No not my dog but a neighborhood dog. I came home from a long day of field sitting and then a bit of time with the beads ladies to see this dog running away with a chick in its mouth. I exclaimed with surprise and the kids were like “what in the world is she doing” (I can just tell from their weird looks in my direction). I rushed to set my stuff down and went back outside to see if the dog was gone. I had mixed emotion about what I saw and what to do next but the kids had effectively stopped the dog from hurting the chick too much and it had ran away. Now there is a hurt baby chick in the grass. I had no idea what to do but Jemima was picking it up and was not being very careful. The chick was freakin out, I mean I would be too if in the first few days of my life I was picked up and carried from my mom and played with by an animal that was planning on eating me. The bad part was that I had no idea where it had come from and it had incurred a head injury. So now what? I had these kids holding a bleeding hurt baby chick and no idea what was the normal thing to do so I do the normal thing for me. I rushed into the house and grabbed some water cloth and a box from my room. I proceeded to wash off the dirt and little bit of blood then wrapped it up and put it in the box. This whole time Rachel was watching and rolling her eyes at me but I think its worth it. What kind of example would I have set if I did nothing and just let the chick probably get eaten by the dog that would have come back tonight. I think the kids need to see somebody actually take care of an animal rather than tossing it some food for a while before killing and eating it. This is why there is a baby chicken in a box, in my room tonight. I hope the dog did not hurt it too badly and it survives. I don’t know how to take care of a chick but hopefully I get to learn.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Moving Forward One Day At A Time
January 18, 2012
So this past week and some has been quite a ride. I am coming to understand that each day is a force to be reckoned with and the only way to handle it is to take one day at a time. The end of last week had me kinda in an odd place, I haven’t done much of anything the whole week and felt bad about it. That Friday I met up with my supervisor and had a little chat. We discussed what my role is supposed to be with the NGO and the community but of course its still a lot-a-bit hazy. You see the NGO is putting up a training facility about a kilometer down the road and there is a lot to be done with designing the animal pens and how the office is going to run, so they day I will be very busy…soon. But right now sitting at home or going to the field just to watch chicken coops be built really isn’t my style so I wanted to see what I could be doing right now. It turns out that its not much. My counterpart is extremely busy with the farmers and moving his family from his village to Nkurakan where he is in the process of building not to mention taking care of his farm with over 300 chickens and sending his children off to school for another term (side note he’s also a church leader in his village so he goes back every weekend). It tires me out just thinking about all he does. Back to me, I needed something to do, anything, even busy work just to make me feel like I’m contributing something.
So the plan was to go to the beads office on Monday. I liked this idea, I had wanted to get over to the beads ladies for a while now but it didn’t seem right going without Rachel who’s finger and stomach have been really hurting her lately. She is now doing better and is coming to work so I headed over there to find something to do. The last PCV they had worked there so I figured they could at least find me something to do for a little bit. I was new to the office so it was like stepping into a whirlwind of beads. I met the ladies stringing the beads and got a little tour of the building which is basically three rooms and a bathroom. Then I was set to work I got the mindless task of winding the bracelets and putting tags on. There is an order to be sent out soon so they are trying to finish up but ran out of plastic bags (something I never thought I would say) which is holding up production for the time being, that and Rachels hurt finger. I have a lot to learn about how the office is run and how I can help in little ways to improve it.
I went out to the field to check on the farmers for the next few days which was actually semi-productive except that one of the communities was not ready for us which was disappointing. I have to be very careful on days I go to the field. Ghanaians or at least the ones I work with do not eat lunch or snack really they just have a huge breakfast and wait to eat until 3 or so. That’s not how I work. So I have started to learn from my mistakes and take snacks with me. This helps my blood sugar levels and my attitude for the most part but I still have to be conscious of how I am acting. It’s hard to pay attention and even just act like you know what’s going on (Im becoming a very good actress). The second day I had the task of taking pictures of coops and a meeting in one of the communities which kept me more engaged but sometimes the heat and just sitting really gets to me and I totally space out. I think the best thing for me is to just keep going out there and pack more snacks.
So one day at a time I am slowly figuring out my place here in Nkurakan. It is going to be a complex mix of farmers, animals, beads, kids, and me trying to be me. Things are getting easier. Kids are learning my name. I’m trying more foods. I’m still excited to be here.
Live in Love
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Settled!
January 11, 2011
Settled. I’m sorry that I have not posted anything for quite some time and I’d like to say that its because I have been busy but I haven’t been. For the past 3 almost four weeks I have been trying to figure out what living in Nkurakan is going to be like but I think that’s going to take a much longer time to find an answer. Somethings I did do however is set up my kitchen I now have a table for cooking and a shelf unit to store all my food and supplies. Having things made is very expensive so I waited until I got paid in January to have the carpenter build me a shelf for my room. I had wanted to make these things myself because I can but there were more obstacles than paths so I decided to take the easy way. I am very happy with my two shelves, they are nothing fancy but they give my stuff a place that’s not the ground or my bags. Oh I also procured a desk and chair after trying not to offend the family here but getting something I need. I know the world does not revolve around me but when I came to site I expected a little more help to settle in but the onset of the whole family being here delayed that to a grinding hault. It also made it awkward to bring anything home that I had got at market to in Kof because it was almost like I was flaunting the little money I have here, and the fact that they wanted to see everything I had bought was a little off putting.
Now that I have made a space for myself and am satisfied for the most part with my rooms (there are always places for improvement) I can focus on what I am supposed to be doing here. I have been out to the farming villages we are working with a couple times in the past two weeks to help… well observe chicken pens being constructed. I am still struggling with the language, as in I haven’t learned anything yet, so participating even if they would let me would be really hard. Im looking forward to knowing what a project is about from start to finish and running my own trainings because right now the farmers do not see me contributing anything. This chicken pen construction is going to last the rest of January but then there will be a bee training in February that I hope to be more involved in. School has started for the first time since I’ve been at site so I will hopefully get a chance to meet with some teachers and seeing if they are open to let me do some projects with the students.
Im sorry this is kinda just a blob of information but soon I hope to be able to update regularly like a real blog.
Happy Holidays
Happy Holidays!
December 27th
I want to take a second or two to thank everybody for a wonderful year. I have been able to do many things but only because I had a lot of help! The last year of college, lots of ups and downs and confusion about the future. Graduation, somehow I made it happen! I had a great summer full of adventures and seeing everyone I love. Joining the Peace Corps. Leaving for Ghana to live and learn from some of the most friendly people in the world. None of this would have happened without the support and love of my family and friends. Thank you.
I thought leaving for Peace Corps in October would be a wonderful time to leave, school started, summers over, but then it’s the holiday season right off the bat. It’s a bit difficult to be so far from home and so early on in this process knowing that the holidays continue back home. I love calling home and saying hi to everybody congregated at my home or grandma’s house but it’s hard because I can remember what it’s like to be there myself surrounded by my family and enjoying good food. I think part of what makes it a little difficult is that I have not been able to settle in, call a place my own, which is something that is fairly important to me. I feel comfortable here, I can handle myself here, but I haven’t had the time to settle into my site. The holiday has only made it worse, banks are closed, markets are packed, my counterpart is busy and there are a bunch of extra people staying at my house. I cant say enough how much I love my site, my counterpart, my site mother, but guys I need a table chair and desk! At the moment Im sitting on the floor on my yoga mat with two legs that have completely fallen asleep, not really comfy.
I was able to do one thing that has definitely made me feel much more at home. I painted my room with a “Christmas tree” and ocean! It’s a Christmas tree because I did it on Christmas day to help fill my time. It’s probably exactly what you expect from me, a tree with flowers and an ocean with sea stars and a fish. I want to add a heart and a quote in the corner I just haven’t picked the right one yet (I’m starting a poll). The family was amazed by the painting, the little ones sat and watched for a good hour… I’m actually starting to get used to the watching. Painting really released a lot of stress for me. I’m beginning to realize how much the small art project I do really help me balance my life. For three months I didn’t do much at all, I definitely needed a little craft time! I’m really happy with how it turned out although I couldn’t figure out how to make purple, it’s a lot harder than you think! I hope to continue this outlet of creativity once I get a desk/table/ way to organize my thoughts, I want to get my hands on a chalk board but I don’t know how possible that is going to be.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Off Site Training
Cashew Workshop.
I will be in the southern half of Ghana and therefore for three days I had to be in a conference room talking about cashews. Cashews do not grow near me. I have nothing to do with cashews. They tried saying it wasn't all cashew because there was a business aspect to it, although the business part was a bit entertaining for about 10 min because me and my counterpart would get the worksheet done in two minutes and then talk about how to do it better. I felt bad that he left from a training for our farmers to come to this workshop that had very minimal application our project. He had such a wonderful attitude towards the whole thing it made me feel bad about feeling bad. His perspective was that any training is a training and you can get at least the experience of sharing ideas out of it. Im telling you I have lucked out on getting an amazing counterpart. Although I was half heartidly trying to pay attention and get something out of the training I was not happy, I did not feel great and the food was pretty bad, the vegetarian plate (that was just the rice without the chicken) was always 20 min later then everything else. This led me into the habit of scarfing down an entire plate in 5 min because I just wanted to get out of there and begin the digestion process of vegging out a while. I did like meeting some of the volunteers that were involved with the cashew project mostly to hear their stories about being at site and their projects. OH I remembered a highlight, Cash and Carry. Now I know what you are thinking and no its not an actual cash and carry. BUT it is a larger street shop that does carry some obruni items like SHAMPOO something I have wanted to get my hands on. They carried almost everything you need to get by including spices, noodles, tomato paste, ect. the basics and then some. The biscuit selection was pretty large and included digestives which I almost went for but somehow I held back because the prices are a bit high. How could I forget the bar up the street from Cash and Carry its called Hooters! Once again not the same, however, they did have cheaper beers than at the hotel and it was on the second story of the building making it a prime place to people watch. It was somebodies birthday while we were in town and so we went and had a few beers. Although im sure its hard to believe the place was not all that packed (or at all) because it was a Tuesday night. The obrunis had the run of the place. I can say that we were glad to be moving on from Techiman. Excited to head north and excited to see something new, not excited about the van ride.
Spiritual revival center
Yep, for a whole week we would be staying at the spiritual revival center. It was so much better then it sounds. The area was absolutely beautiful the draw back was that we were in the upper east. It was extremely hot but in the morning until about 8 or so and in the evenings after 4:30ish the temperature was really very comfortable. The scenery is very different from the south with more grasslands and less green trees. There are not as many hills so you can see for miles. I was looking forward to seeing the northern part of Ghana because I don't think I will be able to get up there very much. It really is a whole different place, one of our trainers went as far as to joke that we were in Burkina Faso and welcomed us back to Ghana when we traveled back down south. Our first night at the center was so quite because there was only half the group, it was so peaceful, just what we needed after a long uncomfortable bus ride. I really enjoyed the evenings when we were done with dinner it was pretty dark out and it made for great star gazing. Looking up at the stars remindes you that you are somewhere different it was odd to not see the ushuall sky that Im so used to seeing. It made me a little sad because I loved it so much but also made me want to learn about the constalations that we can see from here.
Bees!
So people in Ghana take care of their bees at night. Kinda creepy right, especially if you have never worked with bees before, but it was actually quite nice. In the evening its cooler so your not dieing in the suits and supposedly the bees are more relaxed. About 15 of us set out on the bee hive harvest mission and man oh man we learned a lot. We learned about Ghanaian culture, their attitudes towards bees, how not to harvest honey, and that walking in the dark for 10 min not knowing where you are going is rather surreal from the safety of a bee suit. After we arrived at the bee hive and opened the rather rotten top-bar hive the bees were not as aggressive as we anticipated. African honey bees are supposed to be more aggressive than honey bees back home but these were not. There wasn't any capped honey in the hive and no brood. This is pretty odd for the amount of bees that were there so we think that maybe the hive was abandoned and the bees that were there were robber bees stealing what was left of the honey. It makes sense that the bees were not as aggressive because they were not protecting their hive just stealing from it. I believe that I learned a lot from getting to go out to the hive see the bees and the comb but we learned more from the people in our group that have kept bees before. Without their knowledge I think we would all be confused and would make lots of mistakes if we decide to start hives. Later in the week we were able to talk to an "expert" about how to take care of bees and it only added to the confusion so I think a lot of us will be talking to others in our group and doing our own research. Although the whole bee keeping topic was confusing I think many of us still want to keep bees and do it correctly, at least im excited about it!
Thanksgiving Crocodiles
Thanksgiving was a day off but it was scheduled to take a trip up to Paga home of the crocodile ponds. Its a tourist trap alright but hey its ok for us to take one day to be tourists for heavens sakes we will be here 27 months integrated into the community! Anyways it was pretty great we got a small talk about how they came to have these crocodiles and the importance they serve in the community. It is believed that they protect the people of Paga and the locals even swim around in the same ponds without any incidents. So after their speal they called one of the largest crocodiles out of the pond by making whistling noises and carrying a chicken. A few of the smaller ones came out first and were sent back in because we wanted to touch the big one! It finally came and all of us got to pick up the tail and squat over the back end of this croc. It was cool but thats kinda all we did. A few people bought chickens to feed them which was entertaining and a horse came by to give little rides. Overall it was cool but really an odd series of events. But hey I can say Ive touched a crocodile now!
Thanksgiving dinner was amazing. After we got back from the ponds we all chipped in and cooked up a storm. It was great we had sweet potato dish, biscuits, veggie stew, turkey, guinea fowl, apple pie, apple crisp, wine, beer, mashed potatoes. It was a feast! We also dressed up for the occasion which meant putting on our two yards and sticking turkey feathers in our hair! The lights went out right before dinner which made it a beautiful candle lit dinner. Very relaxing but kinda hot because the fans weren't on. It was amazing how everybody worked together to get dinner done and it turned out perfectly! Not excactly the thanksgiving at home but the best thanksgiving Ghana has ever seen I think! That evening I called home to everybody at the Eide thanksgiving, it was great to hear everybody in such happy spirits and ready to get to eating! I miss thanksgiving at home but as my mom says there will be more holidays back here so make the most of them in Ghana. Not going to lie its kinda hard but realizing I have strong support back home makes it all worth it.
I will be in the southern half of Ghana and therefore for three days I had to be in a conference room talking about cashews. Cashews do not grow near me. I have nothing to do with cashews. They tried saying it wasn't all cashew because there was a business aspect to it, although the business part was a bit entertaining for about 10 min because me and my counterpart would get the worksheet done in two minutes and then talk about how to do it better. I felt bad that he left from a training for our farmers to come to this workshop that had very minimal application our project. He had such a wonderful attitude towards the whole thing it made me feel bad about feeling bad. His perspective was that any training is a training and you can get at least the experience of sharing ideas out of it. Im telling you I have lucked out on getting an amazing counterpart. Although I was half heartidly trying to pay attention and get something out of the training I was not happy, I did not feel great and the food was pretty bad, the vegetarian plate (that was just the rice without the chicken) was always 20 min later then everything else. This led me into the habit of scarfing down an entire plate in 5 min because I just wanted to get out of there and begin the digestion process of vegging out a while. I did like meeting some of the volunteers that were involved with the cashew project mostly to hear their stories about being at site and their projects. OH I remembered a highlight, Cash and Carry. Now I know what you are thinking and no its not an actual cash and carry. BUT it is a larger street shop that does carry some obruni items like SHAMPOO something I have wanted to get my hands on. They carried almost everything you need to get by including spices, noodles, tomato paste, ect. the basics and then some. The biscuit selection was pretty large and included digestives which I almost went for but somehow I held back because the prices are a bit high. How could I forget the bar up the street from Cash and Carry its called Hooters! Once again not the same, however, they did have cheaper beers than at the hotel and it was on the second story of the building making it a prime place to people watch. It was somebodies birthday while we were in town and so we went and had a few beers. Although im sure its hard to believe the place was not all that packed (or at all) because it was a Tuesday night. The obrunis had the run of the place. I can say that we were glad to be moving on from Techiman. Excited to head north and excited to see something new, not excited about the van ride.
Spiritual revival center
Yep, for a whole week we would be staying at the spiritual revival center. It was so much better then it sounds. The area was absolutely beautiful the draw back was that we were in the upper east. It was extremely hot but in the morning until about 8 or so and in the evenings after 4:30ish the temperature was really very comfortable. The scenery is very different from the south with more grasslands and less green trees. There are not as many hills so you can see for miles. I was looking forward to seeing the northern part of Ghana because I don't think I will be able to get up there very much. It really is a whole different place, one of our trainers went as far as to joke that we were in Burkina Faso and welcomed us back to Ghana when we traveled back down south. Our first night at the center was so quite because there was only half the group, it was so peaceful, just what we needed after a long uncomfortable bus ride. I really enjoyed the evenings when we were done with dinner it was pretty dark out and it made for great star gazing. Looking up at the stars remindes you that you are somewhere different it was odd to not see the ushuall sky that Im so used to seeing. It made me a little sad because I loved it so much but also made me want to learn about the constalations that we can see from here.
Bees!
So people in Ghana take care of their bees at night. Kinda creepy right, especially if you have never worked with bees before, but it was actually quite nice. In the evening its cooler so your not dieing in the suits and supposedly the bees are more relaxed. About 15 of us set out on the bee hive harvest mission and man oh man we learned a lot. We learned about Ghanaian culture, their attitudes towards bees, how not to harvest honey, and that walking in the dark for 10 min not knowing where you are going is rather surreal from the safety of a bee suit. After we arrived at the bee hive and opened the rather rotten top-bar hive the bees were not as aggressive as we anticipated. African honey bees are supposed to be more aggressive than honey bees back home but these were not. There wasn't any capped honey in the hive and no brood. This is pretty odd for the amount of bees that were there so we think that maybe the hive was abandoned and the bees that were there were robber bees stealing what was left of the honey. It makes sense that the bees were not as aggressive because they were not protecting their hive just stealing from it. I believe that I learned a lot from getting to go out to the hive see the bees and the comb but we learned more from the people in our group that have kept bees before. Without their knowledge I think we would all be confused and would make lots of mistakes if we decide to start hives. Later in the week we were able to talk to an "expert" about how to take care of bees and it only added to the confusion so I think a lot of us will be talking to others in our group and doing our own research. Although the whole bee keeping topic was confusing I think many of us still want to keep bees and do it correctly, at least im excited about it!
Thanksgiving Crocodiles
Thanksgiving was a day off but it was scheduled to take a trip up to Paga home of the crocodile ponds. Its a tourist trap alright but hey its ok for us to take one day to be tourists for heavens sakes we will be here 27 months integrated into the community! Anyways it was pretty great we got a small talk about how they came to have these crocodiles and the importance they serve in the community. It is believed that they protect the people of Paga and the locals even swim around in the same ponds without any incidents. So after their speal they called one of the largest crocodiles out of the pond by making whistling noises and carrying a chicken. A few of the smaller ones came out first and were sent back in because we wanted to touch the big one! It finally came and all of us got to pick up the tail and squat over the back end of this croc. It was cool but thats kinda all we did. A few people bought chickens to feed them which was entertaining and a horse came by to give little rides. Overall it was cool but really an odd series of events. But hey I can say Ive touched a crocodile now!
Thanksgiving dinner was amazing. After we got back from the ponds we all chipped in and cooked up a storm. It was great we had sweet potato dish, biscuits, veggie stew, turkey, guinea fowl, apple pie, apple crisp, wine, beer, mashed potatoes. It was a feast! We also dressed up for the occasion which meant putting on our two yards and sticking turkey feathers in our hair! The lights went out right before dinner which made it a beautiful candle lit dinner. Very relaxing but kinda hot because the fans weren't on. It was amazing how everybody worked together to get dinner done and it turned out perfectly! Not excactly the thanksgiving at home but the best thanksgiving Ghana has ever seen I think! That evening I called home to everybody at the Eide thanksgiving, it was great to hear everybody in such happy spirits and ready to get to eating! I miss thanksgiving at home but as my mom says there will be more holidays back here so make the most of them in Ghana. Not going to lie its kinda hard but realizing I have strong support back home makes it all worth it.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Alright well its been awhile and a lot has happened so lets take this opportunity to get a little caught up. Just because my mind is a little backwards ill start off by saying that today November 8th 2011 is the first day I have traveled by myself in Ghana. I successfully made it to the PEPFAR site in pretty good time. I had to leave Nkurakan by trotro to Koforidua and get a trotro to Nkawkaw from there I was instructed to take a car up the mountain to Nkwatia. Instead I got on a trotro which is cheaper and it turned out ok but I'm lucky that they understood where I wanted to go because I surely didnt! I told them I needed to get off by the police station and they did just that. There were actually two Ghanaian guys walking the same place and so I chatted with them a little and they were going to try to get admission for the younger one. As I walked into the school area I understood why they would want to come to school here. Its pretty big and from what I can tell a fairly good school. The peace corps volunteer I am visiting is a teacher here, I think math and science. Anyways when I left my site this morning I wasent sure what today was going to be like but so far so good!
Counterpart workshop
I left home stay with all of my belongings piled in one of the Peace Corps Land Rover. Luckily Masse was picked up first and therefore our stuff got to be inside the vehicle, Agynasin people had to put all there stuff on top of the car and tie it down. Luckily everybodies stuff made it to Kumasi well before we did! The pick up time was supposed to be around 12 but due to delays because the AC wasent working we didnt actually leave until around 2 which turned out ok for the local economy because as americans we all just went and bought a few snacks and sat around for 2 hours. Half the bus ride was without AC so the windows were open and hair was fling everywhere. Another side effect of that is the sun was hot on our faces specifically my forearms and collar bone which turned out to be burnt that evening. We got to stop at Kumasi sub office for a little bit, enough to use the bathroom and take a quick peak around and oh man is it sweet! Lots of books, seating areas and a TV to watch movies oh and did I mention a real kitchen with an oven! I think i might need to run up there a couple times to bake some cookies! We arrived at the hotel we would be staying at for the next four days and besides having everybody's things in our room the place was amazing! AC in the rooms a swimming pool, hot water, and a shower spicket. I did have a few complaints which include the room smelling very strong of a "room refresher ball" which was put in our sink and bathtub, it reaked! I caught on a few days into it and threw them in the trash can.
The counterpart workshop was good. I say that with a bit of a sigh because it was so long and I dont really think I got much out of it other than meeting with my counterpart. Through the day we had sessions on topics that we have already covered but had to go over again because some of the counterparts are new to Peace Corps and everybody needs to be on the same page. It wasent all horrible because we participated in energizers and breaks for snacks but I didn't know you could get so tired from not doing anything! The event was sponsored by PEPFAR which in the Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief started by President Bush. The HIV/AIDS sessions were interested at first but dragged on. The topics we covered on domestic violence and household societal norms was interesting and brought out many cultural differences, good and bad. Ghanaians do respect women to a point but if a husband and a wife are not getting along its the woman that leaves or is forced out of the house. They try to work though many problems but most of the time the issues are just forgotten and people just have to get over their problems. I haven't had to experience this first hand which is good but that also means I dont know much about it other than what the counterparts brought up at this conference. In the evenings when we should have been practicing our languages most of us where either grabing a drink poolside or on the wifi that was in the hotel. Dosent sound too bad right! But all good things do come to an end and by the fourth day I think we were all ready to get out of there.
SITE VISITS!
About half of our group had to get up and go very early in the morning in order to make it to their sites by night fall. The rest of us got up and had breakfast then made it to the road side to catch a cab. My counterpart and I were the last ones to be standing there and when some PC cars drove by I think they felt sorry for us and picked us up to give us a ride to the trotro station. It was nice of them if they knew where they were going but that wasent really the case. We stopped at a fill station and got a car to take us which was much easier. Transport was pretty easy and everybody tells you where to go even if you dont know where you want to be going so I was happy my counterpart was there to help me go in the right direction. We made it to Nkurakan by early afternoon and went to the office to met everybody. Joshua who runs Krobodan was out so we waited around for a bit and I got to chat with Debora who is a lady that helps around the office but she wasent feeling very good that afternoon so we just talked a bit. After meeting Joshua and Fred we went to the part of Krobodan that I will be working with just a little which is the beads company. I met some of the ladies who were making the bracelets and stringing the beads but also my site mother who is in charge of quality control. After stopping my Joshuas house and meeting his dog that he actually adopted after one of the volunteers left. I loved seeing that they are taking care of them after the volunteer leaves because I really want to get a dog but I think I wont be able to take it when I leave especially if I want to travel a bit before I land back in the USA.
So I ended the day at my site. my place. my home for the next two years. that is if everything goes according to plan. I will have 2 rooms to myself and share the bathroom and living/tv area with Rachael my site mom and some of her grandchildren/niece. Its really hard to tell peoples actual relations because everybody is sister or brother. The older one I think might be going to school when i get back but im not sure she is 20 years old and needs to finish up her secondary school. Anyways my bed room is fairly large and I didnt get a close look into the second room because they are still finishing it up and they were currently drying their corn in there. I think I will use that room as a kitchen and maybe a workspace but we will see. I really want to do most of my own cooking. One because I dont want to bother my mom and two because I think I can make food that I will actually like to eat. They have lots of veggies but they dont eat them that often. It was a odd situation, being at site, because I felt like I wanted to just make the place my own and get settled but I had to leave after just 3 days.
The first full day at site I met with Emmanuel (my counterpart) and we were supposed to go out to some of the communities that the program works with. These were new communities and one of the easy first things that they are taught (if they ask or are interested) is vaccinating their chickens from New Castle Disease. The vaccination actually goes into the eye of the bird. It was great to get a little sneak peak into some of the training that they provide. Oh before we headed out we made a stop at the new office building they are putting up. They are currently in a rented house and what their own place for training farmers and to have all their chickens in one basket so to speak. It will be a lot easier to have farmers come to the training spot to see what they are interested in other than having the field officers go out to the communities all the time. I got back home pretty late and had a bite to eat before joining my mom at the kiln. She was busy firing beads that she had made earlier that day, its quite a process and i will post some pictures in the future.
The second day was Sunday. I had decided I was going to try to go to church with my sister. She attends the Presbyterian church and oh man three hours later and two corns in my purse I dont think I will be going back. I enjoyed being welcomed and meeting people but it was very overwhelming and I couldn't understand anything! I think I might go once to my moms church in her village out of respect but already I am not a very religious person and theres not really a middle ground when it comes to religion here. During the service I actually really missed my church back home. I thought it would make me feel more comforted by going to church but really it made me feel more like a outsider. Lesson learned and new experience checked off the list. We made it home by 1 ish and started helping make the beads. They start by putting in a stem and cutting it with a razor to make the hole, then they dip the plates in lye, and fill with ground up glass with some pigments added. The glass comes from bottles from around the community. The plates are then fired for a while depending on what size and shape. Then its my turn to help I pick them out of the plates and put them on the wire. There are close to 500 beads on one wire i think. They then sell the beads to Krobodan for about 60 peswoas (cents) then are paid again for the time they make the bracelets or beads for sale. It seems like a little and it is but it helps make the ends meet.
Monday the third day at site I met with Fred Joshua and Emmanuel to get a better idea on what I will be doing as part of my job. Oh man I was a little sorry I even asked! There is a lot to do! Everything from updating the program paperwork to record keeping of the communities to helping with training of the farmers with bee keeping, rabbits, goats, chickens, also introducing some agroforestry to the crop farmers to decrease the amount they are paying for the land and diversifying what they are growing. There is a lot and it all depends on what the farmers want. I think that was the biggest thing Krobodan already has a great foundation of communication with farmers and telling what is available and what the farmers want in-order to increase profit and diversify their income. It was a bit over my head because I dont know how to do those things yet but I think I will be able to down the road. I am excited to learn all these new things and just need to keep in mind to take one day at a time and to try not to do to many things at one time.
One thing I am struggling with is the three month integration period. I think I will shoot for not getting too busy in the first month and focus on getting situated in my new place as well as make some connections with people in town but i think three months is a bit long. I know peace corps dosent think so but having a NGO already in the communities and having those lines already open makes getting started a lot easier. Also it will be a transition period for Krobodan as well as they start to move. They want to be moved in by Febuary when some of the foundation leaders from Denmark come to visit. Having a new place makes changes a little easier but also forces us to notice flaws in their systems and ways to improve them, which hopefully I will take part in.
FREE MEDICAL CHECK UP!
I traveled from my site to the PEPFAR field training by myself, most trainees traveled in a group to visit their PCVs but since im the only one in the Eastern region I get to travel by myself, i figure its just a head start. Anyways my PEPFAR event was a free HIV testing day. We had arranged for nurses to come to a community and provide HIV testing. It takes quite a bit of organization to get the nurses, chairs, tables, community space, and the ok from the town chief. The chief wants to get paid for everything when really its not work for him. The nurses also want to get a bit extra for doing the job they are already paid for but as a volunteer we don't really have extra money to accommodate those requests. The way a PEPFAR event works is that we write for a grant and budget everything but the community is expected to contribute 30%, understandable right because they are the ones receiving the service but its hard because they want money from you to put on the event! I was glad I didnt have to do much of the coordinating ... or any of it really! My contribution was making fliers that we actually had to print twice because not many people will come if you just say free HIV testing because of the stigma related to the virus but if you say free medical check up with blood pressure weight and HIV testing you will get many more people. So thats what we did on top of an educational HIV flier we made medical check up fliers and went around to most the people in the community handing them out and talking to them about coming to find out what their status is. With my little bit of Twi language I had to talk to old and young community members, most of the time they understood but I got a few laughs at my attempt to communication. The area we did the event at is very educated and has two colleges near by so English is pretty well understood. I was so tired at the end of the day but I think we tested around 100-125 people Im not sure the actual statistics but it was a success!
Adventure to Techiman
The day after the event I traveled to Techiman to start our technical training. Once again traveling by myself is quite an experience. Everybody is so nice and friendly but the trotro that I took to get to kumasi stopped before the station and everybody was told to get off because the traffic was so bad that we could walk faster. So I lugged my backpack out of the trotro and started walking, I didn't actually know where I was going so I just fallowed the sea of people. I finally made it to a station.
Ok wait i need to explain what a station is. When I think of a station with my American brain its a very organized place with signs and seating areas for people waiting. In Ghana its a market like area with massive amount of trotro in lines. If you dont frequent the station very much you have not way of telling where certain trotro are located that are going north or south or to specific cities. So you walk around just asking everybody saying "mee ku Techiman" and just looking lost they tell you or point you in the right direction. This is how most large stations work.
So thats what I did wondered around a very poorly organized parking lot with vendors trying to find the right trotro. The trotro I got on is probably the nicest trotro I have seen in Ghana so far. It had actually comfy seats and enough space for everybody so I guess it was worth the hassle trying to find it! I made it very easily to Techiman considering they actually took us to the station. I took a drop taxi to the hotel we are staying at and to my amazement I was the first one to arrive. Its much easier to travel my yourself time wise but I think it would be better to have a buddy along with you. Some of the groups had up tp 9 people going the same places so traveling took longer just to accommodate everybody.
Technical Training
The first day of technical training we debriefed a lot about our site visits and a little about PEPFAR although that was mostly just us catching up with everybody after not seeing anybody for about a week. Most people had great experiences but a few wernt as smooth which is to be expected, remember we are in Ghana and things rarely work out as planned. After debriefing and a little session on the Food Security Program that most of us are involved in just because of the nature of NRM and our farming counterparts we got to learn how to process Moringa. We learned how to make soap, creams, and nutritional powders. All of them are very easy and take little money to start. However I dont think I will be doing this as a side project unless the ladies at the beads company what to start doing it, but who knows I can ask if its something they want to start and if so I now know how too! Its a pretty easy process and you can change it to make a few different kinds of soap. The draw to it is that moringa is supposed to help with hair growth and help cure skin aliments like bug bites and rashes. If you grind up the dried leaves you can add it to food as a supplement for many vitamins for children and pregnant women. I thought the whole process was very cool and if I dont find a group to make it with lots of other volunteers are already working with women's groups making it so I can just get a couple bars every once in awhile, even better is to get some of the shea butter soap from the northern volunteers!
It is nice to be back together with everybody at a comfortable hotel and hear of every bodies stories. We all have to share about our sites and the struggles of the first few days of trying to learn what our jobs and lives are going to be like as volunteers. Our PEPFAR stories are also very different I think we all did different programs from painting murals to lecturing about HIV/AIDS in schools to my project of doing testing. Its so nice to get a better understanding of the projects that we can run when we get to site and how much effort some of these events actually take.
Its kind of crazy to think that in about a month we will be sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers and begin our service. On the one hand it feels like we have been in Ghana for a long time but on the other hand and in actuality we still have 26 months to be in Ghana. Im looking forward to getting to site and settling into a routine, maybe not even a routine but just slowing down and having the opportunity to actually get to know Ghana from a stable point of view. As trainees we are comfortable being together because that is all that we have known so far but I'm more looking forward to becoming comfortable with my community, my coworkers, and my farmers.
Until next time
Live in Love
Counterpart workshop
I left home stay with all of my belongings piled in one of the Peace Corps Land Rover. Luckily Masse was picked up first and therefore our stuff got to be inside the vehicle, Agynasin people had to put all there stuff on top of the car and tie it down. Luckily everybodies stuff made it to Kumasi well before we did! The pick up time was supposed to be around 12 but due to delays because the AC wasent working we didnt actually leave until around 2 which turned out ok for the local economy because as americans we all just went and bought a few snacks and sat around for 2 hours. Half the bus ride was without AC so the windows were open and hair was fling everywhere. Another side effect of that is the sun was hot on our faces specifically my forearms and collar bone which turned out to be burnt that evening. We got to stop at Kumasi sub office for a little bit, enough to use the bathroom and take a quick peak around and oh man is it sweet! Lots of books, seating areas and a TV to watch movies oh and did I mention a real kitchen with an oven! I think i might need to run up there a couple times to bake some cookies! We arrived at the hotel we would be staying at for the next four days and besides having everybody's things in our room the place was amazing! AC in the rooms a swimming pool, hot water, and a shower spicket. I did have a few complaints which include the room smelling very strong of a "room refresher ball" which was put in our sink and bathtub, it reaked! I caught on a few days into it and threw them in the trash can.
The counterpart workshop was good. I say that with a bit of a sigh because it was so long and I dont really think I got much out of it other than meeting with my counterpart. Through the day we had sessions on topics that we have already covered but had to go over again because some of the counterparts are new to Peace Corps and everybody needs to be on the same page. It wasent all horrible because we participated in energizers and breaks for snacks but I didn't know you could get so tired from not doing anything! The event was sponsored by PEPFAR which in the Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief started by President Bush. The HIV/AIDS sessions were interested at first but dragged on. The topics we covered on domestic violence and household societal norms was interesting and brought out many cultural differences, good and bad. Ghanaians do respect women to a point but if a husband and a wife are not getting along its the woman that leaves or is forced out of the house. They try to work though many problems but most of the time the issues are just forgotten and people just have to get over their problems. I haven't had to experience this first hand which is good but that also means I dont know much about it other than what the counterparts brought up at this conference. In the evenings when we should have been practicing our languages most of us where either grabing a drink poolside or on the wifi that was in the hotel. Dosent sound too bad right! But all good things do come to an end and by the fourth day I think we were all ready to get out of there.
SITE VISITS!
About half of our group had to get up and go very early in the morning in order to make it to their sites by night fall. The rest of us got up and had breakfast then made it to the road side to catch a cab. My counterpart and I were the last ones to be standing there and when some PC cars drove by I think they felt sorry for us and picked us up to give us a ride to the trotro station. It was nice of them if they knew where they were going but that wasent really the case. We stopped at a fill station and got a car to take us which was much easier. Transport was pretty easy and everybody tells you where to go even if you dont know where you want to be going so I was happy my counterpart was there to help me go in the right direction. We made it to Nkurakan by early afternoon and went to the office to met everybody. Joshua who runs Krobodan was out so we waited around for a bit and I got to chat with Debora who is a lady that helps around the office but she wasent feeling very good that afternoon so we just talked a bit. After meeting Joshua and Fred we went to the part of Krobodan that I will be working with just a little which is the beads company. I met some of the ladies who were making the bracelets and stringing the beads but also my site mother who is in charge of quality control. After stopping my Joshuas house and meeting his dog that he actually adopted after one of the volunteers left. I loved seeing that they are taking care of them after the volunteer leaves because I really want to get a dog but I think I wont be able to take it when I leave especially if I want to travel a bit before I land back in the USA.
So I ended the day at my site. my place. my home for the next two years. that is if everything goes according to plan. I will have 2 rooms to myself and share the bathroom and living/tv area with Rachael my site mom and some of her grandchildren/niece. Its really hard to tell peoples actual relations because everybody is sister or brother. The older one I think might be going to school when i get back but im not sure she is 20 years old and needs to finish up her secondary school. Anyways my bed room is fairly large and I didnt get a close look into the second room because they are still finishing it up and they were currently drying their corn in there. I think I will use that room as a kitchen and maybe a workspace but we will see. I really want to do most of my own cooking. One because I dont want to bother my mom and two because I think I can make food that I will actually like to eat. They have lots of veggies but they dont eat them that often. It was a odd situation, being at site, because I felt like I wanted to just make the place my own and get settled but I had to leave after just 3 days.
The first full day at site I met with Emmanuel (my counterpart) and we were supposed to go out to some of the communities that the program works with. These were new communities and one of the easy first things that they are taught (if they ask or are interested) is vaccinating their chickens from New Castle Disease. The vaccination actually goes into the eye of the bird. It was great to get a little sneak peak into some of the training that they provide. Oh before we headed out we made a stop at the new office building they are putting up. They are currently in a rented house and what their own place for training farmers and to have all their chickens in one basket so to speak. It will be a lot easier to have farmers come to the training spot to see what they are interested in other than having the field officers go out to the communities all the time. I got back home pretty late and had a bite to eat before joining my mom at the kiln. She was busy firing beads that she had made earlier that day, its quite a process and i will post some pictures in the future.
The second day was Sunday. I had decided I was going to try to go to church with my sister. She attends the Presbyterian church and oh man three hours later and two corns in my purse I dont think I will be going back. I enjoyed being welcomed and meeting people but it was very overwhelming and I couldn't understand anything! I think I might go once to my moms church in her village out of respect but already I am not a very religious person and theres not really a middle ground when it comes to religion here. During the service I actually really missed my church back home. I thought it would make me feel more comforted by going to church but really it made me feel more like a outsider. Lesson learned and new experience checked off the list. We made it home by 1 ish and started helping make the beads. They start by putting in a stem and cutting it with a razor to make the hole, then they dip the plates in lye, and fill with ground up glass with some pigments added. The glass comes from bottles from around the community. The plates are then fired for a while depending on what size and shape. Then its my turn to help I pick them out of the plates and put them on the wire. There are close to 500 beads on one wire i think. They then sell the beads to Krobodan for about 60 peswoas (cents) then are paid again for the time they make the bracelets or beads for sale. It seems like a little and it is but it helps make the ends meet.
Monday the third day at site I met with Fred Joshua and Emmanuel to get a better idea on what I will be doing as part of my job. Oh man I was a little sorry I even asked! There is a lot to do! Everything from updating the program paperwork to record keeping of the communities to helping with training of the farmers with bee keeping, rabbits, goats, chickens, also introducing some agroforestry to the crop farmers to decrease the amount they are paying for the land and diversifying what they are growing. There is a lot and it all depends on what the farmers want. I think that was the biggest thing Krobodan already has a great foundation of communication with farmers and telling what is available and what the farmers want in-order to increase profit and diversify their income. It was a bit over my head because I dont know how to do those things yet but I think I will be able to down the road. I am excited to learn all these new things and just need to keep in mind to take one day at a time and to try not to do to many things at one time.
One thing I am struggling with is the three month integration period. I think I will shoot for not getting too busy in the first month and focus on getting situated in my new place as well as make some connections with people in town but i think three months is a bit long. I know peace corps dosent think so but having a NGO already in the communities and having those lines already open makes getting started a lot easier. Also it will be a transition period for Krobodan as well as they start to move. They want to be moved in by Febuary when some of the foundation leaders from Denmark come to visit. Having a new place makes changes a little easier but also forces us to notice flaws in their systems and ways to improve them, which hopefully I will take part in.
FREE MEDICAL CHECK UP!
I traveled from my site to the PEPFAR field training by myself, most trainees traveled in a group to visit their PCVs but since im the only one in the Eastern region I get to travel by myself, i figure its just a head start. Anyways my PEPFAR event was a free HIV testing day. We had arranged for nurses to come to a community and provide HIV testing. It takes quite a bit of organization to get the nurses, chairs, tables, community space, and the ok from the town chief. The chief wants to get paid for everything when really its not work for him. The nurses also want to get a bit extra for doing the job they are already paid for but as a volunteer we don't really have extra money to accommodate those requests. The way a PEPFAR event works is that we write for a grant and budget everything but the community is expected to contribute 30%, understandable right because they are the ones receiving the service but its hard because they want money from you to put on the event! I was glad I didnt have to do much of the coordinating ... or any of it really! My contribution was making fliers that we actually had to print twice because not many people will come if you just say free HIV testing because of the stigma related to the virus but if you say free medical check up with blood pressure weight and HIV testing you will get many more people. So thats what we did on top of an educational HIV flier we made medical check up fliers and went around to most the people in the community handing them out and talking to them about coming to find out what their status is. With my little bit of Twi language I had to talk to old and young community members, most of the time they understood but I got a few laughs at my attempt to communication. The area we did the event at is very educated and has two colleges near by so English is pretty well understood. I was so tired at the end of the day but I think we tested around 100-125 people Im not sure the actual statistics but it was a success!
Adventure to Techiman
The day after the event I traveled to Techiman to start our technical training. Once again traveling by myself is quite an experience. Everybody is so nice and friendly but the trotro that I took to get to kumasi stopped before the station and everybody was told to get off because the traffic was so bad that we could walk faster. So I lugged my backpack out of the trotro and started walking, I didn't actually know where I was going so I just fallowed the sea of people. I finally made it to a station.
Ok wait i need to explain what a station is. When I think of a station with my American brain its a very organized place with signs and seating areas for people waiting. In Ghana its a market like area with massive amount of trotro in lines. If you dont frequent the station very much you have not way of telling where certain trotro are located that are going north or south or to specific cities. So you walk around just asking everybody saying "mee ku Techiman" and just looking lost they tell you or point you in the right direction. This is how most large stations work.
So thats what I did wondered around a very poorly organized parking lot with vendors trying to find the right trotro. The trotro I got on is probably the nicest trotro I have seen in Ghana so far. It had actually comfy seats and enough space for everybody so I guess it was worth the hassle trying to find it! I made it very easily to Techiman considering they actually took us to the station. I took a drop taxi to the hotel we are staying at and to my amazement I was the first one to arrive. Its much easier to travel my yourself time wise but I think it would be better to have a buddy along with you. Some of the groups had up tp 9 people going the same places so traveling took longer just to accommodate everybody.
Technical Training
The first day of technical training we debriefed a lot about our site visits and a little about PEPFAR although that was mostly just us catching up with everybody after not seeing anybody for about a week. Most people had great experiences but a few wernt as smooth which is to be expected, remember we are in Ghana and things rarely work out as planned. After debriefing and a little session on the Food Security Program that most of us are involved in just because of the nature of NRM and our farming counterparts we got to learn how to process Moringa. We learned how to make soap, creams, and nutritional powders. All of them are very easy and take little money to start. However I dont think I will be doing this as a side project unless the ladies at the beads company what to start doing it, but who knows I can ask if its something they want to start and if so I now know how too! Its a pretty easy process and you can change it to make a few different kinds of soap. The draw to it is that moringa is supposed to help with hair growth and help cure skin aliments like bug bites and rashes. If you grind up the dried leaves you can add it to food as a supplement for many vitamins for children and pregnant women. I thought the whole process was very cool and if I dont find a group to make it with lots of other volunteers are already working with women's groups making it so I can just get a couple bars every once in awhile, even better is to get some of the shea butter soap from the northern volunteers!
It is nice to be back together with everybody at a comfortable hotel and hear of every bodies stories. We all have to share about our sites and the struggles of the first few days of trying to learn what our jobs and lives are going to be like as volunteers. Our PEPFAR stories are also very different I think we all did different programs from painting murals to lecturing about HIV/AIDS in schools to my project of doing testing. Its so nice to get a better understanding of the projects that we can run when we get to site and how much effort some of these events actually take.
Its kind of crazy to think that in about a month we will be sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers and begin our service. On the one hand it feels like we have been in Ghana for a long time but on the other hand and in actuality we still have 26 months to be in Ghana. Im looking forward to getting to site and settling into a routine, maybe not even a routine but just slowing down and having the opportunity to actually get to know Ghana from a stable point of view. As trainees we are comfortable being together because that is all that we have known so far but I'm more looking forward to becoming comfortable with my community, my coworkers, and my farmers.
Until next time
Live in Love
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