Can't Do Nuthin' Right

January 31, 2011

I’ve heard it’s been super cold at home, but here it’s been hella hot.  A little over a week ago the dust that has been making the sky foggy-looking started to clear, which means the beating sun is now shining through much more directly.  Eeek.  I completely ditched the village the other day and just laid under my ceiling fan in my underwear reading a book.  But tonight…just now… IT RAINED!!!!! It hasn’t rained in months…not since October or November.  Oh, the wind picked up and you could smell the rain coming and then…it was here!!!  It rained hard for about 40 minutes…it smells so good now!  I love rain.

Yesterday, I met with the batik group and we weeded and swept the Palm Oil Shed…which will now be our shed…well at least one of the rooms.  Termites have completely eaten through the 2 main doors and are well on their way to eating through the other 2…freaking bugs!  So, now we’ll have to do something about that.  As we were cleaning out the rooms, I hear Confidence screaming about something.  “What’s going on?”  “Oh, there is a very big lizard in there!”  I was thinking like a Monitor lizard or something…it was one of our common lizards (about 15 inches or so with it’s tail).  So I went and chased it out with my broom…as soon as it ran out the door one of the women started chasing it with her cutlass.  I’m screaming, “no, don’t kill it, nooooo” and all the women are laughing at me.  And Rita kept whackin’ him with her cutlass and finally chopped his head off.  “Oh!  Lizards eat bugs…they do not harm us.  Why did you kill it?”  Confidence, “I do not like them.”  Well then.  I can’t really argue…I kill spiders and I know they eat bugs…I can tell you that I have been killing a lot less since I’ve moved to Africa…

Last week I had a meeting with my chief and I’ve been approved to reshuffle the TMT; so now we have to announce it at the next community gathering.  We also talked about going and meeting with the Municipal Assembly to figure out why we are still waiting to use our tourism reception center.  So, hopefully these things get rolling.

So here’s your funny for today:  Today I was sitting at the roadside talking with Esther as she was filling the little bags with sugar to sell at her store.  So I said, “Oh, Esther, let me help.  I’ll tie the bags.”  “Can you?”  “Well, sure.”  I’m not stupid…geeze.  Well, apparently I am.  “Is this ok?”  “No, there is too much air.  Do it like this.” So after 2 more attempts my bag of sugar was approved.  Dang it, I thought I had this one!  “Esther, I am going to have to call my mother and tell her that I cannot even tie a bag a sugar correctly in Ghana!  She will be sad.”  She started laughing at me…but still didn’t hand my any more bags.

Happy Monday!
j

Library Day

January 25, 2011

So today was my first library day at the school.  For upper primary (grades 4-6), I brought out the boxes of books and put them in different stacks based on reading level and also if it was an African author or a foreign author.  I explained the rules of library: no ripping pages, no fighting over books, you must return the books to the stacks you got them from, you must bring the books back to me each Tuesday on library day, and you must sign the book out with me.  And then there was a mad rush of 32 kids attacking the books.  The headmaster went and got the switch and started whacking kids to get order.  We then decided that starting next week I will take each class individually for a half hour :)  Some of the kids picked their books and started reading and others just ran around…to be expected.  I showed them where to find the title and author and then just left them to read or whatever while I tried to look through their school books to decide what reading levels they are being taught.

After the lunch break I went back to the do the lower primary (grades 1-3).  Class 1’s teacher was missing, so I just went in and read a small book to them and showed them the pictures.  We tried to identify colors and establish that grasshoppers hop.  They had no idea what I was talking about, but were well behaved.  Class 2, I read a small book to them, too. They had no idea what I was talking about, either.  This was established as I tried to ask questions about the book…and then their teacher had to ask them in Ewe…they said the book was about a snake and a cat.  It was actually about a rabbit, duck, frog, and rat.  They did however establish that one animal was cooking…that was true…the rat.  So I talked to the teacher and said that they don’t understand me…I’m trying to talk really slow..,but…she said to keep coming back anyway. I didn’t make it to class 3 because I ran out of time.

So that was my day at school.  Tomorrow I have my Culture Club and we are going to practice writing.

j

Shipment of Water Sachet Purses to U.S.

I'll be sending some water sachet purses to the U.S. in the next month.  The first shipment was well received and people have asked for more.  So if you are interested in purchasing any, please let me know by emailing my gmail account and I'll get back to you...prices are as follows...and then we'll add a little for shipping too.
Coin purses are $1.50 US, medium ones are $2 US, and the large ones are $2.50 US.

Details of the women's group can be seen on the blog posted in October.

Thanks!!!

Jeanna

Busy Bee

January 23, 2011

The last week has been busy.  I organized the library books at school; trying to separate them by reading level.  Not knowing what reading level corresponds to what class is kinda hard, but at least it’s a start.  I also had my first Culture Club meeting.  There were 32 kids; 10 to 15 years old.  I started by passing a paper around to get all their names and info…this proved to be very distracting and it was hard to make them listen instead of talking and going and grabbing the paper from each other.  I tried defining culture…so they knew what are club was for and what we will be learning from the exchange with the U.S. students.  I made a game on the board; they would write something under Ghana (drums, futbol, fufu) and I would write something under the US (guitar, baseball, hamburger) to show different elements of our cultures.  It went ok.  They aren’t used to interactive learning, they are usually just lectured to and expected to memorize…so they were a little hesitant to go to the board and answer questions.  Oh well.  So this week we are gonna start practicing writing since we will be writing letters to the class in the U.S.  I don’t really know their writing skills or if they know what a paragraph is or anything…and asking the teachers is not really that helpful…so…we’ll see.  I have some basic things outlined that I want to go over and then have them write me a simple paragraph about themselves, just so I can see where they are in their writing skills.

Confidence and I had our meeting with the youth about the Batik business.  There are 7 youth (in their 20’s and 30’s) that want to join…6 girls, 1 guy.  We decided on working on Mondays and Wednesdays…and sometime in the next few weeks Confi and I will go to Accra to pick all the supplies.  We also schedule as work day to weed around and then sweep the building we will be working in (the unused Palm Oil Shed).  They asked me what country I was from because they don’t understand anything I say…I talk too fast…yes I know.  I try to talk slower, but it’s hard…I loose my train of thought when I talk that slow.Anyway…this venture should start in February.  Once we start making fabric, I’ll post some pics and see if you guys want any orders J

TMT…yeah…still mind numbing.  Only 4 of the 11 people showed up for the meeting I called.  I told them that we have to reorganize the TMT…I want 5 people on the team and I want the members to be voluntary…not elected because of clan.  I also said we would start paying small money each time a member came to a meeting/training.  They said that we need to talk to the chief first…so hopefully this week Fo Nicho and I will be able to meet with the chief.  If he doesn’t allow us to reorganize, then I’m telling him that I’m not working with the TMT anymore because they are not doing anything.  It’s so frustrating.  There is so much that can be done…and I know I can make it happen if I just had people who cared!  So we’ll see.

So,  if everything that is supposed to happen actually happens, I will be pretty busy…which would be great!

Hope you all are doing well and enjoying all the snow!!!  Happy Birthday Jason!

Liyua ku lelabi.

j

Palm Wine...yummmmm

Dixon and his leaf necklace on my porch.

My sassy dress I had made...the headwrap was just for fun :)

Dixon and I

Did I Even Wake Up Today?

January 10, 2011

So what did I do today?  Woke up at 9, exercised, ate, went to town.  It’s maize harvesting time, so no one is around.  I spent an hour playing with two kids and a cardboard box.  We played tro…bad part is, I had as much fun as the kids.   Dixon followed me home for some reason, so I made him a leaf necklace and put some leaves in my hair and we sat on my porch and sanded coconut shells.  So far I have a coconut spoon and something that’s gonna be a cool pendant once I figure out how to drill a hole through it.  Shaved (it’s been a while), read my book for a couple hours, ate beef jerky, sketched a tree, and now am bored.  It’s 7:30 pm…lame, yet peaceful.

I spoke to the headmaster after church on Sunday.  School will be starting tomorrow so I wanted to get in there and start going through the books for the library.  But… “we will be very busy the first week, next week you should come.”  Damn!  Nothing to do until Thursday…

I’ve been whispering in peoples’ ears that I wanna revamp the TMT completely…we’ll see…something has gotta change, I’ve been in my village for 5 months (almost) and TMT hasn’t done squat!!

…

j

Pics

Esther and I laughing at a Japanese fashion mag.

View from Likpe tro station in HoHoe

Water pump in Todome

Apolonia

Christmas Hotel Room in Accra...HOT SHOWER!!!

Our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree in the hotel room.

Yippee, my package Christmas morning!

A kente strip with my name sewn in.

Liberation Square in Accra

My flying squirrel dress.

The bamboo table Mawuli made for me.

Beach in Accra on Christmas Day

In Todome

George drying his cocoa seeds.

Mom and Dad sent me Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes!!!

Rhoda and I hiking

View of Todome

What I look like when I go to the river or weeding.  I feel like a crazy amazon person.

Christmas Dance at the high school in Mate.

HIV play in Mate

Crowd watching the play.

Aki, Mawuli and I

Chris, Nivole, and I on Christmas Eve

Chris's Christmas present.

Thai Coconut Soup on Christmas Day

My mudcloths I bought.

New Year morning fufu pounding

Men's table eating the fufu

kids eating their fufu on the floor

Confy and my fufu and light soup.

first bite of morning fufu

Confy feeding me bones...I just can't do it.

Kids blowing the balloons

Alex caught the rooster to deliver to Esther's mother in Bakua for a New Year's gift.  Funny to watch.

More fun with balloons.

2011 is on in Ghana Style

January 1, 2011

Happy New Year!  Today I went to Confidence’s house around 6:30 am. It was cold this morning and it was still early enough for the fog to be low to the ground…the village is pretty in the morning fog with the sun coming through and the red dirt paths and mud houses.  People were boiling yams and cassava to make fufu.  People greeted me with “Lale tubu” or something close to that means “Happy New Year.”  And then they taught me the response of, “ Babamba lale tubu.” Or something like that.  By the time I got to Confidence’s I could mumble something close to the right response and it made everyone very happy.  They started pounding the fufu when I got to the house; the whole family was there including brothers, cousins, aunties, etc and the party was in full swing with music blaring and dancing around.  Fufu is boiled yam and/or cassava, some use plantains; take the boiled starch and put it in a huge mortar and then pound the crap out of it with a huge pestle and someone splashes water and folds it as one or two people pound it.  I have pictures I’ll post at some point.  When the pounded dough can be balled, it is done.  So while they were pounding fufu, Confidence and I went to the church to decorate with balloons for the service. We returned to her house and ate the fufu with light soup w/ beef.  Basically it’s broth with the meat oil and pepe and tomatoes…pretty good.  I still like banku better than fufu, but it was nice.  People always make fun of the Yevus because we chew our fufu instead of swallowing it…I tried to practice.  I made muffins yesterday and took some to Confi’s family; they all liked them and said how sweet they were.

 

After this I went home to get ready for church and then attended our 3 hour service. But it was fun, we danced a lot.  After church…around 1:30, I came home and took a nap because I didn’t sleep last night because people were up praying and chanting until 3 am…geeze.  So I woke up and then went down to my supervisor’s house to take them some muffins.  I ended up eating fufu with them too and they sent me 2 cokes and a pot of rice, noodles, stew and goat to take home.  Sitting there with Fo Nicho and Esther, under the tree in the their compound taking fufu from the communal pots made me happy.  It was nice and relaxing and I felt like a part of the family instead of the yevu outsider/spectacle.  On the way down to their house I saw a big group of kids and we blew the bubble balloons together and I took a bunch of pics. They had a good time.

After eating with Fo Nicho we went and greeted Boss and hung out on the roadside for a while.  Then they started playing le bobo (drums) down at the end of the road so we went down there. I danced with Rose, his daughter and a bunch of the town people. They were leading me around in the dance circle under the big tree trying to teach me the dances…I kept getting rocks stuck in my shoes, tripping over the roots and losing my beat.  It was fun. I love dancing here. The drums and the stars made me very happy and it was fun to be a part of the community…yes I was still the white spectacle flopping around in the circle, but it was fun.  Some of the women that I usually greet in village would grab me and booty flop me around…it was really hilarious! 

So 2011, here we come.  A full year in Ghana…no US in 2011 at all..huh…wonder how that will work out.  I wish you all many blessings for the coming year.  Thank you all for your cards, packages, and emails. It’s really great hearing from you guys…it means a lot to me and it’s good to know that my “normal” life hasn’t completely faded away.

Love you and miss you.

J