First Day

September 28, 2008 (by the time we arrived...)

Once we de-boarded the plane we were met outside the airport by Joy- a young man (mid 20s I think) with short braids and linen pants. He had a gold band cuffed around his right wrist. He led us to the taxis, which we took to the tro-tro stop. A tro-tro is a bus, but only a full size van. Our tro-tro held 15 adults and a lot of stuff in the nonexistent trunk- our bags, 2 other large bags, a smaller bag, and 2 tires. Vendors swarmed the tro-tro, pulling open the windows and trying to sell everything from fruit to water to books and watches, etc. When they wanted your attention they would make hissing noises. Joy purchased 3 packets of water for us to have for the tro-tro trip. You bite off a corner of a sealed plastic bag, and suck the filtered water that way. It costs about 5 cents per pouch, or 1 cedi (almost a dollar) for a giant bag of them. Each pouch is 500 ml. It was a 3 hour ride on the tro-tro to Ho, where we then jumped out to get into another taxi to take us to the Bridge Volta Office a few minutes down the road. We met Bismark (head of the office) and used the facilities, which lacked TP. I left mine in the car by accident. Coincidentally, I did smack my head against the car door, so that's my excuse. Bismark and Joy then drove us the 45 minutes to our village, Saviefe Gbogame. The orange dirt road was riddled with giant potholes that Bismark skillfully weaved through at 4 mph. :)

We were introduced to the entire village, beginning with the men in the CBO. Tony is our counterpart and is on the CBO, and watches over us in the village. Emil and Hans were also introduced. Chairs suddenly appeared (carried by some older boys) and we sat for formal introductions and quick lesson on Ewe greetings. Ewe is the local language spoken. Most people know English in Ho, but only some can speak it in the villages. Then we went next door to meet our landlord. It is tradition when you receive a visitor that you wash their feet of mud from their long travels. This roughly translates into them pouring me a double shot of whiskey. I took it down (2 tries though) to barely hold my own with the 4 men. After not having much sleep, and it being about 15 hours since my last real meal, I was definitely giggly to say the least after that! :)

We were then excused to our room, a small cement building with a room in front (about 8 by 10 feet) with a table to eat on, and a door connects to the bedroom where 2 beds and a small table sit. There is a window with a screen, and large glass shades that open to let in air. The window and both doors are draped with a piece of fabric that blows with the breeze most of the day, but sits still at night. Samu, our caretaker, provided lunch of rice and some type of spicy meat. My kind of lunch :) We attempted then to rest, but some of the children in the village were curious about their new visitors. We met Fida (12), Grace (I think 9...) and Jessica (3). We left our beds to follow them through the village to the unfinished library and the schools. There are animals everywhere- cats, goats, sheep, chickens, roosters, baby chicks, kittens, just absolutely everywhere you turn, you have to pay attention so you don't walk right into them! Back to our tour of the village: Each school (pre-K, Kindergarten, Primary, and Junior Secondary school) were just a string of plots joined together by walls, on either end, and a roof. Each plot had some desks and a chalkboard. It looked like a picnic area- completely open except for the wall at each end, and the walls parallel to separate each "room." I'll upload pictures when I can. Tony and Emil caught up with us and began explaining the plans for the library, and how the books will help the kids to become better students and go further with their education. On a side note, he is also trying to organize a football team in his village to help the young boys stay clear of the wrong people and wrong influences. We walked through the village and met another elder on the committee for the CBO. He offered us hot nuts that we picked from a local tree and boiled over a fire. He didn't know the name of the nut, but it's similar to a brazil nut, and you peel off the skin and eat it. He also gave us Malta Guinness, which was really good. I should mention, it didn't have alcohol in it, however, I have never in my life seen so many signs and vendors for Guinness! The men asked us questions about the US- the weather, the violence, the upcoming election, whether or not we had mosquitoes :) We were excused and walked back to our room with a multiplying trail of curious children behind us. We were told to rest, as they were planning a welcome ceremony for us. We fell asleep quickly, but not for long! Jessica soon joined us in our room. She was playing with my hand and Grace walked in to join her. They played with Denise's camera and I drifted off to sleep. I woke to the sound of loud roosters, goats crying out a rooster imitation shortly after, and then... drums. I heard chanting. We went outside to see the whole village gathered, singing, dancing, chanting to the drums. It was amazing! We joined in the dancing, which was easy since it was just girls going around in a circle around the boys beating the drums in the center. Jessica popped in front of me to join the dance. People could really learn a lot from the feisty 3 year old- with her little arms waving in the air and swinging her hips imitating the older women. After a while, Denise and I sat down to watch the rest of the ceremony in awe. Pictures will be posted later. :) Jessica soon found herself a good seat to view the festivities- my lap! Pretty soon we were surrounded by all the children, aged from 2 to 12. They would say their name, or just smile and nod to whatever I asked them. It was truly a very welcoming experience, and wonderful to see the ceremony they hold for special occasions. When it was over, we had supper- we shared an omelete and a couple slices of bread. Now, tucked away under our mosquito nets (which were hung by Samu after she realized we tried to fasten Denise's net with dental floss with medical tape- work with what you've got!) and we fall asleep listening to the singing of a church service outside our room. :) Everyone is so friendly. Tomorrow, we travel back to Ho to the office for orientation and to meet other volunteers. We will begin to sort books for another one of their projects as well. I'm dirty and sweaty but couldn't be happier to finally be here. :) Tomorrow I also get to try bucket showers. :)

Ok, the church service lasted 4 hours long... didn't sleep much during that.

More will be posted on Thursday! :)

The Assignment

We are staying in Saviefe Gbogame, a rural village about 45 minutes outside of Ho, the capital city of the Volta Region. The mission of our partner organization is to alleviate poverty through education. The Community Based Organization (CBO) is educating the community on the importance of child (especially female child) education. They began building a library in the village but they lack funding for completion. We are to conduct meetings with the CBO and developing a organizational profile and action plan so they can complete the project, which will eventually be run with the help of an income-generating farming project. As a side note- Our village farms mainly yams and corn.

The Journey

September 27, 2008

I woke this morning, surprisingly headache-free, after a night of send-off drinking and only 3 hours of sleep. My room was cluttered and boxes were strewn about from my recent move from my cozy 2 bedroom apartment with Laura to my new bachelor pad, as it were, in my father's basement. With Laura in Boston, I have lost my voice of reason and only began packing last night. Of course, I went into panic when I couldn't find the box with the red puma shoebox, in which lay my trusty ipod. My father is away on business in Kuala Lumpor, completely unaware of the inevitable disaster zone I created in his living room. Alas! Finally I discovered the red shoebox and breathed a sigh of relief as I stuffed the ipod into my backpack. I should mention, the "backpack" I speak of is a large pack, almost as big as I am, extremely heavy and more topheavy than I had expected it to be. Clearly, you need such a backpack to fit your month's clothing and soap and extras when you need to carry everything yourself over fairly long distances on dirt roads... where luggage on wheels would prove more difficult. I also packed books- 3 novels and 2 guidebooks on Ghana and West Africa. I'm a slow reader so I figured 3 books for pleasure might be a little ambitious, the same way I... one may purchase a dresser for organization yet leave piles of clean laundry on the floor instead for easy access... I have surprised myself though. The first book I chose, Bad Monkeys, is a fast read and keeps me curiously turning the page to find out if this woman, arrested for murder, is crazy or telling the truth about her involvement in a secret organization fighting evil, or as quoted "the Final Disposition of Irredeemable Persons," aka Bad Monkeys. Very engaging, I do recommend it especially for those with goldfish-like attention spans, like myself. At any rate, we've been in flight for about an hour and I'm already through 40% of the book. Opting for a reading break, I'm beginning the hand-written portion of this blog. I was just handed dry-roasted peanuts, which for some reason remind me of my mother. We have 10 hours left of our flight before we arrive in Accra. I'd rather not think of the vast ocean beneath me. Something tells me if the plane goes down, the water will be cold, and someone might accidentally take my life vest and I'll be left with a freaking seat cushion to cling for dear life as Denise fights off sharks with tactics learned from Discovery Channel's Shark Week. Although, I don't think she has cable, so that leaves us SOL. I'll ignore the turbulence and go back to the peanuts. I'll pause for a moment to comment on airplane food. I'm always intrigued by the tininess of every aspect of your tray. The fork and knife are 3 inches long, which would go over well on flights to the north pole. We had a small cup of salad, 2 crackers with a slice of cheese, which was in a wrapper with a red pull-tab but mine was broken and you'd have to have McGiver skills to open it. Luckily, Denise has that exact skill set, so problem averted. We also got a piece of bread with butter, tortellini with a resemblence of Chef Boy-R-Dee, and a brownie which I skipped since I don't like chocolate. All was accompanied by a tiny Delta napkin. :) This was probably very boring to read, huh? Haha :)