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