antre! (or good afternoon)
just finished up site visit and then an intense 2 week technical training in the Northern Region, and now we are back down in the Eastern Region at our homestays to finish out the last couple weeks of Pre-Service Training (PST). the tech training was great, we learned a lot and fortunately had the chance to do many practical applications; we taught some lessons in primary schools, helped construct/watched a latrine and soak-away pit get dug and built, held an HIV/AIDS meeting with mango farmers, visited clinics and hospitals, assisted in a baby-weighing day....
we stayed in a house without electricity (getting me ready for the next 2 years!), but fortunately it had running water and a cold shower. our WATSAN (health/water and sanitation sector) definitely grew a lot closer due to such close living quarters :) but it was great, our group is amazing and i learned so many interesting facts about each one of them!
one of the interesting days during the technical training was the baby-weighing day in Dipale. so many babies in such a small community, but they were all adorable and most didn't cry when they saw our white skin. it's still hard to get used to them crying when they see us because of our skin, but most of them warm up to us, eventually. =) the pictures on facebook show they come and hang them from a scale (literally) and then mark their progress in a book. there are lines which indicate healthy/underweight/severely underweight. they would get weighed and then go on to get immunizations from the nurse (which are provided by the government of Ghana) and she educated the mothers on malaria and diarrhea.
so everything on my side of the world is great, so i'd love to hear stories from home guys! maybe about all the milk/dairy products you are consuming while i'm consuming almost zero! because this country doesn't do milk or cheese apparently...or maybe about the mornings you wake up and turn on SportsCenter, something i could really go for right about now. also, all you southwest michiganders, i know the Van Buren Youth Fair just happened, so tell me how it was :) or how about all the days you have the option to go to the beach if it's 100 degrees out while i just sit there and sweat like a pig. i'm not complaining because this experience is amazing and i'm so grateful, but i wish pools/lakes were more readily available! so please have a bowl of cereal, drink a cold beer while swimming at the beach, and eat some pizza and burgers for me =)
i continuously miss you all, and a special shoutout to JACKIE and JOSH for bringing baby Brayden into this world :) he's a wonderful addition to a beautiful little family! i can't wait to hear all about him, and see more pictures!
peace, love, and hugs
xoxo
Monday, July 26, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Naama
Another update from the UPPER WEST region of Ghana...in it's regional capital of Wa. It's currently raining big time here, so Zoe (the closest volunteer to my new community) and I are sitting in an internet cafe waiting for the rain to pass.
I met my counterpartner, named Alhassan ("Ollie"), who is a community health volunteer in Kulkpong (pronounced Kul-e-pong) earlier this week at counterpart workshop. He's super awesome and seems very involved in the community. We then travelled the country, some 14+ hours....leaving at 4:30 am Ghanaian time, which really resulted in 6:30 am we pulled out of the college....then finally arrived to my community when it was just getting dark. It was nice to go, but it wasn't until morning I really saw the community; due to the lack of electricity! it's awesome though, living without lights or running water. bucket baths are now a breeze, and waking up with the sun and going to bed when the sun sets are now normal.
Ollie showed me around Kulkpong the next morning, then we got on a lovely trotro to head back to Wa. It's about 41 kilometers (28 miles for you Westerners =]) but it can take anywhere between 1-2 hours or more...depending on the driver, passengers, number of stops, etc. Trotros run when they are full here, so it's not like they have scheduled times to leave -- they just go when they are full and that's that. To outsiders it seems like complete chaos, but it's orderly and somehow seems right and works. Now these tros (or lorrys, they have lots of names) are in terrible condition...but they have to be. The road I travel to my village is not tarred (or DIRT as we call them back home) and it has pot holes and divets everywhere...so basically a pretty smoooooth ride ;)
So I met the sub-chief and some elders...the assemblyman...basically important people in the community and then Zoe came to town. We took a walk around to just chat and stuff. We walked through the market area (which comes every 6 days and it's the largest market in my district, Wa East...which is like a county in the US), to see the boreholes (where you get water), to the dam, past the new police station (which has no staff members yet), and around to visit people she knows in the community.
Today I got my traditional Ghanaian name. The process of naming a new baby (or stranger, which is me) is called outdooring. It's usually done 7 days after a baby is born...in which he/she is introduced to the community and given a name. Well, since I'm a stranger to my new community, they are grateful enough to give me a name and have a small ceremony. The chief and elders met and decided on my name and told me that when I return in August (after training and swearing-in) there will be a more traditional outdooring ceremony where everyone in the community will attend and I will greet them. I am the first woman volunteer (i'm the 3rd Peace Corps Volunteer in Kulkpong) so they think it's important for many women to attend my ceremony. However, today only men were at the small gathering. But my name is "Naama" -- which is two words combined..'naa' means chief and 'ma' means mother...so therefore, I am considered the Mother of the Chiefs. This is a BIG name, so I'm thankful they gave me such a respectible name. I'm excited to finish training and start my new life in Kulkpong.
I met my counterpartner, named Alhassan ("Ollie"), who is a community health volunteer in Kulkpong (pronounced Kul-e-pong) earlier this week at counterpart workshop. He's super awesome and seems very involved in the community. We then travelled the country, some 14+ hours....leaving at 4:30 am Ghanaian time, which really resulted in 6:30 am we pulled out of the college....then finally arrived to my community when it was just getting dark. It was nice to go, but it wasn't until morning I really saw the community; due to the lack of electricity! it's awesome though, living without lights or running water. bucket baths are now a breeze, and waking up with the sun and going to bed when the sun sets are now normal.
Ollie showed me around Kulkpong the next morning, then we got on a lovely trotro to head back to Wa. It's about 41 kilometers (28 miles for you Westerners =]) but it can take anywhere between 1-2 hours or more...depending on the driver, passengers, number of stops, etc. Trotros run when they are full here, so it's not like they have scheduled times to leave -- they just go when they are full and that's that. To outsiders it seems like complete chaos, but it's orderly and somehow seems right and works. Now these tros (or lorrys, they have lots of names) are in terrible condition...but they have to be. The road I travel to my village is not tarred (or DIRT as we call them back home) and it has pot holes and divets everywhere...so basically a pretty smoooooth ride ;)
So I met the sub-chief and some elders...the assemblyman...basically important people in the community and then Zoe came to town. We took a walk around to just chat and stuff. We walked through the market area (which comes every 6 days and it's the largest market in my district, Wa East...which is like a county in the US), to see the boreholes (where you get water), to the dam, past the new police station (which has no staff members yet), and around to visit people she knows in the community.
Today I got my traditional Ghanaian name. The process of naming a new baby (or stranger, which is me) is called outdooring. It's usually done 7 days after a baby is born...in which he/she is introduced to the community and given a name. Well, since I'm a stranger to my new community, they are grateful enough to give me a name and have a small ceremony. The chief and elders met and decided on my name and told me that when I return in August (after training and swearing-in) there will be a more traditional outdooring ceremony where everyone in the community will attend and I will greet them. I am the first woman volunteer (i'm the 3rd Peace Corps Volunteer in Kulkpong) so they think it's important for many women to attend my ceremony. However, today only men were at the small gathering. But my name is "Naama" -- which is two words combined..'naa' means chief and 'ma' means mother...so therefore, I am considered the Mother of the Chiefs. This is a BIG name, so I'm thankful they gave me such a respectible name. I'm excited to finish training and start my new life in Kulkpong.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
new number! and call me for FREE from skype!
my new phone number is:
011233543915808
:) use it. i've heard that through the end of the world cup you can go to skype and call any african country of your choice for FREE for 60 minutes! so if so, choose ghana and call me :)
you can call through your cell phone...just go to footballpromo.skype.com then select GHANA and go from there.
i also posted pictures on facebook!
so everyone that has my facebook (family, aka aunt val and lindsay) please show my mom, dad, grandma, aunt beth...everyone else ya know.
011233543915808
:) use it. i've heard that through the end of the world cup you can go to skype and call any african country of your choice for FREE for 60 minutes! so if so, choose ghana and call me :)
you can call through your cell phone...just go to footballpromo.skype.com then select GHANA and go from there.
i also posted pictures on facebook!
so everyone that has my facebook (family, aka aunt val and lindsay) please show my mom, dad, grandma, aunt beth...everyone else ya know.
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