our trainers and some current PCV's who would be with us during the course of our training. The current PCVs took us on a tour of the community and one of them mentioned a local bar where they spent a lot of their down time and said that the owner was very nice and welcoming to the new PCVs every year. So that night we ventured out for the first time together to go grab a couple of cold beers and relax. The place was empty when we came in but they were blasting miley cyrus so we kinda came to the assumption that they were expecting us. One of the current PCVs was there with his homestead brother from last year and they encouraged us to try the local liquor called Apeteshi(sp?), which is made from palm fruit and, from what we were told about it, was basically the Ghanaian form of moonshine. Needless to say, it was disgusting. After that we just chilled out and ended up having a great time.

The next day started our training. Another long day but we did get to learn about our individual site specific material and have our interviews which would determine where we would be placed for the next two years. So i found out i will be teaching ICT at a teacher training college. I find out which college ill be teaching at in about a week and I will also find out what other language I will be learning. So yay! im excited to start getting some concrete information about what i'll be doing! What's interesting is that my ICT class will be the first PC group to begin teaching at the college level. So my peers and i will be paving the way for this program. I guess that makes me a little nervous, but still really excited that this is a new project and it will probably leave me a lot of room to make mistakes and correct them. We had various sessions over the next couple of days including some peer teaching where we simulated a typical class lesson to our peers and then got evaluated. We were in small groups which made it a little easier but i think everyone was a little nervous, mainly in part because most of us have never taught before. My mini-class was a lesson in drumming. I entitled it "drumming 101" and set up a little drum circle and taught my peers a simple beat and then at the end, encouraged them to begin drum circles in there own communities. I think i did a pretty decent job, it was interactive and fun, and my evaluators agreed! Next week we kick it up a notch and do micro-teaching at a teacher training college with 10-15 students. That's a tad bit scarier but having so many other people in the same boat as me takes the edge off a little. Saturday homestay begins, so to celebrate our first week of training and our last night in our "hotels" the PCV trainers decided to have a dance party at the local bar. A couple of brave PCVs went for the apeteshi because they hadn't tried it yet, and some went for round two. Crazies. I pleasantly declined the apeteshi and we all danced the night away to some local ghanaian music called High Life, with a little beyonce and miley cyrus thrown in periodically.

Saturday we moved into our homestay's in the mid-afternoon. We were placed in surrounding areas of the PC office located in Kukurantumi. We were split up by groups, so ICT and Visual arts were together and we moved out to a town called Asafo, about 8 km from Kukurantumi. So far, my homestay is great. I met with my homestay sister, Naomi, and her daughter Rebecca, who i think is about 3 years ago and super adorable, at the PC office. When we got to Asafo, my home wasn't far from the main street and shopping area. Immediately after arriving, a couple of children greeted me and started bringing my stuff to my new home, i found out soon they were my homestay nieces, nephews and cousins. They actually spoke english quite well and were very excited to meet me, as i was to meet them. They sat me down and the oldest child went through the names of his brothers and cousins. I thought i was doing well with remembering until what seems like a continuos stream of children kept lining up. So i decided to break out the notepad and start jotting some names down. They were all good kids and not shy at all and made note to giggle when i pronouced things in Twi(pronouced chwi) horribly wrong, so i just giggled back. Then i met my homestay Nana, who doesn't speak any english but just has the sweetest disposition. After situating myself, i watched as my Nana and brother made Fufu. Which is a mixture of plantain and cassava dough. The way it is prepared is so interesting. Basically you take a long skinny wood log and continuously stomp it into this dough mixture while the other person continuously moves it around. It actually looks pretty dangerous, like you could get your fingers smashed very easily. But im sure that my Nana has been doing this since long before i was born, so i wasn't worried so much for her, but it will definitely take me some time to get good at. Hopefully when i get to know my family better i can start taking some pictures and maybe even a video of the whole process.

Well, I tried my best to stay a vegetarian here in Ghana and was doing really well until today! But the dinner that was cooked for me was some kind of fish soup that was meant to be eaten with the Fufu. So vegetarian no more, i guess I did manage to have them understand that i don't like meat so lets now see how long i can be a pescatarian... It was an exhausting day of moving and i went to retire to my room for the evening but just my luck there were some creepy crawlies lurking, and i think everyone knows of my arachnophobia, so i got a little pale faced when i saw some of those "s" things in the corner. Thankfully my sister noticed my very recognizable fear and wanted to know what was wrong. All could think of was to point at them and make a shudder. When she and the other kids saw what i was talking about they all had a nice little laugh. And she said to me that she understood and swiftly did away with them. I laughed and thanked her continuously and she laughed back. Well all i can say is that im glad some good came out of my silly childhood fear, a nice big laugh and some family bonding.

Staging and Arrival

So to begin, staging in Philly went really well and we all were more than appreciative of the luxurious accommodations and spending $$$ from our PC directors. We spent the first night trying to learn all 72 of eachothers's names and swapping stories on packing woes, getting military style shots and what clothes are considered culturally appropriate. After an early morning visit to the med clinic to get our yellow fever shots, and then had meetings and pre-orientation the rest of the afternoon. We got most of our burning questions answered and i think we all had a sigh of relief to finally be around a group of people that understood your feelings about embarking upon this incredible journey. The second night, we celebrated one of our PCVs birthdays accordingly at a Karaoke bar, singing well into the wee hours of the morning as many american themed songs and "leaving" songs as we could. And we also threw in some African themed songs like Hakuna Matata and of course Africa by Toto.

AKWAABA! We finally arrived in Accra on Friday morning after having an adventurous day of buses breaking down, wondering aimlessly around JFK airport and waiting on at the gate for an hour to make sure all our luggage was indeed coming with us. The flight actually went by really quickly but after any overnight flight, we were all feeling a tad bit groggy and zombie-ish. We were welcomed with overcast skies and the start of the rainy season, but no rain could deter our happy spirits of finally arriving at the destination that we had waited so long and ever patiently for. I have to say, as big of a group we are, we were pretty good about speeding through baggage claim and getting to the appropriate places and meeting the right people. We piled into probably the nicest buses we will be in in the course of our 27 month stint, at least that's what our Country Director said, and made our way to the PC office. We were welcomed there by all the staff and even some prayer elders who blessed us and then gave us all a shot of schnapps. Pretty cool, eh? We then got our pictures taken, everyone being thrilled by the way... because who doesn't want a picture taken after an 11 hour flight and no sleep, and made our way down the bumpy road to the compound where we would be staying the next couple of days.

We were staying at a place called Valley View University, which was a pretty big compound and had lots of amenities like a basketball court, soccer field and some trails for running. We were staying in a large outdoor area with a large gazebo and courtyard in the middle with dormitory-style housing surrounding the oustide. So far the accommodations have been great and our rooms are huge and we have running water and electricity, always a big plus. This will probably be our nicest accommodations and i think we are all taking advantage of that fact. Its kind of like being at camp, we have meetings during the day but in our down time we're always doing some sports activity or card game or group game. So its been really fun, relaxing and socializing and getting to know eachother. I have to say there are still a few people that i have no clue what there names are but its only been 5 days, i think i have some time. On saturday we learned "Survival Twi"(the local language) and were brought to a local market to test or language skills. We only knew basic things like "what is this called?" and "how much is this", fortunately it wasn't a big market day and the market sellers were very patient with us. Tomorrow starts vision quest for some of the volunteers, unfortunately not the education group which i am in, but we do something similar in a couple of weeks called job shadowing where we go to a current volunteers site and stay there for a couple of days. There, we get to say what the life of a PCV is really like. I think we actually go to the site where we will be assigned for the next two years but im not sure. more to come about that later.