Things I love in or about Ghana

-Bucket bathes
-torrential rainstorms, especially the sound of rain on a tin roof
-fanice (frozen yogurt/milk that comes in vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry)
-football...I have a growing appreciation for soccer. It's a great game.
-the beer only comes in 24oz bottles
-soda comes in glass bottles
-Ghanaians are, for the most part, incredibly nice and helpful
-little kids love me and always call out my name to say hi or fight over who gets to hold my hand.
-my new name is Sister Ama, because I was born on a Saturday. It's Ghanaian thing.
-amazing sunsets and sunrises
-the stars at night
-sleeping in the pattern of the sun. Going to bed at sunset, waking up when the sunrises
-plantain chips
-the 2-yard. 2 yards of cloth that are used for a dress, blanket, towel, baby bjorn, ect.
-goats and chickens roam about everywhere
-goats like to climb on things like piles of wood and just stand there. The king of their mountain.
-I actually like goat meat, at least the one time I had it
-the avocados are huge and taste just like Haas avocados.

All in the Family

I have been at my homestay in a little town called Anyinasin outside of Kukurantumi for almost a week. I have a mom, Ya, and two little brothers, Prince and Brice, that are adorable and so much fun to play with. It makes me even more excited to be an aunt when I come back to the states. I also have a grandmother and granfather. Mom and grandma both speak Englsih, while grandfather is helping me perfect my greetings in Twi.

The home consists of a two room concrete building, one room for the family and the other room is all for me. I have electricity, but my light bulb is blue as is my walls, so I still wear my head lamp at night to write and read. There is no running water, but I don't mind the latrine and I really love the bucket bath. It's so refreshing to pour a bucket of cold water over your head when it's so hot and humid out. The kitchen is just a small wooden structure with a dirt floor and a small wood fire surrounded by little stools that are used for both sitting and chopping things on. The one time I hung out in the kitchen I watched my mom pluck a chicken. She asumed correctly that in America we have a machine that does it for us, but she was surprised to hear that we buy prepakaged meat that is already cleaned and filleted. It just brings home the fact that just day-to-day living is so much more difficult and time consuming in Ghana.

I have a mosquito net over my bed and I would not be able to sleep without it, not least because of the mosquitos. I could actually care less about mosquitos, but it's the big scary spiders on my walls that I want out of my bed, amongst other creepy things. The other night I came home, flipped on my blue light, and nearly died as I watched a rat run up my wall and into the roof. The net gives me such peice of mind, though when I get to my site I am keeping my bed about a foot from the wall on all sides.

Please Send Me Letters!!!

Or packages whatever you choose....but don't feel obligated to send me anything more than a hand written letter. :) My address is : Peace Corps P.O. Box 5796 Accra-North, Ghana West Africa

Sending boxes is expensive for you as well as me. I have to pay 3 Ghana Cedis to receive a box (during training I make 2 GC a day and when I get to my site I will make 6 GC a day). Not that I wouldn't be happy to pay anything to receive a box from the US, but padded envolopes are probably the best bet all around. If you want to send me a post card (which would be great), please put it in an evelope. As to what to send me...anything you want including books, magazines, Crystal Light, or pictures of cute skirts or dresses which I could have a tailor make me for really cheap. Thank you in advanced and know that you will get a response! It'll just take a month or two. :)

Two Weeks Down!!

So i have been in Ghana now for 2 weeks. So much has happened and yet everyday we have a lot of down time. Fortunately we have a great group of people from all over the US of all different age groups that make passing the hours of waiting a lot of fun. I have already learned new card games and the book exchange amongst us up and running.

We flew into Accra and have since stayed at a women's Adventist College, various hotels in Kukurantumi, and tomorrow we all move to small communities outside of Kukurantumi to really begin our training. We have yet to learn the technical componants of our jobs and have only discussed our health and saftey at ad nasium, but it's good that the Peace Corps takes these issues so seriously. Also I have gotten 3 shots with more to come. And of course I'm taking my malaria pills. I'll be kicked out if I don't. Also, I don't want malaria, I hear it's not very pleasent.

And So It Begins

I didn't sleep at all last night. In fact my alarm clock has yet to go off, I just can't lay in bed anymore. In a little over 2 hours I board a plane for Philadelphia, with a layover in Atlanta, and truly began my Peace Corps adventure. The 15 month application process was just the warm up.

Ok, alarm bell just rang! Time for a shower and a cup of coffee. Maybe I'll get to post in Philly, maybe not. Stay tuned....

The Best Kept Secret

Let me introduce you to Couch Surfing. It's one of those things that seemingly nobody knows about until you permeate its outer layer and then you realize that there are a million people all over the world that are not only familiar with it, but they live and breath it. I don't remember where I first heard of couch surfing, it is entirely possible that it came to me in a daydream while I was trying to figure out how to travel cheaply in Western Europe. At any rate, my trusty friend Google led me to the website and so it began.

I surfed the couches of two people in Amsterdam and three people in Paris. It was truly amazing. The warmth and hospitality of my hosts was incredible and a little shocking to my New York-jaded psyche. For example, two of my hosts left me alone in their apartments while they were at work. While I, of course, had no intention of doing something to betray their trust in me, why would I?, I was surprised to say the least. Though now that I have been indoctrinated in the Couch Surfing implicit circle of trust, I would not hesitate to do the same.

The most obvious reason to Couch Surf is for free lodging. And internet and sometimes breakfast, lunch, or dinner. The other obvious reason is because it is awesome. Not only do you have a local who can tell you all the cool things to do wherever you are staying, but you get to share travel war stories and have the comforts of home while you are away. Sometimes the bed you stay in is far more comfortable than what you would get at a hostel (pull out couches from IKEA are all over the world!), and sometimes it is not (two loveseat coushins splayed out on the floor, for example). But, regardless, the experiences and conversations are priceless.

I implore you, even if you have no travel plans right now, to find the Couch Surfing community in your town (It is there, trust me. They are in Ghana!) and go to a pub crawl or picnick. I went to two meetings when I was in Paris and met the most interesting people who have traveled the world and love to talk about it! Sure you can randomly meet really cool people in hostels, and I have, but your odds are better with couchsurfing.

One Week 'til Philly!

At this time next week I will be on a plane headed to Philadelphia for staging where I will meet all the other volunteers (there's 67 of us!) headed to Ghana on June 4th. We will spend 3 days getting acquainted with one another and learning about health and safety in Africa and what we can expect for the next 27 months. As eye roll-inducing ice breakers can be, I'm really excited to meet everyone and form a support system that I am sure to lean on over the course of my service. We will also be receiving the rest of our shots (Hep A, B, and C at the very least) and start taking malaria pills. Bring on the throbbing arms and weird dreams! I'm ready!