Holidays in a new Home!

Hello all! Sorry for the long wait between posts, we've been pretty busy here! When I arrived there were a total of eight volunteers, now we're down to three. (Well four, but one has Malaria!) The kids just finished with their first term of school and are now on what we would title Winter Break. With only the three of us active, entertaining kids without school is a full time job, although I am fairly certain I could make a career out of completing coloring books by now.
This past weekend there was a large church event taking place on a nearby soccer field, and the kids enjoyed dressing up to go each night. We braved the festivities for the final evening and it was quite the affair with singing, dancing, and poorly amplified preaching- a true Ghanian celebration!
Finally, yesterday, we made it through Christmas at the orphanage which surprisingly wasn't too difficult.  We made little gift bags for the kids and most of them even thanked us! On Christmas Eve we had some music and a ton of dancing for the kids! After everyone went to sleep, another volunteer and I snuck over to the orphanage to decorate and the kids were all happy and surprised to wake up to tinsel on the orange tree.  Mostly it was a relaxing day where the children played with new toys, and the volunteers treated ourselves to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on audiobook.  I had wonderful chats with both my parents and boyfriend, and although the holidays can be tough being away from home, spending time with those adorable kids made it easier than I could have imagined!  Happy Holidays everyone and I wish you a safe new years!

Giving Thanks

With everyone at home celebrating Thanksgiving, I have been reflecting on all of the time, effort, and hard work that has been put into making this trip to Ghana a success.  Choosing to live in a foreign country for six months wasn't an easy decision, but with the support and encouragement from my family and friends, the adventure became first a possibility, then a reality.  
I am grateful to have my mom, Julie DeLong, for first putting the idea into my head with stories of her Peace Corps time and how much she remembers and thinks about it still today. She has been excited for me every step of the way and helped with Malaria medications, plane tickets, moral support and countless other things only a travel savvy woman would know.  
My dad, Jay Query, has also been a huge support and I am grateful that even though it probably terrified him that his youngest daughter was striking out to Africa all alone, he trusted i could take care and hasn't badgered me too much with safety worries.
My sister, Katrina has been another source of inspiration for traveling and working with kids,through her time spent in Korea. She encourages me to do what I think is best and not worry about how the college years are 'supposed' to be spent! 
Dominic, who has been a trooper when it comes to dating a girl with limited phone and internet access on the other side of the world, and being there to listen to stories, woes, whining, bragging, and rap lyrics without complaint.
I wanted to give a quick public thank you to John Newell for spearheading a ton of fundraising and donations to send soccer jerseys to the boys team which is run through the orphanage!
Thank you to my extended family for your thoughts, prayers, and support. And a big thanks to my boyfriend, 
Friends thank you for listening to my stories, observations, complaints, and rambling. I wish you all a wonderful and fulfilling Thanksgiving! 

The West (Best) Coast of Ghana

Entry #6 

One of the perks of having so many volunteers working here (I am one of eight) is that there are always tons of people to help out, so going on vacations and leaving for a few days is easy.  For this outing a fellow volunteer and I went to the western coast of Ghana and spend some wonderful time seeing sights, laying on the beach, trying new foods, and being squeezed between sweaty Ghanians in the back of an old tro-tro!

From Achiase (orphnange location) we took a Taxi to Swedru, then a tro-tro to Takoradi, after that was a tro-tro to Agona and then finally a taxi to Busua. Surprisingly this only took us 7 hours and we were just in time for some afternoon beach time.  We stayed at an accommodation called The Alaska Beach Club (shout out to all you in the 907!) in a small mud hut by the beach.  Needless to say I was pretty excited to stay there, I went and met the owner who is from Alaska himself near Palmer and tried to get an Alaska Resident Discount, but to no avail... 

The next day we went spent walking around Busua, and laying on the beach and stumbled upon a man butchering a bullhead shark (those weak of stomach, feel free to skip the photos), and a couple of pet monkeys which we went over to and interacted with. 

By the next morning we decided to leave beautiful Busua and continue on our journey.  The plan was to stop at Cape Three Points to visit a lighthouse at the southern-most tip of Ghana, then continue on our way that same day to Beyin and get ready for the Stilt Village the following morning.  However, as often happens in Ghana, the road had alternative plans for us.  We finally reached Cape Three Points in the afternoon, and unbeknownst to us, there was only one tro-tro in/out of the town each day.  Once we realized this, the tro-tro had already left, so we set off to see the lighthouse and decided to handle accommodations afterwards.  The lighthouse was beautiful, ocean was blue, birds were loud, and air smelled invigorating.  In short, it was perfect. Next we checked out our Ghana guide book and looked for a place to sleep.  The only “hotel” was an eco-lodge called Escape 3 Points and it was a 20 minute walk down the beach, little did we know, we were about to reach paradise! This place was a hidden gem, a diamond in the rough, and any other stone-related metaphors you can think of.  Owned by a Canadian man and his French wife, Escape Three Points and is quite off the grid.  The rooms are individual bamboo huts (constructed by the owner who happens to be an architect) equipped with composting toilets, they run on solar power and collect rainwater to use for day to day life, and most of the food prepared comes from a variety of fruit trees, vegetable plants, eggs from their chickens, and meat from goats, chickens, and rabbits.  For the first night we were the only guests and had the entire place to ourselves, including a pristine beach.  During the evening we stargazed, held newborn bunny rabbits, and watched/helped baby turtles hatch and get to the ocean.  I love the children and volunteering at the orphanage, but being here was pure bliss, and we were sad to leave. 

Finally we journeyed on to Beyin like we had originally planned and took an hour-long canoe ride to a Village on Stilts! Seeing how the people lived there was amazing! Everyone ate tons of fish and bathed regularly in the lake.  I met three you ladies (whose picture is at the bottom) who row for an hour each morning to get to school!  By the time we left we were ready to be home, but so glad that we had all those amazing experiences on our vacation!

Ghanian Traditions: New and Old

2/11/13

Entry #5: Ghanian Traditions Old and New

Today, I had the opportunity to experience two traditional Ghanian Activities: a naming ceremony and hair braiding. The naming ceremony was by far the shorter (and less painful) of the two!

One of the girls who used to live at the orphanage, Alice, recently had a baby. She stayed at the Achiase Children’s Home for a couple of years, but now is living with her daughter and Grandmother, as she wouldn’t be able to raise a child at the orphanage.  Despite her altered living situation, Alice remains close with Mama Sarah and Mr. Sam, and they held the naming ceremony at the orphanage.  When I walked into the compound I was surprised to find a host of Ghanian men and women dressed in their best clothes. We sat in a semi circle around the family of the child and stood for a singing prayer. Then listened as different important-looking people spoke in Fante.  Alice named her daughter after a couple of people with large influences on her life.  The child’s first name is Lisa, after one of the volunteers who was here a back when Alice still lived at the orphanage  (I am proud to mention that the kids always tell me I look like her) and her last name is Sam, after Mama Sarah and Mr. Sam, because they were like parents to Alice.  After he name had been announced, a couple more prayers were sung, then everyone gave the new mother 5 Cedi (Ghanian dollar) to help her pay for future schooling and we each took a turn holding little Lisa Sam.

I am sending out good vibes to Lisa and Alice, raising a child in and of itself seems consuming, doing so in Ghana would be difficult for someone like me, but I am sure if anyone can handle it, Alice can!

            The rest of my day was spent in a plastic chair getting my hair yanked.  Hair braiding is popular here in Ghana, but a bit different from what you’d have done on vacation in Mexico or the Caribbean with the little beads on the end, this is an all-day extravaganza! I arrived at “My Queen’s Beauty Parlor” at ten am and waited for an hour and a half before they one woman working there could get started.  Many Ghanian women do not keep long hair, usually it grows 2-3 inches long and stops, so adding fake hair to add length to the braids is a standard practice.  I chose purple fake hair, which they braided into my blonde hair and then extended to reach the small of my back.  The braiding took approx. 7 hours, as they took each section of hair and tied a chunk of the synthetic hair to it, then braided down to the end.  Finally when all sections were finished, the hairdresser took hot water and dipped my hair in piece by piece to seal the braids.  Finally, after eight hours I was allowed to go home, but with a set of rules for hair care from the Ghanain shop owner:  I was to sleep with my hair wrapped in a cloth, not go swimming, and not wash my hair.  This was a tall order for me, but I followed her instructions religiously…  for the first couple of days.  Now, two weeks later, the my blonde hair is falling out of he braids, I have a ton of dried sea water in my hair, but I have abstained from washing it and have been scratching at it like wild! Taking the braids out is quite the ordeal as well, and I’ve heard I’ll need help from my fellow volunteers, so I’ll let you all know how that goes as well! Overall it was a fun cultural experience, which I won’t soon forget, and above all else, I have a new found respect for Ghanian women who have their hair like this for months on end!

Coming up next…. Our western coast of Ghana travels!

                                                                                                    

Educate or Bust!

Entry #4 28/10/13

School in Ghana: Hello all! Lately another volunteer and I have been going down to the school (Bethel Academy, run by the owners of the orphanage) and teaching a creative arts course for kids up to class 3.  Ghanian schooling, as I am sure you’d imagine, differs greatly from that of the US/Developed world.  It would be considered a Private School in American terms, but since all schools are Private in Ghana, it doesn’t hold much prestige.  All students are required to wear a uniform of the school colors and pay a quarterly fee, as well as bringing 1 Ghana Cedi ($0.50), per day. Bethel Academy services children from Nursery (approx. age 2) up to Form one.  The grades start at KG1 (kindergarten), then KG2, Class 1, Class 2, Class 3, Class 4, Class 5, Class 6, and From 1.  From here the students move to a Junior High School, then Senior High school, and some continue on to University or Vocational training.        Education is highly valued in Ghana, but their learning style, or at least the teaching style, emphasizes memorization and recitation instead of reasoning and deduction.  For example, many of the students are able to list all the 5 and 8 times tables, but don’t realize that 5X8 is the same as 8X5. While this may not sound like a problem in the younger grades, if students need to write, say, a persuasive essay, they’ll need to come up with their own ideas, because building an argument requires more that the memorization of facts.  This gap in education became apparent to me when we tried to do art with the students and all of their trees looked identical because they were taught, “this is the Correct way to draw a tree”.  When we would work on examples for the class, all of the kids would try to copy ours exactly.  Creativity is a foreign concept for these little ones. 

The teachers each keep a “cane” with them in their classroom, and use it liberally as a “negative reinforcement learning tool”.  Although for all of the negative I’ve found in Ghanian schooling, the positive can’t be ignored.  Recently, education has become readily available, preparing kids for the world of math, language, and technology.  Teaching offers a wonderful transitional job between Senior High School and University, and many of the kids are learning life skills, cooperation and obedience which they may not be exposed to in their home lives. 

Overall, I think the emphasis on education in Ghana is admirable, but could use an alternative structure, which I do my best to implement whenever I am around the school!

Everyone back home stay safe and warm.

All the best from Africa!