I made it back to my cement room to be greeted with spiders (and their webs), mold (this is the tropics), goat poop (luckily just on my front step) and rain (as if I didn’t experience enough rain and mud slides while being back home). It was almost comforting to get back to my small room, my small village and welcoming faces after spending a few days fighting with the baggage people in Accra to get one of my bags (the one with all the clothing)… one bag didn’t arrive and after a few days of patiently waiting, and calling United to track my bag I was told by them that it had arrived, but the lost baggage people in Accra said that is didn’t, I said it did, they said it didn’t, I said let me look, they said no, I said let me look and they said ok… and guess what… there it WAS! (I knew it.)

It wasn’t as hard to get on the plane in Grand Junction (knowing what I was getting myself into) as it was getting off the plane in Accra (realizing yet again what I was actually getting myself into… yikes!) But for some reason, I’m still here, knowing that some greater force is keeping me here (I do have the option to say I quit if I don’t want to be here).

But getting back to my village and seeing the houses that are in ruins and knowing that families actually live in them… seeing the smiling children that know nothing else of the world, and to realize that this is truly a unique opportunity that I have put myself in, is probably what’s keeping my feet on solid ground in Ghana.

I was able to reflect a bit while I was home to realize how MUCH we have… how big our houses are (even if you live in a trailer home)… our options of food (my mom asked to pick out some cereal while shopping at the grocery store and I finally told her that she had to choose because there were too many options)… the cars we drive, the roads we drive on, clean drinking water, and the list could go on and on. We truly are a rich nation if you look at it in these terms. Please be grateful for what we have!

The books I’ve read in the past year…

1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – by: Stieg Larson
2. The Best of Friends – by: Sara James and Ginger Mauney
3. The Book Thief – by: Markus Zusak
4. Way of the Peaceful Warrior – by: Dan Millman
5. The Pilot’s Wife – by: Anita Sherve
6. Day After Night – by: Anita Diamant
7. The Botany of Desire – by: Michael Pollan
8. The Poisenwood Bible – by: Barbara Kingsolver
9. The Life of Pi – by: Yann Martel
10. Amsterdam – by: Ian McEwan
11. Infidel – by: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
12. A Reliable Wife – by: Robert Goolrick
13. The Subtle Knife – by: Phillip Pullman
14. The Amber Spyglass – by: Phillip Pullman
15. The Help – by: Kathryn Stockett
16. The Art of Racing in the Rain – by: Garth Stein
17. The namesake – by: Jhumpa Lahiri
18. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders – by: Daniyal Mueenudin
19. The Purple Hibiscus – by: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
20. The girl who played with Fire – Stieg Larson
21. 20 Chickens for a Saddle – by: Robyn Scott
22. The Glass Castle – by: Jeannette
23. Marley and Me – by: John Grogan
24. Snow falling on Cedars – by: David Gutterson
25. Prodigal Summer – by: Barbara Kingsolver
26. Angle of Repose – by: Wallace Stegner
27. Under the Banner of Heaven – by: Jon Krakauer
28. Unless – by: Carol Shields
29. Sarah’s Keys – by: Tatiana deRosnay
30. The Last Days of Dogtown – by: Anita Diamant
31. Absurdistan – by: Gary Shteyngart
32. Running With Scissors – by: Augusten Burroughs
33. Monique and the Mango Rains – by: Kris Holloway
34. Rebecca’s Tale – by: Sally Beauman
35. The Bean Trees – by: Barbara Kingsolver
36. Beyond Eden – by: Catherine Coulter
37. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – by: Mark Twain
38. Memorial Day – by: Vince Flynn
39. Cutting for Stone – by: Abraham Verghese
40. A Long Way Gone – by: Ishmael Bach
41. Remember Me – by: Sophie Kinsella
42. The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency – by: Alexander McCallsmith
43. Interpreter of Maladies – by: Jhumpa Lahiri
44. Bad Things Happen – by: Harry Dollan
45. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – Sby: tieg larson
46. A Map of the World – by: Jane Hamilton
47. The Reader – by: Bernhard Schlink
48. Kafka on the Shore – by: Haruki Murakami
49. Murder of a Sweet Old Lady – by: Denise Swanson
50. Deception Point – by: dan Brown
51. Middlesex – by: Jeffrey Eugenides
52. The Memory Keeper’s Daughter – by: Kim Edwards
53. Dry – by: Augusten Burroughs
54. The Notebook – by: Nicholas Sparks

One year in Ghana! What I’ve learned, noticed, observed, been shocked by, discovered, and well everything else that might fall into one of these categories.

1. The novelty of me being in Ghana has worn off to those back home… as in the letter, postcards and packages are not frequenting my mailbox like they once use to. Don’t stop sending mail… getting snail mail is one of the best things EVER (well actually getting packages I think is ten times better and thanks so everyone that has sent me one or more than one this far)!
2. I’m can now sit on a bus for hours and hours and still be comfortable for sitting for many more long, long hours to come… will make my 3 flights back to Colorado in a few weeks much more enjoyable, and just think I’ll have leg room!
3. I’m now an expert at baby holding… or carrying on my back.
4. Saw a goat being born, and found snake eggs in my garden… but that was just another day in Africa.
5. Lost all creativity with cooking… all I know how to cook now is rice with a sauce on top.
6. I enjoy bucket bathing and I may take it home with me at the end of my two years (only for the summer months though)… just imagine bathing under a starry sky, or while watching the lightning off in the distance… AMAZING!
7. I’m learning to be patient, even when patience isn’t necessary.
8. I’ve learned a whole new side to the English language… “Driva I will elite here” … “No, please madam I will go come” … “Oh I beg, I beg please you cheat me” … yup that’s how I speak now.
9. I don’t like to hold babies that have just wet themselves… yes most babies here don’t wear diapers and just pee when they have to pee… yes I have been peed on numerous times by babies.
10. Read over 50 books… probably 50 more books than I’ve read the past 5 years… no joke.
11. I’m now used to ducking as I enter into any doorway… Never thought I was that tall, but I guess I am in Ghana.
12. I’m still given more food that I know what to do with… today alone I was given a bushel of plantains (about 16 plantains), 2 avocados, 2 papayas, and 1 HUGE mango… can’t really complain too much about it though.
13. I never thought I would see the day when I enjoyed spicy food, and then crave it… but yep that day has come and I am loving the spice!
14. I have the ability to make babies cry… just by looking at them.
15. I’m almost to the point where I can turn off my thoughts… almost.

I am just about to hit the point in my Peace Corps service where I’m the ‘old group.’ The one-year marker is rapidly approaching, and the ‘senior group’ just had their Close of Service conference to determine when everyone takes off (and for me, one year down, one plus a few months to go!) and the ‘new group’ will be arriving in less than 4 weeks.

We finished out first year of service off with the All Volunteer conference held in Ho, Volta Region (my regional capital). About 130 Peace Corps Volunteers who live all over Ghana came together to catch up, have pool parties almost every night, step back in time and go to Prom, compare all our talents or lack there of, and possibly learn something during the day sessions of the conference…. just maybe though. It was a chance to hear what projects people are working on, see what crafts their villages are making, and an opportunity to congratulate Peace Corps Ghana on 50 years of continues service (yes, Ghana is the first ever Peace Corps Country, and Peace Corps Ghana has served for 50 uninterrupted years)!

As the one-year maker creeps up on me I thought I want to write about what my country director reminded us in our April News Letter (that I got in May). Reality has probably set in (yes it has)… the honeymoon is over (most defiantly), and the question to stay or to go can only be determined by us (just has that conversation with myself)… but he asked us to think about how far we have come in the past year. Think about how much we’ve learned, what once were challenges now seem like a meager bumps in the road. We all came to Ghana so hopeful that we could change the world, but again he reminded us that we now probably understand the reality: we may not be able to prevent teachers from sleeping with students, we may not be able to stop committee members from chopping (team used in Ghana when someone takes the money for their own personal use) money, and we may not be able to convince our villages to throw their trash away. But at the same time we now realize that to help Ghana it may mean to help just one person. Influence that girl that she is smart and can go to college. Or to help the small children learn about other vegetables that they can grow and possibly sell. Help to get the few women in your compound on birth control, because you know if they have their 8^th child they might not stay alive to raise it. He reminded us to start small, and our return will be big.

“After successfully completing this worthwhile experience, nothing will ever seem quite as hard as it used to be. After all, if you can poop in a hole at night while shivering with a 103 temperature when your torch is not working, very few things back home will seem insurmountable.” (I think that says it all.)

After much preparation, and many trips to Accra, the Animal Rearing/Cage Building IST held at my site in the Volta Region was a huge success… or at least I thought it was.

Chris and I persevered through all the obstacles that lay in our way in order to put on a successful, and first ever, volunteer led In Service Training.

Day 1: Snail Cage

Last minute the dates were changed, the budget was never approved until 5 days before the training was suppose to start, the Easter holiday that happens to last for about 5 days in Ghana, caused us to not be able to buy many of our materials, and we booked our hotel too late causing us to have to change the location where everyone was suppose to stay… all lessened learned for the next IST that we give.

Day 2: Rabbit Cage

But in the course of 3 days, 12 Peace Corps Volunteers (including Chris and myself), 10 Counterparts, and 13 participants from my village all took part in building 7 animal cages/hutches in hopes of turning the trend to caging animals vs. living with the animals. We got MOFA, The Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Ghana, on board and they gave a very encouraging presentation on the benefits of caging animals… the trends are starting to change.

Day 3: Looking through the Chicken Coup

The first day, 3 snail cages were built, two above the ground and one in ground to mimic their natural habitat. The second day 2 rabbit hutches and 1 grasscutter cage were built. And on the last day we built an amazing chicken coup (I might be predigest because it was built so I could raise chickens with my Ghanaian Family, but I must say it’s a bomb chicken coup!) and finished what wasn’t finished on the first day.

It was great to see everyone in the training get involved, from the village participants to all the PCV’s everyone worked well and efficient together. This was the first time for many PCV’s that we were able to get our hands dirty during a training. We were all tired of observing during our technical training instead of partaking in the technical aspect of our training.

Kente cloth is the traditional woven cloth of Ghana. There are debates on who makes the best Kente cloth… the Ashanti’s or the Ewe’s… and within each of those regions who makes the best. I can’t say I know the difference between the Ashanti Kente vs. the Ewe Kente, and I can’t even tell the difference in each of the regions.

the thread

the loom

my village's loan kente weaver

the final product