update..funnies

So tomorrow is our last day of SED training and then we go back to our homestays for the next 2.5 weeks and then get sworn in on August 12...that is if we past our language tests...its questionable at this point.

Earlier this week, Chrissa and I went to shadow Katie, a PCV, at Liate Wote. This village has the highest peak in Ghana (Mt. Afadjato) and a great waterfall.  Chrissa bought a pair of sports sandals off the street in HoHoe for 4 cedis.  So the next day we start walking to the base of the mountain to hike it.  "Oh that's not good."  And you look about 3 steps behind her and there lies the sole of her new shoe.  F'n hilarious.  As we start to walk the 4 blocks back to Katie's house..."oh, there goes the other one."  And so it did.  So we ended up only making it up the mountain about half way since it was steep and she was hiking in flip flops. Katie's house is super fancy and she had an oven...we made pizza :)

Quotes:
"I think my ass is broken; I haven't formed a turd in like 2 weeks." 
"Men use their hands to operate intricate video game controlers, but when it comes to a woman, it's just "poke, poke, poke." (you will have to visualize the finger poking here)

Love you guys and miss you.  Please send letters, homemade artwork, pics, and postcards.  I promise I'll start writing letters once I get to site and get some time.

THANKS FOR THE PACKAGE MOM AND DAD!!!

j

few pics

View from my front porch at site...yes I am a lucky girl :)

|This is the jewelry my village gave me at my naming ceremony.  They are all glass beads; they paint is crushed glass as well. For each color on the bead, it is fired separately.

This is a batik place that we visited; they stamp the fabric with wax to make the shapes and then dye a number of times depending on the number of colors used in the design.

This is the batik I bought :)

My New Name and Welcoming Ceremony

July 11, 2010


Today was an amazing day; I had my welcome and naming ceremony. Church was supposed to start at 7:30 am; it started at 9:30. After church, the ceremony began. First the chief and the elders took me outside for prayers and to pour libations of palm wine, apetiche, and water; chanting prayers and then whooping calls and shouts. Then we went back inside and Mawuli says, “Jeanna, go with the women, they are going to dress you.” “What?” “They will dress you in the local cloth.” “Oh, ok.” So there’s about 10-15 old women hugging me and then they start wrapping this woven cloth around me; tugging it tight and tying it; then comes the necklaces and bracelets; all the while they are clapping and singing. It was hilariously funny and embarrassing. Then they give me a staff and Mawuli says, “You will lead the women into the church; they will follow you.” (Only thing I can think of is, “Yeah I got my pimp stick!”)Ok, so into the church we go singing and clapping and me feeling incredibly honored yet incredibly embarrassed.

Pouring of libations. This is a dress I had made :)

Women wrapping me in local cloth.

Leading the women back into church.

shaking hands w chief

Speeches are given and dances are done. Nana (the chief) tells them that I am a new member of the community, a newborn baby in the village of Todome so as the custom I must receive my name. And then he calls my name, “Boala,” (pronounced Bwela) which means, “We like you” in Sekpele. So my name is “Nana Boala the first” because I have been inducted as a Queen Mother…which is a female chief. Yeah, I’m big shit, no not really but honorary. But people were bowing and stuff and it made me really uncomfortable even though I knew they were doing it as an honor. Most of you know how I am about getting attention…so having this whole elaborate ceremony was super uncomfortable but also phenomenally cool to be involved in.

Then the women do a dance and load more jewelry on me and the women’s group presents me with maize and a bag of rice. Then I do my speech to community and Mawuli translates. Then we dance; first me and the women and then the chief dances with me; people put down their cloth for us to dance on…it was funny. I like my chief.

Dancing w chief

I give you Nana Boala the First :)

Prayers are given and then we are done. They were gonna play drums and have everyone dance to my house, but I was trying to leave town by 12; it’s like 1 by now, so that I could get to the training site in Ho before dark. I ended up leaving around 2:30.

So, today was insanely cool and I’m really grateful for all the hard work and thought that the village put into the ceremony. I got to keep 2 of the bracelets and a necklace too which is super cool. Other white lady in the photos is Rhoda, the PC volunteer from the next village over.

My homies in Todome :)

Peace Out,

Boala..that’s me!!

Hike to the Todome Caves and Falls

July 10, 2010


Today I was woke up at 5:40 by Mawuli at my door, “Jeanna, we are having a TMT (Tourism Management Team) meeting. Can you be ready in 10 minutes time?” Sure thing. The meeting was quick and simple. Then around 9:30, Boss (the tour guide) came and got me to hike to the ancestral caves that are located in the mountain that is to the front and right of my house. Beautiful hike!!! Boss showed me things like a frankincense tree, shea butter tree, mahogany tree…all of which have medicinal purposes in their various forms.

This is a view of my village about half way up the mt. You can see two houses on the back right of the pic. The front one is the guesthouse I stay in :)

AHHH...the view is amazing. Look at all the trees! ...I almost cried.

To the right is the path to Togo, the left stays in Ghana.

Boss, the tour guide, and me. Boss is pretty phenominal.

Pretty. The mountain is the one I view from my front window, but from a diff angle.

We get to the caves after about an hour and half (they said it takes 45 minutes; I have been told to take the amount of time a Ghanaian says and triple it to make it real time). The hike to the caves is beautiful; you look out over 3 of the Likpe villages and can see for miles and miles…trees and trees…it was phenomenal! And of course the best part is Boss telling you the history as you go and why his people settled in these caves (They were running from the Ashanti/Asante who were trying to bond them into slavery).


There are 6 caves: the first cave is easily accessible and is open, it is where meetings were held; the second cave requires you to crawl up the side of the mountain...aka hang on and step on tiny ledges. I wussed out about ¾ the way up. Boss was like, “Jeanna, clap for yourself, you have made it for your first time. Next time you will go farther, and the next time farther, and then you will be here!!!” He is awesome! Cave #2 was a look out cave. So on to cave #3 where you have to climb up the mountainside and then down a hole with a latter; this is where the ancestors slept. Bats and fire making stones…very cool; probably my favorite, maybe second favorite cave(pic below). Now to cave #4, the chief’s palace complete with the original sitting stool/stone. Cave #5 is the punishment cave where people were put for being bad…it is cramped and hot. The last cave is the spyglass cave. You must scale the side of the rocks…picture below…to get to it. Then start the vertical climb straight out the top with a kickin’ lookout over the valley (this cave might be #1 for me…it’s kinda hard to climb sometimes, but it’s open at the top an the bottom so the lighting effects while your sitting in there is cool). Once you are at the top you then must skirt around the side of the mountain to take the trail to the top. There is one very questionable part where you have literally maybe 5 inches (actually about the width of one foot) of rock to walk on; you hang onto the rocks and supplied “wire” and step carefully for about 15-20 ft. It was raining, so therefore slippery, valley below…I will admit that I was scared. But we made it and it was awesome!!! Great hike back down; saw 2 yevus (white people) on the way down. One guy runs a non-profit in Accra and the other guy was visiting him from the States.

Cave #3...where the ancestors slept. You climb through that hole and down the latter.

Climbing up to Cave #6.  Pretty verticle! You hang a right about where boss is and then climb through/up the verticle cave #6.

View from the top to the other Mt.

Mist a rising. Very Jurassic Park

And to finish off a wonderful hike to the caves, you then hike down to the Wajakli falls. It was incredibly peaceful and beautiful!! Thick forest on the ground, large vines and ferns on the walls, and a beautiful fall streaming over the rocks. Got to eat a cocoa fruit..yum!! You just kinda suck the smear off the seeds, it’s really good; no wonder chocolate is so awesome!

Waterfalls that are about a 20 minute walk from my house.

So the day was wonderful; great exercise, history, natural beauty and 6 hours of quality talk with Boss. (The hike is only supposed to take 4 hours; we sat and talked in the caves as to miss the hard rains). Tomorrow is my naming ceremony before I take off to Ho. Apparently the villagers already know my name because a lady called it out tonight as Boss walked me home. Of course I just figured it was just a phrase that I don’t know in Sekpele (name of Todome’s language). But Boss said she called me by my name, but he would not tell me it until tomorrow at the ceremony, but that it means “we like.” Awesome!

j

Being at site

July 9, 2010
So the naming ceremony has not happened yet…here’s how it goes. At about 10:30 (ceremony to have started at 10) Mawuli comes to tell me that some people had come to teach the women’s group how to grow oyster mushrooms. They wanted me to attend, but he told them I was doing my PC paperwork. So, now the ceremony will be around 11:30; they are setting up the ceremony grounds now. Ok, right on, no worries.
Around 12:30 there is knock at my door, ahh, naming ceremony…ok I’m ready…nope it’s Aki, the Jica volunteer. It’s Thursday and she’s in our village, so she came to bring me a welcome pineapple and sit until the ceremony. And then it starts to pour. So we sat and talked for a couple hours about all kinds of stuff…she’s really a cool person and has a lot of good info since she’s been living in HoHoe for one year already. So around 1, Mawuli arrives drenched. “Oh Jeanna, I am so sorry, the sky does not want your ceremony today. I have just come from town; we have taken all the ceremony stuff down, maybe we will have to reschedule.” Sure thing, Mawuli. So, due to some mushrooms and rain I am still “Just Jeanna” for a few more days  The ceremony has now been moved to Sunday after church, before I leave for Ho. Everyone will be off work so more people will attend…this makes them happy and me more nervous…oh well; I hope I get a good name.
So in lieu of the ceremony, Mawuli, Boss (a tour guide and the man who will be my local language teacher), Patience (a local guide as well) and Fo Nicho took me around town to meet people they think are important. Like all languages I have experienced in Ghana so far, Likpe’s language has a very formal greeting spiel…. I do not know this, yet, but by the end of the two hour tour I can kind of just, “Wa, yoo, aaaa,” my way through it, even though I have no idea what is being said. Anyway, I met a bunch of people and got to walk through our town, which is less than a mile long. There are about 1800 people in my village according to the 2001 census, but many of them work in Accra or go to university in a different town so it doesn’t seem so many.
Everyone seemed very nice; I ran into the elders again (one of them sent me a pineapple this morning…I like Ghana) and met with the chief. We then walked over to the next town (there are 10 Likpe Villages; mine is third on the road from HoHoe) Likpe Mate, where Rhoda, a PC teacher lives. We’re about 5 minutes walk apart; she has been here for a year now, so that’s really cool we’re so close.
Today Mawuli and I went to HoHoe to do some shopping and for him to show me around so I’ll be able to go by myself in the future. HoHoe is a pretty big city with lots of shops, a big market on Mondays and Fridays, and is a transportation hub. So I bought some buckets to wash clothes and dishes in, a power cord, cleaner, soap, dishtowels, mosquito coils, and candles. We then set off to do a few other errands and then I meet up with Chris who is a PCT like me; he and the guy he is replacing came to town to shop today too. We meet at the tourism office where Aki is also. So Frank, my supervisor at the office says we need to go meet the HoHoe District Chief…excellent. So off we go. The Chief tells me I have very big shoes to fill; that Leanne (the previous PCV at my site) was the best white person he has ever met. So, I must do better than the best; he will be expecting it…Right-o. Off for a cold beer and some Obruni talk.
Mawuli tells me that he does not like HoHoe, it’s too loud and the sun is too hot there. Ah, it is true. So back to the quiet village we go; the breeze picks up on the way, we walk up our red dirt road. I close the door and sit down as rain comes over the mountain.

Site Visit to Likpe Todome and New Address

Once I move to Todome in mid August, I will be able to receive mail/packages at the address below.


Jeanna Rolsing, PCV
c/o Frank Dogbey
HoHoe Municipal Assembly
PO Box 126
HoHoe, Volta Region
Ghana
HoHoe is about 30 minutes from my village and is where the tourism office is located. Thanks for the mail hook up HoHoe Assembly!



July 7, 2010
So July 4th we left our homestays and had a 4th of July party at the spot in Kukarantumi complete with hotdogs and REAL Heinz ketchup (the Ghanaian “ketchup” is funky). But that morning, I woke up at 6am so my host mom could teach me to make my favorite Ghanaian dish, fried plantains and beans or in Twi, “Red Red” or in Ewe, “Abladgototoe kple Bobo.” So by 8am I was stuffing my face with heavy food and therefore could not get even one hotdog down…boooo.

After the festivities we bussed to Bunso where we met our counterparts and supervisors we will be working with for the next 2 years. We all had a 2-day conference together. My counterpart is Mawuli, aka Frances. He’s probably around my age, is really nice, and seems like a great person to work with. He’s the finance secretary of the Tourism Management Team in the village I will be in; he is also the caretaker at the guesthouse I’ll be living in. Fo Nicho is Mawuli’s supervisor and also my counterpart; he is older and seems really cool too. My supervisor is Frank; he lives in HoHoe and is the HoHoe District Tourism Officer. So looks like I got good people to work with.

This morning (5am supposed to leave, actually left at 6:40 am…oh Ghana time) several of the volunteers who are moving to Volta and our counterparts all loaded up and troed to HoHoe where we went our separate ways. In HoHoe I met the Jica (Japanese Peace Corps) volunteer, Aki, who I had met when I vision quested there. She’s really nice and comes to my village on Thursdays to work with a women’s group…very cool. Also found out that there is a current teacher PC volunteer that is in the next village (about 5 minute walk).

PCT's and counterparts heading to the Volta Region.  The guy on the left is Mawuli, my counterpart...he is awesome!!!

Anyway, a 30 minute, 90 pesawa tro ride and we arrive at my village…IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL!!! On the far side of the village we stop across from the primary school. Up a red dirt road flocked by corn, plantain, and cassava fields is the guesthouse where I will be staying. Out my front window are the towering green mountains, a mango tree, chickens…it’s really pretty. Mawuli lives right behind me; there are 4 guest rooms; I am in one, a HoHoe district assemblyman is in another, and the other 2 are open for when tourists come. Fo Nicho lives at the main road at the bottom of our dirt road.

The guesthouse I stay in. I stay on the right side where you can see three windows. for some reason I deleted the pics of the mountain view from my window...so I'll put those up later...the view is excellent :)

Walking in the door of my place :)

built in closet, hall going back to toilet, first door, shower is second door, and the back door goes to a storage area that will be my kitchen.

View coming back from the hall

For the next 4 days I will be in my village before I go to Ho for my 2 weeks of technical training. In the meantime, Mawuli has arranged for Confidence to cook me food until I get my place set up when I come back. She’s a really good cook and seems like a great person; she speaks English well and has a striking face. She works at the District Assembly in HoHoe as an environmental person and is organizational chair on the Tourism Management Team in Todome. She also makes batik fabric and said she will teach me how.

So I was supposed to go to meet the chief and stuff tomorrow, but he heard I was in town tonight and wanted to meet me. So I was taught a few Likpe words (I can’t remember the name of language…Sal…something) as we walked to the palace…oh yeah, did I fail to mention that my village has a language separate of Ewe…so that’ll be language #3 and apparently this will be the ONE I will really use. So I met our chief and some of the elders. It is quite strange having a bunch of men sit in a circle and talk about you in a different language; then comes the part where I’m supposed to throw out a few words I learned moments before…ah, yes, it went ok, they appreciated the effort. Anyway, they did a prayer to keep me safe and to wish me well, poured some libations and told me tomorrow I will be greeting the whole community by 10 am and the chief and elders will perform the naming ceremony where I will receive my Likpe name…pressure for tomorrow.

Anyway, that is all. I have my netting rigged up and am trying to settle in to my new digs. So far seems great...running water, electricity, fantastic view and good cell reception!
j