Long time, no write?

Hey all,

It's been a while, and I'm fine. Here's an update

The elections went well, there was almost no violence or problems. Unfortunately, the vote was too close and no candidate got over 50% so they need to do a run off vote for the two leading candidates. The vote is scheduled for Dec 28, so for safety, PC has put us all on standfast during the holidays around the vote. (Standfast=stay at site). It's a drag for people who had plans to travel, but I didn't plan anything, so I'm okay. We'll see how the next one goes, I'm pretty confident that it will be a good election.

The All Volunteer Conference was the week before last. I prepared end-of-term exams for my classes before I traveled down to Bunso to hang out with all the other PCV's in Ghana. It was really fun, and I met lots of great people, and even learned some stuff at the PEPFAR workshops. The best part was the PC Prom. I made myself a bowtye out of water sachets and since the theme was "Ghana Fabulous" everyone wore their best/worst Ghana garb. We drank and danced and had a blast. Check out pics on facebook, Ming "the Real Man" took some great ones. We also had an entertainment night, sort of like a talent show followed by another dance. Kyle and I sang some Steven Lynch songs. If you know anything about Steven Lynch, you know that they were funny and vulgar. Good times!

After the conference, I traveled with Kyle and Katharine to his site and then to the beach at Adda Foah. We met Jen, Sara, and Caroline and had a great time. It was beautiful, although not too clean. There was plenty of trash on the sand and in the water, and in places, we saw people "praying" on the beach in a squatting position. I think you can figure it out. Overall the beach was awesome and relaxing and I only got minorly burnt. We took a long walk along the beach, and encountered some fishermen and women pulling in a huge net. They had all sorts of fish in there, I wish I knew the names. They also had some cool sea snakes, pufferfish, small lobsters, and lots of trash. Nothing got out alive and even the smallest fish was collected. The fishers gave us two small lobsters and we took them back to the "resort" and had them cook them up for us for supper. We also caught a bunch of little crabs who wanted to hide in holes on the shore but weren't fast enough. We put them in a plastic bag and ate them, too! It was really fun and I realized that I really needed the break.

After a few days, I made my way back north and am now settled back in Sirigu and getting to know my new neighbor Shauna, who is a Small Enterprise Development pcv who lives just close to me. She is way cool and we are learning how to play the guitar together.

I send my good holiday vibes to everyone, If you see someone I know and like, give them a hug for me. (I hope this will facilitate a lot of hugging, as I know and like a lot of people). Thanks especially to my family in Seattle for all the awesome care packages! I have now amassed a substantial supply of cliff bars, candy and powdered cheese. It's just what I wanted for Christmas!

Also, new random pictures here.

all the best,
Toby

PS. I love you.

Elections and Churches

Greetings Friends,

Things here in Ghana are just fine, thanks for asking. I'm getting into a groove with my teaching schedule, although I still feel I have a lot to learn about Ghanaian culture before I can say that I truely understand the rhythm of life here. I've been here for over 5 months, now. That's the longest period of time I have ever lived outside the US, longer than my study abroad experience in Ecuador. It seems like the time has simply flown by. In reality, I still am only beginning, 5 months out of 27 to go. wow.

I hear that the weather is getting colder in Wisconsin, some snow even? Here it is getting dryer and dryer. The plants are turning brown, trees are starting to lose their leaves. No exciting fall colors here. The harvest is mostly over it seems, and the fields of millet that normally surround everything have been cut down. The stalks get used for cooking fuel. It seems that suddenly a lot of buildings and things have appeared where they weren't before. Really I just couldn't see them. Now I can see for quite a way, and when all the grasses and plants are gone, and all the trees are bare, I will see for miles and miles... The land is mostly flat here, so it really opens up when everything is dead. It's getting dustier. Now, rather than setting, the sun just sinks into the red haze on the horizon. I'm told it will get much worse, and when the Harmaton winds come from the north, there will be dust everywhere. A good thing though, is that they will bring cooler air with them. I'll let you all know how "cold" it actually gets here. Ghanaians tell me it gets really cold, but my descriptions of frozen lakes and snow in the US are amazing to them.



I'm happy with the results of the Presidential election in the US, and Ghana will soon be having its own Presidential election, on December 7th. There is propganda all over the place for the major political parties, the NPP and the NDC. The situation is similar to what the US had: the incumbent president has served for two terms, totalling 8 years, and cannot run again. The two main parties have candidates that have been campaigning all over the country, and one of them will win the election. The challenge here is that Ghana is a very young democracy. There is a real danger of violence if a change of power doesn't go smoothly, or if the elections are not transparent, and foul play is alleged. The radio is constantly playing messages of peace and encouraging people not to cause violence or problems. It is quite different than in the US. We don't really consider the possibility that the Republicans won't give up the White House in January, they will because that's how the system works. Here, the system is young and not as established. The worry is that the incumbent party will not hand over power if they are not reelected. Everyone is pledging to be fair and transparent, including the incumbents, but it will be a real test of the system to see if Ghana can have peacefull elections this year, or if problems will erupt like they have recently in other African countries. The Peace Corps is taking no chances with us volunteers. We will all be together at the All Volunteer Conference during the week of the elections. We will be secure there, and if neccessary, they can wisk us away to safety if a crisis happens. I really hope everything goes well, it would be a shame to have to leave so soon after establishing myself here. I am growing to like this place a lot. All of you at home: don't worry about me. Follow the Ghana elections and hope for the best.

Churches. I'm not a particularly religious person and never really have been. I don't go to church in the States, but here I visit once in a while as part of the cultural experience. Ghana is very strongly christian, and in the north here, the is also a large muslim population. I've been to the large Catholic church in Sirigu a number of times, and the familiarity of the ritual is comforting, even though I'm not Catholic. Most of the service is in Gurune, but they translate some of the sermon for me when I come. Mostly I go because it is an important part of community involvement, and I want to interact with my community. Last Sunday, I went to a smaller church called "Assemblies of God." It was really fun because the first hour was all singing and dancing with drums. I love to dance, so I had a great time. Many of the church members are my students, and it was really neat to see them talking in front of the congregation and leading songs and prayers. Church is much more fun here than I've experienced in the US. It's also a lot longer. 3 hour services are not uncommon. Another cool thing is that when someone is singing or dancing, if you really enjoy the performace, you can go and stick a coin on their forehead. The money goes to the church and it shows how much you appreciate their effort. It also looks funny to see people with coins stuck to their foreheads. I'll continue to visit other churches in my community, and I want to go to a mosque as well. People here are very religious, and I'm learning to go along with that.

I hope everything well with all of you. Thanks to everyone who has sent me mail and packages. I really, really appreciate it.

Love,
-Toby

Seasons

It is starting to get drier here. It hasn't rained in about 3 or 4 weeks, and the locals say that we might get one more good storm before the real dry season happens. Already the grasses and fields of millet are looking brown and some have been cut and harvested. the stalks get used for cooking fuel or animal fodder. When everything is really dry, all the plant life dies and you can see far far far. I'll take some pictures. The change is coming surprisingly fast, and I'm excited about it mostly, except for the whole dryness thing. My nose feels funny in the low humidity, and my heels are dry, but I'm taking care of myself, so I'll be fine. I'm told that the borehole nearest my house dries up in the driest dry season, so that is not so good. I'll survive, I have students do fetch water for me!

I am working with a teacher in Wisconsin and we are doing a pen-pal letter writing project to connect her students to mine in Ghana. I sent the first package of letters from my students today, so they will be arriving in WI in a few weeks, i guess. It will be exciting when we get the responses. My students where happy to write to their "American friends."

I bought a guitar today. I don't know how to play it. Yet. I'm going to teach myself, so if you, my friends and family, have any songs you would like me learn and play for you, let me know. Send me tabs, i guess.

I stepped on a 3 inch scorpion with my bare foot the other night, it was outside my bathroom. Surprisingly, it didn't sting me, just crawled along the wall. My housemate, Robert, was pretty scared of it, and he wanted to kill it, but I wouldn't let him. I examined it for a while and then let it outside. It will be much happier there. It had really cool long claws like tiny hemostats and a big curled barbed tail. cool, cool.

Love to you all,
-Toby

Life goes on

I'm still living in Ghana and I'm still teaching science in the middle of no where. I'm doing well, keeping busy mostly and still adjusting to a culture that is very different my own. I posted a bunch of pictures on facebook here.

A story: One night, i was up late reading or preparing my lessons by candlelight when I heard a big commotion, barking, whining, puppy crying. When it didn't stop right away, I rushed outside to find out what was going on. Kraman Baa sleeps out on the porch and it sounded like she was being attacked or something. I struggled with the door longer than I should have, it was locked, duh. When i finally got outside, I found three of the watchmen from the school standing over the body of a dead dog...(dramatic storytelling, huh?).

The dog wasn't my puppy, she was hiding in the corner crying piteously and appeared to be wet. I comforted my dog and was able to make her stop crying. She was very scared, but fortunately she did not appear to be injured. She had peed on herself, she was so scared. Poor thing! The intruder dog must have come in the night and attacked Kraman Baa and scared her, waking up the watchmen. These guys are just local farmers, but they didn't hesitate. They carry wooden clubs and they literally beat the dog to death in front of my house. When I got there the strange dog was already looking very dead, but the men were giving it the occasional whack in the head just in case. They were very excited, but concerned for Kraman Baa, saying that the strange dog was sick and that she needed to get medicine. I explained with relief that Kraman Baa had gotten her rabies vaccine and everything should be fine.

The watchmen were also excited because it meant that they were going to have a party the next night. They dragged the dead dog away from my door aways, gutted it, and hung it in a tree in my front yard. There it stayed all the next day until the evening when they butchered it and cooked it in a really big pot over charcoal outside. Eating dog here is actually pretty common. People even buy dogs at the market to have a party and eat it. It also didn't seem to bother these guys that they didn't know whose dog it was. I don't know if the dog really had rabies or not, but it didn't matter to them. Kraman Baa seems to be fine, now.

Eating dog, or cat for that matter, sounds strange and horrible to us, but it's only our culture that says there is some difference between a dog and a cow, pig, or chicken. People here don't treat their dogs and cats like we do in the States. Dogs are animals, not part of the family. And it's hard to get too worked up about animal rights or excessive cruelty to animals when there are people here who are so poor they can't always eat. It's just the way things go in Ghana I guess. Life goes on.

Animals?

My mom sent me a picture of a cute little tree frog tucked into a big dahlia flower. I don't see any frogs around here, although I'm sure there are a few. It's just that most places, the ground absorbs the rain very quickly and leaves it dry. There are some marshy areas around with water lilies in them. Mostly I see toads hopping around. I was sitting with the night watchman one night and a toad hopped by. It was a normal sized toad, maybe 2 inches long, and he taught me the name in Frafra. I forget the name, but i remember that it meant toad-child, meaning that the one we saw was a little one. He showed me with his hands how big the big ones get, making a shape the size of a grapefruit. I'll keep my eyes open for one of those. I saw a really big spider 4" and some really big cockroaches 3" in my house, and there are ants all over, some pretty big and fast.

I don't see too many animals here, except farm animals. There is the occasional lizard scurrying around, but considerably fewer than in the southern part of the country. They like to climb trees, and we don't have as many trees here. Mostly I see birds. There are vultures, doves, some kind of crow, a big grackle type bird, and a handful of small multicolored bird species. There are also the occasional larger bird with a big curved bill, some kind of toucan or horn bill, I imagine. I have a bird book, and eventually I'll take the time to look them all up and make a list for you guys. I just haven't had the time for as many leisure activities here.

Doing well, getting by.
-Toby

Ghana quirks and a new Address

Thanks to all who continue to keep me informed of the outside world and send me positive energies and encouragement. As for mail, thanks to all who have sent me mail, although I haven't received it yet. I have joined some other PCV's in the area in using a post office box in Bolga, where I'll be able to check it more often, and hopefully, mail will be delivered faster. If you send something to the Peace Corps address, it will still get to me, it will just take some time. The below address is fine to send letters and packages. Thanks!!

Toby Koy
PO Box 743
Bolgatanga, UER
Ghana, West Africa

I'll let you know when and if I get something, that way you'll know it got to me.

I've been doing pretty good, here. The first week of classes at my school has just ended, but there is still plenty of organizing to do, and it will take some time for me to get the flow of the place. I'll address the topic of school at a later time.

The money in Ghana is called the Cedi, pronounced like "CD." Just last year the money was revalued, to stabilize the economy I suppose, and now there are two ways to talk about money: The old cedi and the new Ghana Cedi. The new GH Cedi is about equal to the dollar, and 1 GHC is equal to 10,000 old cedis. They have all new money, nice color coded bills and shiny coins, but half the time, people still refer to prices using the old numbers. In the market, the woman tells me that the heads of garlic are 3,000 each. She means 30 pesewas (or 30 cents). Since I buy a lot of things that are less than a GH Cedi, I often convert back and forth, and I usually don't get confused, many people do, it's new for everyone. People say "tousand" which means 10 pesewas/cents. It pays to have an idea of the approximate cost of something, so if the vender says "3" you will be able to guess if he/she means 3,000 (30 pesewas) or GHC 3.00.

Here are some common costs of things I buy: pure water satchet 500ml: 500 cedi (5 pesewas), freshtaste-like a fruity freezepop: 5 pesewas, corn roasted over coals by street vender: 20 pesewas (the corn isn't the sweet corn like in the states, but It's still pretty good), FanYogo-strawberry yogurt frozen treat: 40 pesewas, bag of ground-nut paste(peanut butter) 1/2 cup: 50 pesewas, dry local rice about 500 ml: 80 pesewas, big loaf of sweet bread: 1 GH Cedi, pint jar of fruit jam: GHC 2.50. A lot of food is not very expensive here, just the imported foods like the jam are more costly. Local produce and things made here(like the ground-nut paste) are pretty cheap.

In the market, and at food stands, you often buy food by cost, rather than volume. For instance, you wouldn't say, "Give me 3 tomatoes," you would say, "Give me tomatoes 2,000". Vendors will arrange there things in little piles, and then tell you the cost of each pile. Often they will have two or three sizes. With bulk things like rice or flour, they have different cups or cans and a price for each. When you buy food at a market, they will often put it in a bag for you, no matter what it is. They even put oil, honey, or kerosine in a plastic bag if you buy it. The plastic bag really is the only container that is used here.

People sell lots of stuff off their heads. Carrying things on your head here is standard, so it's not uncommon to see someone with a huge bowl of some product on their head. Sometimes it's a box with clear sides so you can see the food, or a bucket with a lid. It is impressive that people are able to balance heavy things so well, and the women (especially) all have good posture because they often carry heavy things on their heads.

As for me, I cook most of my own food now. I'm happy with that, even though ingredients are limited. I can always find garlic, onions, tomatoes and okra. Also dried hot peppers and a few spices. I mostly eat rice, pasta or bread with a veggie stew. The other common starch is yams and cocoyams. I cook them like potatoes, and it work out fine. I like to cook and I'm not picky, so I'll survive.

I'm tired of writing, so I'll just give you some more pictures. If you have topics you want me to cover about life in Ghana, or you have questions, feel free to comment, or email me. I can be sort of scatterbrained sometimes, and I don't know how well I'm doing at giving an accurate picture of what it's like here.

To all my friends and family: I miss you.

Love,
Toby

photos

I've added a few more photos at the end of this album on facebook.

There are some of my house and kids, and the swearing-in ceremony. I'm doing well, getting ready for classes to start. I'll ramble more later, I've been on the computer for a while now...


love,
Toby

Send me a care package!

If you miss me, then you'll want to send me a care package! Just kidding, only send me stuff if you want to. Feel free to send letters or anything as well, but don't spend too much on postage, I hear the flat rate boxes are the best deal. If you want to send me snacks, send stuff that can survive rough handling and temperature changes, and put stuff in ziplock bags. swedish fish, dried fruit, cliff bars, powdered cheese, and cookies are some of the things I crave. Send packages to the PC office, and they should find their way to me eventually. Thanks in advance!

love, Toby

Toby Koy c/o
Peace Corps Ghana
PO Box 5796
Accra North, Ghana
West Africa

PCV at last

Well, training is finally over and I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! There was a big ceremony in which our trainers presented me with a certificate and we took the oath of service. It was a pretty big deal and I felt pretty good. My host family, my father, mother, and brother Michael and sister Nancy came to see me. My family had a great outfit made for me that matched with Michael's and we both wore them at the ceremony. They also gave me an outfit in the northern style. I thanked them and said goodbye, then moved out. It was sad to leave after 2 months of living with them, but I was also excited to finally get to my site and make a place for myself that is truly my own.

I took my time traveling to site, spending a night in Kumasi and then Tamale, at the Sub-offices there. Traveling with the puppy wasn't so bad. On the busses, she stayed in her basket on my lap and mostly slept. She did well on the leash, too. She isn't house trained, and I had to clean up after her on a few occasions, but overall, it was not as difficult as I anticipated traveling 15 hrs with a 2 month old puppy. I was also lucky that there were people traveling the same way who helped me look after her.

The past week I've been getting to know the people in my community and working on my room and house. I've spent the most time in the kitchen, I miss the Phoenix kitchen, and I've been equipping myself as much as I can to be able to cook whatever I want. I worked with the local carpenter to make a free-standing shelf unit to store my food, pots, pans, and dishes, and I brought in a table to work on. I have a counter with a good sink and a 3-burner propane stove, but no running water or electricity. It means that I need to start cooking supper around 5 pm if I want to see what I'm doing, since the sun sets around 6:30pm. I have a kerosene lamp and torches(flashlights) to fill in the gaps, and I take bucket baths in the dark.

I've grown to like bathing (pronounce bath-ing) this way: take a bucket of water and pour some on your head from a smaller cup. Wash with soap all over, no need for shampoo, and then pour the rest of the water on yourself to rinse. The best part is when you've finished and there is still some water in the bucket, you raise the bucket and dump it on your head. Refreshing! And economical, since I usually have to fetch my own water from a borehole nearby my house. When It rains, I collect all I can off the roof, and I want to add gutters to my house to catch more. Just another project.

Eventually, when I have everything arraigned, I'll go around and take pictures of my house to make a "virtual tour" for you all. It might take a while, because my camera batteries are currently dead. I can charge them and other electrical things at a friend's house. I've got a few weeks until the students arrive and classes at my school begin, and then I'll actually have to teach high school! Until then, I've got plenty to do, organizing my new life. I miss the familiarity of things at home, and mostly, the people. I hope you are all doing well. Email me and tell me what's new in your life. Remember, I'm sort of cut off, so even mundane things are exciting to me.

I'll try to update about weekly, although anything change here. I'm on Ghana time. Know that I am doing well, and thinking of you, my friends and family, often.

Love, Toby

Gurune

Training is almost over, I am spending most of our time now studying language or just hanging out. I'm not worried about the language assessment tomorrow, I've been working with my trainer, Mark, for the past two months, and I think I have a pretty good basic understanding of Gurune. I can do greetings and personal introductions. I can ask and answer questions about location, directions, food, health, family, and time, somewhat. I even know a children's song. The tune is close to friere jacques.

in Gurune (Frafra):
N soh la n mma, (x2)
Ya gihire me? (x2)
Duusid la daane mam. (x2)
Vii, Voo, Vii (x2)

in English:
Father and Mother,
Are you sleeping?
Mosquitos are bothering me.
Vii, Voo, Vii (the sound of mosquitos)

It's fitting to the culture and the environment, and I think I'll sing it for the swearing in ceremony we have coming up to show everyone how much I've learned. You can all sing it too, and teach it to your children and your students! I'm specifically thinking of my friends and family members who work at day cares. Incedentally, mosquitos are not bothering me. I take my malaria prophylaxis medicine every week and sleep under a treated net, so don't worry!

Love,
Toby

Sirigu: first impressions

My site is so nice! I spent the last few days getting to know the place I will live and work for the next two years. The community of Sirigu is very small and the area it's in is very rural. The countryside is pretty open, it's savanna in the north, but not like in the Lion King. There are trees here and there, a variety of shrubs and grasses, and lots of grazing animals. The land is flat, and the hills in the distance are Burkina Faso, or so I'm told. The people here are almost all subsistence farmers, growing millet, soy, and other crops. Many still live in very traditional mud compound-houses with geometric designs painted on them with natural red, black and white dyes. Photos to come. There are animals everywhere: chickens, guinea hens, pigs, goats, sheep, cows, donkeys, horse(I only saw one), dogs and cats.

The village itself has maybe a few hundred people living in it, and there are some small shops and a market every 3 days. It is on a rough dirt road that connects it to other small villages in the area, and to larger towns nearby. There is also a stream that runs past the village and the road crosses it on the way into/out of town. There is an uncompleted bridge over the stream, so you actually have to drive through the water. It's not too big of a deal when it hasn't rained in a few days-the stream may only be a few feet wide, but right after a rain the stream gets big-up to 15-20 feet across. It can be a problem, because when it rains here, it rains a lot all at once. The water runs off fast, and the ground absorbs it so it only takes a day or so to dry out. There aren't too many cars around, taxis only really come through one at a time. Here in the north, everyone has a motorcycle or a bicycle. I'm excited to get a bike and start riding.

The house I'll be living in is just near the school. Sirigu Senior High School is outside of the village, a 10 minute walk cross country, but there are paths. The building is a nice finished bungalow that I share with another teacher and the headmaster part-time. I have my own room and bathroom, and share the living room and kitchen, although I don't think the other guys cook much. I'm excited about setting up my own kitchen and cooking for myself. At the site, I'm replacing another volunteer who just left after two years of teaching there. Jason left me some good stuff, too: a bookshelf full of books, a nice bike with a bent rear axle(I'll get it fixed...), a stove, plenty of pots, pans, plates, and silverware, and other random items, including a small solar panel set-up. The latter could be useful, because there is currently no electricity to the building. It is wired and there are ceiling fans and light fixtures there, so if they ever actually connect us, we'll be fine. They say it will happen in the next two months, but I get the feeling that they have been saying that for a while.

Everyone I've met has been very nice and helpful, especially my counterpart, Bismark. He showed me around town, introduced me to the chief, and other important community members, and welcomed me into his home. I ate most of my meals with him, and got to know his wife and two young daughters. Photos to come.

I've got two more weeks of training and then I will finally get to move up to Sirigu permanently. It will be a lot of work, but I'm excited to make the place my home, and become a part of the community. I'll keep working on language, because almost no one there speaks english.

Love,
Toby

Puppy and Site Visit

My host family gave me a puppy! The puppy was just hanging around the house and no one was taking care of it, so I started to. I think it will be alright, and there are other people to help me take care of her at homestay, and I think I can work it out at site. The other thing is that she doesn't need as much care as you'd expect. This is Ghana after all, and people here don't treat their animals the same. During the day, she mostly sleeps or entertains herself, playing with whatever or whoever is around. I feed her when I eat, and she eats what I eat. She sleeps outside under a bench or on a piece of cloth or plastic or nothing. I think because she was taken away from the mother at such a young age, she has learned to survive by herself earlier than is usual for an American dog.

I wasn't neccessarily planning on getting a dog here, but I knew that it was a possibility. I'll worry about what do to with the dog at the end of my service when it comes. For now I am excited and hesitant. I know I have seen the best dog trainer at work, my dad, but I still worry that I won't have enough time or won't do a good job training her of raising her. I guess that's a parent/pet owner thing to feel. anyway, I call her Akramine-baa, which means little dog in twi. I'll give her more names as we go. She's really small- i'd guess about 6 weeks old now, but I don't know. She is very independent, and sleeps outside and takes care of her self most of the time. I feed her and play with her when I can, and she mostly tries to play-fight with my hand. Also, she has fleas like crazy. I gave her a bath, but I can't compete with them. There are very limited veteranary services here, people don't really keep animals as pets, just as farm animals, even dogs and cats. I'm asking my parents to send some frontline dog stuff to me.

Right now i'm in the Kumasi Sub Office. It's a really nice spot where PCV's can rest and regroup, or hang out. It's just a rest stop while I travel to Sirigu for my site visit. It will be the first time that I'll get to really see what my site will be like. I'll get to visit my school, see the house I'll be living in, and what good stuff the previous volunteer, Jason, left for me. I'll get to find out about my community, talk to the people in Gurune, and get a look at the land. The North is totally different than the South, they say. I already met the Headmaster of my school, James, and another teacher there who will be my contact person, Bismark. They are both very nice and laid back. We had a 2 day workshop where we got to know one another and talked about what it would be like at site. Now Bismark and I are traveling back up to Sirigu, and I'll spend about 5 days there before I have to go back for the last two weeks of training in Kukurantumi.

Tomorrow, we are meeting at 5am to try to get the early bus to Bolgatanga. There will be a line, and the bus will leave around 6, as soon as it's full. If we miss it, we'll have to take the second bus, but it could leave anywhere from 7 to 10, depending on when it fills. The ride is around 9 hours, so we want as early a start as possible. We are taking a bigger bus, not a trotro, so it will be more comfortable, and I'll get some reading (and hopefully some sleeping) done.

I'll let you know all about my site very soon.

love,
Toby

More Pictures

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2410397&l=94d79&id=8603855

pics of:

football match
cocoa plantation
chief of Tafo
bead market
PUPPY!

I'll write more soon.
love,
Toby

Ohum Festival and Ultimate Frisbee

In the community where I have been staying, Old Tafo, the festival of Ohum is going on. It has to do with the harvest of yams and cassava. After the festival, people here will begin harvesting new yams for the next season. The idea is that up until that time, they have been eating yams from last year. The opening of the festival was marked by a small ceremony where the elders of the town made a procession through the center of town, and presented some gifts to an alter. Then some men brought a large palm bough that had been pulled from a special tree, not cut. The elders all pulled some of the leaves off the bough, and they took them with them back to the chief's palace. One of the trainees stays in the chief's palace, and he got to take part in the ceremony, too.

Because of the ceremony, the last two weeks there has been a law that says that people can not make excessive noise at night. This does not mean that it has been quiet. People cannot pound fufu, play radios loud, wail, or bang drums after dark. They still sing, chant, slam doors, and watch tv, and babies still cry. Ghana is not a quiet place. The "quiet time" will end this week, and then everyone will celebrate by making lots of noise. There will be ceremonies and music and dancing, and a football match with teams from Accra. Exciting!

A group of the trainees and I have been getting together every sunday afternoon and playing ultimate frisbee in a field near my house. Some have played before, but some are learning the game. The Ghanaians had never played, and most of them seemed to not really know how a frisbee worked, when we first started. Now, there are some who play with us regularly, and are getting very good. My host brother Michael, who is about 6'6" and very athletic, is amazing. He can run, jump, and catch anything. He is learning to read the disk well and throw like a pro. Want to get him to a US college to play some sport. He would do great. The little kids also like to throw the frisbee. I have taught them to stand in a circle and throw to one another. Some are pretty good, a few can even do a forehand pass. I teach them to catch by acting like my arms are a crocodile.

I am well, and Ghana is amazing everyday. It seems like it takes me more effort just to get throught the day here, but it is definately worth it, and the people I am working with are good people. I have one more month of PST, then I will go to my site in Sirigu and the real adventure will begin.

love,
-Toby

Photos

Here are some photos from PST so far.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2410397&l=94d79&id=8603855

Some interesting cultural differences that I've noticed:

Greetings. You greet everyone as you pass them, to be polite. You say "good afternoon, how are you? i am fine, and how are you? i am fine also." You do it all the time, and you always greet elders and peers. If you don't greet, or someone doesn't greet you, it could be taken as a sign of disrespect. Consequently, it takes a long time to get anywhere walking if you have to stop to talk to so many people.

Left hand. The left hand is asociated with uncleanliness and disrespect, so you never wave it at someone, or offer or accept something with your left hand. If you need to exchange something, you do it right hand only. This takes some practice when buying things or paying the mate of a tro. If you are eating with people, which you normally don't do, you should only reach into a communal bowl with your right hand, and you should only eat with your right hand. I practise this, I try to usually carry my stuff in my left hand, so it is unavailable to unintentionally insult someone. Most people wouldn't be insulted if you left-hand-waved at them, they would just think you were a foreigner and didn't know better.

Everyone asks me where I am going. Ghanaians are very friendly, and they all want to talk to me. They are very curious about me and have many misconceptions about the US. We are all rich, and are all there to give them money. They want to know where I'm going, partyly because they are curious, and also because they want to help me get there. There is a saying that if you can talk, you can never be lost. The people almost all speak some english, some speak well. Some want to teach me twi, the local language. If I say something in english, they correct me with the twi, and won't leave me alone until I repeat the phrase and act like I understand. Even though I am learning Gurune, they want to teach me twi.

There are children everywhere. I heard the statistic that half of the population is 15 and under, and I believe it. There are schools everywhere, and kids in uniforms are so common running up and down the streets, across the fields. I walk past two primary schools and a Junior secondary school (JSS) when I go places, and they almost always shout at me and call to me. I have trained many of them to calle me Bra Kwame (Bra=brother Kwame=Saturday-born) instead of Obruni, but sometimes they call me by the name of one of the other Americans in town. I have a group of kids that I hang out with often who live by my house. One little boy is named Doctor, he's about 6 years old. Another girl is named Kevin, she's about 7. The little girls love to dance, and we have dance parties sometimes. I played Hey Ya for them and showed them how to "shake it like a polaroid picture." They are good dancers, and sometimes their dances are very adult, almost inappropriate, but it's mostly just funny.

My host family has 5 kids. Mavis is 23, but she attends the university in Accra, so I don't see her much (Accra is 2-2.5 hrs away). Michael is 18 and in his final year of SS. He is about 6'6" and very nice. He plays Ultimate frisbee with us and can catch anything. Lydia is 15, she's also in SS. Princilla is 9 and Nancy is 7. The girls often bring me my meals and play with me. They show me around and explain things to me when adults say things I don't understand. They all speak english well, but nancy is shy. I help them with their homework sometimes, and we even drew with colored pencils one time. My host father is the Headmaster of a small primary school in town where the younger girls go to school. My mother sells meats out of part of her family house. They are taking good care of me.

Mail is pretty reliable here. I can send a letter for pretty cheap too. If you want me to write you, let me know. Write me a letter at the PC address (below).

That's all for now. I've been in this internet cafe for way too long, and I'm getting hungry.

love,
Toby

Practicum

They keep us pretty busy, and the last time i tried to post, it didn't work so well. I just finished two weeks of practicum teaching at a Senior Secondary School (SS) in Koforidua called GHANASS. The school happens to be one of the best in Ghana, and it is really nice. It is not really like a high school in the US, at all. It is a boarding school, there are three grades (form 1,2,and 3) the students wear uniforms and, for the most part, are very well behaved. If they aren't they can be caned. They are fed at the school, and there are dorms on the campus, but the dorms are locked during the day, so the students don't really have much freedom, they have to go to class. They certainly can't leave the closed campus without special permission. It took some getting used to, but I understand the Ghanaian school system better now because of my time there.

I will teach integrated sciences at my site, so i practiced teaching chemistry, physics and biology. My class was form 1s, so they were pretty young, but very smart. I'm told that most schools in Ghana are not as nice and the students are not as good. Even at such a good school, there was a significant lack of basic materials. there were few extra pens, paper etc. The students were nice, but they started acting up because they thought I was soft. I was not as authoritarian as the teachers they were used to. I still need more practice before I feel like I'm ready to lead my own class, but I'm getting there.

Pre Service Training Begins!

I arrived safely in Accra after around 25 hours of travel from Philadelphia. We had a layover in Amsterdam, but we couldn't leave the airport, so no one got into any trouble. I have been very busy with training and getting adjusted here, so I'll just summarize what has happened so far:

Accra Phase
Our trainee group (33 of us) arrived in Accra on June 10. We went straight to a private university campus outside of the city called Valley View. There, we did some basic orientation and met many of the staff members who have been working with us to make this program work. We visited the Peace Corps Office in Accra, and met more staff, including the Country Director, Bob Golledge. Everyone was very welcoming and helpful. "Akwaaba" is Welcome in Twi (pronounced like "chewy, but one syllable). We also visited the Medical office, got some more vaccinations and got our malaria medication. I get to skip most of the shots because I already had them for when I lived in Ecuador. Most people are getting around 13 different shots, spread over the course of Pre Service Training (PST). During Accra Phase, we also got a chance to explore the city in small groups. We learned to use the transportation, the tro-tro and visited some important parts of the city. Mostly, we just got a chance to get out there and see what is is like. Ghanaians are very friendly people, and especially in Accra, almost everyone speaks some english. Many speak very well, although there is a certain accent that we call "ghanaian english" that takes some getting used to.

Vision Quest
I traveled from Accra by myself to the site of anther volunteer and stayed with him for 4 days. It was a very cool experience and I got to see what it is really like for Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) in the field. My host's name was Matt, and he taught math at a small secondary school and stayed in a tiny village in the Brong-Ahafo Region near Nkoranza. I got to watch some of his coworkers at the school teach and talk to the students about their school. So many things are so different than in the United states. I'll have to devote a separate post to that topic. Vision Quest made me excited about having my own site and got me thinking about how I would like to set up my house, and how I would interact with my community members and coworkers.

PST
I traveled from Matt's site with another Peace Corps Trainee(PCT) to our training site in Kukurantumi, a small town near Koforidua in the Eastern Region of Ghana. I arrived on June 18th, my 25th birthday! I got a pineapple for a present from one of the other PCTs. After a few more days of training and meetings and interviews, we were placed in homestay families in some of the surrounding communities. My family name is Yeboah and everyone here calls me Kwame, which means Saturday-born. It is common practice for Ghanaians to have a day-name as well as another christian name (the country is predominantly christian). I'm staying in Old Tafo. I have electricity (one outlet) and a nice pit toilet all to myself.

After three months of training, including 2 weeks of practicum teaching that begins tomorrow, I will go to my site in the Upper East Region. The village is called Sirigu, and the nearest larger town is Navrongo. I'll be replacing another volunteer who is teaching there now. I will teach integrated science, which is a combination of biology, chemistry and physics. It will be at a Secondary School, roughly equivalent to a high school in the US, but the students must apply to it after completing junior ss.

I got a cell phone here and there is pretty good reception most places I am now. Check facebook or email me if you want the number. It is free for me to receive calls and texts, but it might cost you a lot call or send 'em. I'm making fast friends with the people in my training group, but today there was a mail call and I didn't get any. I realize that this is because I haven't posted my address. You should send mail to the PC office at this address:

Toby Koy c/o
Peace Corps Ghana
PO Box 5796
Accra North, Ghana
West Africa

It seems to take as little as a week or two for letters to arrive, although one package that was recieved took over a month (he sent it before he left). The flat rate boxes are a better deal, I'm told.

That's all for now, sorry that there aren't more details. I'll write more later.

Love, Toby

Staging in Philadelphia

The last two days have been very intense. On Saturday morning, I said good bye to my parents and flew from Madison to Milwaukee, and then to Philadelphia to my Staging Event, a three day pre-training training before I leave for Ghana. It was sad to say good bye to all my friends and family, although I was getting tired of doing it over and over. Thanks to all who wished me well and encouraged me. I am so excited and scared to be doing this amazing thing!

On the Plane to Philly, I chatted with the woman sitting next to me about what I was doing, and the guy in the seat behind me heard and introduced himself. He was also going to the same staging event to become a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in Ghana. His name is Anthony and he also went to school at UW and was roommates with some guys that I went to high school with. Interesting coincidence! We got to Philly, (the plane was only delayed a little), and found other people carrying big bags and and wandering around like us. There were lots of other to-be PCVs and we took a shuttle bus together to the very fancy Holiday Inn hotel in the Historic District of Philadelphia. There, I checked in and gathered my paperwork for registration and training. More and more people gathered in the lobby and lounge areas of the hotel, and we all introduced ourselves to one another excitedly. I realized that there were a lot of people in our training group, and that we were all going to Ghana to become teachers.

Our group consists of 35 people, a few more guys than girls, two couples, mostly mid-twenties but a handful of older people, including 5 people over 50. They are from all over the country and four of us are from WI. There are only a few people of color in our group. These people will become my new best friends (I hope) and we will be a support network for one another for the next 10 weeks of intensive training in Ghana. The Staff who ran the staging did an awesome job. We had trainings and activities all day yesterday, about PC policies, expectations, cultural adjustment, and logistics. They answered all of our questions and made us feel unified as a group and excited about Ghana! I have really only begun to get to know these new friends, but already I am very excited. A lot of them are teaching science, like me, but others are teaching math, visual art, or information communication technology (computer stuff). We have the chance to go out to lunch and dinner together and we also went out to some cool local bars and had a pool party at the hotel. PC gave us each $180 to spend on food, accidentals, and reimbursement for transport and airport fees. I spent a good portion of it on alcohol and sushi. It feels really good to not have to worry about money, and know that I will have enough to live and get what I need while I am serving in Ghana. I filled out my loan deferment forms and the only thing I have yet to do is get a new watch battery(or a new watch).

Tomorrow, we go to the Clinic to get malaria medicine and a yellow fever shot, then we check out and ride a bus to New Jersey in order to fly out of Newark Airport. We fly to Amsterdam first, and have a 3 hour layover there. Unfortunately, our trainers insisted that we did not have enough time to leave the airport. From Amsterdam, we fly to Accra, (accent on the second sylable) the capital of Ghana. It will be almost a full day of only travel. I'm not really looking forward to the flights, except that I'll get to spend a lot of time with some of my groupmates. When I get to Ghana, the real work begins. I'll be busy with language, cultural, and technical training. Don't worry if you don't hear from me in a while because this this stuff, no news is good news. I'd love to get comments or emails from you all, and I'll answer all your questions about how amazing this all is.

love,
Toby

I'm going to use this online journal to recount my adventures in the future. I like that better than sending out the occasional mass email. If you really want to know how I'm doing, just look here.

Soon, I will be beginning Peace Corps service. I will leave Madison on June 7 and go to Philadelphia for 3 days for training before flying to Ghana, West Africa. I will train for 3 months near Accra, the capitol of Ghana, and I will be learning at least 2 local languages, as well as going through cultural training and learning how to do my job: teaching science at the secondary level. After my training, I will be placed at a site in a small community in Ghana. I will be the only Peace Corps volunteer in the community and likely the only American in the area. I will teach at a school and have a simple living situation that may or may not include electricity or running water. I will probably only have internet access once in a while. I will teach in Ghana for two years. After that, who knows?