Hey guys,
This week has been packed full of language lessons. I don't feel like I've really done anything besides that. I'm learning Dagbani with about 8 other people. It's going well and I think I'm really progressing, but it's pretty slow. My brain hurts a bit. We do language lessons for about 6 hours everyday...which is just intense.
So I brought my flash drive in today to get pictures up, but it doesn't work in this computer. So you'll have to wait a bit longer until I can bring in my computer. Sorry guys! I promise soon there will be photos.
I'm still getting called Obroni every where I go, but oh well. It's funny. And you wouldn't believe the kinds of noises that goats can make. It's hilarious. I wish I could video them for you to here. They sound like a mix between what you think a goat would sound like, a baby wailing, and someone gargling....it's hard to explain, just rest assure that it's funny.
I have discovered that my favorite food here is red-red and fried plantains or coco-yam leaves with boiled cassava. both are very tasty and anyone who comes and visits me I'll make it for ya. :) JB and I are really just looking forward to moving into our site. These next few weeks of training I think are going to go by really fast and then we'll move up North. We miss you guys!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Zabzugu!
Hello again from Ghana!!
JB and I are currently doing our training, while living in a home stay. We are staying in Anyanisin, near the town of New Tafo. It's a small village, but all building are made out of concrete. There is one main road that runs through the center and there are a few shops that sell the main things you need like onions, yams, soap...the basics. Our house is about a 10 to 15 min walk from the main road. Our house has no electricity and no running water, so it's been fun. Basically we go to bed around 8 or 9 and wake up around 5am, our life follows the sun. Our host family is very nice. Selena Okwampa (not sure how to spell that) is a great cook, but wants us to eat a lot of food! It's very difficult to eat the amount of food they give us, but it does takes good. Samuel Okwampa is a teacher, so he is gone all week and only comes home on the weekends. In Ghana, teachers usually live in separate villages from where they live, so they have teacher compounds that they live in during the week.
It's interesting living in a small village down here, sometimes it can try your patience. It is expected that you greet everyone you pass, so walking places takes a long time. Plus all the little kids yell "Obroni" when ever you pass. Obroni means "white person" in Twi and it seems as if they are taught this as one of their first words. There are kids that can barely stand, yet they still will say Obroni. sort of funny. JB and I think it's funny, but others find it very trying.
We have found out where in Ghana we will be stationed. We'll be in the Northern Region in a village called Zabzugu! (pretty fun name!) The closest city is Tamale about 3 hours (I think) away. And the closest big town will be Yendi. Zabzugu is on the Togo border in Eastern Ghana. We will be learning a language called Dagbani. So far, it's difficult, but do-able. We believe it will be a fairly large village/town since it's the major commercial hub for trading with Togo. We will be living in a teacher compound with two rooms to ourselves. We will have electricity and I believe pipe-borne water, so hopefully an actual toilet. I will be the first Health/Water Peace corps person to be stationed there, so I'll have my work cut out for me. There has been a teacher volunteer before us, but I don't think recently, so JB will also have a lot to do.
I still haven't uploaded my photos yet....so you'll have to wait a bit longer for that. But I'll to have it done my next sunday. It looks like sundays are going to be my update days, but we'll see. Now that I'll be stationary here until Aug pretty much I should be on more regularly. I hope everyone is doing well!!
JB and I are currently doing our training, while living in a home stay. We are staying in Anyanisin, near the town of New Tafo. It's a small village, but all building are made out of concrete. There is one main road that runs through the center and there are a few shops that sell the main things you need like onions, yams, soap...the basics. Our house is about a 10 to 15 min walk from the main road. Our house has no electricity and no running water, so it's been fun. Basically we go to bed around 8 or 9 and wake up around 5am, our life follows the sun. Our host family is very nice. Selena Okwampa (not sure how to spell that) is a great cook, but wants us to eat a lot of food! It's very difficult to eat the amount of food they give us, but it does takes good. Samuel Okwampa is a teacher, so he is gone all week and only comes home on the weekends. In Ghana, teachers usually live in separate villages from where they live, so they have teacher compounds that they live in during the week.
It's interesting living in a small village down here, sometimes it can try your patience. It is expected that you greet everyone you pass, so walking places takes a long time. Plus all the little kids yell "Obroni" when ever you pass. Obroni means "white person" in Twi and it seems as if they are taught this as one of their first words. There are kids that can barely stand, yet they still will say Obroni. sort of funny. JB and I think it's funny, but others find it very trying.
We have found out where in Ghana we will be stationed. We'll be in the Northern Region in a village called Zabzugu! (pretty fun name!) The closest city is Tamale about 3 hours (I think) away. And the closest big town will be Yendi. Zabzugu is on the Togo border in Eastern Ghana. We will be learning a language called Dagbani. So far, it's difficult, but do-able. We believe it will be a fairly large village/town since it's the major commercial hub for trading with Togo. We will be living in a teacher compound with two rooms to ourselves. We will have electricity and I believe pipe-borne water, so hopefully an actual toilet. I will be the first Health/Water Peace corps person to be stationed there, so I'll have my work cut out for me. There has been a teacher volunteer before us, but I don't think recently, so JB will also have a lot to do.
I still haven't uploaded my photos yet....so you'll have to wait a bit longer for that. But I'll to have it done my next sunday. It looks like sundays are going to be my update days, but we'll see. Now that I'll be stationary here until Aug pretty much I should be on more regularly. I hope everyone is doing well!!
Friday, June 11, 2010
Week one
It's been one week here in Ghana and it feels like I've been here for a while already. I think mainly since my days have been packed with things to do and I've just been very tired from traveling. I'm currently in Tamale, which is in the Northern District of Ghana. I came up here for my "vision quest" which mainly was just shadowing a current volunteer and to give us confidence that we can make it in the PC. From Accra it took us 14 hours of traveling to make it to Tamale, where we spent the night and traveled another hour the following day to where I stayed with a current PCV. JB did not accompany me on this trip, he stayed down in Accra. The have split up the group depending on what we're training for. So the Teachers didn't go on a vision quest. But tomorrow I'll be meeting up with him again at our long term training sight, where we will be staying together at a homestay.
So far the people in Ghana have been wonderful. Everyone is very nice and are always willing to help. Even if you ask for directions, many times they will walk you to where you are going so that they know you made it there safely. There is also a huge emphasis on greeting people. So it takes a long time to make it anywhere, because you have to greet everyone you know that you pass. But that builds a great sense of community and strength I think.
It's very different here than the U.S. or even other African nations that I've seen. Houses are small, but permanent. There are no township like neighboorhoods that I've seen, although there probably are some somewhere. There is rubbish everywhere. Water comes in little 500mL bags, that you drink out off and then people just throw those bags on the ground, so there's just trash all over. It is very hard to come by a toilet and if you do, the chances that it flushes are rare. And showers are a rare and when you have on, it will probably last for less than a minute.
All in all though, I'm loving it here and I can't wait to find out what region I'll be living in. Outside of the cities, the scenery is amazing! I could just sit in the bus and watch the land go by for hours, it's just beautiful. The people are happy, friendly, funny, and colorful. The weather, although very hot, is totally bareable.
Exciting news of the day is that Tricia (another PCV) and I rode in the back of a truck (Lory, there were benches in the truck bed and it was covered with a canvas) for an hour down a dirt road with around 12 people and a full sized BULL! It was pretty scary, cause the bull was not happy. But we lived and had some good laughs about it.
I dont' have any photos yet to load, but I will as soon as I'm able to.
So far the people in Ghana have been wonderful. Everyone is very nice and are always willing to help. Even if you ask for directions, many times they will walk you to where you are going so that they know you made it there safely. There is also a huge emphasis on greeting people. So it takes a long time to make it anywhere, because you have to greet everyone you know that you pass. But that builds a great sense of community and strength I think.
It's very different here than the U.S. or even other African nations that I've seen. Houses are small, but permanent. There are no township like neighboorhoods that I've seen, although there probably are some somewhere. There is rubbish everywhere. Water comes in little 500mL bags, that you drink out off and then people just throw those bags on the ground, so there's just trash all over. It is very hard to come by a toilet and if you do, the chances that it flushes are rare. And showers are a rare and when you have on, it will probably last for less than a minute.
All in all though, I'm loving it here and I can't wait to find out what region I'll be living in. Outside of the cities, the scenery is amazing! I could just sit in the bus and watch the land go by for hours, it's just beautiful. The people are happy, friendly, funny, and colorful. The weather, although very hot, is totally bareable.
Exciting news of the day is that Tricia (another PCV) and I rode in the back of a truck (Lory, there were benches in the truck bed and it was covered with a canvas) for an hour down a dirt road with around 12 people and a full sized BULL! It was pretty scary, cause the bull was not happy. But we lived and had some good laughs about it.
I dont' have any photos yet to load, but I will as soon as I'm able to.
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