Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Jenell is Moving to Jirapa in NW Ghana!!
Email from Jenell on March 3, 2006
BIG NEWS: I am moving!
This week I will say my bittersweet goodbyes to Mpaha and move to Jirapa in the Upper West. Looking at a map of Ghana, Jirapa is in the far upper left corner NW of Wa. I am almost Peace Corps Burkina Faso now :). I am really excited about my new job. My primary project will be working with the District Assembly (the local government) specifically focusing on behavior change in HIV/AIDS prevention and Guinea Worm eradication. For secondary projects, it sounds like there are several groups I could work with: a PLWA (people living with aids) group, a hospital, an orphanage, a secondary school, an all girls secondary school, and several motivated groups of women trying to start their own businesses.
Why am I moving? (I thought about skipping over this, but I think it is important for me to share a more complete experience and not just the dancing and laughter)
I was struggling to find purpose or companionship in Mpaha. I told my director in my placement interview that I wanted to be challenged; however, the challenge of trying to stay happy when I was so isolated in combination with zero structure wasn't exactly what I had in mind. I learned a lot about myself, and how essential it is for me to share life with friends and family. For someone just looking to get away from the states, do some gardening, read some books, get to know a village and fight guinea worm every once and a while this would have been a great placement. With a large percentage of my day devoted to cleaning and cooking, I felt like a housewife...but with no family. That was not the life for me; I am too social and purpose-driven. I thought fairly seriously about leaving, as almost every volunteer does at one point or another, but after a lot of soul searching I decided that I wasn't ready to leave Ghana... I hadn't exhausted all my options and my work wasn't done. So, I contacted Peace Corps in Accra and asks for suggestions. It was quickly decided that I should be moved and because a volunteer had just been medically separated from Jirapa, there was an excellent site open. [Note: I plan to visit Mpaha periodically throughout the next 2 years to greet them and to deliver library books that are either in the middle of the Atlantic or on a camel in Mali right now]
Mail
Please send all mail to Accra (not Tamale). Although, any mail sent c/o Peace Corps Ghana will get to me eventually.
c/o Peace Corps Ghana
PO Box 5796
Accra North, Ghana
West Africa
Milk and Granola
In this transition time, I was able to spend some time at my friend, Jessica Hancock's, site just outside Tamale. While I was there we rode our bikes into the bush to meet a Fulani family.
We turned off the main path down a smaller dirt path that had been worn away by the cattle owned by the Fulanis. [Fulanis: nomadic cattle herders of Western Africa, originally from Mali, lead their cattle to where ever there is food. They are much like the Gypsies of Europe, and unfortunately equally untrusted.] Their secluded cluster of round huts with thatched roofs, unlike those in the village, were coated in concrete inside and out making them significantly nicer and cleaner. we were greeted enthusiastically by an older Fulani man wearing a lacy up-and-down (a glorified night gown for men with matching pants and hat). he smiled widely as if to proudly display his lone remaining molars, and laughed with tears of joy every time I addressed him as "Mr. Ossman."
A multitude of cautious children and a handful of slender, elegant women emerged from the various huts. the women were so exotic, clad in wrap skirts and enough beaded jewelry and bangles to double their body weight. I stared at them captivated just like everyone stared at us. we "talked" (gestured) to each other for a while exhausting all common English, French, Dagbani, and Fulani... this lasted about one minute. Luckily, one of Mr. Ossman's nephew/son/grandson/? was home visiting from school and helped to translate Mr. Ossman's story of moving to Ghana AND helped us to get some fresh, real milk!!!
Back at jessica's house we pasteurized the milk and made some granola. I think the fact that it took us several hours to prepare a bowl of milk and granola made it taste that much better. The next time you pour milk over your cereal....mmm...milk and cereal... try to image riding your bicycle to your nearest dairy farmer to hear about his life, meet his family and gesturing wildly to try and convey that you
would really appreciate some milk.
well, this is getting really long and I should go study my new language, Dagaare.
Jenell
BIG NEWS: I am moving!
This week I will say my bittersweet goodbyes to Mpaha and move to Jirapa in the Upper West. Looking at a map of Ghana, Jirapa is in the far upper left corner NW of Wa. I am almost Peace Corps Burkina Faso now :). I am really excited about my new job. My primary project will be working with the District Assembly (the local government) specifically focusing on behavior change in HIV/AIDS prevention and Guinea Worm eradication. For secondary projects, it sounds like there are several groups I could work with: a PLWA (people living with aids) group, a hospital, an orphanage, a secondary school, an all girls secondary school, and several motivated groups of women trying to start their own businesses.
Why am I moving? (I thought about skipping over this, but I think it is important for me to share a more complete experience and not just the dancing and laughter)
I was struggling to find purpose or companionship in Mpaha. I told my director in my placement interview that I wanted to be challenged; however, the challenge of trying to stay happy when I was so isolated in combination with zero structure wasn't exactly what I had in mind. I learned a lot about myself, and how essential it is for me to share life with friends and family. For someone just looking to get away from the states, do some gardening, read some books, get to know a village and fight guinea worm every once and a while this would have been a great placement. With a large percentage of my day devoted to cleaning and cooking, I felt like a housewife...but with no family. That was not the life for me; I am too social and purpose-driven. I thought fairly seriously about leaving, as almost every volunteer does at one point or another, but after a lot of soul searching I decided that I wasn't ready to leave Ghana... I hadn't exhausted all my options and my work wasn't done. So, I contacted Peace Corps in Accra and asks for suggestions. It was quickly decided that I should be moved and because a volunteer had just been medically separated from Jirapa, there was an excellent site open. [Note: I plan to visit Mpaha periodically throughout the next 2 years to greet them and to deliver library books that are either in the middle of the Atlantic or on a camel in Mali right now]
Please send all mail to Accra (not Tamale). Although, any mail sent c/o Peace Corps Ghana will get to me eventually.
c/o Peace Corps Ghana
PO Box 5796
Accra North, Ghana
West Africa
Milk and Granola
In this transition time, I was able to spend some time at my friend, Jessica Hancock's, site just outside Tamale. While I was there we rode our bikes into the bush to meet a Fulani family.
We turned off the main path down a smaller dirt path that had been worn away by the cattle owned by the Fulanis. [Fulanis: nomadic cattle herders of Western Africa, originally from Mali, lead their cattle to where ever there is food. They are much like the Gypsies of Europe, and unfortunately equally untrusted.] Their secluded cluster of round huts with thatched roofs, unlike those in the village, were coated in concrete inside and out making them significantly nicer and cleaner. we were greeted enthusiastically by an older Fulani man wearing a lacy up-and-down (a glorified night gown for men with matching pants and hat). he smiled widely as if to proudly display his lone remaining molars, and laughed with tears of joy every time I addressed him as "Mr. Ossman."
A multitude of cautious children and a handful of slender, elegant women emerged from the various huts. the women were so exotic, clad in wrap skirts and enough beaded jewelry and bangles to double their body weight. I stared at them captivated just like everyone stared at us. we "talked" (gestured) to each other for a while exhausting all common English, French, Dagbani, and Fulani... this lasted about one minute. Luckily, one of Mr. Ossman's nephew/son/grandson/? was home visiting from school and helped to translate Mr. Ossman's story of moving to Ghana AND helped us to get some fresh, real milk!!!
Back at jessica's house we pasteurized the milk and made some granola. I think the fact that it took us several hours to prepare a bowl of milk and granola made it taste that much better. The next time you pour milk over your cereal....mmm...milk and cereal... try to image riding your bicycle to your nearest dairy farmer to hear about his life, meet his family and gesturing wildly to try and convey that you
would really appreciate some milk.
well, this is getting really long and I should go study my new language, Dagaare.
Jenell
