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).

ViLlAGe FAcEs

gOAtS

so cute when they are sleeping

where the goats enjoy sleeping (and by sleeping I mean bleating all night)... under my windows

pleasant... I think not

On a daily basis I surprise myself on how I’m able to handle the rustic setting that I’m currently living in (not that I don’t enjoy nature, but I don’t like nature in my living quarters)… termites live in my bed (hope they don’t bite), cockroaches are around (but dead as soon as I see them running around my room), mice run freely (luckily I have yet to see one in my room), rats roam the streets like they own them (I’ve watched my family kill them for supper), lizards are my wall companions (if I’m in my village alone long enough I might start talking to them), snakes are killed the minute they are spotted (I’ve witnessed death by cutlass twice now), and I haven’t seen a scorpion since day 1 or 2 in Ghana (thank God). Then there are the spiders…

The spiders have thus far seemed harmless (and I’m sure that they all are). There are the big flat spiders (yes they area called flat spiders because they are FLAT). I let them live on my wall (don’t want to be known as a spider masochist). The biggest I’ve seem them get is about the size of my palm (almost to big for my comfort). Then there are the normal small spiders (have yet to cause me any pain). If they stay out of my way, then I stay out of theirs (we have this unspoken deal.) But when I find a spider that is to big for my liking or gets in my way, then it’s death by Molly or whom ever I can find to do the deed.

The other night was going normal… dinner while watching a TV show, followed by dishes and then grant writing… when I came across a dinner plate size spider (ok maybe more like a salad plate size… but HUGE nonetheless) hanging out on my wall. I let out a large scream, dropped my computer on the bed and ran to my family. They were in the middle of pounding fufu for dinner and all started laughing when they noticed the look of disgust on my face. “Nu Ka” (“what” in Ewe) they asked me… “Spider” I responded as I held up my hands showing how big it was. Stella (the daughter-in-law) bursts out in this kackaling laugh while she grabs a broom and asks “Afi Ka?” (“Where?”) I point to my room and open the door for her to do the killing. 2 seconds later she sweeps the dead spider out of my room (I may be able to sleep after all) and gathers with the family and neighbors (who came over to see what all the commotion was about) as they all continue to laugh at me.

Embarrassing… Yes

Disgusting… Yes

Terrifying… Yes

Still giving me the chills… Yes

Twenty ten

Was one for the time,

As I have moved to Ghana

Where I don’t make a dime.

I left my friends,

Family and my world

To live in a place

Where my daily living is a chore.

No running water

And a bucket to bath from

Everyday is an adventure

That is as different as they come.

The goats and the chickens

Run wild a free,

And the small children like to pee

Wherever they please.

The locals are proud

Of their few Ghanaian dishes,

That they eat with their hands

And from the same dishes.

Clothing is washed

With nothing but the hand

And water is fetched

By carrying it over land.

The babies are carried

On their mother’s backs

And the children run around

Wearing anything but slacks.

Public transportation

Is anything but comfortable,

As I pray to the lord

That the tro tro won’t take a tumble

Farming as it is

Maize, rice and coco

Happens to be

How the locals make money o.

The weather is hot

The sun likes to shine

But sometimes it rains

Cooling this new land of mine.

But I’m just living the dream

Of being a PCV

In hopes of doing something good

But I’ll guess we’ll see.

Twenty eleven

Will be one for the time,

As I will still be in Ghana

Where nothing else rhymes.

Ghana is one of the world’s largest coco exporters… and yet it fails in the chocolate production department (one type of chocolate here… and it’s crap). Meaning though that most rural villages in southern Ghana have coco and their main crop…including mine.

The process that the coco goes through before it is produced into actual chocolate is an in depth, time consuming, and rigorous process to produce the highest quality coco. (This is the process that I have witnessed with my own eyes, and been explained to by the locals of my village… but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other methods to the coco madness.)

Step 1: Letting the coco grow…

I have been spending countless time with my ‘host family’ (my host family is actually my land lady and her family… but they have taken me under their wing, making me feel like I’m part of their family) in the bush at their farm drinking palm wine and cracking open coco pods to learn about this in depth process… They have a random plot of land filled top to bottom with coco trees… (I wish I could say that it is an orchard sitting on a 5, 10 or 100-acre lot, but the amount of land is given at random, meaning it starts at this bush and extends until that tree with a coco tree here and another two there.) All over this plot of land there are young and old trees, as my land lady points out that a few of these trees were planted when the land belonged to her in-laws. The coco grows in a pod usually in two’s off the various branches and the trunk of the tree. It starts out a green color and when it is ripe and ready to be picked it is usually bright yellow in color.

Step 2: Plucking the coco…

I’ve been trying to understand when the coco season actually is, but every time I ask I get a different answer. Yes I have been in Ghana 7 months, and every day I see farmers coming back form farm carrying fresh coco seeds on their head, as well as I see coco out to dry. So the season as far as I’m concerned is on going (maybe it will peter off as the dry season wears on.) So on a weekly basis my family has been going into the bush to pluck the coco. The plucking of the coco involves a long bamboo stick with a sharp knife attached to one end and someone extending this knife/stick thing into the coco tree and slicing the stem of the coco pod off. Then another person gathers all the fallen pods in a big silver bowl and carries them back to where the rest of the group is sitting and cracking open the pods.

Step 3: Cracking open the coco pods…

my land lady cracking open the coco pods

the inside of a coco pod

This could be my favorite process, as I sit for hours with my cutlass in hand cracking open the coco pods and scooping out all the innards. The inside of a coco pod has so to say 4 sections and in each section there is a line of coco covered in this white, sugary, yet milky looking covering (delicious to suck on.) We scoop the innards into one bowl, and toss the shell into another pile (which will eventually be burned and then turned into the famous Ghanaian Black Soap).

the innards of many coco pods

freshly cracked open coco pods

Step 4: Fermentation…

This is where the process gets a little fuzzy… as everyone gives me a different answer, but it all revolves around the coco being fermented… or rather dried. When the coco, wet, and slimy finally makes it back to the house (farms in Ghana aren’t like farms in the US, rather the main processing of the product is processed at ones house, whether it is the rice, maize or coco drying this all happens at or rather in the compound of where the Ghanaian lives). According to my land lady the coco must sit covered (usually with banana leaves) for 3 or 4 days to start the curing process, and then on the 3^rd or 4^th day the coco is laid out to dry, and every few hours it is turned to make sure that the coco is getting evenly dry. The Ghanaians don’t depend on any sort of dryer, rather the equatorial sun. In the drying out, curing process the coco is rigorously gone through to pick out the bad coco, rocks, and any other waste that may have snuck in.

almost dried coco

Step 5: Selling to the Ghanaian Coco Board…

I’m not sure how is works for other villages, but in my little Podunk Ghanaian Village, there is one man who is on the Ghanaian Coco Board. So everyone in my village sells their dried/cured coco to him. There is usually a set price, and last time I checked for 1 Kilo of dried coco it was 3.20 Ghana Cedi (the local currency) and for 30 kilos of dried coco it was 96.00 Ghana Cedi. And for one bag, being 65 Kilos, it is 200 Ghana Cedi (maybe 170 USD). The man then in turns sells the coco to the actual Ghanaian Coco Board, making 1 cedi for every bag of coco.

Step 6: Exporting…

Ok so now I’m totally speculating, but from the Ghanaian Coco Board the coco is sold to company such as Nestle, and Cadburys for the production of actual chocolate and other chocolate products.

Mr. Jon with all the dried coco before he sends if off to the Ghana Coco Board

(I always laugh when I receive chocolate in my packages knowing that the original coco may of come from the country that I’m living in, and yet I have to have someone send me chocolate to help curb my chocolate cravings… don’t stop sending it.)