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
