I apologize, this post is out of order, with the earlier stuff at the end...
On Saturday morning, I woke up at 3:30 a.m., ate breakfast, and got on a bus with my counterpart and the other education volunteers headed to northern sites, and we drove to Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana. Morning traffic in Kumasi was as bad as Los Angeles, and there was some confusion about which bus station we needed to take us to Tamale. I was lucky that I had my counterpart wheeling/carrying a good portion of my luggage through Kumasi because I have acquired quite a few items in the last 40 days or so, thus making my load more unwieldy than ever (we were told to bring everything to our site now, even though we won’t be there permanently for another month).
By 10 a.m. I was on the Tamale-bound bus with 4 other volunteers who will be stationed near me. It was a gorgeous drive, pushing further north into Ghana, out of the tropical forest vegetation and into the flat savannah with sparse trees and red earth. It is the rainy season, so this normally dry region is vibrant green. I got a mere glimpse of the third largest city in Ghana, Tamale, and then I was in a taxi headed 30 minutes north through Savelugu and to my site 2 km outside of town on the main road. I arrived right at dusk, and the sky was a brilliant pink, bathing everything in its glow. Unfortunately and unexpectedly, I’m not staying in my actual home while I’m visiting because there are two teachers living there until I come back in September. Bummer. On the bright side, I’m staying at the headmistress’s house, which has a great toilet and shower, a large hard bed, a fan, and cable TV. I’m not a big fan of Nigerian movies, and that seems to be the only thing that plays on TV here. It’s as if the Nigerian film industry has yet to discover the boom mike—the sound is very echo-y. I like the headmistress, Immaculate, from my first conversations with her, although I did see her cane a student within a few minutes of arriving on campus. I have no idea what she is like as an administrator, but she’s very casual in her home. I love that she is a powerful woman in the community, and that her husband lies around in the shade all day and listens to the radio.
I have seen inside my new home, and although it needs some new paint and perhaps a mattress immediately, it is quite nice. I love the bush around my school--it is all farmland, with many flat, dirt paths to run on in the early morning hours. I will have to get a bike right away, though, because I am 2 km outside of town, and it's inconvenient to flag a ride. There are several deaf teachers at my school, which is great because they are excellent at sign language and can help me to learn more quickly.
Out the bus window, on the road to Tamale
Last week was incredibly tedious for the most part. We traveled to Bunso, thirty minutes away from Kukurantumi in the Eastern Region, and stayed at Bunso Cocoa College. There, we met our ‘counterparts,’ the folks who (theoretically) we will be working most closely with at our schools. My counterpart is a very shy young gentleman named Ben (he likes to be called ‘Benghazi,’ but I’m not really sure that anyone actually calls him that), who has only been teaching at Savelugu for one year. He did not exactly give me the warm welcome I was expecting when I met him (in fact he said nothing at all), but I now understand he was just intimidated or is generally quiet, which is fine because so am I! I think I’ve met too many gregarious, aggressively friendly Ghanaians already, and I was anticipating they would all have exactly the same personality. I’m sure Ben and I will get along very well, and perhaps he will allow me the autonomy I’m hoping for.
Bunso is an incredibly beautiful area of Ghana, like a storybook, with towering trees, dense, lush forest, and lots of rain. My friends and I went running on some wonderful dirt paths that seem to go forever, winding into the bush. There is also a rest stop-type restaurant in Bunso that serves pizza (!!!) and other American food for highly inflated prices. It was totally worth the cost to escape the monotony of Ghanaian food (can you believe that even though Ghanaians eat fufu and banku for every meal of every day, they still list it as their favorite food?!?).
The majority of the week, however, was spent in a classroom watching endless powerpoint presentations given by uninspiring speakers regarding HIV/AIDS education and awareness, community mobilization, and behavior change. The week was a blur of flip charts, flow charts, bar charts, bullet points, superfluous acronyms, and gruesome STD images. I mostly read from a novel (Jonathan Franzen’s “Freedom”), sent sarcastic text messages across the room, and nodded off occasionally to pass the time. Besides the pizza, the highlight of the week was a traditional dance night, with representatives from different regions of Ghana. Toward the end of the evening, I was the first American to stand up and dance with the Ghanaians, and the crowd went wild. Evidently, I’m a natural at African dance (thank you, mom, for endowing me with the rear-end genetics), so despite not being a Christian, and my daily defiance of gender norms (i.e., I play sports), and the real tragedy of being a vegetarian, I might have some remaining hope of integration into this culture…through booty shaking. I will post videos as soon as I get some fast internet access.
Wow Kate,
ReplyDeleteYou are incredible!
The fantastic pictures and stories fill our hearts.
Love to you and all the students and other teachers.
Peace and creativity,
S
ko lipe island
Thanks Steven! I hope you're having a blast! Isn't the ocean in Thailand like bathwater? It's so amazing. I'm going to go to the beach In Cape Coast after Swearing In.
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