Pictures!!!

Birthday Coke and cookies J

Birthday card Chris made me

SWEARING IN

SED group

Yeah, my PC certificate

My homestay sister Kristy.

SITE

flat spider, mom

sunset over the mt

Poop machine in my house…told you they were cute

Confidence making groundnut soup with the spices mom & dad sent

 Me stirring the banku…Confidence was so proud

Confidence balling the banku…she’s so cute!

Me eating the groundnut soup and banku…my nub is not conducive to banku shoveling.

My kitchen complete with new shelf the carpenter made and I painted.   The big barrel on the left is filled with water for when the water quits coming, the 2 small blue barrels are used for washing clothes (one for wash, one for rinse) and also for rinsing dishes, the orange pan is used for washing dishes, my kick-ass 2 burner propane stove, the laundry line for when it rains and also to hang my fruit/veggies from so the critters/ants don’t get them. Note the big ass yams and pineapple on the floor.

Me sweeping my kitchen (diggin the batik here…the fabric)

In the village; Todome

one road thru town

Our tourism reception building

Boss the tour guide and my Sekua teacher and general buddyJ

Esther, my supervisor’s wife, and 2 of kids, Rose and Dixon. Esther is making water sachet purses from the thrown away plastic sachets.

my new kitty, "monkey

great mouse assassin

Chris and Joseph at cave 2

Me scaling the wall at cave 2

Bats in cave 3

Chris repelling

chief's chair

New September Posts

September 5, 2010


Today is Sunday and I woke up around 3:30 or 4am to pouring rain. Tin roof is loud…I love it! It rained all morning. I laid in bed till about 6:30 or so, got up, decided to properly (instead of jankity rigged) hang my mosquito net since my counterpart had brought me a hammer and some nails. After that I swept, cooked breakfast and then it was about time to get ready for church…it’s supposed to start at 9:30am.

I’ve decided to go to church on Sundays, not for riveting sermons in Ewe, but it’s a good way to spend time in the village and meet people. So I head down the hill around 9:35 because I heard drums. I get down there and there’s only like 3 adults and 8 kids in the church…the kids were drumming. Anyway, church actually gets started around 10:30. After the service my supervisor tells me that some men from Accra are going to come today because the village wants to build a road up the mountain for something like Jeep tours/moto tours, and that when they come, I should join them. Ok, do I need to wear hiking clothes? No, ok cool.

So I get home and fiddle around a lil bit and he calls. It’s raining and kinda chilly (the Ghanaians think it’s cold and have sweaters and stuff on) so I throw a 2-yard around my shoulders (over my dress), grab my chacos and umbrella and head to the tourist office. Some of the elders are there, but the Accra men are not. I sit in the office with the old guys and we kinda nod off for a while; the people show up almost 3 hours later…I spent the three hours sitting on the steps of the office talking to people and getting language lessons. Also, YaYa, Confidence’s aunt, came to town and brought me a big bag of rice…she sells raw rice in HoHoe----I told you people feed me all the time. I still have a ton of rice that I was given at my naming ceremony.

Anyway, the people get there and there’s one guy from the Likpe area, a British dude, a Belgian guy, 2 people from the US, and 1 Asian guy from Spain. Introductions are made, libations poured, shots of gin/schnapps taken. After a bit of jabbering they say ok, we will go up the mountain. I wanted to go so I could figure out what they were planning on doing, but wasn’t gonna invite myself because only the men were going. So one guy goes, “Boala, you coming?” “Yes.” So I walk outside, wrap my 2-yard around me like a towel/sarong, pull up my dress underneath (I had leggings on too) so I can take big steps and hike…off we go. As we start to ascend I see that they have cut down a ton of stuff in order to show these guys where the ROAD will go. What??? Ahhhhh…I keep my mouth shut, but my tree-hugging side is starting to get scared. So as they take off through the cut down area, “Boala, don’t walk through here, please. Meet us at the path junction.” Fine. One guy, Israel, walks with me. We keep walking and up ahead are a bunch of young guys sitting around…they were slaughtering a cow and drinking. “Boala, you are welcome.” Thanks…I greet them in Sekua. I have no idea who they are and they don’t look familiar, but apparently they know me. They start talking about a pusu (cat) and one guy says, “I hear you are looking for a cat.” “Yes, I heard you just talking about a pusu…I understand.” “We have a small one, do you want it.” “Sure, where is it?” And then he describes the house I went to last week that told me that they already sold the 2 kittens they had, but that the other cat should be having babies soon. So I dunno what he’s talking about and I told him that. Then he says, “You are staying at the guesthouse, yes? I just came to town today and heard. Should we come visit you?” About that time, rest of the hiking crew show’d up. “Uhhhh…we are going. Bye.” And then we kept hiking.

So up we go and the men start talking about bulldozers…ahhhhh…and then I remember that I need to keep my mouth shut…this is their village and their mountain. But all I think of is 1) why would someone want to hike up a road instead of a path and 2) where are you gonna get the 4-wheel drive vehicles you’re talking about that will be driving up this proposed road? There isn’t anything but jankity tros around here. Anyway, we keep going and we’re hauling ass to get up and down the mountain before dark. The Asian dude is like, “You’re really strong!!!” Thanks, can you tell my village that…they’re afraid to let me do anything….I didn’t say that part.

Anyway we get to the top and our chief is with us and he’s all excited that we all hiked up there…he’s super cute, his laugh cracks me up. One of the two “road guys” goes, “Look at all that wasted land. There’s nothing there.” Ahhhhhhhh….noooo…my mouth stayed shut no longer, “Ahh, yes there is, look at all those fantastic trees. That’s the reward for getting to the top…the beautiful view of nature!!” He says, “She wants to leave it that way…don’t touch it, right?” “Yes, sir, that’s right.”

So back down the mountain we go. We get to the bottom and all the old men and women waiting were like “Boala, you went the whole way, oh, you are strong!!!” They are so ridiculous. I’ve hiked that mountain at least 3 times a week for the past 3 weeks. One of the “road guys” said, “ Oh, congratulations, you did very well.” Ah, geeze. Boss (the man I hike with all the time) was very proud that his yevu could run with the big men.

I don’t really think this road is a good idea. Maybe I’m wrong, I dunno; they’ve been here longer than me, but creating a road that is gonna take away some of the farming land, hack through rock and trees…also, who has the vehicles to take tourists? If you drive, then is the guide gonna sit in there and try to tell the story? Is there even a market for this? Have they checked? Most travelers in Ghana are voluntourists, adventurists, or budget travelers…to me, these people would rather hike than take a 20-30 minute road trip up the mountain to just take pictures and then come back down. If the people are too lazy to hike the mountain they sure enough are too lazy to scramble through the caves. The caves are the most strenuous/uncomfortable/least safe part of the whole deal. I dunno. I dunno if I should ask questions or just keep my mouth shut. I might try to do some low key poking around. I think they should try to fix the safety issues around the caves before they start bulldozing a road, but…I need more details, but details seem to be hard to get here…I don’t know if my community really knows the details or if it’s just some idea …

Anyway, Happy Sunday to you.

j


September 7, 2010


So this morning Boss and I walked to Bakua (a neighbor village) to check on some cats we heard about. They were already gone...dammit. So on the road back we are talking about stuff. A tro comes by and we get off the road as to not get hit. The road is “paved” but there are huge pot holes/abysses so the tros swerve all over the road to miss them. There are usually some close calls with people walking on the edge of the road…and of course with goats, etc. So Boss starts telling me about how cars are scary and that they can just lock up and then they can bump you, and then you are dead; so he always gets off the road when they come. Ahh, it’s true. So we’re walking along. We walk/hike a lot together and so we only talk some times and other times we both go off into our heads. Anyway, we’re walking along off in our own worlds and hear a tro coming. Boss climbs into the weeds and I start cracking up. He starts laughing and explains, “Life is small. I like to be alive, very much. I want to keep the air in my belly. I do not want to get bumped and die. I watch when tros come; if the tires come at me, I will run away into the bush fast!” HE CRACKS ME UP!!!! I was laughing so hard I could barely breath.

You know how sometimes you get images in your mind and you just can’t stop the giggles? I could just see Boss’s old, bony body hauling ass through the bush, running from something that looks like the Mystery Machine. It still tickles me.

As we walk back through town and greet, I see a guy who, as of yesterday and with 2 colleagues, is staying at the guesthouse in the room next to mine. I say hi as we pass and then ask Boss if he knew this man was staying at the guesthouse. He says no, who are they? I explain that I spoke to one of them yesterday and they said they worked with the School District and they were auditors, but that the man we just saw told me he was going to farm yesterday. Boss makes a funny face…yup, that’s kinda what I thought...he’s a weirdo. So we progress with our greetings and stuff and when we get back towards the house, Boss says, “Oh, there is that man. Is he normal?” LOL. I doubt it, Boss.

So I spent some time today nodding off in bed while it rained; then I tried to study Sekua, but kept getting distracted with my thoughts. I texted some other volunteers to see if I was the only one who felt like they stay in their house a lot, simply because they have no where to really be and roadside convos in the village can only last so long…I am not the only one, phew. It’s weird; at home, I could wad up in my apartment for 2 or 3 days and not go out and not feel bad/weird about it. But then I also figure that I spent most of my days at work or hanging out with people; so 2 or 3 days of solitude and peace were great. Here, I don’t have anything I HAVE TO DO. I’m supposed to work, but it’s not like a real schedule or anything; and everything I do relies on the people in the village participating, and right now almost everyone is harvesting at farm, so therefore no time to do projects/meetings with the yevu. So, I did a lot of wandering around in my head today. Not much serious, just let my mind wander where it felt like. Two years of this and I could turn into an astounding writer/philosopher or a raving lunatic. We’ll see.

This afternoon some of the girls who have taken to coming to my porch to draw and in turn help me with my Sekua, came over. They drew, I practiced my language. Then they said they had come from their rice farm down by the stream (utubi in Sekua). “Oh, will you take me? I see women going to fetch water there and I haven’t been yet.” They start laughing. “You want to go today?” “Yup.” “Now? Ok we will go.” So off we go. We get to the almond tree and Akos says, “We’ve heard this is your people’s kind of ground nut.” Ground nuts are peanuts…same, same. So I told them that Americans call these nuts, almonds; we eat them plenty, but we also have ground nuts. So we pick one off the ground and smash it open…yup almond 

They take me down the path to the stream; along the way we pass coco trees and pineapples…apparently the pineapples (ablobe in Sekua, atoto in Ewe) grow wild in that area, so if I find one I can pick it  Next, they take me back to their rice (molu in Ewe, kamu in Sekua…has the language lessons gotten annoying yet?) field. I have never been in one before; this one is newly planted so I’m excited to see the process through.

Anyway, we come back to my porch and they quiz me on what Ewe I know and then try to teach me Sekua words. It’s getting to evening time and they leave. I walk into town to visit Augusta, the Palm Oil Women Group’s chairwoman, and see if we will still meet tomorrow to crack nuts, and if so when. As I hit the main road I run into a man and his son; the man starts talking to me in really good English like he knows me. I’m sure I’ve met him before, but can’t place him. Turns out he’s a teacher I met back when I was here on site visit at the beginning of July. His name is Richard and he remembers my American name…even my last name…damn, I’m impressed. Anyway, we walk and talk and he tells me that he was just teaching here as his national service (you do one year of national service after you finish university) and he will be leaving; his service was over in August. “Oh, who will teach form 4?” “Oh, Jeanna, you can teach it. Do you want to? You could do it!” “Uh….I do want to help at the school, but I don’t know about teaching full time. Isn’t there someone coming?” “Yes, they will send someone else who is doing their national service. So I will stay until they come.” Ok…whew, got out of that one.

I see Esther, my supervisor’s wife and 3 of his kids; they are sitting by Esther’s shop/hair place. So I go over and sit for a while. We talk about food. Dixon (he’s 4) has someone’s cellphone held up to his ear blaring music. Michael Jackson comes on; I start bustin a move to Dixon’s great delight. It was fun. I asked the word for “dance” in Sekua, they told me, but I’ve already forgotten it.

I head to Augusta’s compound. A bunch of lil’ kids are sitting outside and her one older son is there. I greet, ask if she’s home; I hear her in the kitchen room. We jabber a lil’; as in they laugh at my Sekua. “Oh, Boala, you are trying!!” Yup, sho’ am. I ask if we are gonna crack nuts tomorrow…what time? If it doesn’t rain we’ll meet at 8am. Ok. “You will teach me?” “You will crack palm nuts?” “Sure, why not?” More rounds of laughter at the yevu. “Ok, see you tomorrow. I will come strong to crack nuts.” Off I go, take the footpaths through the village and greet the usual people I see on that route. “Oh, Boala, you are trying.” Yes…it’s true, I am.
J


September 8, 2010


So today I was supposed to meet the Palm Oil Women’s group at the chairwoman’s house at 8am so we could crack palm nuts. I show up around 8:15, knowing good and well that I’d probably be the only one there that early. I get there and sure enough, no one is there except the chairwoman, her son, and his friend. Apparently people were called to work at the chief’s farm that day. So Augusta (chairwoman) tells me to go with her son into the mud shed thing and he’d show me how to crack nuts. Awesome. So there’s an overturned wooden fufu pounding bowl with a very large, flat rock laid across it. 2 small stools and 2 small (hand size) flat rocks. Sammy (her son who is somewhere between 25 and 35ish???) sits down and shows me how to crack nuts; lay it on the big rock and hit it with the small rock. Ok, got it. A special note is made to watch for the flying shells as they can hurt…good to know. So we start cracking. He, his friend, and I sit and talk while we crack. They both speak pretty good English and the talk in English mostly so I’m entertained. Kids and adults come by and see the Yevu cracking and get all excited, “Boala, you are trying!!” Yes. So as we’re cracking, Sammy asks me how old I am. “28.” “Oh, you are old!” “What you talking ‘bout?” “You are old; not married, no kids.” Wow, you’re a charming fellow! So we keep cracking…they keep talking, I kinda stare out the cut out/window thing at the kids playing soccer with an orange. Then some woman with a new baby comes by and talks for a while. Sammy, “Boala, one day soon you will have to have a little one of your own.” “Uh, yeah, sure, maybe.” He laughs at me. Dude, if you start talking about my womb like my homestay brother did, I’m gonna chuck my nut-crackin’ rock at your head. He doesn’t say any more…so we crack nuts for 2 hours. They tell me (as did about 3 other people who came by to watch my progress) I need to stop because this is my first time and my arm will be sore. Ok.

September 9, 2010

Today Boss came to my door and said that yesterday he found a house in the village that has pusus. He went and saw them…there are 3. Ok, so I throw my shoes on and off we go. And it’s true! There are 3 lil kittens running around outside these people’s compound. So I start looking around to see which one looks healthy. Boss has apparently already scouted them for me, “Boala, look at this one. It is very clever; it will do good for you.” Ok. So he nabs the kitten and I flip it over to see if it’s a boy or a girl (I want a boy; they don’t spay or neuter here and I don’t want a prego cat). I think he’s a boy from what I can tell…there’s a bump in the right area…but I dunno. The kitty is tiny! Barely bigger than my hand. So now I have a kitty. He is brown and white and after a few days with him I think I will call him Monkey. He jumps around all goofy and chases his tail and attacks his own feet. He will grow to be a great mouse assassin! He spent his first night crying all night long…no sleep…this is why I’m afraid I do not have the mothering nature…I wanted to snap his neck at about 2 am…but of course I didn’t.

September 10, 2010

So today is market day in Bala (two villages over) and HoHoe (my big market town). I usually go to Bala first because I get fruits and veggies there much cheaper. So Nymetchay said she wanted to go too (Muwali’s cousin who is in town until she goes back to school in Accra next week). So we decided to walk because she had to drop something off at Mate, the village in between mine and Bala. So we carry a basket of stuff to Mate. As we’re walking through Mate a couple boys (probably around 13 or so) start yelling, “Obruni, lady. Oh I love white lady…” I just kinda wave them off and keep going. On the way back to the main road we see them again, “Oh I love white lady…” “Boy, you ain’t old enough to handle a woman of any color…” and as my mouth is flapping I realize he has no idea what I’m saying and instead throw out, “Obimini.” Which means black/African child. I figure calling him a child in his language is the best comeback I have. This cracks Nymetchay up. Anyway…

We get to Bala and start walking around. I’m buying stuff to make groundnut soup and banku and Nymetchay apparently just wanted to go on the trip because she buys nothing and just jabbers to cute boys. So I go to the dried fish area of the market (it smells something awful) to buy some lil dried fish for Monkey. As I’m buying a disgusting baggy full of dried fish, I can tell the market ladies are talking about me. So one speaks in Ewe, “Yevu, efoa?” Which means how are you. I respond in Ewe, “Mefo. Wo ha efoa?” Which means I’m fine. How are you? Before I even get the ‘mefo’ all the way out, the market women start hollering. “Eh, mese evegbe.” Yes, I hear Ewe...so quit poking fun at the Yevu! So they all start talking to me in Ewe…which of course most I don’t understand. But with Nymetchay’s help we determine that they want me to take them to America. I said sure, I will be in Ghana for 2 years…after that we will all go. They enjoyed that…it’s a fun game to them. Some days being the butt of every joke is okay, some days, I just don’t have the mindframe for it…

After that I hop a tro for HoHoe. I spoil myself by buying chocolate soymilk and REAL chocolate chip cookies. I spent 6 cedis on the 2 of them. For one more cedi I could have bought another flat of 30 eggs. It’s sad when I weigh my purchase decisions on how many eggs it costs.

Chris A. comes back to the village with me and we’re gonna hike and go to the caves tomorrow. Tonight we made Asian noodles, swapped movies and music, jabbered, and shared a 2 cedi box of wine 

September 11, 2010

Happy Birthday Marilyn!!!!

So today Chris and I woke up, made breakfast and went to hike the caves. Boss was not feeling well, so he had Joseph, one of the chief’s twin sons, take us. We hike fast up the mountain; Chris and I are sweating are asses off. Then we go to the caves. We had so much fun. It really is a great hike; the caves require some mountaineering and questionable rock climbing, but they are awesome! We had a good time making fun of each other. Chris is scared of bats; cave 3 has plenty bats. This is the cave that you climb through a small hole and descend a ladder into the cave about 6 feet below. You climb around down there and listen to the story of the ancestors as bats fly around you. So Chris is freaking out and yelping and Joseph is cracking up at us and calling him “Batman.” Chris asks Joseph to climb back into this little room off the main part and take a flash picture of all the bats in there. Joseph says sure and Chris flies up the ladder at top speed so they don’t all fly out while he’s in there. I also climbed out; I don’t mind the bats, but I don’t want a shit ton of them flying at my face either. So we climb out to the ledge area and wait…you can hear the bats fluttering in the cave underneath of us. Then several come flying out of the main hole. A little while later Joseph emerges, unscathed, with good pictures, and laughing at us.

Then comes Chris’s turn to laugh at me. You have to descend into the ravine and they have ropes tied so you can kinda repel down. It’s very steep and the rocks are always slippery due to all the rain. So you know I’m short and stubby, so it’s hard for me to find footholds sometimes. So I’m hanging onto the rope, repelling backwards, I have lowered my body to find the next foothold so that one knee is up by my ear; I still can’t reach another foothold that’s not slippery. So I figure f* it. I release my one foot and decide to just kinda slide down the rock face with my arms holding onto the rope and my belly skimming the rock. The 2 guys are below me and are laughing their asses off. Whatever…I made it. Chris does have some entertaining video though; complete with me yelling at him to stop video tapping me and him doing his evil/shit-eating laugh.

So we progress through the caves; hearing Chris’s “Oh, Mylanta” comments assure me that I’m not a pussy and certain parts really are challenging. So we climb through the final cave, which is a vertical climb, and then comes the part that I hate. You have to shimmy across a small ledge for about 20 feet with nothing to hang onto except the rock and a questionable wire. It scares me! Joseph goes first and then I start. I tell him that this part is very scary for me so he talks me along and when I get close to the end he grabs my hand (which is noticeably shaking) and helps me over. “You are safe! You are scared, I can feel you shaking!” Yes, it scares me. Then I hover on the other side of the bend and I hear Chris, “Oh, Mylanta.” We made it across and then comes the feeling of knowing it is over!!!

So we descend the mountain and are both exhausted. We bumble through the village covered in sweat, dirt, and bat shit. “Sia bidzi?” Where are you from? “Budzi kotini.” We are from the mountain. “Oh, you have tried.” Yes, we have. So back at the house we shower and then take a stab at making banku and groundnut soup. Turned out pretty good. The soup was a little runny, but the flavor was good. Anyway, that’s about it.

j

Hi..bunch of blogs at once

August 19, 2010


Thank you all for the birthday wishes. It was an enjoyable day including cookies, soda, and later beer and gin sachets. Mom and dad, thanks for the box of goodies! I’m diggin the new Jack Johnson and Tom Petty CD’s!!
August 12 was our swearing in ceremony. I had a traditional dress made for it, as most people did. I have to say we looked pretty sharp in our garb. We performed our Ghanaian dances for the homestay families and took our oaths as volunteers. Training is over! (pics to come when I get to a fast enough internet)

So now I am at site; I finally get to unpack for the last time and settle in. My counterpart met me in HoHoe and we did some shopping at the market. The next day we went back to HoHoe to go to the bank (that was a fun experience), get a stove and propane tank, then when we went to get the tank filled, they are out of propane L When we got back to Todome, Mawuli shows up with a propane tank on his head, “Jeanna, you can use this one till yours gets filled.” “Thanks, Mawuli, which family gave up their tank for the Yevu?” “Oh, Jeanna, it is no problem, it was extra.” Right…People are so accommodating here it’s ridiculous. Like when the tro is completely full, as in complete capacity even in Ghanaian standards, and it picks Mawuli and I up and one lady sits on some other lady’s lap and a gave me a seat, then Mawuli and the mate hang out the open sliding door.

The first meal I cooked for myself in over 2 months was shells and cheese with the Velveeta mom sent…it was fantabulous!!!!

So Tuesday evening Mawuli left for Kumasi where he has an interview for nursing school…pray for him, he deserves it! Yesterday, Confidence came to help me clean my house. No one has been living here, so spiderwebs, mouse poop, etc are everywhere. But the place is shaping up. I saw the mice yesterday, they are small and cute, but I don’t want them eating my food or drawing snakes to the house, so tomorrow I will be buying some Raid…sorry little friends, you must go, and please take all the big, flat spiders with you…thanks. I also think I have bed bugs. Each morning I wake up with a bunch of itchy bites on my back fat and butt (that’s how you want to meet your new community, itching your butt…I look like a monkey)…so today I stuck my mattress outside in the sun and spent the afternoon shooing the chickens and goats away from it. We’ll see if it did any good, may need a few more days out there.

After we were done cleaning I asked Confidence if she would like to try some mac and cheese, “let me taste it first, I may not like it”…”Oh, it is with milk.” “Yeah, kinda…cheese.” “Ok, I will take some.” So I heated us some up. She ate for a while and then said, “Jeanna, you are a good cook!” Awesome. Confidence is a REALLY good cook. She is the one who cooked for me while I was here on site visit. She’s gonna teach me how to make banku and groundnut soup…one of my fav’s here.

Yesterday I met with the women’s group who produce palm nut oil (started by last volunteer). Apparently they’ve kinda fallen off the horse since the PCV left. The nut-cracking machine is broken and they’ve been working with the JICA (Japanese volunteers) volunteer making water sachet bags. They said they make more money doing this, but then my supervisor (also the interpreter since none of the women speak English and my Ewe is extremely limited) said something to the effect that this group is for me, I should organize them. But really, the whole point of PC is sustainability. So that the projects continue once PC leaves the site. If the women aren’t into palm nuts anymore, then it’s not gonna work. The crappy side to that is that the past volunteer worked really hard and got the cracking machine funded and also had a work shed built. It’d be a shame for all that to be a waste…but maybe they’ll get stoked about palm nuts again or maybe we can reuse the shed for something. I dunno. They also mentioned growing mushrooms, which I want to do too; I learned about it in Ho and have a mushroom grower contact there. Anyway, I want to talk with the women through a women interpreter and not my supervisor…he’s great don’t get me wrong, but I don’t want him to influence them into doing something (aka palm nut processing) that they don’t want to…cause if they don’t wanna do it, it’s not gonna work anyway. But they also need to realize that they can’t keep hopping around…I won’t write or help write grant proposals for a new project if they’re gonna keep being wishy washy…that’s a waste of money/resources. Anyway, that’s something I’ll be working on soon.

So today I woke up and washed clothes for a couple hours, then cooked an egg sandwich and NesCafe coffee (every time I drink it I think of you Amy, and camping J), did dishes and then said, “shit, now what do I do?” Don’t really know anyone, can’t speak Sekua/Sekpele yet, house is clean, electricity is off, can’t listen to music….so I decided to walk small up the mountain to the good viewing spot. So off I go down the footpath into the village. I greet in Ewe and people greet back. I stop and talk to 2 women doing something with some kind of nut under a mango tree. We greet in Ewe and then…ummm…smile, nod… gesture…their names are Patience and Aduaja…or something close to that. On I go, heading toward the mountain path. Greet in Ewe again, “Afi kai neyina?” “Meyina liaa to.” Where are you going? I’m going to hike the mountain. One lady points out in English that the tourists and guide have already gone up. “I’m Boala, I am living here now.” “Ohhhh…I did not know. Welcome. Are you going alone?” “I have been before, I will walk small and nava kaba (go and come).” “Yooo.” “Yoo.”

On my hike I realize how incredibly out of shape I am and that I’m actually gonna be living here for 2 years. This place is beautiful, it is also incredibly slow. I will have to find numerous ways to entertain myself: make a garden with a bamboo fence, learn how to crotchet, teach at the school, help at farms, etc. After almost 2 years of applications and training, I am indeed finally here. WOW. So it begins!

Happy Birthday Mom, Zane, and James

Ingtifafa kple lolo,

j

August 24, 2010


Week at site: I’ve hiked the mountain 3 times, I’ve started doing yoga again (awww, the body says thank you), I make an egg sandwich everyday for breakfast, I spend a lot of time staring into space or randomly dancing through my house, I’ve hung up some pictures…with duct tape, grandpa would be proud, I have gotten accustomed to being in downdog and seeing my cute, furry, little poop-machines running down my hall at me (the 2 mice that like to crap on my kitchen table/stove/dishes. They really are cute, but the defecating where I eat thing justifies death in my book. Death by poison or cat? I dunno yet. A cat means responsibility, but also company…decisions…unfortunately PC hasn’t deposited our money yet or the bank hasn’t posted it yet, so I only have 3 cedis (about $2.60ish) to my name right now…can’t afford rat poison or a cat/cat food…so the poop-machines are having free reign), I talk to goats and chickens all the time…scary thing is, I think one of the roosters understands me, I’ve started practicing carrying my water pan on my head, I walk through town everyday just to meet people and stop talking to goats…kidding…kind of.

Today I started reading through our development books trying to get ideas of where to start assessing the TMT (Tourism Management Team) and the Palm Oil Women’s Group…the two main groups I’ll be working with. It’s hard deciding which development tools to use in each group. For TMT I was gonna just start with, “Each person write down 2 goals for the TMT for the next 2 years; and then give one suggestion to attain each, then please turn your card into me.” (Obviously not in those words) I’m gonna give each one a bright notecard to write on…you know bright colors win people over all the time! Then I was gonna have the chairman read them all at the next meeting and have the group decide on the top 2 goals and that would be what we would start brainstorming on, etc. This is basically the Needs Assessment and Priority Ranking tool from PACA…just Jeanna-fied. But this is supposed to be the last of the 4 tools to be used. So, now I’m trying to decide if I should do the some of the other 3 tools first, or if maybe the previous volunteer did them and we don’t need to since the team is already established…I dunno, will have to do some digging; I think we have a meeting set up for Sunday…so I’ll try to meet with my counterpart and supervisor before that and get their input on it. Palm Oil group…who knows, I don’t even know if they are a palm oil group anymore. I may try to just meet with the chairwoman and see if they are even interested in Palm Oil anymore and if so, how they plan on paying for the machine to get fixed….can’t always write grants for this stuff…not sustainable.

I'm supposed to start Sekua (yeah, not Sekpele. Sekpele is spoken by 8 of the 10 Likpe Villages, but my village (Todome) and Bakua speak Sekua…similar, but different than Sekpele) lessons this week. But Monday I had to go to HoHoe to try and get money (not there) and buy the rest of my house stuff (couldn’t buy), today there was a burial, and tomorrow is funeral rites, so…who knows? But the old women of the village are getting restless with my Ewe greetings…they have started trying to teach me Sekua greetings by shouting at me until I repeat something close to what they are saying and then they start laughing and cheering…I dunno, I just laugh and shrug my shoulders alot…So far I have learned (from my walks with Boss, the tourguide and my soon-to-be language teacher)“bodu” which means “let’s go” in Sekua, and “poosoo” which means “cat.”

So anyway, that’s what I’ve been doing J I have gotten word that some of the Austin homies and also my parents are planning Ghana trips in 2011….SWEETASS!!!!!!!!!!! Can’t wait to see you all J

Hope all is well with everyone.

j

August 28, 2010


So a couple days ago our money was deposited at the bank. A PC married couple, Kris and Tricia, who live about 6 hours from HoHoe had to come down to bank, so they spent the night at my place…my first guests! We had a nice visit, strung hammocks on my porch and they slept out there. In the morning we woke up and hiked to the viewing point on the mountain and then down to the waterfall. On our way back through the village, we were looking to buy a couple eggs for breakfast; the stand that usually has eggs didn’t have any, so I asked the lady who I buy onions from where we could find some eggs. She said something in Sekua to a girl who was about 4 or 5…off she goes; the lady says “Go.” Oh, ok. So we start following this little girl through people’s compounds. People are cooking and bathing (it’s about 7 am now) and three yevus come traipsing through their “yards.” After a short walk and numerous greetings, we come to some house where I tell a girl (maybe 13ish) that we want to buy eggs…I say it in Ewe and the girl and an old women get all excited and tickled that the yevu speaks Ewe. So now the 5-year-old girl starts walking off back the direction we came, now we are told to follow the 13-year-old girl. We end up going back to the road (there’s only one dirt road running through my village) to a lil’ shop. The key gets broken in the lock (a padlock) so she yells something at someone and then some dude comes stalking over with his cutlass (aka machete) and whack, the door is open. There are only 2 eggs in the store. J Gotta love this place. So we buy the 2 eggs and start heading to the footpath towards my house when a guy from across the street comes over and starts trying to talk English to us, “you need more…do you take the local…local eggs?” “Uhhh…chicken eggs?” he makes a weird face and says, “yes.” Hmmm….I’ve been in Ghana long enough to know that Ghanaians tell you what they think you want to hear…so chances are we could have followed this dude into the bush and ended up with dragon eggs or something. Anyway, we politely declined and headed to the house.


We get back and head to the kitchen, and there is one of my sweet lil vermin chillin in the middle of the room. So Tricia is like, “I’m a really good mouse killer, honey give me your shoe.” She takes aim, throws the shoe, and bam, mouse went down! Yeah Tricia… you are my hero. Tricia takes a long SHOWER…they don’t have running water so she was super stoked about my actual shower. I am a lucky lil’ devil. And Kris and I start breakfast. Egg sandwiches, pineapple (they brought one from town), coffee or tea. It was lovely! After everything is cleaned up, we catch a tro to HoHoe to do banking and shopping.

I spent the whole day in HoHoe running around and buying all my crap I needed, including a rain barrel (for when the water stops in dry season), green paint for my bookshelves and screen door I had made, dishes, voltage regulator, etc. It felt sooo good getting stuff accomplished. And I ran into people I knew, yevus and Ghanaians; it felt good…like, “aww, this is my home. I will have friends and chill just like I did in the States…at some point.” I made friends with my egg lady in HoHoe, Victoria, she’s got good eggs…the yokes are actually yellow, not off-white. I bought a whole flat…30 eggs…proteinJ I took all the stuff I bought and left it at the tourism office all day while I was running around; so when I got to the tro station I found one of the Likpe tros and asked them if we could go by the tourism office to pick up my stuff on the way out of town…sure thing. So on the way home it started pouring. The tro roof leaked in spots so my left side was soaked…my stuff was strapped to the roof, but luckily I put all my other bags inside the rain barrel. So it stops raining just a little bit before we get to my stop; I get out and the mate shimmies up to the roof to untie my barrel and he hands it down to the driver (who I know, he’s Confidence’s dad, Raymond). I fully intended to muscle it up the hill myself, but Raymond starts saying something to this group of guys who are sitting under a porch-thing to hide from the rain. So, here comes this beautifully sculpted young man who throws the barrel on his head and starts up my hill. Have I talked about the amazing physiques here in Ghana???…lordy. As Chris said one day, “Jeanna, I thought this guy was fake. He looked like GI Joe for God’s sake!” Fo’ real. So I follow/stalk this incredibly attractive and muscley dude all the way up my hill and he drops my stuff off at my door. “Kofekeyfu, kpo, kpo, kpo.” Which means thank you very much in Sekua. He just smiles, nods, and heads off back down the hill.

When I walk in the house, it smells like rot. Dammit, what died? I hope to God it’s mice and not some other critter that I didn’t even know was there. So after some poking around I find a dead mouse under my desk. I sweep him up and throw him out the door. An hour or so later I realize my fridge isn’t working, so I start moving it around and there was a dead mouse under it, too. Kick ass…three dead mice in one day

Friday morning I went to Likpe Bala, the village 2 over from mine, for market. I can get produce cheaper there than in HoHoe. So Confidence comes to my house and then we walk into our village so she can show me where I can buy some stuff…if it’s off the main road and back on the footpaths, I have no idea. So we have to wait around for a tro to come to go to Bala, so we go and chill at Sister Naomi’s shop (she’s a seamstress) and talk with some of the women. One of the little girls, Juliet, started doing my hair while we waited. We get to Bala and start shopping. I bought 3 large pineapples (b/c they won’t sell you just one without raping you on the price…everyone has a large family to feed, so they sell stuff in piles…booo, for the single yevu) for 2 cedis, 4 small cabbages for 50 pesawa (100 pesawa to a cedi), 3 big yams (over as foot long each; not like the yams at home) for 2 cedi, 50 pesawa, tomatoes for 50 pesawa, big onions for 1 cedi, etc. We also bought a bunch of stuff to make groundnut soup and banku…probably my favorite Ghanaian dish. So we finish and the bag is pretty heavy with the yams and pineapples and stuff; when we are getting close to my stop (she is continuing on to HoHoe) she says, “Boala, are you sure you can carry this all the way to your house.” “Yes, Confidence…I am strong, wait and see. When we stop I will put it on my head and carry it up the hill.” She and the driver and mate started cracking up. So I get out and heave the bag on my head and said, “Tada!” The whole tro of people started cracking up and throwing Yevu/Obruni comments like crazy. Anyway, up the hill I went…the whole way J

Oh, also, I found coconut oil in the HoHoe market! I love cooking with coconut oil and it’s just as cheap as vegetable oil. But guess what, Katie…it comes in a bootleg bottle just like the rum in Jamaica J One nut, one love, holla.

So today Confidence taught me how to make groundnut soup and banku…we took pics so I’ll try to post them at some point. Anyway, groundnut soup consists of: groundnut paste (peanut butter), tomatoes, tomato paste, water, salt, garlic, onion, pepe, garden eggs (like small eggplants, kinda), and I put hard boiled eggs in mine instead of meat. Then you make the banku, which is cassava dough and corn dough mixed together with water and salt, then you cook it and stir it until it gets pretty stiff. You then plop a big ball of it into these plastic baggies. You clip off a piece of banku with your RIGHT hand and then eat the soup with the banku…it’s delicious. Banku is kinda sour…I love it! So we ate our banku and soup (and there’s a ton left over to eat off of this week), I made us drinks with the Crystal Light mom sent, Confidence digs the pink lemonade one, and then we watched two movies she brought over…one Nigerian and one Ghanaian. Nigerian films are sooo cheesy it’s almost painful, but she loves them and I enjoy her company, so that was my Saturday afternoon.

These have been the happenings of late.

j

August 29, 2010


Today is Sunday and we celebrated our patron Saint’s Day; St. Augustine. Last week I didn’t go to church and heard about it several times. Then Boss pointed out that this Sunday is special and I should come. Ok. So church was supposed to start at 9:30, so I get there at 9:30…stupid yevu. It started at 10:30 and lasted till almost 2. It’s a Catholic service in Ewe; the only words I really understand are “no anyi” which means sit down. Other than that I’m clueless. But, really, what else am I gonna do on Sunday, and this is a good way to see lots of villagers and get more face time in. So anyway, Boss comes up to me before the service and says that I will be moved. Ummm…ok…where to exactly? When the chief and elders arrive (they knew not to show up on time) I will join them sitting up front in the chairs…not the crappy wood benches. Uh, ok. It’s nice to be considered “honored,” but also kinda funny feeling…but after sitting for over 4 hours, my butt was soooooo honored to have a chair instead of a wood bench with no back!

Anyway, after normal service stuff (I kinda like the service, there’s lots of drums and singing and the women dance) a bunch of people bring in pans of raw veggies (yams, tomatoes, cassava, corn, etc) on their heads. One by one, each pan of stuff gets auctioned off; they have a real fun time with it…at least that’s what I gather from the laughs…not that I understand anything except for the names of the veggies and the prices they’re sold at... it has something to do with the Saint’s Day. Anyway, it’s finally done and then I’m informed that we will escort the chief to the palace, and then I will go to greet Confidence’s father, Raymond. Ok.

So most of the church leaves and progresses down the road toward the chief’s palace; they sing and drums are playing. People on the street get a kick out of the yevu sauntering down the street in her Ghanaian dress; I had sit just long enough in church that I didn’t find it amusing getting laughed at. Normally I’d play along and be goofy, but just wasn’t in the mood.

So we get to the chief’s palace and about 20 or so people go in. I’m shuffled in and then realize that Boss, the one who said I should help escort the chief, is nowhere around. So people are telling me to sit and then they all start talking in Sekua and I have no idea what’s going on. Gin is brought out and is poured in the communal cup and is passed around. It comes to me and I pour some on the ground for the ancestors and do my shot small, small. They continue to talk and I continue to sit there wondering what the hell the point is of me being there. I hear my name at first, but no body fills me in…I’m tired and have to pee so I don’t ask. At some point Confidence and her father tell me “let’s go.” Ok. So I bid leave to the chief, the queen mother’s linguist, a couple elders, and couple of the other people as I shuffle out the door. We walk to Confidence’s family’s compound. They give me a sachet of pure water…awesome, I’m thirsty…but still have to pee. Then her dad gives Confidence money to go get me a soda. I say it’s not necessary, but apparently it is. So I sit in the living room trying to figure why I’m at this place now. People come in and out; I greet a little, then just settle into watching the Nigerian film that’s on. Raymond says, “Boala, I must go and bid my friends goodbye, I’m coming.” Which means I’ll be back. Ok. So he and the 2 guys leave. I sit with Confidence’s aunt for a while. Confidence is now washing clothes outside. After a while Yaya, her aunt, leaves. Then 2 kids come in. We watch tv. I drink my Sprite and think about how bad I have to pee…never been here before, don’t know where the bathroom is. Also, my parents have been trying to call for 2 hours, but I’ve had my phone on silent because of church and greetings and all. So finally I figure f’ it. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing. There’s not even anyone around, I have to pee and I want to talk to my family...and I’m freaking hungry, it’s 3pm. So, I tell the kids goodbye, walk outside and see Confidence washing clothes. “Oh, are you finished?” “Uh, yeah. Is your dad still here?” “No, he has left to tell his friends from Togo goodbye.” “Oh, ok. Please tell him thank you and I appreciate being invited to your home. I’m gonna go home now.” “Ok, do you know the way?” “Yup, hang a left at the mango tree. See you.”

So I get home and was gonna fry yam into chips and then make guacamole!!! But as I’m changing clothes I hear kids at my door. I go out and my supervisor’s 4 kids are there with a basket on one’s head. “Fo Nicho has sent you food.” “Oh, ok. Kofekeyfu, kpo, kpo, kpo. Tell him I will greet him tomorrow.” And off they go as they laugh at my one Sekua word. So I got a big ol’ pot of rice and Kontumeri stew (kontumeri looks like an elephant ear plant) and a big ol’ chunk of river fish. So I sit down and start eating the stew and rice (not the fish) and pick out the random fishbones. I know this will end up giving me diarrhea for like 3 days, but it was really nice that they sent me food. Probably figured I sat at church all day and hadn’t prepared anything earlier…and they were right. They also sent enough for me to eat off of for 3 days, so I took what I didn’t eat to my counterpart’s house to see if he would be able to eat it…and he did. So, that’s my weird Sunday.
j

September 2, 2010


So we had a TMT (Tourism Management Team) meeting the other day. We went over several things such as: getting the cell phone working so the guides can take it up on the mountain (a JICA volunteer got sick while hiking last week, luckily I had given my number to one of the girls when I met them in HoHoe the day before, so they were able to call me to send help, but normally, there’d be no way to contact help if you were sick/hurt on the mountain), discussing how money is sent and then re-disbursed from the District Assembly, and also I got my Community Tourism Mapping session approved. So we’ll do that on September 12th…hopefully it goes good, as this will be my first effort to accomplish something here…I hope they get the point and don’t think it’s stupid. Basically, you divide up the group (TMT) into 3 groups, each are given the same directions, but then are sent to different areas to draw a map of Todome in regards to tourism: pros/cons, resources, concerns, opportunities, etc. I need to figure out how to explain this in the best way so that I don’t end up with maps of just mountains, caves, and trees. Anyway, if it works how it’s supposed to, we all get back together and look at all three maps. From this we can see what the team deems as positive things in the community (in respect to tourism) and what we need to improve. (If I had to draw it, which I have for practice, I’d show safety and advertising as the two biggest goals, but that’s me…so the objective is for the team to agree on what they think is most important without any influence from me). Therefore it helps the team to set goals as a group, with shared effort. The chairman wants to set 5-year goals. So…hopefully it will work well.

Today the Palm Oil Women’s Group was supposed to meet. Aki, the JICA volunteer from HoHoe (not the one who got sick on the mt, fyi) has been coming to Todome on Thursdays since the last PCT left in 11/09. So now the Palm Oil group has kinda petered out, but some of them are making water sachet bags with Aki. So some of us met up today; I asked Augusta, the Palm Oil Chairwoman, if they still wanted to do Palm Oil, or if they wanted to do Sachet Bags instead. She said we should make 2 separate groups, and that yes they will still do Palm Oil. They just bought some nuts. Ok. So apparently next Wednesday (9/8…Happy Bday Leila!!!) we’ll meet at Augusta’s house to crack nuts…ok. And I’m gonna try to throw in a meeting while we crack so I can figure out what the hell is going on. And I also need to find out how to crack the nuts…and everything else to do with palm nuts, as I know nothing except that palm nut oil gives me acid reflux…which is not helpful information for the group…

Whilst at this brouhaha, I suggested we put slips of paper in the water sachet purses that the women’s group sells (they sell at a Rasta shop in HoHoe and at Wli Falls) advertising the Todome Ecotourism…so, I wrote that up tonight and will print them tomorrow when I’m in HoHoe.

So see, I work.

Today was great; I spent more time in the village today than probably all the days put together (except for Sunday Church marathon). I woke up, cooked breakfast, washed and hung my laundry. Then I went down to Sister Naomi’s sewing shop. I sat and jabbered with her and dropped off some fabric to have made into a curtain for my screened door. I also took these 2 small tablecloths I bought and want to make a shirt out of…it’s so cute in my headJ Naomi said that she will teach me to sew and that I should come hang out at the shop and practice my Sekua with them (I started learning Sekua this week…3 classes!!). I pointed out to her that I tried to sew on a machine right before I left the States and I was awful at it! (Remember, Anner??) Not to mention that Naomi’s machine is not electric, but the kind you have to spin on the side with your hand. I would definitely like to learn though…wonder how many hippie bags I can make in 2 years J

Anyway, after a while a tro came by and Aki jumped out. So we fiddled around at the shop for a while waiting for the meeting time to come…it did, but no one was around. So we started walking through town hunting the women down. I walked back to the house to get some water and greeted in Sekua…the ladies were so stoked…and in turn I was so happy! Anyway, I spend the next hour or so chillin under the lean-to-porch-thing while the ladies are braiding weave and stuff. Then the group kinda comes together and we all sit around cutting and drying water sachet bags, and jabber in a mix of English, Sekua and Ewe. Boobs are out, kids are being fed, baby craps on her mother’s dress because she doesn’t have a diaper on, etc. It was fun stuff.

Completely different note, people feed me all the time. My supervisor and his wife sent food on Sunday, Monday he gave me avocados from his farm, he tried to buy me bread yesterday, today one of the palm oil women (Salomay) gave me a bunch of lil’ bananas, Aki gave me an apple, and MaMa Victoria (she said she’s gonna be my mom…she’s Boss’s sister and probably over 70 years old, she’s super cute, and she gets really excited about stuff) gave me some popcorn. People are really nice. So I’ve started dolling out all the extra produce I have to buy since it’s impossible to get a good deal on 1 pineapple or 1 cabbage. So I gave Boss a pineapple one day and 2 cabbages to my supervisor, etc. I like trading, it means variety J

Anyway, that is it for now. I’m gonna try to start hanging out in the village more, but I’ve been busy at the house this week (painted my screen door and kitchen shelves) and then going to language. It’s more fun to hang with the women in town though; although on many days they are at farm and not around anyway. Oh well.

Eda bue. Which means, “it’s cool,” in Sekua (but spelt different due to funky Sekua letters)
j