A long awaited update

So many things have happened since I last wrote. I will try to write the events in order but most of it will probably be all over the place so bear with me. My last update was a bit of a hodgepodge of recent events. So to begin, let’s start with my community. Not too many new things going on… school came to and end with exams and my students became increasingly lazy as the weeks went on so club meetings just did not happen. So instead, I worked on my world map pretty much every day. My closest friends/family in my town that I often write about and post pictures of recently moved away. I returned to site from the Moringa soap workshop and they were gone. Very mysterious. I have been trying to get in contact with them, apparently they moved to a town close to where Alan and Marian live. I may try to visit soon but I am still confused about why they moved away. It’s been kind of difficult with them gone because I miss going to their house every day and having friends to talk to and kids to play with. At the same time, it’s been nice to be on my own and not have to deal with the kids coming to my house at all times of the day and bothering me. So I guess it’s a toss up. I have been trying to spend more time with the family around my compound instead and that’s been fine so far. So moving on…

I mentioned that I was planning on taking 3 of my best junior high school girls to Accra for an event called Take your Daughter to Work Day. This was a very successful day and I owe all the planning to the Eagle Women’s Empowerment club who ran and organized the entire event for the girls. Four other volunteers brought students as well and we were all driven to the television studio by Peace Corps. The women of this club are involved in many different careers and activities for income generation and spoke with the girls about staying in school and reaching their potential. Providing the girls with successful role models was an extremely important part of the event, as most young female Ghanaians are not motivated to stay in school by even their own families. The girls were able to ask questions and learn more about possible future endeavors that they may not have even considered. They received both a tour of the facility as well as a tour of a local university that was just down the road. Overall, the experience was unique and even if the students couldn’t understand everything (the presentations were all in English) the opportunity to travel to Accra was extremely special and I believe the students will remember it for a long time.

Next up, I recently have been in connection with a few of the Elon University students who are studying abroad here in Legon in Accra. Two are currently Periclean Scholars of the 2011 class and were planning on visiting the class of 2010s clinic in the Volta region (more on that later). I met with Natalie in Accra to discuss a possible visit to my site and we planned out a trip to the Volta together with another girl, Maggie. Natalie expressed interest in Peace Corps so I stressed the importance of visiting my site and seeing what daily life is like for a volunteer. They both came to visit and it was my first time hosting people who are not Peace Corps Volunteers. I wasn’t really sure what to do or how many things to explain or not. They have been in country since January, so long enough to understand Ghana, but still a long way from being in my position. Honestly, I don’t consider Accra to be well representative of Ghana. Obviously many cultural things are present no matter where you are in country (these cultural things are also different between north and south) but smaller poorer towns are where volunteers are mostly placed, and where many of the country’s problems are.

So they came to visit and we toured my town and worked on my world map and relaxed a bit. It was a fun visit and it was interesting to have 3 people crammed in my tiny house (plus they had brought 3 giant boxes of medical supplies for the clinic so that made my room even more cramped). After our visit we started making our way to the Volta region, first with a stop in Koforidua to show the girls the weekly bead market (which they loved and want to come back to) and then we were on our way to Ho. The Periclean Scholars class of 2010 at Elon built a clinic in a mountain town outside of Ho which I had yet to visit. The visit was important for learning the needs of the clinic and reporting back to Elon to keep them update on its progress. After staying there for a night and meeting with the nurses, chief and elders of the town I decided that the best thing I could do for the community would be to help them request a Peace Corps volunteer to help with the clinic. The clinic was finished and the town was almost done with the building for the nurses’ homes. There are a lot of future plans involved for the clinic and I could really see a Peace Corps volunteer helping to bring a lot of changes to the clinic and helping facilitate health programs in each of the surrounding communities that will be sharing the clinic. This week I’ve been at our annual all volunteer conference and I plan to meet with a few of our supervisors to really get the ball rolling on that.

After our visit at the clinic we went on to Dan’s site to see some kente and his newly built basketball court at the senior high school. We then went back to Ho and waited a for the last car to fill to make our way up to Vli falls, the highest waterfall in West Africa. We didn’t arrive until very late that night and then we still had to take a taxi to our hotel near the falls. Luckily we had called earlier in the day to make a reservation so when we arrived they were expecting us. We all collapsed in our beds and instantly fell asleep. The next morning we made an early start for the falls after learning the upper hike would take approximately four hours. We walked from the hotel and after arriving at night it was amazing to see the town in the daylight. The mountains surrounded the roadside and the few scattered house compounds and you could practically see the top of the falls up in the hills. I may have mentioned this before but the Volta region is truly beautiful with its hills and waterfalls and lake and it was really incredible to feel like I was in the middle of all the beauty, just walking down that dirt path in a small town.

The hike was also incredible and unfortunately I was not up to it. I made it more than halfway and could see almost all the way to Hohoe, and also I could see the top of the waterfall as we climbed. At about that point I was feeling really awful and decided to stop. There was another random volunteer from Holland who also decided to stop and we chatted for a bit at the falls while waiting for my friends.

After that we were on to Kpando, home of pottery and my friend Amber. I showed the girls the pottery (in the rain) and then they departed for Accra while I stayed the night there.

The next day Amber and I left for our all volunteer conference which can only be described as IN-SANE. I would write more about it but I actually have to get going back to site, so maybe next time. Some of the pictures are posted on facebook, I would post pictures here but they are a little too crazy for the internet! We had so many fun times at All Vols including: rock paper scissors contest, the beard off (my favorite!), James Joyce reading by our English volunteer, Peace Corps Prom (a night of crazy!), and the Talent Show featuring Lady Ga-Ga-Ghana and syncronized swimming!

Hope you enjoyed this update, for the month of May I will be busy busy busy working on my Pepfar grant for the Girls camp in August, helping get a Peace Corps volunteer for the clinic in the volta, and just enjoying time in my community until my visit home!

Miss you all!