August 31, 2012
So I have been here for a little over 3 months now (I’ve
been at site for less than a week). And I
must say I have definitely had a rollercoaster of feelings. There are days
where I am 100% in love with this country, and days when I miss home like
crazy. I miss the simplicity of
everything. I miss electricity. I miss air conditioning. I miss warm showers. I miss curling up in a blanket on rainy days
watching movies and pigging out. I guess
the more I think about it, the more petty these things seem. Who cares if I miss all of that? I am in Western Africa teaching math to junior
high students. I am meeting so many
great people. This town I am in is
filled with smiling, helpful people. It’s
so wonderful. So why do I feel down
about it all? I try to tell myself the
first few months are the hardest. I have
just recently left my new Peace Corps friends and am on my own for the first
time since coming here. So maybe the
shock of it all is hitting me. Once school
begins and I become even more comfortable with this place, it will be better.
(Update: that was about a month and a
half ago. And I must say things have
gotten a gazillion times better! It was
definitely rough beginning to settle in, but now it’s pretty great!) It just sucks to go from seeing my Peace
Corps friends everyday and getting online every so often to never seeing them
and not knowing when I can get online again.
But I guess I’ll have to get used to it.
I mean, I did join the Peace Corps!
But knowing everyone in my group has power totally sucks lol
I am going to a funeral today. My counterpart’s brother passed away a few
weeks ago and his funeral is today and tomorrow. I talked with my neighbor, Roger, and he
asked if I was going to go. We decided
we would go together when he is finished with work. I’m not sure how much longer I will have to
wait. We talked an hour ago and he said
in 30 minutes he would come home and we would leave. So we shall see!
I am going to Wa tomorrow morning to snag a gas cylinder
and a tabletop stove. I’m pretty stoked
to actually start cooking for myself! I also
need to buy a wardrobe and some kitchen cabinets/shelves. And tables.
I need to get this place looking like a home. I will feel so much better. My first purchase was a bicycle for 120
cedis. Yikes! And my counterpart paid for my helmet! How awesome!
People here really do look out for you and care about you. It’s great.
September 3, 2012
Ah, the weekend has come and gone. And school starts tomorrow. Yowza!
I learned there are about 60 students in Form 1 inside a tiny room. So that’ll definitely be a challenge! Still, I’m excited for school to start
because that will actually give me something to do.
This weekend was a rollercoaster of feelings. I went to Wa and go my cylinder and
stove. Someone said the cylinder was
about half full, so I decided to go fill it.
Someone was gracious enough to help me haul it around. We walked for what seemed like forever, only
to find out there was no LP anywhere.
Lovely. Oh well. I’ll use what’s left and fill it later. By this point I was tired and cranky. I didn’t get much sleep the night
before. I headed back to Nandom in the
most crammed tro ever. I sat right
behind the driver facing backwards. It was
insane. But I made the trip in 2 hours
and we still made stops along the way. So
that was a bonus for sure! I walked
around looking for cooking utensils and what not. I got all my things and a few ingredients for
supper and headed home. I started
washing all of the dishes and hooked the cylinder up to the stove. When it was all finished, I went to light it,
and nothing happened. Hmm…maybe I hooked
it up wrong. I called my neighbor, Roger
(who is by far the coolest and nicest old man ever) and asked if he would come
help me. When he got there, everything
seemed to be connected correctly, and then he picked up the cylinder. He proceeded to tell me it was empty. Ugh! I
was super bummed. But we made a plan to
get it filled today, so by tonight I’ll finally get to cook for myself. I was so bummed out.
That evening, I went outside to my squat toilet and was
happily greeted by a bat! Scared the
crap out of me! There are also bats in
my ceiling. My Assembly Man, Maurice,
boarded my ceiling up, and the bats stayed.
So I hear a squeaking noise throughout the day (Update: those bats are insane. They make so much noise at night and when
they walk around it sounds like a giant animal is up there. It’s ridiculous, but I’m slowly getting used
to it. Hopefully when we spray for these
bees, the bats will magically disappear as well!).
Sunday was so much better than the previous day. It started off raining, so I stayed in bed
doing nothing all morning. It was great
to relax. Roger shows up, and we decide
to go to the market. I buy rice,
tomatoes, carrots, Maggie cubes (bouillon cubes), bananas, a mortar and pestle,
buckets, etc. I loved that I actually
got to buy things for my house/kitchen! Afterwards,
we went to go drink some pito at the Assembly Man’s house. (Pito is a local drink that practically every
family brews. And we drink it out of a
calabash, which is the outer layer of a dried up gourd thing). We sat around chatting, and the Assembly Man
shows up, and we make our way to the nearest spot (in Ghana, spot means
bar). We each have a beer and just
chat. It was great. After that, we parted ways with Maurice, and
Roger & I head to another spot/restaurant to get some food. Jollaf and Alvaro (a sweet malt drink…deelish!). AMAZING!
I go visit Noella (a young girl who helped me buy a few things a week
prior). We head back home as the sun is
setting. It was just amazing. It’s days like this that I love everything
about my site. I love spending time with
people in my town. Even when we do
nothing but drink and eat and talk. It’s
glorious.
I decided to clean the house a little today and do some
laundry. I also read my book. I am now reading 1984. It’s 1:30pm and I have nothing else to
do. I am waiting for my clothes to dry,
so I can go into town. I need to buy
some tables and a blanket. My house gets
pretty cold at night believe it or not! So
there was my weekend in a nutshell. I can’t
wait to write about my first week of school!
September 4, 2012
Today was the first day of school. I was the only teacher who arrived on time at
8am. The others trickled in within the
hour. About 10% of the students show
up. The first week is dedicated to
cleaning the area. They clean for maybe
30 minutes, and it start to downpour. The
heaviest rain I’ve seen yet. It rains
for almost 2 hours (I think). During this
time, I’m reading through the science textbooks. (Oh yea, the science teacher is continuing
his education in a town in the Eastern Region and will be gone for 4
years. So I was asked to teach science
instead of math. Super bummed). I was seeing if it was something I could
tackle. And it actually didn’t look too
bad. So I agreed to take the
subject. I’ll be teaching forms 1, 2,
and 3 of science. My fellow teacher says
I should now be thinking of science always.
I should be dreaming about it.
Nothing else really exciting happened today. Went to town and chatted and drank with
people all afternoon. Bought a blanket
and some t-roll (that’s what they call toilet paper). And then came home. Went to shower, and a lizard was crawling on
my leg. Gross! Decided I wasn’t motivated enough to cook, so
I came to read and to journal. It’s
about 7:45pm now. A much more acceptable
time for bed. Think I’ll read some more
and call it a night!
September 6, 2012
Today started off being a bland boring day. I spent over 5 hours at school doing nothing
but sit. Ugh. The students where told which of them got promoted
to the next form and we got new students from the primary school (elementary
school). I saw a girl from form 2 crying
because she didn’t get promoted. I felt
bad. Also, the circuit supervisor (the
person who is sort of in charge of all the schools in the area) stopped by to
give us all some encouragement which was exactly what I needed.
After school, I went into town to see some people. Noella was not at her store, Aaron was not
answering his phone, Pascal is out of town.
So I phoned Roger. He said he’d
be in town shortly. In Ghana, shortly
doesn’t mean anything. I waited almost 2
hours and it began to rain. I knew for
sure he wasn’t coming now. I sat around
for a little longer, got tired of waiting for the rain to stop, so began my
trek home. I wasn’t in a great mood, so I
was just ready to get home and relax. On
my way towards home, I ran into Noella. Oh
I was so happy. I needed a pick me
up. She was going to buy a few things,
so I decided to join her so we could chat.
By the time we finished, the rain picked back up and I wanted to hurry
home. There was no point, though. I was beyond drenched by the time I made
it. And water was covering entire parts
of the road, so I’m even surprised I made it!
When I got home, I called Roger to tell him I made it
safely (he called while I was still in town saying he couldn’t make it). he said he was going to pay me a visit. I was not really in the mood after the day I had,
but I agreed. He came and we talked for
almost 2 hours. It was fantastic. This is what I love about Peace Corps. And I wanted to write what we talked about even
though it wasn’t that significant. For some
reason, I just want to capture that moment.
He is retiring soon.
In April. When he turns 60. In Ghana, you are required to retire at that
age. They collect social security upon
retirement. However, some people wait
3-4 months before receiving their first payment. One man has waited almost a year because
according to certain documents, he was only 59 when he “retired.” So he couldn’t collect. Roger said if when you were working, you made
10 cedis/month, upon retirement you would make half, or 5 cedis/month. Who can live off that?! That’s ridiculous.
He told me these schools I work at were built in ’68. (Which I later found out the school started
in 2004. Maybe the buildings are that
old, but definitely not the school). He
corrected himself by saying ’86 instead (still…who knows). They were built when he was last in
Accra. He told me of his travels around
the country. He said his senior brother
was a soldier and wanted to recruit him.
He said he didn’t have the money to travel to Accra. After some time, somehow, he got the
money. Made it to Kumasi, and stopped in
a town (I can’t remember how he pronounced it) that dealt with a lot of gold
mining. He said this town was a lot of
fun. But he decided to make it to Accra
instead. He spent 6 months there, but
never saw the person in charge of recruitment.
He just roamed and returned to gold mining town. Here, he met up with some friends at dawn
(when they finished their shifts), they drank 3 bottles each. Yikes!
Then they were brought a huge amount of rice and plenty of meat, and
proceeded to have 2 more bottles. He had
so much fun there. Now, there are
machines that do all the work, so the town is no longer interesting. Damn.
We talked about mosquitoes and how I don’t have my net
yet. He said a while back, his family
was given 3 nets. He gave one to his
young children, one to his wife or daughter (I can’t remember), and then one
extra. He said I could borrow it. I asked him why he didn’t use one, and he
said he already had one. Okay,
good. Then I don’t feel bad for taking
it temporarily. He also said he had cement nails that came with the nets. Awesome! It’ll be nice to get away from the bugs
at night.
We talked about poor eyesight and how we both have
it. He told me his father was
blind. I told him I had to wear my
spectacles (that’s what they call them) all the time and that maybe he should look
into getting some if it turned out to be a burden. He said he doesn’t read much anymore, so he
doesn’t feel the need to buy them.
His daughter is visiting from Wa (the capital of the
Upper West Region). She is waiting for
her school fees to get paid. Almost 400
cedis worth. Damn!! Roger had to go to Wa to get an advance or
something out of his life insurance policy to cover it. I wasn’t able to meet his daughter. She made banku and I was invited, but when he
invited me (when he first arrived at the house that evening) I was just not
feeling it. I should have. She leaves tomorrow. But I am sure she will visit again.
As of now, I don’t really remember much else. It was just amazing to actually have a legit
conversation with someone. Something more
than the weather, or how their night went.
It definitely made this day worthwhile.
And I hope things like this continue to happen, because I think this
will be what keeps me sane. Plus, this
is where I actually learn about the lives of the people here, rather than just
greeting them. It was great. I hope I meet more people like Roger while I’m
here. I hope I learn all I can from
everyone. What an experience that’ll be.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Okay, so, as I’m typing all of this up, I realize it is
going to take me a loooong time to get it all down. I have written so much in my journal. So I think for now, I’ll leave it at the
first few entries. I apologize in advance
for the random organization of things, but to make it all easier, just check
out the date of each entry. These are
the first journal entries I wrote once I got to site. When I get more time, I will add the next
few, so we’ll enjoy a good read every once in a while.
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