Ernest in Ghana

The big event after the scavenger hunt in Accra is an activity called Vision Quest. Basically, each of the volunteer trainees visits an existing volunteer at his/her site. Since the volunteer sites are spread throughout Ghana and are generally located in small villages, this activity usually involves multiple forms of transportation and just getting to the site can take up to 2 full days for those heading to the northern part of Ghana. So I suppose this is Peace Corps’ way of quickly getting us familiar with the country. We are equipped with several lines of Twi (the predominant language in the south), some directions, and a little bit of cash and off we go!

Since I will be teaching ICT, I was matched with a volunteer currently teaching computing in a school two hours outside of Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana. And instead of going to a site on my own, two of us visited the same site due to lack of available ICT locations. Since a few of us were heading in the general direction of Kumasi, we all got tickets for the STC bus. STC is the most luxurious bus in Ghana. The buses look very much like the chartered buses in the States. We even got to watch movies on the way there, although I did not understand one of the two movies because it was in Twi (it did have some physical humor) and the other one was a really bad Nigerian detective story. The story line matches the quality of a soft porn and it was missing the nudity…

In true Ghanaian fashion, the STC bus was almost three hours late picking us up from the station which put us in Kumasi around 4:30. Given that the sun comes down around 5:30, it was very dark by the time we got to our destination village. Fortunately, two teachers saw us (I am sure we were quite easy to spot as my companion is so white that she practically glows in the dark) and led us to the volunteer’s apartment. At that point, it was just nice to see floor mats that we could pass out on.

There are many things that I learned in the trip but I will talk about bucket baths, Ghanaian sleeping patterns, fufu and other Ghanaian food at a later time as each topic deserves its own entry and hopefully that would help with your continue interest in reading my postings.

So there were a few current volunteers who were trainers so we got to hear about their experience before leaving Accra, but it was still eye opening to see a volunteer’s site and his day-to-day life first hand. Furthermore, three other volunteers came to visit us during our stay so we got to hear all of their stories. The theme in common is that the inconvenience that comes with being in a developing country is easy to overcome: not having any running water just means having to get some from a bore hole and taking a bucket bath, not having washer or dryer just means having to do laundry by hand. The challenge in Peace Corps is really the mental part. Boredom will kick in inevitably when you are alone in a village that speaks a language that you are just learning. On the other hand, you will be bothered every step that you take outside of your home just because you look different and that can get old very fast. I am lucky to be a teacher as my primary duty (teaching ICT) is predetermined and that they will match me to a school. However, other volunteers in Ghana who are assigned to health, environment, and business development assignments often have to work hard in getting their projects off the ground. Two years is a long time to continuously experience discouragement if things do not go right. Of course I was aware of the issues when I was at the States but they feel more real now that I am here in Ghana. I am sure you will get to hear all about my coping strategies in my later emails as I face these challenges first hand.

I had a really good time during Vision Quest. The volunteer whom I visited is an easy guy to talk to and is quite funny. You have to understand that all the volunteers we have had exposure to at the time were trainers and they were pretty much model volunteers. My Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) was more like a normal person and we got to hear some of the things that are not on the official volunteer trainee guide. We found out that the Peace Corps rumor mill is an essential tool to cure boredom. We found out that a teacher can easily get approval from the headmaster to be absent if he wishes to tend to other business. We found out 2 years is a long time to not have a double cheeseburger and fries at Whataburger/In and Out/Longhorns. We got to see the Kumasi sub office, which is equipped with A/C, stove top, spices, and an oven. We went to Funkies at Kumasi and had a double cheeseburger and fries (everything tasted a bit off but I will most likely forget how a real burger tastes like in a couple of months). We got on a tro-tro which had its axle broken off as we were heading home in the rain. We were stuck for a short time at Kente, the town which originated Kente cloth, but we eventually got home safely.

I will talk more about my PCV’s school and the start of our 10 week training at Techiman in my next post.

Hi everyone!

I can’t believe I have only been in Ghana for two weeks! It feels like I have lived here forever. A lot has happened so I will try to give you guys a quick summary before I run out of minutes at the internet cafe.

I left for Philadelphia on 6/6/06 and met my fellow volunteer trainees at the Holiday Inn near the historic district. It was not the best date to be traveling (I was reminded of the 666 reference a few times before leaving) but we all made it there okay. Our group had 33 to-be volunteers, around 50/50 male female. The majority of the people are recent college graduates. We have two older volunteers and the rest of the people are between 20 to 30 years of age. It was at that time that I found out we were all going to be teachers. We will be teaching math, science, art, and ICT (Information and Communication Technology). Another group of volunteers will be arriving in Ghana in September. They will be helping with health, agriculture, and the environment. After going through some ice breaker activities, filling out some paperwork, and getting our first round of shots, we went to the JFK airport via an air-conditioned bus (oh how I miss air-condition) and got on the plane.

We flew Lufthansa and therefore stopped at Frankfurt, Germany for the connecting flight. It was at the airport that I had my last fancy meal, a chocolate croissant and coffee. Due to multiple delays, we finally arrived in Accra, Ghana after 22 hours of traveling.

I found out very quickly that the travel guide was quite accurate in regards to the hot weather. We are in the middle of the rainy season (May to September) and it is raining around every other day, so the humidity is quite high. Fortunately, the rain also has some cooling affect so the temperature is more bearable on the days when it rains.

At the Accra airport, we were greeted by the country director and other administrative staff at the gate. But it was when we came out of the airport that we realized more than 50 volunteers had traveled to Accra from all over Ghana to welcome us and to cheer us on. I found out later that many of them had been waiting in the rain for 3 hours. It felt so nice to know that we have such a strong supporting system in Peace Corps Ghana.

Peace Corps did a great job in pacing our integration into the country. We were brought to a university where we would stay for one week. We called it “the compound” since it is totally fenced off from the city. After two days of classes and exposure to Ghanaian instructors, we went on a walk in the immediate community. We saw a typical market and witnessed methods to bargain on the street. Two days later, we went on a scavenger hunt in Accra. We were divided into groups of two and had to visit different sites in the city with very minimal instructions and language training and just a little money from the trainers. We became quite experienced in a very chaotic public transportation system and became very good at asking for directions and walking long distances. Ghanaians are so friendly so we felt quite safe walking around town. We felt very accomplished when everyone made it back safely to the compound and many of us had interesting stories to tell (including a taxi driver being arrested for having an expired license and wheel falling off of a van, called tro-tro here in Ghana).

The accommodations at the compound was quite nice for Ghana standards. We had running water at a common bathroom. We had electricity in the buildings and a fan in each room. We lived in dorm rooms so we had two people in each room. Despite the amenities, I still found myself doing a quick gut check asking myself whether I could stay in the country for the next 27 months. I felt some apprehension when thinking about all the challenges ahead. Those apprehension faded very quickly but I cannot help but wonder how often this sense of insecurity would crop up in my stay here in Ghana. Well, at least so far so good!

More to follow…