Signing up for Peace Corps I set myself to have no expectations… or so I thought. I though ‘Peace Corps Volunteer’ and I thought ‘remote, isolated, limited cell reception and internet connection, no electricity or running water’ I also thought ‘children staring at me, no one in my village to confide in, and days that might never end with my only thoughts carrying me away.’ These weren’t really my expectations, but rather my assumptions of what Peace Corps was.

For the most part my assumptions (or expectations depending on the way you look at it) were true… I am remote (or so I think), I don’t have cell reception or the ability to get a wireless internet modem (do to the fact that I don’t have cell reception), there is no running water, and electricity is there (but it comes with its own set of problems). The children do stare (and MOST of the time I don’t care), I’m ok with the fact that I can’t really confide in anyone in my village because there are other PCV’s close enough. But what really gets to me are my thoughts…

I never imagined that being a Peace Corps Volunteer was such a mental game. I didn’t know that my own thoughts could build up so much in my mind. And I hope that it doesn’t all come crashing down.

Most days I’m fine. I’ve been enjoying my time and I wouldn’t change what I’m doing for anything. But there are then some days where someone says the wrong thing, or something happens and I just snap… making me wonder what I’m doing, how I’m going to survive the next 16/17 months and am I really cut out for this (because I feel like what I’m mainly doing is sitting on my butt reading books and watching movies).

It doesn’t always help that the capital of Ghana, Accra, is like entering a run down American city… (although from the view of a traveler passing thought it might seem very African, but coming from a small village it seems like a western city). In Accra I can stay with an American ex-pat family, eat home cooked western food, enjoy hot pressurized showers, sleep in an air-conditioned room under blankets, have access to high speed internet, and watch TV (CNN, movie channels, ESPN or really whatever my heat desires). I can’t complain… it’s a grate escape from the village life. It’s a chance to feel like a person again, remember what its like to be clean and remind myself that this is what I’ll have when I go back home… but also making me wonder why I left the comforts of home, or America?

As of now, through the good and the bad, I’m hear in Ghana to stick it out till the summer of 2012… whish me luck.

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.

vILLaGe hOMeS

The Things I’m growing in my Garden

1. Carrots… very successfully
2. Beets… maybe third time is a charm (yes I just planted my third round, I think the chickens also like beets)
3. Onions… still waiting to see
4. Potatoes… can’t figure out what’s wrong but they are all getting a fungus and dying… sad
5. Arugula… have been enjoying some amazing salads
6. Watermelon… so far so good
7. Cabbage… some animal likes my cabbage… arrggg
8. Kale… very successfully
9. Swisschard… if something would stop eating it then I think it would do well
10. Tomatoes…. So far so good
11. Pineapple… to early to tell… I was told it takes a year for them to grow
12. Lettuce… nothing like the lettuce at Osage Gardens, but its growing well

Almost on a daily basis someone stops by my garden to watch me water it, pull the weeds, or add some manure to the soil, and they all watch with such interest… “What is the white girl doing?”

As they start to ask what I’m growing, I go through what each bed contains… some they know or at least have heard of, but a few they don’t know and haven’t ever seen (arugula, kale, swisschard). Carrots is the biggest one that most Ghanaians know, have seen a picture in a book and when are traveling though larger cities can find being sold in the market. Yet they have little idea what the plants look like. They don’t know that they grow in the ground and at least my village doesn’t know what you can do with them. Some boys stopped by my garden the other day after I had just picked some carrots and to their amazement I handed each one of them a baby carrot… they looked at me and asked what they could do with it. I responded with “eat it.” Watching their faces try their first carrot (imagine never having eaten a carrot…) was priceless (just like one of those credit card moments… tools for a garden 100 dollars, seeds for a garden 20 dollars, watching the children enjoy their first garden fresh carrot… priceless!)

I’m almost always asked why I’m not growing items such as okra and garden eggs (two items to me that don’t taste good at all and can also by found on any day of the week in my market for a price that I would rather pay than grow in my own garden). It’s unconceivable to my village that there are other vegetable items out in the world that people enjoy to cook with. One of my fellow ‘on lookers’ (she comes by about every week to see the progress of my garden) asked if she could have some seeds to grow some of the items that can be found in larger cities like watermelon and bell peppers. Its great to start seeing the enthusiasm of some of the people in my village when they realize that these items can be grown in their own farms.

My garden isn’t huge, but big enough for me. With more vegetables growing than I’ll know what to do with once they start producing (although I still wish had a few more seeds like zucchini, eggplant, broccoli, cucumbers and cantaloupe). But my village still finds that my 10 tomato plants isn’t ‘enough.’ I have to remind them that I’m one person eating this food and I don’t need to grow more that a few plants of each vegetable (especially when I don’t have a fridge to store excess food in). I just want enough to feed me and give to people that have helped me out when the plants start to produce. This garden is mainly for me, to prove that I have a green thumb somewhere in my genes (trying to make my parents proud).