Physics of the Quest

So I recently watched the movie Eat Pray Love which is a movie starring Julia Roberts. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's about a woman who takes a year long journey through Italy, India, and Bali (that's probably spelled really wrong so sorry about that) to basically get a change from her life in America, learn about the world, learn about herself, and experience new things. She has good days, some bad days, and some really bad days. She faces language barriers, cultural barriers, meets some amazing people, and learns a lot of new things. Anyways, I feel as though many of the main plot points resemble my life these days. At the end of the movie she says, "In the end, I've come to believe in something I call "The Physics of the Quest." A force in nature governed by laws as real as the laws of gravity. The rule of Quest Physics goes something like this: If you're brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting, which can be anything from your house to bitter, old resentments, and set out on a truth-seeking journey, either externally or internally, and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher and if you are prepared, most of all, to face and forgive some very difficult realities about yourself, then the truth will not be withheld from you." - Eat Pray Love. I started thinking about this and realized how much I have learned since I've been in Ghana. I even learn from the small children or from people who can't speak any English. Even on the bad days I learn something new and something wonderful, which makes it all worth the diarrhea and the harassment and the poor test scores and the serious lack of good chocolate. I will regard every single person I meet as a teacher because we all have something to share in this life. I can only hope that I will be able to share as much as I've been given...
Alright, enough with that stuff. Here's the list.
1. Well I told you all that I was sick a few weeks ago. Strangely enough it seems every single person in my village also found out. I was visited by all of the teachers at my school, and from the primary, and from the kindergarten. I'd say I had at least one visitor an hour for like 3 days straight. Part of me loves this, and part of me hates this. In America when we are sick, especially if it involves the gastrointestinal stuff, we don't really like to tell people. It's not like that here. In fact it's the other way around. If you don't tell people you are/were sick they become angry with you. Thankfully I only missed two days of school, but even that put me behind quite a bit.
2. We had our first staff meeting last week. It was a combined meeting between the kindergarten, primary, and JHS because we are such a small staff. We talked about quite a lot of things that I didn't even know existed. For example, we have things called thrift-and-loan, and welfare. They are programs in place where you put in certain amount of money every month. The welfare is mandatory and the thrift-and-loan is optional. Say for example you need money for something, but you don;t have it. You are able to take money from the thrift-and-loan and it has an interest rate (which I don't remember, maybe 10 percent?), so when you pay the money back everyone who has put money in has made a little bit of money. The idea is that at the end of the year (I think) we all get back the money we put in, plus the interest we have collected. Since Peace Corps Volunteers aren't allowed to make any money for their personal gain, I would use the money to help pay for a student's school fees or something. The welfare is similar but every month all of the teachers put in 5 cedis (there's 16 of us I believe - so 80 cedis a month), and its used for things like birthdays, deaths in the family, marriages, having a baby, and an end of year celebration. Each of these occasions has a set pay out fee that the person gets if one of these things happens. For example, on your birthday you get 50 cedis. Yay! We also talked about things like forcing the students in the primary school to speak English because several of them can't by the time they get to form 1 in the JHS, which makes my job impossible. Also, we need to be present, on time, every day. Typical staff meeting type things.
3. Most exciting thing recently was the traditional Ghanaian wedding that was at my house over the weekend. I say traditional because everyone here was calling it traditional, but to me it seemed very westernized. Some aspects are different, but many are very similar. So on Saturday morning around 10am the two families met to discuss the things that will be given as gifts. Typical things include alcohol, tobacco, and fabric. It was explained to me that the bride will take someone to be her "father" that is usually another family member or close friend, but is not her actual father. This "father" does a lot of the negotiating and is very active in the wedding. The brides family sits on one side, the grooms family on the other. The groom was sitting with his family, but the bride was inside still until much later in the ceremony. They do prayers, introductions (Which included mother, father, grandparents, and for some reason me. Even though I've never met the bride of the groom, but I just so happen to have white skin which makes me an important honorary guest), greetings and the man’s family explains why the bride’s family should allow her to go to their family. Then they collect money “to pay for the brides flight from America to Ghana" (actual words). Several women went into the room and made a procession to lead the bride outside. They pretended they were a plane (coming from America) and the bride comes out and sits in a chair near her side of the family. They then do a little service about how a man and a woman should be in a marriage and then the brides family physically gives her to the man and his family. Then the pastor comes and blesses the ring (they didn’t have one for the man, I don’t know why) they do the typical man putting the ring on the brides hand but instead of kissing they hug. Public display of affection is not accepted here. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that. Then there was dancing and similar to how they do it in the US you go and give the new couple money as they are dancing. This whole thing went about 5 hours straight. Then there was a reception with music, food, drinking, and dancing. This was all done on Saturday. On Sunday both sides of the family come back together to distribute the gifts. Most of the gifts were alcoholic: gin, whiskey, and some other spirits. There was also tobacco, and several other wrapped things that I don’t know, but I have been told that usually you include some nice fabric for the mother of the bride because of the fact that she carried the woman on her back for several years. I was told that the man is the one who pays for all of the things involved in the wedding. Separating out the gifts took about 3 hours because there was a lot of arguing and going back and forth. At the end, everyone present must take some sort of drink that was bought for the wedding: beer, spirits or soda which represents that you were a witness to the wedding. Also there was a lot of people at the wedding with cameras and since I’m a white person I managed to be in about 70% of these photos, even though I didn't know anyone. All in all it was a lot of fun.
4. Extra classes have started so I'm extra busy. Teaching ICT to 30 students with 1 computer is not easy-o.
5. There are designated weeks when all teachers are supposed to give class tests so this past week was test week. That means I gave 3 tests to the form ones, 1 to the form twos, and 1 to the form threes. UGH! I had some students who wrote literally nothing. Didn't even try to guess something that we had talked about in class, the just sat there for the whole class period, and wrote nothing. Some students did exceptionally well, and most of the students did about average. I had 6 form one students that I caught cheating. Side note: cheating on homework and tests, even standardized tests, is very common here. They learn this from the time they are in the primary schools, and it is a very hard habit to break. The problem is they aren't very good at it. They seem to think I can see them when they blatantly bring out their note books. So anyways, as punishment I made the 6 students come to my house and hand wash my clothes and fetch water for my poly tank. You may be thinking "Oh my God Sam, how could you do such a terrible thing? Are you even allowed to do that?" Well in reality this is a far less punishment than they are used to because the other teachers would cain them, but I'm not allowed to use a cain (Peace Corps rules). Also, I could (and most volunteers do) just make the students wash my clothes and fetch water just because without it being a punishment.
6. On Friday we had sports day which means all of the kids went and played soccer in the field. The teachers and a few older students played volleyball... have I mentioned I'm really, really bad at volleyball? Well, I am, and I'm pretty sure I embarrassed myself in front of several teachers and students. I told them that next sports day we are going to play a sport that I'm good at so I chose ultimate frisbee. We'll see how that goes.
7. Other notes:
-Some of us bought cheese in Ho. For a tiny block it's 10 cedis, which is a lot to us but it was delicious.
-I'm thinking of starting a boys/girls club with my form 3 students where the girls and boys meet separately every other week to talk about thing like puberty, sex, STDs, nutrition, and whatever else they have questions about. I asked them if they were interested and they said yes so I have to talk to my counterpart and headmaster now.
-I get "scolded" by my landlord/Ghanaian father about what time I should be home at, and who I should and should not talk to.

Yah I think that's about it for now. Until next time :)
P.S. Don't ever think for a second that a person won't be able to teach you something new, we can learn something from every experience if we just open our eyes.

"The Club"

So what’s new? I’ll give you a list because it’s easier that way

1. I was formally invited to a fundraiser at the church I have been attending. They want to raise money so that they can buy new instruments for the band (namely a guitar). Should be a good time!

2. I need to make an effort to read more about what is going on in the US. Most of the literate people that I talk to are very informed about things like US politics, economics, and other social things. They try to ask me questions or make conversations about things and I have no idea what they’re talking about…

3. So I’ve finished two weeks of school, and it went really well… I think. I didn’t teach at all the first week because the students were going to farm and cleaning and we were giving tests to the P6 students who were trying to come to F1. We discovered that some of the students can’t spell their names, can’t read, can’t do simple math, but some of them (9 to be exact) were able to pass the test and come to F1. Some of those who failed the test have been in P6 for four years now so the primary school said they aren’t allowed to come back and they have to find a different school to go to. The second week of school was good. I’m getting to know my students better and I hope that they are starting to understand my accent.

4. I’m having a bit of an internal struggle because a few of my students in F1 don’t know English very well (some can’t read, some barely understand anything I say), and many struggle with it. So do I stop my ICT, Math, and Science lessons to teach English? Maybe. That would help all of the students struggling with English, but we wouldn’t get very far in the subject I’m supposed to be teaching. Or do I continue on with the subject and try to stick to the syllabus for those who do understand and are doing well so that when they have to take the end of term exams they are able to do well and pass? For now I’m trying to do a little bit of both. That is I call on students who aren’t raising their hands to read what I write on the board and to try and explain what it is that I’m talking about. It’s going OK, but the other students laugh when they make mistakes, which we all know is bad for self-confidence and such. It is only going to make them not want to try at all. I have told them all that if anyone laughs at another student when I ask them a question or while they are reading they will be coming to my house after school to fetch water so we’ll see how that goes.

5. Have I mentioned I don’t like funerals? They seem to just bring a lot of new people into my town that I don’t know and they don’t know me so they assume I’m a tourist or something. They call me Yevu (white person/foreigner) and sometimes I go up to them and make conversation and ask for their name, tell them my name (all in the local language), and then the next time they see me they greet me, but it gets exhausting having to deal with so many new people all the time. Also they blare loud music. I mean so loud that I can hear it across town. I like the idea of celebrating the deceased’s life instead of mourning it, but I don’t like all the unwanted attention. I guess that’s just something I’ll have to get used to. Oh and they’re three days long…

6. On Fridays I only teach one class in the mornings so after that I went with my counterpart teacher into Ho to go to the Yam festival. Once there we met up with several other teachers from my school and surrounding schools. It is hard to understand many of the cultural things that go on here because we don’t really have the same concepts in English, and to be honest it often seems like people just participate in these events without actually knowing what the purpose is so it is hard for them to explain things to me. Anyways, the people who believe in the traditional rituals, traditions, festivals, etc. believe that people shouldn’t eat yams until they have been blessed by the elders and offered to the ancestors. That means that from about April-September (I think) people don’t eat yams. During the festival they elders bless the yams and allow the ancestors to eat the yams first and then everyone else can eat the yams. On Friday they had a huge parade with hundreds of people walking down the main road, playing music, and dancing. The women were all wearing extremely short shorts (even by American standards) and neon colored clothing. Many of them were also wearing leggings, which is common for this festival. The men were also wearing strange clothing, and almost everyone was drunk. Since times like this can be kind of dangerous for foreigners, my counterpart teacher and a teacher from the primary school were walking on either side of me trying to stay as close as possible because people were grabbing at me (not necessarily in an aggressive/violent way, they just wanted to walk with me or dance with me). Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but one of the other teachers took some pictures so hopefully I’ll be able to get them and post them so that everyone can see. The closest thing I can compare it to is St. Patrick’s Day in downtown Buffalo. Huge crowds of people, dancing, mass quantities of alcohol, music, and strange clothes. I had a lot of fun, and I should be going to the second part of the festival next weekend so more to come on this subject.

7. So I’m not sure if this is a secret reserved only for Peace Corps Volunteers so I might get in trouble for sharing this with all of you, but oh well. So there is “a club” known to Peace Corps Volunteers (I’m not sure if it’s in all Peace Corps countries or only Ghana). Anyways, there is only one way to join this special “club” and that is to shit your pants. They say that if you finish your service without joining “the club” at least once then you are somewhat of a rarity and it is very uncommon because most people do it at least once, and some do it several times. That being said, I joined “the club” this past weekend. I’ll spare you all the details, but it wasn’t that bad. In my group of 25 we had at least three people join during training, and that’s just the ones I know of. Some people said that if they joined they wouldn’t admit it to anyone. I have been sick for about 4 days now with a fever of at least 100 F, so I won’t be going to school this morning. Hopefully I’ll start to feel better soon!

8. Well that’s about all. If you guys have any questions or suggestions for future blog posts let me know! Maybe there’s something you’re wondering about or a cultural aspect you don’t quite understand. Soon I’ll start to run out of ideas and my posts will become very boring. Also, I’m starting to get used to everything so after a while I won’t know what to write about, so let me know!

School is starting! Are you sure?

Yay new blog! Ok so here are some new things that have been going on. School was supposed to start on the 4^th of September. The week before classes I was trying to figure out what classes I would be teaching so that I could start preparing, but my headmaster and counterpart teacher said we would talk about that the first day school opened because for the first week the students would just be cleaning anyways. Ok. So on Monday the 3^rd I called my headmaster around 2pm to find out what time I should be at school the next morning. He told me he was coming to my village soon and we could talk about it then. So I waited, and waited, then waited some more, then called him around 4pm (he said he was coming soon), then waited some more, the called him around 6pm (he was still coming), then I left my house. I figured I would see him when he got to town or he would call me. So he shows up to my village around 8pm and informs me that the children would be going to the school maize farm the next day so I didn’t have to come to school.

Well I went anyway around 11 and was able to talk to my headmaster. It looks like I’ll be teaching 5 classes: ICT (computers) 1, 2, and 3, math 1, and science 1. Maybe… This is a lot to take on so I’ll be pretty busy, but it will be back to my old life of being a work-a-holic right?

Anyways he told me I should come back the next morning (today) around 7:30. So I get there a little early and no one is to be seen except for some nice men that were doing voter registration that entertained me for about 3 hours (now 10:30 and still no one at my school). I decided to go and get some food and within an hour I start to see some kids headed towards the school so I follow. They were busy sweeping and cleaning, and my teacher and one other were busy interviewing the kids from P6. Side note: In Ghana the grades go Kindergarten 1, Kindergarten 2, Primary 1-6, JHS 1-3, SHS 1-3. To go from P6 to J1 you must pass a test. It seems like the kids in P6 range from about 10-14 years old, so you would think they could read, and add. Wrong. As I was sitting and listening to the interviews some of the questions that the students couldn’t answer were: “How do you spell your name?” “How do you spell ‘orange’?” “What is 5+4?” but my favorite question was “Who is the current President of Ghana?” So I’m not sure if I ever wrote about this, but the former President of Ghana, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, died on July 24^th of this year and was replaced by President John Dramani Mahama. Ok back to the point of the story. Most of the students said that Atta Mills was still president, but my favorite answer was that Barack Obama was the current President of Ghana… You learn something new everyday. Thankfully I wasn’t the only one shocked by the student’s performance. My counterpart teacher and another teacher at my school both were surprised by the results. Anyways, the kids will go back to the farm in the morning, but I should be able to do some review classes in the afternoon.

So what else is new?

I have been selling things like bread, sugar, ground nuts, garri, etc. from a little shop type thing owned by a woman in town who I visit a lot. It’s a lot of fun, and the people in town think it’s great. It gives me a chance to practice my local language!

“Lights out” is an English term used by Ghanaians when the electricity goes out (happens rather frequently and can last anywhere from 5 minutes up to hours). The sun sets around 6:30 and its pretty dark by around 7, but the other day the lights went out around 8pm. Luckily I was sitting outside when this happened and it just so happened to be an amazing night to see the stars. It tends to be overcast a lot here so it is rare to have a good view, but it was completely clear this night. The moon was also an orange-ish color which was awesome! I just sat with a few kids in my lap looking up at the stars.

My village is extremely quiet compared to what I was used to at homestay. People here either don’t have the equipment to blare loud music or they chose not to, either way I love it. It’s also much smaller so there are less people. Needless to say I’ve been able to sleep in until like 7am every morning! It has been heavenly. Usually I wake up to one of the small children I hang out with at my window saying “Daavi Adzo” (which is my name in town – literally translates to Sister Monday-born). I go an open my door and there is two or three of them coming to greet me. It always puts a smile on my face!

I managed to get really sick for the first time. You’re probably thinking I was vomiting or had some type of horrible explosive diarrhea. Well you’re wrong. Instead I have this nasty head cold accompanied by sneezing, coughing, fever, headache, chills, etc. You may now be wondering how I caught said cold. Well I’ll tell you. It just so happens that these children (don’t get me wrong, I love them already) that I have been hanging out with like to touch my face, my food, the straw for my water bottle when I’m not looking, etc. So germs spread and it went from one child being sick, to all of the children to me. I don’t even want to think about the contaminated things that have made their way to my mouth…

My water filter was invaded by the little tiny ants I have been talking about. I washed the whole thing out and I have attempted to seal all entrances with duct tape (there’s nothing duct tape can’t fix, right?)… I’ll keep you updated.

Other news: 1 USD is currently equal to 1.93 Ghana Cedi (let’s just say that’s 2 Cedis). Some things I can buy for 2 Cedis: a large loaf of bread, a coke and about 2 shots, 20 water sachets (500 ml of water each), 2 huge meals (if you buy them from a seller on the street), and lots more!

I’ve been eating a lot of fish in many forms including sardines and little (whole) minnows. Don’t get me wrong, I like fish, but I’ll probably never want to eat it again once I get back to the states.

Some other things that I forgot to put in my last blog about Ghana include:

-The term “running”. In the US we use this term to describe the physical activity of exercising. Here it is used to describe having diarrhea. So if you are jogging somewhere and someone asks you what you are doing (which they always will), and you say running they will assume you are trying to get to the nearest toilet very quickly. Instead you have to say jogging or training. On this note it is perfectly acceptable for someone to ask you if you are “running” if they have witnessed you go to the toilet several times in a short time period.

-Adding an “o” to the end of words. Examples include: “Bye bye-o” “Sorry-o” “I’m coming-o” “It’s not easy-o” “Morning-o”. I’m not really sure of the meaning/purpose behind this, but all of us seem to have picked it up very quickly so you can be sure that you returning volunteer will use these terms in their every day conversations.

-And last, but certainly not least, machetes. I’m going to be honest here so don’t judge me. Before coming to Ghana I assumed, inappropriately, that machetes were only used in violence. Well I was definitely wrong. Machetes are used by hundreds of people every day at farm, to cut things, and to weed (kind of like mowing the lawn). It is perfectly to walk through town carrying a machete, most people own one, and they are super common. So weeding. It never occurred to me that they wouldn’t have lawn mowers here, but very few people here do. Instead they take advantage of their most active work force: children. On any given day, in some town in Ghana, I can guarantee that there is a group of small children (aged anywhere from maybe 4-15) weeding some patch of grass or field. There first time I saw such a large group of children all hacking away at grass with machetes my jaw dropped. In the US we would never let a child use a large knife, especially unsupervised for the most part. Of course I’m used to it by now and it seems like a common thing. I will try to get a picture of this process if I ever have my camera handy when I see this.

I was feeling kind of blah the other day, getting sick, missing home and friends, but I got to talk to my family and a few friends and I’m feeling better now. Otherwise my village is great, everyone knows my name, everyone is friendly, the weather has been good, haven’t had much trouble with biting insects, I’ve been to drink palm wine twice, bought a guitar (not sure if I’ve already mentioned this), the sunsets are beautiful, and I’m loving life.

Wow this is long… I started this because I was bored, but thought it would be really short. Enjoy!