Christmas, Ghana style

Well that was certainly a memorable, if not very exciting, Christmas. Here's the rundown. The night of the 24th, Richard stepped out the back door, cut down three tree branches, stuck them in a jug and called it a Christmas tree. We decorated it with some balloons we found and 6 minutes later, the decorations were complete (Mom, that's about how long it took you too, right?). On the morning of the 25th, we discovered that Santa had delivered gifts from America! (Somehow, he got hold of John's stinky old sneakers and used them as stockings)



One of my gifts was beignet mix (for those non-Chandlers out there, it a seriously important culinary Christmas tradition), which was a very exciting surprise. So I taught John and Mavis how to make them, and got to share a Chandler tradition with my adopted family in Ghana. A very cool experience.

Then we sat around and complained about being too full....for most of the rest of the day. We exchanged presents with our family- they gave Mo and I dresses and John and shirt, all hand-made. We gave Mavis jewlery and a hand-carved comb, Richard a framed pictures of his family, Rejoice a bracelet and waist beads, and the new baby (due in February) beads as well.

At about 4:30, we ate our big Christmas meal- Fufuo and stew with goat meat. It was delicious, but didn't quite taste like ham and turkey and chocolate pie.



The 26th is also a holiday in Ghana, as well as market day this year (every Wednesday in Mampong). So we spent a few hours in town and at the market, then headed up to the babies home to check on all the kids. We were shocked when we walked through the gate to loud music and laughter- it turns out they celebrate Christmas every year on the 26th with a festival, including community children and their families. It was so great to see. The kids got juice and cookies, there was lots of music and dancing, and classic festival games like musical chairs and tug-of-war. I must say I was very excited to see the children out in their best having a good time playing with toys and other children.



The next morning we left for Accra with ALL of our belongings. I'm sure the sight of us navigating the tro-tro stations each carrying 3 bags was quite humorous to whomever was watching. Today was Mo's last day in Ghana and she declared that she wanted to spend it on the beach. So we awoke this morning, packed up, and headed to Baja beach just outside Accra for a wonderful day of swimming and relaxing.

We are just now about to take Mo to the airport, and I just don't like it! Ghana in my mind includes Mo and I know it will be such a different experience without her here. I could not have been more fortunate to be placed with her those many months ago- I have absolutely found a life-long friend and travelling companion!



And with that, I must sign off. I'm sorry the pictures are not loading today; I'm not sure why. I will try to add them next time. What was the most memorable part of your Christmas?

Happy Christmas!

Back on the road again. Last Thursday we left Tafi Atome, travelled through Accra and Kumasi and we are now back in Mampong. It is a strange feeling to be back here after all I have done in the last few months, I feel like the place has changed so much but I think it was probably me and not the city that did the changing.

Though I ask everyone what Christmas is like here, I still don't have a good idea of what we will do tomorrow, so I will have to post about that after the fact. The 26th is also a holiday here, and I do know there is a town-wide pool party (that's right- a pool party...in December!) on the 26th, which should be quite interesting.

It was sad to leave Tafi Atome; it has come to feel very much like home. Mo and John will not return, but I have decided to continue working there next year. It was a tough decision, as the work there is not easy, but I feel like I can do more there than I can in the Babies home, and the experience will be more satisfying for me as well.

So here is my plan right now: Mampong until December 27th, then to Accra to drop Mo off at the airport for her flight on the 28th (Ghana will be such a different experience with her gone!!). Then John and I will travel along the coast through new years' and until he leaves on January 8th. I will stick around in Accra and leave the next day to Ethiopia. One of my very good friends from University is working there and I am going to visit him. I will be there until January 22nd, when I will return to Ghana and to the Monkey Sanctuary.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas- please eat lots of Turkey, ham, chocolate, beignets, and anything else you eat at Christmastime for me. We will be having rice, Fufuo, and goat meat. And enjoy the cold weather- despite what the locals say, it is not cold here.

Here are some pictures from our last day in Tafi Atome- the kids were very sad to see us go, and the adults thanked us with bottles of gin and beer (yikes!)

And finally, here is a picture of Patrick. We met him in Ho on our way through last week. He is so excited to be in school again! His mom came by before we left and thanked us with LOTS of oranges and bananas. Thank you for your help with that decision.

In other news...

Well, the bank account still has the wrong names on it, the community is still taking more money than the sanctuary can give, and the chiefs share a bottle of gin before every meeting (they meet at 6:00 am). So work is slow. It is impossible to educate the whole town and the chiefs refuse to listen but we can teach individuals who want it. There is some progress. We have spent many hours meeting with the chairman of the TMC (Tourism Management Committee) and I am confident that at least his bookkeeping will be accurate starting in the new year. We also managed to divide the 47% into a few categories: 5% to the chiefs, 10% to sanctuary upkeep/improvements, and 32% to community development. That's a big step. If the percentages are set and educated people are responsible for dispersing the money, we might be getting somewhere. But enough about work.

In other news, Mo decided she must see Togo before leaving Africa so she has been there for the last week, due back tomorrow. John and I biked to a lakeside town called Kpando (pronounced Pandu with a sharp 'p') on Friday, which involved about 5 hours on bikes and a few big hills, then hiked up the tallest waterfall in Ghana, Wli (pronouned Vli) on Saturday, an all-day hike. Both trips were absolutely worth the work, though my quads may not agree.


A few weeks back, we also discovered Mountain Paradise Lodge, located a 30-minute bike ride then a 45-minute hike (or a 10-minute drive) up a mountain. The first time we went, just to visit, we met the owner, Tony, and talked about our work at Tafi. His eyes lit up. He said he loved running the lodge but hated keeping books, so asked if we could help him find an efficient bookkeeping system. So we got to know him, the lodge, and his business style and returned the following week. From breakfast to dinner last Tuesday we went through all of his old receipts, bills, and finance books to make some sense of it. By the end of the day, we took him from 7 illegible books down to 3 new ones, and set up a simple daily and monthly routine for him.


It was a long day's work, but extremely satisfying. The effect was immediate; there was no committee meeting, no chief's approval, no signatures required. When we suggested a few small changes on the bill he gives customers, he opened his computer and made the changes. I cannot explain what a good feeling it is -next to all these days at Tafi- to see our work realized so quickly. We will continue to keep up with his progress each week. Tony is a very smart guy with a lot of passion, and he dreams big. When we asked him what his goals were for the lodge, he said (and I quote): "The day that I can sit back and drink my beer is the day we have light aircraft here. Oh, excuse me [as he takes a phone call for reservations over Christmas]". Tony is a fun guy to work with.

There is so much to tell, every post is a challenge to condense the facts, emotions, and experiences, and then put them all in words. And now here is a beautiful daily-life picture and some more adorable monkeys, as requested.

Thank you all for your ideas and suggestions. We will certainly make sure Patrick is able to finish his school year and I will speak with Mavis about other opportunities for her to start her business. In the meantime, we have made two small investments in Tafi. The first: Mo, John and I decided to donate the supplies and our time to repaint the main office building. The tour guides helped, and the seven of us had a blast!


Second, John and I purchased three bikes last week. These bikes will primarily be for our use until we leave; however, we bought them because Sylvester had mentioned he wanted to set up a bike rental in Tafi to help himself through school. So we are in the process of entering into a business contract with him wherein we will maintain primary ownership of the bikes but he will be in charge of the rental company. This benefits four different parties: we can get around easier while we are here, Sylvester can learn the basics of running a business (he is interested in pursuing this), tourists have another entertainment option, and the Sanctuary benefits from the tourists' satisfaction. We've had the bikes less than one week and I think we've already gotten our money's worth!

We also cleaned up the office a bit. We added a donation box and a "tips are appreciated" sign (both of which paid off within the day) and arranged the brochures for other tourist attractions in the area. We have a big meeting with both the committee and the chiefs and elders on Thursday morning. The goal of the meeting is to get the green light on some imperative goals (the committee seems to be on our side; it's the chiefs we have to convince).

As it is now, the old committee members are the only ones with access to the sanctuary's bank account, the chiefs constantly take money from the office without recording it, and there is one lump percentage of the profits that is assigned to the chiefs, committee, sanctuary upkeep/improvements, and community development combined. Basically, according to the books the sanctuary is pulling in a ton of money but the bank account is empty.

These are simple- not easy, but Simple- problems to fix. Our two main objectives right now are to get the names on the account changed to the members of the present committee and set up a separate account in the chief's name, into which the community's and chief's money will go. If we can successfully separate the percentages and book keeping and give the correct people financial power, Tafi Atome would be completely financially secure. Here's the trick though: we are not the first, second, or probably fifth person to explain this to them. When I cleaned out the desk in the office, I found some very well written documents by organizations and volunteers alike proposing the same things, frequently in the same manner. Frustrating. The guides seem to believe that the three of us have what it takes, and I really hope we do, but we are just amateurs going on common sense and making it up as we go.

On a lighter note, here are some great shots from our everyday life in the beautiful Volta region and the beautiful people (and animals?) with whom we live!

Happy Thanksgiving

This was certainly a most memorable Thanksgiving! Last week, John got an infection in a cut on his leg so we went to the hospital in Ho, the closest big town, to have it checked out. To ensure the quickest recovery, they admitted him and set him on IV antibiotics, to be discharged Friday. So Thursday morning, Mo and I headed to the Bishop's house (a fortunate friend we met last time we stayed in Ho). His daughter, Emelda (who happens to have formal culinary training), accompanied us to the market and helped us prepare a Thanksgiving feast. We transported it from her kitchen to the area outside John's hopsital room

And proceeded to gorge ourselves in true Thanksgiving style. We had: a roasted chicken, french fries with ketchup, baked apples, salad, garlic bread, and pancakes and vanilla ice cream for dessert (a European touch from Mo).

The hospital visit put us back another few days getting started on our work at Tafi, so we are just now rolling on some of our ideas. Our mission is trifold: to assist in business management, tourism development, and community work (anything the community needs help with like teaching, tutoring, painting, farming, digging, etc.)

The four tour guides with whom we primarily work are wonderful, especially Sylvester- an extremely selfless and well educated Tafi native with an irreplaceable smile. The seven of us will work together to accomplish our goals (benefitting from the duel perspective of tourist and native guide) and will then report to the Tourism Management Committee, who ultimately must run everything by the chiefs and elders. This, predictably, has the potential to slow progress, since each decision must pass through three levels of authority. However, we are starting small and trying to stay optimistic through the slow pace of change.

In the meantime, the people of Tafi Atome have truly stolen our hearts. They are happy, proud, and extremely generous with the little they have.

An English woman a few years ago began a sponsorship program to enable more children to attend school. The program seems to be working well (I will provide details in the next post if you are interested) but it is not perfect. One of the tour guides, Patrick, is in a polytechnic University in Ho, thanks to a sponsor. Last Monday, he left the village to begin his second of three years, but returned Tuesday because his sponsor could no longer support him and had not paid his school fees. Sylvester explained the situation to us when we asked why Patrick was still here.

We want to help Patrick, but the situation is a tricky one. We cannot simply hand him the money, and if too many people hear we sponsored him, we will have beggars on our doorstep. After much conversation among ourselves and with Sylvester, we decided it is appropriate for us to sponsor him this year and try to keep that information among ourselves (he only needs about $150 USD).

Now here is my question to you, the ones who have sponsored and supported me to be here. Do you think it is appropriate for me to help sponsor Patrick with the money I raised before arriving in Ghana? I am struggling with this question because Patrick is a personal friend who is in need. Though the money may help many down the line (like his future family), it is going towards an individual. What makes the greater impact: helping a few individuals or providing something for a group (a school, orphanage, or program)?

There is a second case I am struggling with even more. Before we left Mampong, Mavis (our host mom) explained to both Mo and myself that she plans to turn the empty building behind their house into a cold store (where you buy frozen meat and fish). But she needs some help with the startup money and asked if we would donate to her. Again, this is a situation where I would be helping a personal friend; however, this is something she wants to do. The family does not need to depend on the money she will make. How much does that matter?

These are questions I have been seriously considering recently and, though I know the final decision is my own to make, I would love to hear your input. Your support is a very important aspect of my trip.

Life with the Monkeys

Well, I have a new place to call home. We made it down to Mampong after my last post just long enough to see our family and unpack then immediately repack. We jumped back on the road and headed to Accra to greet John, who arrived very early Monday morning.

Tuesday evening, we arrived in Tafi Atome, the small village and monkey sanctuary. The three of us (John, Mo, and myself) will live here until Christmas, helping with tourism, NGO proposals, and hands-on work with the children. There are three schools and an orphanage in this town of less than 1,000. The children are wonderful, we already have a strong following that hang out in front of our hut almost all day wanting to talk, play, and learn. The orphanage has 43 children in it, about half of whom have poor family in town, the other half are true orphans.

We are much more secluded than we were in Mampong- surrounded on all sides by monkey territory. It involves either an hour walk, 30 minute bike ride, or 10 minute taxi ride (which you have to call) just to get to the junction to find transportation anywhere else.

Being so secluded, it is a bit more involved to find internet, so my posts may come less frequently, I'm sorry about that ahead of time. I will try to post well when I get to post!

In typical Ghanian fashion, we arrived on Tuesday but have not started work yet. We will meet with the tourism committee tomorrow morning (a group of elected community members) to talk about what they want from us, and hopefully to pitch some of our ideas. I am optimistic that we will be able to make an impact on this village. They seem open to new ideas and truly rely on money from tourism to survive. In the meantime, we have had a great time with the local children, who seem to be more respectful and speak more English than those we encounter in Mampong.

We felt immediately welcomed and at-home in Tafi Atome, they are taking very good care of us. Because it is such a small town, everybody knows who we are and why we are there. Just walking around, we will get smiles accompanied by "welcome" or "thank you!". Plus I think it is just the greatest thing that I finally live where seeing monkeys is just as common as seeing goats or chickens! I just don't get tired of that.

I promise next post will have pictures!!!

Je ne comprends pas!

That is one of about 4 things I can say in French (and it's not pretty...). Between Mo and myself, we could confidently navigate any country in which the primary language is English, Dutch, Spanish, German, or Italian. They speak French in Burkina Faso. It was the first time in all my traveling when 98% of the people we encountered did not speak a word of English. It certainly added some excitement to the trip. Each encounter became an interesting mix of charades, guessing games, and lots of laughter. Since we didn't speak the language and wanted to visit some of the more obscure spots, we decided to travel in style. We hired a car and a driver. Unfortunately, our driver was part of that 98%. Despite the impenitrable language barrier, I found Burkina Faso to be an amazing country and the people as nice as could be.

Burkina is rated as the 3rd poorest country in the world, but I would never guess that from traveling there. The people are happy, helpful, and proud of their heritage. The streets are clean (at least cleaner than Ghana's). There is almost no crime and I certainly never felt threatened or unsafe. We encountered very few beggars and did not see many people living on the street. The nicest thing for me was that I felt much less aware of my whitemess in Burkina than I do in Ghana. People didn't stare, point, laugh, or scream when we walked by. Taxis hassled us less, and there were very few calls of "abruni" (well, it's "le blanche" there). I always felt relaxed walking around.

And now, in no particular order, a few of the fun and memorable things we did in Burkina: I rode a camel, slept under the stars in the desert, bribed the Ghanian embassy to give our passports back, ate roadkill (for Breakfast!), swam in waterfalls, sat on a crocodile, went to a cattle market, and bought a kora (that's a beautiful traditional west aftrican instrument I studied last year).

That last one has made traveling back through Ghana on tro-tros very interesting. It was a great trip, but it's also good to be back in Ghana. Though I enjoyed the challenge of learning French in 10 days, it's nice to be able to communicate with people again. Plus Burkina was HOT!! They are already in their dry season; it didn't rain the entire time we were there. In fact, the first time I saw clouds in the sky, we were on our way back to Ghana. I would regularly drink 5-7 liters of water in a day, without changing the frequency of bathroom trips. Unless it was just bought (which involved stopping every 20 minutes or so), the water we drank was hot. Not luke warm, but close to boiling. When I carried 3 satchets from the car to our room one afternoon, they burnt my arm. Then we drank them. It was unpleasant. But completely worth it.

I'm sorry I don't have pictures to add to this post, but we are still not done traveling. We are in Techiman now, slowly making our way down to Accra.

Happy belated Halloween. We were in Ouagadougou for Halloween here, so we went to an overpriced supermarket, bought some overpriced snickers, and handed them out to people we met, desperately attempting to explain why we were giving out candy. It worked sometimes, mostly they just walked away very confused. Then we ate the rest of the candy for dinner. An interesting halloween, I must say.

More travel adventures

Last weekend (which really started on Wednesday) Froukje and I went Southwest. We began at Kakum National Park, swinging like monkeys along the canopy walk. I was hoping for a bit more of an adrenaline rush from it, since many people step out or get to the first platform and must crawl back, but it was simply fun for us.

The next night we made it out to Nzulezo, a stilt village WAY off the beaten track. Nobody knows exactly why this village was built on stilts in a lagoon an hour canoe ride from shore, but it happened over 400 years ago and people still live there (nobody knows why that is, either). They have a population of about 500 and I think very little has changed for them over the last 4 centuries. The most peculiar part, however, is that their main means of survival is farming. No, I didn't say fishing- Farming. A 3-hour canoe ride takes them to their farms, where most men in the village work. I will let the picture tell the rest of the story; it is too much to describe on a blog.

We slept in their guest house and headed back towards civilization the next morning. 1 canoe ride, 3 tro-tros, and 7 hours later, we were lying on the beach in the touristy Cape Coast resort area. It is a beautiful beach, as long as you don't look too closely, as it's actually covered in trash. And the water is pleasant, as long as you don't go in past your knees, as the brutal undertow will sweep you away...

When we arrived back in Mampong Sunday night, our new outfits had arrived! This is one of two outfits I had made of the same fabric. With the hair and the clothes, all I need is a little darker tan and I will be truly Ghanian!

And now to answer a few miscillaneous questions I have gotten.

The new baby has a name, though I can't pronounce it and haven't found somebody to spell it for me. Apparently she has a father, who named her. Her mother died in childbirth.

I absolutely feel like Richmond is a fictitious place, it doesn't seem possible from this perspective. At times this is daunting, but I enjoy the idea of "home" being transient, and being forced to create a new association or definition for it.

It took about a month for my body to get used to the food, but now I absolutely love it. We have gotten more adventurous (and are learning what will be spicy and what won't), so I will try just about anything on the street. Yesterday, while we waited for 6 hours for a bus that wouldn't leave, we ate rice with chicken and stew, something that resembled peanut brittle, fried egg on delicious bread (they fry it right there on the street), roasted plantains, oranges, and a home made cake-type thing women frequently sell. It covered 3 meals and total cost each of us about 2 cedis. So no need to worry about Becca being hungry any more!

I have not yet talked about music here, which a few of you have noticed and asked about. I haven't talked about it, because I haven't found anything worth talking about. The music I hear on a daily basis is so loud it constantly bases out the speakers, and is usually bad 90's rap music from the states. I have heard the best place to hear traditional music is at funerals and festivals, neither of which I have been able to attend yet. As soon as something worth talking about comes up, I will post it immediately! I know there is a traditional drumming group at Tafi Atome, so hopefully I will hear it and, even better, learn it, when I am out there.

I am off to Burkina Faso tomorrow- I won't be able to post pictures again until we are back in Mampong November 11th (ish) but I will try to post again soon.

The Price is Right.

So here is the rundown of "what stuff costs". For the mathematicaly-inclined among you, the exact exchange rate right now is $1 USD = .932 New Ghana Cedi (pronounced seedy). I'm going to use the new currency because it is very similar to ours, but I'll do the first few with the old currency in parenthesis.

1 loaf of bread: .50 (5,000 old cedis)
1 bottle of Fanta: .35 (3,500)
(the bottles are 300mL glass and you are always asked to drink it and return the empty
bottle so they can get their money back for it)
1 liter of Petrol: .93 (9,300)
1 hour on the internet: .60 (6,000)
a plate of chicken and rice at a restaurant: 2.00 (20,000)
1 orange: .05
(they sell them everywhere with the outermost skin peeled. To eat them, you cut off the top,
squeeze the juice into your mouth, then rip it apart and eat the inside. No utensils, no mess,
so great!)
3 bananas: .10
3 apples: .50
1 pineapple: .60
1.5-liter bottle of water: .70
.5-liter satchet (bag) of water: .04
a hand-sewn outfit: 7.00
(this includes a traditional top, skirt/pants, head piece, and 'baby wrap'. I should have mine
by the time I post next...)
a 15- minute phone call to the US: 4.00
1 snickers bar: .90
1 disgusting spicy peanut butter thing: .10
a night in a hostel in a city: 6.00
overnight bus from Kumasi to Accra: 4.50
(about 5-6 hours)
a 1-hour tro-tro ride: .90

a bowl of Fufuo: .10

(a traditional dish made of pounded plantains- a dough-like substance- eaten with a soup.

There's no chewing, you just kind of slurp it down. And there's no utensils, you use only your

right hand.)

a medium cheese pizza: 5.20
(only in international restaurants in big cities)

Prices can certainly vary depending on what city or town I am in and if I am in a market or a store (there is a lot of bartering in the markets but prices are usually fixed in the stores) but that gives you a good idea of the things I buy and what they cost. I eat LOTS of fruit and bread and water. I have only had the pizza once. We always travel by tro-tro and stay in cheap hostels. I am also getting a pretty good connection-basis so frequently when we travel we are able to stay for free. All of this puts my weekly spending at a very low average.

I have some pretty big plans coming up. This weekend we are going to Cape Coast to walk on "Africa's only canopy walk", spend the night in a stilt village, and go to a reggae party on the beach. Next week, Froukje (who we all call Mo) and I are packing up from Mampong and traveling north...All the way north...into Burkina Faso for two weeks. (Note: for those who were in Maine with RRCB last year, Padgett gave me the award: "most likely to live in Ougadougou, Burkina Faso". Well, I'm going there. Good work, Padge!)

We will return in November to recieve a friend from home who will travel with us back to the volta region. The three of us are planning on living and volunteering at Tafi Atome, the monkey sanctuary, until Christmas. Then I will return to Mampong and the babies.

Hopefully I will be able to post again before we take off on this big adventure!

Storytime!

Every day is an adventure in Ghana. Here is a small sampling of the funny stories and crazy things we have done or witnessed.

-Every tro-tro ride is different and inevitably something exciting happes. My favorite so far was on an hour-long tro-tro ride in the Volta region. About 10 minutes into the trip, we rolled to a stop on the side of the road. The mate (someone who rides along colelcting money, telling the driver when to stop, and shouting out the window to try to fill the bus) got out, took the front passenger seat completely out, pulled up the floor, and stuck his head into the opening. He came up, spit something out, returned the seat, and we continued. About 7 minutes later, he did the whole thing again. It turns out there was something wrong with the fuel pipe and the mate had to periodically syphon the dirt out -with his mouth- until the fuel ran smoothly again. The poor guy0 He did not look especially excited to be sucking on a pipe filled with gasoline and dirt every few minutes.

-One of the toughest adjustments for me has been the food. Much of what they eat (including most meat and all sauces) is very spicy. When I buy a new food, therefore, I always first ask if it is spicy. So we had seen what looked like a peanut-butter fudge ball being sold on the street. We were curious, so we asked what it was made of. She responded, "groundnut (that's peanuts to us), corn, and sugar". So we bought one, without asking if it was spicy (it's made of peanut butter, how hot could it be- right Dad??). If I could make one taste-combination illegal, it would be peanut butter and spicy. I took one bite which, classically, stuck to the top of my mouth. It simultaneously made me gag and my eyes water, and I couldn't knock the taste no matter how much bread and water I washed down. The locals got a good laugh out of that one. Needless to say, there is Nothing that I buy now without asking if it is spicy first!

-On our way to the Babies Home one morning, we passed a police officer on the side of the street. He yelled "Abruni!" and told us to come see him. So we walked over and he asked all of the normal questions: our names, where we were going, how long we are in Ghana, where we are from. He said he wanted to have a white friend and told me to give him my address. THen he asked if I was married. I said 'yes' (Always recommended in Ghana, ladies). He immediately said "oh, oh nevermind" and without another word, shooed us on our way. This is just one form of the same conversation that I have at least 2 or 3 times a day. Sometimes the conversation is as short as "Abruni! Hello! What is your name? I love you. You will marry me?" It's flattering, I suppose, but it sure does get old after a while. My response is usually to tell them what number husband they will be- "well, you are the 23rd person to ask me, so after I go through my first 22 husbands, I will marry you". Yesterday Froukje and I counted 42 calls of "Abruni" in the hour we were in town. We are certainly celebrities around here.

-I mentioned in an earlier post that Ghana is primarily Christian. To add to that, Ghanians are certainly not afraid of announcing their faith.

These are just two of hundreds of shop signs we pass each day. Tro-tros, taxis, bikes, and shirts also uniquely proclaim the driver or wearer's faith. It is certainly a very interesting form of witnessing.

-Last weekend we travelled to the Volta region- a gorgeous and rarely-touristed area. We stayed in a monkey sanctuary and got to feed bananas to the sacred Mona monkeys.

Then we hiked to the Amedzofe waterfalles. The hike was only about 45 minutes, but the terrain was, well, straight down. Some eco-tourism volunteers installed a rope railing a few years ago, which I basically clung to with both hands and slipped down the hill. Then we had to clamor back up. But it was well worth it.

-And lastly, I am doing my best to fit into the African way, so when little Gloria wouldn't stop crying, I just strapped her to my back (which immediately calmed her down) and continued to work. She was so content, she took a nap until feeding time.

I haven't mastered carrying things on my head yet, but I am working on it. Soon I will be able to carry all my shopping and a baby and still have my hands free..

When in Rome...

...So we got our hair braided. Our host mom took us into town and we bought hair- about 6 dollars worth- and took it home. Two days later, 8 women came to our house and braided the fake hair into our real hair. The whole process took about 3 hours, 4 girls on each of us, and cost about $5 (the $11 total makes it about the most expensive thing I have done since being in Ghana- not too shabby). It was one of the more painful things I have willingly sat through. For 3 hours, they scraped, pulled, dug, yanked, and tugged at my scalp, then burned, cooked, and cut my hair. The rest of the day my head ached, that night sleeping was slightly more difficult, but by the next day I started getting used to it. Now I love it. I don't have to wash it, it never gets in my face, and it should look good for a month or two. What do you think Katie--should I keep it for the wedding??

Equally exciting, a new baby arrived at the orphanage this week. I met her when she was two days old (not yet named) and got to bathe her, feed her, change her, and put her down. Incredible. So here is a picture of me with this gorgeous new baby.

I am sorry for the infrequent posts- about 3 weeks ago, we stopped by the internet cafe in Mampong and they said the internet was down, but to "check back this afternoon". It still doesn't work... So we must find internet when we travel, which is not always easy (and everything is closed on Sundays). The closest spot is Kumasi, about an hour tro-tro ride away.

I think I am really starting to adjust here. The food still gets me every once in a while, and I find I crave salty things, as everything we eat is rather bland. But I am settling into the daily lifestyle, and just adore travelling around the country. It is always an adventure!

A day in the life...

Each morning I am awakened sometime between 4:30 and 5:30 by roosters, music, yelling, thunder, my host family, or all of the above. Being the great sleeper I am, however, I usually manage to stay in bed until 7:00. Here is my room:

Froukje and I eat breakfast together then head off to the babies home. It is about a 10 minute walk on this road:
On the way home in the afternoon, we stop and buy bread and fruit for lunch (which we eat with peanut butter and jam or honey). After resting (usually waiting for the rain to stop) we walk to town, about a 25 minute walk, or a 20 cent taxi ride. We head back to the Babies home for the afternoon shift between 3:30 and 4:00 and must leave again by 6:00 to make it home by dark. And when I say dark, I mean REALLY dark. Our family provides dinner for us, and we spend the rest of the evening reading, learning Twi and watching TV (if the power is on). I am usually asleep again by 9:30.

Here is my house:

It has both electricity and running water...Sometimes. The power shuts off at least once a day, usually for hours, and sometimes doesn't come back on until the next morning. Running water is even less dependable. When it works, we have a bathroom with a sink, flushing toilet, and a working bathtub. When it doesn't, we have a bathroom with a bowl, a broken toilet, and a bucket of water to bathe. Sometimes it's just easier to shower outside.

This picture (that's Froukje with me, by the way) was taken after we had walked home and got caught in the rain, so we grabbed the soap and showered outside. I think it was the cleanest I've been in a month...

It rains a lot- usually twice a day. When it rains, it pours, and everything floods. This is the street to our house in a daily rainstorm.
Needless to say, my shoes have taken on a pretty serious mud-red tint.

One of the best things about traveling by bus in this country is that you can do all of your daily shopping out of the bus window.
It is possible to buy anything from fruit, bread, corn, and water to toilet paper, toothpaste, belts, and soap. And everything in between. It is incredible to watch these women (almost always women) carry buckets of drinks on their heads and a baby on their backs, making transactions through a window above their heads as the bus pulls away.

Some people have asked about religion in Ghana. It is primarily Christian, with a strong Muslim influence in the north. Mampong is almost entirely Christian, mostly Baptist, Presbyterian, and Charismatic (which is what my family is). I attended part of a Baptist service in Kumasi the first weekend I was here, which was conducted in Twi (so I understood none of it). I have not yet gone to church with my family because we have been traveling every weekend, but I definitely want to do that soon.

Thanks for all the comments!

The Babies Home

While I have internet access, I want to do my best to explain the Babies home and try to post some pictures.

There are 39 children living in the home right now, ranging from 2 months to 4 years old. Unlike a typical orphanage, most of these kids are "half orphans": they have some family to return to when they are 4, but their mother either died, went to jail, went crazy, or doesn't have enough money to care for the child. So the Babies home takes them in and raises them until they are developed and socialized enough to "help instead of hurt the family", as they say.

The kids are loosely divided into three groups: infants (completely dependant), toddlers (walking but not potty trained), and the big kids (everyone else). I work mostly with the infants and toddlers during the day, while the big kids are at "school" (which simply seems to be another empty building in which they play). The schedule for the smaller children is a bit monotonous. When we arrive between 7:30 and 8:00 we change them out of their pajamas and "diapers" and move them from their cribs to a mat covered with a sheet on the floor.

Note: I use the word "diaper" here in the loosest sense possible. It is actually a piece of cloth (by no means soft or specifically designed for this purpose) folded inside a piece of plastic we tie around their waists. Needless to say, this method is almost completely ineffective (bringing a whole new meaning to the word "nappy" for me!). Once the infants are on the mat, we use only a cloth as a diaper (even less effective) and the toddlers run free, using the floor as often as necessary. Luckily the "guy with the mop" comes around about this time....

Then we wait. In the traditional Ghanian way, breakast at 8 frequently means breakfast at 9:30 or even 10. When the food finally arrives, we feed to infants one by one by bottle and the toddlers drink the same stuff out of cups. This, I think, is very impressive. These children can harldy walk and regularly pee on the floor, but they can drink out of an open cup with very little trouble.

We then bathe them one by one in the sink, dress them again in diapers and pajamas, and put them back in bed. Sometimes this takes until 12, so we finish and go for lunch, but usually we are done by 10:30 or 11:00 and are faced with the choice to sit around (as there seems to be nothing to do, even if we ask) or leave and sit at home instead. The afternoon runs similarly to the morning, with a bit more time in the cribs and no baths.

This schedule implies 2 things: 1. the infants and toddlers only eat twice a day and 2. they never go outside. Their entire world consists of 2 rooms, a hallway, and a bathroom for the toddlers (potty training involves making them sit on small pots on the floor of the bathroom twice a day until they 'do something' then returning them to diapers and their cribs). Whenever possible, I carry the children outside and we are working on being able to put the mat outside in the morning instead of on the floor of the same room.

The women who work at the Babies Home are very harsh with the children, which is frequently very difficult to watch and even harder for me to bite my tongue, but it is simply a cultural difference. There are no toys or books out for the children, either in the home or at the school. They entertain themselves with each other, sticks, and anything they pick up off the floor. The sad thing is that I have seen 2 locked storage rooms full of donated toys. Likewise, their clothes are ripped and dirty, and I have seen boxes of new clothes that aren't being used. There is not much I can do about that, so our solution so far is to take toys with us (bubbles, chalk, stickers), use them, and carry them home again. We are also trying to reorganize their clothes storage system, so hopefully we will be able to incorporate some new clothes into that.

One project I do want to undertake is installing a bookshelf of books in the school and hopefully setting up a story time with the big kids each day. I will let some people know when I am ready for donations of that variety. It is certainly not my place to change the way the Babies Home is run, but I am doing my best to help the children and leave a positive mark.

There is so much more to tell, but that will have to do for now. It takes about 10 minutes to post pictures, but I will post as many as my time allows. First is the market picture I was unable to post lost time, then a few from the Babies Home.

Here are the babies on the mat in the morning.

An adventurous weekend

I am sorry it has been so long since I have been able to post. The internet in Mampong is broken, so we had to wait to travel to the bigger town of Kumasi to find a cafe that works. Thank you all for your comments and emails ( and enormous packages of food...) they mean a whole lot to me down here.

This weekend, Froukje (the Dutch girl I live and work with) and I travelled to the Mole National Park. We left Thursday night intending to take a 6-hour busride to Tamale scheduled to arrive around midnight. The bus left 3 hours late then broke down 2 hours into the trip. We were confidently told that someone had called Kumasi and another bus would be there to pick us up and finish the journey shortly. 8 hours later, we were still sitting on a broken down bus. When the sun came up Friday morning, Froukje and I left the broken bus and grabbed a tro-tro to a nearby town, found a bus going in the right direction, and got to Tamale just in time to catch the bus to Mole (we were supposed to have almost a full day in Tamale first). On the way to Mole (a 4-6 hour drive) our headlights stopped working, so we stopped for about an hour to try to fix them, couldn't, so drove on without lights. On a very dark night, on a very winding and extremely poorly kept dirt road. What an adventure. 32 hours after leaving Mampong (17 waiting and 15 moving) we finally got to the park!

Mole is the most touristed spot in Ghana, and there were not many people there. The tourist industry is very new in Ghana, and they definitly have a long way to go, but there is alot of potential! We took a safari walk and saw lots of babboons, warthogs, guinea fowl, bushbucks, and even a few elephants. Other than that, however, there is not much to do at the only place to stay in the park.

Travelling home was a bit easier- we were lucky enough to meet a group of Americans studying in Accra that had chartered a bus to Mole, so we caught a free ride with them back to Kumasi! It was a good thing too, because after having to pay to get there twice, Froukje and I were VERY clost to running out of cash! It was a great weekend though. I am not home yet, so I don't have pictures to post of this, but I'm afraid the animal pictures won't compare much with the ones we took in Tanzania last summer.

Our adventure this weekend seems to be common travelling practice around here. I have learned that if you really need to be somewhere on a certain day, allow 2 to get there!

Many people have asked about the weather here. So far, it is extremey similar to August in Virignia. It gets very hot during the day, but always rains and the rain usually cools it off for a very pleasant evening and morning. We are in the rainy season right now, in a few months it will get hotter (yikes!) and very dry. The daily thunderstorms are incredible. The thunder rolls for minutes because there is nothing to block the sound! It's beautiful.

Well, I survived my first week in Mampong. I am really struggling with what to post; I want to tell you everything because everything is new and different! And before I forget, here is my mailing address if you feel the need to send me anything:

Richard Frimpong

Box 367

Mampong, Ash

West Ghana

AFRICA

I will start with some basics. I eat a lot of bread (perhaps breadsticks from Olive Garden was not a smart last meal in the states...?!) Breakfast is bread and tea, lunch is bread and fruit. Dinner is usually rice or noodles or yams (like potatoes) with a vegetable or meat sauce or concoction of some variety. The jar of peanut butter I brought is definitly getting good use already. I am hoping to find some jams this weekend to make the bread a bit more exciting.

The official language in Ghana is English. Everything else, therefore, is called a "dialect". the dialect in this area is Twi. I would call it more of a foriegn language than a dialect....I can't understand a word of it. I am getting some books to try and learn it, it is difficult not to understand what most people are saying. Anybody with an education can also speak English, but it is not their first language, and not many people are educated (including those who work at the babies home). It would also be nice to be able to communicate with the children better.

Wednesday is market day in Mampong. If it works, there should be a picture here of the market. It is a great experience (much more calm in Mampong than in Kumasi) and things are very cheap!

I live for about 2 dollars a day- that pays for lunch and water and sometimes a snack in the afternoon. A tro-tro (vaguely defined as any vehicle moving between towns stuffed with as many people as possible for a very cheap price) from Kumasi to Mampong is about 85 cents. It takes an hour.

My family is very nice. They seem to be very well off, with running water and TVs. There are always lots of people in the house, and the tv is Always on! Again if it works, here is a picture of Richard (dad), Mavis (mom) and Rejoice (2 year old daughter).

In Twi, which day of the week you are born is very important. They actually give you a name depending on your day. Everyone asks me, so if anybody knows what day of the week I was born, could you please let me know...I look foolish when I don't know the answer!

The babies home definitly needs help, but I have not decided on an exact project yet. There is a small school for the older children with no books in it, so that might be an option. However I have seen that mostof what is donated to the home goes in closets and is never used, so I want to make sure whatever I contribute gets use! I will keep you posted on what I decide to do.

That is all for now! I hope the pictures work.

Finally in Mampong

First, I would like to share a first-time experience: I have not seen another American since I got onto the plane to Accra in London. In all of the traveling I have done, I have never been the only American, no matter how remote or how small the group. The other volunteers with child aid right now include 3 from Holland and 2 from Tasmania. The 6 of us are the only white people I have seen since arriving in Accra. Incredible.

I feel like I have been in Ghana for a long time. It turns out it just takes a long time to get places. So far I have had too much down time, but that is due to change very shortly. Finally I have reached Mampong, the town in which I will live for the next 8 months. I am with a girl from Holland, who will live and work with me for the next 2 months. We arrived by tro-tro (basically any vehicle that will transport as many people as can fit in it) The first stop was the host family. I met Richard, the dad, Mavis, the mom, and Rejoice, the 2 year old daughter. There are others that live there, but they were out working. I have my own room, which has a bed and dresser in it, and share a bathroom with the house. There is a toilet (that flushes!) and a bucket next to a drain for a shower. The family seems to be pretty well off- they have a rug in the main room and a small TV.

The next stop was the orphanage. And here I lose the ability to properly describe what I see. There are 39 kids there right now, ranging from 2 months to 4 years. This is a babies home, so once the children reach 4, they must go elsewhere. We arrived at changing time in the younger house, where 20 or so infants and toddlers were running around with no pants on... The older children go to "school", really another building to occupy them during the day. There are 2 teachers and a volunteer in this room. The kids were completely wild, and extremely attention-deprived. The jumped on us, pulled on us, hugged us, and just touched us the entire time we were in the room. The clothes ranged from a dress with no buttons (and nothing else) to pants and a shirt and maybe a pair of shoes.

I will start out working in the house of smaller children- helping with bathing, feeding, playing, loving, and putting to bed. I work from 7:30-12:30 when I go home for lunch, and return to work 3:30-7:30. That is all I can say about it so far, I will have digest some to try to properly describe it.

Feel free to leave comments or questions- I find it is quicker to get to my blog than to my email (it only took 4 minutes to load instead of 6) And let me know news of home, I am VERY disconnected!

A few things I have learned

I have a lot to say today, so I'm going to put up two posts. Here are a few observations or facts I have learned since being in Ghana:

-The most common way to purchase water is in a sealed, clear, plastic bag. It costs about 40 pesawas (less than 40 cents) and to drink it, you simply bite off a corner and squeeze it into your mouth.
-Never whistle in the evening in Ghana- they believe it calls up the snakes and Ghanians definitly don't appreciate it
-Kumasi is home to the largest market in western Africa. We went there on the slowest day, and it was completely overwhelming- there are no words to describe it properly.
-Never give or recieve anything with your left hand in Ghana-it is reserved for unsanitary things, and it is considered very rude to use it otherwise.
-I have not seen a single Ghanian carrying, selling, or smoking cigarettes.
-I am hungry most of the time. Every morning for breakfast we have had bread and hot tea. Lunch is 6 hours later, and is a rice dish. Dinner we have eaten in restaurants so far. This may change as I begin eating with my host family this afternoon.
-Ghana is in the midst of a currency change. Right now (until January) both old and new are in circulation so it is quite confusing. But in either currency, everything is extremely cheap. 1 ghanian cedi (a little less than $1 USD) is too much to cary- most vendors have a hard time giving change for that much.
-pictures may be very difficult to post- the computers are so old many of them do not have USB ports; I am still working on this.
-And finally, this is going to be an extremely challenging adventure! I have only just visited the orphanage but my heart was wrenched and my patience tested. More about that in the next blog.

Akwaaba!

I made it! Both of my flights were on time so it took 21 hours (including a three hour break in London to visit with my friend, Andrew). We were supposed to leave for Kumasi this morning, but one piece of my checked luggage didn't make it last night so we have to stay in Accra and wait for it to come in tonight.

The first song I heard in the taxi on the way to the hotel last night was Britney Spears' "hit me baby one more time" and that's how I knew I must be in a very foreign country...

Accra is a neat city. There is a great dichotomy between the new SUVs on the road and people pulling carts full of crops on the side. There are big, modern-looking buildings adjacent to run-down marketplaces. All the people seem very kind so far. I enjoy the city, but I am excited to see what my own town is like!

I can't post pictures yet, but hopefully I will be able to do that next time I get online.

It is very exciting to be here, but I definitly miss you all. Hope to hear from you soon.

Welcome!

Hello! Well I haven't left for Ghana yet, so I don't have a lot to say so far, but I wanted to post something so you know you are in the right place.

I am definitly starting to feel the time crunch- thinking of all I want to do and have to do before next Wednesday is a bit overwhelming. Most of the important things are taken care of: I have a plane ticket, a passport, and a visa. I have paid my deposit and made a list of things to pack (it's very short). The next step is to pack, move, and sell my car. Other than that, I am simply enjoying my time with friends and family and taking lots of hot showers!

I still don't know many details about this experience, including good ways for you to get in touch with me. Once I am in Accra, I will be able to ask those questions, and will let you know what my address will be, if I have a phone, and how often I will have internet access.

Until then, thank you all for your support! And if you know anyone that wants a great 2002 Saturn, send them my way!!

Love,
Becca