Emancipation Beach. A volunteer said it feels like you're on the edge of the world there. I told him "it's round, dumbass"
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
I can go home now. I’ve had my biggest successes in Ghana and know that it will be tough to top. Desmond slapped my hand.
Since the day that I came to Kpetoe Desmond would run away screaming anytime he saw me. Once I passed he would start yelling “For Daniel” until I waved at him. His house is between mine and the road so I go by him a few times a day. Each time same story, his mom tells me to touch him and he screams and does a run/waddle away. White people are scary. Sometimes I would chase him; it is the neighborhood joke. So much that Michael was talking to me one night:
Dan: You will be very happy when I go home, I’ll leave you my baseball glove.
Michael: No, I will cry when you leave (Michael is the toughest 11 year old I know), just For Desmond will be happy when you leave.
Tuesday, when I walked by Desmond after my run he comes up to me and I reached out like I do to scare him and instead he slaps it. He looks at his hand to see if it’s alright then gets this look on his face of great accomplishment; it was the most joy I’ve ever seen in a child’s eyes, then he runs away. A day that starts like that can’t be a bad one.
There have been some frustrations with my projects lately. My basketball court proposal has been sitting at the Accra PC office for over a month now, and as we speak all the quotes on it are changing due to inflation and exchange rates. It still has to go through Washington too. After taking the constitution all over the country to get signatures the Ghana Tourist Board in Ho has had it for 3 weeks, they’re the last Herbie Hancock we need and we said we wouldn’t have another meeting until it was all finalized. We worked hard on a proposal to NCRC for rubbish bins throughout town and hadn’t heard from them for over a month but I think they’ll be installed July 16th. Basically lately the only work I’ve been able to do is work with the District Assembly, host tourists and my computer lessons. Luckily number of tourists continues to be on the rise and I have my weaving so I haven’t gone crazy.
After Desmond slapped my hand I realized that meant more to me than if I got them a theme park built here in Kpetoe (be sweet though wouldn’t it!?). PC is more about the relationships and exchange of cultures then the actual aid work. I look at how my feelings have changed from being all alone in some African village 5,660.15 miles and 771 days from home (273 days down but who’s counting) to being part of Kpetoe and I’m very happy with all the little successes I’ve had here so far.
If that was too cheesy for ya we did have 18 art students from western Canada (apparently they do exist) stop by last Sunday, hilarious. How do I explain to Bright and Joshua why people pierce their tongues and lips or why they are taking a picture of the ground? “No Bright, her lips aren’t naturally black.” When they left they were wearing kente in ways I’ve never seen before. One of my best friends is an art student and I used to tease her about how weird they were, little did I know, they weren’t that bad.
I hate snakes, like run and scream like a little girl, hate snakes. On the rowing team if there was a snake by the river they’d always manage to scare the crap outta me with it, real mature guys. I’m getting better here due to seeing so many, mostly dead, on my runs. Well yesterday there was the thickest one I’ve ever seen that had been run over by a car. Today I run by and pray it’s been moved and most of it had, I was relieved. Then I saw a guy on the other side of the road starting a fire, I won’t go into details but I think you can figure out what he was grilling, disgusting. Probably shouldn’t have shared that but it grossed me out and that takes a lot now.
Adam Luck (remember the name, he’s gonna be famous), my best friend in PC, just starred in a Ghanaian movie as “white man who brings education to village.” Ghanaian movies may be the worst acting in the history of mankind and all of Adam’s lines were improv, sounds like a sure hit to me. Can’t wait to see it.
The only way that Spain won’t score 5 goals on America is if they put 11 men on the goal line. –BBC World Sports Update June 24
US won 2-0 the next day and almost beat Brazil in the final yesterday. AWESOME.
Desmond's reaction for me until Tuesday
Desmond giving me five for like the 5th time
Since the day that I came to Kpetoe Desmond would run away screaming anytime he saw me. Once I passed he would start yelling “For Daniel” until I waved at him. His house is between mine and the road so I go by him a few times a day. Each time same story, his mom tells me to touch him and he screams and does a run/waddle away. White people are scary. Sometimes I would chase him; it is the neighborhood joke. So much that Michael was talking to me one night:
Dan: You will be very happy when I go home, I’ll leave you my baseball glove.
Michael: No, I will cry when you leave (Michael is the toughest 11 year old I know), just For Desmond will be happy when you leave.
Tuesday, when I walked by Desmond after my run he comes up to me and I reached out like I do to scare him and instead he slaps it. He looks at his hand to see if it’s alright then gets this look on his face of great accomplishment; it was the most joy I’ve ever seen in a child’s eyes, then he runs away. A day that starts like that can’t be a bad one.
There have been some frustrations with my projects lately. My basketball court proposal has been sitting at the Accra PC office for over a month now, and as we speak all the quotes on it are changing due to inflation and exchange rates. It still has to go through Washington too. After taking the constitution all over the country to get signatures the Ghana Tourist Board in Ho has had it for 3 weeks, they’re the last Herbie Hancock we need and we said we wouldn’t have another meeting until it was all finalized. We worked hard on a proposal to NCRC for rubbish bins throughout town and hadn’t heard from them for over a month but I think they’ll be installed July 16th. Basically lately the only work I’ve been able to do is work with the District Assembly, host tourists and my computer lessons. Luckily number of tourists continues to be on the rise and I have my weaving so I haven’t gone crazy.
After Desmond slapped my hand I realized that meant more to me than if I got them a theme park built here in Kpetoe (be sweet though wouldn’t it!?). PC is more about the relationships and exchange of cultures then the actual aid work. I look at how my feelings have changed from being all alone in some African village 5,660.15 miles and 771 days from home (273 days down but who’s counting) to being part of Kpetoe and I’m very happy with all the little successes I’ve had here so far.
If that was too cheesy for ya we did have 18 art students from western Canada (apparently they do exist) stop by last Sunday, hilarious. How do I explain to Bright and Joshua why people pierce their tongues and lips or why they are taking a picture of the ground? “No Bright, her lips aren’t naturally black.” When they left they were wearing kente in ways I’ve never seen before. One of my best friends is an art student and I used to tease her about how weird they were, little did I know, they weren’t that bad.
I hate snakes, like run and scream like a little girl, hate snakes. On the rowing team if there was a snake by the river they’d always manage to scare the crap outta me with it, real mature guys. I’m getting better here due to seeing so many, mostly dead, on my runs. Well yesterday there was the thickest one I’ve ever seen that had been run over by a car. Today I run by and pray it’s been moved and most of it had, I was relieved. Then I saw a guy on the other side of the road starting a fire, I won’t go into details but I think you can figure out what he was grilling, disgusting. Probably shouldn’t have shared that but it grossed me out and that takes a lot now.
Adam Luck (remember the name, he’s gonna be famous), my best friend in PC, just starred in a Ghanaian movie as “white man who brings education to village.” Ghanaian movies may be the worst acting in the history of mankind and all of Adam’s lines were improv, sounds like a sure hit to me. Can’t wait to see it.
The only way that Spain won’t score 5 goals on America is if they put 11 men on the goal line. –BBC World Sports Update June 24
US won 2-0 the next day and almost beat Brazil in the final yesterday. AWESOME.
Desmond's reaction for me until Tuesday
Desmond giving me five for like the 5th time
Friday, June 19, 2009
A Day in the Life of….
Samuel Agba (Mr. Agba)
Age: 67
Occupation: Owns best Kente store in Kpetoe, retired weaver, farmer, Chairman of the Agotime Tourism Governance Board & Staff
Has been to textile exhibitions in Denmark, US, and France
Dropped out of Secondary School at age 11 to support his family by weaving in 1953
Father of 16
One of my favorite people to just chill with ever.
4:30-Wake up, bathe and eat rice
5:30-Open store
6:00-Take tea
6:30-Check on weavers he buys from all over town collecting strips and paying for them
8:00-Take strips back to store and organize
9:30-Guinness (“refreshment”) with Daniel
10:00-Send strips to tailor to get them made into ties, bags, and clothes. Also inspects and pays for finished products.
11:00-Go to farm on outskirts of town
11:30-Farming
5:00-Come home from farm and bathe so “I can go out again”
6:00-Dinner of yams, rice, plantain, or fufu
7:00-Close the shop, see what was sold
7:30-Socialize
8:00-Bed
Samuel Agba (Mr. Agba)
Age: 67
Occupation: Owns best Kente store in Kpetoe, retired weaver, farmer, Chairman of the Agotime Tourism Governance Board & Staff
Has been to textile exhibitions in Denmark, US, and France
Dropped out of Secondary School at age 11 to support his family by weaving in 1953
Father of 16
One of my favorite people to just chill with ever.
4:30-Wake up, bathe and eat rice
5:30-Open store
6:00-Take tea
6:30-Check on weavers he buys from all over town collecting strips and paying for them
8:00-Take strips back to store and organize
9:30-Guinness (“refreshment”) with Daniel
10:00-Send strips to tailor to get them made into ties, bags, and clothes. Also inspects and pays for finished products.
11:00-Go to farm on outskirts of town
11:30-Farming
5:00-Come home from farm and bathe so “I can go out again”
6:00-Dinner of yams, rice, plantain, or fufu
7:00-Close the shop, see what was sold
7:30-Socialize
8:00-Bed
As with most summers, the last few weeks have flown by. Why is it that summers are still so much fun even here where the weather doesn’t change all that much? I will admit it’s been the coolest temperatures since we got to country lately, but still hot.
Between all the summer volunteers, the new group of PCTs, and even PCV’s from other countries visiting Ghana I’ve been meeting people from all over. Having Jake stay with me last week reinforced my opinion that I have a pretty amazing job. The best part about it is that I get to meet all these people but they only come to my village for a few hours so I still get to live most of my life with Ghanaians. It’s a very rare mix even in PC to be able to see many volunteers yet still live Ghanaian style.
Jake was a trouper and tried everything that I did including going on a run with me, eating Fufu, washing cloths, and even cooked breakfast for us twice. Mom sent bacon bits so we had fresh eggs, tomato, onion, and BACON sandwiches, amazing. We also met up with other PC people on the beach in Afloa (border town that you can see Togo’s capital from) where we played basketball on the court from White Man Can’t Jump and proved the movie true losing horribly. While standing in the water there I decided my US friends should be there too so I used all the credit on my phone calling them, well worth it.
My neighbor Matthew and I spent a morning cutting my grass with cutlasses. When we were about 10 minutes from being done he hit the plastic pipe that brings my water (yes I usually have running water) and it started spraying everywhere. While he ran to fetch the “plumber” I figured out how to turn off the water. The guy came as fast as he could, meaning he borrowed a bike, and brought with him a piece of pipe and a blade. We told him I did it because obviously an American would hit the pipe, not a Ghanaian. He asked for some matches and I watched as he started a fire, heated the plastic, molded it to the right size and after 2 tries had it all fixed, it took a while but I was impressed.
I also had power issues. I figured it was just lights out for the day but when I noticed my neighbor’s power on I went and checked into it. Bills are put on your house but there is no where in town to pay them. Guys come around to tell you to pay the bill but you can’t pay them, so I had given money to Mukaila to pay mine. Mukaila forgot to pay it so they cut my power. I rode all over town asking around and finally found the guy turning off power. I paid my bill and he agreed to come turn the power back on if he got to ride my bike to do it and if I bought him a Guinness. Cost me a beer but now I’m back to having power about 60% of the time.
I also started my 2nd kente pattern. The guys at the store didn’t think I’d be able to handle it but Bright said I could. After a few inches I decided the first strip would be practice. It was a good call as that strip leaves to be desired but the next 2 have come out really well. There aren’t many better ways to spend a warm afternoon then weaving kente in an African village with buds like Bright and Joshua.
Between all the summer volunteers, the new group of PCTs, and even PCV’s from other countries visiting Ghana I’ve been meeting people from all over. Having Jake stay with me last week reinforced my opinion that I have a pretty amazing job. The best part about it is that I get to meet all these people but they only come to my village for a few hours so I still get to live most of my life with Ghanaians. It’s a very rare mix even in PC to be able to see many volunteers yet still live Ghanaian style.
Jake was a trouper and tried everything that I did including going on a run with me, eating Fufu, washing cloths, and even cooked breakfast for us twice. Mom sent bacon bits so we had fresh eggs, tomato, onion, and BACON sandwiches, amazing. We also met up with other PC people on the beach in Afloa (border town that you can see Togo’s capital from) where we played basketball on the court from White Man Can’t Jump and proved the movie true losing horribly. While standing in the water there I decided my US friends should be there too so I used all the credit on my phone calling them, well worth it.
My neighbor Matthew and I spent a morning cutting my grass with cutlasses. When we were about 10 minutes from being done he hit the plastic pipe that brings my water (yes I usually have running water) and it started spraying everywhere. While he ran to fetch the “plumber” I figured out how to turn off the water. The guy came as fast as he could, meaning he borrowed a bike, and brought with him a piece of pipe and a blade. We told him I did it because obviously an American would hit the pipe, not a Ghanaian. He asked for some matches and I watched as he started a fire, heated the plastic, molded it to the right size and after 2 tries had it all fixed, it took a while but I was impressed.
I also had power issues. I figured it was just lights out for the day but when I noticed my neighbor’s power on I went and checked into it. Bills are put on your house but there is no where in town to pay them. Guys come around to tell you to pay the bill but you can’t pay them, so I had given money to Mukaila to pay mine. Mukaila forgot to pay it so they cut my power. I rode all over town asking around and finally found the guy turning off power. I paid my bill and he agreed to come turn the power back on if he got to ride my bike to do it and if I bought him a Guinness. Cost me a beer but now I’m back to having power about 60% of the time.
I also started my 2nd kente pattern. The guys at the store didn’t think I’d be able to handle it but Bright said I could. After a few inches I decided the first strip would be practice. It was a good call as that strip leaves to be desired but the next 2 have come out really well. There aren’t many better ways to spend a warm afternoon then weaving kente in an African village with buds like Bright and Joshua.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
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