A time when Sheep and Chickens rule the road

When i first went to my site during training, i was like, this is not to bad, traveling should not be anything that i cant handle.....Good lord....Afram Plains....why do you have to be so difficult to get in and out of! So, i had to come down to Accra, which is the capital of Ghana, and should have only taken me around 5 hours to get there.....It took me 8 hours! but, let me start at the begining of this tale.....It starts on a cool thrusday morning, when i have to wake up at 3am to catch the bus that is leaving my area. This is the most reliable and timely way to get out of my area. The good part about waking up at the butt ass crack of dawn, is that i get first pick of seats on the bus, which is CRUTIAL cause being in the middle seat with two sweaty, smelly Africans for, 4 hours, is not my idea of fun! So as i was walking to the bus, I noticed that the only animals i was seeing were herds of sheep sleeping on the rd....and i mean more sheep than i have ever seen in Ghana, all together! It was a little crazy how many sheep were loitering on the road. Most times of the day, you will see the goats, but it seems that night belongs to the sheep.
Anyway, I got on the bus, got the best seat, and waited till we left at around 5am. This is the first time that i have been awake that late/early here in Ghana, so i got to see the sunrise and i had forgotten how amazing they are! I wish that i did'nt love sleep so much, so i could see them more often. Once we got to the Lake side were we take a ferry to cross, I find out that the Ferry is not there, and wont be for another hour.....well this just was not going to work for me, so i took a fast boat, which is a large wooden boat with a motor attached to it! I took the one that will only take 3 people across cause its better! So i get to the other side and take a Tro (which is like a van, but from the 70's and made in Japan, and is most of the time falling apart) to Nkawkaw. The road to Nkawkaw is AMAZING! you are driving up a mountian with waterfalls and beautfull scenery all around and than drive down into the town. Here, I will get on another tro which will take me to Madina, which is a taxi station in Accra. I find the tro that i need to take, and some women cuts in front of me, and takes the last seat! WHAT!*! So i had to wait for the next tro to fill (there are generaly anywhere from 10 to 14 seats on the tros). This takes over an hour, so of course i take advantage of all the things that these wonderful men and women have been making all morning AKA Bofriut (donuts), fried rice, and some candies; it was a good waiting time.
Once the tro filled, we were off! It takes around 2 hours to get to Madina, but on the way there....as we were climbing a hill....our tro decides to slowly die.....smoke starts to billow out and the car will not stay on anymore. At this time, i will tell you my mantra that i have devloped while travleing around...."Trust in Ghana.....Trust in Ghana......". We were able to get the car to a more level place where we could find water and some other myserious liquid that fixed our tro (yay)! I get to Madina, hop on another tro to get to the Accra Peace Corps Office ( FINALLY). Also, half way through this adventure, my ipod dies....and man...do i depend on this little piece technology!
So here i am, sitting in an AIR CONDITIONED room with a glass of cold water, using Fast internet, and feeling AMAZING. Im gonna be getting some Amazing food while here, cause you can get just about anything you want in this City. So that has been my day so far! Life in Ghan, you just never know what is going to happen to you, but what can you do, but smile and say..." O Ghana, i never get bord with you, Thanks for changing it up everyday!"
Till next time!

A funny thing happened on the way.....

This is a story that happened a while ago, but i feel should be told to the world! ( all names have been changed so as to not embaress my fellow PCV....:)

Once upon a time, in a land far....far away, there was the group of PCV that had some place to go, and they choose to leave at the worst time, when traffic was terrible and the Tro was very full, but what were they to do? They pilled onto the Tro (Pushing and shoving to make sure they even got a seat on it in the first place) and ened up sitting in the very back two rows. Once everyone was on the tro, we set off......for a land of Traffic and Cement walls. While waiting in Traffic, one of my fellow PCV, looked over at me and said " I have to PEE.....like NOW"....since we were in this land of traffic and cement walls, there was no place to stop so that she could take pee. We thought that maybe once traffic started to go, we could ask them to stop for her...only prob. was....we did not move for a LONG time in this over crowded tro. Thank goodness, we had a fellow PCV that turned out to be McGeiver ( I cant spell his name, but i think who u know im talking about)! He happen to have a very large plasitc bottle, which he than cut the top of it off, and presented it to her, so that she may reliver herself. one problem, she was sandwitched inbetween two Ghanaians, in the second to last row, so we had to switch places. This entailed a very entertaining view im sure, of my butt up in the air and her body crawling over mine. But we were successfull and she was able to get into the last row and use the plastic "urninal" that McGeiver made for us!
We than had the problem of what to do with her....Pee....since we were in the middle of the city, with no place to put it ( and let me say, she filled that baby up....good job!) Thank goodness, the tro gods were looking out for us, and we started to move out of the city, and into places that we could dispose of the pee much eaiser without any notice.
SO that is the story of tros, pee, cement walls, and the Amazing skills of Peace Corps Volunteers!

Meetings, people, and food....O My!

This past weekend has been an amazing time! It started on wed. when i was supossed to meet with a group of farmers and talk about projects and what their plans are, and how i can help. But see, the thing is, i kinda left my phone at site, and was thus not able to contact these nice gentleman to come and pick me up in this town that i had never heard of, so instead i went to another volunteers site and helped her move in and get comfortable in her new place. Ooo, one reason i was not able to just go back and get my cell phone, was that i had already crossed the river and it would have taken me another 2 hours to get back to my site and than try to get back to the town they were going to meet me in. Anyway, i had an amazing time with my friend Andy and her new roomate Mabel, who are both teaching at a Teaching college here in Ghana ( in other words, they are teachers for People we will become teachers). On Friday, Andy and i went to Kumasi for our VAC (volunteer advisory committey) meeting which is held 3 times a year and all of the volunteers in the eastern region are to come. We talked about what events are coming up in the next few months, what we want to see done and if we had any problems that management needed to know about. We also talked about our next GLOW (girls leading our world) camp, which i am VERY intrestred in, since i have been working at camps for around 6 years ( CRAZY, that i had been doing it for soooo long), so we are going to have another meeting just on that in Novemeber. It was Great to meet all the current volunteers that are in my region.
After the meeting, a group of us went into town and had a Very nice dinner. We went to Sir Maxs and had super good pizza and Hamburgers...as well as some ice cream....yummmmm! gotta treat your self every once in awhile to some good ol american food. On sunday, i skyped with my famliy for the first time since being here (it had been 4 months since we had seen each other faces), it was awesome to get to talk to them face to face~ OO, i almost forgot...I got a bike FINALLY!!!! I can now travel around my village ALOT easier, but it should be intresting to get my bike back to my village....im sure it will be fine!
I just finished cooking dinner with 3 other volunteers, and boy was it good. we made a "cheese" (laughing cow cheese) cream saw with carrots, green pepers, onions and garlic, over noodles. Than had some Chips Ahoy cookies which a Volunteer left behind ( THANKS BYRD!) for dessert. Well, that is about it for now, I travel back to site tomorrow, and dont plan on traveling again for some time!
*in the words of a PCV- The days go by slowly, but man do the weeks fly by!*

Just a small view into my life....

 This is the entrance to my compound and new home-this used to be the clinic, but they built a new one...thank god

 This is the courtyard that i share with the rest of my fellow Ghanaian's

 The view of my room when you first walk in....thats my water filter in the corner  there- i will soon be repainting my room since i can not deal with this super BLUE color

My bed....with the amazing mosquito net protecting me every night

4 months in Africa, and i still am not tan......

Welcome! I have now been at site for almost a month now and things have become much better; i am not nearly as bored as i once was.....Thank god! just to put it into perspective, i have read 8 books, in three weeks, oy! but i have learned many things about many people, like how china hates Tibet, and nelson Mandela was one amazing guy, and that one should never be friends with a zombi! There are some things that i struggling with in Ghana because of the way that i was raised in America. I have found that i do not like sharing my food, i am very selfish and want it all to myself, where in Ghana you must invite all of those that are around you to eat, when eating, it is only polite; i have not been very good about that. I need to learn not to be selfish with my food, which amazes me that i am since we in America have so much food and dont share very often, but here in Ghana, where many dont have enough money to live, will gladly give you any and all of the food they have, to help you out. Shame America, we need to learn from Ghana, and go back to our kindergartner roots, and learn to share better.
Speaking of kindergartner (KG), I am soon going to be teaching at my villages primary school in the kg class. I know, crazy right? but they need me something bad, cause right now there are 55 children in one class, ranging in ages 3-7 with only one teacher (i have no idea how this women does it), so they want to split the class, and give me the older kids to teach. Im sure you have now thought...."tess, do these kids even speak english?" and i will tell you, Nope, they dont! So, i am unsure as to how it is going to work since i only know small small Ewe (the local language that they speak) and they only know small small english, but i think with some time, we can learn to understand each other better. I am unsure as to how things will go, but i am positive that whatever happens, that i will get a lot out of it, as well as the kids getting a lot out of it.
Since i am now living on my own, i have been cooking for myself 3 times a day and boy, have i become very inventive with what i am now using, cause its all that i can get! the things i can now do with green peppers, carrots and cabbage is amazing!!!!
I am learning many things about myself while in Ghana. this is the first time that i have ever lived by myself, and it has taken some time to get used to it, since as many of u may know, i like to socialize and be around people! I am very fortunate to have people around me that speak english very well and know many things about America and Americans. there is one guy named Omar, and he is teaching me about Muslims and their faith, since i knew NOTHING about it at all.  It has been very enlightening to get his take on the world and we have many lively discussions about human nature.
Next week, i am going into Kumasi which is one of the largest towns in Ghana for a meeting with all of my fellow volunteers that live in the Eastern region. I am Super excited for three reason: 1. i get to travel  2. I am getting my bike 3. I am getting a kitten!!!!!!! 4. I get to eat yummy food ( i know i said three, but i forgot about awesome food....) I am so super excited about getting a kitten!!!! I already sound like a crazy person to many people, because i have named certain animals that i see everyday (like Chester, the no tail rooster, and penny, the doting chicken mother) these are the things that are occupying my time.
I am prepping for many things to do in the upcoming months in my community (other than naming the animals that i see around town) like a fire education class for the community, and an environmental club for the students. I am also going to try and set up a bee keeping group and to get my community to utilize the Shea trees that they have in their area.
Well, untill next time, that is most of what has been going on in my life and in my head!

Wait....these past months have been Winter?????

Hello all and welcome to my life as a new offical PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER!!!!! On August 30th, 69 of us swore in as the next group of volunteers to Ghana! The past three months has flown by/dragged by very slowly. I wont lie, i enjoyed all the training that we got, technical was the best times ever with my fellow NRM peeps! But all those times have past, and now i am at site, in a small town called mem chemfre in the Eastern region. for the next 3 months, all new volunteers have to stay at site; we are not to travel other than to our market town or for a meeting that we must go to! this is will be difficult for me, i love to move and see and travel, and now i must stay at site. I understannd the importance of this, cause i must get to know my community and have them get used to me and have me better understand the language, but oy, I dont know what to do with myself, with all this free time. I have been told what to do for the past 20 years of my life, and now im on my own, with no car and no one that speaks my language near me. It will take some time to get used to not doing much. As an American, i have never been taught how to be "still", how to appercate silence and the value of just sitting and watching the world. If i get nothing out of peace corps other than this very important lesson, than i would have learned a valuable part how who i am and how i fit into this world. Ok, so that was a little deep....to a lighter subject, I have moved on from my romance novels and now truly enjoy a book that makes me think! for those who knew me in college, know what a big step this is for me!! :)
I would like to remind everyone that letters and postcards always make my day and i just sent out 5 letters to people, so you will for sure get something back! Well, that is about all that is going on in my life for the moment. I will fill you in when something else happens! Hope all who read this have a Fantastic day!!

The Ramblings Of an African God...or so they say

For the past 5 weeks, i have been doing......lord....what have i not been doing!! My crew..aka the awesome people that are Natural Resource Management, and we traveled around in a big peace corps bus all around the country. our first stop....Brong Afafo region....Techiman. Techiman is home to the largest outside market in West Africa....Of course it was not going on while we were there, but that's OK. Here we stayed at one of the most wonderful places i have ever stayed....It is home to Monks and set in the most beautiful place. There were massive rocks to climb on and views to die for if you can reach the top. Here we learned about how to make soap, cultivate mushrooms and learn that monks really do like it quiet...and well we, might not have been the best guests in that way...Sorry monks! We than got into the bus again and made an 8 hour trip up to the upper east region, to a town called Bolgatanga. There we stayed at a spiritual retreat that was very nice, had some good times there....poker nights.....water sachet fights and quality time with the donkeys. Here we learned about bee keeping, NGOs, GoGs, Rabbit rearing (gulp....Scary rabbits), and some other things that i really cant remember at this time.... From here we went to Tamale, which is in the northern region. The was the nicest place that we stayed....it was almost cruel to house us here cause we are not going to be living that nice for a loooonnnnggggg time! Here we learned about Vetiver grass...which is this amazing grass that cures cancer ( not really, but man does this stuff help the world...almost as good as Morianga) you should look up both of these plants, cause they are amazing! We got to meet a lot of current volunteers which was nice! than we got back onto the bus for the last time and made our 10 hour journey back to home stay in Maase, Eastern region. So thats where i am right now, freaking out about an exam that i have this wend. to see how well i know my language.... Oye!!!!!!!! Also only 9 days till i swear in as an official peace corps  volunteer! gonna be good times!!!!!!!!!!