GonetoGhanaNews

anshumaa..(how is your house?)..awooo.(how is where you slept?)..awooo...(how did you sleep?) ..awoooo...(how is your husband?)...awooo.... (how are your children?)...awooo

This is my standard greeting I exchange every morning when I leave my house to everyone I pass within a 25m radius.

I have just visited my site for some few small days (as they say here) for a test drive of sorts.... to make sure everything is ready for me before I make the long haul with all 80 lbs of my stuff. Mpaha passes with flying colors. The last volunteer was loved by everyone in town, so by default everyone seems to love me too, even her dog. In the morning, I get up at 5:30 with the sun, goats and chickens to go running down the very dusty (only) road in town. (see picture) I say my morning greetings to every farmer I pass, as Skitzy, my dog, runs with me, ahead of me, and off into the bush to hunt birds and snakes. The reason for all the dust is because dry season is officially here. The rains have stopped and the dusty winds from the Sahara are blowing through. All the dust in the air makes for some really beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

Also, at night the moon is surrounded by a glowing haze. On Saturday night when there was nearly a full moon, I was told there was a wedding in town, and I was invited to dance. I was of course thrilled! I grabbed my camera with ideas of drummers, costumes, traditional dances in the moonlight...... as we approached the dance, the thumping of a techno beat told me I was in for a surprise. There in the middle of the bush in between two mud houses were 2 stacks of huge speakers and a bumpin' tape player and sound board being run on several car batteries. What a sight! Dirty children running around, teenagers with hip-hop moves and women dancing with sleeping babies on their backs.

The next day I went back to the house of the groom to do more meet and greet. I entered the room where the bride was waiting (see picture). She was just lying on the bed wrapping in a blanket and look like she was going to vomit. She looked like she was 16, and when I asked she didn't know how old she was. The women with me, Rukaiya, my guinea worm volunteer connection in the community told me that they were letting her rest before she starts her work as wife, and laughed knowingly at all the work ahead of her until she is able to produce some children to share the load.

more stories later
jenell

Hey all.

I am still in training in Techiman and itching to get to my site... for all the obvious reasons, but also b/c I just finished lunch and can still taste palm oil and fish. I am pumped to cook for myself soon, as mango and avocado season are quickly approaching.

bat caves
Last weekend (for halloween) a bunch of trainees and I went on a 15km hike through jungle, farmland, people yards, sacred forest with medicinal plants... until we came to large caves with thousands of bats. The opening was large at first, but we had to crawl through a narrow hole to a second opening where the bats were so plenty (as they say here) that you could feel the air from their flapping wings all around you. Deeper in the cave there was a beam of light coming in from above and we could see the bats catching the light as they fluttered through... otherwise all you could see were their glowing eyes.

water fall
Yesterday 9 other trainees and I went to kintampo waterfalls. We busted out the swimming suits and went into and under the waterfall onto a protected ledge where we could sit and look out at the jungle through a sheet of moving water. So cool. Plus, the mist from the waterfall was actually cold... I had goosebumps (tori hara) for the first time since I left minnesota. Of course as water sanitation volunteers we were a little nervous about going in water, but it was so cool that it if we catch anything strange it was worth it. Then we had a picnic with fresh pineapple, oranges, papaya, roasted ground nuts, bread... all that was missing is the cheese. Can a girl get some cheese in this country?!

tro-tro
Getting to the waterfall we got on the normal mode of transportation... a tro-tro. This is a van (much like the VW busses of Oregon)...with 5 rows of seats and as many as 20 people in it (most with B.O.... also like Oregon :D) depending on how many goats and plantains are with the passangers. The driver dodges potholes and goats as we cruise down the beat up roads and lets out a warning beep around corners or when passing to let others know we are there. To fully explain tro-tros would take days... but I will leave you with this taste.

Only 3 more weeks of training then I will be in mpaha (at which point I will be fluent in Gonja... I can dream, right?) I hope all is well.

love
jenell