School Break

Damba Festival.
Celebration of the birth of Mohammed (the founder of Islam).
Originally a traditional festival celebrating something else, but everyone forgets what. :)
The big event is when the chiefs of the different areas of Tamale parade on horses under spinning umbrellas to the main chief of Tamale's palace.



Wedding.
Double dose.
Nash and I have decided to marry :) Peace Corps, however, has a whole regimen of hoops for us to jump through. So, at the beginning of break we traveled down to Accra for our marriage interview with the Peace Corps Country Director. Beforehand we have to fill out a whole packet so they can do a background search on Nash to make sure his past doesn't clash with "Peace Corps Policy." He's a good one, so I'm not worried :) Our interview was interesting, the CD asked us the normal things about how we met, what our plans were, and very seriously he said, "Now Nash, you know it's cold in the US. How are you going to handle that?" Haha, Nash just replied, "Well, I guess I'll buy a coat!"
While we were in Accra, Nash's uncle took us to a wedding with his family. It was interesting! They had gifts and minerals and food for all the guests, but my favorite part was the bride's dress. Utterly amazing.




Clay Fun
Fellow PCV, Jess Bowen, and I took a weekend trip up to Sirigu where there is a massive amount of local pottery produced. I was especially interested in the local way of firing. I have found a clay deposit dear the Deaf School and want to teach the kids the traditional way people make potter in this region. Bonfire style. And wonderfully simple :)

Arid.


Dry season is finally on its way out. Woo Hoo! You can almost measure it by the amount of water that my body needs has reduced drastically. During Feb. and early March I was drinking about 6-7 Nalgenes a day. Quick, how many gallons is that? I want to guess 2 or 3? Anyway, now I'm down to about 4. Much easier. It was work forcing down that much water! My filter never had a moment's rest. I do have a nice filter though. Peace Corps provides us with one that holds about 144 oz. It uses "candles" to filter the water- 2 ceramic cylanders with sand inside. I store water in a 40 gal plastic barrel that goes for everything- bathing, dishes, washing clothes, drinking...Savelugu Deaf has no natural water. Carter Center drilled some wells a few years ago but those only have water during the rainy season. No help. Around campus there are various tanks- plastic, cement, metal that organizations have donated to store water. So, 3 other teachers and I share a cement one. We pay for a water tanker to come fill it ($8 per tanker, which is somehow expensive) So sometimes they can't afford it and I'm on my own to figure water out... Oh water.

I'm lucky though. Dry season is much shorter than it used to be. In late March it started raining about once a week. I guess just 10 years ago it didn't start until the beginning of June. Global Warming?

Speaking of global warming- Yesterday, a teacher sat me down and said, "Kari, tell me everything you know about global warming." How do you begin to answer that? I just laughed and said I would try. We talked for awhile and ended up with a cause/effect flow chart that looked like this:
Pollution/Smog -> Holes in Ozone/ blanket of smog in atomosphere -> harmful rays more acces to Earth/ trapping of heat -> general warming of Earth -> ice caps to melt more than normal -> oceans' rise -> ocean currents change -> jet streams in air change -> ?lots of theories about what next? ice age?
How did I do? Of course I kept saying, "I'm not a scientist!" I also explained how right now we are in the ice caps melting phase. The stuff beyond that is speculation. Some people say it is all speculation.
The funny part is, after all that, the guy says, "Good! Now I can go to Denmark!" Haha, apparently there is a group choosing people to go to a global warming seminar in Denmark. The guy just wants to go to Denmark... Oh well...

Reinstatement- First month back


Saying goodbye to mom and dad was different this time. It wasn’t leaving safety and going off into the unknown. Don’t get me wrong. It was sad. But this time it was leaving one family and heading towards another. We said our goodbyes with no tears, knowing it wouldn’t be long before we’d meet again.

Some time on a plane.

And there I was. Plopped down in the same Ghana I’d left 8 months earlier. The same wall of heat stepping off the plane. The same African-accented English. The same smells of rich spices mixed with wafting garbage. Cars honking, drivers yelling out destinations in the distance. Curious eyes watching me, the foreign siliminga. And then there was Nash. The best constant of all. He had come the 12 hours from Tamale to meet me at the airport. I didn’t see him at first. He had talked the guards into letting him into the passenger area. Separate from the crowd, there was his lone figure. Grinning and waving. Suddenly I hadn’t been gone 8 months at all. Time rewound and Ghana picked up right where it had left off.

Peace Corps also met me at the airport. After a quick reunion with Nash and a plan to meet later, they whisked me off to headquarters. I spent the morning making the rounds. A long update with the medical officer. Introduction to the new Country Director. Figuring out paperwork with the finance lady. And Joe B, my boss and Ghanaian father. We spent a long time talking about all that had happened since I left and I introduced him to Nash. He was smiling and laughing and told Nash that if Nash ever hurt me, he would personally go and hunt Nash down. Oh Joe b… haha, I missed him 

Some Accra greetings- Nash’s cousin, Majeed and sister, a very pregnant Rahma.

A 12 hour STC bus ride.

TAMALE. A sigh of relief. I’m home. Things are mostly the same. The bustling market. Line taxis. The calmness of the Dagomba people. The dry heat.
SAVEDEAF. Savelugu School for the Deaf. Bonyeli. Kids grow an amazing amount in one year. There is a noticeable difference in the upper primary kids. I have missed this place. Most of my sign language is not forgotten- or just needs a quick reminder. No one told the students I was coming back. The first afternoon I walked through campus, jaws were dropping all over the place and my “K” sign name was flying around. Art class had ceased in my absence. Students couldn’t believe it was really me. It’s an amazing feeling to have everyone as happy to see me as I am to see them. Warm fuzzies all around.

I spent most of the first week going back and forth from Bonyeli to Tamale. Getting my house back in working order, arranged, stocked with food and water. Catching up with the teacher’s families next door. Visiting Nash’s family. Brushing up on the little- very little- Dagbani I know. It was wonderful seeing everyone again. Nash’s sisters especially. They were so happy.

I started teaching the next week. We did clay in all the classes. Messy, but fun. I had gotten some from a nearby village pond before I left. It was actually still soft enough to use. We did shapes and things like cylinder/cube/pyramid. They loved it. I had forgotten how excited kids are to learn here, over the littlest things. Then they made whatever they wanted for the last half. The boys would all do motos and cell phones and the girls would make pounding basins and babies.

This last week Nash’s father has been sick in the hospital. Luckily he has turned around and is fine now. It has been interesting watching the process. I keep trying to ask what the doctors are saying. But no one seems to know. Family isn’t allowed to speak with the doctors. The doctors order tests and prescribe meds. But no one knows why. Similar to the USA, doctors are extremely overloaded with a surplus of patients. Yet there isn’t anyone to make sure things are correct. The way a family member might in the USA. The care of each patient is also very different here. The family is in charge of all aspects. Food. Water. Fans. Sheets. Baths. Health Insurance, if the patient has it. Bribing if they don’t. A family member is expected to be present 24 hours a day to be tending to the patient’s needs. When someone is admitted for more than a few days, it is a huge hassle for the family. I admire Nash. He has been bearing the brunt of this burden the past week.

And I’m back in the swing of things. Normal life in Northern Ghana has commenced.