tHe ArT of FeTchInG WaTEr

I’ve been thinking lately that I don’t really have any news to catch you up on, or any gossip to pass on. But I started to ponder what I had done in the past few weeks and that got me thinking (I know I think WAY TO MUCH) again, but really I have a few things to catch you, my devoted readers, up on.

1. Peace Corps Ghana has officially gone to a 3 time a year intake cycle of PCV’s. This means that the groups are now sector specific, and usually around the number of 25 people. In the beginning of October the NRM (Natural Resources Management) Group came… technically this is my sector, but with a slight change. Peace Corps Ghana has combined Environment and Small Business Enterprise to make the Natural Resources Management sector. For every10-week training that takes place PC has PCVT’s (Peace Corps Volunteer Trainers). I was asked to be one of the PCVT’s for this new NRM group. Meaning I would get to spend about 3 weeks with them (well actually I’m just getting back form it), traveling all around Ghana to facilitate in their off site technical training.

2. I just had my first battle with malaria. It was like a giant wave swallowing my body whole. Giving me probably the highest fever I’ve ever had, and the worst aches and pains I ever want to experience. Not a fun experience, but wow, I must say that they drugs work fast. After 6 days of trying to figure out what I had I was back to feeling normal with in 24 hours of taking the drugs.

3. All PCV’s were invited to the US Ambassador’s house for another amazing Thanksgiving Feast. Our plates were filled with turkey, ham (well not actually my plate… still a vegetarian), stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, green bean salad, other assorted veggies, and corn bread muffins. And if this meal couldn’t get any better pumpkin and pecan pie were offered. Even if I couldn’t be with my family at least I was able to spend this holiday with my Peace Corps Family.

4. The first round of Cloth Flour Sac Grocery Bags that my Women’s Group is making have made their way across the rather large pond and are now being sold at the Little Red Farm Store at Osage Gardens and at their winter farmer’s markets. Stop by to check them out.

5. The rains have stopped. The dust in lingering in the air, and as if it’s not already hot enough, it’s only going to get hotter. Go Dry Season!

6. Time is flying… 18 months in country, and only 8 more months to go!

Part of our role as a Peace Corps Volunteer is to educate our villages about other sectors, and HIV/AIDS… meaning that as an environment volunteer I could do a latrine building project or a nutrition project. Many volunteers that aren’t education volunteers find themselves teaching in schools, and teachers try to incorporate food security by building a school garden, etc. Our assigned projects may have something more specific with our assigned sectors, but really we can do any work that we think our village needs. In our initial training that takes place our first three months in country we generally learn about our sector though (for me that was environment). There has now been two groups to come in after I came to Ghana and the training has changed a bit… meaning they are getting specific HIV/AIDS training during their 3 months training rather than later on in their service. As part of their HIV/AIDS training they are sent to a PCV who volunteers to host some new trainees to give them hands on HIV/AIDS experience in doing a village project.

I opted to host some new trainees to help me with an HIV/AIDS project in my village because it was time I hit upon the required HIV/AIDS education that we are suppose to give (I did give a small HIV/AIDS education class to one of the churches, but only about 50 people came, and I was trying to educate the younger generation this time). 2 trainees (who had only been in country about a month) ventured to my site to help me work with the Junior High School (JHS) students to raise HIV/AIDS (and other STI’s) awareness.

all the Roman Catholic school children crammed into one classroom

In two days we went to two JHS schools, raising HIV/AIDS awareness for about 200 students. We started at the District Assembly’s School (also known as public school) with about an hour long question answer session… we asked the questions and when we called upon a kid to answer the question and they got it right they got a piece of candy (to get people to answer questions or even attend a meeting it’s always god to have a bribing mechanism.) We asked the obvious questions… “What is an STD?” “What is HIV?” “What is AIDS?” “How can one contract HIV/AIDS?” “What are the 3 methods of prevention in terms of it being a sexually transmitted disease?” ”Can HIV/AIDS kill?”… And we got the not so obvious answers back… “You will get HIV/AIDS by sharing a drink with someone who has it.” “Sharp objects is the main way to contract HIV/AIDS.”

one student holding up a picture explaining how he/she will

prevent themselves form getting HIV/AIDS

From the question portion we broke out into 3 groups and each individually led an interactive game to reiterate what actions are high risk vs. low risk to contracting the virus, the 3 ways to prevent getting any STI (sexually transmitted infection… it’s what they say here), and a risky behavior game.

The last portion of our HIV/AIDS (and other STI’s) awareness day we divided the boys and girls up to answer questions that they might not want to ask in front of each other. The girls were rather shy to ask anything, but the boys were having a hay day with questions.

getting the students involved in HIV/AIDS education

It has suddenly come to my village’s attention (and the rest of Ghana it seems) that I don’t have any children.

I’ve been hassled from the beginning about being married… or not actually being married. I’ve told my village that I have a husband and he lives in Ghana doing other development work, and they’ve bought that… for the most part. And I’ve had few villagers remind me that I need to start having kids soon… yeah right.

But when my counter part asked me a few weeks back if I would stay for a 3^rd year in the village I was touched. Knowing that my village likes me, and wants to have me around means a lot (I’ve heard stories from other volunteers that their village didn’t like the last PCV that lived there, etc.) But I told my counter part that I needed/wanted to go back to the US without giving a reason. He came back to say that it’s probably good that I go back because I need to start having babies, because I’m getting past baby bearing age (at the ripe old age of 25, right.) I had to remind him that I’m not married (he knows the truth, but yet can’t comprehend it) and that I need to get married before I can even have children. As I tried to laugh it off, I told him the old childhood rhyme that we used to always sing to kids on the playground when we assumed someone had a crush on some one else… “First come love, then comes marriage, then comes baby…” My counterpart just shook his head at this… foreign concept.

The second time someone in my village brought it to my attention that I don’t have any children they made it more clear that I shouldn’t leave Ghana without having at least two babies… and they want them to be black (not trying to be politically incorrect). I always just laugh, because they don’t realize the jokes on them… I’m not having any babies (at least not in the next 5 years…)

The last concern that I don’t have any children came from a young female Ghanaian. She started the interrogation with asking, “where I’m from” and “what I’m doing in Ghana”. Then the topic suddenly changed to “how many babies do I have”? I responded with the usual “none”. And she came back to bite me with “why”? I gave the usual response “because I’m waiting till I get back to the US, finish getting my masters, get married and blah, blah, blah” (thinking that another female would understand.) She again responded with a bite in my face, “that it doesn’t matter if I haven’t finished my education, or that I’m not married, but I need to have at least 3 or more babies to keep me company, to pass on my genes, and because it’s a women’s job to have many, many children” (yeah well, not this woman.)