It is with my deepest apologies that I have been slacking on the blogging front.

First off after being in Ghana for almost 10 months (yes I am rapidly approaching the 10 month marker… go me!) it’s hard to come up with new and exciting topics to inform you about. And secondly the power cord to my computer has finally bit the dust and charging my computer has become a task (I've been biking the hour and a half ride to Jasikan where luckily my closest neighbor has a Mac charger as well.) This isn’t to say that I can’t go to a internet café and use the internet and post a blog, but with my money being time, I would rather not waste it writing one blog post, (yes I do try to put thought into some of these blogs (although you probably can’t tell because I suck at spelling), but they do take me a while to write… hence I like to write them on my computer and then post them when I get to internet.)

So I guess it is time to post a ‘progress report’ of my happenings in Ghana… Humm, well I can’t believe how time is flying. To me it still feels like I left just yesterday (although my hair is much longer than is was when I was last in the US). Ghana is still green, the rain is still falling, and my language is starting to come along (well lets just say that I can understand WAY more than I can speak). Mango season is here (and my motto is ‘a mango a day keeps the doctor away’), Ghanaians STILL can’t believe that Americans don’t eat Fufu, and my garden is teaching me a lot.

Teaching has been put on hold as both the schools I was working with now have ICT teachers (and I’m not here to do someone else’s job). I’m still trying to establish a computer lab though. But that has come with its own set of problems and maybe by October the grant will get approved.

My main project still ceases to exist. Although I was finally introduced to some of the supposed farmers that are in my ‘group.’ So I’m trying to come up with things to do to keep me occupied (other than reading books… I just finished my 43^rd book.)

First thing I’m working on is starting a tree nursery. As trees are being cut down for firewood, and illegal deforestation of all the native species is taking place all over Ghana. I’ve been meeting with a few people once a week to nurse seeds. The theory behind all the tress that we are nursing is when people walk to the bush to cut firewood then they have to walk by the spot where we have started the nursery… so this will all be in hopes that they go cut firewood and plant a tree… Not sure how this will really work, but… well... I’m giving it a try.

The other thing that I’ve been working on is building rabbit cages… yes rabbit. Rabbit is the up and coming meat of Ghana (pour little bunnies). As part of my Alternative Livelihood Projects (APL’s… what ever that’s suppose to mean) we are suppose to help people come up with alternative ways to make money. And selling rabbit meat is a new way. Thus far I’ve built two cages with other PCV’s and in about a month my little village is going to host a training for other volunteers to come and learn how to build not only rabbit, but grasscutter, snail and chicken cages/coups. In turn they can build these cages in their villages and help on the APL front.

That about my life right now… woot woot!

English is the national language of Ghana, but that doesn’t mean it is English that you can understand (I thought I was to learn Eve while in Ghana, but I’m also learning how to speak African English.) They have their own way to say everything and hand signals to go along with it.

The power is out = "Light is off."

The power is back on! = "Light has come!"

I'll be right back = "I will go and come."

I'm leaving (and coming back) = "I am coming."

Get someone's attention = hiss at him or her or make kissy face noise (I really hate being hissed at)

Do you understand? = "Are we OK?"

When you are finished (with doing something) = “Can we go now?”

That is very nice = "Oh fine."

Something bad has happened = "Oh Why?"

Asking why something bad has happened (non verbally) = Frown, turn out you bottom lip (sad face) clap once and then turn your hands outward at the person.

Imply that you would like to share your food (or something else) = "Oh, you are invited"

Beg/Ask someone for something or apologize = put one hand in the other (like you going up for communion in church) and say "Oh, I beg"

To ask for a bit more of something (when buying something at the market) = “Dash me”

When you are going to eat (or preparing food) = “What will you chop?”

Restaurants = “Chop Bars”

The common amount (when asking for something) = “Small small.”

Things I’m noticing about Ghanaians… (these are simply observations and nothing against the Ghanaian population)

1. Ghanaians have this obsession with everything being loud. It’s still beyond my amazement that these people aren’t deaf yet. Blaring music with the base turned up (they don’t have the treble base ratio down yet), watching TV with the volume ALL the way up, yelling at the top of their lungs, and being as loud as possible I’m guessing is just how it works in Ghana. Their motto is ‘if I want to listen to it, then so does the whole world (I feel like it could be heard all the way in Colorado)’… wrong, I don’t want to listen to it, I don’t want to feel the base, or be caught in the middle of a yelling war (when they are just talking across the compound.) I find myself using earplugs more and more, and enjoying the time when ‘lights are off’ (meaning power is out and all is QUIET!)

2. Ghanaians have yet another obsession with driving fast… fast and furious. Speed limits don’t really exist and if the accelerator works then why not use it? (But please not when my life is a stake)

3. Ghanaians like to know where you’re going and why? Everyone and everything is their business.

4. Ghanaians like to talk (and by talk I mean yell) at you when they are passing by in a car… “Hey obroni how are you?” And I’m thinking, “I’m standing on solid ground walking one direction, and you are in a moving vehicle going the other… how in the hell are we going to have a conversation?”

5. Ghanaians like to complement (and by complement I mean comment) on your weight. “Oh Sister Abra Africa suits you, you are getting very fat.” And I’m thinking, “well shit, I don’t want to be told that.”

6. Ghanaians think that whatever I have can be theirs… even if it is the shirt off my back (do they think that I’m going to strip down to my skivvies to give them the shirt they want… no)

I have just now accepted the fact that I’m just going to be hot as hell while sleeping in my small jail cell of a room.

My little living situation I have accepted… I have a great family in the compound that I’m living in, and some good families surrounding me. Yes it can be VERY loud, but I have come to terms with that (along with the use of ear plugs to sleep with) and the fact that I’m ALWAYS being watched… but I guess you have to give a little to live a little. In general I have felt safe thus far (doesn’t mean that I don’t lock my door at night or even while I walk across the compound to use the latrine… don’t want my precious computer or camera getting stolen.)

Being that I’m surrounded by families, I NEVER close my shutters at night (I have two layers of wire and some mosquito netting covering my window as well as someone would have to break the latch to open my window) unless it’s a torrential down pour, I just pull the curtain down (hoping to catch any breeze that will blow my way), put the fan on me and let the night take me away. I have started sleeping with my head at the opposite end of my bed being that the mattress is firmer there (I guess I could flip my mattress around but I’m scared of the critters that might be under my bed).

So the other night at about 2:30 am I woke up to someone poking a stick through my window (yes puncturing a hole in my mosquito netting) to push the curtain aside all the while shining a light on me (with my head at the opposite end I was facing my window). My first though was “did I leave my head lamp on?” (as I always read in bed before going to sleep) but the light was coming from too high up. Then I realized my curtain was pushed aside and I could see a shadow behind the light.

Panic set in, and I tried to yell at the person “what do you want, get the hell away” (yes yelling in English, but I think that the tone of my voice gave them a good idea to leave me the hell alone) all the while scrambling to find my own head lamp and turn on the main light to my room. I was too slow to catch any site of the possible intruder, but I immediately pulled and locked my shutters (turning my room into a sauna of 89°).

I still have no idea if this person was trying to steel anything (I did learn my lesson from week one in Ghana to NEVER leave anything under the window because people like to reach through with a stick and usually something sticky on the end and grab whatever they can pick up… this happened to a girl I was traveling with) or if this was some sort of ‘peeping Tom’ action. Nonetheless I will be keeping my shutter CLOSED from now on, and trying to sleep peacefully in my sauna of a room.