Email Archive - Ghana Tales 5-8
Ghana Tales #5
Hi everyone!
The only internet cafe in Techiman lost its connection so we were all cut off from email. Alot has happened since my last Ghana Tales. We celebrated thankgiving, i finished training and I'm an official PCV, and i got a puppy.
For Thanksgiving, all of the volunteers threw a potluck dinner. my group killed 2 turkeys and cooked them in a giant bread oven, made mashed potatoes, greeen beans, and gravy. We were able to make due with limited ingredients and it came out well. it was interesting to be involved in the entire process of slaughtering and plucking and preparing the turkeys. someone made a great sweet potato pie.
I swore in as a Volunteer on friday, and proceeded directly to the beach with a few friends..we met up with a friend in Accra who works for Ghanaian parliament (an american on an internship) and he is giving us a place to stay in accra as we pass through. The beach was amazing! We stayed at the African Academy of Music and Arts and got a bungalow on the campus. They gave us a Ghanaian drumming and dancing show that blew our minds...it was really awesome. I will try to send pictures from the trip.
My homestay family gave me a puppy! I named him Francis (after Frank Black) and i'm going to train him to follow me on my bike..the dogs here will follow thier owners for hours going from town to town, it must be the breed...i also have to train him ot to eat chickens. I am returning to techiman tomorrow and i will bring him to the upper west. it is an 8 hour tro tro ride but i'll put him in a sling. I should arrive at my site in 3 days.
Others are waiting to use the computer, so until next time,
Nmena ga ne fo. (god watch over you - a dagaare farewell)
Michael
Ghana Tales #6
Fo Nmena,
I have made my way to Jirapa to visit the District Assembly today. Just finished meeting and greeting all of the local politicians and directors and found some time to get online. So I had a house, but just before Christmas I had to vacate because of some landlord drama. But I am here today to see if we can lease a building from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) for me to live in. My dog is growing fast, I renamed her Taco in order to be culturally sensitive. (Francis is a people name and people named Francis could get offended.) She responds better to Taco also. I bought a guitar in Kumasi (Ghana's largest city) on my way to the Upper West (where my site is located). Things are going very well, though i haven't been able to pick up any packages or mail...I'll need to travel to Accra (takes 2 days at least) but thanks in advance to all the people who sent them. Oh, i recieved it a while ago, but thanks Annie for the boomerang (which i have almost lost many times, but i hope to get it to come back to me one day) and thanks to your mom for the Paul Theroux book. It is next on my list. I have to go - my colleagues are leaving, but stay tuned....
Michael
Ghana Tales #7
Michael
Ghana Tales #8
Hi everyone,
I guess GT #7 is the short and obvious version. But really, it's
hot. We are just going from the hot season to the hotter season,
which fortunately coincides with mango season. Work is still just
starting up, I've been visiting communities and next week will go out
to visit some area schools. My housing situation is still unresolved,
stuck somewhere in the beurocracy of the District Assembly, but my
nieghbors are really great where i'm at. As a matter of fact, they
helped me put out a small fire i accidentally started in my room.
Left a candle burning to close to the curtains on a breezy night.
Nothing important burned, except the curtains...
My dog died. She became suddenly ill and died in two days, before
the vet could even make it. I took her out to the bush and buried her
under the biggest tree visible from my house (its a REALLY BIG tree),
lined her grave with stones. At a local herbal clinic, a traditional
healer told me that the symptoms sounded like a snakebite; or maybe
she ate something poisonous.
Much of my time has been spent getting to know people in the
community. Many huoseholds brew Pito, a local beer made from millet.
it is very traditional, the pots are made locally and you drink it
from a calabash - which is a half of a hollowed out gourd. So mostly,
I go around sitting with people and drinking pito. This is considered
a very important aspect of community. It is a good way to meet folks,
at least. plus, pito is pretty good. especially my neighbor's... i
met a neighboring village chief and he invited me for pito in the
market, and we ended up at my neighbor's stall. it is always the most
crowded and i think the best - and so does the chief of chapuri!
The market is every 6th day in Han, and all of the local pito
brewers set up stalls. but throughout the week everyone serves the
pito at their homes. It is always the women who brew the pito, but i
want to learn the process. I also am trtying to get the woman who
makes the traditional pots to show me the process...i have learned to
gather clay, and when i get a proper house i will make a system for
processing the clay to refine it more. One of the PC training staff,
Moses, is an Art teacher in Accra and a potter. I talked to him quite
a bit and he showed me pictures of his clay processing setup and his
kiln. I got alot of good advice on how to filter and refine the clay,
but I am interested in learning the traditional method of pit-firing
I have learned, back in Twimia Nkwanta, my homestay village, how to
make clay ovens, called mookahs, that are more efficient and require
less fuel wood...a few of us made many of them throughout the village
there and conducted workshops on them. I am trying to get the local
chief to donate the lumber to build a frame for building mookahs in my
community. Its tough to squeeze funds out of local governance, but
its a small amount and i want them to invest in the betterment of the
community...its sort of the principle of the thing.
My time is short, I am headed to a Upper West Region PCV meeting.
They're putting us up in a fancy hotel...by fancy i mean indoor
plumbing and flourescent lights. It really does sound luxurious
though.
Happy Trails,
Michael
Ghana Tales #7
Hi everyone,
It's hot here.
It's hot here.
Michael
Ghana Tales #8
Hi everyone,
I guess GT #7 is the short and obvious version. But really, it's
hot. We are just going from the hot season to the hotter season,
which fortunately coincides with mango season. Work is still just
starting up, I've been visiting communities and next week will go out
to visit some area schools. My housing situation is still unresolved,
stuck somewhere in the beurocracy of the District Assembly, but my
nieghbors are really great where i'm at. As a matter of fact, they
helped me put out a small fire i accidentally started in my room.
Left a candle burning to close to the curtains on a breezy night.
Nothing important burned, except the curtains...
My dog died. She became suddenly ill and died in two days, before
the vet could even make it. I took her out to the bush and buried her
under the biggest tree visible from my house (its a REALLY BIG tree),
lined her grave with stones. At a local herbal clinic, a traditional
healer told me that the symptoms sounded like a snakebite; or maybe
she ate something poisonous.
Much of my time has been spent getting to know people in the
community. Many huoseholds brew Pito, a local beer made from millet.
it is very traditional, the pots are made locally and you drink it
from a calabash - which is a half of a hollowed out gourd. So mostly,
I go around sitting with people and drinking pito. This is considered
a very important aspect of community. It is a good way to meet folks,
at least. plus, pito is pretty good. especially my neighbor's... i
met a neighboring village chief and he invited me for pito in the
market, and we ended up at my neighbor's stall. it is always the most
crowded and i think the best - and so does the chief of chapuri!
The market is every 6th day in Han, and all of the local pito
brewers set up stalls. but throughout the week everyone serves the
pito at their homes. It is always the women who brew the pito, but i
want to learn the process. I also am trtying to get the woman who
makes the traditional pots to show me the process...i have learned to
gather clay, and when i get a proper house i will make a system for
processing the clay to refine it more. One of the PC training staff,
Moses, is an Art teacher in Accra and a potter. I talked to him quite
a bit and he showed me pictures of his clay processing setup and his
kiln. I got alot of good advice on how to filter and refine the clay,
but I am interested in learning the traditional method of pit-firing
I have learned, back in Twimia Nkwanta, my homestay village, how to
make clay ovens, called mookahs, that are more efficient and require
less fuel wood...a few of us made many of them throughout the village
there and conducted workshops on them. I am trying to get the local
chief to donate the lumber to build a frame for building mookahs in my
community. Its tough to squeeze funds out of local governance, but
its a small amount and i want them to invest in the betterment of the
community...its sort of the principle of the thing.
My time is short, I am headed to a Upper West Region PCV meeting.
They're putting us up in a fancy hotel...by fancy i mean indoor
plumbing and flourescent lights. It really does sound luxurious
though.
Happy Trails,
Michael
posted by Michael at 2:07 PM
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