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