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

Getting caught in Accra right before Easter weekend is not a good idea… or rather trying to get a car out of Accra right before Easter weekend is not a good idea.

Normally if I get to the station by 12pm I can safely get a car to Hohoe and still catch a car to Kute. So when 11:30 rolled around and I was preparing to leave the Peace Corps Office I didn’t think twice about the religious holiday that was approaching. And when I couldn’t catch public transportation to the station I should have had some clue that the station was going to be crazy. But Easter weekend was never a big deal in my family… meaning we don’t ever travel… so the thought of Ghanaians wanting to spend this super religious holiday with their loved ones wasn’t crossing my mind.

After waiting about 45 minutes to catch a taxi… (Every taxi that pulled up refused to take us to the Volta station… should have been a clue)… and having to run from the taxi in the middle of traffic and walk the rest of the way to the station still didn’t seem like a big deal (Ghana is about the size of Oregon with almost 30 million people, so traffic in the capital is normal). I finally reached my station to see NO cars and a mob of people (well over 100 people) with luggage up the wazu just waiting. (There are a few different Volta Stations, all within one block of each other… and I normally go to the station that is off the radar, where I don’t get hassled, its easy to get to, and I can find an air conditioned car) My normal station, The Gardens, was just crawling with people. I started asking where people were going and they all said Hohoe… shit... then I asked how long people had been waiting and some said for over two hours… shit… (Normally I’m waiting for more people to fill the car, rather than waiting for a car). I found the master of the station and starting asking about getting to Hohoe and all he said was that there were no cars… then I asked about getting to Ho (Volta’s regional capital) and again he said that there were no cars, same with every major city that I pass through on my way to Hohoe. Then he pulled me aside and said go to the Tudu Station, a car will come but you must wait.

The Tudu Station is my least favorite station. People are always grabbing at you, it smells like urine, cars are everywhere, people are yelling, vender’s stands are over loaded with items they are trying to sell. It is a cramped place that is hard to meander through. This station always reminds me that I’m in Africa though (yes sometimes I still forget that I’m in Africa… especially after being in Accra). I found my way to the Hohoe section of the station only to find again NO CARS, and another mob of people. Panic was starting to set in. I needed to get back to my village… wanted to get back to my village. I searched out for the master of the station and told him that I HAD TO, NEEDED TO get to Hohoe. First he said that there were no cars to anywhere in the Volta, but I think he sensed my urgency and told me to wait small. Then he said to follow him.

We started to follow this blue van… it stopped and people stated crawling on top, going through the windows, hair was being pulled, elbows were being jabbed, people were shoving others aside, and yelling at the top of their lungs just to try and get a seat in the car. I have no sense on how to fight for a seat in a car. I’m used to lines, first come first serve, some sort of orderly manner… not in Ghana though. I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing.

I still don’t know how I got a seat in this car, but after some more yelling, physically pulling people out of the car, I got a seat because the master of the station demanded that I get on this car (praise the lord as they would say in Ghana). The price was jacked up to almost double the normal price, and it was packed to the max… I was holding other people’s luggage on my lap, chickens were under the seats, parents were sitting with 2 kids on their lap… but I was in, I had a ride, I could still possible make it home.

I did eventually make it home… getting to my house around 8pm that night… after a ride from hell. The driver was driving like a mad man, chasing down cars (literally and then making them stop to yell at the driver of the other vehicle), and going through a horrendous rainstorm. Upon arrival in Hohoe, I made it to my station just in time to catch the last car, and get the last seat (praise the lord) to get home… long day.

Another volunteer and I have been planning an animal husbandry training for other PCV’s and their counterparts to happen at the end of April in my small and remote village. 10 Peace Corps Volunteers and their counterparts have been invited, as well as 10 participants from my community (or surrounding villages) and 2 carpenters. This training is to teach said people how to build rabbit, grasscutter, snail and chicken cages/coups and in hopes that they will then take this training and build their own cage as an alternative means of making money (capitalizing on the ‘Alternative Livelihood’ part of my Peace Corps title.)

For the most part things have been going smoothly… we found lodging for everyone (as this event extends over the course of 4 days) we hired a lady to do the cooking for all our meals (even if her price is through the roof) and we are in the process of finding organizations or groups that will reap from this training by receiving the cages to rear some animals.

But that doesn’t mean that planning for this event hasn’t come with its own set of problems… and the problems come more in the form of communication. We have offered to feed the 12 invited guest lunch during this training… but my ‘counterpart’ doesn’t understand why we can’t feed them breakfast and dinner as well (because they are from my village and can go home to get those two meals). Then he said that Peace Corps should pay the carpenters to take part in the training (not sure I understand that one… we are offering a ‘free training’ in hopes that they in the end will benefit.) He was also wondering why each individual is not getting his or her own cage (because we can’t build 40 plus cages in the course of 4 days… and that price kind of exceeds the budget). But then why aren’t we giving them money to go home and build their own cage (because if you hand a Ghanaian money they will pocket it and go buy the newest, flashiest item in the market… and how the hell does just handing out money promote sustainable development? It doesn’t… education does. )

I’ve been struggling to get the idea into my counterpart’s head that this training is for the people, for the village, to learn how to build said cages… so they can take this training back to their compound, village, or organization and try to build their own cage or cages, and make some money on the side from their ‘real job’ (if they really have a job). Most Ghanaians it seems though (or at least this goes for my village) want the world handed to them (that’s not to say that this isn’t the case for some Americans), but they bitch and moan that they have no money and when the opportunity comes (yes most of the days are spent laying around, and when you ask for something, like buying food on the street, they roll their eyes and give you the look “of really do I need to get up from my bench and help you… I would rather stay sitting”) up to make some money they bitch and moan that there is work involved… heaven forbid.