Playing tourist for a week..

w00t! I just got done playing tourist for the first time since I've been in Ghana...and you know what? It was a blast! Right at the beginning of this vacation I traveled around the northern parts of Ghana with 6 of my friends. Thanks to Anthony, Beth, Brian, Kyle, Toby, and Tristen for making it a great time. I'll try and let my pictures do most of the talking, but if you want to know more about anything just shoot me an email and I'd be more than happy to tell you more, but we saw many things. This was my first time traveling to the Northern two-thirds of the country and I've got to say it's a pretty cool place. The people are just as friendly and the land is much more flat and brown than what I've gotten used to down here in the southern regions. We went first off to Tamale, and then stayed with a friend just outside of Bolgatanga. and then in one day we did a lot of sightseeing, first to the crocodile ponds, then to an old slave camp, and lastly to Tenzug village. So we saw lots of wildlife and learned a lot about some of the history of the North. Crocodiles were HUGE and really neat to see, we even got up close and personal with them. I really don't think that they would ever ever ever, allow this type of thing to happen in the states. We also checked out a place called Sirigu with traditional art, which included pottery, drawing on walls, and many other things. It was really neat to see the traditional designs that the people use and hear about the everyday use of many of the items they have.
Also in the North there is Mole National Park, and the travel there can be a bit of a pain, only 85 km on a very very rough road, on a bus with at least 90-100 people crammed on board. Makes the journey almost as much fun as the park itself. But evidently we picked a great time to go to the park because this time in the North is the beginning of the rainy season and the elephants like to come out and swim just down the hill from where we were staying. It was truly an amazing site. We saw maybe 15-20 elephants, lots of baboons and warthogs, a green monkey, monitor lizard, cob (a deer like animal), water buck (looks like a cross between a donkey and deer...), and too many birds, crocodiles, and insects to count. Really cool place to visit. If you have your own private car the park would be really cool to see because you could go into the center of the park and perhaps see a wider variety of wildlife.
Anyways, after this phenomenal trip I got home only to find that a large storm the night before had knocked down the tree in front of my house and it hit my house and knocked out my power for a few days! It was pretty big tree too...the owners of my house worked amazingly fast however and were able to get the electricity fixed very quickly and then replaced the damaged tin roofing sheets. So the rain only leaked into my house one time and made a mess once before it was fixed.
Also the day after I got back from my trip, I had a few really nice folks from Peace Corps South Africa come and stay with me for 2 days, and I finally made it down to Kakum National Park and checked out the canopy walk! Man, what a trip! I really didn't know what to expect, but you are really high up, it was awesome! So thanks to all that made these trips possible, my guests from South Africa were really amazing people and my traveling companions in the North were equally amazing and I think a good time was had by all. Cheers, I hope you all enjoy the photos.
The first photo i think needs no explanation. And Yes, that crocodile is alive, we just watched it eat two chickens...

We got pretty close to the elephants too, didn't get to touch them though. This is a picture of our walking safari guide and an elephant when in Mole.

I'm feeding an elephant..

Group photo!

Anther fantastic group photo, in the pool at the Mole Hotel.

View from one of the platforms on the canopy walk in Kakum National Park.

And lastly, this is the tree that landed on my house. They had already trimmed most of the branches but you can see where it hit the corner of the house and knocked out the electricity. But my landlord and his family had everything fixed up within 3 days.

Cheers

So guess who's been living in Ghana for over 9 months now?!
ME! Ha, it doesn't feel like that long at all, I'm over 1/3 completed with my time in the Peace Corps, only 18 months to go. Life is still chugging along just fine. Besides getting sick again (nothing to worry about, just the normal stuff when living in a third world country, diarrhea, fever, etc.) school has been going alright. The beginning of this term was amazing with only a few classes were canceled. But in the last month, over two-thirds of my classes have been canceled for a number of reasons. Lately, the students have been working really hard and clearing land to make a school farm and gathering bamboo to make a fence for the farm. That's just one of the many projects the students are involved with. The students here don't try very hard in the classroom but my goodness, they are extremely good at using a cutlass (machete) to clear land. Where American students would beat them in the classroom the students in my school would stomp them when it comes to manual labor and farming!
Another reason my classes were canceled lately is that there was a big marching competition for all of the schools in my district held on Ghana's Independence Day, March 6th. So they had to practice for a few hours every day for the 2 weeks before the event. But I must say that all of their hard work paid off. My school won the competition for the JHS and Primary (elementary school) and even the children in Kindergarten and Nursery marched and got 2nd place! It was a blast. The students really enjoyed the event and the celebrations!

So the first picture is of the students all lined up for inspection before marching. The girls in the front and the boys in the back. After this they march all the way around a football field and then salute to the chief and officials of the town.

And a picture of the JHS boys led by Ishmael, a friend and fellow teacher, and Desmond, one of the final year students. Here they are saluting to the officials. As you can see my students dressed up for the occasion, they're wearing some pretty amazing ties!

And this picture of some of the teachers at my school and myself. The man dressed in all white to my left is my headmaster. Enjoy!

so...i went to a funeral..

I know how terrible the title of this post sounds...but seriously, funerals in Ghana are vastly different from the rights and customs that we are used to in the states. And that they are giant social events, and many of the people are quite intoxicated for all of the 3 day event. However, it was a sad weekend, we buried my former landlady (Afua), she had passed away the day after Christmas. She was extraordinarily kind to me, and even cooked for me on a number of occasions. She was the first person I really met when I moved into my house. Her kids and extended family have also extended the same kindness to me. This is a photo of the obituary notice that is posted around the town and the surrounding area..Here's a breakdown for Funeral traditions in my area:

*Friday night: wake-keeping. (play loud music over gigantic speakers all night. My house is more than a quarter of a mile away and down the hill, and I can always hear the music as if it is setup right outside my window.)
*Saturday morning: Viewing the body and taking the body to the church for the memorial service, for this it is casual wear. You wear traditional cloth (ntoma) made into a shirt with black pants and shoes.
*Saturday afternoon: In the afternoon, the family sets up tents with chairs and offers refreshments and food for the guests. Doing all of the serving and everything. And from the food, everyone then attends the traditional funeral wearing the traditional cloth wrapped in the traditional style and more music is played and then there is the giving of donations and much drinking and dancing.
*Sunday morning: Thanksgiving service in the church. It's a long service and you wear the traditional black and white cloth, either in the traditional style or made into a shirt.
*Sunday afternoon: Same as Saturday afternoon, for all of the people that couldn't make it to the service on Saturday. So there is more giving of donations, much drinking and dancing.
So a funeral is a very big event and brings the entire community together. I attended my landlady's (Afua's) funeral and did my best to respect the different traditions and customs. I wore the traditional cloth both as a shirt and in the traditional style. My teachers told me that I had to get up and dance as well, so in front of 250+ people I got up and attempted to dance! LOL, while wearing the traditional cloth no less. It was an experience, I'm sure that many of the people had never seen a white man (try to) dance before, one of my fellow teachers also decided to take a video of it on their cell phone. And for this I actually took some photos, I hope you all enjoy...
oh yeah, school this term is also chugging along smoothly. I'll post more about that next time!



The top photo was taken with my former headmaster, Mr. Ninson. He was really excited to see me wearing the traditional cloth.

And this is a photo of me dancing with some of the teachers at my school.

Ramblings..

I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned just how friendly people in Ghana can be. I mean, don’t get me wrong. In this country I’ve had my phone stolen, and some of my friends have also had their phones or wallets stolen, but almost all of those bad things that happen are in the bigger cities like Accra and Kumasi. And the merchants that sell things almost always try to cheat me because I’m white and they think I’m rich, but honestly….who can blame them, I’d do the same thing if I was in their shoes. However, outside of the big cities the vast majority of people are extraordinarily friendly. To prove my point I have a story about taking my propane cylinder to Cape Coast to get it filled. First off, I had no idea where the filling place was, so I had to take a dropping car (Ghanaian lingo, Dropping Car: chartering a taxi, pay for the entire car and take the car by yourself. As opposed to, Line Car: which is a share taxi and much less expensive than a dropping car) which cost a lot of money. Anyways, after I filled my propane tank in the big city I still had to run some errands and my propane cylinder was really heavy (about 70 lbs) and I didn’t want to try and carry it around while shopping. So I asked my taxi driver if he knew of a place to leave my cylinder. And he took me to his junior brother’s store near the tro-tro station. A propane cylinder is not a cheap item here in Ghana, it’s worth about 55 Ghana Cedis (~ $55 and about half of what the average Ghanaian makes in a month) and to think of trusting it with a complete stranger for me was a difficult decision. I know that I would never leave anything like that with a random stranger if I would’ve been in the states. However, I elected to trust my taxi driver’s brother and after I went shopping and finished running my errands it was still there! I’m very thankful for Frank for letting me leave my heavy cylinder at his shop for 3 hours! I’m also really thankful for the random kind people out there in the world, without them this world would be in bad shape. Enough of my rambling…in case you all are wondering, school starts tomorrow and I’m excited! Until next time, enjoy staring at my delicious brownie!

The New Year

I just spent the last hour trying to upload a picture of a delicious brownie that I made! But, alas my internet wouldn't let me upload it, so maybe next time! but, yes I made brownies from scratch all by myself. And also yes, I don’t have an oven but ‘baked’ it on my stove top with a non-stick pan and a lid! It was an experiment I’m glad I tried! So I made brownies, that’s my big accomplishment of the new year so far!! Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you all had a more exciting new years celebration than I did this year, my celebration consisted of me, myself, and I sitting around. I must say it was very very exciting! However, I did stay up until midnight! But went to bed immediately after.
I started teaching this past week, my Form 3 JHS students started coming to school a week early for some extra classes and revision time with all of the teachers. Even though when I was teaching I had to really chastise some of the students because they refused to take notes or even pay attention. We’ll see if I can get them to learn some better study habits for the next term that is starting on Monday. But I have a big Peace Corps (while in Ghana don't forget...the p is not silent in the word Corps, you have to say all the letters!) meeting this week so I will be absent from the first week of classes (not like much happens during the first week anyways. The children usually just spend it cleaning and getting the school ready for the second week) and will have to really begin in earnest in time for the second week.
The new school that was being built by a Chinese contractor is almost finished and should be commissioned soon! I’ll post some pictures the next time I get around to it. The school looks quite fantastic and I’m really excited that the children will get some high quality facilities and I hope that will entice them to come to school more regularly and that they will try and learn. Here's to hoping...I'll keep you all updated

Merry Christmas!

So I know I have been very lax about writing on this here blog of mine, but I thought since it was Christmas time it would be a good time to update everyone and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years. I had a decent Christmas, I enjoyed some hashbrowns and some cabbage stir fry was my big splurge on the meal....and listened to A Christmas Carol as read by Patrick Stewart. It was probably the highlight of my day besides chatting for a few with my family and getting a few random texts from the other side of the pond ;-)
But in case you're wondering, I did have a White Christmas! Because of the seasonal Harmattan (winds from the Sahara desert that blow a ton of sand on the area to the south) this far south in Ghana doesn't coat everything in dirt and dust as it does in the northern parts. Instead every morning I wake up to a thick fog that engulfs my house and the surrounding area, and doesn't usually burn off til 9 or 10 in the morning. No snow or Christmas decorations, but I had a ton of fog and some mulled wine! You can't have Christmas without some good 'ol hot wine....delicious.
But other than that, my travel plans to travel about Ghana have now been postponed til the beginning of January. With my friends Anthony and Tristen we're going to head up to the northern part of Ghana and visit a couple of friends and play tourist for about nine days or so. It should be awesome, I still haven't been to the northern part of the country. And never fear, I'll actually remember to bring my camera and take a few photos. So far I've really been slacking, and I promise I'll try to get some good pics for you all back in the states to drool over..
..on that note, I did take some photos of a couple of my classrooms. One is a shot of the desks and the view I have when teaching, and the other photo is of the chalkboard of one of the rooms, and believe it or not, the writing on it is mine. I was helping a small group of my students understand the importance of triangles and trying to show them how to critically think by presenting problems in a different way and encouraging them. I know my handwriting is pretty terrible, but just remember that the chalkboards aren't nearly as smooth as the seem. The one you see is pitted very badly and there are parts of it that you can't write on or erase from. It's always an adventure teaching in Ghana.
Today is the run-off for the Ghanaian Presidential election between the two parties NPP and NDC. It's going to be a close race and I really hope that the Ghanaian people can have a free and fair election with no violence. Let's hope so, we'll know when the results come back in a few days.
I hope you all have an awesome new years, I'll try to write more next year!

Thanksgiving

Happy late Thanksgiving to everybody! I don''t want to rub it in to my brothers and sisters that didn't come to Accra for Thanksgiving but I had two big feasts to celebrate, with plenty of turkey, stuffing, and several types of pie, including pumpkin and pecan. The American Ambassador to Ghana was a gracious host and invited a select few of us volunteers to join him at his house and threw a big party. My thanks to him and some of the other ex-pats that opened their homes to us so we could make this event possible. For one day I felt like an American living comfortably overseas, I stayed in a house with glass pane windows and air conditioning and a real shower with hot water. All of the things I took for granted before joining the Peace Corps. But I met a lot of really great people that are working for the American government overseas. Many of them were former Peace Corps Volunteers, and it was really interesting to hear their stories from their service and how they ended up in their current profession. Needless to say, it was a whirlwind trip that now seems like forever ago. I even had a bit of adventure on the way home.
So a few months ago I heard that one of my friends lost his cell phone in one of the big tro tro stations in Accra. I heard this news and laughed, thinking what a moron! And telling myself that I would NEvER let that happen to me! LOL. Well, I guess I broke rule number one from Peter Pan, Never say Never, and I learned that Karma can be a cruel mistress. So when sliding into my seat in a tro my phone slipped from my pocket. Completely unaware of this I got down at my station. Before walking 5 steps I realized that my phone was not in my pocket and I ran back to the tro to retrieve it. But it was nowhere to be found, I even met a lady who saw my cell on the seat but didn’t feel like telling me!! And the real kicker is that when my friend Anthony called my phone to see if I could hear it ring, a Ghanaian answered, “your friend should be more careful next time” and then claimed he would be ‘coming’ back to return the phone. We waited around for about 5-10 minutes and realized it was a lost cause. However I was able to buy a new phone already, somehow the guy that took it didn’t feel like stealing my phone credits too which is lucky for me. But what a pain…anyways, exactly one week from today is the presidential elections in Ghana. I’m really hoping for free and fair elections with no violence. I’ll keep you posted with the latest happenings.