a year!

So the new volunteers (the nubes we call them) just arrived a few days ago. Oh my gosh, I am so glad I am no longer a nube. ha. I just feel so much more at home now, both in Ghana and with myself. A year ago, I and the situation was so new, confusing, nerve-wracking, and yet exciting at the same time. Even though I do not envy the new volunteers at all your excitement for traveling the world, doing something that matters, and meeting new people carries you through. Realizing I have been here a year makes me sad...sad to think about leaving my friends and this place. I also almost had a panic attack because I have like a million things I want to accomplish but projects move as slow as molasses. I am also happy because I would love to see Oregon and my family and friends again. I also want to drink good coffee and eat hummus and berries (not together...well, maybe in one sitting). I am also excited for graduate school and what will come.

I wish that I could have updated this thing a few months ago but I have been working on a proposal and so whenever I use the computer it has been to work on that. There are so many things to talk about so I will just start with work.

A few weeks ago, the other volunteers in my district and I organized a leadership camp for junior high students. We each brought five children from our villages. The camp was titled Camp GGLOW (Girls and Guys Leading Our World) and they stayed at the district hospital for one week. During the week, they performed dramas about what they learned during the day, listened to the life stories of many Ghanaians who also came from villages but worked hard to complete their education and make a life for themselves, toured the bank, the hospital, and secondary school, and so many other activities. One of the volunteers is an art teacher at a deaf school so he came with two of his students and the children learned art and ASL from them. It was such a rewarding experience to be involved with something like this. The children really loved learning ASL and it was wonderful for them to interact with children from different tribes and with children who are Deaf. Many of the children also experience great difficulty in even completing junior high school and the girls are encouraged to take older boyfriends for monetary reasons. Thus, many of the conversations with the guest speakers were about their own struggles and healthy relationships. The kids really opened up and we could see that many of them are so troubled about how to complete school so hopefully we can do some follow up activities and advise them in how to deal with these challenges. They did the camp last year but there was limited Ghanaian involvement so this year, we had 12 HS students leading the junior high students and their groups. That was wonderful to see young, bright Ghanaian students being leaders and seeing how they also learned and benefited from the camp. We are looking forward to next year. Also, we had a dance and like every dance in Ghana, that was a hoot. ha.

I participated in a program called the OneWorld Art program. I had 25 students draw various scenes of Ghanaian life and culture and then sent it to America, free of charge. They just sent me 25 pieces of art from all over the world, including a book from Eastern Europe and pictures of many of the students. Schools were encouraged to apply for grants of 50 USD to continue to do art in the schools. I applied for my school and we were one of 4 schools to win. I am so excited! I think with the HIV club we just started we will do an mural about AIDS with some art students from the village over the mountain where one of my friends is an art teacher.

I just completed my proposal for the Farmer's group in Tutukpene. I am both nervous and excited. It is quite a bit of money so I will just have to be a fastidious accountant. I know that I will also have to be patient because though I have resources, I have to work hard to effectively mobilize the community. I think I wrote previously about the proposal but in a nutshell we will grow moringa trees ( a tree that is very high in protein and in highly promoted by Peace Corps since protein deficiency in a huge problem), raise rabbits for income generation and also to prevent protein deficiency, learn to preserve vegetables, make soap, and my counterpart and I will teach basic business classes for farmers about profit and loss. Oh yeah, and one of my own rabbits is pregnant. That will be interesting...hah

I could write more but my time is limited so now I will write a bit about my own life. My friend and I are heading to Togo and Benin in a few days. I am very excited to see West Africa and especially the French influences and buy beautiful cloth. We just got back from a wedding. My first African wedding! Funerals are the big to do here so I feel very grateful to have attended a traditional African wedding. And what a wedding it was! The bride was the nurse in my village and she got married in her home town, which was about 8 hours from Tutukpene. She married in the traditional African Kente cloth and it was breathtaking. His cloth was also Kente. The wedding was quite extravagant. One strip of Kente can be 30 dollars and so to make an entire dress, well, you can imagine. She looked like a queen ...well worth it! ha. After the actual ceremony (which was in English and was similar to a Western ceremony), we headed to the reception hall and they both changed into traditional matching white outfits and danced their first dance together. There was cake (so good...I haven't had cake in so long!), a buffet for 200 people (prepared by all of the women in her family), drinks, and then a dance. :D

I am enjoying life in the village. It is nice to have been there almost one year and feel at home now. It is nice to come home from traveling and have my friends welcome me again and sit down to eat with them. One of my friends from back home asked me some questions about how
Ghanaians brew beer since the beer I drink is from Ghana. I am not too sure about that question. Frankly, I don't drink beer too much because it is quite expensive for my measly salary. Rather, I have come to prefer a local drink called palm wine. The palm tree is used frequently here. They use the palm branches for thatching their house, the nuts for soup, and the liquid inside the tree for liquor. The family with whom I frequently eat dinner with and whom have adopted me as a daughter of sorts actually sell palm wine and the liquor from the tree, apeteche. That comes in handy. haha. I am grateful that my tastes have changed, both for the sake of my budget and my social circle. :D So to tap the palm tree, you have to cut down a mature tree and the liquid that first comes out is palm wine. The wine varies in sweetness and alcohol content depending on the batch. To get apeteche (which burns, tastes like kerosene, and has been the downfall of many a volunteer), it must go through a moonshine like process. Um yeah. haha. Palm wine is a bit frothy, whereas apeteche is clear. It is quite interesting how my tastes have changed so much in one year. I now crave Ghanaian food . Just one year ago, I thought I was going to die because the food was downright appalling. Humans are adaptable. :D

hope you are all well,
Lindsey