Wednesday, November 29, 2006

I cannot believe this is happening, but I am writing again, after just posting a couple of days ago. I have been in Accra so I have been able to think about what has been happening the last month or so.

I went to two events. One was in my village and one was at the beach.

The first one, in my village, was a funeral. I hadn't attended a Ghanaian funeral since arriving here and was (somehow) scared. Well, an older woman died in my village last April or so. They buried her but hadn't had the funeral celebration. They chose a date, the end of October. Then early in October her daughter got sick and died. She was a mother of three, probably in her mid-30's. Since the family was already planning the funeral for the mother they had the daughter's funeral also.

The whole week leading up to the funeral (Friday is wake keeping, Saturday is the celebration and burial and Sunday is the thanksgiving service) was busy. Family and friends from their hometown (everyone has a hometown) started to come into the village. Funeral speakers and a generator were brought in, lots of minerals (soda) and beer and apateshie (local alcohal) were around and the women started to do all the food preparations. I just had to be there.

Saturday was the big event, and in Ghana this is an event. Drinking, dancing, singing, screaming and crying. Lots of food and drink and music. Every one wears black and/or red and are usually in traditional dress. By the time it was all over I was completely exhausted. It seemed I never stopped talking and greeting people.

One thing that is common here but can drive us Americans crazy is "bra." No not a ladies undergarment, but rather someone telling you to come. This probably doesn't sound bad, but it gets very annoying when you are walking to an appointment, going to buy something or just busy and someone sees you from far away and "bra's" you. Now, if I am not in my village I don't care and just ignore it, but in my village I respect the custom. During the funeral this was excessive. When I would pretend I didn't hear, my friends in the village would say "Sarah, the man/woman is calling you, he wants to talk to you, go." So, you go over, shake hands, answer questions and then move on. After a week, it gets annoying.

The next event I went to was a Peace Corps wedding. One of the volunteers in my group got married (sort of) to her American boyfriend. Not long after we arrived and swore in, he moved here. He got a job in her town and they have been living together. They wanted to have a little ceremony (not legal) here so a group of us went to this beautiful lodge on the beach and had a little ceremony. It was fun and beautiful. I tried to swim in the ocean but after five minutes I had to get out. The undercurrent was really strong. At one point I got knocked over and then when I tried to get up the water came from another direction and knocked me over again. It was rough. I had sand in my hair for days. Regardless the place was beautiful and the ceremony was fun. It's always good to see other volunteers and compare experiences. We help each other see things that we hadn't thought of.

Another volunteer and I were talking and I was voicing my frustration about being asked, what I deem, inappropriate questions while having a meeting or something. I went to introduce myself to this government employed person and during our meeting he started to ask me personal questions. Where am I from? Am I married? Am I alone? How do I stay alone for that long? It just felt wrong. I explained I was here to service Ghana and my own country, not to date and find a husband. We moved on. However, this was bothering me. I was telling this to this other volunteer and she agreed but she also gave a good explanation on why we are constantly asked these questions. This is what is important here. Marriage and children. It's like when we ask someone what they do for a living and where they live. Those are important to us and tell us a lot about the person. Here, marriage and children does that (and where you're from if you are not Ghanaian). Hearing her say this made it a little easier for me to be asked. Instead of assuming the person is asking me for negative reasons just think they are asking because it's important to the culture. I don't know, it made me feel better.

Okay, so two posts in two days, that's a lot. Take care!

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Once again, it has been a long time since I posted a blog. It gets harder and harder to think of stuff to say. I have slowly adjusted to where most things don't seem interesting. However, when I was talking to my parents the other day, I wouldn't shut up, so I must have something to say.

I am in shock that it is almost December. I get confused on what time of year it is because there is just not much weather change. Even during the dry season my area still gets some rain. With that said, I am aware that the holidays are coming up because in Accra you can get Christmas candy and decorations at a couple of the stores. They are the stores that cater to ex-pats, the ones that I walk around in but rarely buy anything and seem to have culture shock when I am there.

For Thanksgiving I ate fufu and palm nut soup. During the day I went to farm with Cecilia and Alex, a married couple that I like to hang out with. We cut (okay, they cut) and carried (I did do some carrying, but I feel wimpy compared to them) the palm fruit and the truck came to buy it in the afternoon. That night I went to their house to eat fufu. It was nice. I took some pictures while we were out so I will try to post them. It's hard to describe the palm fruit. On Friday, I left and went to Kumasi to enjoy real Thanksgiving food. At the sub-office in Kumasi, fellow volunteers made food. We had a ton of chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, beans and dessert. It was all wonderful. The best part was that we ran out of plates and bowls so I ate on a tupperware lid, with no silverware, just my right hand - it felt very Ghanaian. Some of the guys tried to watch a football game (a burnt copy), which added to the holiday feel. It was all wonderful.

After Kumasi I moved with another volunteer down to Accra, where I am now, to do my mid-service medical, which is going fine. From Kumasi we begged a ride and it was so weird (like hitchiking). The first person to pick us was a nice SUV, with air conditioner. The man was a driver going to Accra to pick up his boss. I sat in the front of the car having a very surreal experience. It didn't feel like I was a Peace Corps Volunteer. We had to drop at a rest stop and then got a ride from another man who works here for the highways division. He was really nice and said he had just gotten back from a funeral of a man that was 120 years old. I'm not so sure but okay...We got to Accra safely and are now enjoying it, but money goes really fast here. It's hard, I just can't seem to keep track of where it's going.

October and November have been good. We started the world map project and it is almost finished. There has been one student that has been very dedicated. Every day after school he would come to get the paint at my house. The map is painted on the side of one of the school buildings. I love seeing people walk by it and talk about the different countries. They are always so surprised when they see how small Ghana is incomparison to other countries. The men usually pick out good football (soccer) countries. They love seeing how large Brazil is.

To change notes-I had a scorpion in my room one night. I was laying on my mat, reading and I heard a crinkling of a polybag (black plastic bag). I thought maybe it was a frog because I get them in my room from time to time. I got my flashlight and went over to see and it was a big, black scorpion. I grabbed my camera, got one pictures and then it escaped onto the veranda. I jumped over it, went into my other room, grabbed my cutless (machete) and chopped it up. After I was sure it was dead I threw it behind the house in the bushy area. The hole in my wall that the scorpion came in by is now covered by my medical kit from Peace Corps, so no more surprise visitors (except a few mice in my ceiling).

Speaking of mice, my beautiful cat gave birth to three babies about two weeks ago. They are all three little girls. The mother is being wonderful. I will be so sad when I have to seperate the babies but I just can't have four cats. A lot of people have asked me for them so I know I won't have a problem giving them to good homes. The problem is going to decide who gets them.

I am happy to report that I also saw forest elephant tracks. They tell you they are there, and people tell me the elephants go into their farms that are close to the forest, but I was starting to doubt it. I went on a short hike with the Wildlife Division officer and we saw some tracks. So, there are forest elephants after all. That's probably the closest I will ever get to knowing that they are there, but it's proof.

I posted some new pictures no flickr. They are from before the middle of October. If you go to the set of At and around site (July to Oct) you can see them and skip the rest. That way they are in chronological order also. Go to flickr.com, then Explore Flickr, on the upper right go to Search, Flickr members and put in wowokay. Then you'll be at my pics. Enjoy! I will try to write again soon. (I always say that)