Practicum Weeks

Koforidua School for the Deaf

For Practicum weeks, we began teaching at our local schools.  The Deaf Art volunteers taught at the Koforidua School for the Deaf, which is located about an hour or more away from our village.  To ease our travel, the Peace Corps set us up in a hotel in Koforidua that had running water, including a toilet and a shower!  There was also a soda case that sold Fanta and a restaurant in our hotel that served French Fries, but I will get to that later…

The first week at the Deaf School could have gone better.  I got sick minutes before leaving.  On the first day, I felt like I wanted to die and ended up lying down on some benches all day.  I had no appetite and did not eat anything.  I was really upset that I didn’t get to teach but I knew I would have passed out if I tried.  The second day was a little better so I got to teach two classes.  Still no food though.  On my third day, I taught one class and then started to feel like crap again.  On the fourth day, which also happened to be my 23^rd birthday, I was getting so tired of being ill and not eating that I called the Medical Office and they decided to cart me 2 hours south to Accra for monitoring. 

After 9 days...

When I got to Accra, they took some blood, and conveniently bent my elbow while the needle was in my arm.  Here is the 9-day bruise to prove it.

I finally felt like eating so I asked one of the PC workers to get me pizza (since it was my birthday after all).  About an hour later, it arrived and I started to devour it!  The pizza had so much on it that I usually don’t eat but you’d be surprised what you will eat when you are starving.  “Chicken,” fish, mushrooms, green peppers, “cheese,” and some spicy sauce.  I was just so happy to have semi-American food again! 

Later that night, I learned another volunteer had arrived in Accra with similar symptoms as I.  I was thinking I had Malaria since I had a constant fever and was generally miserable.  My doctor diagnosed it as Heat Exhaustion.  Right. 

The following day, I met an older Volunteer couple that was visiting for they yearly medical checkup and they took us into Accra for breakfast and to show us around.  We went to this amazing Bistro place located around the Embassies, so it is very sophisticated.  Their menu was awesome and I ended up getting a Panini and French fries.

They walked us into the town a bit to show us the main market store that had everything you could imagine.  After the market, we separated and the other sick volunteer and I had to navigate back to the main office.  I will say I was impressed we made it back considering the condition we were in. 

The doctors kept us in Accra for another night and on Saturday we drove back to Kukuramtumi for our weekly training session.  The rest of the weekend was filled with laundry and trying to make myself eat.

Basic 1 and 2 work

The second week at Practicum was an amazing experience.  I was scheduled to teach Basic 1 and 2 classes, which are just like 1^st and 2^nd grade.  This week did confirm that I am not an elementary teacher but the deaf students were amazing to interact with!  We were gradually building our vocabulary so we could teach during our classes and I though it was really neat to be relying on signs to communicate.   Sure, it is really frustrating when you are used to teaching a certain way and you cannot even come close with a limited vocabulary, but I think I was able to get the point across most of the time. 

Basic 1 and 2 work

My biggest challenges during this week were bringing my lessons down to the Basic 1 and 2 level.  I have really only taught middle and high school art so this was a learning experience for me. 

During this week, I started to design and batik a few yards of fabric.  This process is awesome; you draw with wax onto some cloth and dye the whole thing a color.  The wax prevents the dye from penetrating the cloth underneath.  You continue this process with many colors and by the end you can have a really neat piece of art.  This is mine.

At night, we would return to the hotel and have language sessions.  I went to the restaurant and ate The French fries.  I think I ate so much that my body didn’t know what to do with them so I got sick.  Oh well, it was worth it!

At some point in the week, a few of the junior high girls decided I was handsome and I unofficially “wed” some of them.  This is totally normal here for people to ask to marry you so you just play along and it’s actually pretty funny.  I just started calling some of them Wife and they though it was hilarious!  But really, by the end of the week, I was starting to have personal conversations with the older students and that was the highlight for me.  They really enjoy when someone else knows Sign because they obviously have a limited amount of people they and communicate with in their lives. 

I will really miss working with the students, but now we are going to focus on building our languages and visiting our sites to find out more about what it’s like to be a teacher.  I’m really looking forward to the next few weeks!

Addo Nkwanta Week

The drive up to the village was stunning! We drove over a few ridges and the roads were incredibly curvy as we worked our way around them.  From the top of the ridges, you can see for miles, until the horizon fades out to nothing.

A view of the village from outside my house.

We finally arrive at our village, called AdonKwanta, which is located in the Volta Region.  It began to rain, which is considered good luck here.  We all walked to one of the churches where our host families were waiting anxiously to hear which of us they would call their own.  As names are being called, trainees are standing up and families are rushing over to greet them.  The scene was a little wild.

My family was announced and the only family member that was there was my new father, David.  We head to the back of the church to talk and the rain really kicks in.  When it rains here, it really rains.  After the meet and greet, the entire crowd of people migrated in the rain to the chief’s palace for a reception.

This is a formal occasion where the chief meets and prays to the spirits for his visitors’ safety in and around the village.  The ceremony is completed after drinking some palm schnapps and then offering a bit to the spirits.  

Then, the entire congregation moved to the Peace Corps truck to pick up our luggage.  This scene was a bit chaotic as all of the children were excited to come see the Obroni (white people) and there were a ton of bags to distribute.  I eventually found mine and my brother carried my suitcase on his head back home.  Totally normal here.

The village was a little closer to what I was expecting before I came here.  Of course, the roads are all dirt, or in this case, a very red, sandy soil, some houses are made from mud brick and concrete and others are made from wood.  Apparently animals here are public property.  Little dingo dogs, chickens, and pigs just roam around and eat any garbage they find.  The rainwater was worked a network of trails through the village that act as drainage for when people wash clothes and other things. 

My bed.

The other half of my room.

My brothers eating some Banku.

I walk into my new home and head to my new room.  I was surprised that I had a double-sized bed, bigger than what I sleep on at home.  I also have a window, chair and coffee table in my room.

The houses here are set up completely differently than in the US.  Most houses have a courtyard of sorts that acts like the “living room” during the day.  All of the cooking and laundry are done outside.  Rooms are all lined up around the courtyard.   It’s actually a pretty efficient way to build a house.  Everybody gets their own family space while still living with their relatives. 

As far as I can tell, I live with 2 sets of grandparents, at least one aunt, and tons of young cousins.  I can’t be sure though, there are always different people roaming in and out during the day…

I live across the street from a church.  Sounds nice, right?  Well, here, God (and the roosters outside my window) wake up around 4am and so do the locals.  4am is the prefect time to get their pray on!  And it’s not quiet church like in the US.  They chant, sing, and sometimes march outside.  Generally they are having a great time and I always wake up efficiently.  So I sleep with earplugs in.  Completely normal. 

It’s impossible to walk around the village without “Obroni” being shouted at you by the children.  It has got to be one of their first words! 

We basically trained all week and returned home during meal times to get a taste of the culture.  My sister does all of the cooking and she is generally very good, as long as she keeps fish out of my food.  I eat a lot of bread, watermelon, and “macaroni” which is basically ramen noodles cooked with vegetables and a boiled egg.  

That’s most of the exciting parts about village life.

Accra Week

I step off the plane in Accra and my first thought is “Why isn’t it hotter?”  I know it’s the rainy season and all but Erie PA is often hotter than this in July.  I’m sure I will not be saying that in a few months when the dry season comes!

We all move inside the airport and I was surprised by how developed everything was.  The same conveyor belts used to return luggage are here, there was air conditioning, vehicles everywhere outside.  Not exactly what most people think about Africa.  Going through customs was interesting; the national language is English but for some reason nobody was speaking to us and they were rather impatient about everything.  A few Peace Corps people from Safety and Security met us and led us through the process. 

As we are leaving the airport, we hand all of our bags to another PC employee who loads them into a large truck, and we step onto a small bus to drive to our housing site. 

My thoughts as we drive down the road:

1.      I feel like we are off-roading

2.      These drivers are crazy

3.      These pedestrians are crazy

4.      There is a ton of iron in the ground

5.      The plants are amazing

6.      Markets look scary

7.      I’m not in America anymore

The most peculiar thing I witnessed on the drive to our site was one of our trainers purchasing phone credits from outside the car as we are driving down the road.  Let me set this up:  So I am sure you already know that almost everything is carried on people’s heads here.  They also walk down the road carrying their loads and sell to drivers and passengers that are stopped in traffic.  You just wave money out the window, say what you want and it’s yours.  Quick and easy.  You can buy anything this way; toothpaste, cloth, food, clothing, trinkets, whatever.  I really don’t know why people have the need to go to the market when this system exists!

We arrive at out site, Valley View, which is just a little north of the capital.  It’s a school campus and we are staying in a very nice facility that has “showers, ceiling fans and electricity.”  I say “” because the electricity is faulty here and I had to turn a couple of showers into bucket baths.  We stayed at Valley View for about a week, which was vey nice. 

During that time, we traveled into Accra a few times for training sessions or to meet important people.  They took us to the main PC Office to meet the staff, and we even visited the US Ambassador’s house and got to enjoy drinks and delicious finger foods. 

But the most exciting Accra Experience was something called Accra Quest.  Basically, they drop us off in the city with a list of things to find out from the locals, and tell us to find our way back to Valley View from there.  This all seems a lot like The Amazing Race so I was pumped!  My group had to go to a hospital, see the President of Ghana’s palace, and find out how to navigate form one station to another.  We just started asking everybody we could find about our questions and I was extremely happy to find out how polite everybody is.  So many people will completely stop what they are doing, turn around, and escort you to your destination with no problem!  American’s could learn a thing or two from these people. After my group finished our tasks, we returned to the campus and discovered we were to first to arrive.  So basically, I need to be on The Amazing Race now!

On our last day at Valley View we learned how to handwash our laundry and take a bucket bath.  We left our comfortable rooms and traveled a couple hours north to an village that would become our home for the next 10 weeks.  I won’t say I wasn’t nervous…