Change, it is a coming!

I have found that as I get older, different things start to mean more to me and other things have lost their pull on me.  For instance, I now know that wherever I am, is home to me, whether this be for 2 days or 2 years, when I get to a place where I know I am safe and solid, it becomes my home. Just ask any of the Peace Corps Volunteers that I stay with; I set my bag down and it explodes, where within an hour, it looks like I have been living with them for the past 2 weeks. Some might think this is a bad thing, but I think it shows how Adaptable (Peace Corps Key Word!!!!!) and comfortable I am with myself and the person I am staying with! I have also learned the valuable lesson that I can’t do everything by myself; in fact I SHOULDN’T do everything by myself. I have learned so much more by asking other for help and input. This sounds like an easy thing to do, asking for help, but let me tell you, it wasn’t! Pride can be a virtue, until it kicks your ass, and your standing in a puddle of mud, which you can’t get out of. Thank goodness I have learned this lesson and now put trust into others to do what needs to be done.

Something that has lost its pull on me is food, this is not to say that I have lost the need and WANT to eat American food…all the time….but it now does not take up as much time on my daily schedule as it used to.  Food and I have never gotten along, well other then the fact that it was made to be eaten and I was made to eat. More, it was that I did not have control on how much I ate and it just kept being a temptress and making me weak with want. But no more!!!! I have more control of my body and my mind.

I have always been good at moving around, meeting new people, starting a new life, but not always good at keep contact with those in my past. Since moving to Africa, I have learned that family comes in many different forms and it takes work to keep a family together. I have had many families in my past: camp families, blood family, school family, theater family and now Peace Corps family. Each of these families hold a different part of me, and that part will always be there. I have depended on each of these families at different times in my past, and I know that I can always count on each of them when I need their help. Since being in the Peace Corps, I have come to rely on them more and more, and don’t know what I would have done without them. Never turn down a family, because even if you leave them physically, they will still have you and you will still have them as well.

Change….It happens, no one can stop it, so I say embrace what happens and go with it, cause if you don’t, life is going to take LOONNNGGG time for you!

How is stay clean in Africa....

How I stay clean in Africa!

Here is the run down on how I stay clean in Ghana and how most Ghanaians keep clean as well.

There are no showers here, so to stay clean here these are the steps I take:

Step 1: Get a med. Sized bucket

Step 2: Fill bucket with water

Step 3: Get a med. Sized cup

Step 4: Place cut into bucket and fill with water

Step 5: With cup in hand, rise hand above your head, and tilt down

Step 6: Repeat steps 4 and 5 till clean

There are no sinks here to clean my teeth, so here are the steps that I take:

Step 1: Fill a med. Sized cup with water

Step 2: Put toothpaste on toothbrush

Step 3: Walk outside your room to a place where you can spit, for me this is outside my room near a tree

Step 4: Brush teeth

Step 5: With cup of water, wash out your mouth and spit

*Side note: Some Ghanaians don’t use toothbrushes, they use a chew stick, which is a small stick from the Neem tree which grows throughout Ghana and has an anti-bacterial property, to clean their teeth.*

There are of course no laundry machines here, so I use two buckets to clean my clothes:

Step 1: Fill both buckets with clean water

 

Step 2: Put washing powder (like OMO, tide or any of the others) in one of the buckets

Step 3: Place dirty clothes in bucket with washing powder

Step 4: Wash each piece of clothing separately by hand in a circular motion, while dunking the clothes back into the soapy water

Step 5: Once washed, ring out clothing and place into the clean bucket of water

Step 6: Repeat steps 4-5 till all clothes are washed

Step 7: With the already washed clothes in the clean bucket of water, take each piece separately and agitate them in the clean water to remove the excess soap

Step 8: Ring the clean clothes out of water

Step 9: Turn inside out and hang on line to dry

 

*I want to challenge all of you, to see if you can also stay clean with such little water!*

A Peace Corps Success Story: One Person at a Time

In Peace Corps, there are a lot of pre-conceived thoughts about what you should do during your service. They come from   your friends, family, Peace Corps community and of course yourself; you are your own toughest critic.  But what most of us don’t release until further on in our service is that all it takes to cause a chain of reaction is a simple conversation.

This is one of my greatest success stories to date: I am not a small woman, I understand this, and I also understand that in Ghana, big is beautiful, but as an American women  it hurts when someone across the street for me calls me Obolo (fat, in the local language)  to get my attention. The fact that this happens multiple times a day, from both men and women can get old, very quickly. I live with 9 other people in my compound, and for the most part, they understand where I come from and how they should treat me. After a rough day of travel, and just a rough day in general, I come home to one of the boys (when I say boy, I mean he’s around 25 years old) in my compound telling me that I look fatter and should do something about it.  I won’t lie, I lost it a bit, and in my sternest voice, explained to him that he just insulted to the highest degree possible. To an American, being called fat is not only insulting but also hurtful and painful. I wanted to make sure that he understood where I am coming from and that at my home, in my compound, I would rather not be insulted. He was very sorry, and pledged it would not happen again. In Ghana, you are never sure if they are really listening to you or just agreeing with you because you are white.

The next week, someone came into my compound and proceeded to call me fat.  One of the boys that got my little sermon the week before, stepped up and explained to the visitor  that in America, calling someone fat is a great insult and to make sure to respect not only me, but in the future respect other cultures.  I sat in shocked silence……did that really just happen? Did he really listen and learn to what I had said? Pure Joy radiated through my body; there is no other situation that could have made me prouder to be a Peace Corps Volunteer and an American woman.  

It’s these little things that make your service so fulfilling, and rewarding. You don’t have to do a huge project to feel completion and success in your service, all it takes is a conversation and confidence in yourself.  

I live in a Carnival.....

I live in a carnival….it has taken me some time to come to this conclusion, but after being in Ghana for 15 months, I have arrived at this fact, living in a carnival means never having a dull day.

 Let me take you through a day at the carnival, in a city or should I say a fair, called Kumasi.  We start in a tro, which is very much like a roller coaster; the bumps, the slides, the fast and slow movements of the tro,   just like you would expect in a coaster, only this coaster is longer and a little less safe at times, but none the less, always exciting and different each time you get in one.  Once off the tro coaster, you land in a place surrounded by people and noise; most of which you can’t understand or make out, but exciting all the same. You walk down a path filled with objects you have never seen before and people trying to call and get you to come and see what they, just like a barker would do:

“HISSSSSSSSSS, You, come, see, Come, many new things to show you”.

So many people are trying to get your attention at the same time that it’s difficult to know where to go and what to see. All the while, people are bumping into you, pushing past you, and calling to each other. As you continue down this path, music of all sorts are pumping out of huge speakers along the way, making you want to cover your ears, it being so loud. You round a corner and run into a man with a microphone and a set of speakers, preaching about something or someone with much vigor and zest.  You dare not stop for fear he would bring you into his web and start to discuss his subject of zealous retribution with you. As you continue your walk, you start to notice all the colors and shapes that you pass by, no two looking the same, and always something to see that is new to you, and as you see those unique features, another one of your senses is being assaulted, your olfactory glands. The smells that waft up to you range from divine to disaster. Many you cannot place, and most you would not want to know where it came from or what it is. Despite all of that, you can still appreciate how quickly the smells come and go, and how rich and exotic some of them are.

You find a booth that interests you and the game begins; you want this, for this price, but the vendor has other plans. His goal is to get as much from you as possible, always with a smile on his face and a lie behind his eyes. With your wits about you, you might win, but not always, sometimes they get the upper hand and you storm away knowing that the next time, you Will win! With all these things going on around you, it’s easy to lose your head and go insane, but if you let it all wash over you on step at a time, you can and will get out alive with more confidence and strength then had when you first arrived at the carnival known as Kumasi.  

Travels around West Africa...Thanks Peace Corps

I have no idea how to start this blog…..there are a ton of things that I have done in the past 2 months but not sure where to start. I’ll start at the end of the food security summit that I went to in The Gambia: This journey started on a rainy evening at around 11pm, where 4 PCV’s started an intense game of Euchre. None of us were truly prepared for how long and involved this game would become, until we looked at the clock and saw that it was 3am, and time for me to get to the airport to board a plane to Casablanca, Morocco.  The 4 of us (Jordan, Chase and Aikins) had a layover for 12 hours in Casablanca, and since three of us are Americans, we got the opportunity to enter the country without a visa. We got on to the train at the airport that would carry us into the depths of Casablanca, not one of us having any knowledge of where to go next. We ended up choosing a random town to get off in and walk around….let me tell you…..Casablanca is AMAZING! I feel in love the second I stepped off the train.  For the next 8 hours, we walked around Casablanca, ate some amazing food, bought some nik naks and headed back to the airport where we had a flight to The Gambia. We arrived in The Gambia around 2 am and got a ride from Peace Corps Gambia. At this point in our journey, we were all slightly delirious and going crazy from lack of sleep, a rap song happens to come on to the radio and our Food Security coordinator begins to sing every word of it….curses and all….blowing us all out of the water and making us laugh so hard we almost peed our trousers.

The next morning, we get to business and go around Banjul, the capital of Gambia with a few PCV’s from around that area. Throughout the day, more PCV’s from all over West Africa begin to show up and settle down. The morning of July 2, the summit begins! For the next 5 days, we learn all there is to know about Food Security and what each country is doing with it. After the summit, we again leave at the butt ass crake of dawn, with a flight leaving at 3am for Monrovia, Liberia, for another 12 hour layover. This time we are not so lucky and got greeted with resistance and a bribe. They wanted 50 US dollars EACH to get into the country…..umm Hell no! but we got ourselves out of it, but saying that we will not leave the airport, so from 5am-5pm, we were stuck at the airport…with not much to do, but on the bright side….they had American plugs….which was cool to be able to plug my computer straight into the wall again.  We arrived back in good ol’ Ghana around 7 pm and got back to the office for some much needed sleep.

The next big thing I did was help out at Operation Smile, an organization that comes to third world countries and fixes cleft palates and cleft lips for free. It was more than incredible to watch a child with a cleft lip come out of surgery and see their face for the first time. I cannot imagine what it would feel like to change you physical appearance so much in such a short amount of time; the fact that they can now walk around and have no one stare at them openly is such a gift.

And last but not least, I have designed a cross sector boot camp for the new education volunteers who just swore in today (CONGRATS EVERYONE). I am SO excited for this boot camp because I feel that this is just an important part of training that we do not cover well here in Ghana. But starting tomorrow, I hope to give each EDU PCV a better idea what they can do at their sites with health, water, sanitation and food security. It is set up so that in the morning, they will learn all about the sectors with different presentations that current PCV’s have created, and in the afternoon they will do hands on, practical’s about all that they learned in the morning.  It starts tomorrow and ends the 19^th, I will make sure to write another blog about how fabulously well it went…Until than!

Wait...When did i become an Adult???

 It has come to my attention that life has snuck up on me. When I was younger, I had this grand idea that when you become an “adult” everything about you changed; you were smarter, more respected, and completely different from who you were as a ”child”. Much to my surprise, I find that this is not the case, we are all still who we were as children, only better…. I hope….   This fact came to life when I realized that I was doing grown up things without even noticing, and people respected me for it.

They say Peace Corps changes your life, and it’s true, but again, I had the wrong idea about how that would happen. I figured that an epiphany would hit me and I would wake up and feel different, think different, view the world differently; for me, it was much more gradual and subtle. An example, I have worked at six different summer camps all over America, and enjoyed each one very much, but since being in Peace Corps, I figured out what it was that I loved about it so much, I have a passion for trainings; I love setting up and implementing trainings of all sorts. This knowledge came to me by accident and I have run with it; all it takes is one person to be a catalyst for how the rest of your life might be shaped. Two people that have been my catalyst for where I am now are Nicole Abrams, an RPCV Morocco- 2010-2012, who first told me about Peace Corps (which I had never considered before) and Kris Hoffer, my DPT (Director of Programing and Training) in Ghana; without these two women, I would not be where I am today.  Again, all it takes is a simple idea to form, for your life to be changed forever. 

This past week, I was invited to attend the first ever West Africa Food Security summit in The Gambia, where 8 different Peace Corps counties came to together to discuss where as a region, we wanted to take Food Security. We, as a region, have been chosen to be the “guinea pigs” for the new Feed the Future imitative, being funded by USAID.  This is next big project being funded around the world, by many different NGO’s and countries; the problem: to many people, and not enough food. Many of the wars going on right now are over land rights for the production of food. That’s why we are here, to help farmers in third world countries, implement better practices that better utilize the land they have and better preservation of said land for future use.   A quote I read recently sums up one of my main reasons for being SO passionate about this topic:  

“Helping people to emerge from poverty is one of the best things we can do for the environment.” – Bjorn Lomborg, Turn on the Lights, Please Newsweek, June 4^th 2012   

As president of the Food Security Task Force in Ghana, my main job is to help PCV’s plan, organize and facilitate In Service Trainings (IST) for other PCVs in country. In the upcoming 3 months, we will be holding 5 separate trainings on topics, ranging from bee keeping, to Vetiver grass planting, and how to build a rabbit/chicken coup. At each of these trainings, there will be around 10 volunteers and   their counter parts (their partners in their villages that work with them) making each training around 20 people. They last anywhere from 1 day to 5 days, depending on what we will be learning about. These trainings are one of the main things that the task force is focusing on; education is the first time to change.

 In summary, Peace Corps has changed not only who I am, but how i view the world and the place i hold in it.

Reading for the Future

Reading for the Future
For a long time, I have been thinking about how to help the kids in my
community learn English better since not only is it the national
language of Ghana, but to advance in their education, it was
essential.  I had heard about an organization that donated 20Lbs of
books to Peace Corps volunteers around the world called Darien Book
Aid (http://www.darienbookaid.org/). You can request any kind of books
that you would like, from text books to story books.
Once I knew that there was an organization that donated any type of
books, I thought about what my community needed and came up with the
perfect idea: A reading club! Now that I had an idea, I talked it over
with my counterpart and the English teacher at my local Junior High
School to make sure that it would be a good match for my village. They
both agreed and said it was an excellent idea, and that both the
Primary school kids and the JHS students would benefit from it.
So I set forth on this idea, and started to plan out the logistics of
it: Who would run it? Would it be sustainable? Would the kids enjoy it
and learn something? This is how the plan looked, I would have the JHS
teachers pick two kids that needed help speaking English or with
public speaking to come and read story books to the Primary school
once a month. I had wanted books that would be easy to read and
understand, so I choose to have story books donated by Darien Book
Aid. Not only would this benefit the JHS students reading English, but
it would help the Primary school students hear English better and more
often. There are not many people in my village that speak English, so
they are not exposed to as often as they should be.
At the first meeting, I choose the two books to be read; one was about
dolphins and had great pictures, the other was a Dr. Seuss book, Cat
in the Hat. The JHS students did an amazing job, and there were around
30 primary school kids to hear the stories. There was also a large
crowd of adults that came to hear the stories as well. We meet at the
Primary school and choose to read the books under a large mango tree,
with the readers sitting in chairs so that everyone could see the
pictures.
To make sure that this is a sustainable project, I am having the
English teacher run the club and keep all the books. There were a few
short novels in the box donated as well, and he had the excellent idea
to loan them out to excellent students, so that they had a fiction
novel to read as a treat. They are also to write down all words they
don’t know and look them up in a dictionary I gave to the English
teacher. I could not be more pleased with how the project/club is
going; I hope that it continues on getting stronger and preparing more
kids for the chance to further their education and self confidence.

A Word on Packages

It has come to my attention that many of you do not know how to send a package to Africa....and with good reason, cause how often do you get the chance to send of....bucket list item for anyone? cause i can help with that...But back to my point, here is a tip that will save you money: a padded envelope is a cheaper and easier to send for everyone. We in Ghana have to pay for the WONDERFUL packages you all send us, but  padded envelope is free for us...Joy!!! Also, make sure to put AIRMAIL or better yet, put Donations on the box/envelope cause than they think its nothing important in there...
There are no words to describe the joy of a peace corps volunteer when they receive  a package from home, as well as those around him, because if i have learned on thing, its that volunteers took the lessons from kindergarten to heart about sharing. SO please don't forget about us, and  now that you no longer have the excuse of  "its too expensive", Send away...and wait to hear the praise from all of us over here in Africa.

Tess May PCV
Peace Corps Ghana
PO box 5796
Accra-North
West Africa

P.S Items that are hard to come by here that I am in desperate need of....*hint hint*
Earphones, Backpack-used is fine...don't need to spend money on me, Memory card for my camera, Hard backed journal, BRAS-you would think in a country where the women have Large breasts, they would have large sized bras....you would think wrong, Exercise bands-gotta keep all these carbs off my body...

The Black Stone Story...

A true story told to me by a woman in my village.

 It is common knowledge that most Africans fear and hate snakes, for example,  I was traveling back to my village in a taxi, when I spotted a snake on the road,  I was super excited about it and told everyone  in the car about the snake; my mistake. The taxi driver stops his car, throws it in reverse and runs over the snake, all the while I am screaming at him in both English and Ewe to stop, to please not do this. He picks the dead snake up carefully and puts it in his trunk so that tomorrow he can sell it to the juju man.

My village knows that I like and respect snakes, so they sometimes makes fun of me, which I don’t mind at all since it is just another opportunity to educate them about the benefits of snakes and why we should not kill each one that we encounter . About a month ago, I noticed one of the primary school teachers was not showing up for class, and I started to ask around where she was. I was then told that she had been bitten by a snake and was recovering with the black rock.  I was uncertain if I had heard that right, black rock? What in the world could that mean?

I decided to take matters into my own hands to go and visit her and ask her about what had happened. This is what she told me “I was going to farm early morning, and started to get to work before the heat of the day came. I was pulling weeds around my maize (corn), when I bent down, I felt a sharp pain on my lower arm, and I looked down and saw two holes. I knew that a snake had come and bitten me. I than dropped what I was doing and ran to the medicine man. He looked at the wound and said that it was a poisonous (venomous is the correct term) and I would have to try the black rock”. I stopped her there and asked more about this black rock. She said that the medicine man gets it from a special place and it takes the poisons from your body. You must place it on your body, where it sticks till it has taken out all the poisons, than drops off. You than take the rock and put it in milk for 24 hours; I was unable to find out why, but it seems to help heal your body completely.  After the milk bath, she said you take the rock and bury far from your house, to keep the poisons away. That is the story of the black stone.

After hearing this, I had no idea what to make of it, did this work? Where did this magical black rock come from? How had they come to this discovery? Sorry to say, I was not able to talk to the traditional medicine man before leaving again, but I will talk with him when I get back to my village. After recounting this story to a fellow PCV, they said it sounded a lot like a leach….and then it donned on me that, that did sound plausible. I hope to soon bring this black rock tale to completion with a talk to the medicine man and a viewing of the black rock its self. 

This is the Real Africa

When we think of Africa, most of us in the western part of the world, think of mud huts, naked children running around and boobs, but i am here to tell you that things have changed in Africa and its time that we catch up with them. Before joining the Peace Corps, I had this grand view of what my life was going to be like; no electricity, no running water, some very interesting food, and dirt floors. This is what a lot of us wanted and expected when joining the Peace Corps, but we soon learned that Africa has moved on and left us 100 years behind in our thoughts.
Just last night i was Skyping with a friend and she asked "How does one get to Ghana? Do they even have an airport?" I was taken aback, how could she not know that all African nations have airports, cars, internet, cell phones....how is that Americans have such a simplified view of Africa? Where in our education are we lacking, that we still portray Africa as it was 100 years ago. I'll admit that it has taken me months to get rid of the stereotype that has been imbedded so deeply into my mind of Africa; that even while living here, i wanted to see and experience the Africa that i was brought up on. But i have now come to terms with this "new" Africa that i live in and its time that Americans also face the fact that Africa is changing, quickly, and we need to keep up with what it’s really like over here.
Here are some examples of what the real Africa is like now: most people in West Africa have at least two cell phones and as many as 4 different numbers, in Ghana there are 7 different cell phone companies competing against each other, the number of cars and motos (small motorcycles) on the road are just as plentiful here as in America, internet cafes can now be found in smaller and smaller towns and villages, watching TV and movies is now a favorite past time, there is formal education here all the way up to universities, which can be found all over the country, there are paved roads popping up everywhere, and many other examples. Now, i understand that Ghana is more developed than other African countries, but i am sure that many of these examples can be found in other countries as well.
This is not to say that most African nations are now out of the third world category, this is more to point out that people are changing; life styles are changing. Something that many Africans don’t realize is how we view them; they don’t understand that when most Americans think of Africa, they don’t see tall buildings and complete infrastructure; they see wide open land, filled with wild animals and people who still live in small huts and live with their "tribes". It’s time to open your eyes America, and appreciate how far Africa has come in this new millennium; it is our own fault that we see them as less advanced, that we don’t allow our self’s to experience what Africa is like now, not 100 years ago. If you don’t believe me, you are invited to come experience what Africa is really all about and start a change within yourself and back in the states; my doors are always open.

Paragliding, Prom Queen and President

April has been and will continue to be a month where I won’t stop moving. It started off when i decided that i needed to jump off a cliff (literally)! Here in Eastern Region of Ghana, there is a Paragliding festival that happens each year on Easter weekend. Being a Peace Corps Volunteer, how could i pass up this opportunity? Well i couldn’t! And it was one of the most AMAZING things i have ever done! Being up in the air, attached to a very attractive man ( not all of them were, so i got lucky) flying over one of the most beautiful places in Ghana...I wish i could have just kept going and never land; super addictive, i would do it again in a heartbeat! After this stupendous adventure, i headed down to our All Volunteer conference. This is where all the PCV in Ghana (all 162 of us) get together and learn some new things, get a chance to brag about all that we are doing, and have a GREAT time together. If i have learned one thing about Peace Corps, is that we really are a big ol' family....no matter how corny that sounds; you have your "mom" and "dad" types that will help you out with anything you need, you have your crazy, odd, not sure what to do with them, aunts and uncles, you have the Super annoying younger bro's and sis's that you kinda wish weren’t there, but could not imagine life without them and then there are the ones that make you a better person and know will never get enough of them.
So with all these different personality types brought together, we somehow worked together in harmony and had an amazing 4 days. The Highlights: 1. Talent show- the amount of talented people shocked me!!! 2. Craft fair- gotta love the chance to shop and not get haggled about prices 3. Date Auction: this is where a PCV can design a "date" to sell, like taking someone horseback riding in Accra, or treating someone to an AMAZING Meal (bugers, fries and beers), and all the money goes towards GYD (gender youth development) 4. Prom: Yes, i know this sounds silly, and a bit odd that a group of 162, ages 22-75, all got together for a another go at prom, but it was awesome! We all put on our best 2 yards, and were looking good! On a personal note about all the stated above activities, i did two songs for the talent show that i wrote ( a play off of "I wanna be a billionaire...or I wanna be a Ghanaian, and a little mermaid parody), I was one of the announcers for the date auction, which was a lot of fun, and I was nominated for prom queen ( Who would have ever thought that in high school.....for sure Not Me) and then ended up sharing the crown (Mean Girls style) with the other 2 lovely ladies who were also nominated. It was a Blast! During All-Vol, we also met with all the committees that we have, and i am now president of the Food Security committee, which works with USAID and Feed the Future initiative. I am very excited to have this opportunity to get things started and bring a new outlook to the group.
I am now waiting in Accra, trying to get my visas for Togo and Benin, since a small group of us are going to the West African Trade Hub Shea Conference, which starts this Saturday. Now the bad part about this is that it falls under the same time as my regions GLOW (girls leading our world) camp...Which SUCKS cause i won’t get to go to it....but i will be learning ALOT that will help not only my village, but all of Ghana. So that’s where i am in my life at the moment, I can’t wait to get back to site and just have some down time and hang out with my friends there. I will write again about the adventures of the other West African countries I’m going to, so till than!

Some photos for you to enjoy of ghana

 Near Cape coast...fisherman coming back from fishing

 Fresh honey combs from the honey harvesting training

My baby boy Tully....Sooo cute

I Love my Life...

 I love my life right now!!!! There is nowhere else I would want to be, but in Ghana. I don’t know if I ever thought that I would say or think that if you asked me 5 months ago, but now that I have things to do, places to be, I could not be happier. Let me explain a bit more about why I’m so happy….first, I am getting things done like I have never done before. I won’t lie…I can be a bit of a procrastinator… but here, I want to do more, have more responsibility, be involved in everything I can be involved in. I don’t know if I am feeling this because im “growing up” or because I just fit into this life style so well; this is my niche. Growing up, I never even thought about the Peace Corps or even really knew what it was. It was not until a friend from college (Nicole Abrams) talked about how she was going to be serving in Morocco as an environmental volunteer that I thought to myself, yea, that sounds like an awesome thing to do with my life.  So, here I am, living the life that I never knew I wanted to live and loving it.

Some of the things that I am now involved in are:

 a. Shea Group, called PC-SHEAV, where I am helping to plan a training for Shea farmers

b. Helped develop the new Bee Keepers group: United Beekeepers of Peace Corps Ghana, where I am the secretary and just finished a honey harvesting training

c. I am writing a Plant Guide book for Ghana; divided into three section-grasses, crops, and trees. This is going to take a lot of time and effort from lots of people and I can’t wait to get it going

d. I am also writing a theater games book since Ghanaians LOVE Theater and playing games. So this will be a guide for the volunteers to teach games, songs and other activities to their kids and communities

e. Traveling…I love to Travel. I was selected to go to Mali this April for a Food Security summit, but since Mali had a bit of a coup, not sure what will happen there. Than I am going to Benin for the west African Shea Conference at the end of April with 5 other PCV’s, going to be so much fun

f. Also in April…Big month I know….my region is putting on a girl’s camp called GLOW, I will do a whole blog on that one later. So im super pumped for that

So that is why I am in such a good place in my life; the busier I am, the happier I am. It also does not hurt that I love most the people that I am working with in my various projects. And the fact that I have a real bed and fan in my room at site makes life so much better since it is SOOO HOT HERE!!!!!! My cat Tully is also doing amazing, and makes me so happy each time I see his little face, such a special boy. He caught and ate a mole the other day…what a good cat. Well that’s my life and I hope  life wherever you are is just as satisfying as mine is…

a guide to better understanding

I have now been in Ghana for almost 9 months if you can believe that. When you first come to a new place, there are so many different stimuli, that it’s impossible to receive all the information that is being thrown at you. This is particularly true when you are in a place so different from what you have ever experienced; part of your brain goes on vacation without you even realizing it. But soon, this part of the brain comes back, and starts to notice all the things that were lost when you first landed.  When this happens, you start to take on the traits of those around you, mostly subconsciously, only realizing what has happened when you are with others who are going through the same things. For example, those of us who live in Ghana know that there is are 70+ local languages, each of us knowing a certain one or even two of these. But there is one language that we all begin to learn just by interacting with every Ghanaian we meet; this is Ghanaian English. Here are some examples that I find myself and others who have been here some time:

1.       Small small- this can mean many things and used in most sentences…it will take time, it’s a small thing, I like something only a little,  etc.; Ex: I am hungry small small

2.       Somehow- this one creeped up on me, and I did not even know that I was using it till the other day Ex: somehow, we will get food today, somehow

3.       O, WHY!!- This is often said with great vigor and passion; usually used when something bad has happened or something you don’t like; Ex.  you get to your tro that you are supposed to take to get home, and a women cuts in front of you to get the last spot…WHY….

4.       Fine- when I first got to Ghana, it felt odd to say Fine  to every comment or question someone threw at you, but now it feel normal; ex. How are you?    Fine…

5.       Sorry-o- adding O to the end of words is common here, and kinda fun…. Ex: a women trips and instantly you hear a string of “sorry-o’s”

6.       Please- this is one of my favorite things, anytime you have a question or ask anything of anyone, you start the sentence with please…so polite

7.       Dis Ting- this is a common phrase heard that is in reference to just about anything…Ex: O, have you seen my dis ting? You know the dis ting….. (they are meaning to say this thing)

8.       Come and go-  this is said in two different ways; a. someone says it to you, meaning you will leave and come back, b. this is said by you to someone to get them off your back about the fact that you can no longer stay and chat, it’s the polite way to say I’m outta here

9.       I’m coming- this is said each time you are leaving a place; it took some time for me to get used to it. Ex. I am going to the restroom to urinate-another thing they say here often..hate that word…so I would say I’m coming…

10.   You are invited- this is said each time you might see someone eating; whether in their home, on the street, in the market, anywhere; when someone comes to talk to you and you are eating something, you should always invite them to whatever you are eating; most times they don’t really mean for you to eat with them, but just a way to be nice and polite.

11.   Small boy/girl- this is generally called out of younger members of the community who are than asked to do small jobs for whoever had called them…ex: I want some pur water, so I give my money to a small girl to go get me one… and they do this without a sneer or complaint like one might expect in America; it’s just part of the culture to respect and obey the people older than you. Or you might get called small boy if you are in fact….just small in stature…

There are a ton more, but those are some of my favorite and most commonly used. I’m sure some of you, that have talked to me on the phone, have heard some of these slip out, and know you can better understand what I am saying. 

A run through the African Bush

Twas the night before my run, when all was silent, other than the bats and rats in my ceiling and my cat clawing up my body, that i had a dream, a dream that i was flying, but i was not really flying, more it was like when i jumped, i jumped Real high and ended up at a very far distance. Upon waking the next morning, i knew that it was going to be an excellent day for a run. I had set my alarm for the very early time of 5:30am, so that i would get out before the heat and the villagers.
I sat on the edge of my bed, listening to the sounds of morning in my village, the girls in my compound cleaning, the birds waking up, the guinea fowl Squawking, and now the sound of me putting my shoes on and warming up before my run. Because of the dream that i had, i chose to take a route that i had not traveled yet, into the bush.
It is a path that i had once walked for a small time, but did not make it to the end, well that was my goal, to find where this bush path ended. I started out on slower pace, working my way up to kicking my butt. All was fine, the sun was rising, i had the whole bush to myself, hitting the hard packed red dirt with a satisfying Thump, each time my foot fell. I was looking down and up and all over the place, just happy to be out and seeing the world. I took a few turns, thinking nothing of it. The hills formed by the Volta on my right and the flat expanse of savannah on my left. After running for around an hour, i succeeded in my goal of finding where the path ends; a small fishing village along the lake. I stopped for some small time to talk (and when i say talk, i mean a lot of hand gestures, and smiling and laughing, cause i had no clue what anyone was saying) to the villagers, than i was on my way.
I decided to take my time on the way back, looking around, and this time....really not paying attention to where i was going. Soon I found that i was unsure of where i was, but never fear I have taught a class in tracking (animals that is), and decided to track myself...or my footprints, and try to find my way back to site. I was feeling good and proud of myself....till i realized i was following the wrong footprints....this put a small glitch in my tracking idea. The sun was up by this time, and i was near out of water, when a man comes thundering through the bush, half naked and carrying 4 large bush birds (as he called them) and offered to sell me them. I said i had no money but thank you; he then proceeded to call me beautiful and ask me to be his wife. Much to his dismay, i had to turn down the offer and ask if he knew the way back to my site. He said he did, and led me back..A completely different way than i had originally come...and i made it back to site, after 2hr 30min journey. I thanked the man many times over, and went my way to my compound.
This is my life, in Ghana, crazy......

Impromptu Dance Party in Ghana

Its Official, i have now been in Ghana for a little over 7 months and have been a PCV for 4 of those months! How has the time just flown by? I know they say that as you age, time just slips by you, but why did that have to be one of the things that are true? Why couldn’t it have been like Santa and proved to be wrong (or is that the biggest ruse of all????) During the first 2 months at site, life was....should i say a bit difficult for me. I had to deal with the fact that i was alone....yet surrounded by people 24/7. It’s odd to be treated like a rock star just because of the color of my skin; I know that it will be difficult to go back to the states, where i will no longer get special treatment, because of the way i look.
I won’t lie to you, i did not do much those first 2-3 months; i read ALOT of books, watched some TV shows on my net book(when i had electricity), and walked around town. Again, for me, the hardest part of all of this was that i did not have anyone to really talk to in my village or anywhere near me. The closest volunteers to me are around 40 mins by taxi....when i can get a taxi that is. But, things are much better now. I have made many friends in the community, I painted my room, and made it mine, and got a cat.... I have also been laying the ground work for some projects!
Project 1: I have established a Shea Parkland in my community, this means that i worked with MOFA (Ministry of forestry and agriculture) to set a piece of land apart that is only going to be used to cultivate Shea. For the past few years, my community has been cutting down large, mature Shea trees for charcoal...Well that just won’t work for me! So i am setting up education for the farmers, giving them other options to use for charcoal and setting up the parkland. I am also going to be planting Grafted Shea (this is a process that makes trees come to maturation much faster, and bear fruit quicker) in this parkland.
Project 2: I am setting up a big brother, big sister program, where the JHS students will read story books to the Primary (elementary age for those in America) school, to practice their English, as well as having the younger kids get better exposure to English.
Project 3: I am going to be working with a Cashew farmer in my area, getting contracts for him so that he can get the best price for the nuts.
Project 4: This is my favorite, and going to take the longest; I am going to form a women’s group that will harvest honey! I am going to build (and when i say I, i mean a carpenter) around 6 hives, and then harvest the honey to sell at my local market. Women here, do not get many opportunities to make something of themselves, so i am going to do something about that, and try to get them to be able to do all the harvesting themselves. One of the biggest problems that Peace Corps Volunteers have is that they start something, but once they leave...so does the project..It’s all about sustainability people!
A small story about daily life in Ghana: Last night, a small group of us went out to get some Egg Sammies (aka egg sandwiches, one of the best things to get in Ghana) from a vender down the street. Since this is Ghana, someone near the vender was playing Very loud music, as they do at most times of the day and night...as we were waiting for our sammies, a man comes up to order one too...One of the people with me, starts to dance bit to the music, well let me tell you, Ghanaians LOVE to dance, so the man starts to dance with Jake (fellow PCV) than the other guy in our group (Jordan) gets into it as well! And we end up having an impromptu to dance party, at like 10 at night, eating egg sammies, and Chilin with this random Ghanaian....That is my life now....Wonderful 

Dyslexia: My Trials and Tribulations

This is a post/story to all who have been diagnosed with any type of learning disability and for those who try to understand how we view the world.

When I was younger, I did many things that my parents and teachers thought were just me trying to be ornery and difficult, but what they did not understand, was that when they said pull,  I was pulling with all my might, it just happened to be in the wrong direction. How was I to know that I was doing wrong, when what I heard meant one thing to you and had a completely different meaning for me. One example that my mother always tells me is this:  When she was teaching me to put my shoes on, she would say to push my foot into the shoe, and I did, but in my own way; I pulled my foot straight back, because in my mind, that is what push meant; my mother than burst into tears, realizing that there was more going on here than just a stubborn child’s willfulness.  My life before first grade was amazing, all rainbows and butterflies if you will, but then I met my first grade teacher, Mrs. Judy Suker and she changed the course of the rest of my life.

She, like my mother, noticed that I did some things differently and looked a bit more closely. At the time, early nineties, dyslexia was not a term many used or even knew much about, but somehow, I was fortunate enough to get the one teacher who knew the signs and was able to figure out what my problem might be.  From there I went into a world wind of meetings, tests and diagnoses. Much of this I don’t have a strong remembrance of; I remember getting a lot of candy and toys whenever I finished a test and getting to go to downtown Orlando often. Everyone was relieved to finally know why it seemed that I did things so off and opposite of the world. I was then put into “special” classes where I would get more attention and come to a better understanding of my “problem”. I had a tutor during school hours, as well as after school, to help me learn to read and process information correctly. At this point in my story, I am now in third grade and am starting to reorganize how my brain views and processes the world. My third grade teacher, Mrs. Bevan, helped me more than any other teacher had so far in my young life; she taught me to be proud of who I was, no matter the problems I might have in school and in life;   she taught me I was more than just my diagnoses, more than just my “problem”.

Let me take a moment to help you understand how I view the world, or should I say, how my mother describes to others how she thinks I must view it, since it would be difficult for me (even at this point in my life), to know if I truly see the world differently from the rest;  

“Imagine if you will, going into your favorite store; you know where everything is located, and can trust that it will always stay in the same place each time you enter. Now imagine you enter this same store, and everything is on the opposite side it once was, that is how my daughter see’s the world.”-Vicki May

As stated above, I cannot attest to if this is true or not , since I have only ever seen through my own eyes, and medical science has yet to create a….if you will, head transplant, I doubt that I will ever be able to know for sure if I do see the world differently. 

During the next few years, through the hard work of my teachers, tutors, and myself, I was able to learn how to correctly process the lessons that I was taught daily. This means that often, it takes me twice as long to do most things, since I have to now take what I “see”, reorganize it, and process the information so that it looks like it does for everyone else. All of this is done sub-consciously and is simple, for most parts of my life, but one….Math. To this day, I still cannot get a grasp on any math concept, simple or complex. My mother says that I just don’t have that light bulb, so it would be difficult to turn that light on, as the saying goes.   My handwriting as well, will never improve beyond what it is today; that of a 5^th graders. I am an excellent reader now because of the dedication of one tutor named Sabrina who worked with me for hours and hours to get me to a method of reading that worked. To her I am forever thankful, because without books, I don’t know where I would   be today.   

The reason I wanted to do this blog, is that for the first time in twenty five years, I had someone ask me:

“What are the benefits of being a dyslexic?”-Joe McCainna 

I had never thought about it before, nor had anyone ever brought up the positives of being dyslexic. Now don’t get me wrong, I was never brought down or told I was less than anyone because of this “disability”, if anything it makes me work harder at everything I do to make sure that no one takes notice of it, but the benefits? Never have I or anyone ever talked about the benefits that one might have being dyslexic.  And there benefits! Think of it this way or at least this is how I choose to, I am part of a very small and select group of people who get the privilege to view the world like no one else does, to have the chance to use my brain in new and different ways and have the capability to create amazing things, whether they be on paper, acted out, or in a new invention that only I could imagine because of the way my brain works. Never let anyone tell you that you can’t do something just as well as another; it might take you longer, and you will probably take a different path to get there, but you will get there, and you will appreciate the end result even more because of the effort and will that you put into it.  Dyslexia is not a “disability” it’s a different ability to see the world; an ability that it truly unique to only you, and no one can take that ability away from you.

That is my story and life; I will always think and look at the world a different way from most, and for that I am happy. It makes me who I am and I have done everything that I ever set my mind to; graduated from college with my bachelors of science (take that calculus!), and am now in Ghana, West Africa, serving in the Peace Corps. Dyslexia is merely a small obstacle which one must jump over in a different fashion each day and be that much stronger for it.