Sweeping the dirt and other tales from Ghana...

I am sitting beneath my little canopy of mosquito netting, in my very warm bed at the end of another week in Africa. I think it is only now hitting me. There is so much I have to write tonight.

First, I must say that I certainly have experienced homesickness, culture shock, and frustration this week. It has finally hit me, this whole endeavor and all of its beauty and reality and with that reality has come some real true gut level feelings about what I really want to do while I’m here. You can go either way as a volunteer, you can be involved in your community, which takes effort, willingness, open-mindedness, I’m sure you’re recognizing a theme here. Or, you can do the minimum, hide out in your house, party with the other PCVs, and just lay low. I know almost everyone’s first inclination is that they would do the most they could while given the chance to make a difference, but when you are exhausted and wishing for the comforts of home, it is sometimes easier to go and hang out with the other trainees than sit around with your host family.

About my host family, I must say, I am lucky. The boys, who are 10 and 23 are so awesome. The older one takes time every night to teach me language so that I can speak to my host mother, who speaks no english. The younger one totally rocks and I actually rely on him for all sorts of things. He is teaching me football (soccer). He’s so good at it and we practice at night. (This week I bought him a $2 football, he had never had one before.) I played for the first time yesterday and had so much fun. All of the trainees are competing against the trainers and they are really good. I went down to the field and I thought I’d just watch because we have a lot of good players that played in high school and some in college and I just figured I’d watch and be supportive that way. But everyone played and we had such a fun time. Some people are awesome and some really suck and some fall in the middle but no one cared. That was a great experience. I kept thinking just suit up and show up. I think that every morning. I’m so grateful for AA and recovery and everything that I have to build on from it. I use it more now than ever. I sure do miss it sometimes. Luckily, there are moments where I connect to people here and it feels a little familiar.

I often am surprised how easily and quickly I am adapting. I am learning two languages right now. Twi and Dagaare. Its so cool. Everyday, when I walk through town, I have to greet every person I meet. Its crazy, sometimes its cool, sometimes tiring, but they love that we are speaking their language. It means so much and Ghanaians have the most amazing smiles. They stretch across their faces and these amazing white teeth shine and their faces crinkle, but they don’t really have wrinkles and their skin is like black silk, so beautiful. It feels good to get smiles from them. I am starting to think that poverty is higher, so is kindness. It was that way when I was doing hurricane recovery work in Pecan Island and it is true here as well. Something to think about.

Here’s a great story for you: Last week, I left my notebook somewhere in Techiman. This is a town with more than 75,000 people in it. I think maybe I left it in a taxi or something. It was a tiny little moleskin notebook with so many things written in it and I was so sad to lose it. I imagined finding it and I imagined holding it again, but I basically thought it was long gone. Then a few days later, one of the other trainees pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to me and told me that someone came up to him on the street and asked him if he knew who it was for. Since we are the only white people here, everyone knows we are here together. Isn’t that amazing? I heard a similar story about a girl and her wallet. Before cell phones, volunteers would send hand written notes with taxi drivers to other towns and it would get there a day or so later. This still sometimes happens because phone service here sucks in a lot of places.

Let me tell you about a normal day in my life:

I wake around 4:30 every morning, for several reasons (I usually need to trek to the latrine its pretty far from my room, the roosters begin to crow and I live next to a church with a 4 am service every morning with singing. Its quite a lot going on.)

Once my family sees me up, they begin heating my bath water on the fire. Then my host mother knocks, comes in, we don’t speak the same language, so we just do a lot of smiling at each other and speak in our own languages, at each other and somehow make do. She takes my bucket and prepares the bath. I grab my stuff, and take a wonderfully warm bucket bath in a little concrete room next to the outdoor kitchen. Then I return to my room and dress, which takes about 3 minutes. I don’t have many clothing options and I didn’t even have a mirror until a few days ago. Then she brings me breakfast in my room and I sit at a little table and eat and pack my book sack and go to catch a taxi or I walk to class, depending on what I am studying that day, and what town I must travel to.

I do school for 4 hours then I come home and eat lunch. Then I return to school for 4 more hours. I then return home, sit outside for about 30 minutes while everyone talks, then my host mother serves my dinner (I am always served first because I do not eat meat here, which is what most of us trainees opt for because the meat here is so absolutely scary, it is usually odd parts of goat or grass cutter, which is similar to Nutrea Rat, and it sits out for too long with flies and bugs and I just can’t stomach the thought). I also eat alone because here everyone eats from the same bowl and uses their hands to scoop and so I am treated as a guest and receive my own bowl and a fork. It is an honor to eat alone and I cherish it. Privacy doesn’t really exist in Ghana, so this is the most time I get alone. I listen to music and eat in my room every night.

Then its time for my nighttime bath and now by this time, its around 7, I’m so tired, but I have homework, so I do that in my pjs, tell everyone good night in Twi and crash, usually only able to read about 3 sentences from the book I’m reading. Every night, I plan to do so much, like write letters and draw and every night its so hot and I’m so tired and I just lay on my bed and fall asleep with the light on, often dreaming these long dreams about everyone back home.

Then, its 4:30 again. Crazy, huh? We have school Monday through Saturday, but I get Saturday afternoon and Sunday off. I still get up at the same time though.

Last week, we went around the village assessing the water situation and asking everyone whether or not they have latrines and whether or not they wash their hands, where they fetch water from and so on. I was shocked that most people just go in the bush. Out of 32 huts, only 3 had latrines. One woman lived under what is basically a tree with her babies. I felt spoiled over here in my little house after that excursion. It was quite eye opening. Our village has bore holes and this is where our water comes from. The water is pure, but I still have to boil it, then filter it before I drink it. AND, I can not believe what little I use to bath and brush teeth and wash my hands since it isn’t pouring out of a faucet. Its crazy to me. I just had no idea how much I waste.

Switching topics, I share my space with a herd of goats, which is kind of crazy, and my host mother sweeps our dirt yard every single morning at 4 am. She sweeps the dirt. We all do. We all sweep our rooms and the porch and the dirt yard. Ghanaians are always cleaning. Cleaning, cooking, and going to funerals. Today there was a funeral and the whole town went. I didn’t attend this time because I had other stuff to do, but this was a party that lasted from 6 am well into the night. Everyone drank and partied and celebrated and wore black and red or black and white and a black scarf over their head and basically funerals are like weddings back home. They might even be a grander scene. And weddings here aren’t really that big a deal.

Today I led a different group to the mountains and we met two other Peace Corps guys traveling through from Senegal and Gambia, other countries in West Africa. They were so cool and interesting. They’ve been vacationing for a month and decided to trek across West Africa. Its so great that I’m in Ghana. Everyone agrees it’s the best country in West Africa and so most PCVs who travel, come here to vacation.

At least once a day, I say to myself that I’m so grateful for this life. I said that most days in America as well. I really am, and I really hope you are too.

Ok, I’m up way too late. I love you all and will be in touch soon. Hugs, Erica