I am still alive and well in Ghana. Since I last wrote anything here, many things have happened. I went to America (the embassy in Accra to take the LSAT), school fully re-opened, the new students have begun to show up, another group of Peace Corps Volunteers arrived in Ghana and another group went home, I've almost entered my 18 ^th month in Ghana, the first supermarket in Ghana opened, construction has been delayed all over town, and I saw something funny.

First, the construction delays. Sometime in April/May, workers started digging ditches in the part of town where I live for a new drain system. They created much havoc. Apparently the drains had to be situated where people already had various sheds, fences, and even walls of their houses. Much property had to be destroyed. About six months later, the drains are still under construction. Workers don't show up for weeks at a time. Mounds of dirt and concrete have been left in the middle of my street making it impossible for cars to maneuver (it was fairly difficult before the construction).

Also in April, the street light outside of my house went out. I assume it still works and only needs a new bulb. Six months later, it has yet to be replaced.

There is a major construction project happening at my school. It's a $500,000 renovation that will build new classrooms, a new computer lab, a new administration building, new toilets, and more. They are also scheduled to renovate some existing buildings.

The project has come to a halt due to lack of financing. Eighty percent was to be paid by the African Development Bank and the rest was coming from the Ghanaian national government. Apparently, ADB stopped sending money, so work has been stopped for more than a month. No one here seems to know when/if it will continue. The entire project was scheduled for completion in June.

Side note, my house is surrounded by three half-built houses. One has sat in its current state since I arrived. One has seen little improvement. The other is actually progressing. The mostly-built house across the street is most upsetting because it has sat unoccupied since I moved in. If it did not exist I would have a beautiful view of the town and the surrounding lush hills. Instead, I get to look at a concrete block.

Now for the funny thing I saw.

I was recently in a tro. The man sitting next to me had a pair of locally made khaki pants and a brown shirt. Maybe it clashed, but I'm not sure. Regardless, on top of the brown shirt he was wearing a royal blue vest (I'm almost certain it clashed). The vest had two red stripes across the top. In one of the top corners there was a large patch. It was the Rite-Aid logo. The man sitting next to me was wearing the Rite-Aid employee vest.

I have no real issue with Rite-Aid or with people who work there. I just would not expect anyone, employee or not, to wear their vest around town. In all likelihood, he has no idea what the Rite-Aid patch means. For all he knows, Rite-Aid could be the most fashionable and expensive designer in Europe. I imagined that he was some businessman and was traveling to America for some meeting. He walks into a meeting full of Americans with his Rite-Aid vest on.  If you were to try to explain to him what a Rite-Aid is, he probably would not quite get it. Stores like that just don't exist here until...

The supermarket!

Something called the Accra Mall is slowly opening. The first store, called Game, opened in May. It's like Target or K-Mart. Since I make about $200 a month, I don't have a lot of money to spend on the kind of things that one buys at a big retailer like that. It was entertaining to walk up and down the aisles, but that's about it.  

Other equally useless smaller stores have opened. There's a Sony Store, a cell phone store, a hair salon, a shoe store, etc.

Last week Ghana's first supermarket opened. Of course, Ghana has places to buy food, but stores are small, cramped, and do not have many products for sale. This is the first real supermarket – 25 aisles, a bakery, butcher, fruits/vegetables, etc. They don't carry American brands. Mostly, I think, products are made in Africa and Asia. I bought a bag of ziti and a soya mince (aka textured vegetable protein)…

¶ 4:43 PM 1 comments

A few days before the ship arrived at the port, I told my headmaster to reserve the school bus. The computers would soon be arriving and there could be no delay in getting them. He said that the school bus had broken down (something about the flux capacitor), but it was being fixed and would be ready on time. Right.

My agents at the port told me that it once the ship arrived, it would take a few days for the container to actually be removed and ready to be opened. I waited for their call, and when it never came I followed up. No later than next Tuesday I was told. Tuesday came and went, and I still had not heard anything. I called again. We'll call you when it's ready, I was told.

That Friday my father called me. He had been dealing with the shipping agent in New York since this saga began. He sounded strained (note that the American Heritage Dictionary has four definitions for strained. I am using the word here to mean, "having been passed through a strainer").

He had just talked with the New York shipping agent who told him that the container had indeed arrived at the port in Ghana, but…(pause here for dramatic effect)…US Customs ordered it to be immediately returned to the US without being opened. US Customs had informed the shipping line which had confiscated the container and was storing it at the port. No explanation was given nor was anyone even supposed to inform us.

I've only thought about US Customs as it relates to two issues. The first is port security, which Democrats used to bring up as evidence that Bush was not "protecting America."  Charles Schumer launched an investigation, I'm sure, and probably held a press conference at a port with several large color charts). The second issue is the importation of horses and guns for use at the 2012 Olympic Games.

From these two mental flirtations I have inferred that a) US Customs is tied up with homeland security so their job is somehow serious; b) US Customs follows, or at least is supposed to follow, strict government rules; and c) if you want them to change any of those rules it's best to ask them at least seven years in advance.

I assumed that trying to get US Customs to reverse its decision was a lost cause, but I suppose it's doesn't hurt to try. The New York shipping agent appealed to the local customs office. The agents at the port in Ghana asked the local authorities to intervene. A Ghanaian Minister of Parliament, who has a car in the same container, also asked the local customs authorities for help. Meanwhile, I visited a local fetish priest and asked him to make the director of US Customs turn into a frog (they have powers, I'm told).

Three weeks later, the container is still supposedly sitting at the port in Ghana. Apparently the problem was that the shipping line put the container on the ship before US Customs properly inspected it. From what I'm told, any container with a car inside is supposed to sit in the port for 72 hours before being loaded onto the ship. The shipping company may dispute this explanation and may try and blame the shipping agent. I'm kind of out of the loop.

Addendum #1: School has reopened.  

¶ 10:51 AM 1 comments

Several months ago my father was able to get twenty computers donated to my school. They come from a corporation in New York whose annual revenue exceeds Ghana's gross domestic product, probably by about a factor of two. This company was moving offices, and I suppose when a corporation of that size moves offices they discover that they have a bunch of computers that need a new home.

So, for me, getting the donation was relative easy. (Step 1 – send an email to my father. Step 2 – wait for a reply.) The real challenge was figuring out how to get them from Manhattan to my school.

I searched the internet for shippers to Ghana, but my efforts were futile. Shippers do indeed have websites, but ships going from New York to Ghana are massive and require that you send at least a forty-foot container.

Luckily, there's a man in my town that lived in the US (Teaneck, NJ of all places) for about thirty years and he brought several items to Ghana , such as a car. I figured he must have experience in this sort of thing. Turns out that a Ghanaian he used to live with in the Bronx ships containers from New York to Ghana and divides up the container among several clients. Perfect.

There's a phrase in Twi that literally translates into 'you have done something.' Seems like a trivial observation, but this phrase is used in practice to mean 'nice job' or something to that effect. However, 'you have done something' seems more appropriate here because it can be such a hassle to get anything done.

Some challenges are due to lack of infrastructure or technology. For example, sending an email or making a photocopy, tasks that would be practically instantaneous in an American office, require equipment that simply is not widely available here. You have to go somewhere with an internet connection, for example, and that requires transportation (see lack of infrastructure). And if the electricity isn't working (see lack of infrastructure), well then you'll just have to come back another day.

Other challenges are due to a somewhat different attitude or expectations towards work. I'm sure that economic development is a complicated thing. Some claim that culture matters. Others say it doesn't.

All I know is that Ghana is home to the six-hour meeting, a real productivity killer. Actually, the meeting itself only lasts about four hours, but it always starts two hours late. I ask other teachers at my school why we're always starting two hours late and the standard response is that we're on 'African Time.' I've come to see 'African Time' as an unfortunate remnant from the past when there was no modern infrastructure and before watches and other modern conveniences make it possible for most people to come on time most of the time. It's something that could easily be ended if only people, specifically the leadership (school headmaster in my case), decided to do it.

But they don't and African Time persists. In my experience, I've seen a generally more relaxed view of work. Granted my only comparison is to New York where it's perhaps a bit intense.

We are repeatedly told during training, and I think it's true, that Peace Corps Volunteers can't change a culture. It's not something that possible to do nor is it something that should be done. All you can do is do your job as best as you can and people may or may not pick up on it.

But it's easy for volunteers to look at what's going on around them and not live up to their own expectations. Things can be de-motivating or frustrating, and some volunteers may tend to follow the examples of others. The challenges of living in Ghana can compound the problem either by providing a sense of achievement merely for succeeding at day-to-day activities or by consuming too much time and energy.

Somehow that all relates to my recent adventures in importing. In part 2, I'll go into too much detail about what it's like to work with government ministries in Accra and look forward to the surprise twist at the end/middle (no one knows??) that no one expected!

Addendum #1: More pictures added.

Addendum #2: The electricity situation has suddenly improved. The electricity still goes off but for far fewer hours. The downside is that the schedule is unpredictable. Previously, the 12 hour blackouts were like clockwork (and not a clock on African Time). Lights went off exactly as expected. Now, I'm sitting at my computer in fear that it can go off at any time.

¶ 10:00 AM 3 comments

The hype started more than a year ago. Towards the end of my Peace Corps training I traveled to what would soon be my new home for a four day visit. I arrived about two weeks before the town's annual festival, but unfortunately I was back in training during the festivities. This festival attracts people from all over the world, I was told by people in town. It's world famous, I learned. The men dress up as women and parade around the town. There is much rejoicing.

Much of the excitement actually came from the school typist. She had been assigned to take me around town during my visit. She was a good guide and occasionally dispensed random advice such as, "fornication is a sin" and told me the story of how her husband proposed to her over the phone before they had met or even had a single conversation. Throughout the next year she would occasionally bring up the festival saying things like, "you will go and your mother will be happy." Indeed.

The owner of my house, a kindly old man named Papa Eidu, is also enthusiastic about the festival but in a different way. He told me the Akwanbo Festival celebrates the warrior heritage of the people. It was originally a three-day festival (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) but has more recently been expanded to an entire week. On the first three days, different groups of people parade through town, apparently somehow recalling how people used to come back from war. The big day is Saturday when the town gathers at Victoria Park, a big field in the middle of town.

My final source of information leading up to the festival was one of the construction workers who live with me. He comes from Accra and had never heard of Akwanbo before. I never really thought it was world famous, but I thought at least maybe it was Ghana famous.

From what I know about celebrations in Ghana, I expected a lot of drinking, dancing and some sort of official ceremony that would start late, drag on for too long, and be conducted entirely in Twi.

Akwanbo for me started on Tuesday (I wasn't in town on Monday). There were a lot of people parading through town, including a few men dressed as women, as well as some more traditional drumming. Wednesday featured a small group of old men sort of dressed as warriors singing and parading through town.

I invited some other Peace Corps Volunteers (aka whites) to come on Saturday. Keeping with local tradition (although this is more applicable to funerals), we started drinking early and then headed into town to see what was going on. As predicted by Papa Eidu, the town had indeed gathered in Victoria Park in the traditional Ghanaian fashion, sitting in plastic chairs under canopies that are arranged in a rectangle. This is the standard arrangement for all official ceremonies, such as funerals, weddings, and graduations. The dais canopy was empty upon our arrival, and it seemed that we just missed the parade of chiefs who are traditionally carried in by their respective entourages. Oh well. You've seen one chief parade you've kind of seen them all.

Then two teams of "warriors" (the only real warrior element was the guns) each danced in the middle of the rectangle. There were also a few men dressed as women. Then we left to do more drinking. When we returned, the Dick Cheney of Ghana (aka the vice president) had just rolled up in his motorcade. The dais was now full of various officials who were being introduced. We can only guess what happened next since we left, but all signs pointed to long speeches in Twi.

Till next year…(actually, I'll probably be in America)

Addendum #1: Grading is harsh at my school. I kind of curved my final grades so as not to fail 90% of the class, but it seems that most teachers have no problem failing a significant percentage of their students.   

Addendum #2: Mike, I think the reason I can't poop and scoop is because the toilet is not a sanitary environment. So, for example, if the previous person had worms then perhaps those worms would also show up in my sample. Just a guess…

¶ 12:31 PM 3 comments

Although my official end date here is more than a year away, I figured out that I only have about 125 days of actual teaching left, and many volunteers who came over with me have just over 100 days to go.

The school year is divided into three 13-week terms. The last two weeks of the term are exams, so there is no teaching. The students never show up during the first week of each term, so that leaves ten weeks of teaching per term. Then there's mid-term break, which knocks off another few days, and there are other interruptions such as holidays and sports days, and so many excuses, such as quiz competitions, campus cleanings, and teacher meetings, which cause students not to come to my class. I estimate that these miscellaneous distractions eat up about another week of teaching.

That leaves me with three terms of 8.5 weeks each, or about 127 days of teaching. Most teachers are supposed to have one day off per week (I have it this term but did not the other two), meaning that most of the volunteers in my group have only 102 days of teaching to go in their 2-year service.

In reality, I will probably teach no more than 120 days in the next year, but will show up to school about 160 times in the next 400+ days. It's tough to complain about free time, especially when tropical beaches are so close, but I could.  

Addendum #1: I set a new personal record by waiting on line at the bank for 3 hours and 45 minutes just to make a withdrawal. Amazing.

¶ 10:46 AM 0 comments

Addendum #1: Ghana struck oil! A few days ago the government announced that a delicious oil reserve was discovered off the coast. They have not officially announced how big it is, but I've heard numbers ranging from 300 to 600 million barrels. Ghana now becomes part of an exclusive African club that includes Nigeria, Angola, Libya, Guinea, and Sudan, although I think Ghana has less oil than any of those countries (certainly far less than nearby Nigeria which produces 2.5 million barrels a day). In theory, oil could be a real boon to the economy and do a lot to alleviate poverty….in theory.

Addendum #2: I posted a few new pictures. Why not look at them?

Addendum #3: I don't have any big plans for my 6-week break because I'm planning on taking the LSATs in September, so I want to study for that. There is a park in the north of the country that has elephants, hippos, baboons, and other animals, but apparently it's best to go in the dry season, which is what you might call the "winter." I also hope to see the Sahara at some point in the next year.  

¶ 1:05 PM 1 comments

On June 12, a new group of Peace Corps Volunteers will land in Ghana. They will be the first group of teachers to arrive since I came last year.

Their landing is amusing to me because it means there will be about 30 Americans running around who don't have a clue, just like me one year ago. And for about the first month or two I can think about how ridiculous they are, what with their complaining, confusion, silly questions, and whatnot.

"Ha," I will laugh to myself, "You've only been here for 5 weeks or some such insignificant period of time. You know nothing! I am master of Ghana !" But most of them will catch on quickly (the rest will freak out and go home), and I won't be able to laugh at them anymore. Alas, the joke will be over and they will be in the same boat I'm in now.

Recently, someone in this new group posted a comment on this site asking about things to bring to Ghana. I think his name is Dave. Anyway, his post raised the disturbing and amusing possibility that there are other members of this new group reading this site.

Peace Corps sends each new volunteer-to-be information about Ghana. Included in this packet are letters from actual volunteers about life in Ghana . They'll probably never get a letter from someone who is sick with Dengue Fever, had his house broken into, and is feeling lonely and depressed. I suspect Peace Corps' censorship is not the only issue. Volunteers who choose to take their time to write welcome letters for a Peace Corps publication are a self-selecting group, and the sick, lonely crime victim seems less likely to do so. As for me, I just tend to avoid the Peace Corps office (the business pace of Ghana combined with the bureaucracy of Washington, from what I've heard).

But the Internet is powerful! I can communicate with this so-called new group and tell them all the important things they really need to know about Ghana. So here they are:

Things to bring:

• A few books to read during training
• A stuffed animal – it will soon become your best (only) friend
• Shampoo and deodorant (They're hard to find. Soap and toothpaste are not)
• Lots of underwear and socks, although socks are generally optional; I do highly recommend underwear
• At least two bags of Fritos and a bag of textured vegetable protein for me (see your local health food store)
• Two years supply of water (unless you're planning on having diarrhea constantly)
• USB memory thumb pen drive things can be helpful, even if you're not a computer teacher

Clothing: Don't stress too much about this. There's no dress code for school, but you're expected to look presentable. You can always get clothing made here. You won't have money for it when you first arrive, but by the time you start teaching you'll have plenty of money to get a few pairs of pants and shirts. You really only need to bring enough clothing for training. The training dress code is pants and a shirt, preferably with a collar, but I don't think they were too upset with t-shirts (I have no idea what women wear). Also, see the note above about socks and underwear.

Hobbies: We tend to have more time here in Ghana than we did in the US. One person in my group brought an obo thinking that he might learn how to play it (he hasn't). Someone else I know learned a foreign language (not one spoken in Ghana). You may want to consider getting a hobby and bringing whatever gear it requires (note: model trains is a bad choice). As for me, I've started writing short stories. They're about relationships I develop with members of the new group of PC teachers. My stories always end the same: one day my new friends come to visit me and I kill them all in their sleep.

Electronics: I made the mistake of not bringing my iPod. Don't be like me. It would be nice to have a cheap laptop to store pictures and write things like this in my house, but I don't have one. Bring a digital camera and a cell phone that works in Ghana if you can. The cheapest phones here (that work) are about $50. You may be able to buy something online that will work in Ghana for cheaper, and you won't have to spend your precious cedis on a phone. Also, $50 for a used phone in America gets you a far better phone than $50 for a "new" phone here.

LED Headlamp: I've written before about this, so I won't repeat myself. Studies show that volunteers with an LED headlamp are 68% more likely to look silly while wearing a headlamp than volunteers without one.

My non-stick pan: You can't bring MY non-stick pan because it's mine and it's already here. You can buy your own non-stick pan in many parts of Ghana, but I'm still glad I brought mine because it's probably of better quality. And, again, don't ask me for mine because it's mine.

I think that's about all the advice I can offer about what to bring. Enjoy your last two weeks in America. Also, keep in mind that there's usually one person in each group that's doing exactly what you're doing now: moving out of an apartment, quitting a job, selling all worldly possessions, saying good-bye to friends and family, etc. Then this person lands in Ghana, realizes that a horrible, terrible mistake has been made, and is on the next flight back to the US. But I'm sure that won't happen to you…

Addendum #1: I was kidding about the water. It's fine. (As long as you filter it…unless it comes from a river in which case you'll want to do more than just filter it. For example, pretend you're drinking apple cider. That way the brown color won't bother you as much.)

¶ 2:00 PM 2 comments

Ghana's got it!

When I arrived in the country almost a year ago, Ghana claimed that it did not have it. However, all of the neighboring countries had reported it, so we assumed that Ghana had it but just wasn't telling anyone about it.

But as of two weeks ago, it's official. Ghana has tested positive for bird flu. It has only been reported among the country's chickens. The disease is also only in one place, the city of Tema. It's one of the country's major ports and is about three hours from my town. Thousands of birds have been killed there for fear that they may have been exposed.

In response to the announcement, Peace Corps handed down some sensible medical advice, such as:

·        "Wash your hands frequently with soap and water"

·        "Cover your nose and mouth when you cough and sneeze"

·        "Avoid contact with those who are sick"

Preventing bird flu is that easy! Nothing to worry about!

(Note: Several months ago Peace Corps distributed Tamiflu to all volunteers. My understanding is that this medication is effective against the disease, although there is evidence that the virus is becoming resistant. And if there's ever a pandemic there won't be enough of it to go around. But it's the best we got!)

I recently heard a report on BBC about bird flu in Egypt. The reporter went to a village where someone had fallen ill from the disease. He described the place as full of "nothing more than small, dirty huts." A house he visited had a "roof made of a thin tin sheet that barely keeps out the rain." He described the children as "wearing dirty tattered clothing" and claimed that "animal droppings and rubbish are strewn about." (Note: I made up the quotes, but they were something like that.)

All of the reporter's observations may be factually accurate, but he painted a picture of nothing but despair. His tone and word choice indicated that he was describing something that seemed new and shocking. But these conditions are normal for millions of people. That doesn't make them OK, but his descriptions were insulting and unnecessarily depressing. Perhaps listeners will infer that there is nothing but misery and desolation in this town. It would probably help if people who reported from developing countries were actually from those countries.

Anyway, getting back to bird flu, the reporter then went to a nearby market where, in clear violations of WHO guidelines, live chickens were being sold. The reporter sounded as if he had uncovered a scandal. How could these people act with such disregard for international mandates!? After all, these regulations are for their own safety.

Americans have been warned about avian flu for years. One day, we're told, it will be a pandemic. Maybe it will and maybe it won't. Or maybe it will all start in Ghana. But I'll be fine. I'm washing my hands with soap…

Addendum #1: I am going to start a weekly radio show in New York. Each week it will be hosted by a different person from some part of rural Ghana . The host will visit someone's Manhattan apartment. He'll describe it. He'll talk about how tiny it is and how he has to walk up seven flights of stairs just to unlock the front door. He'll talk about the isolation of living in a little box in the sky compared to the openness of the village and what it's like to have your only window open up to a brick wall two feet away.

Then, our host will have to guess the rent. Couldn't be more than a few dollars a month for this little room, he'll say. The apartment renter will then hand him one month's rent, all in $5 bills. Because it's radio we won't see his face as he counts the stack of cash, but in Ghana people can be very expressive. We'll hear his shock. We'll even feel it. Then the host will get to keep the money, and here's the best part, he'll stand there and laugh at the New Yorker who spends $2000 a month for a studio in whatever part of the city is currently most outrageously priced.

Addendum #2: Note to female members of my family – no need to freak out. If Bird Flu ever spreads to people in Ghana, Peace Corps will freak out for you and take all sorts of unnecessary precautions. The odds of me getting bird flu in Ghana are just slightly higher than the odds of you getting bird flu in America. So if you don't worry about it for yourself, there's no need to worry about me.

¶ 7:38 AM 2 comments

I've described my house before, but I'll just repeat that it has a lot of rooms (about 15). You walk into the Sitting Room which leads into the Great Hall. The Great Hall is surrounded by doors to about ten rooms. The Great Hall also leads to My Special Outdoor Area, which is a small courtyard that also has doors to about six more rooms.

When I first moved in I was told that the only residents of the house would be me and Kwame, a student of mine and nephew of the house owner. The other rooms would only be used in the case of a major event in the family that owned the house.

In September, the girl moved in. Her name is Ama and she's a student and is related to the kindly old man who owns the house. At the time, this intrusion into my space was upsetting because she was living in one of the rooms off of My Special Outdoor Area. BuT I learned to get over it, largely by pretending that she didn't exist. Then in January two men who are doing construction work at the school moved in. They also stay in rooms off of My Special Outdoor Area, so now "my" house has four permanent residents (plus my cat), and My Special Outdoor Area is neither mine nor special anymore.

More recently, guests have been arriving. At first, it would be a random relative. They generally stayed a night or two on the weekends and were mostly harmless. Some guests attract more attention. For example, a niece of the owner of my house is now visiting from the UK. She is a former resident of the town and she seems to have quite a following. From the time I wake up until past my bedtime various town residents come to greet her. This is mildly annoying, but tolerable.

A couple of weekends ago, I was blindsided by the worst types of guests imaginable: people in town for a funeral. A reminder that Ghanaian funerals are a celebration of life, so these people were here to have a good time. And that means food, drinking, lots of noise, and no sense of responsibility (because who's responsible at a party??).

A few bad things about guests in general:

1. They often call me "white man" or its local language equivalent. Even the most offensive person in New York would recognize that calling someone out by the color of their skin is absurd and unacceptable, but here it's considered normal. In my town I take the time to teach people my name, but I have learned to grit my teeth and deal with it (although not well) outside of my town. However, in my house, this is totally unacceptable behavior.

2. They use my water. I have gone weeks without running water, which means I rely on water that is fetched and dumped into my water barrel. Guests use this water, and then I either have to fetch more water or ask other people to fetch it for me.

3. They're noisy. This is a cultural thing. I would think that if you're a guest in someone's house you would try and refrain from screaming, particularly at night. But apparently this does not occur to many Ghanaians. This observation is based on repeated trials in multiple locations in Ghana, so I'm fairly confident about this generalization. I think it may be related to larger issues about public/private space and property. The notable exception is my current guest from the UK. She seems to get it, which further convinces me that this is a cultural thing. (Another cultural difference is views on the musical group Westlife. While I consider them the creation of record executives to cater to some teen/preteen demographic, a teacher at my school passionately explained to me that their vocal talents are unmatched.)

4. They steal my personal space. It would be nice to have a house of my own, as many Peace Corps Volunteers do, because it would be a place to retreat from Ghana and perhaps have some peace and quiet (plus I could walk around naked, if I wanted to). I have no peace and quiet in my house in general, and certainly not when there are guests around.

On this particular weekend, I had about 25 (!!) guests in my house. To make matters even worse, they were not directly related to the house owner, so no one was able to tame them. They were loud, ate smelly food at odd hours, quickly consumed all of my water, and they called me white man. And at least one of them peed on the seat.

At about 11:15 on Friday night, I decided I couldn't take it anymore, so I went for a walk in my town. No people are out at this hour, so it was just me, cats, and goats. I played in my computer lab for a while and headed home at about 1:30 AM determined to kill one of their small children in the hope that this would scare them into submission. Luckily, they had all gone to sleep, so I didn't have to put my plan into effect. The next night I ran away to a friend's house and by Sunday night they had mostly tired themselves out from two days of being noisy.

My house has also hosted three weddings (although I was not around for two of them) and I'm sure that there are many more simchas to come. And if anyone ever asks me, "Hey, have you ever shared a house with thirty Ghanaians?" I can look them in the eye and say, "You know what…as a matter of fact I have."

Addendum #1: Last weekend was the "world famous" Aboakyer Festival (pronounced A-bo-ah-chair) in the nearby coastal city of Winneba. I t commemorates the people's migration from the north down to their current home. Here's the tourist guidebook version of what happens: two teams dress up in traditional warrior garb. A deer (or antelope?) is released into the bush and the two teams go and chase it. A team wins by capturing the deer. There is much rejoicing.

Here's what really happened: Only one team showed up because of longstanding disputes over land, money, etc. There were threats of violence but a large police presence kept things quiet. The animal was released and the single team, which mostly consists of children wearing secondhand clothing and white face paint, go after it. The children are loosely organized by similarly dressEd men in their 20s and 30s. The bush is open grassland with random patches of bushes. The team surrounds a bushy area and hacks away with big sticks (I spotted a golf club too) in an attempt to scare out the animal. Eventually, they surround the right bushy area and capture it. There is much drinking. And the president of Ghana showed up too. Overall, I would go next year because who doesn't like drinking at 9 AM, but I'm not going to plan my life around it.

¶ 2:39 PM 1 comments

I spent last weekend at a guesthouse in the hills of the Volta Region (eastern part of Ghana) called Mountain Paradise Lodge. There were a surprising number of American Jews there (generally more than just me is surprising).

Apart from the Jews, the nice thing about Mountain Paradise Lodge is that it's isolated and it gets chilly at night. The change in temperature is really a novelty. Anytime that it's not hot enough to make me sweat I take notice.

The compartmentalization of sweat is a phenomenon that I had never noticed before. For millions of people in the US, Canada, Europe, and elsewhere, sweat is a choice and not a way of life. For many months of the year, people can carry on with their daily routines without fear of sweat and can choose whether or not to engage in activities that will lead to sweat. Not so for me in Ghana. Everything makes me sweat and there is little respite.

The worst is traveling. Mountain Paradise Lodge is a couple hundred miles away, so the journey home was sure to be sweaty. It began at about 10:20 in the morning when me, two Jews, and two non-Jewish NYU students (they have a campus in Accra) left Mountain Paradise Lodge. It's situated on the top of a mountain and unless you have a car the only way out is to walk down the mountain. The walk took more than an hour, which translates into more than an hour of continuous sweating.

Once we made it to the bottom, we had to take a tro-tro (packed mini-van) to someplace to take another tro-tro to Accra. It goes without saying, but I'll say it, that tro-tros are not air-conditioned. Open windows and the movement of the vehicle can create a pleasant cross-breeze that makes the journey tolerable. But once the tro stops, either to pick up, drop off, or because of traffic, the vehicle heats up like an EZ Bake Oven. More sweat.

The first tro wasn't terrible, and once we stepped out into the blazing sun (more sweat) we were lucky enough to soon get on a tro headed to Accra . When traveling in remote parts of the country, it's not unusual to wait hours for the right car. This tro was a bit roomier, but by now my clothing is already soaked with my drying sweat while new moisture accumulates on my body.

And then we got a flat tire at around 2 PM or so, which means more standing in the sun while it's being repaired (and more sweating).  This could have really been a disaster since we were in the middle of nowhere, but luckily this tro had a spare and the driver flagged down another tro to get a jack and whatever else he needed to change the tire. Less than 30 minutes later, we were moving again (and sweating slightly less).

By 4 PM we were in Accra drinking lattes at an American-style shopping center. Then, two more tros (more sweat) to get to one of the city's larger tro stations where I said goodbye to my new friends and headed home. Recently I have made a lot of weekend friends. That is, people that I meet on a Friday and say goodbye to on a Sunday (or in this case Monday) and then never see ever again. Sometimes this process can last a bit longer – for example volunteers who are in the country for a few months that I may see half a dozen times. It is a good way to build a database of people from around the world, but also a bit unsettling.

By 5 PM, I am sitting in the way back of the worst kind of tro. It's more like a bus than a minivan with eight rows of five across. And it's tight. Some people buy one ticket for two people and sit one on top of the other. I sat in the back right corner with my large bag on my lap, as if I'm trying to make the journey as uncomfortable as possible. The man next to me tries to make small talk using what little English he knows and me testing out my Twi. He seems harmless until about 10 minutes into the journey when he puts his arm around me and tries to lick my face. This behavior is as inappropriate in Ghana as it is in the US and I gave him an elbow to the chest and told him to stop. Other passengers noticed what was happening and the man next to me got the message.    

Unfortunately, we then got caught in some serious traffic. Luckily, the sun was going down so there wasn't too much sweating, although by this point I have been sweating all day and would have barely noticed. What should have been less than a two hour trip took almost three while I'm awkwardly ignoring the man seated next to me.

I got out of the tro sometime after 8 PM, or about ten hours after I left the Lodge. My last stop before home was the taxi station where I hoped to get a car going to my town. Ghanaians aren't big on waiting in lines, so when a taxi pulls up and the driver announces where he's going, a full contact sport breaks out as people struggle to get one of the precious seats. I tend to forget about this, so I missed the first car but got the second

(although I did yell at a guy claiming that I was there first. He replied, "It's not about that.").

¶ 5:53 PM 1 comments

This week I am one of two teachers on duty. As a teacher on duty, my responsibilities are broadly to be in charge of discipline in the school for the week. Practically, what it means is that I have to get to school at least two hours earlier than I normally do. So I'm very tired.

The school day begins sometime before 6:30 when the students are supposed to report to clean the school. They sweep the classrooms and the campus and pick up litter. There are certain students, called prefects, who are there to organize and ensure that the work gets done. The masters on duty are there to supervise and enforce discipline, if necessary.

Masters on duty also help with other disciplinary issues. For example, one teacher punished a class for misbehaving. The punishment was that they had to weed the school field, which is standard. So as the higher disciplinary authority in the school for the week, I had to accompany this teacher to the field as he assigned each student a particular plot of land to weed. I also have to walk around the campus after breaks and ensure that students are going back to class.

According to the other master on duty who has also taught at other schools, behavior at this school is poor. The accepted response among faculty is to punish, usually with physical labor (weeding, cutting down a tree) or caning, both often preceded by threats of punishment, as in, "I will punish you!" Because discipline has not improved, I tell the teachers that it's obvious that these physical punishments are not working. But they don't seem to know anything else. Punish. Punish. Punish. The school generally lacks systems. In some ways it's a big free-for-all. Me and my western notions of accountability and order are somewhat foreign here, and have been greeted with comments like, "the African child only responds to the cane."

This is also probably the first week that I'm really fed up with the school. Students are not showing up for class, and I'm starting to crack down. Enforcing discipline is no fun, and I've had too much of it this week. But I'm still thankful for the fact that I'm not sitting in some stuffy high-rise office working for some ineffective, overpaid, self-important boss.

Addendum #1: March Madness! Woooo!!! Go State!

Addendum #2: Somehow, another term is over. Two weeks of exams and then it's official, but because my classes seem to rarely meet, I am only giving one exam for the year at the end of next term.

¶ 3:58 PM 0 comments

I am seeking a donation of at least twenty [used] computers for a secondary school in Ghana, West Africa. These computers will be used provide computer literacy training to students and faculty. The school's current working computers will be donated to either to a nearby school that does not have computers or to a new community center that will be used for students from several schools in the town.

If you are interested, please ask your company/organization/university/etc if it is planning on replacing computers in the near future and what it intends to do with the old machines. Ideally, the school's goal of at least twenty computers can be reached with one or two suppliers, but if you can donate any machines please contact me.

Please also forward this email to anyone you think may be able to help. I would also be happy to appeal directly to someone that You recommend.

BACKGROUND: I am a Peace Corps Volunteer, serving as a computer teacher in Ghana. The school currently owns 18 computers, 80% of which generally work. The computers were either purchased by the PTA or donated. Some are quite old and outdated.

THE OPPORTUNITY: The government of Ghana and the African Development Bank (ADB) are currently funding a significant upgrading of the school campus, including the construction of a new computer center. A donation of upgraded computers would provide the school with a respectable computer lab. The donation will also benefit the community as the school administration has agreed to donate its current computers either to a nearby school that does not have any or to a new community center that will be used by students from several schools in the town. Plans for this new community center are still in the early stages, but a donation of computers will (hopefully) help speed the process.

TAX DEDUCTION: The school can provide a letter confirming the donation. Other arrangements can be made upon request.

CUSTOMS: I will work with Ghana's national education ministry to bypass customs fees.

SHIPPING: Lacking any information on the size of the shipment, I can not get a price quote, but after consulting another volunteer I expect shipping to be between $30 and $40 per computer (assuming the source is the US East Coast, but shipments come to Ghana from all parts of the world). The cost of shipping will either be a separate donation or will be paid for by the school. Shipping is obviously a critical detail. It will be worked out if and when I receive a commitment for a donation.

HELP NEEDED: If your business/organization/etc is able to donate computers, I will need a contact person that would be willing to spend some time on this project, potentially boxing the machines and working with the shippers.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS: Donated computers should be Pentium3 or above. Pre-installed software is not required but helpful. Monitors are not necessary, unless they are inexpensive to ship, such as LCD flat panel. Keyboards, mice, and power cables are very helpful. A digital projector would be fantastic.

SUSTAINABILITY/COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: There is a school of thought that says giving handouts to developing countries is the wrong approach. While I believe this thinking has a lot of merit, I also think a donation of expensive equipment to an educational institution can be appropriate regardless of where that institution is located. In addition, the school has agreed to donate its current computers and will likely play some role in shipping. Plus, this donation is designed to take advantage of an investment being made by the national government of Ghana and the ADB. I'd be happy to continue this debate (currently with myself) in separate and private emails.

CORRUPTION: Unfortunately, it exists in Ghana and much of the rest of the world, including (oh my gosh!) the US. I have asked the administration whether computers are included in the budget for the school renovation and have been given a vague answer that a) these budgets are "flexible," meaning money can be moved around for different purposes within the budget, and b) just because the money is "guaranteed" today does not mean it will be there tomorrow. If I get a commitment for a donation, I will have the leverage to get a straight answer from the administration and will work to ensure that if there is money in the budget for computers it is re-purposed for something that Benefits the school and does not line someone's pockets. I'll try.

I ONLY HAVE ONE OR TWO COMPUTERS TO DONATE: Thank you, but at this point I think the logistics will be much simpler if I can get all of the computers from one or two sources.

I ONLY HAVE ONE DIGITAL PROJECTOR TO DONATE: Great! We'll take it!

I HAVE THIRTY COMPUTERS. IS THAT TOO MANY?: Thank you. We will take them and distribute them to other schools and community centers.

I HAVE 25 MACS: Ha. Lucky you. Thank you, but we'll pass…

¶ 3:57 PM 0 comments

March 6 was the 50^th anniversary of Ghana's independence from Britain. To celebrate, Ghana hosted 20 Africa heads of state and spent millions of dollars on celebrations. I was at the beach.

However, I did leave the beach at 6 in the morning to make a short trip to Accra's Independence Square. This is the country's main celebration area, and it is where the heads of state were hanging out. As its name suggests, Independence Square is a large concrete square with bleachers along three sides of the perimeter. One side was reserved for VIPs. The other two were for the public. I arrived at 8 AM and the seats were already packed. This many Ghanaians have never been this early to anything.

There was also limited space to stand in front of the bleachers but the crowd was suffocating. I've never been so sweaty, surrounded by so many horrid bodily odors, and pushed by so many different people. I was pushed into an elderly woman who was trying to maneuver through the crowd with a walker. I don't know what she was thinking. After about 30 or 40 minutes of this, I decided to find a way out. I considered telling security that I was with the US embassy so they would let me into the VIP area. I think it would have worked, but with 20 heads of state around, the repercussions of failure could be dire (Ghanaian prison?). So I retreated back to the beach.

Ghanaians were big on ID6 flair. It seemed that everyone who could afford it was either wearing a Ghana@50 t-shirt, hat, or something. Special hideous fabric was produced, and women had all sorts of clothing made from it. I sported a Ghana@50 t-shirt and was quickly labeled the white guy celebrating Ghana's big day.

Strangely, Ghana's only surviving ex-President did not attend (he's the only one left because he had the others killed, at least that's what I was told). Jerry Rawlings was President for 40% of the country's history but chose to sit this one out because he doesn't like the current President. Ghanaian politics is unfortunate…

Scott Garrett's Resume

Voted for:

a) Constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriages

b) Constitutional amendment prohibiting flag desecration.

Voted against:

a) The reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act 

b) Child safety locks on handguns

Rated:

a) 100% by the National Right to Life Committee (0% by NARAL)

b) 100% by the American Conservative Union

c) 10% by the League of Conservation Voters

Quote: "Evolution is the predominant theory right now, but intelligent design is one that is apparently growing in some scientific communities, in academia. ... It seems that a school board should at least consider being TOLERANT AND OPEN (!!!!) to discussing both theories." [Bergen Record, 9/30/05; caps and !!!! added by me]

What????????

All of this is relevant because I recently received a "Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition" from my Congressman, Scott Garrett. In his letter, NJ Congressman Garrett quoted a recent statement from President Bush about the Peace Corps. Anyone who's quoting that guy is A-OK with me. Thanks Scott! The certificate is just lovely! (you can do a Google search of "Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition" to see others.)

Addendum #1: I went to Megillah reading at the home of an Israeli family in Accra. They said that there are about 100 Israelis living in Accra doing the kinds of things that Jews do (finance, construction, etc). Less than 10 people came to megillah reading, and apparently this is the extent of the "traditional" Jews in Ghana.

¶ 12:31 PM 0 comments

Although rainy season is not supposed to begin until April, the random interactions of air molecules forgot to check the calendar. It has rained almost every day for the past week, and when it rains it pours.  I blame global climate change.

I thought the rain would be a good thing because it cools the place down. It had been way too hot and muggy. I'm often drenched in sweat (luckily my own) by the time I walk to school in the morning. So much moisture. Overall the rain is a good thing, but it has a wild and unexpected (at least by me) consequence: flying insects.

There could be several things about my house that are particularly conducive to flying insect breeding, but my own speculations about insect mating habits are unimportant and probably wrong. Here's what I know: the exterior of my house is covered in insects at night.

I don't mean literally covered. I mean that it is impossible to go outside of my house at night without flattening a few bugs with each step. I mean that when I go outside at night I am attacked from all sides and angles. I mean that an hour later I am still finding bugs in my hair.

Tonight I killed about 15 grasshoppers (or are they crickets?) in my house in 2 minutes. Really. At least they're easy to kill and at least only two made it inside my room. It's plague-like. In addition to the mutant grasshopping crickets, I also have flying ants. That's probably not the proper scientific classification, but that's exactly what they look like.

The upside of all this is that Eish is very busy. I don't know if he "likes" chasing bugs (he probably doesn't really like anything), but I enjoy watching him chase stuff. It's only been two nights of this, but if it continues to be this bad, I may have to get the outside of my house sprayed with something horribly poisonous…

Addendum #1: Solar powered Germans are still here. It was a two week conference for teachers who have no ability to purchase any of the solar powered lamps nor do they have any purchasing decision making powers. Brilliant.

Addendum #2: Ghana Central Region Zone II Inter-Senior Secondary School Athletics competitions were held last week. It was a two-day event, so no classes for those days. Eleven schools competed and my school finished seventh overall. There is one school in the zone that actually recruits athletes. They offer scholarships to particularly fast junior secondary students. They dominate this local competition. Winners then go to a regional competition and presumably that leads to some national championship. Other schools in the area are considering recruiting.

Addendum #3: Because of strong wind, a power line going from the grid to my town fell. It took about 2 days to fix. For whatever reason, the power has randomly gone off over the past few days. There are still scheduled 12-hour outages every five days.  

Addendum #4: After a month-long absence, running water is finally back in my house.

Addendum #5: Megillah reading on Saturday night at the home of an Israeli couple in Accra. I'm dressing up as a white person.

¶ 3:00 PM 1 comments

March 6, 2007 marks the 50^th anniversary of Ghana's Independence.

Europeans first arrived here in the 1400s, and they liked it so much that they stayed in control until the British ceded power on March 6, 1957 . Ghana was the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to be granted independence by its colonial master (only two sub-Saharan countries never had colonists in control). Some people, particularly people in Ghana, therefore consider March 6, 2007 to be the 50^th anniversary of Africa.

After leading Ghana to independence, the country's first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, quickly moved to socialism and then outlawed all opposition political parties, occasionally with violent repercussions. He is defended by some who say that these measures were taken to combat violence and were necessary to maintain order. Regardless, Nkrumah lost power in 1966. He was deposed with the help of the CIA because of his socialism and his status as a leading African figure. Really ( http://www.seeingblack.com/x060702/nkrumah.shtml).

Ghana then had a couple decades of instability coupled with terrible poverty. Around 1980, Jerry Rawlings seized control and maintained power until 2000 when the current president, John A. Kuffuor won an election.

Depending on how you count, Ghana had nine or ten heads of state in 50 years. But with Rawlings in control for 20 and Kuffuor for seven, so that's seven or eight in 23 years, or a new leader about every 3 years. There were coups, authoritarianism and other things that are not helpful to a country's development. Nonetheless, despite all of that as well as the numerous other challenges and thanks entirely to me (that's a joke), Ghana seems to be moving forward in many ways and is now finally seen as a model African democracy.

According to the Ghanaian press, Ghana is spending $20 million on its celebrations and associated construction and cleanup. That's 200 billion cedis, which is a ton of money here.   If there is any coverage at all of this in the American press, please send me it my way.

Addendum #1: President Kuffuor was just elected head of the African Union. He will serve a one-year term.

Addendum #2: What a game! Super Bowl XLI! Wow! My town was really excited for that one. Oh wait, no one cares about the Super Bowl here and I did not travel to Accra to watch it. Even though the NFL can probably include Ghana in its list of 200 countries or whatever the real number is that receive the broadcast (it's on satellite, which no one gets), no one watches it. In fact, the only foreign sport that seems to get any play is European football. Ghana's best player is on Chelsea, one of the top British teams. Besides, everyone here is seriously gearing up for the Oscars.

¶ 12:25 PM 0 comments

Although I have spent less than 10% of my time in Ghana in my school's computer lab, teaching computers is my primary "job" here. I consider this an easy job compared with, say, sitting in an office in New York for twelve hours a day in front of a computer. I couldn't think of a more severe punishment than that. I do sweat more here, but I am much more my own boss and there is quite nearly zero stress here.

Each of the eight first-year and second-year classes have 40 minutes of computer class a week. The four third-year classes have two 40-minute periods. That all adds up to 10 hours and 40 minutes of actual teaching each week. But there can be so many reasons why a class either does not come at all or comes late, so I have never actually taught the maximum. Beginning on Monday, I will be holding four hours of classes for the teachers, so that will bring my total workload up to nearly 15 hours.

However, I do spend about 30 hours a week in my lab. The non-teaching time is spent repairing computers (they break constantly), sitting around writing stuff like this, and miscellaneous. A lot of miscellaneous. While I am sitting in my lab, students with free periods (usually due to teachers not showing up), come and use the computers. I have to do a minimal amount of supervision, but security programs installed on the "good" computers combined with my belief that students should be free to explore all that the computer has to offer means that I don't have to really exert myself too much.

So what am I actually teaching? The vast majority of my first-year students have never used a computer before, so I have to start from the absolute beginning. We talk about all of the keys on the keyboards and practice using the mouse. I explain what a computer is and what it can do. We talk about why it's important to learn about computers (or maybe it's not?). This past week, I asked them to look at their desktop and tell me what they saw. On the board, I drew icons, the Start button, the taskbar, etc. Then we started Windows' calculator program and minimized it and talked about the taskbar. From there we will move on to Notepad and ultimately Word with a couple of lessons on Files and Folders in the middle.

The knowledge of the second and third year students varies, which makes it difficult for me. Some third-year students still do not know how to use the mouse and others have taken computer classes outside of school and are quite proficient. Keeping the class interesting for the advanced students while not leaving the laggards completely behind is the most challenging part of my job. I am giving basically the same lesson for all second and third year students this term. We are learning about Microsoft Word and so far have covered Format-Font and Format-Paragraph.

¶ 2:03 PM 3 comments

Sorry, this is a long story…

Ghana's only synagogue serves about twenty families and has hosted dozens of "strangers" who have helped to shape the community into what it is today. The community, which calls itself House of Israel, dates back to the 1970s, and the Ghanaian Jews' practices seem to closely resemble those of modern liberal Conservadoxism. The community is currently split into two over the issue of leadership.

The House of Israel is in the remote town of Sefwi Wiawso (pronounced Se-shwee Wee-oh-so) in Ghana's Western Region. Although it is less than 150 miles straight line distance from my house, the journey took me almost 11 hours. I was met at the tro station by Alex Armah, the 30-something current leader of the community. He brought me to his house where I would spend the weekend.

Sabbath began an hour later. The family, which consisted of Alex, his older brother Joseph who is the community chairman, Joseph's wife, and their numerous children, sat around a coffee table draped with a white table cloth in the family living room. The table had a few small flowers, a covered loaf of bread, two lit candles, and two bottles of Coke.

Alex led the proceedings, which began with a song in Twi. I was told later that this was Psalm 92 (mizmor shi l'yom hashabbat). Alex then began to read from a book written for recent converts that was given by one of the "strangers" or "visitors." He read Shalom Aleichem and Eishet Chayil in English and then put his hand on the children to bless them. He read Kiddush in English and a transliterated borei pri hagefen. Coke, in lieu of Kosher wine, was poured into a cup which was passed around generally in age order (although as the new stranger I was given second). Then the motzi was recited and bread was cut and eaten. After rice and tomato/fish stew, Alex led an English version of Grace After Meals.

The strangest moment of the weekend for me was that as we were sitting around talking, two of the younger kids began to sing songs. Having spent two months living with a Ghanaian family and five more months living in a village, seeing singing Ghanaian children is pretty standard. But these kids were singing Dovid Melech Yisroel (complete with hand motions), Mayim v'sasson, and the Shabbat Shalom Hey! song. Of all the things I've seen in Ghana, this was the most unexpected.

These songs had been taught by a recent stranger or visitor, as Joseph and Alex called the numerous white people who had come to the community them over the past several years. Most of them are from the UK, US, and Israel (add another point to the US column). Some stay as long as two months and they occasionally come in groups of six or more. They have brought books, menorahs, havdalah sets, mezuzahs and even a printed sefer torah. Last year, Joseph told me that the community had 80 visitors, compared to just 17 visitors the year before.

The strangers also have provided some education to the community, and some members of the community showed an active interest in learning more. No one in the community that I met knows how to read Hebrew (although some know the aleph bet), but Joseph, Alex, and others want to learn.

Services the next morning, which started on Ghanaian time (aka once everyone arrived), took place in the synagogue, named Tifereth Israel because a synagogue of the same name in Des Moines donated a couple hundred Siddurim (Sim Shalom, 1985 edition). It is a small cement building painted blue and white with 5 rows by 2 columns of benches. Alex, the leader, stood in the front with his back to the congregation, except during Torah reading. The morning I was there, services were attended by about a dozen adults and at least as many children. Women sat on one column of benches and men on the other. The men wore yarmulkes and tallitot. Everyone washed their hands outside before entering the building.

The Shabbat service was a shortened version of a typical American conservative Saturday morning service, except nearly everything was in English. The only Hebrew recited was the shema during the Torah service, and there were a few prayers in Twi, which I think were psalms. The biggest departure from a traditional service was the torah reading. Because no one can read Hebrew, a reading from the scroll was not possible. Instead, someone read from a Twi Bible (probably not translated by a Rabbi). After each verse, Alex explained something in Twi. They read less than an aliya from the Torah portion and a few verses from the haftorah, which sounds like about the right amount to me.

After services but before everyone walked around shaking hands and wishing each other a Shabbat Shalom, announcements were made and I became briefly and slightly involved in the community's leadership controversy.

Harriet of the organization Kulanu was my first point of contact to the community. I know little about the organization, but I think they reach out to remote Jewish communities and work with them on income generating activities. According to Joseph, my main source of knowledge about the community, Harriet has been involved for approximately five years. With her guidance, the community now makes challah covers and tallitot and sells them over the Internet. Harriet also donated two computers which are no longer working.

When I wrote to Harriet in December, I told her that I was a Peace Corps computer teacher in Ghana and wanted to know how I could contact the community. This message was relayed back to Alex and Joseph who saw an opportunity for their broken computers to get fixed. During announcements, they asked me to introduce myself. I stood up and told the congregation my name, where I was from, and what I was doing in Ghana (in Twi). Joseph then told the rest of the community that I could fix the broken computers, but David was holding the two machines hostage and would not release them until after the community's date in court. Some heated comments followed and I tried to calm them down by suggesting that the computers are probably obsolete anyway (that's not really what I said).

The current fight can be traced back to the community's Founder who died about twelve years ago. Sometime in the 1970s, possibly 1972, the Founder, named Eron (probably spelled incorrectly here), had a vision. His idea involved gathering the ten lost tribes of Israel, the truth of the Old Testament, and Jesus being a false Messiah. He began to preach his revelation to neighboring villages and he amassed a small following, including current members of the community. The Founder also "had an address" (a very Ghanaian term which literally means he had a mailing address but really means much more) of a man named Yaakov in Israel. The Founder wrote to Yaakov who was very happy to hear of Jews living in Ghana. Apparently, Yaakov, the first white man to encounter the fledgling community, also provided some advice to the community and thus began their Jewish journey.

When the Founder died, a member of the community (possibly named Joseph Nippah) gathered the disparate believers to Sefwi Wiawso. David apparently claims that before he died the Founder named David community leader for life. Joseph, who was elected chairman at an initial meeting of the elders, says that David was similarly elected to the leadership position and has no right to be leader forever.

Recently, tensions between David (with another elder named Kofi) and the rest of the community boiled over, and the community expelled them from the synagogue. Now, David, Kofi and two other families hold their own services each Saturday. There's potentially more at stake here then just leadership of the community, including the synagogue building, bank accounts, the relationship with Kulanu, and control of the business of welcoming strangers into the community and selling locally-made Judaica over the Internet. Joseph mentioned a few incidents that led to the expulsion, including a debate over the construction of a $1,000 guesthouse for visitors, an attempt by David to attend a conference in Israel or America, and the handling of visitors. It is all a bit unclear to me.

In an attempt to resolve the conflict, David took the community to court. The court referred the matter to a council of Anglican leaders who have met with the community several times. They ordered the synagogue to draft a constitution and vote for leadership positions. Apparently David did not agree to this resolution. The community's next date in court is February 9.

Other accounts of the Sefwi Wiawso Jewish community on the Internet are told from David's perspective. As the former leader, he had hosted the strangers. But I was hosted by Joseph, so most of what I know about the community comes from him.

Joseph was one of the Founder's original followers. Before he met the Founder, Joseph says he was a Christian, and other members of the community were also Christian. I asked a few people what they found so compelling about the Founder's preaching. I was not given much of an answer, but this may have been an unfair question to people with limited English. Joseph said that the community had plans to write down the history of the Founder but have not done it yet.

Whether by coincidence or not, Saturday was the traditional day of rest in the larger Sefwi area. The punishment for going to farm on Saturday was stoning. Sometime in the area's recent history, the paramount chief changed the day to Sunday and abolished the rather severe punishment.

I asked about some common Jewish laws. Joseph does not eat any meat or fish that is not kosher. One member of the community learned how to slaughter an animal by simply reading the Bible, and every Passover this man slaughters chickens. Anyone who goes to a cemetery is not allowed into the synagogue for one week, and similarly women are not allowed into the building during their period of menstruation (he brought that one up). There is currently no Jewish cemetery because apparently no one has died in the community, but they do have land when the need arises (the Founder apparently attracted a young following).

Joseph said that he wants his children to marry Jews. Later I talked to two 35-45 year old men who are long-time members and are both married to non-Jews. They said they would like their wives to convert, but it takes time to learn about Judaism and conversion is not something to rush into. One of the men has two children who he takes regularly to synagogue.

I did not see any mezuzahs in the synagogue, so I asked Joseph about it. He showed me one at his house and said he had more but did not know the blessing. I told him that after Shabbat I could help him hang up a mezuzah and we could say the blessing together, if he wanted. He seemed interested, so I reminded him again after Sabbath. He took out three mezuzahs, which were given to him by a visitor some time ago.

He also showed me a copy of The Code of Jewish Law in English, and the ninth grade gemara student inside of me quickly looked up the laws of mezuzah. Joseph asked me if he could hang the mezuzah on the outside part of the doorpost so more people would be able to see it. Extra Gemara Class on Thursday Nights told him that it is preferable to hang it on the inside. I read the blessing in Hebrew and he repeated each word. Then he hammered it to the doorpost, and I kept my mouth shut and did not tell him that according to the Shulchan Aruch the mezuzah should actually be angled the other way. I do think, however, that he wanted to do it according to the Law.

The next morning I went to the synagogue to take a few pictures and left early…

The sign outside of the synagogue has two pictures on it. To the left, there is a crown with a Jewish star over it. On the right side, there is a picture of the Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Bell. When I asked members of the community why these are depicted on the synagogue sign I was told that the artist who made it saw these American icons in a history book and liked the stories that accompanied them.

A synagogue in rural Ghana struck me as a similar non-sequitor. But it's here, and the community will continue by the determination of its members. With no knowledge of Judaism, the community has relied on the generosity and advice of well-intentioned white people (and yet they showed almost no interest in my practices, leading me to think that they either have white man fatigue or just are not as curious about me as I was about them).

There is little about their Judaism that is uniquely Ghanaian, yet somehow that would seem Jewishly appropriate. Because the community has a rather short history, the law has not been adapted and new customs have not been adopted. Rather, it is they who have accepted the customs of others and received the law as it has been interpreted by the larger Jewish world. The community's uniqueness is the members themselves who lack Jewish education but seem genuine and devout in their beliefs. They are friendly and welcoming, and I hope I can visit them again soon, but it's a rough journey…

Addendum #1: Pictures of the synagogue and Joseph's house are posted. Follow the link at the top right.

Addendum #2: One thing the community urgently needs is over-sized satin yarmulkes. I know that there was a great abundance of these produced in the 1980s and 90s and freely distributed at weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs up and down the eastern seaboard. Preferably, they would cover about 75% of the head and they must be hot pink. I can't stress that enough. It's something of a national color here. If you can find any, even just one, please contact me immediately. Your gift of just one hot pink satin yarmulke can cover a child's uncovered head.

Addendum #3: Addendum #2 is not serious.

Addendum #4: Alex wants to learn how to read Hebrew. If anyone has a good idea about how to teach someone Hebrew without a teacher, please let me know. A good book? A book with a CD? Are there MP3s available? There is someone going to community for a few months. The easiest solution would be for her to teach him. I will try and find out what her plans are.

¶ 5:40 PM 1 comments

• Dress - Funeral attendees generally wear either black, red, or both. If the person lived a particularly long life, I think the custom is to wear white. There are also funeral t-shirts. Funeral t-shirts usually have a big picture of the deceased and generally say something like, "In loving memory of Kwame Appiah Danquah 1956 - 2006." They are often black with red writing. 
• Posters - Funerals often take place weeks or even months after the death. This allows for plenty of time to promote the upcoming funeral around town. I don't find funeral posters to be particularly good advertising because the posters generally have way too much information. In addition to a picture of the deceased and a bio, it seems that everyone who has ever met this person needs to have their names on the poster. The relatives, neighbors, friends, pastors, etc. All this makes for too much text on a little poster. These posters are all over town.
• Music - Anything, just play it loud! I think the size of the speakers at a Ghanaian funeral is a status symbol. Ghanaians often stack huge speakers or put several large speakers right next to each other. Ironically, the quality of the speakers is awful, so it's usually just a loud noisy staticky mess, presumably with the sound from each speaker interfering with the sound from the others. Funeral music ranges from relgious music to 50 Cent to the local popular music, which is sort of a combination of rap and hip-hop.
• Tents - It's not an official function in Ghana unless you have tents. Tents are generally arranged in a rectangle, leaving a large awkward, open space in the middle. This is how it is at graduations, weddings, etc, basically any serious function in Ghana has tents. (By tents I mean what you might put up in America in a large backyard if you were having people over on a summer day for some sort of party, not the kind you would sleep in.) Every function in Ghana also has plastic chairs under the tents.
• Timing - All day and all night long...A few days ago there was a funeral on my street. The music continued all night and into the next morning (although the music was a bit mellower in the morning).
• Dancing - There is dancing at church and there is dancing at funerals. From what I've seen, children are often the ones dancing while everyone else is off getting drunk.
• Drinking - Yes, please, but first spill some for the gods, as is often the custom. Local drinks are called bitters. They're drinkable, but I wouldn't recommend it.
• Transportation - Ghanaians generally overpack vehicles, and because funerals are the town's biggest weekly parties and transportation is expensive, funerals are no exception. Often, large flatbed trucks are stuffed with people, some barely hanging on. People riding in these large funeral-mobiles are often loud and many seem like they have already spent the morning drinking in preparation for more drinking at the funeral.

¶ 12:58 PM 1 comments

Before I moved into my house, I was introduced to the Boy, named Kwame and also a 20 year old second-year student at my school. His uncle, who is at least three times his age, built the house that I live in.   The Boy had been living there for several years I guess just to make sure that the place did not fall down.

So I fully expected to see the Boy the day I moved in. But I did not expect to see the Boy's brother also living there. The Boy's brother is named Kome (I have no idea how to spell that, but it's pronounced Ko-may. So I had Kwame and Ko-may).   Kome had a speech impediment, which combined with the fact that English was his second language made it challenging to communicate with him for the first few weeks. Kome had failed his secondary school exit exam so he spent the summer holed up in the house studying. He left at the beginning of October to take his exams and live with his mother.

He was immediately replaced by the girl, named Ama and probably about 15 years old. The Girl used to live in the house on the weekends but became a full-time resident in September. I was not happy about this at all. Unlike Ghanaians, I value my privacy and my house is the one place in my town where I can sort of get away from Ghana. The more people going in and out, the harder it is to get away. Ama had failed her final year of junior secondary school, so she is in the process of repeating it.

Although her grandfather built my house and is a "big man" in town, the Girl's family seems significantly poorer. There are days when she complains that she has not eaten all day, so I either give her money to buy some food or cook extra food for her. It has not happened often enough to trouble me too much, but it may get to a point where I start to wonder why taking care of the Girl is my responsibility. Her grandfather can certainly afford to care for her, and if it continues I may go talk to him (he's also one of my favorite people to talk to in my town).

Then there's the Boy's friend. The Boy's friend is also a second-year student at my school. He comes from a nearby town. It's too far and expensive to commute every day, and it's expensive to be a boarding student, so Kwame generously offered to let his friend stay in our house. He was only living there for about a week before he went back home. I think because of the teachers' strike he has not bothered coming to school. I'm not sure if he will move back in if the strike ever ends.

And then there's the people who play Draft every day on my porch. I don't know enough about Draft or about American checkers to know the difference. There may not be any at all. The Draft players' schedule is somewhat unpredictable but they are there every day, and they are loud. There's often a morning shift from about ten to noon and then the older men come from about two to six. The skinny old guy who "manages" my house seems to run the show.

There's probably some calculation that can be done to determine the number of different possible games of Draft that could ever be played.   I'm sure it's astronomical, probably more than the number of atoms in the universe or something like that. But I'm also sure that the skinny old guy has played every possible game. Twice. At least. I just can't imagine checkers being interesting enough to warrant dedicating 3+ hours of my life to it everyday. I guess good for him that he has a hobby.   

Then there's my neighbor, who seems to be second cousins with the Boy, who comes over every day to use the latrine. I guess that's OK. Apparently his house does not have a proper latrine. And then there's every kid in the neighborhood (sometimes it seems like there are thousands of kids living next door) who thinks that my porch is their playground. I guess property is more communal here. Also, they're little kids, so the more I yell at them and tell them to go away the more they want to play on my porch. (When little kids watch white people, they want to see them doing stuff. Getting angry and yelling would only be entertainment to them.)

My house is busier than I would like, but I suppose that's how it is here. It's fairly unusual for someone to have a house to themselves anyway...

Addendum #1: A few new pictures. Just click on the link to the right. Me and my beard, my town, my school, the melted toilet, etc. Uploading pictures here takes a while and is expensive, so I could only post a few.

¶ 1:22 PM 1 comments

The teacher's strike and the lack of electricity every 2 days.

Last year doctors and nurses went on strike The government thinks that if it caves to the teacher's union it will lose its power with every government union. So far it has failed to recognize the existence of the striking union and is instead just now beginning discussions with the other teacher's union (the bigger one that is not officially striking).

I think everyone involved recognizes that at some point shutting down a significant part of the nation's education system becomes a bad thing for the country. I don't think they agree on whose responsibility that is. Through all of this, the teachers still get paid. The union president said they're prepared to strike all year. Teachers do get low salaries. With more than 50% of the country's workforce in agriculture, any job with a salary is atypical, especially outside of the major cities.   Two years ago, the striking union had made an agreement with the government which the government ignored, for reasons that I don't know.

Of course, Peace Corps (and therefore me) are neutral. Government? Union? All I can is shrug and occasionally ask questions around school like, "Is this ever going to end? Seriously, because it's going to be weird once there's normal school going on."

As for the electricity, it's usually on for 48 hours and then off for 12. I don't really mind it that much. If it's off during the day, it means I don't have to open the lab for the students (which right now is a chore I took on that maybe has some potential). And at night my town is so peaceful without electricity. When there are no clouds and the stars are out it reminds me of New York (a New York in which I shut off all of the electricity, remove the people, flatten all of the buildings and surround it with green jungle).

All of this because some body of water in the eastern part of the country is too low. And the dry season has not even started yet. I think they said the problem can be traced back to some other body of water to the north of Ghana, but I guess it really doesn't matter. It's probably not raining there either.

But the price of gasoline came down! Woo! I think the only way this directly effects me is that cab drivers no longer tell me that the price of gas is forcing them to rip me off. (they just don't provide an explanation any more).

Addendum #1: Someone from my group decided to go back to home to Alabama. He's not dead, so I won't eulogize him. He just decided he had seen enough of Ghana .

Addendum #2: Every computer at the Internet café has some Internet café software installed that keeps track of how long each user has been on, etc. Each customer has a "username" that the cashier (because that's what she is – a cashier. If she thinks she's managing this place, she's doing a horrible job) puts into the system. My name, always and every time, is "white." This makes perfect sense, unless she doesn't realize both that this username is easily accessible to me on my computer and that it's absurd to call me "white" in front of my face. Or she may just not care. I'm usually not upset by the whole obruni thing anymore. It's now kind of hilarious when someone comes up to me and just says, "Hey white." But I still hate this Internet café.

Addendum #3: National holiday today, so no school. It's the last day of Ramadan, a great way for everyone in Ghana to lose all the weight they gained during the yam festival (that line really kills over here). About twenty percent of the country is Muslim. My house is right on the border of my town's Muslim district (called Zonga District).

¶ 12:01 PM 2 comments

I think if there was a strike when I was a high school student I probably would have been thrilled. Some of the students here probably are, but some are "serious" (see Addendum #1) about doing well and going on to university. In Ghana, university admission is almost entirely based on an exam that the students take after completing secondary school. And it's really hard to do well on an exam if there's no class and you have not purchased any of the books to study from.

The West African Examination Council (WAEC, pronounced why-ack) is a standardized test taken by students in five English speaking countries in West Africa: Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and Liberia (yes, those are all real countries). The exam consists of four required core subjects and three or four elective subjects. Each subject test is three to five hours in length and generally consists of a multiple choice section and an essay section. Some tests are entirely practical/lab work.

In Ghana, the core subjects are English, math (pronounced 'mass' here), integrated science, and social studies. Elective subjects are different for each country but they range from animal husbandry to woodwork. Some of the more obscure subjects include: picture making, typewriting, basketry, and shorthand. I don't know if these are actually offered in Ghana, and they are certainly not taught at my school. Computers is not "examinable," meaning that Ghana does not offer a computer WAEC test. So in some ways what I teach is less important, but basic computer knowledge is not easily acquired here. It's a marketable skill, a fact generally understood by students living in a society with rampant unemployment, but that doesn't mean they care about class.

Anyway, the third year students will take this exam around June, and because it's cross-country, the exam will not be delayed on account of the strike. I can't overemphasize the importance of this exam. Financial constraints notwithstanding, it is basically the sole determinate of university admission. So, I offered to teach integrated science and math to the third year students. Physics, chemistry, and biology are not taught at my school.

According to WAEC, "integrated science seeks to equip the individual with an integrated body of scientific knowledge and raise the level of scientific awareness of the individual. It also seeks to equip individuals with comprehensive scientific skills that will enable them to function competently in the present technological era." I have several problems with this definition. Why does it go from singular in the first sentence to plural in the second? Why does it define the word integrated with the word integrated? Why does it keep using the word equip? The WAEC manual then goes on to list the requirements for taking the exam. "It is presumed that the candidates taking the exam must have…carried out activities relating to the rearing of at least one of the following groups of animals: chickens/ducks/turkeys, goats/sheep/cattle, fish…"

So I'm in slightly over my head. The reality is that few students in Ghana will actually have the practical lab and farm experience that are "presumed" by WAEC. The topics on the syllabus range from stuff I know a little bit about (electricity and magnetism, modern communication, computers, light, energy) to topics that I know absolutely nothing about (animal production, lawns, forest and game reserves). But I have the text book (my school has books - that's a huge plus, but unfortunately few of the students have paid their fees so they don't have any), so I'm ready to give it a go. I plan on teaching until the strike ends, which could be next week but more likely many weeks from now. So I'll teach the subjects I know about and leave sheep production to the actual teacher. Next week I will teach mathematics to the third year students too.

Addendum #1: Every day I open the computer lab for a few hours. Most students use Mavis Beacon to practice typing, but not every computer has the program (these are the computers that don't have CD drives). So I tell the students to type what they are thinking as practice. Today, a student typed the following (actually, he typed it all in caps as students here tend to do): because of the strike action teaching and learning are not going on well at all and due to this situation we are likely to fail our final year examination and this final year exams is our life and due to this we are pleading the teachers to come and help us and we the student will also try our best to learn whatever they will teach our.

Addendum #2: Is there an offline version of Wikipedia or some other mostly text encyclopedia? This would be really useful for schools in the "developing world." There are many schools that have computers but lack internet access. They can not afford to buy a CD-based encyclopedia for every computer, but Wikipedia or a condensed version on every hard drive would be an invaluable tool. I want to teach my students to use the computer for information, but all I have is an English dictionary and the Bible. It's a start…

Addendum #3: It's great that the Yankees are out of the playoffs and the Mets are still in the playoffs. I don't think that's happened in 20 years, but it's about time.

Addendum #4: Ghanaians who use the Internet love "meeting people." They chat (painfully slowly because they often can't type) and go on dating websites. So many dating websites. Last time I was at the Internet cafe, the guy next to me had an inbox full of emails from jewishfriendfinder.com (I would have thought it was for Jews, but why limit it?). And as I'm typing the BOY next to me is using an email address and user name called "Queen Anita." If you meet a Ghanaian online, be careful...

Addendum #5: No where am I more frustrated in Ghana than in the Internet cafe of my nearest large town. I absolutely hate that place. Especially computer #10. Damn you computer #10! You never connect! Argh!

¶ 3:06 PM 1 comments

I recently bought "new" dishtowels. It's hard to know if anything I
buy here is really new. For example, I bought a cell phone several
weeks ago. But when I turned it on there were a few numbers stored in
the phone with Chinese characters. When I went back to the store to
point this out, the owner of the store insisted that the phone was
still new, it's just that someone in China had stored a few numbers on
it to test it at the cell phone factory. He then said something in Twi
to the woman who sold me the phone, and I'm pretty sure it meant
something like "you forgot to delete the phone numbers from the phone
before you sold it to this white man." So they gave me a new phone,
although it still displays the China Mobile logo when I turn it on.

But getting back to the dishtowels...In the Land of Secondhand, it's
important to wash things before using them. And when I washed my new
orange, pink, and red dishtowels by hand in a bucket (that's how it's
done here) I had orange, pink and red water. That's when it hit me -
my dishtowels, along with most everything else here, are slowly
killing me.

There are things here that kill quickly. An example is malaria. But in
order not to die from this disease that kills 3 million people each
year, I take anti-malaria medication daily. Supposedly this isn't
particularly good for my body, but at least I won't die from malaria
in the next two years. Peace Corps certainly does not want me to be
another statistic (note: many volunteers take a weekly medication, but
supposedly it makes people crazy, so i go with the daily anti-biotic).
And I sleep under an insecticide-treated bednet. That can't be healthy
in the long run. Also, I spray Raid everywhere. It certainly does
"kill bugs dead" but it's probably also going to give me some sort of
unhealthy growth at some point in the future.

I use a surprisingly large number of products that are mass-produced.
More than I anticipated when I signed up for Peace Corps (Unilever is
everywhere) These things are cheap. Way cheaper than in the US, and
they allow me to enjoy a better standard of living (depends on the
definition, i guess) here in Ghana. But safety standards in Ghana may
not be quite up to par. So what I'm getting at is I'm using a lot of
cheap products that may contain ingredients that are not quite
rigorously tested for human safety. And, in the long run, these
products will be the end of me.

(Note: I pretty much have the same theory about products in the US,
but somehow the cheapness of everything has to be explained by more
than international monetary policy, the low cost of labor and other
things that I know nothing about. Don't worry, crazy conspiracy guy is
doing just fine. He just wanted something amusing to write about on
his little travel website.)

I thought that the food here in Ghana would be more natural than most
food in the US. But, pesticides abound and MSG is in everything.
Mostly it's in flavor packets that people use in stew and other
things, but they also sell large bags of pure MSG. I just take it
straight (not true)...

Addendum #1: I'd like to upload more photos, specifically of my
village and of me with a beard. Unfortunately, this Internet is slow
slow (and I actually just had to retype some of this because of a
network error). Argh. But rest assured, I look fantastic with facial
hair.

Addendum #2: Happy Jew Year.

¶ 5:58 PM 2 comments

I have returned to the Peace Corps training site in the middle of the
country and am once again staying with my host family. Two more weeks
of this and then we are officially sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers
on August 18 and I will go back to my permanent site. As part of the
swearing-in ceremony, I will be performing a dialogue in Fanti about
the Peace Corps with my friend Andrew who is also learning Fanti. We
were told when we arrived in June that the President of Ghana would be
attending the ceremony and we were continually told this until
recently when suddenly Peace Corps staff was not sure if he was
coming. Now, we know he is not coming and he is not sending anyone
from the capital to represent him. The best we'll get is some regional
minister. This is roughly equivalent to being told that President Bush
is coming (for better or worse) and then getting Charles Gargano (feel
free to Google that if you don't know who he is).

Which brings me to the Manhyia Palace. The Palace is home to the king
of the Ashantis, a tribe that used to control much of what is now
Ghana. The tribal system has not really left Ghana, it's just changed
form. Ghanaians still talk about what tribe they are from and they
have various stereotypes for each tribe. In that sense, it's like
people from the US talking about what state they are from. But, each
village/town/city in Ghana has a chief. Chiefdom is passed down
through the mother (there's a word for that, but I can't spell it).
The role of the chief is to settle local disputes and to assist in
development projects. And, like any good bureacrat, the chief sucks up
local money building a nice house, buying a car, etc.

So Peace Corps told us a month ago that we were going to the palace in
Kumasi, the second largest city in the country, to meet this king.
But, he ditched us for Morocco and we ended up not seeing his real
palace and not meeting him and instead going to the palace museum.
"This is where the king sat down and wrote letters." "This is where
the king ate breakfast." "These are the dishes the king used to eat
with." etc. etc. And it's not even particularly nice stuff, even by
Ghana standards. And none of us care at all about the Ashanti King!
It would be like visiting the home of some obscure American president.
Who would want to travel 3 hours to visit the William Henry Harrison
museum??

After the museum, we went to the Kumasi Cultural Center which sells
various crafts. I still can't differentiate between actual indigineous
Ghanaian art and tourist crap. I finally bought some fabric so I can
have clothing made for me. It costs about 35000 cedis for 2 yards of
fabric and I will probably have to pay the seamstress about another
20000. That's about $6 for a custom-made shirt...

Addendum #1: There have been a lot of amusing questions posted
recently. I'll try to address a few of them...
1) Medication is often surprisingly cheap. Example: someone in my
group bought Valium - I think it was a few hundred cedis per pill.
That's a few pennies each.

2) People in Ghana claim to be way older than they really are. A
friend of mine attended a funeral recently of a woman who died at the
age of 180! Of course there are no records to prove or disprove that,
but she probably was not 180.

3) Birthday celebration was fun. People made a cake for me and then we
went to an outdoor hotel bar. My homestay family bought me a birthday
card, which hopefully I'll post a picture of one day. Ghanaian cards
are kind of like the really gloppy religious cards that they sell in
the US only much more poorly designed.

4) The large town about 15 minutes from my permanent site has a
basketball hoop! At least I've been told. I played basketball a few
times when I went to visit a volunteer at his site when I first
arrived. Ghanaians are surprisingly absolutely awful. But very good at
jumping.

5) I do wear a Jurassic Park style hat and I do occassionally wipe my
brow with a hanky.

6) I do have a new address, but you can keep sending mail to the
address in Accra that I emailed around a while ago. Eventually, I'll
email around the new address, but it should only be used for letters.
Packages should always go to Accra. Thanks in advance for sending me
stuff.

7) I do need to get the keys to all of the rooms from the owner. I
don't anticipate this being a problem once I return to my permanent
site. Would be really weird to live in a place with 15 or so locked
doors.

8) Luke rides on Taun-Tauns on Hoth. Close. But now every time I get
on a tro tro I will think, "and I thought these things smelled bad on
the outside." Generally applicable to tro tros as well.

9) Wadi told me that Bloomberg declared a yom cham and made everyone
drink a lot of water and go to free swim. So I guess you still are not
allowed to turn the air conditioners back on.

10) There are hospitals that we're allowed to go to in Ghana. There
are 10 or 11 regional hospitals that Peace Corps has inspected and
accepted. Mike, they're waiting for your application.

11) I would not be the richest person in Ghana, but working for a
Western company and living in a developing country is a sweeeeet deal.
You earn enough dollars to live in a Western country, but you pay for
everything in cedis. Imagine making the salary you make now, but only
paying 30 cents for a cab ride...25 cents for ice cream...$1 for a
bottle of beer...etc.

Addendum #2: Jared Kushner bought the New York Observer!!! Moche, why
aren't you keeping me informed? This is HILARIOUS. Please, email me
more info (I just read the New York Times article on it).

Addendum #3: I'm horrified by the formatting of this website. Line
breaks are all off. Font size changes. Different type faces. It's a
disaster.

¶ 1:27 PM 4 comments

Everyone here is a ridiculously good dancer. Dancing is all over. My
sisters are always dancing (not much else to do). And I went to church
a few weeks ago, which was basically one-third dance party, one-third
preaching and one-third miscellaneous ("God has blessed me with these
yams").

Everything here comes in a black plastic bag (called "poly-tin" bags).
Tomatoes at the market - black plastic bag. 500 mL of treated water in
a bag for 3 cents - black plastic bag. Fried rice from a street vendor
- black plastic bag (I eat with my hands directly out of a plastic
bag).

FanIce is wooonderful. This is ice cream that comes in a plastic pouch
(not black) produced in Ghana but apparently owned by some folks in
the Netherlands. You bite off a corner of the plastic and suck/squeeze
out its tasty goodness. The artificial stabilizers, colors, and
flavors give it a taste and consistency that has been aptly compared
to frozen cake batter. Wooonderful. I eat about 5 a week.

Vehicle safety has not reached Ghana. Yesterday I put on a seatbelt in
the front seat of a cab and after it clicked in, a cloud of dust
escaped from the clicky part. It probably hadn't been used in years.
It's not unusual for 2 people to ride in a passenger seat or for 20
people to pile in to the back of a pickup. But one of the best things
I've seen in Ghana was a train in Accra the day before the first World
Cup game. The train had a locomotive and 4 passenger covers. The
entire thing was covered with people riding on the outside hanging on
waving Ghanaian flags and other paraphernalia. No vehicle emissions
standards either.

I've rode in a taxi with a goat. Chickens and goats are everywhere.
Lizards too. The school I was teaching at (as practice for when I'm a
real teacher) has a crocodile pit. But they were just sitting there,
which was boring (and nature exists to amuse me). So I poked one of
them in the eye (with a very long stick). This got his attention and
for a split second (the one in which he tried to bite the stick in
half) looking at crocodiles was fun.

I let my 4 year old brother draw in my notebook. This makes him very
happy. So my guess is that either the family can't afford extra paper
for the kid to scribble in or they just don't consider that a good use
of resources (probably a little of both). For example, his mother
yelled at him for spoiling my notebook. But he drew a worm, a snake
(which looked a lot like the worm), a cat (the family cat is named
Poos), a horse and a cup. If the family had a fridge, that's where
they'd go. He also tries to spin his pen like I do.

Littering: Just Do It. There aren't many garbage cans around, probably
because there aren't many garbage trucks either. So, people litter. I
hate littering, but is it litter when that's what everyone does with
their garbage? It's actually not as bad as you may think because with
the exception of the black plastic bags, 500 mL water bags and FanIce
wrappers, Ghanaians don't create much trash.

Music here is seemingly random, although I'm sure there's some order
to it. Other than Ghanaian music which I won't go into because I don't
know enough about it, there's a lot of random dance music from the 90s
(Matt: Danzel is too recent for Ghana), and Ghanaians like hearing the
lyrics. So that means slower songs (tons of Celine Dion) and country
music. Country music is kind of big here. It's funny every time.

OK, that's about it for now...2 more weeks of living with a Ghanaian
family until we all leave for a few days to visit our permanent sites.
Then we come back and continue living with our Ghanaian hosts for
another 2 weeks. Time...goes...by...so...slowly... when you're living
with a Ghanaian family in a small village. My hobbies in the village
include sweating, not understanding the language, washing my clothing
by hand until my knuckles bleed, and killing cockroaches!

¶ 3:39 PM 4 comments

Today marks one month in Ghana for me. Not surprisingly, I still
haven't mastered the language. The most popular language is Twi, and I
am living in a Twi-speaking region. But the language at my site is
Fante, which is confusingly similar to Twi (and is the native language
of Kofi Annan). So I have classes in Fante and am getting by in
Twiland with a few key phrases and just talking Fante, since it's so
similar (not that I really know much Fante either). Fante is only
spoken in Ghana, and only in about 15% of the country. No clicking
noises (in case you were wondering), but there is a quasi-whistle
sound). Luckily English is the official language anyway, and most
people speak some small-small English (that's a bit of Ghanaian
English there).

In New York, I can walk for miles and not talk to anyone. Not so in
Ghana. Partially because I'm white and partially because it's part of
the culture, I have to greet people. And people greet me. This all
happens in Twi, and luckily for me it's the same conversation over and
over again. I could literally have the following conversation 20 times
in a single day (translated from the original Twi):

Me: Greetings.
Ghanaian: Greetings.
M: How are you?
G: I am very fine. And you?
M: Also, I am fine.
G: What is your name?
A: My name is Ari. And you?
G: Also, my name is ______. Where are you going?
A: I am going to ______. We will meet again.
G: Yo (elongated).

There are about 5 other questions I can respond to, but I'm learning.
Luckily, the schools are all in English and using the native language
is discouraged.

The computer here is frustratingly slow, so that's all for now. I just
tried to upgrade my flickr account so i could upload more pictures but
was told I was in the United Arab Emirates (I'm not).

¶ 11:23 AM 5 comments

I've been living in with my host family for more than a week. A little
bit about the place:

My estimate is that the village is about 6 city blocks (say from 96th
and Broadway to 99th and Columbus). It extends a bit farther than
that, but it's very sparsely populated once you leave the main area.
It's home to about 2,500 people. The layout shown in my pictures (link
on the right) is fairly common. Houses range from a mudhut with a
grass roof to a small compound with an open-air courtyard in the
middle and several isolated rooms around the courtyard.

The village is along the main road, which is a good thing. The
electric poles seem to also follow the main road, so the village has
electricity. As far as I've seen, it's used for lights, TV and radios.
If there is any refrigeration, it's probably only in stores and spots
(aka bars). Being along the main road also means that the nearby city
is easily accessible. This means economic opportunity, better schools
and probably other good things that I can't think of.

I think I've finally figured out who lives in the house - there's my
mother, sisters ages 16, 15, 12 and 8 (roughly), brothers ages 2 and 4
weeks, and 2 of my father's brothers who are both in their 20s. I have
my own room as do the two uncles and everyone else seems to sleep in
one room together.

My oldest sister, the one who speaks the best English, is always doing
chores - washing dishes, cooking, selling rice at the market, fetching
water, doing laundry, sweeping (the dirt - yes, they sweep the leaves
from the dirt), etc. Last Sunday, after I came back from town where I
went on the Internet and drank beer with other volunteers, I asked her
what she did that day. Her reply: "I fetched water." Oh. I didn't have
any follow-ups.

The next two oldest sisters also speak English, but not as well, and
they're busy too. So with the English speaking crowd occupied, it's
basically me, the 8 year old and the 2 year old much of the time. So I
don't spend a whole lot of time around the house, although I do enjoy
putting the two year old on my shoulders and last week the 4 week old
fell asleep on my stomach. It's also very hot in my room - it seems
that the metal roof insulated with burlap sacks is quite adept at
trapping heat, an unfortunate property in this climate.

When I am home, it's usually to eat. I get almost the same food
everyday. Breakfast is an omelet with tomatoes and onions, a huge hunk
of bread, an orange, and hot water with chocolate powder. I get lunch
in town because the two times I was home for lunch they served a plate
of fruit. Dinner is either boiled yams or rice with some tomato-based
sauce that either has fish, canned meat or chicken in it. I'm not sick
(yet), so I'm not complaining.

I poop into a pit, but it's a better situation than a lot of other
volunteers have. It has a concrete and plastic throne and it's in a
nicely built little wooden structure with a pipe coming out of the
roof so the place doesn't smell. I'm doing my own laundry (by hand). I
take bucket baths.

Sleeping is hard because villagers seem to have a different conception
of personal space. They either don't realize or don't care that when
you blast the radio, the sound waves travel farther than your ears.
And Ghanaians loooove playing things loudly. As a Ghanaian on PC staff
explained, when Ghanaians buy a radio, they are buying it for the
whole house. I'm also next to a spot (aka bar), so that only makes
things worse. Oddly, the spot not only blasts music at night but also
at about 6:00 am. I guess there's a morning drinking crowd. Oh, and
there are goats, chickens and roosters everywhere. So they're pretty
noisy too. Generally, there is a different definition of privacy here.
It's not just about personal space - a pretty standard question is to
ask for my mother and father's names. In the US, we would assume that
it's part of a scam, but in Ghana it's such a standard question that
answering it is one of the first things they taught me how to say in
Fante.

Homestay lasts until August 15 with a break in the middle to visit my
eventual site. I am really looking forward to that.

Addendum #1: Uri - I have not used the epoxy. It looks complicated.
But it was on the list of stuff to bring, and it was cheap, so I got
it. So basically, in terms of the epoxy, I basically brought it in
terms of me bringing stuff to Ghana.

Addendum #2: Another comparison to camp - they have a beit am here. I
don't think they call it that, but the biggest building in town is
large open room that's used for meetings.

Addendum #3: Ghana is out of the World Cup. After the game, someone in
the village said that it was the white referees trying to keep African
football down. I pointed out that Ghana failed to score a goal, which
was not the refs' fault. The whole being white in Africa thing will
not go away...ever. Yesterday, I made a little girl cry, just by being
white. I got into a cab, which she was already in. When she turned and
saw me, she just started crying and wouldn't stop. So they took her
out of the cab, which was not moving at the time, but every time they
tried to put her back in she started to cry. Sometimes little kids get
really excited. The other day I was walking through a new part of town
and a girl, probably about 5, spotted me and started screaming,
"obrooni! obrooni!" She was so excited that she ran inside to get all
of her brothers and sisters. A small pack of children came running out
of the house after me (not in a dangerous way, they were genuinely
excited).

Addendum #4: Happy July 4 and Happy July 6 (one-year anniversary of
New York not winning the 2012 Olympics).

¶ 1:20 PM 3 comments

Click on My photos to the right...

¶ 4:06 PM 0 comments

Two things happened yesterday. Thing the first - I moved in with a
Ghanaian family. Thing the second - I found out where in Ghana I will
be spending the next two years.

After two weeks, I actually feel like I'm in the Peace Corps. This
would be serious cultural exchange, if only we understood each other.
Actually, the three school-aged girls in the family speak some
English, but it is still difficult to communicate. My father is a
cocoa farmer and is currently in another region of the country. My
mother sells rice in the village market. She only speaks Twi. I know a
few key phrases, but I think I've already used them all up. The family
doesn't seem to have a last name.

I'll be living with them until August 17, so this homestay phase is
almost exactly the same length as a summer at camp. I spent a lot of
summers at camp, and the one consistency every summer was that it was
looooong. The living conditions are what I expected when I joined
Peace Corps. Toilet is in an adjacent little hut. Water, used for
cooking, bathing and everything else, falls off of the roof and
collects into large buckets.

Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures soon of the house. It's three
rooms, which are not connected on the inside. I have my own room (PC
requirement) and it's about 10x10. So the rest of the family (5 kids,
I think, ranging in age from 16 to 3 weeks) shares the remaining two
rooms, one of which is tiny). There is also a kitchen in a separate
building.

Once I make it through the summer, I'll be moving to the Central
Region of Ghana. So I'm not supposed to post the name of the village
on the web, but finding it is pretty easy. Do a Google image search
for a map of Ghana. Find Accra on the coast and then find the coastal
city of Cape Coast. Start at Ghana and go about 40% of the way to Cape
Coast. Then go up about 20 miles. Bam! That's where I will living.

I will be replacing a current volunteer who is leaving this summer.
Supposedly he has the nicest Peace Corps house in Ghana. It's owned by
a Ghanaian who is in America and only occassionally comes back to the
village. I don't know many specifics, but I visit at the end of next
month and will hopefully talk to him on the phone in the next few
days.

It seems like he's already done a lot of the hard work at the site.
When he arrived, the secondary school had 5 computers. Now it has 25.
The reason I'm going there is because he and the only other teacher
that know anything about computers are leaving. So they don't want the
25 computers to go to waste. Sustainability. I guess that's my task
while I'm there.

Addendum #1: I did watch Ghana beat the US in football, but was
somewhat isolated from any large populations of Ghanaians. I guess the
celebration in the nearby city was probably kind of what I saw after
their first victory, so I didn't go. They play Brazil on Tuesday.
Despite the poverty of my host family, they do have a TV. It's kind of
weird, but it seems common here. So I'll be watching the game with
them.

Addendum #2: Happy Anniversary Ma and Da!

Addendum #3: Happy Wedding Mike and Nicole!

Addendum #4: Happy Wedding Wadi and Sophia!

¶ 3:52 PM 2 comments

Internet connection is very frustrating here in Berekun...

So if white people are like Disney characters to small Ghanaian
children (see previous post), a white person with a digital camera is
like Mickey Mouse giving out free chocolate.

I found this out firsthand after Ghana beat Czech 2-0 for its first
ever World Cup victory. The celebration was unlike anything I have
ever seen. The only US comparison I can think of is a major college
campus after the school wins a basketball or football championship. So
think University of Texas this past January, but the whole country. Of
course, I was only in the small city of Berekun, but I imagine that
the whole country was just as crazy.

One of the many ways Ghanaians celebrated was by forming large packs
and running through the streets (don't worry, not violently). I took a
picture of one of these packs, and before I could look at the screen
to check the picture I had 30 Ghanaian children jumping in my face
wanting their picture taken ("they're flocking this way").

And everyone wanted to dance with me. Everyone wants to know that I
support Ghana (are you Czech?). Everyone wants to see me cheering and
when I walk by they feel the need to cheer extra loudly. The US plays
Ghana on Thursday. If Ghana wins they will advance to the next round,
so go Ghana. I don't think they understand that I just don't care
about how the US does in the World Cup. It's more fun here when Ghana
wins...

Addendum #: Quick note about Peace Corps: it's now for wimps. They
have so many people here on staff providing all kinds of support. Some
of the accommodations are much nicer than I expected. And the living
allowance, while many many times lower than the US, is still more than
I was expecting. Nonetheless, I guess I am still living in Ghana,
which is something. And Ghana is certainly not New York. And I could
still get some difficult housing, so I guess I'll have to wait and see
how hardcore this really is.

¶ 5:30 PM 2 comments

• I want to live somewhere completely different. Peace Corps provides me with a job and a place to live, making this much easier than if I were moving on my own.
• I have no career plans (or really any plans whatsoever).
• I have no interest in finding another office job right now.
• I am at least tentatively interested in 'international development' (although it seems to have some issues).
• I want to do something positive.
• I'm 24 years old! This is what life is all about!

Answer #4:

This basically what I've packed. They say you can pretty much buy everything you need in Ghana, and the maximum weight for luggage is 80 pounds. Peace Corps provides advice on what to bring, much of it apparently from actual volunteers. I think I've actually overpacked, but I guess better to overpack than underpack.

Footwear:

• 1 pair Tevas
• 1 pair New Balance sneakers
• 1 pair waterproof boots
• 2 pair brown leather shoes

Clothing:

• boxers (lots)
• socks (loads)
• khakis (5)
• jeans (1)
• button down short-sleeve shirts (4)
• button down long-sleeve shirt
• golf shirts (4)
• hooded sweatshirt
• long-sleeve shirt
• shorts (4)
• bathing suit
• t-shirts (7)

Books (most mailed to myself in Ghana):

• Appiah, Kwame Anthony: In My Father's House
• Aurelius, Marcus: Meditations
• Brooks, Terry: The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara Isle Witch
• Buchholz, Todd G.: New Ideas from Dead Economists
• Carnegie, Dale: How to Win Friends and Influence People
• Carver, Raymond: Where I'm Calling From
• Dangarembga, Tsitsi: Nervous Conditions
• Darwin, Charles: The Origin of Species
• De Soto, Hernando: The Mystery of Capital
• Friedman, Milton: Capitalism and Freedom
• Garcia Marquez, Gabriel: One Hundred Years of Solitude
• Gibson, William: Neuromancer
• Haddon, Mark: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
• Hawken, Paul: The Ecology of Commerce
• Heller, Joseph: Catch-22
• Hemingway, Ernest: A Moveable Feast
• Hesse, Hermann: Steppenwolf
• Huxley, Aldous: Brave New World
• Irving, John: The Cider House Rules
• Jews (various): The Bible
• Kerouac, Jack: On the Road
• Kauffman, Stuart: At Home in the Universe
• Kundera, Milan: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
• L'Engle, Madeleine: A Swiftly Tilting Planet
• L'Engle, Madeleine: A Wind in the Door
• L'Engle, Madeleine: A Wrinkle in Time
• L'Engle, Madeleine: Many Waters
• LaBerge, Stephen: Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming
• Marx, Karl: The Communist Manifesto
• Milton, John: Paradise Lost
• Orwell, George: 1984
• Roth, Phillip: The Great American Novel
• Sagan, Carl: The Cosmic Connection
• Sagan, Carl: Pale Blue Dot
• Schmidt-Nielsen, Knut: How Animals Work
• Shelly, Mary: Frankenstein
• Shirer, William: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
• Smil, Vaclav: Energies
• Steele Gordon, John: A Thread Across the Ocean
• Steinbeck, John: East of Eden
• Steinbeck, John: Of Mice and Men
• Tolkien, J.R.R.: The Fellowship of the Ring
• Tolkien, J.R.R.: The Return of the King
• Tolkien, J.R.R.: The Two Towers
• Volk, Tyler: Gaia's Body
  

Miscellaneous:

• Swiss army knife
• shortwave radio
• digital camera
• non-stick 11" frying pan
• sharp knife
• siddur
• nalgene
• headlamp
• flashlight
• digital camera
• batteries (lots) and solar powered battery charger
• duct tape
• scissors
• umbrella
• raincoat
• various toiletries (razor blades, shampoo, soap, deoderant, shaving gel, suntan lotion, hand sanitizer, toothpaste, toothbrush, Gold Bond)
• anti-bug spray
• epoxy glue (it was on the list...not sure why but maybe one day it will be useful)
• pens and pencils
• notebooks
• 12 passport-sized photos
• ziplock bags
• tupperware
• handiwipes
• baseball cap and wide-brimmed hat

Thanks for reading! Come again soon!

  ¶ 1:32 AM 2 comments