Danny V Peace Corps Updates from Ghana

Bye Bye Ghana

2010-09-13T15:41:00.002-04:00

I might do a few more blogs talking about adjusting to real world, which will probably be harder than adjusting to here, but this will be my last entry from Ghana.

Last week our COS conference was extremely fun. We’re the only group left that came in with under 70 and our group got really close after two years together. The conference was about reintegration into the States and all the paperwork that we have to do so it shouldn’t have been too exciting but it flew by. We did “Fufu Awards” between each section (ex. Most likely to bring Kente clothe to Broadway-me, Most likely to require a nap while walking to his car-our boss). 97% weren’t politically correct enough to quote here but they were hilarious.

The resort was gorgeous (Will Smith and lots of other celebs have stayed there), the food was so good, and the company was perfect. The last day the environment volunteers gave out a cutlass award to each of the 3 sectors to signify hard work and accomplishments. Hannah Frank won Health and Water Sanitation, Sam Frankel won Environment, and in a favorite moment of PC I got the cutlass for Small Enterprise Development. Kris Laurie, one of my closest friends during training, gave the speech. The level of respect that I hold him in really added to the meaning of what was said.

20 of us headed to the remote beach for the weekend to delay our goodbyes. A good amount have even came all the way to Accra to see Marcus and I off. We have a week full of paperwork, medical stuff, and last minute arrangements until we fly out Thursday night for Munich and Oktoberfest! From there we are going to Fussen in the Alps, Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris. I should be home October 10th.

Bye Bye Kpetoe

2010-09-05T13:32:00.000-04:00

Leaving America was hard because 2 years seemed so long. Leaving Kpetoe was rough because I’ll probably never see most of these guys again. Despite that it couldn’t have gone much better.

It was our Kente Festival this weekend so everyone was around and the town was crowded. Lots of PCVs and even the Country Director came. So basically all my Kpetoe friends were there, most my closest PC friends were there, and there was a huge festival going on. I got to say individual goodbyes to Michael, Bright, Joshua, Lawrence, Mr. Agba and Suzzy. It wasn’t easy but the fact that the last 2 years have been a blast really helped.

Tomorrow I leave Ho and our whole group that came in 2008 gets together for our Close of Service conference. 34 of our original 42 will be there and 2 of those missing will finish their service but can’t make it. We are a great group with lots of personality so it will be a fun few days together.

Master WEaver Ceremony

2010-09-02T07:19:00.010-04:00

My PC Boss

Mukaila and me. He's the big man in town that's always been there for me

Going into our newly opened visitors' centre!

All Powdered

Beza, Julie, Steve, and Chrissa came.Ceremonies here are not exactly fun so this really meant a ton to me

The traditional rulers of the Agotime Area

Don't mess w/the Queen Mothers

My boss from PC even gave a speech

Mr. Agba, who calls me his son, powdering me as part of the ceremon

The entire Agotime Tourism Management Team

All the weavers of the shed. One of my favorite pictures because thses are the guys who I spent the most time with.

Master Weaverfied

2010-08-31T15:54:00.003-04:00

(Big Sister will add the pictures later that would take me hours)

Yesterday was one significant day for me. We opened the visitors’ centre with a big ceremony. This centre was the end product of all of our work. Basically everyone I’ve worked with over the last 2 years was there as well as some big men and women (including a member of Parliament, our District Chief Executive, and all the chiefs and queen mothers) and the place looked great. When they were introducing the Tourism management team I was called last and then pulled aside to get dressed to become a master kente weaver. We’re mostly certain I’m the first Caucasian one ever.

Mr. Agba, who has taken me out for 100s of Guinness’ and calls me his son, actually performed the ritual which included getting powdered. Julie wouldn’t have missed it even if I begged her probably and Steve, also from our PC group, came and took great pictures. My replacement and even my PC boss came. Having these friends there with all my site buds was all I could ask for.

Here’s a summary my boss had me write up:

My apprenticeship lasted around 18 months. For the great price of 30 Cedi ($20) and a bottle of booze I purchased the services of 2 master weavers, Bright and Joshua. Now they are best friends. They taught me everything from buying threads, setting the warp, spinning the threads, threading the pulleys, and the actual weaving. Who knows how many hours they spend fixing my mistakes.
My first pattern was a plain warp weave meaning just the background showed through. My second pattern was a plain weft weave meaning just the colors in the shuttle showed through. From there we continued to increase the difficulty. I excelled at motifs and tricky patterns earning the nickname of “the designer” but am definitely still extremely lacking in the speed department. Currently I can do one women’s strip in a day. When I told them I wanted to be the first white person to weave a patterned men’s cloth they probably doubted it but they let me try it. They told me if I finished it’d I’d could be a master weaver. I know it took a lot of their time but I never could have finished without their help.
A master weaver can see about any pattern and know how to do it completely. They are also allowed to take on an apprentice.

It shows that I’m pretty proud but many titles given are honorary, I actually earned this.

Today when I was weaving it was all congratulations from the guys. The oldest weaver in the shed came up to me and gave me a real hug, unheard of here, and told me tons of way too nice of things. Then he gave me a strip with one of my favorite traditional patterns. He said he didn’t have much but he wanted to give me this. How am I supposed to say bye to these guys?

This post could go on for days so I best stop it here with 2 good articles about Technology and how it’s changing Peace Corps and Readjusting back into life in the States after an experience like Peace Corps.

The picture of us from Obama actually made the NPR website too.

Last Tour

2010-08-26T12:15:00.002-04:00

Cute kid waiting for us to start painting that day

PC Logo that took me quite a long time.
Showing the kid where the shirt is from.

Last weekend the World Map Project was lots of fun. I basically spent most of my time helping with the grids and then painting the Peace Corps logo but it’s done now. Jake and I decided that the World Map Project is cool but the Midwest Map Project would be even better and want to get that started. He's from Wisconsin. On the way to and from the site of the project I stayed in our bunk house in Kumasi with Marcus (who’s going to Europe with me) and Mikey who was my roomie through training. With all the new PCVs sometimes it’s just nice to hang out with people you really know.

Today I gave my last kente tour. It’s Chrissa’s site now but Marian of Alan & Marian (our couple that has done PC a few times) had most of her 1965-67 Peace Corps Morocco group visiting. This called for the veteran tour guide. Showing them around was lots of fun because they had tons of questions and really took their time appreciating the weaving (and spent a ton). Talking to them about their PC experience verses ours was very interesting. I was texting and calling in the tro to coordinate things and they made 1 call home over 2 years. At the same time they said that the sanitary, food, and infrastructure situations here are worse than they were in Morocco then. The tro we were using did get stuck in a rut but it was right by the welders that helped me with the basketball court so all worked out.

The small world connections keep coming my way as one of the ladies is a good friend from high school, Katie Guerriero’s aunt. It was crazy to talk to someone who knows Katie even better than I do while being in Africa.

The best part of the day was easily seeing all the weavers, especially Bright and Joshua, and above all Michael, my neighbor boy. He’d been constantly asking Chrissa when I’d be coming back. I’ll only get to see him a few more times so I gave them my contact stuff in the States.

Replaced

2010-08-18T10:26:00.002-04:00

PC celebrates 50 years next year and we need a logo; here's the one I designed with help from Tony and Julie

The rest of my service will be so different. I will always be with at least 1 other American and most the time I can walk to an internet café. So far it’s been a complete blast but I do miss my alone time and Kpetoe.

The new group had their swearing in ceremony which was followed by a large gathering of new and current volunteers. This was the last time I’ll see anyone outside of the group I came with probably. I remember being the new volunteer so well and now we’re the ones going home. All my journals from my 1st year were handwritten causing me to type them so I don’t have to drag the notebook across Europe. I can’t believe how much my thoughts have changed. At the same time the things that have remained the same (especially the support from home and friends here) say equally as much if not more.

After Swearing In, I had a meeting down on Keta Lagoon. We took the most disgusting, sinking, and fun canoe ride of my life after a great meeting. The years of rowing probably kept us from completely tipping and the other canoe definitely had more issues. Now I’m at Julie’s playing catch up from 2 years with limited internet and commuting out to Kpetoe to show friends around, weave, or hang out with my buds there.

My replacement has moved into the bungalow and has started to make it much more feminine; I don’t plan on going in it again since it’d be so weird but the change is definitely for the better. It’s very hard to let go of the project but it’s in good hands and will continue to grow. Our ecotourism project even made national news with like a 5 minutes segment. I still have like 6 full days of weaving and master weaver ceremony along with Kente Festival in Kpetoe before I leave.

This weekend I head to the middle of the country to paint a world map on the side of a school at a friend’s site. It’s a very popular PC project that I haven’t done yet so I’m excited. It’s very valuable to show the kids where Ghana is and how it fits into the world. “Oh, Ghana is very small small” is a popular 1st response.

Being around so many PCVs lately hopefully will help get my social skills back. I even went on a date this week which was really fun. 29 days left in Ghana.

Movin' Out

2010-08-06T06:00:00.006-04:00

Packing doesn’t sound like fun so I continue to put that off. Instead I’ve been devoting most of my time to weaving. My best friends are in the 2 looms next to me so it’s what I want to do. I’ve almost finished 2 strips on the 11 for the women’s cloth I’m weaving for a PCV friend. She came and picked out the pattern and colors which is cool because I get to learn new techniques and very uncool because of the colors. My men’s cloth was blue, black, grey, and white. That’s a men’s cloth for sure. Cynthia’s women’s cloth is pink, purple, blue, white, and cream. I have to make it very clear to visitors that I did not have any say in the colors.

I’m finally to a point were I’m getting decent at weaving. Almost any pattern is doable and my speed is getting up there. In a day I can weave a high quality tough pattern strip. It took me 2 years to get to here and now I’m leaving which is frustrating.

I’ll move out of the bungalow on Wednesday and have meetings for the rest of the week then I’ll be mostly staying with Julie in Ho. I’ll have a lot more internet access and more importantly time to spend with Julie. She and I are pretty opposite but as the only PCVs remotely close to each other we’ve become extremely close, like other PCVs mock us about it. I know I wouldn’t have made it without her and I’m glad my last month here will be with her. With our other 2 best friends Alison and Andrea back in Canada and Tennessee (both locations almost too easy to mock) already it’s starting to feel like it’s time to get going.
1st strip of Cynthia's pattern
Chessboard and bag I made for another PCV outta the leftovers of my men's cloth.

Haven't posted random pictures of the kids on the neighborhood lately....
We had Fafa act like she used to when she saw me.
That's more like it

Men's Cloth DONE!

2010-07-29T06:23:00.007-04:00

Grand Valley State University Colors
It's HUGE. Taller than me (6'3") and twice as long.
Joshua, Bright, and I. The best master weavers ever and soon to be perhaps the only Caucasian kente master weaver in the world.

Tuesday at 11:11 I finished my men’s cloth! 19 double strips (38 regular) make this massive cloth up. It took me about 5 months but with lots of travel in there too (Bright could do it in less than 1.5). When I started I was doing 3 squares a day and on my 2nd to last day I did 27 (779 in entire cloth). I’m still slow but the weavers were even more excited about it being done than I was. They all tried it on and we took lots of pictures. Goodbye entire group shot is planned for early next week.

The guys have had even more to be happy about as we are having the best month any of them can remember. As of yesterday we have sold GH 1,456 from 117 guests…117!! Both are easily new records. I couldn’t have asked for a better showing on my last full month here. With the guidebooks, brochures, signboards, website, and such more people are giving us a try. The guys weave so well, are laid back and the prices are low so once people come they tell their friends. You would think with all the visitors I’d be getting my social skills back but they are still far from where they need to be for home.

Now I’m weaving a pattern that uses 4 shuttles (5 really) so I’m slow again. My men’s cloth was 2 shuttles (really 3). I still might try to weave a women’s cloth which is ¼ the size of a men’s cloth.

This morning I gave my neighbor girl Wonder some Jello. She kept in in her mouth for like 10 minutes and still isn't sure about it.

Oldest weaver in the shed goofing around.
Foster and Lawrence with me. Lawrence does all my orders for the German embassy (my commission is 2 Guinness) and is the happiest guy in the shed. Many Ghanaians like to look serious in the pictures and we made fun of him for it and I promised I'd post it.

Squeezing in what i can

2010-07-23T06:45:00.002-04:00

The walls of my house are now empty; less than 20 days left in it. I’ve been staying so busy that all I do there now is sleep. This week after giving a presentation for the new group 2 of them came to do a “Job Shadow” of me. The basketball, weaving, chess, darts, walking to Togo, palm wine, cloths shopping at market, and good eats might not have added up to a good job shadow but we definitely had a great time. It’s interesting how coming just 2 years later will completely change their PC experience.

I have a PO Box because when we got here internet was 45 minutes to open Yahoo. Now if I wasn’t leaving in less than 2 months I’d get a wireless modem. Roads are paved, power seems to stay on longer though water still goes out a lot. PC will also be doubling its number of volunteers within 2 years. Of the 70+ in the new group 28 are coming to my region, Volta. We have 6 in my group here. For a long time Julie was the only PCV within 3 hours of me. The increased net will allow for even more cultural exchange and that along all the other improvements and closer neighbors will make for happier volunteers. Happy volunteers do better work. I love how PC adjusts to progress rather than try to stay the same. Being a PCV is hard enough; they deserve every added comfort available. I’m excited to hear how these guys do.

1.5 strips left of my men’s cloth since I’ve been hosting and coaching a lot lately. We had a big meeting at the visitors’ centre with all the weavers and the paramount chief and talked about the future of it. The guys know I’m leaving and have been incredibly nice. They decided I get made a master weaver on August 30 at the opening ceremony of the Kente Festival! I have to have my cloth finished to become one so they’ve been helping any way they can. Bright takes my weight back and Lawrence will pick each string to make sure there are no knots in the warp whenever I’m gone. Both processes take me 30 minutes. I love these guys.

During basketball warm-ups Monday I was the proudest I’ve been here. We looked just plain sharp doing layups. Smooth, agile, and having fun. I should have taken before and after video. The guys still aren’t great but they’re getting good. I love that my starting 5 is Courage, Wisdom, Fiesta, James, and David with Wizzy as 6th man.

The new nets mom sent me even outlasted the rims as I had to take them down and weld them yet again. One completely snapped; they get used a lot. This time we added some extra support and so far so good. Wednesday was probably my last practice with all the guys there so to end it we did 2 on 2 with me and the 3 best. I showed my age in the end, spraining my ankle and having to stop. I’ve been limping to my loom and back since.

The huge guidebook to Ghana, Bradt, who is easily the most important aspect to any tourism sight, emailed me and said that Julie and I will be getting free copies of the newest edition for our help. That along with all the praise from the new group and my village has me pretty proud of what we’ve done here.

2010-07-11T06:55:00.002-04:00

Marcus and I got September 16th as our official Close of Service date. We have to be out of our houses by August 12th for our replacements so we get just over a month of homelessness to finish up our service which should be kinda fun. That gives us like a month left living in our villages. That's like no time at all and it's really hitting me how close I am to leaving.

My replacement Chrissa coming is when it really hit me how much I've put into this project. Like people always say give it everything you got; well for 2 years we have and we've made lots of progress. It's weird to be showing someone else around and I'm very protective of it. Luckily, I really think Chrissa will do great things and will be a great change of pace for the guys. Working with a woman will be such a good thing for them. When she told some of my weavers she would be replacing me asked "Are you sure...?" She seems really excited about the project, ready to get to work, and has lots of good ideas.

Other great news is that there will be 2 PCVs in my village this next group. Brian is an environment volunteer but more importantly to me used to play basketball and can't wait to take over coaching. He'll also be able to maintain the court which was a huge worry to me. It looks like I'll be leaving things in good hands.

4.5 strips left of my men's cloth!
This might look incredibly slow, and for a master weaver it is but for a kid from Michigan it's pretty good. Each zig zag section takes me like 25 minutes now; when I started it took almost an hour so I may be slow but I'm improving.
These sections only take me a few minutes now

Blackstars Out

2010-07-05T15:44:00.004-04:00

Friday night the Blackstars played against Uruguay in the World Cup Quarter Finals. If they won they would have been the most successful African team ever. They should have but ended up losing in a shootout after missing a penalty kick in overtime. A group of us headed down to Accra for the match. It was INSANE. BBC said it was like a carnival atmosphere. Big screens all over, everyone sporting Blackstars apparel and businesses closed down or made it possible to watch the match. It was easily the best vibe I’ve ever felt for a sporting event. I’ve never wanted a team to win as badly as I wanted them to. After the loss, everyone was just quiet and semi depressed. The next day Accra was still pretty empty. Some of us are still recovering from the lose.
Other than that lots of weaving and guests. I’m down to 6 strips left of my men’s cloth but only have a little over a month left in my house so it’ll be tight. My replacement, Chrissa, comes for site visit on Wednesday so that’s exciting. Marcus and I are getting our plans for our trip home together which is exciting. It’s bittersweet though because right now we have a lot of fun. We’re comfortable here, have great friends, and lots of freedom. This weekend a group of us went to a great beach appropriately called “the Hideout.” It took almost a day to get there but so beautiful and worth it.
Video after we qualified for the next round..after a loss.
Trevius Jones, the TCU o-lineman and me
Weaving, it's what I do
The Hideout
Awesome bridge you have to cross
USA vs Ghana party in the weaving centre
My new turbo fan and my old one in the background (without the duct tape and 2 spoons it had that used to hold it up)

Loss PARTY!

2010-06-27T11:49:00.000-04:00

After Ghana LOST to Germany 1-0 Wednesday the entire country went into a crazy party. The streets of Ho were absolutely nuts. Thanks to an Australian upset, Ghana made it to the knockout rounds of World Cup to play against no other than the USA. Lots of my excitement was lost on the fact that everyone was so happy after a loss. One of our players was running around the field with a Ghanaian flag and the Germans, who won the game and group, just walked off the field. I’m still not used to that aspect of the World Cup.
The buildup to yesterday’s game against the US was huge. Everyone was telling me how much they were going to “score us.” They kept saying how they beat us in 2006 and they’ll do it again. I pointed out that the 2 finalists from 2006 had already been eliminated but that didn’t change the amount of taunting. Actually even now I’m still not sure who I was really cheering for. I mean Ghana got me hooked on football and I’ve seen the Blackstars play 30 times more than the US but still US is home. It was definitely a fun night with the weavers watching on a tiny tv. Now I know I’ll be pulling 100% for the Blackstars again on Friday. Last night after the game, however, I played it safe and came straight home as the street in my village was packed. It’s a great atmosphere but dangerous. Up in a northern region there were a few fatalities; I love football but not that much!

GO BLACKSTARS GO!

Summer Days

2010-06-22T05:47:00.000-04:00

The weather has been wonderfully cool or at least for Ghana. This morning I thought it was cool and it was 83. I’m not sure if it’s the wetter and cooler weather or what but lots of my stuff is breaking. My pipes have a leak so I have to turn off the water when I’m not using it. Right now, however, that doesn’t matter since there is no water. My fan finally gave up after a 4 month battle but that’s fine since it’s been so nice out. My surge protector started making noises and stopped working but that’s alright since I don’t need it if I don’t have a fan. It all works out.
The newly arrived 70+ PCTs just got their site assignments. My replacement is named Chrissa. I haven’t met her yet but I hear she’s from Nebraska so she must be cool. I think having a girl will really be a good change of pace for Kpetoe after almost 5 years of guy PCVs. Hopefully she can pick up where I leave it and take it even further. It’s weird to think that someone else will basically take over the last 2 years of my life. We’ll overlap some so I can teach her the bit I’ve learned but then I’ll hopefully leave Ghana in September.
Thanks to having an Ipod again I’ve been putting more hours in my loom lately than ever, setting a PR for weaving twice within the last week. 21 squares on Thursday and then 24 yesterday; my previous record was 13. I have over 10 double strips out of the 19 I need for my men’s cloth. I wasn’t even able to get out to the basketball court for 2 weeks due to traveling, weaving, World Cup, and training for a regatta in October.
When I did finally get out there it really was astonishing. I was expecting it to be empty and I’d have to go round up the kids. I ride up to the court to find a full game going on with plenty of kids waiting for next! They stopped the game to welcome me and ask where I’ve been and then Wisdom drained 2 middle range jumpers when they started back up. Wisdom is the hardest worker of the lot, not the best athlete by a long shot but he practices his shooting all the time. He’s easily got the best jumper inside the arc and it’s something else to see his confidence rise. Seeing that the court is still being heavily used even if I’m not pushing it was really gratifying.
World Cup matches haven’t really went my teams’ ways so far but tomorrow that could all change. Go Blackstars and USA! Julie comes back from America tomorrow too so I get my closest neighbor back! It’ll be great to have someone consistent to talk to again.

World Cup!

2010-06-15T06:48:00.002-04:00

World Cup has totally changed the daily life here. School was canceled to watch the opening match and any time an African team plays. Every house that has a tv has it turned to the match with the constant vuvuzeela (horn) noise becoming part of your day. Normally there are a lot of Ghanaian flags on houses and cars but this week it has been insane. Some cabs can barely see due to 7 flags on their cars. We set up a tv in the weaving centre so we can still get some work done.
I was actually in Togo and Benin for some of the matches but they were still extremely interested since all of Africa is cheering for any African team. So far Ghana is the only one to win but Ivory Coast plays this afternoon. Ghana’s win was huge and puts them in great position to advance.
Togo and Benin are both Francophone countries so communication was hard but the food was absolutely amazing. Peace Corps Volunteers there should weight more than here in Ghana but Ghana is a little better off financially. Crossing African borders is a painful yet humorous process. They wouldn’t believe that Sinae was American because she’s of Korean decent and they all wanted bribes. Luckily we knew the prices and are well traveled. I also forgot my Yellow Fever card after making sure to tell everyone else to bring theirs. I sure as heck wasn't getting a shot in the hut they were giving them so I just acted like I didn't speak english or french and repeated. "Yellow card?" "Yellow card" and walked on by despite them yelling after me.
Stilt village in Benin. So big..

Mountains & Goodbyes

2010-06-09T03:40:00.005-04:00

Michael, and if you look hard his girlfriend struggling in the background; great pic!

My great Dutch friends left on Saturday. Since February we’ve been having good times. While I will be visiting them in Holland on the way home (3.5 months!) it was still sad to see them leave. The day that they were to leave they decided to climb the mountain that dominates the horizon around Ho. I had never done it so Marcus, who was visiting, and I went with them. A light rain made it a rather dangerous climb and we even had to climb a HUGE tree upside down because it had fallen and blocked the only way but it was so worth it.

That’s close friends Julie, Andrea, and Kristine all leaving within a month. Luckily I’m going to Togo and Benin with Cynthia, Sinae, Rachel and Lindsey tomorrow for a week so I won’t get too down. The weather has been amazing lately too so I hope it holds for our trip. Rainy season is marvelous; like, I don’t sweat 24/7. It looks like that was my last dry season and I can’t say that I’ll miss it.

Summer’s always fly by, even here, so I’m trying to get as much work done ahead of time as I can. I made our new brochure and sent it in for revisions this week. Compared to my 1st brochure this one looks great (not saying much). You can really see the progress I’ve made in Photoshop; not exactly a skill I thought I’d develop in PC. May also set an all time record for sales and guests with GH 1,202 ($850) and 75 respectively! Lots of those guests came from the basketball tournament but they still count, just not sustainable. We’ve also been setting up arrangements to deal with the overlap of the new volunteer and myself. My top weavers have been so busy with orders that I have Guinness stocked up in the fridge (the commission the guys give me for each cloth I sell) so we’re all pretty happy here. I even got an Ipod from the Hubbells which will make my weaving, running, and traveling 100xs better! Thanks guys! World Cup on Friday too, GO BLACKSTARS GO! USA!!

(At a BBQ at the Canadian Embassy)
Cute girl as leaving: So maybe I’ll see you in Grand Rapids sometime.
Me: Yes please.

The PCVs I was with got a good laugh outta that but I need to get back into the social life…
Kente made for an Apple Laptop. We had an appleoff between Bright Joshua and me to see who got to do it. My apple took second to Joshua's shown above.

Old Brochure

New Brochure

Thanks!

2010-05-31T04:39:00.005-04:00

The Thank You postcard before African Printers got ahold of it.

They announced the winner of the Barclay’s best places to watch a match competition and we didn’t win but top 10 out of 5,000 isn’t bad. Entries came from 190 countries. I asked if they could get us a banner or something to hang up in the TV hut saying we were top 10; they probably won’t but it’d be amusing if they did.
Last week we had a group of students come from Texas Christian University. They were polite as can be and bought lots, both favorites. Each weaver in the centre took one of the students and had them weave on their loom for like an hour, teaching them the basics. Bright said since I’m a full weaver now so I had to take one too. Enter Trevius Jones, an offensive guard for the #7 ranked TCU Horned Frogs. He was far too big for my loom so I took him to our biggest loom and started teaching. We were the only group without a language barrier and he caught on really fast so I actually had him doing 4 shuttles at once by the end. He didn’t weave as much as everyone else did but he did much harder designs with better quality. Tons of strings were broken from his pure power weaving technique but the weavers loved it.
He was hilarious, polite, and modest and therefore now I’m a Horned Frog fan. I needed a DI team anyways. His talking about missing Mexican food after a week without it has had me craving it since. The pictures from his fancy camera should be pretty cool; he’ll send them to me soon. Topping it all off he sent me an email saying I have TCU tickets when I get back this fall. The weavers made tons of money and I got to meet an awesome guy, which makes for a good day.
With less than 4 months left I’ve started to travel to the places I need to get to. Until now I’ve traveled lots less than most PCVs. The basketball guys won’t always have a coach 6 days a week but they’re catching on and we have some definite leaders emerging. Finishing my men’s cloth will be very hard as I barely wove last week and the next 2 I’ll be going to Accra and then Togo and Benin for a week. I’m pumped for Togo and Benin since my 1st planned trip there got canceled due to a hippo attack. Last week I traveled via ferry and that was the first time I’d been on a boat in almost 2 years; a mortal sin for a rower.
Slave Defense Wall at Adam's site. The villagers built concentric circles around the entire village to prevent slavers from capturing villagers.
1st Boat ride in a while!
End of a practice.

2 links you need to go to

2010-05-19T07:31:00.003-04:00

Seriously awesome links
Our village website has just been published thanks to the hard working students of Dr. Pope's class at Grand Valley State University.
Check it out at:
www.visitkpetoe.com
It's a work in progress so feedback is needed.

VERY COOL
My village was just picked as a finalist for the top 10 places to watch Premiere League Football in the WORLD. I submitted a picture, video, and text and if I win I get a round trip to an Arsenal game!!! I've at least won a team shirt.
Second from bottom on the list:
http://www.barclaysfootball.com/finalists/

Some more Bball pictures

2010-05-15T06:49:00.007-04:00

The Champs

End of practice this week

Saying bye to Julie and Andrea on consecutive days sucked. My cell phone will be pretty quiet and my social life at a standstill with them gone. Luckily I have basketball and weaving to keep me occupied.
I really need to get on my weaving because it’s almost official that I’ll be leaving Ghana right after our Close of Service Conference in September that is supposed to take place 3 months before you leave. This means I won’t miss the World Series or GVSU in Bama and I can bike and row before it snows. This also means I’ll need to get traveling, sort lots out and get a job, anyone hiring?
Basketball has started to take over my days but it’s been something else. This week we officially started the AgoSec basketball team. Sometimes we have girl’s practice in the morning and guys practice in the evening since it’s too hot to play during the day. The guys and I have really connected but if anyone wanted to have a great reality TV show they should have people coach a team of 13 year olds of the opposite sex with a language barrier in a sport they’ve never played. My best players for each team respectably are named Courage and Charity which I think is awesome.
Maintenance on the court is still almost a daily occurrence but its holding steady. The nets are long gone and I’ve had to take down and weld each rim as well as add a metal plate for reinforcement. I think that will keep them solid for a while and Ma is looking for heavy duty nets to mail me. The court being used this much is a good thing so I’m definitely not complaining. Last night after finishing reinforcing them I stayed and shot for a bit alone even though it was dark. So many people helped to build this thought and now it’s actually there and I love it.
When I’m not coaching I’m weaving and am now on my 7th double strip for my men’s cloth. Ipod is in the mail from Meg Hub which will really help me be able to weave longer.
We got our kente signboards placed throughout the region and so far I’ve had 4 texts about how great they look. Now we just got to get that visitors’ centre decked out and opened.

Sign Up

2010-05-08T03:13:00.003-04:00

Basketball has been quite a hit. The kids even asked if we could move playing up a half hour to be able to play more. For now a group of 10-25 guys informally get together everyday from 4:30 until dark. It seems there’s always some form of maintenance to do. I haven’t started an Agotime Secondary School team yet cause I’ve been gone lots and am still playing catch-up but I should next week or so. Yesterday I finally convinced some girls to come onto the court and shoot. It was just for a few minutes but you gotta start somewhere.
Of the regulars some leaders and standouts have already emerged. Richard is easily the most responsible of the group, Courage and Christoph are probably the best, and Alan is a brat. The progress over just a few weeks is insane (Granted lay-ups are anything but a sure thing). We almost looked sharp warming up one day. Their defense however is still exactly how they play defense in football. 2 guys without much pressure on the ball, 2 on the nearest 2, 1 deep and they just float and rotated around. It sounds like a decent zone but it’s not at all.

The visitors’ centre is basically done and looks great, complete with a signboard. We’ve had some major issues with placing the signboards in other districts. Actually we’ve had lots of issues lately. With my service coming towards the home stretch I’ve been stepping back more and more and honestly I’ve been kinda disappointed in how poorly the governance board has performed. I gotta get it through to them that it’s not my project, it’s theirs and that I won’t always be there.
Today I have a big meeting with my boss and counterparts to decide for good if I get replaced or not. I’m really not sure how it will go. There’s still lots of work to do and I think it’s one of the best sites in PC but lots of villages want PCVs. Tomorrow we have a meeting to sort out the issues on the governance board with the paramount chief. It should be pretty interesting.

This week my 2 closest friends (location and level) leave. Julie is going home for a while for a wedding and Andrea is going home for good. The 3 of us have been a constant over the last year and it will definitely take some adjusting to life without them. They’re the only ones that I saw consistently enough to be up to date on what’s going on in Kpetoe. You rely a lot more on a lot fewer people here. I plan on weaving an excessive amount until Julie gets back.

Here's the link to Andrea's great fall during para sailing that Julie so kindly posted for the world to see.
http://vimeo.com/11440320

KPETOE BASKETBALL

2010-05-03T05:09:00.004-04:00

The last 2 weeks have probably been the busiest and most fun of PC. With the All Volunteer Conference being so close to Julie and me we planned events on either side of it. The weekend before 14 of us went down to the ocean. A storm rolled in late afternoon, so cool. 3 of the guys stayed out in the huge waves; I stayed in the water but not quite as deep since I swim like a rock.

126 volunteers went to one of the best hotels in the region for conference. AC, wireless (1/2 the time), warm water, swimming pool, and good eats. PC ran the conference exceptionally well. We didn’t have too much free time between HIV/AIDs and admin meetings but when we did we took advantage. Thursday night was prom. Julie and I both made Prom Court. Sinae and I were one of the best dressed and the 1st couple to jump into the pool still dressed. Adam Luck is the best DJ in Ghana. Friday night was talent show. I showed some of the kente I’ve woven and some of the acts were just hilarious.
We make animal prints look good.
Rock, Paper, Scissors competition.
Biggest personal news out of the conference is that it looks like I’ll be replaced by another PCV. I had been told that I would not be so had started working accordingly but this is great for my community. Not official, but if I do get replaced due to the change of training schedules there would be an overlap with the new PCV. It looks like I could be headed home in September rather than Nov/Dec since I know I wouldn’t have wanted the old PCV there for my first 3 months. I could move to a large city and take on an admin role but if I’m in Ghana I want to be in Kpetoe. This means leaving all my friends earlier, I have to get my US life in line real quick, and work harder on my men’s cloth. We also got a 40% living allowance increase which tells you how under paid we were but still great news.

We invited everyone out to my site after the conference for a basketball tournament and kente, but figured 20 max. At least 57 PCVs came! We had 9 teams for the tournament (complete with trophy), on a boiling hot day. Since some people had to travel that night we had to play from 10:30-3:30…suicide basically. I swept the court with my phone on my hip so I could give directions but some sweat wrecked it leaving me phone-less on the day that I would need it the most of course. Due to the ugly 9 teams bracket and double elimination my team ended up playing 6 games. By the time we made the championship against a great team that had played 3 we were seriously hurting. Adam Luck and I both had heat strokes and are still recovering but it was still so much fun. All night my legs kept cramping but having so many people seeing my site and what we’ve done was absolutely amazing. When people who are doing amazing things compliment what you’ve done it doesn’t get much better.

My friends at site came through huge to help host everyone. Patricia took off for the weekend so we could use her beautiful home. Since it’s so nice we had our older PCVs stay there and they loved it. Mukaila got the District Assembly Hall for me, Bright got me mattresses, and all my weavers transported them. Andrea, Julie, and Kristine were running around town getting stuff all day. Basically all of my close friends came through huge and allowed people to have a great time. It was the biggest non-PC organized event in our time.
Can Ghana handle these moves?

Court is Done!

2010-04-19T03:55:00.003-04:00

Great Aunt Ann Acker Athletic Area is finished and being used! Armed with 3 years of technical drawing, a tape measure, chalk, some string, my last roll of duct tape, and some paint brushes and a roller Andrea and I set to painting the court on Friday afternoon.
We got a late start while we were tracking down supplies so the first afternoon we only did 2 perimeter lines. Goats came and ate some of our reference string too but it was worth it to see Andrea chase them away. I did take the first shot on the court that day. It was a pull up jumper from about 15 feet out..Nothing but net, after an afternoon beer.
Saturday we got an early start and by the time Julie joined us we had the perimeter and center circle outlined. Julie, our PC fashion expert, is also the premiere fingernail polisher in Tennessee. With this knowledge we put her to work on the detailed aspects of the midcourt design. All day somehow it stayed cloudy but didn’t rain even though I’m pretty sure it was pouring on 3 sides of us at one point. The clouds let us work all day and we were just able to finish the entire court. We used up every drop of paint but it looks good. I knew we could do it; but I didn’t know we’d actually do it this right.
People were literally watching paint dry, that’s how exciting Kpetoe can be. We were going to go out and celebrate finishing but we ended up asleep by 9.
Having the court done put me in the best mood. Sunday Afternoon I went out to shoot around. In no time there were 6 of us, then 10, then 15, etc. They think I’m the best player in the world so obviously we have a long ways to go when it comes to skills but I got a few more months to coach them up.
I wish all the people who donated towards this idea of mine could see the kids (and adults) playing. I really didn’t think we could ever actually build something this cool but here it is.

“Are you near a computer?”-My sister on the phone with me.
“Beth, my computer is right next to me but the nearest internet is an hour away.”

Court's Paved!

2010-04-16T05:27:00.002-04:00

Hopefully today and tomorrow my friend Andrea and I will be painting the court. I used to paint the badminton court onto the grass in our backyard at home and am pretty good at geometry so it might look decent. Bright and Joshua have offered to help too. The wet season is just starting so it’s been raining almost daily which may slow us down.
The visitors’ centre has it’s tin roof on it now! Their prediction of opening in June may actually be accurate. We also just installed 4 ceiling fans in the weaving centre. Unfortunately they aren’t close enough to hit me when I’m weaving, but Joshua sure likes it. April has been slow tourist wise with only 9 so far but our sales are high. We haven’t put brochures in Ho for a while so we better do that before all the summer volunteers come.

This week I started my 5th strip outta 19 for my men’s cloth. After much research, (“Hey Bright, has a white guy ever wove a real men’s cloth?”) I found that I may be the first Caucasian to weave a patterned men’s cloth. I also gave my longest weaving lesson to Kristine, the Dutch doing research on kente. It ended successfully with a nice section shown below.

Wednesday I took the GRE in Accra. Taking the GRE in a developing nation is probably not a good idea but it’s nice to have it out of the way. Best part was Monday night Maria and I went to ice cream and movie which was both of ours first date in a long time. We gotta start practicing for home.
Things have been busy and will stay that way for about another month. Then I go from meetings, socializing, having construction at 2 sites, and GRE studying to…weaving. I guess I’ll be able to start coaching too but I’m nervous that I won’t have all that much left to do. To top it off Andrea leaves for America in May and Julie will be going home for around a month too. The 3 of us have been inseparable. I hate it when people leave. Right now things are going great though so I shouldn’t complain.

Live life on the edge; jump off it

2010-04-06T07:34:00.006-04:00

Each year on Easter Weekend Nkawkaw (“incocoa”) hosts a Paragliding Festival; the perfect festival for the type of people who do PC. We got there super early and I ended up being the 1st PCV to go. It was awesome. My pilot was interviewed on BBC and Julie and I got interviewed by a Ghanaian TV Station.

My takeoffSome of my flightMy friend Andrea's takeoff 1 (in her defense the pilot jumped on her back & had all 3 failed takeoffs of tandems)Andrea's successful takeoff. I didn't want to get another crash on video so the camera moves for a second.

I also went to “The Future of Dance” put on by the University of Ghana’s Dance Department. Interpretive dance isn’t really my thing though and I had barely slept the night before so I struggled staying awake. The girls liked it; I liked the set. They had a ramp coming down from a tree.
Lately everything has been breaking on me. Luckily my projects are going very well and I’m doing as much as I can in my time left here or else I might not be so happy. My Ipod, which is probably my most crucial possession next to my laptop and headlamp, fell out of it’s case while I was running and is dead. My ATM card was eaten by the machine when I had a friend try to get money out for me. My 2 favorite shirts and the kente shorts I wove may be spoiled by how trashed they got going up and down the mountain this weekend. The basketball court money finally ran out and I had to ask my parents for money twice in a phone call; a new record even for me.
It shouldn’t take much more to finish paving the court and then my friend Andrea and I will do the dimensions since the kids are on break for 3 weeks. We need the court finished by our All Volunteer Conference in Ho at the end of the month so PCVs can hop over here after for a tournament. The half of the court that is paved has been getting used and is already even a little beat up. At first I was kinda disappointed but another PCV was like that just means it’ll be used and it’s a good project.
The other money is going towards buying the rights for the website that Dr. Pope’s class is developing for my village. I really think that internet and the Bradt Travel Guide are the 2 most powerful advertising tools we could have. I will admit I also got a nice new shirt for PC Prom but I gotta look good.
The visitors’ centre has all the walls basically done. We’ve also had a good amount of big kente orders lately. Things are going very well.
All that's left to be paved of the court.
The visitors' centre yesterday

Lots of Cement

2010-03-29T07:01:00.008-04:00

Visitors' Centre as of this morning with WALLS.

The Court 1/2 paved.

Earlier this week we had some really strange weather. All day it was hazy and extremely humid. Someone told me there was a big sandstorm up in the Sahara causing it. Now it’s back to normal bright and hot but you kinda miss the sun when you have it so much and then lose it.
Lots happening at site but I really haven’t had to do too much besides pay people, make sure things aren’t too crooked and be around if they need me. Basically I’ve been weaving a bunch. The basketball court is over ½ paved and moving fast now that we switched masons. My friends Alan and Marian built a school and they went through 3 masons so Alan says I’m not doing too badly. The water has been out for a vast majority of the time slowing progress. This morning we organized all the 1st years to go to the stream with buckets even. I felt bad but the kids didn’t seem to mind. The changing of masons and lots of extra costs will be cutting the cash really tight but I guess we can do without pimp uniforms.
Rumor has it our All-Volunteer Conference at the end of April is going to be in Ho. 130 PCVs 25k from my site sounds like the perfect time to have our opening ceremony and tournament. Gotta have it done by then. We already have our men’s and women’s captains for the PC teams and my weavers are even getting a team together. I’m tempted to play for the weavers; I’m getting halfway decent at weaving and they need me a little more. But I really like to win so I’ll probably play for Team PC.
The visitor’s centre is moving along very quickly. These builders are from the capital and don’t mess around. We got off to a rocky start when we couldn’t find some of them a place to stay and we weren’t helping unload the trucks when they came. They’re used to working with small communities where everyone knows what’s going on and helps. We have 12,000 people living here and not even all the weavers know what’s being built. That’s my fault along with the board. The paramount chief came up big with an extra room for them to stay at and I asked the guys at our weaving centre to help unload the cement bags. Now things are going smoothly.
The days are flying by and there’s lots of fun stuff coming up. I’ve even been on the same book for over a week now which is unheard of (granted it’s on the Supreme Court and Sandra Day O’Connor doesn’t exactly make for a quick read). Spring is packed with trips, social events, conferences, and unfortunately some work. Summers are very busy for us so it looks like my 230ish days left here will be gone in no time. Got to start thinking about what to do when I get back…well after Europe on the way home that is.
Guy we randomly saw in Accra. I helped build that playground with my entire 8th grade class and we all got those shirts!
We get everything in plastic bags and they litter the ground. People try to make things like purses and such out of them. This is a rain coat made from frozen strawberry yogurt packages. I wanted to get it for my niece's 1st bday but not sure if her parents would let her wear it.

2010-03-21T09:32:00.008-04:00

Some of the first pictures of kente weavers taken by missionaries. Just this week I was given a huge Dutch report on kente which is awesome.1912
1908
1907
1906
1888-1895
1865-1868
We’ve made no progress on the basketball court the last few weeks. This is mostly my fault. My primary assignment has been keeping me busy which is great. The people building the visitors’ centre will be coming back Monday to start up again, I have a few orders from the German embassy, and there is a SNV (Dutch) volunteer doing research on kente who I’ve been trying to help out. Kristine stole Bright for like a week to conduct interviews all over the traditional ruling area making my hours of weaving a day very lonely and she’s also doing a supply chain analysis. I’ve gone along on some of the interviews and have even learned some new stuff. She and another volunteer drove Bright and me to the biggest kente market on St. Patrick’s Day. The market is close to my favorite beach in the world too and Bright had never been in the ocean so we had to go. Bright and I needed shorts though so we stopped on the side of the road and I found the only green shorts (Nigera Football) I could. We were off for Guinness on the beach, come on it was St. Patty’s Day. This research stuff is hard.
On the way there we experienced a first for me in Ghana, a radar gun. We got clocked going 72 kph along the coast and apparently the speed limit was 50 kph. Luckily the police here are beyond corrupt and 2 Cedis ($1.33) and a smile from the girls and we were on our way. Bright swimming in the ocean made the whole trip worth it. He swims in a local creek so he can stay afloat but that’s not exactly the ocean; especially here the waves can get awesome. The ripe tide is also intense and very dangerous so we were worried about that and didn’t tell him other things we probably should have such as closing your mouth when waves come and not to open your eyes under salt water. Whoops, sorry Bright. He still had a blast and I could tell the other weavers were jealous when we got back.
There is also another American living in Kpetoe now! Patricia is retired and married to a Ghanaian so she just moved here. Their house is very nice and we’ve met a few times for meals. Between her and Kristine I’ve been socializing more than I ever here in Ghana. I still even get to see Julie and Andrea once in a while too. It’s weird to say the least but very nice.
I haven’t forgotten about the basketball court though. We actually are getting a new mason because we’re so sick of waiting for the old one. Lots of PCVs are waiting for the opening tournament. The kids at the secondary school are too. All this had to wait however because the president of Ghana came to town on Friday to break ground on a new youth employment dealy. It’s been busy but lots of fun. By looks of it I’ll be all over the south of the country the next month so it won’t slow down for a while which will make my time left here fly by even faster. 2.5 strips of the 19 needed for my men’s cloth.