One year down...

Before I start my tribute to the last year, I just want to give you a little update of the last few weeks. There’s a group of American volunteers that have been coming to Ghana for the last four years and staying in the next town over. Some stay for a few weeks and some stay for a few months. Anyways, the first ones just arrived about a week ago so it’s been nice to have a few Americanized conversations about new things going on in the U.S. It’s strange how even though I’ve never met them before there is an instant closeness between us given the fact that we are put in similar situations so far from home.

My Form 3 students will be writing their B.E.C.E. exam (entrance exam for Senior High School) in about two weeks. We’re all very nervous about this. The students don’t seem to be as serious as the teachers though and we are all getting frustrated. We try to help them, but they don’t seem to be very interested. All we can do is keep trying though.

We had a birthday party for a fellow teacher and I want to tell you about a fun little birthday tradition they have here. Usually on your birthday your friends will find or make some dirty/nasty concoction in water and dump it over your head. This picture is from my friend’s birthday when they used the water that we all use to wash our hands after eating kenkay to pour on his head. Hopefully they don’t include me in this tradition next year.

Here’s a brief recap of my last year. I arrived in Ghana on June 6^th 2012. I had training for about 3 months before arriving at my site on August 28^th 2012. I am a teacher in the Junior High School. I teach Math, Science, and ICT (computer technology). My kids range in age from about 12-22. We finally have our computer lab up and running and that has been exhausting. The kids just get so excited and start clicking all over the place without even realizing the damage they can cause. Tomorrow I will travel to Accra, the capital, to do a training session with the new group of education volunteers that just came this week. We will be teaching them about diversity issues they will face here that are culturally related: gender roles, age differences, homosexuality, personal space, concepts of time, etc. Then I have my “mid-service medical check-up”. They want to make sure we are still well and healthy. They check us for worms, parasites and any other strange things. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you updated on all the weird things I have living in my body. Get a new account of our height, weight, BP, etc. It’ll be a nice time to see some friends for a few days. I’m going to start cooking for myself next week. Up until now I’ve paid someone to cook for me, but I think I’m ready to start doing this on my own. It’ll be difficult to get into the routine after not cooking for myself for so long, but I think it will be nice.

I want to give you some quick little stories about my last year here in Ghana.

Most terrifying insect/animal interaction – I don’t know if this is a cheating answer but it’s the best I’ve got. For those of you who aren’t aware, we are required to take anti-malaria medications to protect us from getting the ever-dreaded malaria. Anyways, the one I’m on, Mefloquine, causes you to have crazy dreams (which are why they don’t give to military men/women anymore). Long story short, I dreamt every night for about a week straight that I was being attacked in my sleep by bugs. Now this medicine doesn’t give you the type of dreams/nightmares that stop once you wake up. No, they continue for a good five minutes while you’re awake. This results in me jumping up out of my bed and trying to squish the non-existent critters that are crawling on me and on my bed. Even though you’re awake and there are not actually any insects, the thought couldn’t be more real, and it is completely terrifying.

Best thing about Ghana – Well I’m sure I could come up with a better answer if I really thought about it, but this is the first thing that came to mind. Ghanaians like to dance. Actually like is an understatement. Anytime music is playing you’re sure to find several Ghanaians dancing, but music isn’t even a requirement. Anyways, it usually makes me really happy, especially if the person in question is so young they can barely walk. The fact that this seems to be common even among toddlers leads me to believe there must be some sort of genetic link. Ladies, do you ever wish that you’re guy wasn’t so shy when it came to busting out his moves? Or that he wouldn’t always use the excuse “I can’t dance”? Well then marry a Ghanaian. Guys, do you ever wish your lady would shake it for you a little more often? Marry a Ghanaian.

The worst part about living in Ghana – Being white. I often wish one of two things: that I was an African American volunteer so I wouldn’t stand out so much, or that I was serving in a country where people are fair skinned. I’ve never been so painfully aware of the fact that I’m Caucasian. Most (I’d like to say all, but I’m sure there’s a few exceptions) Ghanaians truly believe that all Americans are filthy rich. Even after I try to explain things like being a “broke college kid” and “student loans” they don’t believe that I didn’t have a cent in my bank account before coming here. In my village it isn’t so bad because everyone knows me and they have taken me in as family (although they still assume I’m rich), but anytime I leave my village I face constant torture because of the color of my skin. For some reason, and I wish I knew how this started, Ghanaians are trained to shout “white person” anytime they see a white person. In my language, it is “Yevu”. So anytime I travel I hear this word countless times. I’ll give you a recap of the last time I went to market. Several markets ladies shouted at me “Yevu, come and buy my ________”. “Yevu, where are you going?” “Yevu!” (that one is the most annoying because they don’t even have anything to say other than the fact that they want to point out the color of my skin). “Yevu, I will marry you and we will go to America.” “Yevu, pay for my fair to Kumasi.” “Yevu, give me your number so that we can be chatting.” This is just a short list, and I’m not exaggerating. Some days are better than others, but it really gets exhausting. Now let me be clear. This is not an insult in any way shape or form. Most Ghanaians really do appreciate the work that we “Yevus” are doing here and they mostly just want our attention, even if it’s just for a split second. It’s also very frustrating that a child doesn’t speak enough of their local language (because of how young they are) to answer a simple questions like “what is your name?” (in the local language), but they somehow know the word for white person and they feel the need to repeat it over and over again when they see you. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard the word “Yevu” I seriously be rich. If you add in a dollar for every marriage proposal you’d be looking at the next female billionaire.

Oh, and the heat is pretty bad too.

Things I would change – I wish I had taken more effort to know people’s names in my village. Let me explain. Here greetings are a necessity. You great every single person you see to avoid being very rude. I’ll give you an example of how the greetings work.

Ghanaian: “Sam”

Me: “Mami/Papa” (this is the response when someone calls your name depending on the gender you respond appropriately)

Ghanaian: “Good morning”

Me: “Morning, how is the house?”

Ghanaian: “It’s fine. How are you?”

Me: “I’m fine, thank you.”

Ghanaian: “Are you going to school?”

Me: “Yes, I’m going to school.”

Ghanaian: “OK. Come in time.”

Me: “OK.”

Anyways the most important part about this is that everyone here knows my name because I’m the white lady in town, but given the fact that you respond to everyone woman/man as mami/papa it makes learning people’s names really difficult. Also, remembering people’s names has never been a strong suit of mine.

I wish I had decided to start cooking for myself when I first came to my village. I miss American food.

Weird animals I’ve eaten – cat, snake, snails, alligator (this is what they call it, but given our geographic location I’m 99% sure it’s just a big lizard like monitor or something), bush rat, grass cutter (cane rat), and goat (not that weird I guess, but I never had it back home).

Electronics – I dropped my first phone into a gutter and it still doesn’t work. My next phone was stolen at the beach. I got it replaced and then dropped it two weeks later and the screen broke. Got the screen fixed and then… well nothing has happened yet. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Best scar so far – I traveled to the beach and decided it would be a lot of fun to sleep on said beech. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes thought it would be fun to join us. Although we slept under a mosquito net, there were a lot of holes, and I was covered from head to toe in mosquito bites. One near my ankle got infected and it was starting to get pretty bad. A friend of mine in my village noticed that I had been scratching at it and he suggested that I use some of the local gin to clean it out to stop the infection. This was after we had had a few shots of this said local gin so I decided this sounded like a good idea. He said that I had to open the wound to ensure that the gin could clean the whole area, but the scab had formed inward instead of being on the surface and I was finding it difficult to remove the scab. At this point in time my friend decided to use his house key (never cleaned in any way prior to this) in order to gouge out the scab (picture my leg on his knee while he’s digging at my infected mosquito bite while I’m turned the other way grabbing on to my other friend for moral support through the pain). After he opened up the wound enough he proceeded to pour the gin into the infection which surprisingly didn’t burn at all. I went home that night thinking that there was no way a little gin could cure my infection. The next morning when I woke up in a state of dehydration, I remembered my friend using his key as a scalpel. Much to my amazement the infection had completely cleared up and the wound looked 100x better than it did the previous day. I’ll have the scar on my leg to remember that night forever. We still occasionally refer to him as doctor.

Animals – Chickens, goats, and sheep. Everywhere. Eating everything. Making noises all the time. That is all.

How I’ve changed – We’ll break this down into physical changes and then mental/emotional changes. Physically I feel like I look different. At one point I was up +15 lbs since arriving in country but I’ve lost most of that. I’m tan (well at least more tan than I was back home). My feet show the signs of wearing sandals everyday: cracked and calloused. My hair has natural blonde highlights from the sun. These are just the small signs of change though. A lot of my perceptions/ideas/beliefs/values before coming to Ghana have changed drastically. For example (sorry to those who will have a hard time with this – animal lovers should skip the next few sentences), last week I took part in the expedition to find and kill a cat for dinner. Although the noises coming from the cat forced me to walk away a bit I wasn’t nearly as disturbed as I would have been a year ago. I even carried the bag with the cat in it back to the house without thinking twice. I’m a completely different person than I was a year ago… I respect people more. Even the little ones. Respecting people, even if they don’t really deserve it, is just a better way to live your life. I’ve learned about family. Here everyone is a brother or sister even if you are just meeting that person for the first time. Not only do they call you brother or sister, but they actually treat you as though you really did come from the same mother and father. Why shouldn’t they? We are all in the same battle that we like to call life, aren’t we? Life is easier with a few extra family members around. I’ve learned to relax. Time frames and deadlines don’t always have to be so serious. Things will get done if you’re just patient enough. I’ve learned about celebrating the lost life of a loved one instead of mourning at their grave. I’ve learned to not take things for granted like running water, electricity, or any other “Western world invention” like smart phones and medical care. Thankfully the poverty level in Ghana is no where near as bad as some other countries around the world, but it’s definitely there. I’ve seen far too many mal-nourished babies and poor living conditions. I think that back home we often get too wrapped up in our world and forget how people in different parts of the world live. Kids here are happy playing in the dirt with some sticks but kids back home throw tantrums if they don’t get the newest iPhone for Christmas. It’s like a completely different world. My advice to all reading this: appreciate the things you have, the things you’ve bought with your hard earned money, but the next time you feel like you’re having a bad day or you want to complain about something, don’t forget how many people are way worse off than you are but still manage to wake up with a smile on their faces to get through the difficult times. It has been an inspiring experience.

Overall the last year has been amazing. The ups, downs, laughter, tears, stressful times, diarrhea, bucket baths, giant insects, and all the rest. Sometimes I think “What am I doing here?” while other times I can see that I’m really making an impact, especially on my students. I’m thankful that I’ve made it this far without any serious issues and I can only hope that the next year will be even better than the last. Thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way. I love you and I miss you all. My door here is always open so anytime you want a first hand experience, don’t be shy.