Wet season Photos

I put some more pics on facebook. the link is here.
enjoy
-Toby

Happy Boxing Day!

I don't actually know what Boxing Day is, or how to celebrate it normally. The guards at the office reminded me that it was a holiday today too. Happy Christmas to all yall who celebrate it. Happy Chanukah for all of you as well. Other holidays, the same. Yesterday I celebrated with friends and pcvs in Tamale, ate chinese food and candy, watched movies: most of Elf, and Love, Actually. Good stuff. Santa even came and left some beef jerky in my stocking.

The real celebration is tonight and after. My mother, father, and brother are arriving at Accra Kotoko airport anmd I will be there to meet them. I am very very excited to see my family!! It has been over a year and a half since I left and came here to Ghana and I miss them so much. We are going to travel around Ghana and have a great time. I want to show them everything and everyone that I know here and that is important to me. I just hope that all the logistics aren't too exhausting and frustrating. I'm sure i can make it work.

Enjoy yourself and those around you. give yourself a hug and kiss for me.

love,
-Toby

It's dry here now.

So, it's really dry here now. Like absolutely dry. Like Arizona dry. Not that I actually know anything about Arizona. Anyway, all the plants are dying except the trees that must have deep root systems because they stay green. The thorn trees (pronounced 'torn') actually put out their leaves during the dry season. All the water drys up, the stream becomes a sandy shallow ravine. Everyone finishes their farming and starts on dry season activities if they have any, if not, it's time to sit around and drink pito.

The aridity causes some problems for me personally although i like it overall. My heels do their best to split into little pieces, but i have plenty of moisturizer. My nose gets dry and irritated so i pick it in public, but that's not a problem here, it's the norm. It also gets really dusty and the soil is rocky and clay-y so the dust is Africa Red. After a long car ride on a dusty back road, everyone looks a little reddish. Smart people wear jackets and scarves to keep off the dust, I just wash my neck when I arrive. Also, when you finish a long ride it is quite satisfying to blow your nose and see all the dust that did not get into your lungs.

It's also been getting considerably cooler. I wrote the word "colder" but replaced it while thinking of you all buried in multiple feets of snow, I'm jealous. The temperature during the day still gets hot, but it takes longer to warm up, and the mornings are cool enough to want a longsleeve or even a light coat. My students take every opportunity to wear something over their uniforms to keep out the cold, but these days it's legit. But not at 2 pm. It is a stylish windbreaker, though.

The cat gave birth again! She is so fertile. This time, Evander popped out two little ones, an orange stripey and a gray stripey one. Good thing too, because she was way fat and annoying. This is number 3 and 4 since i've been here. Seems she gets pregnant every 6 months, it means i've been here for a year and a half. Mama cat is my buddy, but her other kids are wild and scardy and don't let us touch them except fleetingly. It's because she hid them as babies and i didn't get to play with them. That might happen to these new ones, too. Evander gave birth in the little enclosure where the hens keep their new chicks, so the chickens, (also very fertile) are out. I'm sure mama cat will move her brood to a more secure location, like the garage.

I have some photos i wanted to post, but i forgot my pen drive at home, so next time. It's still all virusy, so i'll do my best. I'll take it to my friend at the internet cafe, but that sometimes results in a clean and empty pen drive so i'll upload the pics first.

My Mom, Dad, and Brother are coming to visit me here in Ghana. It is going to be so awesome. I haven't seen them in that long time. oh man wow.

Lots a Love,
-Toby

Novemberness

Around here it's the end of the wet season, the harvest is finishing, and people are eating well. It's the season of change, suddenly i can see 10 times as far because everyone cut down their millet. The grass is starting to get brown because it hasn't rained in a few weeks. Pretty soon it will officially be dry season. Then, no insects, no clouds, no work for most people and no water. Dry season is relaxing time unless you are a child, woman, or salaried worker (or a volunteer worker). It's the holiday season in the states, eh? We are getting together at the Tamale Sub Office for Thanksgiving and that should be fun, but otherwise, I'm focusing on teaching. I'm still teaching Science and ICT. Typing practice in the classroom and computer practicals in the afternoons in small groups since we have only 5 computers and thy are set up at the nearby catholic mission since we don't have electricity at our school. It works out, and the kids sure are excited about their computer time. So far, we have learned how to turn on the computer, use the mouse, click, double click, open and close windows, minimize and maximize windows, resize and move windows, and use microsoft paint. Paint is one of my favorite programs, and the kids are pretty excited when they realize they can draw on a computer. Mostly, though, they ask me how to erase. not sure why. The pen pal project with East Junior High in Wisconsin Rapids is going on again, too. My kids are going to write response letters to their american penpals. They love it.

Take care, love to all.
-Toby

Halloween at the Dance Club

It's one of my favorite holidays, no religious overtone or expectation to travel or do any specific thing except have fun. Ghanaians don't know about Halloween, which is unfortunate. The do get the concept of trick or treating, but they do it for Christmas when you are walking down the street. Anyway, i'm trying to help them learn.

I explain to friends that Halloween is an important American holiday where people dress up in costumes, go to parties and get drunk! It is also a time for playing jokes on your friends and also people you don't know, but i've never been that into that aspect. While all of you back home do it up big time, think of me as you roam State St. in the midnight glow of giant spot lights and greet the herds of riot gear-clad soldiers for me. But hold your breath when the tear gas hits.

Last night i went with some other volunteers to the opening night of Bolga's hottest dance club, Celebrity. My friend Kimo, who djs the AIDS radio show with me, also manages the club, so we got a discount, but others were paying more than I make in a day to get in. It was totally a fancy night club, like from anywhere. Lots of very skimpily clad ladies and fancied up dudes were getting down and drinking expensive small beers. The Music was really loud and the lights flashed and smoke machine periodically made way too much smoke. With all the air conditioners it was still a little stuffy. Over all fun, but i wish more of my dancing buddies were there (good times at IQ night). Ghanaians love to dance, and there was plenty of bumping, grinding and general booty dancing by men and women. There's no problem dancing with people you don't know, and i grinded on and was grinded on by some men and women. i think i was the only white guy there, but there were an assortment of white ladies around. I tried to explain to one very enthusiastic dancer that white ladies don't usually like being grabbed without permission. He thanked me for the advice.

The club is fun, but i can't do it that often. It's exhausting and expensive. Tonight there is a party at one of the new VSOs houses. It's a "fancy dress party" so I'm gonna get dressed up all fancy. You'll see pictures. Enjoy the all that don't be too bad. send me your pictures and love. greet old friends.

Love,
-Toby

more facebook photos

it's been a while,

here on facebook, more photos from a while ago.

-Toby

Mouse wars

So i've been having this little war with some mice in my room. I'm a lover of all animals, but i condone their killing for certain purposes (to eat for example) and I have a hierarchy of tolerance for certain animals that are often called pests. Mostly i just deal with insects in the house, though. it goes like this:

welcomed: i encourage their presence and protect them when i can. ex: spiders, cats
tolerated: I don't mind them if they don't cause a problem. i like to study them. ex: ants, dust bunnies, beetles that get into the flour
discouraged: i don't go out of my way to kill them, but i don't want them in the house. ex: crickets, scorpions, moths, little bugs that fly into lights
kill on sight: i am prejudiced against them and expect them to do harm and no good. ex: mosquitos, flys, cockroaches

Usually I would put the mice in the "discouraged" category, my fellow mammals, i want to give them the benefit of the doubt, but i don't want to share my food with them. and they like to chew stuff up. A while ago, I started hearing chewing noises behind my dresser late at night. I figured a mouse must have take up residence, but she wasn't bothering my food staches so i didn't do much about it. It got more annoying when the noises came more often. When you're lying in bed miserabley hot and sweaty, tiny scratching and chewing sounds get annoying fast. I did some investigations and found that mice had chewed a hole in the wood in the back of the wooden closet cabinet thing i have, and they had chewed up some plastic bags and foam stuff i had stuffed back in the corner. it was time to take action. The cat that lives at my house, Evander, doesn't come inside so often, so i couldn't really blame her for not taking care of it.

I asked around in the market and got some mouse/rat poison stuff. The kid that sold it to me said i should mix it with food and leave it for the mouse, but not to put the dead mouse outside afterward or the other animals will eat it and die, and then i'll die when i eat them. check. I cleaned out around and behind the cabinet and a little grey mouse escaped out from under, so i prepped some treats for his return. The stuff was chemically smelling but looked like dried fish, i mushed it on some bread and stuck it under there.

I was a little concerned about the unpleasant smell of a decaying mouse, so i kept checking to see if it worked, but nothing. maybe he left and didn't come back? that would be good, but no. I left for the conferences and such in Southern Ghana, and when I came back it was obvious that the mouses were still around. Someone had chewed on my candles and even dragged one behind the cabinet. droppings and chewed plastic confirmed the new residents where rodentia. Seems the poison didn't work so well. They had eaten it all and expanded their domain to on top and the side of the cabinet too. I found their reason for all the work when i pulled the bags and stuff out again. The urge to reproduce is so strong, nestled in one of my chewed unwanted backpacks, were four tiny blind mouselets. They were about an inch long each, just growing a bit of black fur, but they squirmed around and huddled together when i exposed them.

My dilemma was this: I don't want them here, they can't survive anywhere else, seems a bit cruel to kill helpless creatures like that, but i also didn't want them to suffer undully. Also, they shouldn't go to waste. I thought about just tossing them outside, but then they would starve/freeze to death. I thought about stomping them, but that would be a little extreme, and not appealing to me. (it would also make a mess to clean up). I decided on a course of action that would lead to the mousies quick demise and anothers benefit. I put them, squirming, in my cats food dish on the porch. Once she found them, Evander was pleased, and so were her children, wild kitties that also live around the house. I do think she was a little insulted at the percieved insult that she couldn't catch her own food. I don't think the babies suffered much.

The next day it was time to clean out the nest for real. I have to empty out the cabinet everytime i want to tip it and get underneath, so it's a chore. when i did, two fat mice ran out and out of the room. I pursued and Evander was there to intercept one. Way to go kitty! She had no problem with a fiesty live prey animal. The other (daddy) mouse escaped for the time being. I thought he was gone, i cleaned up the place good with bleach and all. I didn't expect him back, but then one night i heard the chewing scratching again, so i went back to work.

I tipped the cabinet again, but no mouse came out. I didn't see him, so i tipped it back down. Then I noticed a tail sticking out from under the corner of the cabinet. I poked it and it wriggled around and went under the cabinet, but when i poked under there, i could feel something alive and wiggling. I put a little more weight on the cabinet and there was a little crunch, the tail stopped wiggling. I tipped the thing up again and was able to fish the ill-fated creature out from under the cabinet finally. The tail was a big tail, connected to a big mouse, and his head was squished. I had caught him under the edge of the cabinet when i moved it, and that was the end. I put him in the cat's dish and called them in. This time Evander acted like she had killed the mouse herself, all protecting her catch and growling.

A rather longwinded account of my mundane, if not mildly gruesome adventures. I found it amusing enough.

I also found a baby sheep in a street gutter and lifted it out to be reunited with it's mother. That story is a little more uplifting. as you wish.

love,
-Toby

Still here

The other day i ate mac and cheese and spam with a titanium spork. It was awesome.

love,
Toby

Travel

Like I promised some time ago.

I've been traveling around a lot lately, briefly: I went to PEPFAR IST with Robert. It was in Kumasi, but not a the KSO, at a fancy hotel with a pool. The only APCD there was John, Wat/San. It was a good conference, learned about HIV/AIDS, hung out with other northern PCVs Some COSing PCVs stopped by too, nice to see them. After a week of that, Robert went back to Sirigu and I went to Accra for National VAC. It went fine, but I spent too much money on food and alcohol in Accra. That's how it always is. Also, some volunteers ran the Accra Marathon and did awesome. I spectated and got a sunburn. we went to a cool little place called Honeysuckle and had bear fights. Bear fights are good times. Now i'm on my way back home to start up the old teaching schedule. it will be good to get back to normal after all the irregularity and debauchery. (Yeah for acronyms! don't worry if this part is a little opaque, it's not really that important.)

Travel in Ghana is easy if you know a little about how it works. For our PST, we went out and figured out how to travel around Accra on our second (maybe third?) day in country. If you are in the south and going short distances, the easiest thing to do is catch a trotro. A tro is a mini bus or big van that holds about 15+ people and cruises along set routes, picking and dropping passengers. The "mate" hangs out the side of the tro and calls to people telling them where the tro is going and encouraging people to get on. example: "AccraAccraAccraAccra!" You wave at the tro and it screeches to a halt, then you jump on and it goes again. You give the mate a few coins, the prices and routes are set, so it pays to know where you want to go. When you want to drop, you yell to the mate or the driver and they stop. The tro is one of the cheapest ways to travel, not too comfortable, and pretty fast. Be prepared to deal with overcrowding, breastfeeding mothers, goats on the roof, crazy loud music and honking horns, reckless driving, and less than water tight windows and roofs (hopefully only rain falls on you.) Tros come in all colors and styles, mostly old and rebuilt, lots of stickers on them with wierd sayings on the back window like "Still Innocent Boy" or "Think Twice".

Around cities, you can charter taxis as well. Agree on a price before you get in, because there's no meter. If you don't, you're likely to get ripped off or cause an argument. It's appropriate to bargain with the driver, and it again it pays to know the local standard. You can also take a line car, which is the same as a taxi but it runs a set route and picks and drops people along the way for a low set price. You won't be as crowded in a line car, and if you want, a line car can turn into a dropping car (chartered). Before you get in, you should ask the driver where he's going and if he's a line car. Taxis are mostly little sedans or hatchbacks and have yellow side panels front and back.

For longer trips, you can also take tro. Go to the area of the station where you can get a "filling tro" to your destination. You buy a ticket in advance and wait for the tro to fill up. You can wait on the tro or sit at the station, but sometimes you can be waiting for a long time... like many many hours! there are certain routes that fill faster and times of the day which are better, so learn this stuff if you can before you travel. Once you're full, they'll load lots of stuff on top and take off. It's still crowded and fairly uncomfortable but a pretty good price, and if it fills fast, can be very convenient. I take a filling tro always from Bolga to Tamale, leaves in about a half hour, 4 cedis for 3 hr ride. not bad.

For longer rides still or for more comfort, there are lots of bus companies in Ghana. They go from city to city, leave at set times and make few stops along the way. For many, you can get advanced tickets the day before. The nices buses, like STC, have air conditioning, comfy seats, play movies and are generally very nice when you have a 9 hr bus ride. Bolga to Kumasi on STC is 14 cedis. Cheaper options like Metro (9 cedis) lack AC, movies, and have harder seats, but sometimes I prefer to sacrifice comfort for money. (5 cedis is three beers!) Some buses leave in the evening or afternoon and go all night. PC says we shouldn't travel at night, so of course i never do.

All of these travel options bring with them the possibility of a beakdown. If it's just the tire, the driver will get out, change it and get going again. If it's the axel, you're walking. If it's with a bus company, you're waiting for another bus to come and take you the rest of the way (i waited 7 hrs with STC once).

A little travel story: When Rachel was here, we were riding on a metro bus and our bus hit another truck! we were in the back, when suddenly swerve and smash! It was rather scarey. We didn't die, our bus was only minorly busted: crunched front corner, cracked windshield, scrapes along the side. The other truck was pretty smashed up, right ont he drivers side. It turns out the driver of the other truck (bigger than a pickup, smaller than a semi) was parked going our way, then started to turn into us and we swerved and clipped front corners. The truck spun off and a lot of the rice bags in the back broke and spilled rice all over the road. They took the other driver to the hospital before i saw him, so I don't know how bad it was, but there wasn't any blood in the busted cab, so i think he might have survived. We the passengers of the dented bus had to wait 6 hrs for them to bring a new bus to finish our trip. Luckily Rachel and I used the time to go visit the Kintampo Water Falls. worth it if you have 6 hrs to kill at the falls rest stop. So why didn't I tell you about this incident sooner? I didn't want you to worry, and really, time is relative, so it may as well have happened yesterday from your point of view. Rachel posted some pictures of me and the bus on facebook, check em out.

Love to all yall,
-Toby

Rachel's Photos

Rachel posted some nice pics on facebook of when she and I traveled and the Obama visit. Thanks Rach. I'm having trouble with mine, otherwise i would have posted by now. Check them out by going to my profile page.

love all,
-Toby

Some things I think about

Hey All.

It feels like it's been a while since I posted anything of substance on here. I've been having a good time being on break. Traveling a bit, but mostly staying at home. I have spurts of productivity: gardening, student grade reports, laundry. Since my housemates are gone, I've been living more like a bachelor, as evidenced by the way my dishes pile up in the sink until I have nothing to eat off of. One of my students, Louisa, came over the other day and washed them for me-I tried to stop her, but I couldn't. It's like that sometimes.

Languages are fun to learn. Communicating is one of my favorite things to do, and I really enjoy language study. I like learning new languages and speaking to people. I guess I'm pretty good at it, people tell me all the time that I am "fast", but really i just practice all the time. I work hard at it. Recently, I was passing through my village center and noticed two white women waiting at the station. They were undoubtedly tourists who had come to visit SWOPA, I thought, but I also knew that there wasn't going to be a regular car coming anytime soon. It was too late on a non-market day to get public transport back to Bolga. I chatted with my friends selling evening type food and then went and greeted the soulimias (strangers/white people). They were friendly Spanish nurses working in the Northern Region, and they were happy to speak spanish with me. They had called a taxi driver, but he hadn't arrived, so they were simply waiting. We talked for a while, and I was very happy for the opportunity to use a skill that I spent so much time learning. During our conversation, I spoke spanish to the nurses, sometimes translating, frafra and english to friends in the village, twi to a bus driver from Ashanti, and attempted some sign language with a deaf boy i know (i don't know how to translate his name, it's the letter "E" tapped on the palm of the hand). There wasn't anyone around to speak french with, unfortunately. It was quite the mental workout, and I kept getting confused and mixing languages, like yelling at children in spanish, and using frafra words while speaking to the nurses (se llaman Laura y Quese). It was also lots of fun. The nurses were impressed that I could speak to everyone, Quese started calling me "blackandecker", like the electric tool that can do anything, she said.

Finally, a car did come and I helped them negotiate a price to get them back to Bolga, and we said goodbye. I saw them again the next day in Bolga, and we had a beer, and they invited me to visit them. Since I'm on break, I took the opportunity and had a great time visiting them in Binde. Two other nurses, another friend, and a doctor were staying and working there, all from Spain. I stayed with them and spoke spanish and played the guitar (blackandecker). They were great hosts and it was a very nice visit, although a long bumpy bus ride. It made me want to study more languages and travel to more places (i have to visit Galicia, Saragoza, and Barcelona again). I'm also working on my french for when I get a chance to travel around the rest of West Africa. I'm a polyglot! Ay, debo visitar a Las Canarias tambien.

Es increible que puedo recordar algo asi pero casi no usarlo por tanto tiempo. Hace meses y meses que no he hablado espanol, pero todavia lo empeze facilmente, aunque me perdio algunas palabras devez en cuando. Asi yo se que realmente he aprendido la lengua. Mis amigos siempre dices que han estudiado la lengua, pero ahora no lo recuerda, pero pienso que si lo tengo para siempre. Es como el numero de telefono de tus padres, o como montar un bicicleta, nunca lo pierdes. Me divirte (mal decido?) hablar con ellas y a veces traducir las cosas, todos hablan ingles, pero parecian mas comodas hablando en espanol. Tambien les gustaba cuando usaba frases estranyos ecuatorianos "bien chevere", "chuchaki" y mis palabras inventadas. (si tomemos, bailemos, fareemos, y pasemos un tiempo lindo, yo no tenia el chuchaki.) no tengo idea de cuanta gente lee este blog, pero seguro que la mayoria no van a leer este bloque, no me importa. Si lo lees, te quiero, eres especial y te quiero para siempre. Nesesito uno de estos counters para saber cuantas me visitan aqui.

that's enough of that. spell check hates me.

One last note, There are chameleons around now. They are way cool, swively googly eyed, robot walking and changing colors and all that. the biggest ones I've seen were about a foot long but small ones are like 4 inches. Ghanaians are not fans, they are frightened when i try to pick them up. My students were scared of a pair that was mating in a tree at school. They told me that if one bites me, i will not be able to concieve. The chameleons in the tree didn't seem to be having any problems (he sudddenly changed color!)

Love to all. Next time, I'll tell you all about transport. My mom suggested the topic.

Chao,
-Toby

No, It's August now.

Love is wicked.

I'm hard at work not working too hard over my long vacation from school. It even gets a little lonely sometimes since Robert and Headmaster have gone home for the break. I hang around the house, read, play guitar and do little projects. I'm going to paint a world map on my school. I want to build a new little shelf for next to my desk. My gutters need a bit of repair. I've got a little garden with lots of basil in it. I need a girlfriend. You know, little projects to keep me busy.

I go into the market when I want to talk to someone, and there are always people there to chat with. The weather is beautiful and wet and green. It's been raining alot. I go into Bolga for exciting big city life. It's all good

Shauna's friends came to visit and we had a very nice time. I stirred TZ for them and it came out pretty good. When I get back, ask me to prepare Ghanaian food for you, and I will. Other pcvs may come to visit me sometime, and I might take a little trip sometime, but I don't have much planned.

I noticed that I missed Hippie X-mas, I hope y'all found some good stuff on the curb. One person's trash is another's treasure. Like cursed aztec gold...arrrr.j

love,
Toby

Is it still July?

I've been busy, here's the q and d.

I traveled down to Accra for Mid service Medical. It was fun, I hung out with Meghan, Corey, Kyle and Jack and relaxed (read drank). I'm healthy except for some little amoebas in my lower intestine. I took some pills so now they're probably gone. I pooped in a cup three times and had my teeth cleaned while drinking cappuchino. I haven't lost any weight to speak of, it's just redistributed a little.

Rachel arrived and I picked her up at the airport. She said it was hot but I hadn't noticed. We hung out in Accra for a day, went to Adda Foah beach near Kyle's site for a day, came back to Accra to see Obama. Rachel got food poisoning and threw up outside the US Embassy and a whole bunch of PCVs waited around for 5 hrs and finally we went to the airport and saw the POTUS, as one security guy said. Obama gave a short speach and then shook some hands. I wasn't able to shake his hand, but it was an amazing experience none the less. We cheered everytime he mentioned Peace Corps. my telling of it is brief, but feel free to ask questions.

Rachel and I traveled to Cape Coast, toured the slave castle and walked on the beach. Then we traveled to Erin's site and stayed with her for a day. Then we proceeded to Kumasi, Bolga and finally up to my house. On the way, our bus hit another truck and we delayed in Kintampo for 5 hrs and saw the falls. It was pretty cool. The other truck was pretty banged up but I didn't see any blood, so I think the driver made it. Our bus was only minorly damaged. It was a whirlwind trip for Rachel, and I was tired of traveling too, by the end. I showed Rachel around my house, then we traveled back to Tamale and I put her on a tro to Kumasi and eventually back to Accra. She made the return trip by herself, she's such a world traveler! It was great to have her visit, even for the short time she was here.

Now I'm getting back into things here at site. This week and next week are final exams for my students and then after that, holidays for over a month! I plan to stay at site and relax (read play guitar and read). I've also got plenty of small projects around the house to keep me busy.

I'll get some more pictures up, including Obama, eventually, but my pendrive is sick so it won't cooperate today. I think it has malaria.

love,
-Toby

stars photos

Here are some more photos from the STARS Conference. I've got more to come and I'll tell you all about what I've been doing in the last few busy weeks. I saw Obama...

love,
Toby

STARS and Mid Med

The STARS Conference in Kumasi was a lot of fun and I think my students, Grace and Alfred, benefitted a lot from the experience. check out the STARS website for lots more details about the event. I even wrote some of the content.

I only got a few days at site and now I'm traveling again. At the TSO, we had a little 4th party on the 2nd, and then I'm going down for an actual 4th tomorrow at the KSO. Should be a good time and fun bbq. I'm not missing anything at school, we have mid term break for the rest of the week. Actually, I'm on my way to Accra for my Mid-service Medical check up. They're gonna give me a physical, sample some body fluids, and look at my teeth, too! We are scheduled in groups to have the mid med done, so it's a chance for me to hang out with some friends in Accra for 3 days. They have fancy stuff in Accra like cheeseburgers and shopping malls.

Also pretty awesome, Rachel is coming to visit me! she gets into Accra about the time i finish with the med, so I'm gonna take her with me down to the beach and then back up to site, give her a little ghana tour.

Also, to celebrate my birthday, I gave myself a little gift. When I first got to site, I put half of my underwear away to protect them from rigorous handwashing. For my birthday, i gave myself almost new undies! They feel really nice, I'm wearing some right now! I also put a new blade in my razor. smooth.

Love,
Toby

Busy June

I've been keeping busy here, plenty going on. Besides teaching my science, i've been doing some typing practicals with my kids. since we don't have electricity, I've photocopied a picture of a keyboard and pasted it onto a piece of cardboard, then covered it with clear tape to protect it. I've made 24 of these "keyboards" so far and the kids love them: asdf jkl; Most of them have never used a computer before, so it something we can practice and a skill that they can actually use in the future.

The new group of volunteers arrived and their training is underway. That means that I've hit the one year mark in Ghana! wow! it passed without big event, and I feel good and prepared for the next one. I'm looking forward to another year of this life. The new volunteers went on Vision Quest, where they visit a current volunteer, (see early post of mine) and a guy named Arjun came and stayed with me for a few days. I showed him around and he visited the school and SWOPA and I think he had a good time. I had fun. visitors are always fun.

It was my birthday yesterday, now i'm 26. to celebrate, Robert and I ate riceballs with bito, aleefu and groundnut stew, my favorite! we drank wiskey satchets, not my favorite, and i listened to Enrique Iglesias sing "Si pudiera ser tu heroe" on the radio. It was great.

Next week is the STARS conference in Kumasi. I'm taking two of my students, Alfred and Grace, down to the conference. I'm at least as excited as they are, I'm going to see a bunch of teacher volunteers that I haven't seen in almost a year!

Also, a few new photos on facebook.

Love,
-Toby

Some stuff happened.

I'm well. Things are normal. Some stuff happened.

I was hanging out outside my house with some little kids, goofing around and playing guitar when one of them pointed up into the sky and said excitedly, "air-o-plan!" (kid didn't know how to spell). I was actually more excited than the kids. It is pretty rare to see a vapor trail from a jet crossing the sky here. It is such a common thing to see in the sky in the states. I guess that where i live is not on the way to anywhere where people want to go too often. One little girl asked me if there were people inside the plane, and i explained that it was like a lorry(car) with people traveling inside, but it had wings and went really fast. I demonstrated the wings and fast for them. They took some guesses as to where the plane was going. I was happy that they were able to name a few of the larger cities in Ghana, it might have been going to Accra, but maybe not, I don't know.

I am very attuned to the lunar cycle here. I know that it will be a full moon in a little more than a week, about 10 days. I don't have a calender or anything, i just look at the moon a lot. with no lights in my house, it is a significant factor in planning evening activities. "If I stay til dark in the market today, will I be able to see to walk home? when will the moon rise?" It's a waxing crescent now, it'll be at about 60 degrees above the western horizon at sunset.

I have a cat at my house. Two actually. I don't really consider them my cats, they just happen to live at or near my house and i feed them sometimes. They are actually pretty annoying. The baby is crazy wild, I named him Tyson. The mother, which i named Evander (she's missing part of her ear), is nicer. The other day, i was watching her stalk a lizard by a tree by my house. The lizard came down off the tree and moved along the ground. Evander took off running and got between the lizard and the tree. Before the lizard could escape, she pounced and pinned it, then picked it up and brought it back near me. Evander is a little cat, and this lizard wasn't the biggest i'd ever seen, but it was quite a catch for her. I was a good 6 inches long, like a mini iguana. the lizard was definately still alive when she brought it back, but she held it down and crunched it's head a bunch until it stopped struggling. Then, she ate it all. yum.

One time Evander also caught a morning dove in the field by my house. I didn't see it, but one of my students who was reading near the house did. He went out and collected the bird, still alive again, and brought it back to the house. He was very excited while he held the injured dove, and asked if i had any rubbish that he could burn. I advised him that cooking over a trash fire would make his meat taste bad and showed him some sticks he could use to make a fire. David definately killed, plucked and roasted that little dove over a tiny camp fire. He made sure to give some to the cat as a thank you. I tried some too, the meat was sweet! Ghanaian lesson: every animal is etible.

Other stuff happened, too. It's been raining so the green things started to grow. It's nice, and the farmers (that's everyone around here) are tilling and planting their fields.

love,
-Toby

It rained!

And just like that things started to grow. Brown earth has become green again. grass is there, trees have leaves again and the sky has clouds. It is still very hot and not always comfortable, but the water makes a huge difference. Now food will mold instead of stale in a matter of hours! Actually it's great. It's the lean season now, since people are begining to plant crops, but there is nothing to harvest yet, and food stores from last year get low. I can only buy tomatoes sometimes in the market now, and they aren't very good. Grafted mangoes are back, though, and awesome.

One unfortunate thing is that the bugs have come back with the water. Not too many mosquitoes yet, but there are definitely more flys around. I'm well and the third term is underway. I'll be taking two of my students to the STARS conference in Kumasi in June, which will be exciting for them and for me. (more info in previous post). I also had some nice visitors the last weeks. Some other ghana pcvs came up and visited me. I also bought a bootleg dvd with all 6 starwars movies on it.

other than that, it's life as usual for me.
Love, Toby

Vacation Photos.

New photos on Facebook right here. Hope all is well and good with you.

peace,
-Toby

Vacation extraviganza

That spelling of extraviganza doesn't look quite right, but oh well. I had a great vacation travels with some pcv friends here in ghana, and now i have no money. Being a tourist is Expensive!

First, Anthony, Kyle, Brian, Matt, and Tristen came up to Bolga to visit me. I went in and met them in the bus station and took them to a nice chop bar where we ate TZ and groundnut aleefu stew. It's one of my favorites and the guys from the south (all but Tristen) had never taken TZ before. It's common in northern Ghana, but you don't really see it anywhere in the south. They liked it and you will too, because aleefu is excellent. See previous post for more about Ghanaian food.

We hung out in Bolga for the day, I showed them around, but there's not really that much to see. We sat and had a beer with Shauna, JJ, and Kirsten, my omnibus neighbors. Kyle and I increased our awesome factor by a billion (see pictures). We took a walk throught the market and then headed back to my house in Sirigu. It was fun to have visitors, and I showed them around my house and school, then we went into the village and ate some snacks and took pito at Bismarks house. They were impressed with how dry and dead everything up here is, because in southern ghana it is still all green and foresty and in the Upper East it is still brown and dusty. They also enjoyed not getting mobbed and hassled by the locals. In general, the people in the north are very laid back and relaxed. They are still curious about white people, but they don't grab us or yell at us or bother us excessively. I was proud of my village and my community and my friends were impressed with my language skills when I talked with my Sirigu people in Frafra.

The next day, we got up early and saw the sights. Transport can be a challenge up here, but we got pretty lucky. We took a tro to Paga and visited the Crocodile Pond. It was still a big mudhole with crocodiles in it, and they still wanted to charge us too much, but i bargained with them and it was ok. We sat on a crocodile and then fed it a live chicken. Pretty cool. Crocodiles are pretty cool. Also in Paga, we visited an old slave camp where slaves were brought before being sold south to other slave markets and eventually to the coast. Our guide was named Aaron and he was excellent. Sometimes tourist places in Ghana are frustrating and not worth it, but the Pikworo Slave Camp in Paga is definately a winner. We walked around the camp and learned about the way it ran and saw some rocks and stuff. Highly recommended.

We took a taxi back to Bolga. The six of us (and we aren't small guys) crammed into a normal sized sedan taxi. Along the way we negotiated with the driver to take us to a town near Bolga called Tongo to see another tourist attraction. The driver was not sure about that, so we stopped in Navrongo, he talked with is brother and we switched taxis and negotiated with the brother. We made a deal for him to take us to Tongo, wait, and then take us back to Bolga. He even stopped along the way so we could get some lunch, what a guy, the drivers name was Walkalone. Cool name.

Tongo is a little village in some foothills south of Bolga. We took a tour of some interesting rock formations and caves where the locals hid during the British invasion of the region. We also met the chief wandered through his very enormous compound house. The guide had a lot to say, but we were tired and I spend most of my time making faces at little kids. Lastly, we visited a the Tenzug shrine. We climbed up a hill after our guide got permission from the head priest. The shrine is sacred and treated like an oracle; you ask it a question or tell it a problem and then sacrifice some fowls and your problem/question will be solved/answered! In order to approach the shrine, however, we had to take off our shoes, roll up our trowsers and take off all hats and shirts. It used to be a naked only shrine, they say, but now it's just a topless shrine. The actual shrine itself was a sort of cave with an old guy sitting in it and he had all sorts of animal bones and horns and a big pile of feathers from the animal sacrifices. Our guide wanted us to ask a question, so I asked the shrine to help our schools develope and for our students to be successful. They seemed to like that, and we donated some money to buy two guinea fowls to be sacrificed to the shrine for us. We didn't see the sacrifices, they said they would do it later, there weren't any guinea fowls around. Our guide told us that the sacrificed animals are usually eaten afterwards, unless the shrine says otherwise. The shrine was also to visit us in our dreams, he said, but I haven't been visited yet.

After a long day of touristing, we returned to my house and relaxed, drank and played guitar by candlelight. The next day, we visited SWOPA, the ceramics place next door to my school. After that, we traveled back into Bolga and then to Tamale, and stayed at the TSO. Beth joined us 6 guys there, she is very patient and tolerant. We played Risk and I won. Anthony and Kyle won, too.

We left the next day for Mole National Park. The bus wasn't scheduled to leave until 12:30, and it didn't actually leave until 4:00. The ride was pretty rough at the end, and we didn't get to the park until 9:00PM or so. We stayed at the fancy Mole Hotel, but the pool was closed for the night so we had to take showers instead. The next morning, we got up early and went on a guided nature hike. We were very luck to see lots of elephants right away! there were some right up by the staff quarters and we took lots of pictures. Elephants are very big, they are like dinosaurs. We hiked down into the valley and saw elephants bathing and playing and some young small ones too. We also some antelope-like hooved mammals, cob deer and bush buck, a 4 ft. monitar lizard, lots of worthogs, and crocodiles and birds. We had breakfast, swam in the pool, and had lunch and swam in the pool. Kyle and I got delicious fufu for lunch and there were baboons all around that wanted to be our friends. They were very used to people and tried to come and take our food. One baboon wanted Brian's mango, so Brian gave it too him. That made the baboon happy and Brian was happy too.

We went with another group of 'mer'cans to Larabanga to see the famous Mosque there. I'm sure the mosque is great, but when we got there, the local guides were really annoying and aggressive, so Brian, Matt, and I decided to go to a spot instead (spot=bar). Some of the others paid and saw the mosque, but Tony said it was underwhelming, and they didn't get to enter because they weren't muslim. We gave Larabanga an unenthusiastic thumbs down.

Back at Mole, we swam in the pool, relaxed, swam in the pool, watched Baboons, and Beth did laundry. We ate supper at the staff quarters because it was cheaper and they had Ghanaian food. We played Texas hold 'em and I won. I gave my winnings to Tristen because he won the night before and I owed him money. Kyle did not win. Our only option to get back to Tamale was the Mass Metro bus that left Mole at 4:00am, so that's what we did. We got back to Tamale early and had a relaxing afternoon. We played risk and Kyle won. I did not win.

Now I'm broke and ready to go back to site and relax for a month or three. I'm better versed in Ghana tourist attractions, so if you come and visit me, I know where the good ones are and I can show you. I hope everyone over yonder is doing well and keeping busy. I will post many new photos on facebook soon so you can see all the stuff I just wrote about.

Love,
-Toby

Toby Update

I've been busy last couple of weeks. Here's the short version:

I traveled to Accra for the National VAC meeting. (Volunteer Advisory Committee) We met with Accra Staff and discussed lots of different issues from our regions. The meeting was pretty efficient and we got some things accomplished. People complained that the meeting went for 3 hours, but I don't know what they're talking about. I'm totally into 3 hour meetings if something actually happens at them. Co-op skillz! In Accra I ate pizza and a cheezeburger and really good indian food and drank and generally spent too much money. That's just how Accra is, it doesn't really seem like part of the Ghana that I know.

After Accra, I went to visit Kyle at his site because he lives close to the beach. We spent a few days swimming and being lazy at Adda Foah. Hung out with some Canadian nurses and Brits on gap year. Most other internationals I meet here are volunteering in some way or other. Often they have to pay to come to Ghana to volunteer, and usually it's for a few months at most. They are usually very impressed at what we do, it's a little more intense than their deal. We call them voluntourists. I don't look down on them though, they're nice to talk to.

I traveled back north, stopped in Kumasi and smoked a hookah with some of the new omnibus crew, then got home. The last few days of the school term were uneventful except for some entertainment we had organized for the students. Football game, and then Jams! (school dance) I danced the night away with my students, only occasionally awkward. Now school is out and I'm on holiday, which is nice.

I traveled to Tamale for Easter, had mexican food and spoke spanish to the two latina pcvs that are here. That is cool, because I don't get to use the ol' espanol much. Ana is actually from Quito, Ecuador where I studied abroad, which is cool. She uses the Quito f when she speaks! We spent lots of time watching "I'm on a boat" and listening to Miley Cyrus, it was awesome. On easter sunday, we went swimming in a pool with actual chorine! And then played ultimate frisbee. It was great.

Next week some of my teacher friends are coming up to visit me and then we are going to Mole National Park to see an elephant. We may see two. It will be lots of fun fun fun.

Obviously I'm having a good time. dancing, spanish, chorine, frisbee, elephants, what more could I ask for?

Love,
-Toby

PS. A few new pictures on facebook too.

Support the STARS Conference

Each year, PCVs in Ghana plan and organize and leadership conference called STARS for Senior High students. Each volunteer brings one boy and one girl student to the week long conference so that they can attend workshops and lectures from successful Ghanaians, learn important skills and topics, and meet other motivated students from across the country. I am hoping to bring students from my school to this years conference in June. Although I am not working on the planning for the event, many other hardworking PCVs are. We get a variety of sponsorships from different organizations in Ghana, but the more funds we have available, the bigger and better the conference can be. Please help if you can by donating something small to help us help ours stars in Ghana. Below is a letter with more information from Kim, the Coordinator for the conference.

Dear one and all,

Greetings once again from Ghana! The STARS Conference project has now been APPROVED for funding. The next part is up to you! As you all know (some of you from first-hand experience!) STARS is an awesome annual conference for secondary school kids. We each bring our best and brightest for a week-long youth leadership camp. It is an amazing experience that I believe is changing lives for the better. Some of these kids have never travelled outside their home region before. We give them a chance to come together for a week of activities with their peers, interacting with Ghanaian guest speakers who have succeeded in their lives.

If you want to see more info about last year's conference, you can check out the website or blog:
http://starsconference.blogspot.com/ or www.starsconference.com (which might be having technical trouble right now...bear with me!).

Of course, this doesn't all happen magically--it takes time, money, and plenty of "sweat equity" as we run around Ghana securing donations from Ghana corporate sponsors, planning the agenda, lining up guest speakers, etc. This year, we also decided to apply for Peace Corps Partership Program (PCPP) number so that our loved ones in the states can donate money to the project tax free. If you make a donation, I personally guarantee that 100% of your funds will go to this worthwhile project. Click on this link to donate!
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=641-261 (If the link doesn't work, go to www.peacecorps.gov, then click on "Donate Now", then "Donate to Volunteer Projects", then search for Ghana, then you'll see my project (K. Weaver / S. Safavi).

I've heard the website is manually updated so if it's down, PLEASE PLEASE keep trying. We have to have the project "filled" by the end of April. Even $5 will help us a lot. In case you are wondering what your donation will be used to buy, here are some ideas:

$5 will provide 3 good meals, a snack, and housing for a student for one day of the conference. $10 will allow us to give an "HIV Peer Educator Kit" to the students so they can take what they've learned back to their schools--and thus reach hundreds of students.
$20 will allow us to pay for transportation for a student from a remote village school to and from the conference site.

Anything at all you are willing to donate would be much appreciated by me, the other volunteers working on the project, and of course, the kids who get to have this amazing experience. If you have any questions, send me an email!

Warmly, Kim

Anything you can do to help us out would be great. Thanks in advance to you all.
Love,
-Toby

Cell phones but no lights?

Hey all,

So almost everyone in Ghana it seems has a cell phone. There are about four major companies competing and service is pretty much available everywhere, even in remote little villages like Sirigu. It is all pay as you go, that is, you buy units and add them to your phone, then as you make calls the units get used up. The prices are pretty good and there are lots of different kinds of phones around, some very fancy. Mine isn't fancy, but it has an excellent feature: It has a flashlight built into it. This is particularly useful for me because my house doesn't have electricity. In small villages like mine, most people do not have electricity in their houses. Also to note: roads are not paved, no piped water, outdoor toilets only (mine is actually inside, but with no water, I have to use a bucket to flush), and overall poverty compared with the standard of living you are probably used to.

So why this apparent paradox? Ladies selling food off their heads in the market have cell phones? It's just an example of the success of private enterprise, I guess. The cell phone companies are all private and competing, so the quality and availability of the service is pretty good. There are cell towers all over Ghana, there's one in Sirigu and one in Kandiga (where Shauna lives, 20 min bike away). Advertising campaigns have convinced people that they should have a mobile phone, so some eat poorly or little and wear broken flipflops in order to buy phone units. It's just the way it goes. Of course to charge your phone, you take it to your friend who has lights. Electricity and water are controlled by the National Government, and seem much slower to develope and extend service, although it is coming. We may get water and power to the school by next year if we are lucky. The students would like that...

I suppose cell phones are getting more and more common now in the US. How about it? Does every junior high school kid have his own cell? My students can't bring theirs to school, and if they do they get confiscated. I'm always looking for a new phone, I tell them.

One other note. The technology is here, but the culture and ethics of mobile phones is a bit different here. It is not uncommon for someone to answer their phone during a meeting, or interrupt you to talk on the phone. Ghanaians listen to music on their phones a lot, many have mp3 or radios in them. Also, because there is no voice mail, someone may call you repeatedly when you don't answer, like 15 times in a row. That's not an exaggeration. It's usually just better to answer since they probably only want to greet you and talk for a minute or two about your dog. oh well.

And the dog: sorry to let you all know that Kraman Baa has died. It happened a little while ago, and I was avoiding telling everyone at home. I was sad, but now I'm okay. She had been sick, and then one day she went up to the big kennel in the sky. I asked Robert and he said that dogs can't go to Heaven because animals have no souls. I'm not worried. I decided to give Kraman Baa a traditional Ghanaian dog funeral. Ask if you really want to know what that means.

Love to all,
-Toby

Food!

I'll tell y'all a little about the traditional foods that people eat around here. Around here is northern Ghana, specifically the Upper East Region, because that's what I know and that's where I am. Other parts of the country do it a little differently, and the southern half of the country is significantly different culturally and culinarily, but you'll get the idea.

Ingredients are fairly limited around here, so people make due with what they have. A basic meal is usually made up of a dense carbohydrate and a vegetable based stew or soup. Basic ingredients available: tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, oil, groundnuts (that's peanuts), okra, peppe (little, very hot peppers). Another ingredient that is in most things is maggi cubes (commercial bullion seasoning) but I don't use that much.

The most typically northern food is called TZ (pronounced Tee Zed), which stands for "Toa Zhafi", the name in Hausa (widely spoken west african langauge). In Frafra, the food is called "sagebo" (pronounced sah-gay-boh. TZ is made from flour and water and can be made of maize, millet, or wheat flour. I like the maize TZ the best, and that's the kind that Robert makes most often, and is teaching me to make. Water is mixed with a small amount of flour and heated to boiling. Some of the flour water is removed and then lots of flour is added to the pot. Stirring continuously, the watery mixture is added a little at a time to make a thick cream-of-wheat consistancy. You have to stir constantly or it will burn, so it is cooked on the ground. Specially made metal hooks are put through the handles of the thick cast aluminium pot and the ends of the hooks are held with the feet, to keep the pot steady. Both hands are used to stir with a big wooden spoon/paddle. When the TZ is ready and the right thickness, it is poured into bowls and plates and allowed to cool. As it cools, it gets thicker and thicker until it can be eaten by breaking pieces off the main lump. It reminds me of semi solid cream-of-wheat cereal. It can also be made with slightly fermented flour water, or boiled seeds and tree bark can be added for a certain flavor that I don't really like.

When you eat it, you use your hands, of course, and only your right hand. I break off pieces of TZ and dip/scoop up some soup to go with it. TZ is best with okra stew or groundnut with Aleefu stew. Both of these are tomatoe based, with onion, peppe, and oil, okra strew has boiled cut up okra, which becomes very slimy and stringy. It's kind of like snot, and takes some getting used to. Okra stew is mostly only eated with TZ. Aleefu is a leaf (looks similar to a maple leaf) that is boiled and is similar to spinach when cooked. Canned fish is sometimes added to this one. Groundnut paste (peanut butter? it's not butter!) is added to make the soup smooth and creamy. Yum!

Rice balls are made by stirring rice cooked with a little extra water. It becomes a thick paste that is then made into balls (tennis to soft sized) and allowed to cool. It is eaten the same way as TZ with groundnut soup.

Banku is fermented corn dough formed into balls and eaten with the hands along with light soup or sometimes okra stew. Kenke is also fermented corn dough that is wrapped in corn husks (Gaa kenke) or plantain leaves (Fanti kenke) and boiled for some time. The names refer to the tribes that originally made them, but they are both common here and neither tribe is from the north. Kenke is eaten with a bit of tomanto stew or some peppe sauce (like salsa). Fufu is made by pounding boiled cassava, plantain, yam, or a combination of two until it becomes a dense sticky doughy lump. Fufu isn't northern, but people make it here sometimes. It's usually eaten with light soup, which is (as the name implies) a light tomato-based soup with plenty of oil and peppe.

Along with these foods, rice is very common: Plain rice with tomanto-vegetable stew, fried rice with a few veggies in it, and jolloff rice (rice cooked in a spicy tomato-fish sauce). Chicken, fish, or meat (usually goat) is normally offered as well. If you go to chop bar (food stand on the street) they may give you some "salad" with your rice which consists of shredded cabbage and lettuce, carrots, green peppers and some mayonaise-ish salad cream.

At home, when I cook "ghanaian" or when Robert cooks, we have rice and stew, TZ, and rice balls most of the time. When I cook for myself, I tend to make some variation on macaroni and cheese.

I'm eating well and enjoying the food here. An interesting note on "table manners": very different expectations here. When you eat with your hands, you naturally tend to hunch over your bowl. In Ghana, it is seen as rude to talk during a meal and very rude to reach into a communal bowl with your left hand. Also, you always bring food to your mouth with your right hand.

Try this next time you are eating with tolerant people. A rice dish is a good one to practice with: Hunch over your plate and put your left hand in your lap. Wash your right hand and put your right elbow on the table so that you can reach your food with your hand. Mix your food around and play with it a little (eating has now become a tactile experience!). Pick up some rice in your hand and hold it on your last three fingers. If you want, you can squeeze it to keep it together. Cock your wrist so that your last three fingers point towards your mouth and act like a spoon. Put the food in your mouth, push it off your fingers with your thumb. Lick your fingers often. You can eat anything this way, but if it is a very thin soup, just pick up the bowl and drink it after you've finished your TZ.

Food is fun, and I look forward to cooking and eating Ghanaian food with you, my loved ones, when next we meet. Take care of yourselves and eat well.

Love,
-Toby

More photos and stuff

photos on facebook, now with captions!

I saw an abyssinian roller the other day. beautiful. use google image search to find a better picture than i could ever take.

Anthony, another PCV in the Western Region told me that he saw one of his students wearing a SPASH 2002 t shirt. Amazing, that's even the year I graduated. Cloths from the US that no one wants in the thrift stores gets bundled up and sent to Africa. Here, people call it "obruni wayru" which means "dead white man's cloths". That's because people think the only reason some would get rid good cloths is if they died. I see people wearing all kinds of strange second hand clothes, mostly they have no idea what the thing means. I've seen some pretty funny ones too, like an old man wearing a pink shirt that says "That's Miss Bitch to You!" or a housewife wearing "Eat, Sleep, Fish" Shirts with other people's names on them are popular too. I guess that's true in the US as well.

Happy St. Patties day coming up. I celebrated this weekend with some Irish volunteers in Navrongo, Mary and Sarah. They sang Irish songs and taught us an Irish dance and Mary played a tune on a tin whistle, an Irish instrument. It was lots of fun. We drank and danced a lot.

Happy birthday, mom. I love you.

-Toby

A typical day

Normally, I wake up around 6:30 or 7:00 am, it's light out by then. I often hear my housemates, Robert and Headmaster, up before then, sometime they pray or play the radio very loud. I also hear the students who come to the house in the mornings. There are two form 1 girl students who come to the house three times a week to sweep, clean, and sometimes do dishes. This is a system that my housemates want to be in place, and I've gotten used to it. Louisa and Mamuna are nice and I've gotten to know them so that I don't feel uncomfortable finding them in the kitchen when I stagger in to look for breakfast. Other students often come in the morning looking for the buckets so they can fetch water for us, usually as a punishment imposed by the prefects. That can be annoying, but I manage.

I usually take tea for breakfast. In Ghana, tea means anything you mix with hot water, so I usually have hot chocolate. Lipton yellow tea is also available, but we don't have any Nescafe in the house. With my tea I take bread with groundnut paste and fruit jam, or oats with some dried fruit depending on what's available. On days when I have more time, I make pancakes or french toast and eat it with my dad's real maple syrup. Yum! I offer to Robert sometimes, but he's not as excited about breakfast foods as I am.

After breakfast, I go to school. I walk out my door, walk 30 feet and I'm at the school. First period begins at 8:00am, but the students are usually expected to arrive by 6:30 or 7:00. I teach 19 40-minute periods a week, as long as other events don't interrupt classes, which they frequently do. Staff meetings, Assemblies for Moral Talks, school elections, and sporting events all normally take place during normal school time. I meet my classes and teach my lessons, and hang out in the Staff Common Room or under the Tree with other teachers when I'm not teaching.

I eat lunch during the long break (20 min) at the "Common Market", which is another tree near the school that some ladies sit under and sell food. I usually have fried yam or kosi (fried bean cake) with peppe, like salsa. Food you buy from a vendor like this is called "chop", and it's used like a verb too: I will go and chop some kosi. When you buy, you order by the price, not the quantity you want. I say, "Wuntenga, la-ang wani? Oh, la me ang sunga. M-bene fu may, bo ma kosi 2 tousand busa 2 tousand. M-puheya." or (translated) "Good afternoon, how are you? Oh, I am fine also. Please, give me kosi 2 thousand and yam 2 thousand? Thank you." I spend the equivilant of 20 or 30 cents usually. Too much fried food...tasty though.

Sometimes I teach in the afternoon, but the students get restless and some of them inevitably dodge home early. They get tired and hungry, many don't have money for chop, and there's no water at the school either. Classes end and closing assembly is at 2:30. The students gather, sing, pray and announcements are made. I often stay for closing and make announcements about whatever is going on. Most staff don't. There are also Opening assemblies Mon, Wed, and Fri, at 7:30am, but I don't go to those too often.

When school closes, the students go home but sometimes some come back for extra classes. I go to my house and relax, play the guitar, read or prepare lessons for the following day. I talk with Robert about what we will cook for dinner. If it is a Sirigu market day, I go into the market to buy food and talk to the market ladies. I really enjoy the market, because it gives me a chance to socialize and practice my language skills. Lots of people know me there, and they are very friendly. I also take my phone and ipod to charge at Bismark's house because he has electricity. His kids are fun to play with too.

I ride home by dark usually, and Robert or I cook supper. It's dark by 6:30pm, so we often cook by headlamp or candlelight. Robert cooks more often than I do and he's a good cook. Headmaster often goes into town in the afternoon, but sometimes comes home and eats supper at the house, although not with us. It is not typical in Ghana to gather to eat, usually people eat on their own.

After eating, doing dishes, feeding the dog, and listening to the radio, It's getting late and I'm getting tired. I bath in the dark, then light some candles in my room and read, listen to music, play guitar, or do more school work. I'm usually in bed by 9:00pm, and often asleep by 10:00pm.

That's a typical school day for me here in Ghana. Not very exciting, but the time goes fast enough. I use my weekends for trips into Bolga, doing my laundry, or visiting friends.

All in all, it's going pretty well. Love to all my friends and family back home. I miss you all.
Love,
-Toby

PS. There's a few more new photos on facebook. find link on previous blog post. -tk

School stuff

My school, Sirigu Senior High School, let me tell you about my school. First let me tell you about the educational system in Ghana. ok, here we go...

Ghana Education Services (GES) is a the branch of the gov't that we deal with and the system is very centralized, overall. There are very few private schools, especially at the primary and secondary levels. Students go to Primary school for 6 years, starting at about age 5 (depends on the parents, if they need them at home). Some kids don't go to school at all, but Primary is free except for some school fees, cost of uniforms, books, pencils, etc. (There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.) Each year is called a "Form" instead of a grade, so we say a first year student is a P1 student. Uniforms for Primary School students is usually brown on the bottom, yellow/tan on the top. There is also Nursury for little kids before Primary, but that seems to be mostly in more urban areas. Little ones wear cute checked uniforms in different colors.

After Primary, students go to Junior Secondary School (JSS). JSS has 3 forms, and the Form 3 students help organize things with a prefect system (like in Harry Potter!). Their uniforms around here are blue bottom and yellow top, except the prefects, who wear tan bottoms and white tops. It's a day school, so the students go home at the end of the day, as in the US. At the end of JSS, the form 3 students take a standardized test called BECE that determines which Senior High School they will go to. They list preferences and if their scores are good, they go to a good school. If their scores are okay, they come to a smaller, not as good school (like mine) and if their scores are not so good at all, they go and work on the family farm and don't go to SS.

They have just added a fourth year to SS, making it SHS, so I teach Form 2 and Form 3 Integrated Science. Prefects, seniors chosen by their peers, keep the other students in line and do a lot to keep the school running. Around here, uniforms are tan on bottom and light blue on top, prefects wear pink on top. Most SHS schools are boarding schools that house and feed the students as well as teach them. Usually, students want to go to a big school that is at least a little ways from their home town. The attitude is similar to HS seniors in the US looking at colleges-they want to move away from home and all that. Boarding schools have higher school fees, more students, and more buildings. Sirigu Senior High School is a day school, which is uncommon for SHS. It has no electricity or running water; a borehole to fetch water is a 5 min walk away. It is not as expensive (annual school fees are about $50) and there are many fewer students than other schools. Many of my students are from the area, and still live at home. Others rent rooms in the village and have to feed themselves. They want the school to become a boarding school, but that will take a lot of development at this point.

In Ghana, the students normally stay in the same classroom and the teachers move from room to room. The rooms are very sparce, at my school, there are only desks for some students, so the rest have to bring their own. I teach in a open air classroom, tin roof, cement walls and open windows with shutters. (That is actually a basic description of a lot of buildings here) The blackboard is smooth cement on the wall. The students occasionally paint it with battery acid (not a joke) to make it black, but it comes off on my hands and only lasts a week or so. The classes are small at my school, 10 to 25 students. The school offers different "courses" similar to majors in college in US. Sirigu SHS offers Business, General Arts, and Agric. Students sit with their form mates who are offering the same course and a class captain keeps track of the class.

At the end of 3rd year (will soon be 4th year) the seniors, or candidates take a massive standardized test for all of English-speaking West Africa called the WASSCE. Basically, it determines weather they can go to university, technical school or any other tertiary ed. We spend a lot of time teaching to the test, as it is so important.

Looking back at what I've just written, it is informative but fairly dry. I'll write some more interesting and detailed stuff another time. Overall, I like my school and I am happy to be there. The students are what really keep me going. They are eager to learn and try hard, even though their obstacles are many.

Love,
Toby

photo update

It's getting cooler, and windier and dustier here.

Photos on Facebook

love, Toby

Vacation is over

It seems like it's been a long time since I've been on a normal school calender. That's because it has been. School is finally starting again and I'll get my groove back and do even better than the first term. Just give me a bit to remember how to teach.

Anyway, the break has been relaxing and interesting for the most part. The elections all happened without incident, although PC did extend the standfast because one district had to revote. Eventually the Electoral Commission announced that the NDC had won and that John Evans Atta-Mills would be the next prez of Ghana. That's fine with me, and I'm glad to see that most Ghanaians are happy or at least content with it. Change is good, right?

I celebrated Christmas small with Bismark's family, but didn't do anything too exciting. It didn't really feel much like Christmas in the states, no snow, no Santa, no commercialism, no lights. Plenty of Jesus, though. Overall, it seems that people here don't celebrate Xmas (that's how they say it) as frantically as we do in 'merica, even though there are lots of christians. One church did have a camp-out sing-a-long near my school. For about three nights in a row, they sang and danced and preached, and people came from other towns to participate. It was fun to see, and a bunch of my students were there. They were impressed that I could speak Frafra. One thing that was interesting is that in Bolga, there were groups of kids roaming around and wishing people merry christmas. They were all dressed up in their best cloths and had their hair slicked or fancied with pomade. It was sort of like a cross between caroling and trick-or-treating. They were expecting to be given candy after delivering their holiday greetings, but since I wasn't prepared, I just wished them merry christmas back.

New Years was cool, too. I went to a festival in Natugia, a nearby village. There were lots and lots of people there and different groups danced and drummed and recieved monies. People were selling candy, balloons and little cheap toys, and there was plenty of kids running around. There was also plenty of alcohol, but that's how you celebrate around here. The party went late, but I didn't stay too long once it got dark. I usually go to bed pretty early here.

Finally, after standfast ended, I went to visit my friend and housemate Robert's village. It was very nice and I met all his family and friends and the family of his fiancee. We visited his alma mater, watched crazy Nigerian movies, and drank pito (locally brewed from millet, it's good) with some old men. Then we traveled together back to Sirigu for a day and then left for In-Service Training in Kukurantumi.

Getting to IST was a bit of adventure. We stayed over in Tamale, and left on an Accra bound STC bus in the morning, but the bus broke down outside of Kintampo (3 hrs out of 10). We ended up waiting for 7 hrs as they tried to fix the bus and failed. It was a drag, but some kids kept me company as I finished my paperback and started writing my own. Finally, another bus arrived and we got on that one and continued our journey. The original plan was to drop at Bunso and get to Kukurantumi from there, but that wouldn't have worked to well at 2 AM, so we went all the way to Accra, slept a few hours in the bus terminal, and got up at 5 AM to travel back up to Koforidua and then to Kuku. It worked out alright in the end, only that we arrived a day late to the training conference. I was hungry, tired, and stinky when we got there, but all three were remedied eventually. The conference was good and it was nice to see friends again, even though it had only been a month since All Vol. We even got a chance to play a little of my GRPG (dorky fun).

Now I'm en route home again and have to start thinking about Integrated Science. I'll post some pictures soon, too.

Love,
Toby