Email Archive - Ghana Tales 1-4

Team Environment Go!


Ghana Tales #1


Akwaaba from Ghana,

I am in a group of 50 Peace Corps Trainees (PCT's), all focused on environment, health/water sanitation, and small enterprise development. Today is my first day on my own in Accra, the capital city. We are doing kind of a scavenger hunt, but i took a little break to duck into an Internet Cafe. My fellow PCT's are all very great and talented; the Ghanaian people are so warm and friendly. They really see the world much different than Americans. The pace of life is much slower and based in everyday personal interactions. Tomorrow I am going on a "Vision Quest" meet a volunteer at his site in the North. I will spend a few days there to get an idea of what living at post will be like. Then I am off to training in Techiman, where i will stay with a host family for 3 months. Eventually i will have my own house in the villiage where I work. I am learning Twi, the most common language. We are learning orally for now, so I don't know how to spell anything yet...the tainers say it would confuse things at this point. For instance, the "J" sound is written as "Dk" Many people speak english but the cadence is so different that it requires speaking and listening differently. Last night we had a reception with the (interim) U.S. Ambassador. I am about out of time but I will write again when I can

With Love,

Michael

Ghana Tales #3

Ma Jo Everyone,

I am in training in Techiman, and all is going great. I am staying with a host family in the village of Twimia Nkwanta; my father is a Chief, or Nana. His name is Nana Peter. There is an extended family system in the villiage so it would be hard to list all of my family...its hard for me to figure out in the first place. Yesterday I went to church with my family and I wore the traditional cloth...it was fun. It was the harvest celebration so everyone bought baskets of stuff: plantains, rice, live chickens, more plantains, various vegetables, casava, yams, etc., and the church auctioned it all off to benefit christendom and such. Some wealthy samaritan donated 50 bags of concrete, and there was great rejoicing. I had fun. Nana Peter bought 3 chickens and a bunch of other stuff, and he says he'll kill a chicken for me tonight.
I recived my site assignment last Thursday! As of swearing in on December 2, I will be in the Upper West Region in a town called Han. It is in the top left corner of Ghana, close to the border with Burkina Faso to the north and Cote D'Iviore to the west. I am replacing a voluteer. My primary job is organizing youth groups around environment issues - at the junior high level (Junior Secondary School) and working with farmers in the area to promote agroforestry systems and sustainable livelihood alternatives. It is mostly open savannah in the north, fairly remote, few paved roads, great for bicycling. I will have another volunteer two villiages over; I will have my own two room house probably without electricity or plumbing. I have begun to learn a new language, because Twi is not spoken there. The regional language is Dagaare, and sounds like it has more Arabic influences. I like the way it sounds.


A few people have asked how they can help, so here are a few things it would be nice to recieve:
Photographs - of family and friends, vacations, whatever. Good Contemporary Books -ask me if ive read something before you send anything. (Annie, Moneyball is a great read, are you trying to convert me to the East Bay?) A 2006 Calendar. games. Duct tape - i cant find it anywhere!, Speedball Acryllic Ink, Speedbal Nibs / Standard Nibs.(art friends help me out here). Letters. Candy. Gatorade Mix.

Send any letters or care packages to:
PCV Michael Fravel c/o Peace Corps
PO Box 5796
Accra North
Ghana, West Africa.

Thanks everyone, I am out of time.

Love,

Michael

Ghana Tales #2

Hello again,

Okay, so i forgot that my #2 Ghana Email never was sent due to
internet issues. But I had a chance to get back to the internet cafe
so i'll send a quick one today, and say a little about the food.
The most popular food in Ghana, hands down, is Fufuo. It is made by
mashing casaba and plantains into a gooey mush with a seven foot
stick. The end result is a starchy, flavorless, gum - Fufuo! It is
served in soup made from groundnuts, palm nuts, fish, and pepe (spicy
peppers), and eaten with the right hand. Then there is banku, served
in the same fashion, but it is a thicker texture and made from corn.
Also, rice balls are popular,also served in soup, usually with some
chicken.
My favorite meal is red red. It is fried plantains with a bean stew
(sometimes fishy). It is called red red because it is red plantains
and red beans, but most of the time it is made with yellow plantains.
Also, fried yams are popular, and tasty.
Often for breakfast I have a kind of omelette with scallions and
peppers with good tea and bread (pano). Thats about all the time i
have...oh two more things i forgot to mention for care packages - Art
Supplies (drawing paper especially) and pens. Just standard bic round
stic pens or something like that....the pens here just don't work.
I will have more opportunities during training for email since i am in
Techiman every day now, so expect more posts soon!

Love, Michael

Ghana Tales #4

Fo Nmena,

Hi everyone! My introduction is "good afternoon" in Dagaare, the new
language I am learning for my stay in the Upper West. Only 5 of the 50
volunteers will learn this language, but there are some similarities
to other northern languages. I just returned from a 5 day field trip
to the Upper East Region in northern Ghana. It is beautiful up there
and I am looking forward to visiting my site in 2 weeks. The northern
part of Ghana is African Savannah, dry grassland spotted with trees.
It sort of reminds me of the central valley and foothills of Northern
California, except with baobab trees. Baobab trees are sweet! Some
of the older ones have trunks that look about 15' to 20' in diameter.
The branches are large and low to the ground. There is a PCV in the
Upper East who sleeps in one every night, I hear. Many people,
because of the heat, sleep outside or on the roof of their house. The
architecture is mostly round mud huts with thatched reed roofs, often
layed out in a circle with connecting walls to create a courtyard.
There is not as much variety in the produce, but there are mangos in
mango season and alot of watermelons, which are not found in the
south. They vary in cost by season, but a large watermelon cost me
4000 cedis, which equates to less than 50 cents. Also, 50 Cent is
huge here. I have been asked if I know him. Oranges cost the
equivalent of 3 cents. I eat alot of oranges. They have a staple
food in the north called TZ. It is a bit like fu fuo, but made from
either millet or maize. It reminds me a little of soft polenta. I
had it from corn with okro (okra) stew and it was good. I am happy
because fu fuo gets old really fast.
On our field trip, we gained alot of practical experience. We made
raised and sunken seed beds, we learned polybagging (basically putting
dirt in a bag), and we also top and side grafted mangos. We further
discussed composting techniques, visited a crocodile pond (they fed
the crocs live chickens), and visited a slave camp. The slave camp
was interesting because a group demonstrated the rock drumming and
songs that the slaves would sing while in captivity. I will send
pictures if i can get to a better computer sometime. We also came
across a cobra on a hike to some beehives. It reared up and spread
its hood, but we gave it a wide berth and it ran away. We also
attended community meetings to get a feel for organizing and
motivating groups. That was educational, by which I mean frustrating.
Today we have organized an ultimate frisbee game. Tomorrow we will
visit bat caves and have a haloween party. My time is running short,
so I will end here. Thanks for the emails, it is always nice to hear
from everyone. More Ghana Tales to come.

Michael Raymond Frave


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