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 1 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.
So I've finally left the capital city of Accra, by far the most developed part of Ghana. I woke up at 4 AM yesterday to take a bus to a city about 10 hours away to visit a current PC volunteer. There were one of two things out the window during the ride. The first is wide open fields with trees/bushes/hills/etc. This was interesting only because it was wide open fields in Ghana with Ghanaian trees/bushes/etc. Different from Jersey but probably not unique to Ghana. Nature can be very entertaining for a while (we killed amonster-sized scorpion with a stick yesterday - not deadly but supposedly they hurt). The second is the poverty that is rural Africa. Hard to describe exactly what I saw, but of course I could only see what's visible from the main roads. Hopefully I will be able to upload pictures soon.
Now I am in a city of about 30,000 people visiting a PC volunteer. He has an atypical experience. He is teaching computers at a nursing college. He is living in a house that is normally used for foreign doctors. It has three large bedrooms, a huge living/dining area,indoor plumbing, electricity and a full kitchen. All are not quite up to American standards, but for a PC volunteer, this guy is living in luxury. The purpose of this trip is to get a sense of what my next 2 years will be like. Because this guy has such an unusual setup and is teaching at a college and lives on a large campus, I'm not getting any sense for what the next two years will be like, but it's interesting anyway.
Today, I went with Melissa, a girl in my training group who will also be a computer teacher, for a walk around the city. We started out at the nursing college and talked to students in the computer lab. All that I spoke to had not used a computer until they got to college. The PC volunteer I was visiting had taught them how to use Windows and the basics of the standard Office programs (this is essentially what I will be teaching for the next 2 years).
We're pretty much the only white people here (except for a few people at the hospital) and we attract a lot of attention. We're basically like celebrities. Most people are very friendly, especially small children. Small Ghanaian children love white people. We're like Disney characters. They come up to us and want to talk to us and laughwith/at us, hug us, etc. Then we went to the market. Again, lots of attention. A few people call us "obrooni," which is the equivalent of a reverse N-word. Some people probably don't know it's derogatory and others may not know any better.
We ended up sitting with a woman who was chopping and selling cassava in the market. We spent at least an hour with her. She, along with the other women and children around her, were trying to teach us Twii, the local language. Some spoke English, many did not. Again, we're like celebrities and everyone wants to be our friend and get our address or phone number. They all loved having their pictures taken. That was an interesting experience for a while, but being the center of attention is exhausting.
I will be here in this city until Wednesday, and then it's on to another city to meet up with the rest of the group for official training. I will be moving in with a Ghanaian family. Hopefully I willbe able to tell you about it when I get there, but the rumor is that the city's only Internet cafe is broken...
Addendum #1: There is a kiosk in this city that has a ton of Stephon Marbury/Knicks merchandise. Hopefully, the Knicks will send him to Ghana ASAP. Other fun jerseys I saw today - Larry Johnson on the Larry Johnson on the Hornets, Drew Bledsoe on the Patriots and Michael Strahan. This may cease to amuse me, but so far this is still a fun game.
Addendum #2: Matt asked me to compare the college campus we we're staying on in Accra to Hotel Cosmos in Athens. No comparison. If Cosmos is a 2-star, the college is half-star. Unless you're in thefanciest places, there is no hot water here. Most of the sinks did not work in the college and the electricity shut off a few times. I think the rooms at the Cosmos had A/C. The college had ceiling fans, which will be a luxury for me for the next two years.
Addendum #3: I saw a monkey the other day at a restaurant. The waitress tried to hand it a banana, but the monkey wasn't going forit. So she threw it at him. The monkey thought it was being attacked and curled up into its pouncing position. So be careful about feeding monkeys. There is a great monkey sanctuary near the city I am travelling to next. Hopefully I will be able to go.
¶ 3:07 PM 3 comments