I've seen no internet in a month. All of these posts were written then and I am just dumping them on all at once! Enjoy!
Tamale:
Akwaaba house had its own unique feel. There was energy and wonder and excitement running through the air. We were on our way to adventure.
After finally reaching Tamale, we settled into our new home for the coming week - the Catholic guest house. To be truly honest I don't get the same sense of spirit out of this place. People come and go, over the cow gate and back again. There are too many causes, experiences and voices and often guest houses are just used as a place to sleep along the way. It's as though this story, so epic to us, is being drowned out by the crowd of sleepers and passers by.
That being said, though. It's a nice place. There's water, most of the time. There is also electricity, most of the time. The ceiling fans help us keep cool when they are working, and (duh duh duhhhn) there are toilets! I don't know whether this happened by chance or if it was deliberate on the part of the APS, but for many volunteers these perks have proved most valuable in the ... ah ... adjusting process.
So far my only bout with sickness was some nausea inspired by the local food, but diarrhea is moving through our group like death in Final Destination. One by one we fall victim. Some go during session, some go while alone at night ... some just go all the time. I know it won't stop until it gets all of us.
I look around our little circle in the gazebo and wonder: Who's next? it's only a matter of time.
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Bussin' to Bunkpurugu:
The bus ride to Bunkpurugu was slightly shorter than the one from Accra to Tamale, but perhaps a little less comfortable. We had to be at the metro mass station around 5am to pick up this tickets, and when we got to the station to reach the bus, it was a total beehive of activity! There were people, buses, and tro-tros everywhere!
The last bus had been gloriously air-conditioned. This one wasn't. And strangely, this didn't actually mean that it was super hot. With the windows open, the bus was actually comfortable compared to the searing heat outside. 'Till today, I hadn't thought this possible without copius amounts of freon.
I hung out the open window trying to take pictures, not thinking of how it hadn't rained in weeks. I also didn't think that the traffic on the long dirt road would kick up the dust, suspending it in the air. The effect was as though they had driven me through a cloud of self-tanner When we arrived, my virgin irish skin was covered in the reddish golden glow of sweat and dirt. It looked as though I'd lived under the Ghanaian sun for years!
Now - bring on the bucket shower.
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Hello MoFA!
Robin and I met the director of the district, and the majority of the staff. Everyone seems very kind and really enthousiastic! I have actually already met two of the extension agents that I will be working with. They came to the Agriculture as a Business workshop during in-country training, and they did very well.
The director is amazing. He's high-capacity, enthousiastic, and open! He even treated us to riceballs, groundnut soup, and guinea fowl. Let me tell you, I love this meal.
The district I am working in is called Bunkpurugu-Yunyoo, and there's really no point it trying to pronounce it without a domonstration. There are five extension agents working in the office, and the director is willing to mandate the program to all of them. I am pretty pumped to get to work, but I will be going to a villiage stay in Momboga for a while before I can get into the swing of things!
I am living in Bunkpurugu town with the coordinator of a local NGO called BLFACU. They focus mainly on literacy and agriculture, with some health-related activities as well. There is electricity (completed with ceiling fan in my room ... ka-ching!), a latrine, and I have even been provided with a bed and a desk.
Everyone I've met has been so wonderfully accomodating, I really think I'm going to like it here.
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Momboga / Kuenkehe-Daen
My villiage stay in Momboga (or Kuenkehe Daen, depending on who you ask) was really nice! It was strange, I found myself doing nothing most of the time, since in the beginning of the stay, it hadn't rained and the farmers were waiting to plant.
There's this local dish called TZ that people make, it's basically just boiled / stirred maize flour and they eat it with stews and soups. This is the staple food of the region, so people some variation for almost every meal.
At first, it doesn't seem all that appetizing. Imagine someone over-cooking Cream of Wheat until it becomes a solid(ish) mass in the bowl. TZ is pretty much that exactly, except it's made with maize flour. You can pull off pieces of it and dip it into the accompanying soup or stew. I know it sounds gross, but in the end it's pretty good.
The thing about TZ is that it's actually a lot of work to cook it, if you're cooking for a family. There are no stoves here, you have to use a pot over coals. The TZ is so thick when it's cooking that you need to step on bars to keep the pot from moving, and it takes a considerable amount of elbow grease to actually do the stirring! I know, because I tried and failed. One day with my host family I will try again, after I get over the embarassment.
I went to get water with Agnes, the first daughter of the family. They gave me the kind of bucket that the little girls carried! I didn't take it on my head, though. I didn't want to waste all the water, given that they worked so hard to get it.
The women pump the water from a borehole down the way, but it's fairly physical. I didn't it for a short while, but the women seemed to not want to let me work so they made me sit back down after only a few seconds.
Like I said, one really wanted me to do any work, and the place I stayed was actually wonderfully outfitted with solar electricity, a guest compound, a latrine, purewater (the bagged clean water for sale in Ghana) and "minerals" (pop). I definitely feel I didn't truly get an experience of poverty. I wonder if closer to the end of my placement, when I've fully adjusted, I should try and go on another villiage stay with another family. I really don't know, but would totally appreciate any input from all you EWBers and past JFs if you're reading!
I did, however, get to experience the culture in depth. There was a funeral going on the day I landed, so everyone from the community had come home! There was drumming and dancing all night long until daybreak! Even through the torrential rain! The funeral was for a previous chief of the villiage and so when I went to the market, the new chief was being introduced to the community! I didn't take any pictures of the funeral because I was a little uncomfortable with it given my own concept of funerals and loss, but it was truly amazing. I met so many people I forget most of them.
I had my first experience with someone asking me to take their children to Canada. She didn't speak english, but someone had translated for me. It was so awkward and I felt so bad. How do you explain to someone why you can't give their child a better life? I don't know. I guess I'll have to learn.
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