4th of July, Site Visit, and Shadow Visit - June 24th 2012

July 24th 2012 - 4th of July, Site Visit, and Shadow Visit

            Wow I haven't written anything in almost a month so hopefully I can remember everything that's happened. We put on an awesome 4th of July celebration. We all brought a dish to pass and we ended up with apple crisp, apple pie, coleslaw, guacamole, fried chicken, tomato basil salad, pineapple, mango salsa, icecream floats, and I brought a box of cheese-its that my parents had sent to me (thanks Mom and Dad!). I had made everyone fill out some superlatives (best smile/eyes, best humor, etc) and we read the answers, which was a lot of fun. We also all sang the national anthem. Even though there wasn't any fireworks it was one of the best 4th of July's I've had!

            I ended up eating the snail that my homestay mom made... It was definitely interesting. She made it by boiling it in palm nut soup and serving it with banku. To me it tasted like a rubbery thing that had been rolling around in the dirt. I did have the opportunity to have some much better tasting snail made by someone else a few weeks later.

            We spent a few days learning Ewe that was supposed to help us when we went on out site visits. On July 8th we left for Kumasi. We stayed in a hotel type facility until the 12th doing a counterpart workshop. Each volunteer gets a counterpart person from their school (usually the same subject) that is meant to serve as a mentor, friend, guide, etc. for the next two years. Unfortunately my counterpart couldn't make it but the headmaster of the school came to do the workshop. We had sessions for three days about the role the counterpart is supposed to have, and the rules and regulations that Peace Corps has for the volunteers. On Thursday we left early in the morning to travel to our sites.

            My town is Saviefe Gbogame, in the Ho District, in the Volta Region. It took about 12 hours to get to my site from Kumasi. We arrived at Ho, which is the capital city of Volta, and my headmaster and I met up with Mike who is the volunteer that I'll be replacing. He helped us get back to my (soon to be) house. I'll be living in a compound with a few other people including my landlord who is also the head of the School Management Committee. About a year ago a woman moved in to help take care of my landlord and the compound. I will have the option to pay her every month to cook for me, but I haven't decided yet what I want to do. I'll have two rooms that are connected and they are completely furnished because I am lucky enough to be replacing a volunteer. There is a well right in the compound and I also have a mango tree! I am one of the few volunteers that has a flush toilet, but we all have electricity except for one (sorry-o Jessica). Thursday night we walked around the community and meet a bunch of people including some of the other teachers. On Friday we went to meet the chief early in the morning, and then we went to the school for a few hours. Since it is the end of the term the students were just reviewing for finals. The school is in a really nice location and I'm hoping to be able to start a school farm as a project. I was also able to meet a lot of the teachers at the primary school and the kindergarten (which I plan to spend a lot of time at). On Saturday morning Mike and I went out to the bush to drink palm wine and eat before going on a hike. The palm wine is collected from palm trees that have been cut and tipped onto their sides. They carve a hole through the trunk and place a container underneath it to collect the juice. If you drink the wine very early in the morning it is very sweet and it has a very low alcohol content. If the wine is left to ferment throughout the day the alcohol content increases. It is delicious no matter what time you drink it at though! They also use it to make apoteche (not sure how that's spelled). They use a system o f tubes to boil the wine and the collect it. It is very strong. I also had snail again, but this time I actually enjoyed it. It had been roasted over the fire and I think it was seasoned with pepe and salt. I also had banku and stew and bush chicken. Needless to say I was quite full by the time we set off on our hike up the mountain. Once we reached the top there was a lookout place that had an awesome view of the town on the other side. You could also see part of the Volta river. During my time there I just spent a lot of time trying to get to know a few people that will be helpful to me when I return. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming, and I think that I am really going to love my site! Mike has also been informing them for a while now that I am coming, and that they should treat me with the same respect that they treat him (thanks Mike!) so I should be in a pretty good situation.

            I left site early Saturday morning and traveled 12 hours to Cape Coast in Central Region. We are all required to do a shadow visit, which involves watching another Peace Corps volunteer teach. Unfortunately, the schedule didn't work out so well and we are shadowing during exam week so there isn't too much to do. We got to see the school, meet the teachers, and help mark exams, but we didn't get to see any teaching. On a more exciting note we did get to go to the beach in Cape Coast which was beautiful. We met up with a Health volunteer before going and got to help with a baby weighing in her town before going. The mothers would put their babies into a kind of fabric sling, pass me the babies, and I would hang the sling from a scale. They keep track of their weight so they can be sure that they are growing and getting enough nutrients. Many also got shots and Vitamin A. Afterwards we set off for Brenu beach (I think that's how it's spelled). Some beaches aren't so nice for swimming, but this one was really clean. We met another Education volunteer who had two trainees staying with her so we had quite a large group. We swam, ate coconut and pineapple, did some walking, and just relaxed. I got to try slack rope walking, which is like a rope tied between two trees and you try to balance on it. I wasn't very good, but it was fun! On the 19th we spent the night in Cape Coast so that it would be easier to travel in the morning. The place we stayed at had awesome food and smoothies! I definitely hope to be able to make it back to Cape Coast a few times over the next two years.