Tuesday, June 26, 2007

2 weeks in

Traveling. Wondering around. Riding. Roaming. Traveling. Following. Looking. Traveling. Traveling. Traveling. That about sums up the past 2 weeks. It’s mind boggling that is has only been 2 weeks since I left home. Feels more like 2 months. It’s nice to think that part is behind me. For a little while anyway.

Leaving was hard. I knew I would cry. But I’m not gonna lie, I sobbed. Haha. When I went to give the security guard my ticket/id I couldn’t talk. I guess that’s why they didn’t confiscate the giant pocket knife I forgot I had in my purse. Oops. I realized it was in there later in Philly when we had to do a security check at a federal building and they made me leave the premises to “dispose” of it. (I put it in a bush and picked it up later.J ) I was only in Philidelphia for 2 days. I think the whole purpose was to test our ability to stay awake. They gave us lots of info we need to know about all the general Peace Corps policies, but yikes! 8 hours straight of that pushes my limits. It was fun getting to know our group though. My group consists of 36 education volunteers who are all in Ghana. There are 6 visual arts educators (me!), about 6 information technology educators and the other two halves are math and science educators. It’s a good group, everyone is mostly 20-30 and has really interesting personalities and backgrounds. A few people had never been out of the country. I can’t imagine my first out of country experience being Africa! They are brave J.

After two eight hour plane rides we arrived! Accra hit me in the face the second I stepped off the plane. I thought the humidity in Ohio could get bad. I knew nothing. Most days here you are just covered in sweat. All the time. All day long. All night long. At home I usually just shower like once every couple days. Here I take a cold shower every morning and every night. And its wonderful. I actually haven’t even bucket bathed yet. Everywhere I’ve been has had a shower.

When we walked out of the airport tons of PCVs (peace corps volunteers) where there screaming and throwing little ketchup packet-sized bags of liquor at us. Haha. It took us a minute to realize that’s what they were! We spent the next couple of days getting introduced to everything. Accra. Peace Corps Headquarters. Tros. Vaccinations. Everyone yelling Abruni Abruni anywhere we went. Ghanaian trainers. Humidity. The American Embassy. The Ministry of Education. More Vaccinations. Fufu. Bantu. Buying food out of the windows of Tros. Cedis. Marriage proposals at the end of every conversation with a man. Humidity. Humidity. Humidity.

After giving us a little taste of everything we were on our own for awhile. Vision Quest. Each trainee was assigned to a PCV somewhere in Ghana and we had to travel on our own to visit them and stay for a few days at their site. I was assigned to visit Sarah. She is a visual arts teacher in the Volta Region. I didn’t get to practice traveling alone though, they assigned Dace, another trainee, to the same site. We never did figure out why they did that. Oh well. So we set off for the Volta Region. The first thing you learn when you are trying to travel in Ghana is that you can’t do it without help from the Ghanaians. There’s not really any maps or road signs, or anything that would help independent travel. The way you go about it is to first ask multiple people how to get to your destination (if someone isn’t sure they will make up something so you have to double check the directions) and sometimes people will just take you. Ghanaians are the friendliest group of people I have ever met in my life and they love Americans. You can’t go anywhere without making friends. If you can’t walk then you flag down a tro by various hand signals and talk to the “mate” to make sure they are going the way you want and hop on. The Tro is unexplainable. It is an experience. Picture really old vans, like from the 70s, with about 20 people squeezed into seats meant for about 15.There is a mate hanging out the side window yelling “AccraAccraAccraAccraAccra” (or wherever the to is headed) and it is flying in and out of traffic. The lines on the road here are only a suggestion. If there is any lines. Or pavement. When there is pavement, it is generally a maze of potholes and dicey edges. There really is no explaining the Tro. It is an experience that everyone should have.

So using these highly evolved methods, Dace and I set off for the top of the Volta Region. Our only hangup was in Kpong when we had to wait 2 hours for the Tro to fill. (if you get a tro at the tro station, they don’t leave until it’s full) Sarah’s village was great. It was pretty small, so everyone knew her and would call out “Ama Sarah” (Ama is her day name, mine is Effia) everywhere we went. It was fun seeing her set-up. She had a little house in which she had her own room and a closed porch area that functioned as kitchen/sitting room and she shared with one of her students who also had a room next to hers. There was an outside shower and outhouse right next door that she shared with her immediate neighbors. We met all Sarah’s Ghanaian friends and another PCV up the road who was there as an environmental volunteer. He had started a nursery in the next town. The chief of Sarah’s village was gone, but we got to meet the chief of Doug’s village and it was this whole ceremony. It was really interesting. The chief and sub-chiefs all sit in a row on their porch and are dressed in traditional wraps. You have to say “ago” and announce yourself before step onto the porch. Then the chief’s linguist will speak (I guess the chief isn’t allowed to speak directly to you, at first anyway) they ask if you are coming in war or peace and joke that if it is war, give them a minute to go back to their houses to get some weapons, some prayers are said, they spill some gin for the ancestors, and then you seal it with a shot. It was all very formal.

After following Sarah around through her daily routines and learning to handwash laundry Dace and I set off for Techiman. 20 hours on the Tro. I don't wish it on any of you :) We found out later that there was a faster way, but we didn't know, so we just did what Sarah said. Oh well. It was really fun arriving in Techiman. It had only been 3/4 days, but it was sooo nice to be among familar faces again and be able to speak english without attempting to put on an African accent (yes i have to do that now, so they can understand me, its funny listening to each other's "ghanaian accents") We spent the 3 days in Techiman doing interviews with the assistant directors and brushing up on our Twi (Tchwi is how you pronounce it) I've gotten the basics down pat: Welcome (Akwaaba), I accept your welcome (Yaa So), How are you (Wo ho te sai), I am fine, and you? (Me ho yay, no on suai?), I am also fine (Menso me ho yaya paaa)...:) and a few other things.

Saturday was the best day of all. We got our site assignments!! It was really fun the way they told us. They drew a giant map of Ghana in the courtyard in chalk and put little X's on the places where our sites were. Then we all stood around the map and they called out who was going where one by one. We danced over to our X and gave a big hug to the trainer who would be in that area. It was great. So my site is...dun dun dun... Safelugu! This is a town that is about 20 min. north of Tamale. Lol, I was one of 2 people in the entire northern region. By the end everyone was grouped together, but I had room to break dance if I wanted. I was a little apprehensive about being all by myself at first, but Tamale is a PC Headquarters, so volunteers will be traveling through my area often. The closest volunteers to me are in small towns in the Upper East Reigon near Bolgatanga. I'm very excited about my site also. I will be replacing a current visual arts deaf educator at the boarding school and will be teaching primary (ages 5-10) and have my own bungalo house with my own bathroom. I'm rollin high-style :)

Now, we have moved on to the "real" part of training. I am living in a small village outside of Techiman with a host family! I am staying with the Queen Mother of the village, her name is Nana Yaa Focia and my new name is Kari Afia Focia. It makes everyone laugh when I introduce myself that way.. Me din de Kari Afia Focia. The peace corps recruited all new villages this year for the homestay, so we are the first white people ever to be living in each of the villages. (or so the villagers say) So what that means is I'm a local celebrity. Everyone wants to talk with me. It takes forever to get anywhere because you have to greet everyone. I kind of enjoy it actually. Although I never know if I am getting my Twi right or not because they laugh at me either way. My current problem is now trying to learn Dagbani (the lauguage I will speak in Tamale) when I use Twi all day in the village. My homestay family is amazing. But that is for the next entry :) Mayko