Pics- Savelugu School for the Deaf

Mom Visit!


The past couple of months have been chocked FULL! Heres the rundown:
Beginning of Feb.
I was laid flat on my bad sick for the first time in my memory. I told my mom it felt like there was a migraine in my whole body. Boo. To make a long story short, I had some recurring headaches/spineaches and we still don't know the cause. However despite my many random diagnoses (Menangitis, Malaria, Migraines, Multiple Sclerosis... Being Posessed-j/k not one actually said that one) the whole thing just kinda stopped. So, hopefully it won't come back and thank you everyone at home for being so worried, it made me feel loved:)
Feb. 11-16
In Service Training. We art people got to stay for a few days at a fancy hotel in Kumasi complete with a/c and a swimming pool. What more could you ask for? We spent our days discussing our experience thus-far and learning fun new crafts- screen printing, glass bead making, and batik.
Feb. 18
My first VISITORS! Mom and my professor Gretchen arrived ready to take on Africa. We spent the first night in Accra with Nash's brother Fuzi. Cuddled together in a spare room, we did our best to stay cool in the southern humidity. The next day was a rest day-Gretchen and the driver went exploring Accra for good picture opportunities of market ladies, and mom and I went to the Peace Corps Office to do some small small. We all met up, headed to the beach and had some Obruni food for dinner. Yum Yum. The next morning we caught the bus straight to Tamale-12 hours. The one plus side is getting to watch the change in scenery as you move north-tropical to forest to bush to savannah to burnt blackness with a few trees sticking out. Well that is a slight exaggeration, but by the time you get to Tamale it is looking pretty crisp from all the grass burning.
After a warm welcome from Nash, the first of many rounds of tea, and a day touring the markets of Tamale- we finally arrive at my site. Tah Daaah!! We make the rounds, greeting everyone and then since i don't teach fridays just hung out at my house and took a much needed break from African life under the fan.
We spent the weekend in Tamale where Nash had figured out some great places for Gretchen to see how local art forms are processed. We went to a leather "factory" which looked more like a slaughter grounds with bloody hides tacked to dry everywhere- it was interesting to see the local processes though, 1-soak hide in ashes and water to remove hair 2-soak in melons and water to counteract the acidity of the ashes 3-combine ashes and pounded guinea corn stalk to produce redish dye and soak hide in that 4-pin to dry 5-cut into sandals or purse or wallet
We also went to see a potter make her pots which was also done in a completely local, simple way. 1-She mixed her clay with the sand of already firred clay to make it strong 2-She formed some thick coils about a foot long and a circle for the base. 3-she didn't place the coils around for the walls, but twisted them against her palm while rotating after each twist/wall segment-i had never seen it done this way before 4-after finished pot has dried she would turn upside down in a cleared area and cover with wood and grasses and just light it for the firing process 5-finished
For the next week we start in on a big paper mache project that encompasses all 6 of my classes. In preparation for the drumming and dancing team, we decide to build 3 larger than life drums covered in scraps of the colorful traditional fabric. After each class does their part of the drum, we work on understanding rhythm and by the end of the class are using real drums to pound out a beat and everyone dances. It was great fun :)
Towards the end of the week Gretchen decided to strike out on her own and took a weekend trip to Bolga to see the pottery and painted houses before heading down to accra for her flight. It was sad to see her go, but we ended well with a feast of yams and guinea fowl at the rooftop restaurant.
Mom and I finished up classes and therapy sessions(she had developed a little following amongst the kids with some physical disabilities) and then we followed Gretchens footprints and went north to bolga for the weekend with Nash and his friend Bismark. They bought some lap drums for the school and the we all went to see the crocodiles- this small village, Paga, is set near ponds chocked full of crocodiles. The legend is that each crocodile harbors the soul of one of the villagers. so to kill a crocodile is like murdering a person. so they take you down to the water with a chicken to feed the crocodiles, when the crocs hear the chicken squwaking they come out of the water. about 4 came to see us. then you can touch them! it was weird. there was one croc though that kept coming at me. i think he thought my legs were chicken. our guide would hit him on the nose with a stick to make him stop. i didnt' take any chances though, i hid behind nash :)
Then we took an extremely hot and cramped tro ride back to Bonyeli(the local name for the School for the deaf at Savelugu) ready for another week of classes and therapy sessions. Our normal routine was to sit outside in the morning and watch the neighbor teacher's kids head off to school on their bikes-they aren't deaf. Then head over to school around 8:30. If it was a monday or wednesday we would attend sign language classes and eat with the teachers after school was out. Then head back and try to make it through the heat of the afternoon. Moms normal position was laid out on the cement floor with an ice pack on her belly. Then around 5ish we'd go sit outside and play with the neighbors and watch the deaf kids play soccer. We made dinner and then read or chatted with other teachers in the evening. It's a simple life. For our third weekend Mom, Nash and I headed to Mole National Park. It was really cool, the hotel is spread along the edge of a steep hill overlooking the area's main waterhole. So every day elephants, monkeys, Kob deer, crocodiles and tons of birds come to dance around in the water. We took an early morning hike down around the grassland/waterhole area and saw all those animals up close and personal. It was really surreal. Then the rest of the afternoon while we were hanging by the swimming pool, you could just look down and see elephants in their natural habitat. It was sweet.
We spent mom's last week at my site pretty much the same way as the previous one. It was nice that we had plenty of down time for her to get a feel of what my day to day life is like. On thursday we packed up and mom said her goodbyes for us to embark on the last leg of her Africa journey. First we headed to the monkey sanctuary. We had a great guide who knew a lot about the vegetation and had all kinds of interesting comments about things-for instance. we were watching a group of colobus monkeys in a tree when the male started into this siren-like roaring and racing in circles around the tree. according to our guide that means that it will rain in the next three days and if no rain comes then a young person will die! yikes! we stayed 2 nights in Nkwansa in the greatest guesthouse, Hand in Hand Community, it was on the campus of a small community for the mentally/physically disabled orphans. It was really neat how they had the whole thing set up into familys of 3 with a full-time mother/caretaker. The grounds were kept extremely clean and there were all kinds of activities for the kids scheduled throughout the day-beadmaking, weaving, swimming, drumming, movies. I was really impressed. They use the guesthouse, then as a means of supporting themselves.
We left for Kumasi and just stayed a night there on the way to Cape Coast. It was fun though because my friend Jess (who also teaches art at a deaf school near Kumasi) was coming through town with her mom who had also come to visit. So the four of us met for a couple of hours for a beer and compared notes on travel and airplane rides and deaf schools. It was fun meeting her mom, I feel like you always know people a little better after meeting the person who raised them :)
Cape Coast was next on the list-we stayed with my friend tim who is another deaf art teacher and got to see his school and where he lives. They have really great facilities there. Mom and I went to the Elmina Slave castle that afternoon and toured the place that held slaves to be shipped and sold in the americas. It was eerie and sad. The castle itself was white and simple and beautiful, but then it was horrifying to hear the stories and history of what went on there.
Dinner on the beach with Tim and up early the next morning to see the rainforest at Kakum National Park. We took a hike up to the canopy walk where we got to stroll on rope bridges through the upper canopy. My game was to see if I could walk without holding the ropes. Mom made me take all the pictures during that part so she could hold on tightly :) Then an hour hike after that where we saw ebony trees, massive millipedes, tarzan vines, and butterflies.
And that was it. (I started getting sad at this point) We headed to accra and treated ourselves to a really nice hotel with a hot shower, a/c, giant swimming pool and pizza! We spent 2 full days relaxing by the pool and reading.
March 20
I wasn't allowed to go into the airport with mom, so we stood outside and cried and hugged while Ghanaians looked at us like we were crazy. The whole thing was somehow perfect. Nothing went wrong, mom didn't get sick, everyone loved meeting her....all was amazing. It will be wonderful to be able to tell about whats going on in my life now and have someone at home understand. It's such a completely different world here, you can't begin to understand it until you come and spend time and meet the people. There are a few things to see, but what makes Ghana Ghana is the people.

water fire dust


The end of Winter Break. It has now been almost a month and a half of no classes. Looong. The interesting things that have happened during the interim are: Christmas Travels, visiting friends, the Fire Festival and the onset of Harmatan.
Christmas- my first one not celebrated with the Benges. Sad day-o. A group of us decided that the best way to cope with missing family on Christmas was to head to the beach.  So I made my way down to meet up with 7 other PCVs at a place called Green Turtle near Takoradi. We had wonderful food and spent most of our time lying on the beach. One of the other guests organized a sandcastle building contest and 3 of us decided to form a team. While everyone else was building traditional sandcastles we got festive and made giant sleigh in which Jesse posed as Santa and Alison, Jess, Rachel, Sarah, David and myself were reindeer. It turned out pretty amazing I'd say  They awarded us the drama award. Christmas Eve was the highlight of the 5 days at Green Turtle. After a deliciously American dinner of salad, potatoes and fish, a troupe of drummers and dancers came and danced around a giant bonfire on the beach. I was hoping everyone would join in the dancing, but noone did, so finally I did all by myself and the kids had a good time trying to teach me all the different moves. They also got a kick out of the sparklers Jesse brought, twirling them while then danced. Christmas Day we exchanged small gifts and just relaxed. Jess's sister Rachel had come to visit for Christmas and was amazing and brought some Christmas presents from Mom and Dad in her luggage for me. So we all enjoyed same dried fruit and dark chocolate. Yum Yum.
I got back to Tamale just before New Years. Nash and his brother and I celebrated by going to a local roof restaurant and watching people throwing fireworks at each other down on the street. I had my guard up all night tho, because every once in awhile someone would toss one up to where we were, making us jump. 
Jess came to the north for a week after her sister left. I had been talking about painting a mural on my wall for awhile but hadn't gotten around to it, so we finally made it happen! It's only halfway done now, but is already amazing. We painted a giant tree with all kinds of oddities intertwined- fish being the main thing so far, but more will be added soon. Was fun having her stay though, too bad we can't double up at sites!
FIRE FESTIVAL! Friday Jan. 18th. Probably one of the most interesting things I have experienced so far here in Ghana. This is a festival unique to the north. 7 days after the first sighting of the new moon, Dagombas gather to reenact the story of a prince who was lost in the woods and the whole village went into the woods and set a tree on fire so the prince could find his way home. I came to Tamale to celebrate it with Nash's family in their area of town-Hilltop. Around 7 people started gathering, dancing to drums and getting pumped up. Many of the young guys were dressed up crazy- some like warriors, some like women, and some in just plain ridiculousness. Then after everyone made their way to the main street they lit their torches and began marching towards a designated tree. It was a wild parade of dancing, chanting, waving machetes and setting everything in sight on fire. The chants were ridiculous- some examples are: "If you don't have a wife, go have sex with a cat" and "Whoever is the strongest has the least faults". Hah. Once they reached the tree everyone threw their torches on it, broke off a limb of the tree and paraded back to the starting area. They did this 4 times, each one taking a different path. I loved it. For the most part I stayed on the edges away from the flying fire. But went in the middle for the second march for awhile and danced with a torch someone gave me. The night was lovely. It went late. We didn't return to the house until almost midnight.
So those are the highlights of my break. The weather has changed to Harmatan Season. This means that the wind blows down off the Sahara and makes everything extremely dry. Dust blows everywhere, coats everything and turns my boogers black. The nights are very cold. I had to buy a blanket in town even. Everyone is always asking how I'm coping with the weather. I tell them that I love the cold but that I could do without the dust!