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!!