2 In One Day? You're Welcome

So, I realize it has been a while since I have updated you all on what I’m doing for work. My friend Lauren and I are team teaching 11 classes (5 primary that I originally started with, and 6 JSS that were added when Lauren started). It has been so much fun! As much as I love my primary school kids, I really enjoy teaching in JSS classes where they already have some knowledge of the topics we teach them, they actually participate and are excited to learn more, and they ask good questions. We are able to go more in depth with a lot of the topics, too, which I love. So far, we have taught: HIV/AIDS, STDs, reproductive systems, family planning, pregnancy, childbirth, and infertility. In the primary classes, we have only gotten to do HIV, STDs, reproductive systems, family planning, and then drug abuse. We are very busy, but we love being in the schools. We teach four classes at an all girls school, which is probably my favorite. Not only do they already know a lot about the topics we discuss, but the all girls atmosphere helps them feel comfortable enough to ask us questions that they might not in another setting. I get so excited whenever we go to that school because I know that the girls really benefit from our lessons and are comfortable asking us questions about their health and development that they wouldn't ask their teachers. Sorry if this seems really rambly, but it’s hard for me to explain how attached I have become to these students and how much joy teaching them has brought into my life. Some of the time, classes are really frustrating and I feel like I have just been up in front of the class yammering on and on while they learned absolutely nothing (mostly in the primary classes), but then I go to some of the older classes or have a lesson that goes really well in the younger classes and I feel really great. Sometimes they surprise me by answering a question about material we covered a month ago - a sign that somehow, something I said stuck. I hope that my time here had been beneficial to at least a few of the students I have had classes with. I know they have impacted my life in ways that they will never know.

Next week will be my last week of work, so this week began our goodbyes. We had to tell our students and the teachers that next time will be our last lesson. On Tuesday, I was talking about it with one of my 5^th grade classes that I’ve had since the beginning and have grown quite attached to, and I almost started crying. When I first started at DIF, I was terrified to begin teaching and felt really inadequate, but as each class period went by, I got to know my students and how to reach them better, became more familiar with the material, and grew more confident in my teaching. It’s funny to think about how in school, I hated giving presentations in class, even when they were only a few minutes. Now I teach hour-long classes multiple times a day, no problem. The fact that I am leaving so soon and have to say goodbye to these kids didn’t hit me until I talked to that class on Tuesday, and it made me really sad. If I had the money, I would totally stay in Ghana longer. Even though it is sometimes stressful or uncomfortable living here, I love it and don’t want to leave yet. That combined with the fact that I still don’t know what the heck I’m doing for the next 6 months (or possibly longer) is kinda freaking me out and making me not want to come back even more. Times like these I wish I was actually going back to school. At least I would have a plan.

Ok, so I mentioned that next week is my last week of work, but I do not leave Ghana until August 2. For the last two weeks I will be travelling with Lauren to the north of Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Togo. It will be awesome. I will try to post again before I leave, but I make no promises.

The end.

While You Were at BBQ's and Watching Fireworks

Last Thursday was a public holiday in Ghana (Republic Day, but don’t ask anyone what it’s all about), so that meant no work. I rearranged my Friday classes and took a long weekend to travel to Kumasi, which is 4-6 hours north of Ghana, depending on traffic and the sanity of the bus driver. Side note: people here don’t really pay attention to holidays, and most don’t know what the public holidays are for. When my coworker told our boss that we were taking a long weekend to travel, she got mad because she thought we were celebrating the 4^th of July. One of the Ghanaians in the office assured her that there really was a Ghanaian holiday, so we had a legitimate excuse to miss work. Anyway, Kumasi is the second largest city in Ghana and was the capitol of the Ashanti Empire. We arrived Thursday with enough time to find the hostel we were going to stay at and then went and got some dinner. Since we were unfamiliar with the city, we didn’t want to be out much at night, so we just went back to the hostel after staying in the restaurant so long they were practically kicking us out.

Friday morning we went to the cultural center, which is a lot nicer than the one in Accra, and went to a little (and I really do mean little) museum that gave us more insight about the Ashante people and their history. Then we went to the palace which was built by the British as a gift to make up for the bad things they had done to the Ashanti people. King Prempeh I refused to move in until he could pay the British for the palace. It was a really interesting tour, mostly because our tour guide was…well, let’s just say he was a funny guy. At one point, he was mentioning how none of the kings wives were allowed to stay in the palace, but had a separate house nearby. “You know women and their problems” (meaning that because women menstruate, they are considered unclean and cannot stay in the palace). One of the women in our group asked him what he was referring to as “their problems”, which took a while to get out of him and was quite entertaining. So, after that was all over, we went to a restaurant to watch one of the World Cup matchesand then went back to the hostel to figure out plans for the Ghana game. Friday night was probably the saddest night of my life. Okay, not really, but it was the saddest football match I have ever seen. Ghana lost to Uruguay, but really, they should have won. That handball was totally in the goal, but whatever. When we left the hotel where we watched the match, the streets were completely deserted. It was so different from after previous games, when the streets were swarming with people celebrating. Everything was quiet and empty. Even though Ghana lost though, the Black Stars played very well in the World Cup and made Ghana and all of Africa very proud.

Saturday we hired a taxi for the day and went around to a few villages outside of Kumasi. The first village is where they do a lot of fabric stamping. We got to stamp a strip of cloth for ourselves, which was pretty cool.

Next we headed to another village to see how they weave kente cloth. It was so cool to watch them; they use their hands and their feet to pull on different spools and create different patterns in the cloth.

After that, we went to visit an old fetish shrine. There is no longer a priest there, but a funny old caretaker who doesn’t speak English.

Since we had some extra time, we had our driver take us to Lake Bosomtwi, which was very beautiful and peaceful.

Sunday we took a bus home, and let me tell you, that was probably the weirdest bus ride I have ever been on. There were these two preacher guys who were doing their thing on the bus. Everything was in Twi, but then they would yell “JESUS!” over and over again. The bus driver was driving the bus as though it was a little sedan and I thought we were going to die. To make things even better, after the preachers were done, they played Ghanaian movies really loud for the rest of the time. Yeah, I won’t be bringing any of those home, sorry. Needless to say, I was very glad to finally get off the bus.

Kumasi is a lot nicer than Accra. First of all, it’s not as hot. We did not get hassled as much when we were walking around. In Accra, not a day goes by that I don’t get grabbed or touched or called at by at least 20 people, but in Kumasi, people left us alone for the most part. It was wonderful. The city is also a lot cleaner. There are actually trash cans around the city, so people can put trash in them instead of in the sewers. Kumasi is also very green. It is also easier to get around on foot. In Accra, I take a trotro or taxi to get pretty much everywhere, but we only took a taxi once in Kumasi. Overall it was a fun weekend and I did not really want to go back to the office on Monday. But alas, I only had 2 weeks left (now we’re down to one), so I figured I should.

Really, I'm Alive

Sorry I have failed at posting regularly, but now that the World Cup has started, I have been really busy. Last night was the USA-Ghana game. I told myself that I would cheer for Ghana because i'm here, but as the match started, I just couldn't do it. I ended up cheering for the US. Sadly, they let me down. It was a bittersweet ending. I didn't stick around after to participate in the merriment, mostly because it has been getting worse every time. Plus I had a massive headache, made even worse by those stupid vuvuzelas. Seriously, whoever thought those were a good idea to give to thousands of people should be shot. Last weekend, someone decided to start the pre-game celebration at 6 a.m. Luckily it didn't start until 9 this weekend. Needless to say, I was not too happy to be awoken by that noise. It's even worse than the stinking roosters (which I think may have been eaten. I have not heard them for a while. Thank goodness!).

Anyway, things are good here. My time is now over halfway gone. Many of the volunteers are getting ready to leave, and the realization that my time is coming soon makes me very sad. If I had the money (or a real, paying job) I would totally try to stay longer. But, alas, I am poor and must go home and try to become a real-live adult. Psh, I think it's overrated. I will be very sad to leave my classes though. They are so sweet and I love teaching them. Speaking of teaching, I have gone from teaching 4 classes to teaching 11. My friend started working with me, so we team teach. The new classes are in the JSS level, so we are able to go more in-depth and I can actually tell that they are listening and learning from me. It's been really fun, though, and kinda funny since I have always hated having to talk in front of people. I feel really comfortable being up in front and teaching them now though. Yeah.

Anyway, I've done a lot that I have not yet had time to write about, but hopefully I will be able to do so at some point soon. Don't hold your breath.

My favorite quote so far: "What you don't know won't hurt you...until you get diarrhea." Yeah, that pretty much sums it up...

Football Fever

So, now that the World Cup has started, my entire life is consumed by football (or soccer for all you crazy Americans). Saturday, after an adventure that I’ll explain in a future post, we finally made it home and headed to a bar to watch the U.S.A vs. England match. Let me tell you, being one of two people in the entire place cheering for the U.S. is kinda awkward. People were chanting and singing, all for England. Luckily, we tied. At least I didn’t have to listen to annoying British people brag about beating us.

Sunday Ghana played their first game. Let’s just say, that was a very memorable experience. Their reactions at anything bad were hilarious and their celebration after Ghana scored and then after they won were crazy. After the game, entire streets were flooded with people, making it impossible for cars to go through. Music was blaring and everyone was dancing. Apparently, now that I am in Ghana, I have to dance. That’s exactly what I’ve worked so hard to avoid for so long. At any rate, it was a lot of fun to be part of the excitement and celebrate the Ghanaian win. I’m looking forward to the next game (if we win) and the craziness that will ensue.

Here are some pictures of Osu (part of Accra) after the match.

Paradise Found

This weekend, a group of us went to Ada Foah, quite possibly the most beautiful place I have ever been. We got up relatively early to go catch a tro-tro with a planned timeframe we wanted to follow. I guess we still haven’t learned that timetables don’t really work here in Ghana. Everything you plan is subject to change. We got to Kaneshie Market where we were told we could get a tro-tro. After wandering around for a half an hour and asking countless people where to go, we found out that we needed to go to Tema Station for a tro-tro to Ada. We made our way to Tema Station, asked another bunch of people where to go, and then finally made it to the right tro-tro. Now you see, tro-tros don’t leave the station unless it is full, and when we got there, there was only one other person in it. Luckily since there were six of us, we were able to fill up half of the car. But we still had to wait about an hour for the tro-tro to fill up and leave. About 2 hours later, we made it to Ada Foah.

Okay, I want you to close your eyes and picture in your mind what you think Africa looks like. If you’re anything like me, you probably imagined something like this:

While that may be true in some parts of Africa, Ada Foah is a tropical paradise like I’ve never seen. It is nestled between the Volta River and the Pacific Ocean. We stayed in little huts along the river, but it took about a minute to walk to the ocean on the other side. Basically all we did was swim, eat food, and lounge around in hammocks and beach chairs. Most of the time we had no clue what time it was. It was pretty much the most amazing and relaxing weekend I have ever had. Before we left, we took a little boat tour around to some of the other islands along the river and stopped at one island where they produce rum from sugar cane. My fellow volunteers sampled and even bought some of it. Apparently it was pretty good.

We were all very sad to leave and go back to Accra. Everything was just so different in Ada Foah. The air was actually clean and I didn’t feel like I was developing cancer with every breath. There were very few people at the beach camp we stayed at, and not even very many tourists. There no hawkers or anyone trying to get us to buy things. Seriously, it was wonderful. Being in that place made me realize how blessed I am to live on this earth and witness the beautiful handiwork of our creator. Here are some pictures of Ada, but they don’t really do it justice.

This is where the river meets the ocean:

This is the hut we stayed in. It was pretty cool.

So yeah, that was my weekend. Hope you all had a great one too!

Life Is Good

So I figured since it has been a while, I figured I should update you all on what I've been up to. On Saturday, I went to the temple to do baptisms with my friend Nadine, who I met at BYU. It was beautiful inside and out. And it was really nice to escape the noisy, dirty city and just sit inside the temple for 2 hours without having to think about work or heat or anything else. Here are some pictures from the temple grounds:

This lady is one of the temple workers that helped with baptisms. She saw that we were taking pictures and wanted us to take one of her:

This is the building where we have church.

Later that day, I went to Kaneshi Market to buy some batik fabric. I got some pretty sweet stuff. One of them is even orange! Now I just have to figure out what to make with it all. There is a lady right around the corner from my house who is a seamstress and makes clothes for a bunch of the Ikando volunteers and is really cheap. I hope to have a completely new wardrobe by the time I leave here. I have decided to stop eating so that I can afford fabric.

On the way home from the market, we had just gotten onto a tro-tro when the mate (the one who collects money) totally got into a fight with someone on the street. Like a legit fight. It was kind of scary. The driver had to get out to break it up. But we made it home safely, don't worry.

Sunday we went to church at the same ward we went to last week. As we were leaving after the meeting, one of the members, a relatively young American woman, stopped Nadine and I and invited us over to have lunch with her and her husband. They pretty much have the nicest house I've been in while here in Ghana, which really isn't saying much, but it didn't even feel like we were in Ghana while we were in their house. They were very nice and the food was awesome. It was nice to have a home cooked meal again. Since being here, I have not really cooked anything myself, I still feel lost when I go to the grocery store, so I mainly eat out or eat PB & J. There are lots of good restaurants here though, so I eat well most days.

After lunch on Sunday, I went to a slum community called Abgogbloshi to have a little health discussion about malaria, which is a big problem in that area. There was a huge fire there on Saturday that affected a lot of the women who were supposed to be involved so original plans were changed a bit, but there were still quite a few women there. I don't know how useful I was. Everything I said had to be translated. A lot of the things I told them seemed useless since they don't even have the resources to do it. I'm going again in 2-3 weeks to talk about prenatal care. I have a feeling that I will feel the same way after that session as well. Here is a picture of some of the women who were there:

This is Wofa (which means "chief"; he was a chief in his hometown), the focal person for Abgogbloshi. He translated for the most part.

Today I went to a class that I haven't taught before because last Tuesday was a holiday. They actually participated more than any other class and understood me the best out of any of them. It was awesome. After we finished with the lesson, my coworker wanted to take a picture of me with the whole class. They were crazy! I have never been touched so much in my life! They were all grabbing my arms, holding and kissing my hands, and pulling me in all different directions. In spite of the insanity, they are all so awesome and really funny. The teacher also invited us to her wedding in 2 weeks, which was really cool. This is the class. The teacher is on the left hand side. Sorry about the chalk board. We were talking about HIV/AIDS...

If you look at the boy in front holding the pink notebook, you'll see that it has a picture of Obama on it. People here are in love with him. It's really funny. The end.

I hope this appeases all you who complain that I don't put up enough pictures. Now you can stop whining (*cough*Trish*cough*).

Let There Be Rain

So, the rainy season has officially begun here in Ghana. Currently it is pouring and there is some pretty intense thunder and lightening. Luckily it didn't start until long after I got home from work. Speaking of work, we got another volunteer today and one more is going to start soon. They both came through Ikando too, so we all know each other already. It's really nice to have other people in the office. Work is going well. I have been going into the schools and having a great time. It is kind of stressful when they don't really understand what I'm saying and are more fascinated by the fact that I'm white rather than interested in what I came to teach them. They're really sweet though and I think that is going to be my favorite part of the internship. Every time I come in to the office, I am told something else that they want me to do while I'm here. A few days ago I was told that I need to organize a training for students to be peer educators and train them on a bajillion topics in four hours. Right. Then a few days after, I was told that they want me to organize a drama group to perform in front of the school. Umm, I don't know about that. This will be interesting. One of the new volunteers will hopefully be helping me with the TB project, so that will be really helpful.

I have started putting together the TB client booklet with the interviews we did on Wednesday. I'm not very good with all of the formatting stuff, but I think it's coming together pretty well. At least I know for sure that I will have some sort of tangible product for my internship requirements (now I just have to finish getting my internship approved...).

Other than that, not much is going on, just life as normal. This weekend I'm hopefully going to Makola market to get batik fabric and have some stuff made. I can finally look legit. That's about it though. See? Not that exciting. I have, however, come to appreciate certain things a lot more since being here:

1. wireless internet that doesn't cut out every 5 seconds. Yeah that gets to be really annoying.

2. Smog checks. These do not seem to exist here. Driving down the road, if you happen to get stuck behind the wrong vehicle, you have to sit there breathing in the black plumes of carcinogenic fumes. I might get lung cancer just from this summer.

3. Covered sewers. Yeah, remember those ditches? Totally sewers. And sometimes they smell really bad. Like REALLY bad.

4. Waste removal services. Here they don't really have a garbage collection system. Everything just gets thrown in the streets or sewers. Some days on the way to work I see people cleaning out the massive amounts of rubbish that blocks the sewers. Definitely not my dream job, folks. If I learn nothing else from this experience, at least I've learned that I don't want to be a sewer cleaner.

There are a lot more things, but if I wrote an exhaustive list, this post would go on forever and you and I would be extremely bored. So here is where I will end for the day.

Quick shout out to Alicia and Eric: Happy 10th wedding anniversary! You guys are awesome!