What has Tricia been up to? I’ve been told this is a common question among people back home, so here’s a brief description if I can conjure one. My second week in Ghana I left for “vision quest” where I had the opportunity to travel and visit a current Peace Corps Volunteer at their site. I went to a town called Tampion in the northern region of Ghana. The days of travel were trying to say the least, total it took about 16 hours to reach my volunteer. The roads here are quite different than in the states, as is the physical terrain. There are mountains and valleys, poorly maintained roads and poorer maintained vehicles. Personal space is a luxury not a typical standard in any vehicle in which I’ve ridden. Air conditioning is having the windows open. There is no such thing as a double yellow solid line here, passing the car/truck/tro/bus ahead of you is left up to when you feel lucky or sense that an oncoming car is not just ahead or beyond the top of the hill you are climbing.
Due to the danger of traveling at night I stayed one night each way in the Tamale Sub Office (in Tamale). Once in Tampion I visited with the currently serving volunteer, ate good food, rested and walked around her village. We observed a math class, the village’s market day, and normal daily activities such as fetching water from the nearby crocodile infested dam. We greeted all of the elders in the community and even met with the chief. We were invited to a baby naming ceremony and I got to hold a 7-day-old infant girl. The lorry ride back to Tamale was made more special because of a live bull I was able to share it with. No one got hurt, but it was yet another example of things that are done differently here that may take some adjusting.
When we made it back down to Kukurantumi (where we are currently staying), I stayed in a local hotel for 3 nights. The hotel had running water and an air conditioner, after a week in “the bush” I took full advantage of the amenities. During my time staying at the hotel I had separate classes from Kris, mostly stuff I had missed while on vision quest. Then I got to meet my host mom and move into her home with Kris. Since moving to this smaller community my days are comprised of 6 hours of language training and 2 hours of technical training. My technical training has been related to learning tools that will help me assess the community where we will be located. We’ve also done quite a bit of walking around our small village talking with the community members and gaining an understanding for what their health/water sanitation needs are. Most of the issues in the community are related to sanitation, i.e. refuse dumping and latrines/open defecation (sorry) and standing water (mosquito breeding ground).
We’ve had a few sessions related to malaria, hand washing, and family planning. We also have four presentations to present before the swearing in ceremony in August so I’ve been gaining ideas for two of them. One will be a lesion/teaching moment. I’ve made up a little ditty about hand washing and am working on translating it to Twi. I’ll then teach the song to some kids and do some education about why we wash our hands as well as a hand-washing demo with them. For my second project I plan to meet with the local traditional birth attendant to talk with her about what she does, I’ll then present my findings to fellow trainees. I met with her the other night just to introduce myself. She’s a spitfire ~80 year-old woman who doesn’t speak any English except for thank-you. She was thrilled to meet me, and tried to convince me to stay and learn from her for 3 months (all translated by a young boy who was in the immediate area when I sensed I needed some assistance communicating). I’ll go back to talk more with her in 4 weeks, she can’t wait J. Starting Sunday for the next 3 weeks I will be first visiting our future site (yay!) and then doing more hands on technical training in the north. I will once again get to experience the joys of traveling, which I’m gaining confidence in quicker than I’d imagined.
Besides being in class or traveling we try to do our laundry (which resulted in about 20 mosquito bites this morning), visit with other trainees, hang out with our host mom, and “relax.” We’re looking forward to when we’re at site and can control our own schedules, but for now are appreciating every bit of preparation that is available.
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