Thursday, December 29, 2005
"Family"- email from Jenell 12/24/2005
Merry Christmas!
In moving here, I have been completely removed from almost everything I knew, all the distractions of our over stimulated lives in the US. I have been given a chance to examine life on a very simple and basic level.
The underlying theme, the conclusion, the thesis, thus far: above all, it is family that matters. The people of mpaha have very little, but what they do have is family. They work together and the purpose of that work is to feed the family. I didn't see it at first because it was so different from the scheduled family time and family bonding that is becoming a more common form of strong family in the developed world. Family here is the foundation on which you live. no one has the ability to make it on their own. Everyone does their part and those who can't are just accepted b/c they're family.
Family here isn't defined solely by blood, but more by space. One family’s courtyard is another's courtyard, your child is your neighbors child. When a women goes to farm, if her child is too large to wrap onto her back she doesn't think twice about her other kids because there is always someone around to help them if they need it.
The other day we were putting in a platform at the water source, so people wouldn't walk in the water to fetch and thus cut down on spread of guinea worm. When it was time to move the huge heavy platform, everyone around dropped what they were doing to help us. No one is every too busy for family, and everyone is family. All of us moving the platform into the dam reminded me of putting the dock in at the Habedank lake cabin, but no water balloon launcher :D
I often feel the need to argue when people assume that I am rich because I am an American, but in truth I am rich. I am rich in education, opportunity, and in family. I am so incredibly thankful to have such a wonder family. Thank you for all your love and support.
jenell
In moving here, I have been completely removed from almost everything I knew, all the distractions of our over stimulated lives in the US. I have been given a chance to examine life on a very simple and basic level.
The underlying theme, the conclusion, the thesis, thus far: above all, it is family that matters. The people of mpaha have very little, but what they do have is family. They work together and the purpose of that work is to feed the family. I didn't see it at first because it was so different from the scheduled family time and family bonding that is becoming a more common form of strong family in the developed world. Family here is the foundation on which you live. no one has the ability to make it on their own. Everyone does their part and those who can't are just accepted b/c they're family.
Family here isn't defined solely by blood, but more by space. One family’s courtyard is another's courtyard, your child is your neighbors child. When a women goes to farm, if her child is too large to wrap onto her back she doesn't think twice about her other kids because there is always someone around to help them if they need it.
The other day we were putting in a platform at the water source, so people wouldn't walk in the water to fetch and thus cut down on spread of guinea worm. When it was time to move the huge heavy platform, everyone around dropped what they were doing to help us. No one is every too busy for family, and everyone is family. All of us moving the platform into the dam reminded me of putting the dock in at the Habedank lake cabin, but no water balloon launcher :D
I often feel the need to argue when people assume that I am rich because I am an American, but in truth I am rich. I am rich in education, opportunity, and in family. I am so incredibly thankful to have such a wonder family. Thank you for all your love and support.
jenell
Friday, December 23, 2005
And a new picture for Christmas
I finally was able to download this picture of women preparing fufu Jenell sent awhile ago. Just think of trying to prepare and cook food this way when working hard on that Christmas dinner at home... See email from Jenell on 12/23 below. Merry Christmas! Lisa HS
Just another manic Monday (email from Jenell Dec 23, '05)
Merry Christmas!!
I have been at my site for a few weeks and am adjusting to life in Mpaha. I have so much to share with you but for now I will just share one story.
Monday----
Last Monday I needed to go to a neighboring village about 100km away to meet with other guinea worm volunteers about their upcoming plans for eradication.... Because it was a Monday, I needed to be up at 5:30am and in town by 6am to secure a seat on the only tro-tro leaving town that day. When I arrived in Yapei for the meeting, I emerged from the tro and began beating the dust out of my clothes with the bandannas I had been wearing on my head and face.
Now that I was presentable for the meeting, I need breakfast. I scanned the roadside for a local diner or coffeeshop, but being in the wrong country for that I called to the women balancing a huge tray of hard boiled eggs with peppe sauce on her head. I also stopped to buy an orange, or rather fresh squeezed orange juice.
eating an orange roadside in Ghana: your hands are dirty so you don't want to touch what you eat, so oranges are lightly skinned with a hole cut in the top. You squeeze and suck every last ounce of juice out of it.
I went to the designated tree for our meeting and sat under it waiting for everyone else to arrive. there is no actual meeting time as transportation is not in our control, so people get there when they can. The meeting was long, unorganized, and inefficient... but we actually met, so it was a success! I told everyone of Mpaha's plan to have a soccer match for kids and do education at half time.... the grand prize: brightly painted pipe filters to wear around their necks.
As if paying attention wasn't hard enough, during the meeting I found myself watching strange lizards walk by, then my attention was unavoidably turned to the large bushfire started 20ft away from me. The boys here, who remind me of the lost boys of neverland in their worn clothing and lack of supervision, start bush fires and stand at the edge with large sticks and sling shots looking for anything that could be a serving of protein (ie. bush rats). So there we are sitting under a tree trying to have a meeting with smoke and ash all around us, small boys with rudimentary weapons, and various creatures fleeing from the fire (including many bats relocating to our tree).
When the meeting finally finished (no breaks) at 2pm, I went to sit on the side of the road to wait for a ride back. Then I had to sit again at the edge of the 52km dirt road into the bush with my fingers crossed that at 4pm there might still be a car going to Mpaha...... a cattle car with no less than 50 people pulled around the corner. The driver, who usually saves a spot for me in front, so he can ask me all sorts of questions about the outside world, stopped when he saw me waiting there and made some room for me on the cattle car.
Just as I was thinking, " Yes!! I don't have to find a ride to the next volunteers house (about 120km back the way I came from)!" our cattle car overheated and broke down exactly half way between Mpaha and the road. The driver went off to find some water for the radiator as I battled through broken gonja conversation with the women and children in the truck bed. After waiting about an hour, just when I started planning out the rationing of my water to get me through the night, the driver returned and with 20 of us pushing and 3 tries, we got the truck started. wooohooo!!!
The drive home was one of the most beautiful sunsets I've seen yet. The light, cool, dry fog of dust and smoke that settles in at dusk made the sun glow red as it set into the bush... I made it through another day.
I see the sun set and rise everyday here. It has happened everyday of my life, but rarely did I actually see both. These and the amazing stars so far from electricity at night are my christmas lights this year and they are beautiful!!!
I hope everyone has a wonderful christmas.
jenell
I have been at my site for a few weeks and am adjusting to life in Mpaha. I have so much to share with you but for now I will just share one story.
Monday----
Last Monday I needed to go to a neighboring village about 100km away to meet with other guinea worm volunteers about their upcoming plans for eradication.... Because it was a Monday, I needed to be up at 5:30am and in town by 6am to secure a seat on the only tro-tro leaving town that day. When I arrived in Yapei for the meeting, I emerged from the tro and began beating the dust out of my clothes with the bandannas I had been wearing on my head and face.
Now that I was presentable for the meeting, I need breakfast. I scanned the roadside for a local diner or coffeeshop, but being in the wrong country for that I called to the women balancing a huge tray of hard boiled eggs with peppe sauce on her head. I also stopped to buy an orange, or rather fresh squeezed orange juice.
eating an orange roadside in Ghana: your hands are dirty so you don't want to touch what you eat, so oranges are lightly skinned with a hole cut in the top. You squeeze and suck every last ounce of juice out of it.
I went to the designated tree for our meeting and sat under it waiting for everyone else to arrive. there is no actual meeting time as transportation is not in our control, so people get there when they can. The meeting was long, unorganized, and inefficient... but we actually met, so it was a success! I told everyone of Mpaha's plan to have a soccer match for kids and do education at half time.... the grand prize: brightly painted pipe filters to wear around their necks.
As if paying attention wasn't hard enough, during the meeting I found myself watching strange lizards walk by, then my attention was unavoidably turned to the large bushfire started 20ft away from me. The boys here, who remind me of the lost boys of neverland in their worn clothing and lack of supervision, start bush fires and stand at the edge with large sticks and sling shots looking for anything that could be a serving of protein (ie. bush rats). So there we are sitting under a tree trying to have a meeting with smoke and ash all around us, small boys with rudimentary weapons, and various creatures fleeing from the fire (including many bats relocating to our tree).
When the meeting finally finished (no breaks) at 2pm, I went to sit on the side of the road to wait for a ride back. Then I had to sit again at the edge of the 52km dirt road into the bush with my fingers crossed that at 4pm there might still be a car going to Mpaha...... a cattle car with no less than 50 people pulled around the corner. The driver, who usually saves a spot for me in front, so he can ask me all sorts of questions about the outside world, stopped when he saw me waiting there and made some room for me on the cattle car.
Just as I was thinking, " Yes!! I don't have to find a ride to the next volunteers house (about 120km back the way I came from)!" our cattle car overheated and broke down exactly half way between Mpaha and the road. The driver went off to find some water for the radiator as I battled through broken gonja conversation with the women and children in the truck bed. After waiting about an hour, just when I started planning out the rationing of my water to get me through the night, the driver returned and with 20 of us pushing and 3 tries, we got the truck started. wooohooo!!!
The drive home was one of the most beautiful sunsets I've seen yet. The light, cool, dry fog of dust and smoke that settles in at dusk made the sun glow red as it set into the bush... I made it through another day.
I see the sun set and rise everyday here. It has happened everyday of my life, but rarely did I actually see both. These and the amazing stars so far from electricity at night are my christmas lights this year and they are beautiful!!!
I hope everyone has a wonderful christmas.
jenell
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Birthday in Ghana and update (from Lisa HS)
Jenell turned "23" yesterday and I thought I'd take this opportunity to give a short update and some information on what books or supplies she needs the most if you are thinking of organizing a book drive or sending a package.
Jenell is now at her "site" in Mpaha and is the only volunteer in that village. We recently had a not-very-clear cell conversation with her after she had mountain biked for over an hour trying to find cell reception. What we gathered from the conversation was that the concept of a "birthday" is not common in her village. Most people don't know the day or year that they were born, but they may know if they were born on a Saturday or a Monday and therefore if you say it is your "birthday" they may think that is what you mean.... it is Saturday and you were born on a Saturday! She is adjusting to life at her site (cooking, laundry, making friends, learning the language) and trying to figure out what her focus will be, besides the guinea worm education health work. Any snail mail is very welcome! as is email, etc but she will have much more limited access to email/internet now that she is at her site and I think access to snail mail is also limited to trips to larger towns (I could be mistaken here). Her address is the same as the one listed earlier. The Peace Corps will forward mail to her at her site: Jenell Stewart, c/o Peace Corps/Ghana, PO Box 5796, Accra North- Ghana, West Africa.
Speaking of sending things, Jenell has given us a list of the types of books and supplies that would be most useful in case you were gathering some of these things together to send. She mentioned "things for tutoring and adult education (e.g., markers, sidewalk chalk, paints, brushes)" as well as the following book types and topics:
Books on:
business planning
life skills
math
classics
women's health
national geographics
picture books
encyclopedia specials on space/biography/geography, etc
maps
football (not sure if she meant soccer or American football??)
animal books
anatomy
It has been taking packages and snail mail about 2-4 weeks to reach her (always send "airmail" unless it is a large shipment of books and then contact Jenell for info on how to send that differently). Ironically it seems packages arrive almost quicker than letters! And now that she is on site I'm not sure exactly how often she will have access to these things, but I'm sure she won't mind if several letters were waiting for her when she was able to pick them up!
It is still pretty wild for me to think that Jenell is living in a village in Ghana right now as I write this note on my computer. I will continue to update this blog with her emails and photos, etc as best I can.
Lisa "habba" Stewart
Jenell is now at her "site" in Mpaha and is the only volunteer in that village. We recently had a not-very-clear cell conversation with her after she had mountain biked for over an hour trying to find cell reception. What we gathered from the conversation was that the concept of a "birthday" is not common in her village. Most people don't know the day or year that they were born, but they may know if they were born on a Saturday or a Monday and therefore if you say it is your "birthday" they may think that is what you mean.... it is Saturday and you were born on a Saturday! She is adjusting to life at her site (cooking, laundry, making friends, learning the language) and trying to figure out what her focus will be, besides the guinea worm education health work. Any snail mail is very welcome! as is email, etc but she will have much more limited access to email/internet now that she is at her site and I think access to snail mail is also limited to trips to larger towns (I could be mistaken here). Her address is the same as the one listed earlier. The Peace Corps will forward mail to her at her site: Jenell Stewart, c/o Peace Corps/Ghana, PO Box 5796, Accra North- Ghana, West Africa.
Speaking of sending things, Jenell has given us a list of the types of books and supplies that would be most useful in case you were gathering some of these things together to send. She mentioned "things for tutoring and adult education (e.g., markers, sidewalk chalk, paints, brushes)" as well as the following book types and topics:
Books on:
business planning
life skills
math
classics
women's health
national geographics
picture books
encyclopedia specials on space/biography/geography, etc
maps
football (not sure if she meant soccer or American football??)
animal books
anatomy
It has been taking packages and snail mail about 2-4 weeks to reach her (always send "airmail" unless it is a large shipment of books and then contact Jenell for info on how to send that differently). Ironically it seems packages arrive almost quicker than letters! And now that she is on site I'm not sure exactly how often she will have access to these things, but I'm sure she won't mind if several letters were waiting for her when she was able to pick them up!
It is still pretty wild for me to think that Jenell is living in a village in Ghana right now as I write this note on my computer. I will continue to update this blog with her emails and photos, etc as best I can.
Lisa "habba" Stewart
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
When the Poor Become Rich
Email from Jenell 12/3/2005 “When the Poor Become Rich”
Well, friends, I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer now. I completed training and swore-in yesterday. I am in Tamale right now, and will be for the next few days before I start my work/service/life in a small, rural, muslim village in Ghana, West Africa. Wow! This is it. this is what I've been waiting to do for so long. Now what, you may ask? Honestly, I don't know. I have lots of ideas, but the next two years are very much like those old choose your own adventure books. as far as I can tell, my assignment sounds something like, "this is your new village, see what you can do in 2 years to learn from and help them as best you can...” There are so many people to meet and so much to be done!
On monday I will take my overflowing backpack to the Tamale tro-tro station to go to the Mpaha junction (the beginning of my 52km road into the bush) early enough to catch one of the few tro-tros or cattle cars going down my road that day. When I get to town (after I wash off all the dust--- it's dry season), I will walk around to find the "important" people and health workers and volunteers in town while greeting everyone along the way. We will then go to the chief to announce my mission and ask permission to proceed (even though I've already met him several times) 1. you never see the chief alone AND 2. the chief should always be first to know.
Ok, now to the subject of this email.... people always talk about gaining perspective when traveling abroad, but rarely to you notice it happening. Since the last time I wrote, I returned to my homestay just outside Techiman after visiting my site. My homestay has electricity, one paved road that connects them to a city, more than one dress each, a tin roof instead of leaky thatch, one of the older brothers came to visit on a dirt bike, etc. Compared to the swollen bellies of children wearing nothing but a dirty, old, grey pair of underwear in Mpaha, the children of my homestay seemed so rich and modern. They have a healthy muscle structure, a handful of outfits, and sandles! This is the same family that in one of my first emails home I commented on how poor they were. My homestay family, a compound of farmers and their children who make about $200 a year now
seems rich and modern.
I will be back in Tamale on the 15-17 to meet with a local NGO about Guinea worm erradication. I will try to update on my adventures then.
Please eat one extra Christmas cookie in my honor.
jenell
Well, friends, I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer now. I completed training and swore-in yesterday. I am in Tamale right now, and will be for the next few days before I start my work/service/life in a small, rural, muslim village in Ghana, West Africa. Wow! This is it. this is what I've been waiting to do for so long. Now what, you may ask? Honestly, I don't know. I have lots of ideas, but the next two years are very much like those old choose your own adventure books. as far as I can tell, my assignment sounds something like, "this is your new village, see what you can do in 2 years to learn from and help them as best you can...” There are so many people to meet and so much to be done!
On monday I will take my overflowing backpack to the Tamale tro-tro station to go to the Mpaha junction (the beginning of my 52km road into the bush) early enough to catch one of the few tro-tros or cattle cars going down my road that day. When I get to town (after I wash off all the dust--- it's dry season), I will walk around to find the "important" people and health workers and volunteers in town while greeting everyone along the way. We will then go to the chief to announce my mission and ask permission to proceed (even though I've already met him several times) 1. you never see the chief alone AND 2. the chief should always be first to know.
Ok, now to the subject of this email.... people always talk about gaining perspective when traveling abroad, but rarely to you notice it happening. Since the last time I wrote, I returned to my homestay just outside Techiman after visiting my site. My homestay has electricity, one paved road that connects them to a city, more than one dress each, a tin roof instead of leaky thatch, one of the older brothers came to visit on a dirt bike, etc. Compared to the swollen bellies of children wearing nothing but a dirty, old, grey pair of underwear in Mpaha, the children of my homestay seemed so rich and modern. They have a healthy muscle structure, a handful of outfits, and sandles! This is the same family that in one of my first emails home I commented on how poor they were. My homestay family, a compound of farmers and their children who make about $200 a year now
seems rich and modern.
I will be back in Tamale on the 15-17 to meet with a local NGO about Guinea worm erradication. I will try to update on my adventures then.
Please eat one extra Christmas cookie in my honor.
jenell
