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. 

That Monkey Stole My Pineapple...and Other Tales

Where to start.......Lets be sequential and start at the beginning; it all started with a journey across the Afram Plains where i live, to a place called Mole National Park. It takes me 6 changes of vehicles to get there....over 17 hours and some interesting times! but i have gotten ahead of myself, lets back track to where the fun really started.
 My friend Andi and i are making this journey together, we start at her place, than go to the Nkawkaw station, get a car no problem at 6am. We arrive in Kumasi around 830am, to try and find a car to Tamale....Now this sounds simple, and really should be simple, since both of these towns are large and visited often; But no....This is Ghana...and even the simplest things can get way out of hand.....very fast. One of the best things about Ghana is when you are lost, all you have to do is go up to someone and ask them where to go and they will tell you! It has been a very good experience for me to have to ask people questions on where in the world i am going, since i was one of those who NEVER asked back in the states; now i don't think i will have that problem. After walking for about 30 mins all around Kumasi to find the station that will get us a car to Tamale, we finally get there, and with good timing. We hop on a VIP bus ( this is similar to a greyhound and very nice) and head out on our 7 hour journey in relative comfort.
We than get to Tamale and spend the night at the TSO (the northern Peace Corps Sub-office). We wake up early (again) to find a car that will take us to Mole. Now, let me pause here and say this is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Ghana, so it should have a very simple and easy way to get there for all those who are coming from around the world to see this place, Wrong! There is no car that will take us straight there, so we have to pick a car that will get us close to the place, where we than will have to take a taxi to get to the actual park! All of this takes us around 4 1/2 hours. When we do the car change in Demango, we of course pick up our favorite things......Loaf of bread, box wine and juice! We are volunteers here and don't have the money to buy 3 meals a day at a resort! Anywoo, got to the park, got to our rooms, which were very nice. Three people to a room, Super comfy beds, working shower and flush toilet in each room, and with a porch on the back! Amazing value for only around 15 bucks a night!

One of the best things about this place is the fact that is has full pool!!!!!! O, but i do love a Pool! So of course the first thing we do is but on our suits and get in! We were all SUPER dusty and gross from traveling, so this helped Alot. While in the pool, Jo, one of the girls with us, spotted our first elephant!!!!! It was amazing! I have been to zoos, worked at zoos, see elephants up close, but there is nothing that can compare to seeing an animal that large in such a wide open space. I would have thought that it would make them look smaller, but i was wrong, they seemed even larger and so much...I dont even know the right word to use. It took my breath away to see how elephants should always look and be. We got there on Christmas eve, and decided to do a walking safari on Christmas morning (how many people can say they have done that?). So again we wake up early (are you seeing a pattern to Ghana, to do anything, u wake up early), and start off on our adventure through the park for a two hour walking tour with an armed gaurd.....just in case.

On this walk we saw a bunch of Bush bucks, Cobbs, Green monkeys, Birds, Warthogs and of course Baboons! Sorry to say we were not able to see elephants close up, but we saw plenty more of them later in the day. Once we got back, we had our free b-fast ( at which point a Baboon came and thought baout stealing it, but Hannah b saved our food by yelling and baring her teeth, Thanks Hannah!), than to the pool again. During this time i was reading Tess of the D'ubervilles, I have always wanted to read that book, and am very glad i did, it was good! On Christmas day, we all sat around listening to x-mass music, swimming and watching the elephants play down below us in the water. That night we all had dinner together (most of us had cheese bugers and fry's....YUMMM), and drank some lovely beer or box wine, as is the classy thing to do in Ghana.
We were going to leave the next day, but deceied that we needed one more day here, so we rounded up our money and stayed another Wonderful night at Mole. The last day we were there, and did something not to smart; we were cutting a pineapple outside, near the pool, and one of the monkeys came and took off with it! I say this is more our fault than its, but damn was it not one of the funniest things ever!
We left the next day and traveled all around to get back home! Hope this entertained you a bit into the life in which i living!

The Commonalities of Ghana, let me count the ways.....

Here is a List of things commonly done, seen or felt in Ghana:
1. Getting anything i could ever need from a top the head of a women ( and i mean anything-food, drink, toys, razors, toothpaste, sewing machines, chickens (alive), ect.)
2. Having a simple hand signal tell a driver where you are going
3. LOUD MUSIC AT ALL TIMES OF DAY AND NIGHT
4. Sleeping under a mosquito net
5. Cooking three meals a day....everyday
6. Wondering what type of meat i am Really eating....cause you just never really know here
7. Drinking water out of a plastic bag.....usally bought from a top someone head...avalable EVERYWHERE in Ghana
8. Babys slung on the back of everyone women, being help up by some miracle of cloth twists
9. Using powder milk for everything...
10. Perfecting my dutch oven temps...harder than it sounds
11. Getting into a car and never knowing how fast your going because no instruments work
12. Fitting 8 people in a car....a regular sized sedan...Talk about getting close to your neighboor
13. Being called white person in 57 differnt languages
14. Getting treated differnetly because i am white
15. All food either being bland or spicey
16. Seeing breasts ALL the time
17. Being called beautiful and than proposed to daily
18. Emonional swings with out being hormonal
19. Never being truly clean
20. Seeing the Brittish spelling of words
21. Being worken up by roosters, guina fowl, African doves, and small childern most mornings
22. Making the perfect egg sammie and than showing it off to everyone
23. Sitting and doing nothing for hours, just watching and listening
24. Greeting everyone you see, meet, look in the eyes
25. Being asked by childern and adults alike for money or food or toys ALL the time because im white and rich.....so not true!

So those are just a few of things that i thought might be an intresting insight into my Ghanaian Life.

Turkey....Can you hear me??

Dear Ghana,
Let me count the ways in which i love you and life at the moment! First things first, i have finally gotten a hold of my room and made it my own! ( i know it has taken me 3 months to do it, but now its amazing) I have painted it a lovely Grey and Purple, I had shelves made for my bedroom and kitchen, as well as a screen door (which they call a trap door here...not the best name for it...) for my bedroom. I am going to be getting fake wood floors as well soon, so that i do not have to look at the concrete anymore!
Teaching has been going well, I taught them itsy bitsy spider the other day, as well as head shoulders knees and toes! I am going to be starting an Eco-Theater club with the Junior high school kids soon! Ghanaians LOVE to act and play around, so i am going to combine the two loves in my life and do small shows about how we can improve our community! I am also going to be doing a "club" for the primary school (elementeray to all of those in America) which is pretty much me just reading story's to them and playing small small games. I am also starting the slow process of starting a bee keeping group in my community. 
*This is a call out to ANYONE that knows of any bee companys, I need some help and would love to get any contact info that you know of!*
My counter part and i went up to a IST (in-sercive training) about Shea Trees, since most people in my area are cutting them down and useing them for charcole, instead of useing the nuts to make shea butter and other things, so we are going to try and get them to stop useing the shea trees, and use some of the other trees in the area that are grown just for charcole production. This IST was in the Upper West, and took us two days to get there! That was the last region in Ghana that i had not been too, so now i can say that i have seen all of the regions in Ghana!!!! From There i took a 15 hour bus ride down to Accra! Oye, that was a very long day!
Now i am in Accra for Turkey day celebrations! The US ambassador hosts all of the PCV for a good ol' thanksgiving day dinner!! He does this out of the kindness of his heart and Boy, do we ALL appercate it so much! So a big THANKS to you! Also, since most of us have to travel far to get here, they set us up with expats (aka people who are working in Ghana from America) to stay with. I won the lottery with this, me and another girl got set up with two of the most amazing men ever! (Ted and Paul)! Their house is amazing, the food....O the delious food that we have been having, and this morning they brought in a women to give us Mani/Pedis, so i feel utterly female at the moment and loving it! what a nice change to the dirt and scruff that i usually am!
And my last bit of news....I got a KITTEN!!!!!!!!!! His name is Echo, hes a grey tabby and AMAZING! I will post pictures soon of him and my new room's look!
Ok, well thanks again for everything Ghana, Ted and Paul, The ambassador, Peace Corps, and well Everything!!
 I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL thanksgiving day!
Love,
Tess May

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!