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. 

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!