HOLY CRAZINESS! The past few months have flown by so fast I
can’t even believe it.
My form 3 students wrote their B.E.C.E. exams in June. There
was a whole lot of cramming going on and last minute study sessions. We got our results back and we have a 65% pass rate which sounds low but it's a huge improvement from last year's 18%. We're very happy about it but we know we still have a long way to go.
I had my Mid-Service medical exams. It’s basically just a
physical to make sure we haven’t contracted some weird disease or something.
They send you to the dentist for a cleaning and make you provide stool samples…
not at the same time. Cleaning wasn’t bad, but it turns out I had some parasite
living in me. No big deal, I was told they’re not harmful and I have no side
effects. We took advantage of being in the capital by splurging on bacon cheese
burgers and more jelato than a person should ever consume in one sitting. It
was worth it.
It’s getting to the point where it’s a weird thing to be
around such large groups of Americans. I’ve grown so accustomed to being
surrounded by Ghanaians all day every day that large groups of Americans can be
kind of overwhelming which is a very strange feeling.
We started vacation in July but I didn’t really get much of
a vacation. I’ve become very active in a group called Peace Corps Diversity and
Support (PCDS) which is essentially a volunteer support network. We also do
training with the Ghanaian staff members/community counterparts to teach them
about the different diversity issues between Americans and Ghanaians. I really
enjoy doing these sessions because it gives them a chance to ask the questions
that they’ve been burning to ask other Americans, but they just didn’t feel
comfortable. It also allows us to educate them about some of the do’s and
don’ts with Americans which revolve mostly around personal space. Ghanaians
don’t have the concept of personal space. I’ve gotten pretty used to this now
and my “bubble” has drastically decreased. Sorry in advance about that when I
come home. Anyways, I had a bunch of PCDS trainings/meetings over this said
“vacation” which kept me quite busy.
I went to a workshop ran by Grassroots Soccer. This is a
program that was developed in South Africa to teach kids about HIV/AIDS through
fun, interactive games and demonstrations. They’ve partnered with the Peace
Corps and are now working in countries all over the world, including (drum roll
please!) GHANA! So they’ve developed a whole curriculum for Peace Corps
Volunteers to take back to their communities to teach their kids. It includes
tons of energizers, ice breakers, games, lessons, discussion questions,
activities, and assignments for the kids to do. I’ll have my first practice
this coming Thursday and I’m really excited about it. We are planning to do a
Grassroots Soccer Camp this coming January if we can figure out funding. We’ll
have about 25 kids from around my region come together at the beach for this
camp. Their days will be full of things like team building activities, life
skills lessons (budgeting, education, etc.), health education (malaria, nutrition,
menstrual cycles, etc.) and the main focus will be on HIV/AIDS. I’ll keep you
posted on our progress.
I’m working on something called the Village Bicycle Project
(VBP) which is an organization that people can donate new or lightly used
bicycles to and then they turn around and sell them for very low prices in
African villages. They have a few different styles ranging from 35-45 Ghana
Cedis (18-23 USD). Awesome right! Many people would greatly benefit from a
bicycle to get to school, farm, the next town etc. It is also a good form of
cardio exercise because many Ghanaians suffer from high BP, high cholesterol,
and other diseases that are related to not enough exercise. The people running
the program here come to the village to deliver the bicycles and spend the day
teaching people how to ride the bikes and also how to fix their own bicycles.
This makes the program sustainable.
In Ghana they have National Health Insurance. To register a
child for the first time it is 4 cedis (2 USD), but many parents don’t have
that money. Even if they do, they might not have the means of transportation to
the nearest registering site or they might not be able to leave home for the
day to go and register their children. Another issue is that parents feel that
their children are healthy so they don’t need the insurance. The problem with
this is that then their children come down with a serious illness and the
treatment is way too expensive for them to afford so the child ends up
seriously suffering, or even worse, dying. When you first register, it takes
about 3 months for the card to be activated so if you wait until your child is
sick, it is often too late. The insurance cards need to be renewed every year
(2 cedis) but if a person has the card it reduces health care/medications to an
extremely low cost. Anyways, I’m trying to help a friend who works with the
National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to do a project that he has been
thinking about for some time now. Since the registering office is located in
the regional capital, many people don’t come because it is too far and they
can’t rationalize spending the money when their child seems to be healthy. He
wants to find funding to pay for not only the transportation of the NHIS
workers to get and from the villages, but also to cover the 4 cedis
registration fee for children under 18 years old. Once people have the card
they are way more likely to seek medical help when their child falls sick
because they know the medical costs will be reduced to almost nothing. If we
show up in their village offering this service for free, they will have no
reason not to register. This will also give people to renew their cards if they
have expired and it will allow for adults to register for the first time. A few
weeks a boy a boy in my village who has epilepsy died while having a grand mal
seizure. People are saying it was a spiritual attack. If he had had a health
insurance card, maybe his parents would have taken him to the hospital where he
would have been placed on the correct medications.
I went to the Yam Festival last weekend which can only be
described as the Ghanaian version of Mardi Gras. Lots of alcohol, lots of skin,
lots of dancing, etc. It was a really good time. I’ll post picture/videos as
soon as possible.
Other than that, school started last week. This year I will
be teaching Math in Form 1, ICT (computers) in Form 1, 2, and 3, and English in
Form 2. All is the same as last year except for the English which I am actually
really excited about.
I had dinner with the Deputy Chief of Mission of the United
States Embassy in Ghana. Her name is Patricia Alsup and she is such an amazing
woman. She was so genuinely interested in all of the projects we are doing and
she was really supportive.
Things I’ve checked off my bucket list recently:
Vomiting out the window of a moving vehicle. Now, before you
jump to conclusions, there was no alcohol involved. I think it was the
combination of having a crazy driver and the large bowl of cereal and milk I
had for breakfast after not eating much dairy for over a year. Once I was able
to get out of the car and continue my business, I’d say about 30 Ghanaians came
to the side of the road to see the commotion with the white lady. I got a
couple of “Oh sorry, you’re sick” comments but my favorite was “Oh sister,
you’re vomiting.” I managed to reply “Yes, yes I am.”
I ate bush antelope which I thought would taste a lot like
venison, but it tasted a lot like goat. It was pretty good though.
Using a washing machine for the first time in a lonnnngggg
time. It was nice.
Well I think that’s it for now. I’m sure I've forgotten a
whole lot. Sorry about that, but this is the best I can do!
Much love!
It all happened very fast. My supervisor went on vacation so she was not around when the letter came in informing her that I had to be somewhere on October 2nd which was a Wednesday. The problem was that she told me that Monday, but I was already in Accra (the capital) which meant I had to go back to my site (about 4 hours away) pack my things and come back the next day. I arrived in Wa, Upper West Region, Ghana on September 2nd. It is 13 hours by an overnight bus. Something about these busses is that they keep the AC at a frigid temperature the whole way and the movie volume at a deafening volume so I didn't sleep much. The Upper West Region is known for being very hot and very dry so I was lucky that my first visit was during the rainy season. Most people of this region are Muslim, and are known to be very friendly and helpful. I noticed this as soon as I arrived and it was beautiful. The first day we didn't do anything so I used that opportunity to sleep. Thursday we started our adventures. We went and met the chief of Wa, who is a Muslim. The big white building is the outside of his palace and everyone had to remove their shoes before entering. There is also a picture of some drums which are used in war time, festivals, funerals and basically every situation you can think of. We went to a giant rock that you climb. We had to stop and visit the elders of the town before we were allowed to proceed though so that they could give us their blessing and pray for our safe journey. You are not allowed to take gold, water, or goat products (leather). Women who are menstruating are not allowed to climb, and you are not allowed to urinate on the mountain. Next we went to a place that had "mushroom" rocks. They are kind of shaped like mushrooms which was really cool. We were able to climb the rocks and it was a beautiful scene. They also had a performance for us by the local children where they danced and played xylophone. The next day we had a few ceremonies but we were mostly resting for the big day on Saturday. Saturday was the big ceremony where we were recognized for our successes. It was a fun program and I even got to see the Vice President of Ghana. The first place winner got 65,000 Ghana Cedis to build a house and cars. 2nd and 3rd place got cars, and laptops. Other prizes were cash prizes, gas stoves and double door fridges. I got a lot of African artifacts like beads, leather bags, carvings, and an awesome backpack. That evening we had a nice buffet dinner with a ton of food and there was a live band which played mostly 80s/90s love/rock songs. Everyone was dancing and it was a really good time.
