I'm fine!

I’m not quite sure how you all thought I would do in the bush, but anyone I’ve talked to on the phone so far has said, “it’s so good to hear your voice” and “you sound good” and “you sound happy.” Don’t take this the wrong way, I’m not offended, in fact it is an affirmation that I am doing well and am happy here. So, to those of you who have been worried/nervous/anxious to hear how I am doing, I am fine (as any good Ghanaian would reply upon greeting). Let me explain the greeting thing.

So, every day I walk into “town” (it’s really a small village), it is about .75 miles to my final destination, which is typically the Methodist Church where I’ve been learning the language Likpakpaln. It’s hot, always here, so generally after shocking myself with cold water from my bucket bath in the morning I begin to glisten J, when I walk into town I must greet every single living thing (okay maybe not all of the baby chicks and goats, but for sure their mothers). Greeting goes as thus: Ma Che? (good morning), yea ena/eja (I see that you’ve greeted me woman/man) Ete sane? (how are you, they may also say it wo hotesen just to throw me) I respond me hoye or me hoye paaa (I am fine.), Now oon swane? (and you) menso me hoye paaa (I am also fine.). This could be the end, but it typically isn’t.

Now they want to know where I’m going, I tell them me quo Methodist (I’m going to the Methodist church), they then ask why, I tell them for school (for ease of quick explanation), they then ask where I have come from, which I respond with Rose Aframuah’s house, they then tell me how they are related to Mama Rose and that technically we are sisters, I’m their niece/daughter, mom… I tell them that that is very fine (which is a good response to any compliment). Then they ask me my name, to which I respond, Ama Kissuwa, they then laugh uncontrollably at me having a Ghanaian name. Then I do the polite thing, ask them their name, to which they respond with their name (and I immediately forget their name as it is so foreign to me). They then ask me if I will remember their name… to which I lovingly reply, I will try (right). Then they ask me when I will be coming back (past them to greet again), to which I reply with when I will be going home for lunch. I then ask for leave (please let me get to class, I’m already late J), they then say quo bra (go and come, meaning come back soon), I say trey ebeshia (we will meet again soon). Mind you all of the people greeting me think they’re doing me a favor, teaching me the Twi language, it’s actually quite confusing since I’ve finished learning Twi and have moved on to Likpakpaln (which no one besides our instructor speaks here). This is one reason I am sometimes late to my destination though I left unreasonably early. I make this journey (to and from) about 4-6 times a day depending on my schedule, good thing I like walking.

Another reason, children. The children love white people, well besides the ones who cry when they take sight of me, they call out and even full on chant Obroni, Obroni, Obroni (white person) until I respond, typically in Twi which they don’t expect, then they run away, or continue asking me questions, like my name. Most of the kids here now know my name so instead of interrupting my classes by shouting Obroni, they now interrupt by calling out Ama Kissuwa, which is debatably more distracting. The children also think I will not harm them when they surround my legs and attach themselves, and hug me around the middle, they are right so far, but did I mention it’s hot here? And these children generally have sticky hands from eating fu-fu. I do love the kids though, the most cheerful and beautiful children.

That is all for now, I hope all of you are well. Unless you’ve been emailing me or talking with my parents I don’t know how you’re doing, so let me know what’s going on! We feel a little (okay a lot) isolated here, we know little about what’s going on back home and in the rest of the world, I hope we can find some way to remedy this.

Site info

I thought I would update you all on info we learned about our site. Again, it is a small town near Kpasa in the northern Volta region. We will have a 4 room house with electricity and an external bathing room and latrine. The region is big on agriculture; they grow a lot of yam. They have an informal yam festival in the fall, during harvest season. They also raise cattle, sheep, and other animals. To me it sounds like an equatorial version of Wisconsin. I'll let you know if this turns out to be true. People migrated there from north further and from bordering Togo, so the language is different. It is a dialect of konkomba called likpankpang. So there are three volunteers total learning this dialect; tricia, myself, and one other. So this makes for a small language group :)

That's all for now, my internet time is up...

By the grace of God I am cool

Akwaaba from Kukurantumi! We are set to begin our third week of training. The first 5 days were in Accra, where we were "acclimated" to Ghana (culture, food, climate, etc.). Also we learned that even with months of planning ahead of time (supposedly), things in Ghana never go as planned, and usually take twice as long. So there was a lot of hurry up and wait. But, with our group of 73 trainees (a bit more than we told most of you - oops), this is to be expected. It was also a helpful introduction to Ghana; here in Kukurantumi it is the same.

Training is going well. I started practice teaching (full classes of 30-40 students for 70 minute periods) last Wednesday. They prepared us well for this, and so I am quickly learning the ins and outs of teaching. Tricia returned from her 5-day "vision quest"last Saturday, during which she traveled north (by Tamale) to visit a volunteer already at site (i.e. in the field). The travel was arduous, but the experience was worth it (so she says). Education trainees will be doing a "vision quest"-like thing later, so we have a head-start on training.

Also, Thursday we found out where our site will be!!! It is near the town of Kpasa, in the Volta region (the very northern part of the region). So go to your map of Ghana and find it! We are a day trip from Accra, and from Tamale, so that isn't bad. It is kind of "out in the sticks" though. I will be one of 5 teachers at my school of 180 kids (3 grades). Tricia is replacing a volunteer currently serving in Kpasa, so she will benefit from this volunteer's setup efforts. The house sounds good too - a 4 room mud house with electricity and a latrine out back (no running water). We're excited for it.

While we are in Kukurantumi for training we are staying in the community with a host family. This is challenging, because after a long day of training we come home to a very different situation (bucket baths, pit toilets, weird food). However, this is a great way to quickly get used to life in Ghana. When we begin at site in August we will already have gone through those adjustments. It's hard, but when it's for a good reason it makes it easier. One other thing that makes it easier is our awesome host mom. She is 68, with all children grown that come home occasionally (I have met 2 of 4 after a week). She cooks wonderful meals, including yam cakes & stew (with fish and or beef in it), plantains, beans & rice, egg sandwiches, and even fresh pineapple from market. There is plenty of fruit here, though some of it is strange and spoils fast.

So...it's our second wedding anniversary tomorrow! We will be celebrating it with lots of language training and more teaching, then a quiet meal in our room at our host home, then off to bed by 8. Very exciting. If we're lucky we will be serenaded to sleep by goats bleating outside our window.

Other than that, we are well. Tricia had a sore throat, and I've had some GI...um, issues. That's pretty good for our first few weeks. We miss you all and hope to update more soon!

I will leave with my favorite phrase in Twi so far. When a person asks, "Are you cool," in Twi-English slang, you say, in Twi, "By the grace of God I am cool."

Made it!

Kris and I have arrived without issue in Accra, been spending the nights in a local university. Cold RUNNING water and intermittant electricity.
Tomorrow I leave for vision quest (finding another volunteer and living with them for a few days), and kris will be doing a scavenger hunt in accra before heading to kukuratumi (sp).
I've had minor GI bugs, it is very very hot/humid, and I've only seen one spider. We've also seen a scorpion. No malaria... yet :)
Miss you and love you all, we'll update you more once we're able! Just assume we're fine... as we likley will be!

Last Post Stateside

(Tricia and Brutus in MKE)

Well, this is it: (probably) our last post from the US.

It has finally hit me fully that I am leaving my family, friends, job, city, state, and country. Goodbyes have been said and blessings wished and tears shed. You can prepare mentally for something like that all you want; it still hits you hard when the day comes. I was in the air today on the way here to Philly, when I noticed that it still felt normal, like I was taking a work trip or going to see family or taking a vacation. I looked down and could see lots of green - it could easily pass for WI (it was probably Ohio or something). So we'll see how crazy it gets with this transition to Ghana climate, scenery, and culture.

Some logistics: we are in Philadelphia for what they call "staging" for the next few days. I got some Philly cheese steak for lunch - delicious. We each took a nap this afternoon to help us make it through the rest of the day. We'll have a full day of "staging" events tomorrow. I think someone in our group of volunteers has a birthday, so we may be going out to celebrate. Then on Thursday we'll bus over to New York and fly out from there. The flight to Ghana is just short of 12 hours - roughly double the longest flight I've experienced yet. Yay. We will be in Accra by Friday morning, and will try to post once we've had a few days to...well, have something to post about.

Best wishes to you all while we are gone, and thanks for following our endeavor.