3 Weeks strong!

Hi Everyone!

Akwaaba (Welcome in Twi)! This is my first official update that I am not writing in a rush, so it is going to be a long one! One of the other Peace Corps Trainees (Carolyn) is letting me borrow her computer, so I don’t have to spend a whole lot of money or time at the internet café typing this up! J

Well, what to say about Ghana? So much has happened in the last few weeks. I actually feel like I have been here for a month when, in actuality, it has only been 3 weeks.

We had about a week of basic training (cultural, language, health & safety) in Accra for a week when we first arrived. Then we went on Vision Quest where a trainee visits a current volunteer and gets to see what life is like as a volunteer. That was cool. I traveled with Beth to visit John’s site near Kumasi. He is a SED (Small Enterprise Development) volunteer, the same as me. He is also doing Ecotourism work – trying to help people in his village bring tourists to their area. In his village the people make Kente clothe, which is a traditional type of weaving. It is a very expensive clothe in Ghana due to the fact that it is labor intensive.

Now we are in a village outside of Techiman where we are continuing our training. Here we get our intensive 10 weeks of training. We have language Mon-Wed and on Saturdays. Mon-Fri we have sector training (there are three sectors in my training group: Water & Sanitation or WatSan, Environment, and SED. Sector training is like basic business training. How to conduct Needs Assessments, creating business models, facilitation (PC is all about facilitating instead of just hand-outs) and business advising. I love OCLD and am glad that I studied what I did in school because I feel relatively prepared and confident. Right now we have ‘internship’ projects where we go in pairs and talk to a local business. Carolyn and I are talking with a local seamstress named Joyce. She doesn’t speak much English, so it is a little tough sometimes, but we are making it through with the little Twi we know and the little English she knows J. Also, other community members are nosy and come by. Today, Richard who is a shoe-maker in town came by and helped us to translate.

We also have Peace Corps training in Techiman where all of the sectors come together. We are trained on Peace Corps philosophy, sustainable development, participatory community development (PPGIS has come in handy!), health and safety, and cultural issues.

Traveling in Ghana is pretty crazy. There are these vans called Tro Tros where they shove as many people as possible into them. The safety standards and capacity standards are just not the same here in Ghana J. Taxis are also jam-packed with as many people as possible. We take taxis from our villages to Techiman and also to other training villages. We have also taken public transportation on big buses like we have in the States (charter buses). These are also jam-packed with a whole bunch of people going into Techiman (They are more so packed on Techiman’s ‘market days’. Techiman has West Africa’s largest open air market).

Right now my state of mind: I am definitely in the irritability stage of culture shock, where I am beginning to reject the host culture. Little things have been annoying me lately as I am becoming more and more aware of the differences between Ghana and home. A little girl grabbed my breasts the other day and started calling me, “Momma.” That annoyed me. For those of you who know me well and know that having children of my own is not one of my main aspirations, you can imagine my lack of amusement with this. On top of that, having my breasts grabbed is not my idea of fun. Haha. I told that little girl, “Yen fre me Momma. Ye fre me Sista Ama.” This mean don’t call me Momma, call me Sista Ama. I also am having trouble explaining to my host family that I want either an egg in the morning or porridge. They were giving me either of those for the first few days I got here, then they stopped. Then I asked them, on my language teacher’s recommendation, to return to giving me either one of those foods in the morning again. Haha, well this morning I got porridge and an egg. Apparently my father, who I asked to translate to my mother did not understand the initial message. When I tried to explain to my mother that I only wanted one or the other, she did not understand and called over my neighbor. I tried explaining it to my neighbor, but as many things do in Ghana, it ended with them laughing at me and the message was lost. Oh well.

Sister Ama is my Ghanaian name – it is the name given to a Saturday born child. Eventhough, I was physically born on a Tuesday, I came to Nsuta on a Saturday. Ghanaians have a hard time pronouncing my name (and other volunteers’ names). They call me Lynn when trying to pronounce my name or they just call me Ama. My brother and my father are about the only 2 people, besides PC people, who call me Leanne. They are getting better at pronunciation.

We found out our site assignments (where we are going to be stationed for the next 2 years) about a week ago. I am going to the Volta Region to a village of about 2,000 people. It is in the central part of Volta and is close to the Togo border. Apparently my house has a beautiful view of the mountains (the Volta Region is supposed to be beautiful in general, but is known for poor transportation). My main assignment is Ecotourism. I am helping the local people to bring tourism to their area. This includes adequate sanitation (probably public latrines among other things) and trying to get staircases built in the caves. I have some other assignments including helping them to create a Youth Training Center. Not exactly sure what that is yet, but I am interested to find out. Oh, the site I have is a new site. No other volunteer has been there before. I am probably going to be the villages first American who is living there. Oh boy J. However, there are other volunteers currently stationed around me. There is a teacher who is living just a few minutes from where I will be working. One of my trainers knows him and says he is a cool guy. I have been texting back and forth with him. I am going to meet him in a few weeks when we get to go visit our sites before we move there.

While my assignment is what I was hoping I would get, I have begun to think about my role here in Ghana. I want to be a part of sustainable development and I want to empower the people here. Since they were colonized for so long and there are so many other volunteer organizations and NGO’s just giving out handouts, the people have lost much of their creativity, motivation and capacity to help themselves. The PC is here to try to help people to think creatively and innovatively within their communities to improve their lives and also to help open lines of communication between village peoples (who may be illiterate) and the government (district assemblies – much like our county governments). Which all in all is good and I am into that part of it. However, I am not sure where the lines between imposing “Western” thoughts, ideas and ways of doing things are. In other words, is tourism what my community needs and, if so, are the notions of efficiency, recording keeping, etc. something that I should bring to my community? I guess I will have to figure all of this out when I get to site – after the first few months. From what I gather, the PC is pretty chill about letting volunteers define what their assignments are once they get to their village and conduct formal and informal needs assessments.

Oh I almost forgot. I am learning the language they speak in the Volta called Ewe (Ay Way). It is so hard and one of the other trainees in my group is super smart and remembers everything! And, being as I have virtually no memory, language class is very stressful!

Well, that is all for now! Leave me nice messages!

Leanne