Fat guy in a little coat - the Ghanaian version

Ok, this will be a brief post, but I just have to share this story.  I biked into Kpasa this afternoon to buy some things from the "evening market" which sets up every day except Sunday and includes the basics (produce, grains, etc.).  After I had bought everything on the list, I stopped by another, smaller market at the bottom of the hill, also known as the "yam market," just to check it out (you never know when you might see an avocado...even though I haven't found one in Kpasa yet).  I was walking my bike through the market fairly briskly (I had hot dinner - "chop" - in the basket so I knew not to dawdle) when a man I had just passed by exclaimed, "White man...in the yam market."  Like most Ghanaians that call out to me using terms like "white man, fada, obroni," I ignored him.  But I immediately thought of the movie Tommy Boy, and the "fat guy in a little coat" scene.  The Ghanaian even said it slowly, almost melodically, like in the film.  So I thought to myself, "I guess this is the Ghanaian version."  I had to chuckle.

On the subject of Ghanaians yelling at me as I walk/bike/ride by (this is a blog post in and of itself, but I'll let it tag along), in Kpasa it is starting to change.  When you are white in Ghana, it is like you are a light and Ghanaians are moths.  But unlike moths, they are not quiet.  I'm not sure what it is, but they feel compelled to say something.  Anything.  In any language.  Usually English, but not always relevant.  For example, in Kpasa this afternoon I heard, "obroni" about 8 times, mostly from children (they haven't learned concepts such as politeness and sensitivity just yet...).  I also hear, "white man" a lot, in case I can't do the translation from Twi to English myself.  Or, in Likpakpaln, the local dialect of Konkomba, their word for white man is "fada."  Why "fada?"  Because the first white people to be seen by Konkomba were missionaries.  Not that they think I'm a missionary, it's just that they don't have a word in their language to distinguish "Peace Corps Volunteer" from "pastor." So when I took the LPI (language test) during training, I had to say, "N ye PCV la" - that's "I am a PCV."  In addition, sometimes they are quick-tongued enough to blurt out something else.  I have heard, "white man, where are you going?" many times when traveling on tro-tros.  Not that I have time to respond with the speed of the vehicle.  Seriously, sometimes I can hear the Doppler effect in their voice as I pass by.  Sometimes I ponder, "what will they do even if I do tell them where I am going?"  That's why I think it is less calculating and more compulsion.  They just have to say something.

I should say that in Kpasa this behavior is slowly changing.  More and more, as I introduce myself, and as rumor spreads, people are addressing me as "teacher" and "Kofi," and are saying more welcoming things like "you are welcome here."  Even one student that remembered me from my brief site visit in July approached me on the main road and declared that he would come over to my house the next day to formally introduce himself.  The children are still incessant in their catcalls, "obroni" or "fada," repeatedly, even after I acknowledge them.  But the adults are starting to recognize me as part of their community (plus some even tell the kids to stop bothering me).  I am trying to keep my responses subdued - there's no sense in getting upset about it or yelling back, or even acknowledging it.  Plus, for some reason it is really easy for me to ignore.  Especially in the market, when I am on a mission to find avocado, good tomatoes, or fresh wagashi (cheese made by the Fulani nomads that is fried in oil - not the same as cheese curds, but still good!).  It's not even derogatory, "obroni" or "fada;" it's only a word they use to describe me, because they do not know me.  Soon it will be "Kofi" or "teacher," though with the kids it will remain incessant and might make me wish I could go back to being called "obroni/fada" to feel more anonymous. 

Ok, not so short a blog post, but I thought it would be useful to describe this aspect of Ghana and my corner here in northern Volta.  It is true that here I am no longer anonymous - I cannot blend in and be a local.  But over the next two years I will be getting close, if only in my community.  And because integration is hardest at the beginning and gets easier each day, I am confident that it won't be a major problem for me.

Better'er Homes and Gardens

Painting the rooms! (bedroom) ----------(living room)

Moringa Trees --------------Zucchini


"Knee High" :) ------------Super Protected Green Beans!

The house is coming along, we now have lights in the bedroom which will make putting in my contacts a breeze in the mornings when it’s not quite light out. Two of the three rooms are fully re-painted, including some spiffy white ceilings. We have some patching up to do from the electrical work that was completed yesterday; turns out most of the wall will crumble if you try to puncture a small hole through it. Hopefully when the carpenter and mason come to fix the crumbling front door, the mason will have some extra concrete and a big heart to help us patch up a few spots, either in the walls or the floors. We have a dining room table now that almost fits our chairs under it, the dimensions are off by about 1/8” so, we have to squeeze the plastic chair arms together to wedge it under the table and out of the way (we’re hoping the carpenter will be kind and shave a little off with his plane when he comes by to assist with the door). The kitchen has been left mostly untouched, but will soon succumb to the same burnt peach walls and white ceiling that we’ve painted the other rooms. We’re just trying to figure out patch a large gap between the kitchen ceiling and one wall. Once it’s all sealed, the painting can commence. We’re also planning on having two closet things made (to house clothing) which will go in the bedroom, as well as a couple of nightstands, a coffee table, and a couch to finish up the living room. I also think we’ll add another large bookshelf or two (though I think Peace Corps should pay for this because all of the books on the shelves will be Peace Corps books). All of these additional furniture items may take some time to acquire, but soon we’ll be set up for visitors J. We’ve also purchased enough linoleum/carpet to put in the bedroom over the concrete floors, so soon I’ll have very fake, but real looking wood floors! Kris reversed the latrine door hinges last week, so now the door swings out rather than in, and I have a little more room to… adjust myself. The door still needs some mending though, to make it up to my health watsan standards (light floods the latrine even with the door closed, so flies can unfortunately find their way in and out, though we’ve been really lucky so far with very few flies). The bathing room door fell or shall I say rotted off its hinges the other day, so now that’s just propped open with a rock. You can’t quite see the person bathing from the courtyard wall, so it still maintains a decent level of privacy. Our 65 gallon rain barrel was looking bleak yesterday. Luckily we received yet another round of torrential rain last night. The rain came in such a fashion that it came in through the not quite sealed windows to the southish end of our home. At least now we now know precisely the lowest area of each uneven room. Kris will probably try to fix those leaky windows too.

Kris has been testing out his green thumb with fervor. So far he’s replanted some green beans and more sweet corn in addition to the initial planting when we got here in late August. He’s devised some sort of chicken proofing over the beans, I’m sure we’ll get plenty of Ghanaian interest and commentary related to the newest strange thing we’ve done. Everything with exception of some of the herbs I’ve planted and cantaloupe and watermelon has made a showing through the rocky dirt. The sweet corn is about knee high, and it’s been in the ground 20 days! Amazing! My zucchini is probably doing about second best, and I love zucchini; I hope it bears fruit for us! Sometime soon I will need to prune back the moringa trees and dry the leaves to make into all sorts of useful stuff. I will write a blog entry on moringa once I’m more knowledgeable on the subject. If you’re really curious, here’s some good websites to peruse:

http://www.moringa.com/

http://www.treesforlife.org/our-work/our-initiatives/moringa

Until next time… Miss you all, love you too!

Here's a link to some additional photos!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031757&id=185900425&l=51b8678127

Go Badgers! ("watching" on ESPNs Gamecast)

Shoutout to Mom!

What’s new? Kris starts school tomorrow or Tuesday, I hope he finds out which soon, so he’s making some last minute adjustments to the garden, i.e. adding more sweet corn and making the hills hillier. I just got off the phone with my parents, seems as though everything back home is going well. It’s nice to find out what your missing out on back home, but also bittersweet. I didn’t share with my mom my almost meltdown the other day while trying baking here for the first time. We found a pretty good toaster oven for a decent price in Ho Hoe on our last trip so we brought it home with us. I was going to make M&M cookies while Kris biked into Kpasa to get some things at the market. I decided since the oven was so small and I didn’t have a proper baking sheet that I instead would make M&M cookie bars. I had most of the ingredients, M&Ms sent by mom (thanks!) except for vanilla. Not to worry, Ill figure that out later, so I set out mixing the cookie ingredients. Then I remembered that there’s probably some sort of temperature and length of cooking conversion I should be doing since I was making bars and not cookies. Never fear I thought, I can just call Mom and ask what a good substitute for vanilla is and what changes I should make to my temperature and cooking time to make them turn out perfect. Then it hit me, I’m in Ghana, not nearly in the same time zone or a nice and easy free call away from my cooking/baking consult of choice. I was pretty sad about it, luckily Kris was still getting his bike ready and his shoulder was readily available to shed a few homesick tears on. Then I consulted the Internet; turns out that really strong black tea can make an okay substitute (though some snob on the website commented that there really isn’t a substitute for real vanilla, thanks) and I still managed to burn the outsides of the bars while having a very doughy center. Best cookies in Ghana yet… well, besides the ones our moms have mailed us. Anyone who tells you they don’t miss home, or wake up from a dream thinking they’re at their home in their bed (one that’s actually comfortable), is lying. Sorry to all of you empathetic Moms reading this, and especially sorry Mom for probably making you cry and miss me all the more. We miss home and some days are better than others, but we’re also really enjoying this experience and opportunity to share some knowledge and skills with the people of Ghana.

Better Homes and Gardens :)

Here are some picture updates of how the house and garden is coming along and how we're managing to not go hungry. It's amazing how quickly one can become an efficient cook when under the pressures of... well, if I don't do it, we'll starve :) Seriously though, we've been enjoying making our house a home to us, and are looking forward to the 2 years to come! Kris starts school Monday, so I'll start planning out my next few months at site. I've also included the link to pictures of our cat, Sanja, he's keeping us busy as well. That's all for now, we'll post a more substantial post soon, but for now enjoy the pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031757&id=185900425&l=51b8678127

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031771&id=185900425&l=d0aab91280

I win

So I’m going to preemptively call myself the first Ghana 2010-2012 PCV to have successfully germinated seeds that I have planted once I got to site (last week). I have not yet done research to substantiate this claim, it is true. But if anyone out there can prove they have had plants poke out of the ground before today, August 24, 2010, I will relinquish my claim. Now, for my own proof; see pics below:

Radishes...or weeds growing exactly where I planted radishes...I'll be able to confirm soon.

Sweet corn!

Green beans!