Isp

So... it's been awhile! So much has happened and as usual I am running out of time on the internet but should have more in a day or two. Currently I am living in a village in the Northern Region called Gumo 40 minutes outside of Tamale. It is a mostly muslim village and I hear the call for prayer 5 times a day over the loud speaker. Sam is staying with a family in a compound that is near mine but I am living alone. I have a hut that has a bed and a table - and some mice in the roof- and then a place to bathe next to it and then another hut with a hole in the floor for the bathroom and no electricity! We make all our own meals with coals and food that we bought from the market. Also, learned the hard way that it is really difficult to keep fresh vegetables and fruit without bugs...

I wake up everyday around 5:30 and get dressed then go to Sam's house and have breakfast with her family - three wives and about 5 kids. Then we go for a walk or go to the school do do research and observe. The middle of the day is too too hot so usually try and nap but the flies are CRAZY and so are the kids! If I am in my hut they come to the window and say " madame annie, annie annie annie come. come. come run. come play" and stand there calling things until I leave. Ignoring them is not an option.

naturally, I am running out of time but here was a quick update for you Liz!
Miss you!

Learning Tour Madness

Next came the vacation part of our trip- we traveled to Accra, Krobo Odumase, Volta Region, Cape Coast, and tomorrow we leave for Tamale.

ACCRA

In Accra we returned to our first homestay and Regina came with me! It was so nice to see my homestay family again and going back to East Legon (my neighborhood) gave me a bit of culture shock. Houses in the beginning that I didn't give a second look to I realized were huge and lavish. Going back to the homestay was like coming home and seeing my family again - it made me realize the kind of relationships we had and how close I had gotten with them in such a short period of time. I showed them with excitment all the Twi I had learned and the basket I made. They were so excited and proud that they thought one of the baskets were for them and they thanked me a million times. Granny took the basket that I had made myself and left me with the one I had made with Richard (my teacher). Thus, obviously Regina and I went on a secret mission to find my basket later... GREAT SUCCESS.

We were only in Accra for 3 days and during that time Professors came from other schools in the US to see what SIT was all about and we talked to them, went to lectures, and ate really good food because they were here. It was strange to be showing off Ghana from our perspective but it also gave a lot of us a sense of pride and attachment to Ghana as a whole. We each jumped at the chance to share our favorite stories. Then we left at 545 to get on the road to Krobo.

KROBO ODUMASE

We got to krobo and went straight to the Bead maker! Here we learned the process of bead making and made our own beads from broken glass.

Then we went to a meeting with the Queen Mothers of Krobo and watched the process of Dipo customs - a maturation ceremony for girls in the Krobo community. After lunch we had a meeting with the chiefs and went to our hostel. I broke out the Hammock and relaxed out front, twas perfect.

In the morning we had a short class - we came in our PJs and presented about basket making at 7:30 am becuause thats just how it works here.

In Krobo we had some down time and some time when we went to a shrine. The shrine was one of the most life changing experiences I have had here but I simply cannot put it into words on this blog.

Also, we went to the botanical gardens but it rained and we had to leave early but this just means I will have to come back to Ghana ....

Volta and cape coast will have to be left for a later time love love love

more more more

I am going to quickly sum up the village even though it was a huge part because SO much has happened since then.

During the time in the village we had to do mini independent study projects so I chose basket weaving and what an experience that was... full of ups and downs and confusing conversations. I worked with a student at the JHS who said he was 20 but in reality he was 16 I believe. We started the training by going out into the bush and cutting down branches from the palm trees to make the base for the basket - I used a machete and it was awesome and then carried the materials back on my head. This part consisted of a lot of bush going and knife using which was a lot of fun for me and I didn't even hurt myself! Basket making is much much more difficult than I had imagined but I stuck by it and learned how to make a basket on my own. It was an awesome feeling. I had learned so much from the process of the basket weaving and then in addition so much about Ghana and the culture of the village from working with the basket maker.

Most days in the village there was no electricity and there was never any running water but each and every minute - aside from when I went to the hospital- was filled with enjoying out lives. Walking, talking, relaxing, playing jungle boogie, celebrity, and dancing with the kids from the village. The nights were either filled with intense thunderstoms with pink lightning and bolts that lingered in the sky or the most amazing set of stars I have ever seen.

We went to the market one day and I was wandering by myself down the street and a woman stopped to talk to me, she was so excited by the fact that I spoke twi that she laughed and pulled me into her family's house and handed me the smallest baby I had seen in Ghana. We laughed and talked each using the little of the others language we knew all the while I had a 2 or 3 week old baby in my arms. Needless to say I was thrilled. I left there and sat for a long time helping an old woman sort onions to sell, she smiled and hugged me after I asked to take her picture.

I returned sooner than I thought to the market place because I few days later I had to go to the hospital ... wamp wamp. I had been feeling sick for awhile and explained my symptoms to the Dr. and was treated for malaria. Essentially, I was given a million pills (about 30 I had to take everyday), a shot in the butt, and an IV for a few hours and was ssent home. nothing too exciting or crazy. The funny part was that even though I was feeling sick I still was having the best time.

So much more happened but those were some key highlights!

Leaving the village and saying goodbye to the kids was really sad and a lot of them cried when we hugged them goodbye but hopefully we will be able to go back and visit during our last month!

Village Lyfe

Alright!

So we left Kumasi on 25 Feb and made our way to the villages. The bus ride itself was a journey we passed funerals on the street walking carrying the caskets singing and dancing. The scene changed from city to GREEN mountains, palm trees, and dinosaur territory. The longer we were in the bus the more crazy I got and hyper then suddenly nervous! The group was splitting into three and we wouldn't see each other for 2 weeks - in retrospect not that long but it felt like it. Me, Sam, Aleah, Regina, Jesse, Bri, and Grace went to the Village of benim. We were met on the roadside by a group of kids (little did we know what they would be like!) Our first day we ate lunch and played with the million kids at our headquaters. the HQ is where we ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner and were free to come anytime of day to relax and hangout. Then we were shown to our rooms and mine was HUGE and blue with two windows and a cement floor and totally empty with nothing but an egg carton in the corner. I slept on the floor and then went back to HQ for dinner only to find the rest of the group was MEETING THE ELDERS - so I showed up late for that good impression, right?

The nights I wasn't locked out of my house my room was wonderful! The people I lived with were wonderful, they spoke no english and got so excited every time I was in the home complex. There was one guy who spoke english very well, his name was Samson. We spent the first night talking for over two house about America, Ghana, politics, money, culture, and everything else. It was happy and depressing but most of all eyeopening. American's are idolized in the village by many and it is very hard to grasp.

The next morning I woke up to children sticking their hands and faces in my window "hi hi hi ubroni hi!" "how are you imfine" This is when I decided to use my clothes as curtains. Here we explored the village everyday walk around interact with other villagers. After breakfast we spent the morning going to a farm and seeing how people sustain their lifestyles - i ate raw cocoa and IT WAS DELICIOUS. It had the consistency of nothing I can really explain but it was great.

more to come soon!

Internet?

Hello hello hi!

Today I am back from the 2 weeks in the village and woah, did a lot of crazy things happen - split up into a group of 7 - me, Sam, Anna, Jesse, Grace, Regina, Bri, and Aleah. Then began the hospital visits, twi speaking, carrying 16 ft palm branches on my head through the deep bush over a log that crossed a river, got malaria?, and thus took 30 pills a day, listened to goats give birth, made a basket with Richard (many stories to come), played with so many kids, learned how to make palm wine and apateche (sp?), got locked out of my house many times and had to sleep at sams, had children stick their heads in my window at anytime of the day or night just to chat, watched some of the coolest thunderstorms I have ever seen, rarely had electricity and or toilet paper, (used the computer tests of the students in the village), went to the market made friends with old women, held small small babies, went to school, ate yummy food, lived on a mat an inch thick in a room bigger than mine at home but 100% empty, began my mini independent study project, smiled all day everyday all the time SO MANY THINGS and of course the internet is about to run out because I am bad at time management so soon I will explain this mess of a list.

SORRY!
love

End of Kumasi

Hello All!

In the internet cafe with some intense Christian Rock music playing in the background. Tonight we have a dance performance and mini party where our host families are invited for fan ice and kabobs after - should be really ridiculous and awesome. Since we have been here I have experienced so many things and have become so desensitized to so many things as well - like the herd of cattle crossing the four lane highway, the goats I watch out the window as I take tests, the lizards that are everywhere etc. etc.

Last week we went to a village to meet a priestess and she became possessed by multiple spirits that made her dress move and talk differently- it was unreal to say the least. But what was even crazier was the priest in training that was dancing to the possession drumming and began having spirits take over his body and he began seizing for around 10 minutes. It was amazing. To greet everyone they gave us a shot of the local gin that you give part of to yourself and then offer the other part to the gods. We stayed and danced and drummed and had private meetings with the priestess where she gave advice and told us answers to questions we had for her. Then we all piled back into our tro tro 23 or 24 of us in a car made for 18 or 19 it was tight but bonding and fun.

On Saturday I had plans to go to the zoo and a funeral with my friends but my mom told me no we had other plans. So we went to a funeral of her brothers wife. (Funerals in Ghana are a HUGE event- hundreds of people and often are a bigger deal than weddings. my mom said she goes to one every saturday) So I dressed in all black dress that was my moms with a black head scarf. As i was walking down the street with my mom and her sister we looked pretty awesome in all black. As we got the the funeral I stuck out only...the most. I was with none of my SIT counterparts and was the only ubroni (white person) amongst hundreds of ghanians. One man I met was a big steelers fan!! So nice and comforting! We stayed at the funeral for 5 hours with good drinks, dancing- there were 3 different bands and a DJ, and food.

AHH So much more to say but only 2 minutes left on the internet - I need to plan this better!

Tomorrow we leave for the all Twi speaking village and we are split into 3 small groups for 2 weeks. I am so excited! Hopefully I will be able to fill you in on more of my adventures!

Love love love

Ghana Ghana Ghana

I am in Kumasi! Internet is even harder to get to here because we have class all day then go back to our homestays. I live in a suburban area next to one of the people who work for SIT and my two friends - so I always have people to go to and from school with!

My homestay has SO MANY BABIES! I have a host sister who is 16 and is teaching me Twi my mother is wonderful and said I could sleep in her bed if I ever felt homesick. At night three babies uncle ben, baba, and joseph who are 3, 4, and 7 all sleep on the floor next to the bed. But at the house there are so many other kiddies that all play with me. There is no running water but it really is not a big deal - except last night when the power went out and I was stuck in the bathroom in the pitch black taking a bucket bath! Everything is cooked outside on a small fire and tastes AMAZING. It is so interesting to see the difference in parenting styles from the US and here - for instance uncle ben likes to play with knives that are larger than his left leg. But the funny part is that after all the knife playing and wandering around near open flames, the thing he hurt himself on was a plastic bead he got stuck up his nose. What an adventure that was. 15 different people all tried to help him get it out coming from all over the neighborhood as the word spread. In the end his sister got it out with a pen.

This homestay gives me even more food than the last - for breakfast I get 6-8 slices of dense bread and am expected to "eat all" so i eat 2 and take the rest to school for people or for my lunch!

Anyway so many more stories and adventures to tell but for now I am off to Dance class (woah)

love and miss