My past month has been a very exciting and productive one. These are the events that transpired:
I left my school a few days early to head down to South for
training before heading to an All Volunteer Conference. I have now been awarded the title of
Warden of the Upper East, which sounds way more exciting than it really
is. Basically, if Ghana ever goes
through an upheaval, all 7 of the remaining Volunteers in our region (soon to
be 5) will all travel to my house and wait it out. That training lasted one day and then we headed to AllVol.
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| I'm pretty sure that's not even my sausage. |
Every Volunteer in Ghana was invited to the same place for a
week-long conference where we had a few training sessions, but really we all
just go for the fun that happens in the evenings. I can’t go into much detail about what went down because a
lot of it somehow missed my long-term memory, but I do know I had fun. Except for the part where I was
fighting off Giardia for the 4th time. I left with the title of Education Coordinator of the Ghana
AIDS Project and a backpack full of condoms and wooden penises.
After the Conference, I went to another Deaf Art Volunteers’
house to work on a Sign Language Dictionary that we are trying to put
together. The first task was to
shoot photos of over 1,000 signs.
We used deaf teachers from her school as models and spent about 4 days
shooting. In the afternoons, we
started to edit the photos together.
I was there for a total of 6 days before I was called to attend another In-Service
Training for Peace Corps.
I had to go and wait at one of the Peace Corps offices for a
few days before the training so I just used that time to relax in a hammock and
continue working on the dictionary.
The IST was about addressing gender-based violence at our schools. It lasted for 3 days and I learned a lot
of things that I hope I can bring to my school to help address some of the
issues.
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| Being very responsible in the Chief's palace. |
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| The deaf boys I helped translate for |
After that, I traveled south again to go and help paint some
murals in a memorial clinic for a Volunteer that served in a secluded
community. We spent 2 days
painting and had a great time working, ate some delicious fufu and antelope,
and got to stay in the Chief’s Palace for 4 days! The opening ceremony for the clinic came and I ended up
finding 3 deaf people in the village that I was able to translate for. The ceremony was really neat. The Volunteer’s mother traveled to
Ghana to speak and the community enstooled her as royalty.
After the clinic opening, I traveled to the coast where I
stayed with another Volunteer one night before we went to the beach! There, I got a pretty significant
sunburn that substantially inhibited me from carrying my very heavy
backpack.
After the beach, I headed to Accra for a night so I could
hang out with another great group of Volunteers. We went out for cheeseburgers and milkshakes and I spent as
much money on that one meal as I did at the beach in one day. No regrets! We also walked around the city a bit and went into
supermarket/mall and I nearly died from excitement. The last time I was in Accra, I was still comparing
everything to America so I was underwhelmed. Now, I am so used to living in a much poorer community and I
get excited even when I see a storied building. Needless to say, Accra was a blast and I was sorry to leave
the next day.
I took an overnight bus for the first time and dosed up on
sleeping meds to make it through the trip. I fell asleep in the south and woke up magically in the
north. There was a day layover at
the regional office again and then I headed out to the bush to help another
Volunteer work on a Grassroots Soccer camp where we teach about HIV and
AIDS.
The camp lasted for 5 days and we worked with a really great
group of kids during the event. We played a lot of games to illustrate risks of HIV and made banners to display in
the community. The week climaxed
to condom demonstrations. I taught
the group of boys about how to safely use them and somehow maintained composure
during that bit. I never thought I
would be giving condom demonstrations to African teenagers but it was actually
one of the best parts of the camp.
I was really happy I went to help out with the camp and got to make a
small difference (hopefully) in a community.
My last stop was back to the regional office where I started
work on a mural project that I suspect will last a while. We are trying to paint kente cloth
designs all around the room and so far, they look great.
I was supposed to leave for home this morning but I had so
much fun over the past month that I kind of don’t want it to end. In all, I
traveled into 7 of the 10 regions, stayed at all 4 of the PC offices, slept in
10 different beds, went to 4 Volunteer’s sites, worked on 3 projects, attended
3 PC events, got to the beach. Now
if only my entire service could be like this!
