Week 6

Wow. Week 6 already. I honestly cannot believe I'm half way through my time here. It really seems like yesterday I was waiting in a glob of people to go through customs into a country that I knew very little about. It took me this long to process my observations about some of the similarities and differences between the people here and in America. Now, I'm about to make some pretty sweeping generalizations so in no way should the next few paragraphs be taken as an end all be all to the people and culture here, positive or negative. These are just the observations of one person. 

First thing I noticed. Ghanians have no sense of lines or order- or personal space for that matter. Getting off the plane here took easily half an hour and I was cut in front of at least 3 times at the store the other day. I don't know where it comes from but the personal space bubble is much smaller here than America. I have heard that Americans have rather large space bubbles but seriously, when I'm walking down the street you don't need to be on my heels. And if you have a question, I can still hear you when you aren't in my face. Because of this tro-tros and taxis make for very touchy times. I really don't mind it that much, really though, it's just that I'm usually sweating anyway and with your leg resting on mine- I'm going to sweat all over you. And nobody wants that. 

Another thing, logic and reasoning- not so common around here. I think it comes from sub standard education; you know those grouping work sheets we all did in kindergarten, which one of these is not like the others? And the logic puzzles, who's wearing what to the party? I didn't realize how important those were to critical thinking skills until I came here. Someone told me that other day: if you give a Ghanian 10 chickens and explain to him that they will lay him eggs for the next 2-3 years, with which he can sell to buy more food, or eat himself- the Ghanian will eat chicken for 10 days. 

Oh and did I mention that Ghana is one of the most religious places in the world? Nothing stops a get-to-know-you conversation faster than telling people I'm not all that religious. That's ok right? Not many people ask about religion at home. Every single person I've talked to for more than 10 minutes has asked me. I've started lying and saying I'm Jewish just to see their reaction. Oh and everything is named after Christianity. God is good beauty salon. Christ has risen mechanic. I ate at Everything in the name of the Lord food joint the other day. 

English is spoken a little differently here. I'm actually starting to really like it, but everything is described or conversed to the highest degree possible. Everything is searched for, not looked. Things get spoiled, not broken or dirty. And the progressive tense is nearly non existent. 'She's coming' turns into 'she will come'. I got corrected on that pretty early. Another time someone was dropping off a bag of water for one of the nurses to sell the next day at clinic and she wasn't there at the time. Turned out she had sent him to do this task for her. 'Was she wearing a uniform identical to mine?' another nurse asked the man. Really? Identical? Your uniforms all look similar but, actually, none of them are identical! Yours have green bands around the arms and hers doesn't. The nurse over there has fewer button then you. I know I'm nit picking but if you are going to choose a word as strong as identical, I'm going to nit pick about it being true. Strangest of all, and it happens all the time, when someone wants a favor they will beg you for it. 'Please, I'm begging you, can we change the time of our meeting?', 'Can you grab me a water on your way here, I'm pleading'. Ok! Ok, yes! If it means that much to you I will pick up your baby's hat that he just to threw on the floor- begging isn't necessary. 

Final thing. People are so happy and helpful here. Someone will wake up in the morning, not knowing if they will be able to eat dinner that night but he or she will be able to help you find a cab to where you need to go and they will negotiate the price for you too. These are the people that get me through the day. 

This week was very restoring. I knew there wasn't much for me to do at the nutrition center on Monday and when I showed up I was right. I sat on my computer all day spending as much time as possible trying to develop a list of foods and their market prices to use as a budgeting tool later. At the end of the day I had it only about half way done and Bismac asked me if I just wanted him to fill out the rest and why I hadn't asked him earlier. Dude, come on. Tuesday was baby weighing day. Then came Wednesday. I had been invited along for a visit to another refugee camp that Point Hope has programs at earlier in the week by Jan, Point Hope U.S. executive director, to check on the nutrition program there and see how things were running. It would be a 3 day trip and we were set to leave Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday morning I went to the farm. I almost passed out in the field harvesting eggplant and spring onions but we managed to fill half of a 5 gallon bag of egg plant and a full one of spring onions. The truck was late picking me up for Krisan (other refugee camp) but eventually we got on the road. On the 6 hour car ride heading west along the coast we passed a rubber tree forest and one of Ghana's 2 port cities, Takoradi. It was such a relief; the roads around Krisan are the best in Ghana since they recently found oil in the area and Chinese oil companies, and their money, have started moving into the area. Since we left late, we got in pretty late so camp would wait until Thursday. We woke up and had lousy excuses for omelets for breakfast and got to camp in the mid morning. Krisan is actually still considered a refugee camp but is much smaller than the one I've been working at (about 1200 refugees, instead of the 10,000 at Buduburam) and is much more rural. Because of this there is no access to food unless you grow it yourself. And I mean that. There is one little food joint and I didn't ask the prices of the dishes but I'm sure it's more than someone that isn't working can afford. So we get to camp, check in with the camp manager and go drop off our vegetables at the day care center set up by Point Hope. There they have 2 class rooms for children 2-3 and 3-4 years old. This also is the site for distribution of 2 meals a day for children 6 months to 5 years old and a select few vulnerable people (HIV positive, TB positive, etc.), about 100 people total. After dropping off the vegetables we got a tour of the fields from farmer Ralph and the school where some of the older kids on the program are. During our tour the cooks started preparing eggplant and fish stew for distribution. Once we got back we spent some time putting together the new toys we had brought as well until it was time.   Finally! My time had come. I had waited 6 weeks but I was able to witness full circle the food that I had help grow and harvest in the field feed people that would other wise not be able to eat. I almost started crying on the spot. One little boy in line thought I was so crazy. Afterwards we went to lunch at a Spanish place right by the canoe launch for Nzulezu, a stilt village. Seriously, everything is on stilts. And canoes are their transportation. We didn't have time to go to the actual village but it was still pretty cool. During lunch Adam, the executive director for Point Hope Ghana, helped explain to me how to see instant need in places like Krisan and Ampain (another refugee camp very close to Krisan) where food is very scarce and the level of malnutrition is very high over places that have had programs set up for 7 years, like Buduburam. He even invited me to help write a grant to start a new program in Ampain since the UN stopped their feeding program there yesterday. Getting to play administrative staff was fun and seeing programs succeed are so necessary for refilling my soul bucket here. So much so that I didn't even mind spending 2 hours in traffic on the way home. To our guest house where there was no water and our neighbors were doing an amplified prayer service until 2 in the morning. 

And one more thing. I got a cold this week. A COLD. In an equatorial country. .. everyday is an adventure.

Ghanian food this week: Octopus. Yeah, really. It was somehow fried or something to make it kind of jerky-like and was spicy but was basically oversized calamari.

Best thing carried on someone's head: Sewing machine. 

Number of times the lights went out: 8 all day today and I never wanted them to go out more than Friday night. Who can sleep through a screaming pastor?

This I find so interesting. For a country that speaks such proper English they sometimes have a hard time spelling. I saw a place that cooks bread (bakery) spelled berkrey..

Here is the canoe launch for Nzulezu. They were filling the canoe with rice bags to bring out to the village.

This is just an internet picture of the village. We didn't have time to go all the way out there but I wanted you to get the idea. I'll go next time. 

Eating the octopus. Mmm tentacles. 

Here's the line for our food distribution. The boy that is waving is the one that thought I was crazy. He eventually came around. And yes he's older than 5 but since there are only about 100 kids on the program Tutu (director of the day care) explained to me that she gets to know the families and allows for others to do the pick up. 'And this way if he gets a few bites on the way home it's not so bad'. 

See. Here he is happy to have lunch for the day. 

Here are the portions that would be handed out to each of the school children. A little different than American school lunches. 

Week 5

So finally the time has come. I'll be writing this week about my project here. Sorry it took so long. 

So I'm working at a nutrition clinic that was set up by Point Hope (the NGO that I've been working for) when the refugee camp first opened up. The clinic gives babies their polio, measles, hepatitis, and yellow fever vaccines, along with some other ones that I can't remember and doses of vitamin A. It used to double as a day care center for malnourished children where they could come and get 2 meals for the day while mom was away at skills training (also funded by Point Hope). About 5 years ago when the government officially stopped recognizing the camp as a refugee camp Point Hope was supposed to start pulling out as well. So that means goodbye child care at the nutrition clinic. Goodbye cooking classes.  Goodbye skills training for moms. Pretty much all that is left is the vaccination part and a little bit of the supplemental feeding, funded by Point Hope still. So my project has been sort of difficult to get off the ground floor since Point Hope can't really 

put to much more money into the nutrition clinic.

I've been doing steady help on Tuesdays and Thursdays weighing the babies before they get their vaccinations. When I can tell that they are really malnourished I send them into Bismac's office and he can talk to them about breast feeding or regular feeding or whatever else they might need help with. On the other days I've been assigned 5 children that come to the nutrition clinic but have not been doing so well or have been on the program for a long time. With them, I am doing interviews with different people in their families, visiting their house, and just seeing what we can do to help them out. The camp also has a farm set up by Point Hope, which is supposed to be producing food for the supplemental feeding program, but up until the other day it wasn't really producing anything, due to the fault of- well that's some drama that we don't need to get into.  The guy that manages the farm is also living at the volunteer house (Chris, Australian- has been mentioned in previous weeks) so I've been working with him to bridge the gap between the farm and the nutrition clinic again.  On Wednesdays I go to the farm and oversee the food handout and fish the pond there for massive catfish to give out as well. Since there are only a few families that show up I also do other farm work to help out. Recently, since it is the end of the month, the nurses at the clinics have been going out to different areas of camp to set up mini clinics to reach those that can't come to the nutrition center. I've been going with them in the morning to help set up by the side of the road (and by road I mean dirt path through camp that cars drive on) to weigh and vaccinate more babies. I like some nurses better than others, most of them just yell obroni in my face when I look tired or hot, but there are a few who try to socialize with me and have even been letting me give out polio vaccines when we go out in the field (you just drop the liquid in the child's mouth, they said I'm not ready for the needles yet).  Next week we'll start going around camp door to door and handing out coupons for mosquito nets to those that don't have them yet. 

So, overall I'm enjoying my time at the clinic. Some days are better than others. Like I said some days I'm all over the place, on the farm all day, then interviews in the afternoon. And some days I play snake on my phone and watch Mexican soap operas with the nurses and call it a day, what are you gonna do?

This week has been a major recovery week from the weekend. I've been eating as much as I can to make up for losing it all and I woke up Thursday, after forgetting to take an antibiotic dose, with a crazy fever. Don't worry it broke by the afternoon and everything was good again. I had to take tro-tros to and from camp all week and I learned a few new important lessons. Being an obroni in the morning means you are going to camp. For some reason all my tro-tro mates have just assumed that, which is actually nice- less thinking that early. If your driver gets sick of sitting in traffic he will take you a back way to your destination. It's ok.. you'll still get there. Eventually.  And finally ride them like a roller coaster. Keep hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times and watch out for sliding doors.  Other than that not much else to report. My bucket shower technique is getting pretty good and I turned down 3 marriage proposals this week. I think I'm getting used to it here. 

Ghanaian food this week: Lucozade- seriously I lived off of this stuff this week. It's like their version of Gatorade except its carbonated and it's the only thing that kept my muscle cramps away after losing all my electrolytes. 

Best thing I saw carried on a head: 5 stacks of egg cartons (not just your standard 12 egg- egg cartons. These ones hold 25 each so if that fell...)

Number of time the lights went out: 5 This week wasn't bad.

Here I am weighing the babies at the clinic. 

Once we weigh them their weight gets plotted on a growth chart so that we can track their status. 

Here I am with one of the nurses I actually like (left) and a mother that we brought in from the field one day.  Her baby was 4 months old and had never taken to her breast milk. The mom cried the entire time we were talking to her about ways to feed her baby. She said she was getting worried but didn't know what to do until we came along. 

Week 4

To sick to write anything about this week. Seriously, I've had more pills than food this weekend.  Sorry I didn't tell you dad, didn't want to worry you. 

On the road to recovery though.  More next week. 

Week 3

So I was going to write this week about the project that I'm working on here but I'm just too excited to describe the awesome weekend I had.

So last weekend we met 2 other volunteers, 1 British 1 American, and we decided that this weekend we would all travel, along with another girl at their placement to a popular tourist spot call Cape Coast. After having no power all night Thursday night and not sleeping very well I worked from home for half the day then the other volunteer at my house (Chris, Australian) and I hoped on a tro-tro to Cape Coast for 2 and 1/2 hours.  We arrived to meet up with 3 other volunteers who had beaten us by about 15 minutes. After settling into our beach front room we are dinner and played cards with a german guy that was sitting at the next table. They hadn't slept well the night before either so we decided to meet up with our German friend in the morning and went to bed early. We decided to wake up early to get a jump start on the day so we woke up at 7 and after sitting at the table for 45 minutes we asked what time breakfast would start being served.  '7:30' she said.. after finally getting some food we loaded into our prearranged taxi with our new friend Edwin who agreed to drive us around all day for 30 cedi per person (about $10).  We had an extra person in the back seat so when we got to the first police barrier one of the girls ducked down so maybe she wouldn't be seen. The police caught onto us and pull over our taxi. After Edwin got out to try and pay off the police one of them came up to the back window with his AK-47 over his shoulder and told us 'you can run but you can't hide'.  Eventually they took our 2 cedi ($0.75) bribe and let us on our way, I think they were just trying to scare us.  After one more police stop, this one not as scary- didn't hide and still had to pay, we finally made it to our first stop, Kakum Nation Park.  Here, we met up with our German friend again and climbed a short trail to a spot were you can walk on these suspended bridges above the rainforest canopy.  It was really awesome even though our British friend (Marin) freaked out a little about the maintenance of the bridges.  The view was indescribable and didn't translate very well to pictures.  The whole tour only took about an hour total, and we could have paid extra to go on a nature walk to maybe see a monkey and definitely not see an elephant so we opted to just move on to our next stop, the monkey sanctuary.  Good thing we did too because once we got back to the resort we ran into some other girls from our tour group that did do the nature walk and they said they saw nothing.  So Edwin drove us to the monkey sanctuary where we were greeted by 2 really weird Dutch men. The younger one walked us around to the monkey cages and introduced us to monkeys name Mr. Spock, Little Nell and a few others that I don't remember.  He explained about how they were rehabbing the monkeys and other animals and mentioned one too many times that the monkeys slept in the bed with them every night. This was probably my least favorite part of the day. The monkeys were cool but they were mostly orphans and all of the were locked up, kind of angry, and a little depressed. Next on our way to lunch we saw an ad for an ostrich farm. Obviously it was a must stop. After driving down a very sketchy road we were greeted at a gate, which was just a pole across the road, by the oldest Ghanian I've seen so far. We paid him 5 cedi to be able to go feed the ostriches for about 10 minutes. From there it was lunch time. We stopped at a place where we heard crocodiles come up to where you are eating and ask for food. We waited way to long for our food that wasn't very good and at 7 cedi to touch the crocs we passed on that attraction.  We still got to see one hunting a bird, get close enough to and take pictures of a huge one, and lunch actually consisted of a standard portion of protein (something that is difficult to find here, seriously 2 little chicken joints to get me by for the whole day?! the dietitian in me dies every time). After lunch we went to load back into our taxi and Edwin thought it was a good time to try and rip us off. He casually informed us that to continue it would cost 10 cedi more per person. This led to a heated haggling battle between the 5 of us and him that ended with us agreeing to pay only the extra 10 cedi for the police stops after we had gathered our stuff and started walking down the road. He begrudgingly let us back into the taxi and drove us to our last stop, the Elmina slave castle. As soon as we showed up we were hounded by a bunch of guys trying to scam us for money. After getting away from them and getting into the castle we were led around by a very nice tour guide. He showed us the male and female dungeons, the governors living quarters, and the door of no return where they led the slaves out to the ships (at which point an American girl in our group asked me where those ships were going).. After the castle tour was over and getting hastled on our way out again (they had written our names on sea shells and demanded that we gave them money for the "gift") we loaded into Edwin's taxi for, I'm sure to his relief, the last time and went back to our resort. We paid him the agreed upon amount, which is way more than he would have made just driving around picking people up all day, and did a little souvenir shopping. After dinner at the resort we hung out with and played cards with some more volunteers we met, watched a fire and acrobat show, and drank beers by the bon fire that the resort set up until about 2am. Everyone slept in a little in the morning but I was having trouble sleeping so I got up, walked along the beach a little bit and watched the fishermen bring in the mornings catch. We then all had a lazy breakfast of eggs and nutella crepes, went shopping a little more, and went to the Cape Coast slave castle (this one run by the British, mostly sent slaves to America, the other one fought over by the Dutch and Portuguese, sent slaves mostly to Brazil). I actually liked to Cape Coast castle a little better- more information on the tour, cooler architecture, and more cannons- even though we had to cut the tour short to go check out of the resort. After hitting all the shops we promised our money to on the way to the castle we went back, checked out, and ate our final obroni friendly lunch of pizza and french fries (chips for Marin and Chris). We took one of the nicest tro-tros I've ever seen back to the volunteer house, the whole time I can't wait to take a shower, and we're out of water. Bucket shower it is.. but not before dinner of plain rice and bean soup. It was definitely the best weekend, of 3 so far here and I spent way to much money but doing things like this on the weekend make time go by a little quicker and remind you that not everything in this country has to be depressing. Information on my project next week. Happy Birthday Mom!!

Ghanian food I ate this week: ground but soup (soup made from peanut butter with some added chicken and eggplant)

Best thing I saw carried on a head: sewing machine

Number of times the lights went out: Maybe only 9 or 10 but since it has been more rainy, and I heard they might be doing some electricity sparing, it lasted longer these times. Like all day Friday instead of just maybe an hour. 

Puppy that was living at the resort. This was actually the first dog I have given attention to here, mostly because he was well fed and wasn't roaming around the street. 

Our tour guide at Kakum talking to us about cocoa plants.

The best I can do to show the canopy walk.

It was scarier than I'm making it seem. I'm only smiling cause I'm like super brave. 

Marin and I excited to have survived.

Here are some of the monkeys at the sanctuary playing with the Dutchmans hair. Like I said, they told us a few to many times that the monkeys sleep with them.

Feeding the ostriches. The farmer told me I could ride them but it never happened. He didn't speak any English and just nodded when I talked.

Crocodiles at lunch. Some other guy had paid to touch them. I just took advantage of picture time.

The outside of Elimina castle and at the bottom you can see Chris and Taylor (American) getting hastled by the locals.  We did actually buy some bracelets from them but I wanted to smash that stupid shell on the ground.

Our tour guide in front of 'the door of no return'. 

On top of the castle standing guard for Dutch invasions.

Chris on top next to one of the cannons.

Day 2. Cape Coast castle. Check out all those cannons. 

'The door of no return'- it used to only be large enough for one person at a time to exit so as to keep order but in the 90s they opened it up and renamed to other side 'the door of return' so that people can come back and discover their roots in Ghana. We saw a plaque that Obama unveiled in 2009 during his trip to the castle.

 

Week 2

When I go to music festivals with my friend Joe he always reminds me about port-o-potty moments. These moments are usually the only time you get alone to gather your thoughts. Here I go through a similar thing but I like to call them Tro-tro moments.

Tro-tro is an Africian word (I'm not sure if it's Ghanian since apparently they are all over this part of Africa) that means 'it stops'. Tro-tros are these vans that travel along predetermined routes picking up and dropping off people along the way. The vans are all fairly clean but they differ in their level of.. let's say 'put togetherness'. One of my favorite games to play is how many dashboard lights are on in the Tro-tro.  The Tro-tro is owned by the driver but my favorite thing about Tro-tros is the mate. His job is to hang half way out the window and yell where the Tro is going. He is also responsible for filling it to max capacity even if that means having people sit on his lap. I once saw 2 guys hanging off the back of the Tro-tro standing on the bumper. I wonder if they got to pay less.

As I sit squished into a Tro-tro, shoulders and legs touching I like to look around and guess what everyone is doing there. On their way to or from work, on the way to the market, off to visit friends?  But no matter where they are going I know they are thinking 'what is this obroni doing here?'

Obroni is the magical term of endearment the Ghanians have assigned to all white people.  They don't use it in a derogatory way, it's just what they yell at you as you are walking down the road. My favorite way to hear obroni is yelled at me from the little kids we are constantly walking by around town. They will chase after you while screaming it then when you turn and respond they have very little to say, they just wanted you to know that you are, in fact, an obroni. My least favorite way to hear it is from the people I work with while they are speaking Twi which has only happened a few times.  There is a term for a black person that we'll yell back at the kids sometimes. I wonder what it will be like to go home and walk around without hearing obroni. How will I know what my skin color is? I also wonder what would happen if I start yelling out the skin color of everyone that walked by..

Anyway back to Tro-tros, I have come up with a few ground rules for riding them:

1) Ask twice where they are going. If they hesitate, they aren't going there.

2) Never pay more than the locals.

3) Bag goes on your lap. This is to protect it both from other people and from falling through the floor. 

4) Take up as much room as you can when you sit down. The entire trip will be a silent war over who can get the most leg room.

5) If the tro breaks down, start walking. It's going to be a while.

6) Pee before you get on. Its going to be a bumpy ride.

Week 2 has been all about my work site. I was assigned my project and got started on it (more on that later). I met the director of the American side of the NGO that I'm working for. And I participated in 2 very busy clinic days (again, more on those later). During the evenings we get so bored we've started spying on our neighbors and now we are convinced the orphanage is just a cover for a very lucrative international drug ring (it's actually more plausible than you would think). I got so sick one night I thought I was going to die. And over the weekend we went to another beach resort to meet up with some other American volunteers. After the beach we stopped on the way home for pizza and chocolate.

Getting comfortable here wasn't difficult. I can now walk through camp with very little supervision and I'm practicing my haggling skills (they are still a work in progress). I was struggling at first with the idea that it seemed like I was insulting people when I said I was here to volunteer but as I talk to more Ghanians I realize how they feel about their country and the help they receive. One guy that I met explained it to me this way 'if you have 2 pineapples and you give 1 to your neighbor, they will wonder why you didn't give them both'. And apparently it's worse with refugees. It seems wrong to say we should stop helping so much but it seems like we need to do less handing out and more helping out. 

Ghanian food I tried this week: Fufu (a very sticky mashed mixture of plantain and cassava (potato-like plant) that is eaten with very spicy chicken and fish stew, usually with your hands (right hand only))

Best thing I saw carried on a head: a clear wooden box with a live chicken in it.

Number of times the lights went out: 9

The concept of appetizing advertising is lost here. These are just plain crackers.

Usually the only wildlife you will see here are the chickens, goats, and sheep of the local farmers but we got a glimpse of this guy on our way to the beach. We fed him a banana and he followed us to the gate of the resort where the security guards had to chase him away. 

Here's a really terrible picture of an acrobatic act that came out during the live music at the resort this weekend. The kid was juggling hats while balancing on his mates head.

Week 1

Too much to write about for 1 week so you'll have to bear with me. I had one of those moments this week where I had to step back out of my body and wonder what I've done in my life to lead me to this exact moment. Picture this I'm standing in an enclosed turkey cage. 3 female turkeys. 1 baby. And 1 very loud male. I'm standing in this enclosure that is just above my head. Sawdust and turkey poop at my feet, definitely not up to American code for sanitation, with 3 Ghanaians and an Australian arguing about how best to raise goats. The Ghanian that owned the turkey farm was saying that goats need to roam free or they will never grow big enough for market and the Australian is replying that if he lets his goats roam free they will eat all of his vegetable crops.  And all I can think about is how fucking thirsty I am. 

So I'm going to go ahead and expose myself here and list some of the things that I didn't think about before coming to the third world.

The shops. Think of the sketchiest little corner New York City bodega that you've ever been in.. That's the nicest shop here. That's where you go to not get ripped off for being white. Also there are no franchises or franchise laws here. Something that you can get in one shop would be of totally different quality and price just down the road. And most of the stuff I've gotten here isn't even from shops. It's from the people dodging traffic with bags of water on their heads.  Most buildings here are either shops- hair salons, trinket shops, food vendors- schools, churches or some combination of the above. And they are all made out of the same concrete blocks that are made at a block factory (a place where concrete is compressed into the proper shape then lined up to dry in the sun.

The toilets. Sure the nice ones flush and I knew I was coming to a place where that would be a luxury. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about it is the signs that describe how to use the toilet.

The traffic. I knew the roads were going to be bad. They are worse than I expected though. Cars have to slow down every 10 minutes or so to drive over giant pot holes or areas where the road was dug up to lay pipes.  That's if you're on a paved road at all. What would be a 20 minute drive in the western world takes up to an hour here. The traffic though. No rules. No speed limit. People in the street. Cars passing on the right and left. Sometimes at the same time. And honking. Lots of honking. When someone is in your way. When you are going around a blind corner.When the person in front of you is driving to slow.  When your taxi is empty. I'm pretty convinced the drivers are sometimes honking just to say hi to each other.

The schools. As part of my orientation I got to sit in on a classroom for a day. And boy did that open my eyes. The teachers here only get paid the equivalent of $50 dollars a month. They aren't viewed in the same frame of mind as teachers in the western world. An untrained teacher is red dust on the bottom of your shoes to a lot of Ghanians. The worst part though? They have these thin pieces of wood that they use to smack the table when the kids are getting out of hand. Most of the time they hit the table. Sometimes isn't not the table. Sometimes it's the kid's arms or back.. Don't get me wrong though there were some really awesome things that I saw in addition. The teacher let one of the students sleep through class because he was sick. She also had a very intricate plan to get this one little boy lunch even though he couldn't pay his school fees that day. She played off like she miss counted the children that day when the lunch delivery guy came. And when he came back to collect the extra lunch, Osborne had already finished.  She was also giving the children a lesson on how every one is unique. Every boy is handsome. Every girl is beautiful. And if someone tells you that you aren't then they are 'everybody with me know' LYING!

I've been here a week now and I can't believe how much I've done already. I went to a church service. I let a bunch of 5 year olds touch my hair. I took my first Tro-Tro ride (more on them later).  I learned basic Twi phrases. I drank water out of a bag. I helped build raised gardens out of sticks and a failed corn crop.  I've fought dehydration daily. I body surfed in some of the biggest ocean waves I've ever seen. I was introduced to  the nutrition clinic I'll be working at (more on that later as well). And I spent the weekend traveling to an orphanage one of the other volunteers used to work at.  I love it already and I'm so excited for this adventure. 

Best thing I've eaten: Fried plantains

Coolest thing I've seen carried on someone's head: Television
Number of times the lights went out this week: 8

Raised garden beds that I helped make.

Watching the fishermen bring in the morning's catch. 

The place we stayed this weekend. We met some Germans that's were staying next door to us. We all drank beers on the beach and they out drank us by far.

My friend Richmond from the orphanage we went to visit. He cried when I left. It was the closest I've come to bringing a child home with me so far. 

Week 0

So I'm sitting in the airport after having gone through security twice (there was left over water in my bottle) and spending $3 on a stupid pen so I could write down my emergency numbers but I know this is just the beginning.  For those of you that do know, the next sentence isn't for you.  For those of you that don't know, I'M GOING TO GHANA!  For those of you that thought I was going to Peru.. no hablo espanol bueno, so they wouldn't let me go.  No worries, did I mention I was going to Ghana instead?

I've had some mixed reactions when I tell people.  Here are the common reactions and my responses to them so that we can all be on the same page:

• "Wow, really?"- "Yeah, really"
• "What will you be doing there?"- short answer: "Feeding babies", longer answer: "Well it's a volunteer trip and I'll be working at a nutrition clinic in a refugee camp, so I'll be focused on refeeding malnourished children", honest answer: "I don't actually have much to tell you because I don't really know that much about it.  I know where I'll be working and the organization that I'm doing this through has given me some information (see previous answer) but they also said that on a volunteer opportunity like this one you have to be ready for anything so my day-to-day life is going to depend on where my services are needed.
• "How long will you be gone for?"- "3 months, I'll be back right before Christmas."
• "What made you decide to do this?"- "Well, a volunteer trip like this has always been in the back of my mind and will just finishing my internship and everything, I figured what better time than now?"
• "Why Ghana?"- "Well believe it or not, a lot of these volunteer opportunities have projects for medical professionals like doctors and nurses, but not a lot of them are focused specifically on nutrition.  During my internet research I found only a couple of projects that do.  I was originally planning on going to Peru (as read above) but that didn't work out so I found myself going to Africa instead.  I'm at about peak excitement about the opportunity to work with nutrition in a struggling country at all, and the more I read about Ghana the more I am realizing not going to Peru ended up being a blessing in disguise."
• "Are you excited?"- "Very much yes, and nervous too."
• "I don't mean to sound ignorant, but where is Ghana?"- "it's ok I get asked that a lot.  It's in the north western part of Africa, along the coast of the Atlantic.. kind of in the armpit looking part.

• "Where will you be living?/ Will you know anyone there?"- "I'll be in a volunteer house set up by the organization.  The website says there is between 5 and 20 volunteers living there at a time so looks like I'll be making friends."
• "Will you have internet?"- "Yes, there should be some down the road from the volunteer house. And my project specifically says that I need to bring a computer so maybe there too?  I'm hoping to document this whole adventure weekly (and I'm hoping that by announcing that, I'll stick to it)."
• "Be safe"- "Thanks, and I will be.  I'll keep my wits about me and the Ghanaian government is fairly stable and has been since the early 90s.  They are just kind of stuck in a poverty trap because of war debts from years ago and that fact that nobody will trade with them (at least that's what I read in one of my pre-trip, poverty and economics books), but I've also heard that everyone there is super friendly."
• "Have fun!"- "I will!"

I've heard that trips like this change you.  And honestly, I know it will, but I'm secretly hoping.. not too much.  I'm not talking about the snobby- 'I just got back from helping a 3rd world country and I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread'- kind of changing that wears off once you're back for a few weeks.  I'm talking about the life long connection you develop with helping people and being selfless and giving away your service expecting nothing in return.  I'd like to think that the part of me that would be most affected by this is already churning at max capacity.
Buttttt let's be real.. everyone could use a little selfless tune up.  So I guess I'll just let this amazing opportunity change me for the better.

I'll try to get pictures as I can.  Here's the first one of everything I'm bringing (my favorite: the 99 pills of malaria medication that I have to take everyday)


So I'm all vaccinated, read, and packed.  This is week 0.  I'll be there for 12, which means 12 posts to look forward to.  I'll be posting about what I'm doing, adventures I go on, what I'm eating, to let you know that I'm safe, and frankly to say hi to everyone that I left behind.  My cell phone won't work there so this blog will be a primary mode of communication (this, email, and probably a little bit of facebook) so if you have any questions or want to fill me in on some gossip happening at home hit me up here.  Anything else and I'll see ya in December!