Pictures from Ghana

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Required reading

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at the home/pool/yard of the Ambassador, and he and his wife could not have been more wonderful. I want to tell you all about it, but first I want you to hear this true story. You will understand why I can\t give names, locations, or dates, but trust me on this one. One of our PCVs, hereafter known as Saint PCV, was assigned to a small village. We went to our sites August 15. We were expected to spend our first three months integrating into our villages, finding out who the players are, where to shop, how to shop, etc. Certainly interact with everyone who might be involved in your project, but no specific activities yet. Well, after a while in his village he asked about a small girl he had seen several times, and who seemed in dire straits. He said she was so thin her bones were like sticks, with not even flesh left for the potbelly that signals malnutrition, she was dirty, and seemed totally neglected.

Because she was. Her mother was dead (don\t know those details) and one day, probably not for the first time, her father beat her. Perhaps in a frenzy caused by an aneurism, who knows, but the next morning he was dead. So obviously she took her revenge. The people in the village believe she is a ju-ju child who caused the death of both her parents, they were afraid of her, and the village decided to completely shun her, not give her access to food, and she would eventually die. If not from starvation, something else. Saint PCV, a man probably in his late thirties, not one of the new grads, knew he had to step in here. He realized he couldn\t move her into his quarters, but he brought her food, bathed her, got her clothing, etc. Villagers warned him that he could jeopardize his position in the village, but he did what he had to do. He just kept feeding her, and the week before Thanksgiving, after working his way through all the cultural and bureaucratic jungles, he got her settled in an orphanage where she will be cared for. Saint PCV saved a life, and we can all give thanks for that.

And this could still play out a lot of different ways for Saint PCV. The village might find it hard to trust him...maybe her evil rubbed off on him, maybe his ju-ju is stronger than hers, which could be another problem, maybe he is just a crazy obruni and they will all go right back to where they were. It\s hard to know. I have lived in two villages, each with a large Christian presence, but in both there was a seamless acceptance of the fact that someone had been cursed, or had put a curse, or something. In one case the elders, including the methodist pastor, worked to have the woman agree to remove the curse, and she did. There are at least two "camps" in Ghana for women who have been cast out of their villages for witchcraft. Usually old, but not always, no job, no source of income, and even the family is afraid of them..or afraid to help them because they might also be cursed. A female PCV has actually started a beadmaking class at one of the camps, so the women may have a skill and a source of income, although they will probably never be allowed to leave. And that wasn\t even her project, either. She just started it on her own as a second project. And the Daily Dispatch, a regular newspaper in Ghana, had a story a couple of weeks ago about a pedophile who had been arrested, and who they quoted as saying, *I never had a hankering for young boys until after my stepmother put that curse on me." (I think the translater might have been watching too many cowboy movies, because *hankerin* just doesn\t sound Ghanaian, but that\s another topic.) And we know it\s always the stepmom\s fault, but the point is witchcraft, sorcery, etc., is as real to many people as their daily bible classes. Or their Koran, because there is the same sort of parallel belief system further north where the villages may be almost totally muslim. Not just uneducated people, or people in the bush. It's part of the fabric of life and acts as a subtext to a great deal of thought and action, and should not be dismissed as just tribal nonsense. I have at least two other such stories that I will post when I have better computer access, but I want you to have this one for the holiday season. That child is being cared for, and the universe is a bit shinier for that.

Sorry it\s been so long between updates. I will have a new computer soon!!! and will be able to write at home and then just download here. Until then, love what you do and do what you love. Cheers, dw

Successful Conference!

The conference we hosted last week was totally different from what we had been told, but was great! We had been told it was a board meeting of some different NGOs. But it was a team of top managers from Cadbury\s eastern region, come to Ghana to check out and recommend ways to improve the Adjeikrom Cocoa Tours site. They were a wonderful group, interviewed villagers, the chief, elders, shop owners, the tourist committee, etc. They stayed one night at our guesthouse, and some put up tents in the area around. The one and only night that week that it didn\t rain. Then we all went to Koforidua where they did a presentation of the conclusions they had reached, and broke them out into short term, medium, long term goals, etc. Of course the first thing they think we should work on is electricity to the site, which was great because that\s what I have already been working on.\

The next thing they think we could do is make the visitor center a destination of its own, which we had been working on. I had borrowed lots of crafts, baskets, jewelry, tie-dye, etc, from other PCV sites and made a wonderful display. We have a kente weaver at our site, so they got to see him weave and then buy some of his product. I also sold beer and wine to the team at the end of the day, and they think we could make that a regular thing as well. Stop, use the new flush toilets, have a cold drink, finger the display, and be on your way. But maybe come back next time for the actual tour, which takes you on a trail through the cocoa forest, and shows you every step of the production, from the seed to the final chocolate bar. Anyhow, it was great, and the best part was that everyone from our village who went to the presentation got so jazzed!. They are more invested in the project than before, and I think that will continue. There has been increased activity and interest just since I came, but this whole team made quite a splash! And their report adds weight to our work, and should be helpful when I start working on a grant, or grants, to fund the electricity. I want to do the whole village, and my supervisor is holding out for only the guest house and center, but I will keep fighting for the bigger project. Actually, I think it makes it easier to get funding, since it brings power to more than 40 homes that are without it, but she is going for the quick buck. I get her point, but I\m still working on it. We\ll see.

I don\t remember if I posted earlier about the flush toilets, but that turned into kind of a mixed bag. The minister of tourism has set flush toilets at all visitor centers as a goal for the country, and our NGO sent a contractor to make it happen. The plumbing and porcelain was already installed, but that was all. So they made a septic tank and installed a huge polytank to hold water that uses a gravity flow down to the toilets. I had absolutely nothing to do with it, but the contractor came two weeks after I did so I get all the credit. And I\m happy to get it wherever I can. I have major complaints, but I\m picky. Soon I hope to show you a picture of how the polytank got filled up. A series of women, carrying huge buckets of water on their heads, came up a 15 foot ladder to dump the water into the top of the tank. I know there\s a better way, but I didn\t get to be in charge. And there were two men holding the ladder steady, so it wasn\t all up to the women. And the pump at the nearest bore hole is broken, so they had to carry much further than usual, but...

But it\s still Ghana, and it\s still beautiful, and I don\t itch any more and life is good. See you all next week.

More on the Ubiquitous Black Plastic Bag

They are everywhere, all the time. There is some cultural thing about not carrying anything exposed in your hand. I was scolded by my house mom when I carried an apple out the door with me to class, but I didn\t even then get the full understanding. A PCV whose been here a year used by scarf to cover an apple she was carrying. A young girl returned a book I had loaned her in a black plastic bag. The idea that there is a spot in the ocean bigger than all of Ghana and composed of used plastic doesn\t compute at all. So I heard, from a good source but have not confirmed, that the UK has banned all plastic shopping bags. Totally. No more. We care about the environment. But wait,we do have this machinery we can\t use any more. I know, let\s sell it at a good price to a manufacturer in Ghana! And they did! Why am I not surprised? Remember all those outlawed pesticides? And even those had some redeeming social value for a country where people are hungry, but plastic bags? Gimme a break!

The vagaries of language

We all know that language evolves both cross culturally and generationally. When an American says he\s pissed he means that he\s really annoyed. A Brit who is pissed is too drunk to drive. Although I did once hear an Aussie say that he was pissed at his friend who got too pissed the night before. And the word thong conjures an image of a rubber sandal for me, and something quite different for my 19-year old niece. Actually, post Monica it\s a new image for all of us, but I digress. People in Ghana use thin black plastic bags for everything. The market lady puts two carrots in one, a green pepper in another, and then both of them in a third bag. And you absolutely cannot just put something in the bag you are already carrying, or in your pack. The locals call these plastic shopping bags rubbers. Who knows why? And as a woman of a certain age, that has a totally different meaning for me. And no, not on the foot...those are galoshes. So I\m in Accra, at the Global Mamma\s retail shop which is full of beautiful things hand made by Ghanaian women who are paid a fair wage or a fair trade price for their work. Imagine my confusion when the cute young volunteer says, Come, let me show you the wonderful handbags the women are making out of used rubbers!. Well, I looked, and they are wonderful, but you get the picture.

Birthday Thanks

I really thought that sometime last week somebody would look at a calendar and say, Hey, Deedub has a birthday coming up. But I went to the big city with a friend, whose 62nd birthday was the same week, and we checked into a 3-star hotel. Then went to PC office to check on mail, and had to take a cab to get everything back to the hotel! Cards, letters, all kinds of food treats. And some of it was actually mailed in August..I have the best friends and family in the world.

And the hotel. What can I say. I had been in Ghana four months and two days, but that was the first temperature controlled shower in all that time. When we first arrived we were taken to a school dormitory, two to a room, with an adjoining bucket-flush toilet and a shower. But the water didn\t work, and there is never hot water in a shower anywhere here...or at least not where we have been staying. So I took several a day, actually got all the shampoo out of my hair, pooped in a flush toilet, and swam three times in a real pool, which was absolutely grand. And drank a G^T w/real ice. What a great two days. I kept crying when I opened mail, so I finally took it all back to my site, and opened a few each day.

Sidebar story: Before we first got to the dormitory we had a formal ceremony at PC HQ, with libations, speeches, coconut water, etc. By that time we had been up for more than 37 hours, and it just kept droning on. We were given first aid kits, containing condoms, and a lecture about how you can\t be too careful. And our medical officer made a point of telling me that the last PCV she treated for HIV was 72 years old. So get that smug look off your face and keep this kit with you at all times. We finally got to the dorms and had food, and crashed. Our rooms surrounded a rectangular compound with a big cement porch all around. So in the night I wake up to the sounds of a huge party going on outside my door. At least seven of the kids were playing poker, using the condoms as chips. I have no idea how it all worked out, because I went back to sleep, but I still love the image.

ALERT JERRY SPRINGER: I finally have the news on the boys who were turned into snakes. A fetish priest has confessed that he staged the whole thing, hoping to enhance his reputation. He stole the snakes from the zoo, paid the kids some pettypetty money, and I think had some help with the photos. Anyhow, the kids are in the hands of the juvenile authorities, the voo-doo man has been arrested, and the snakes have been returned to the zoo. Whew! what a relief.

On the science front, I have learned that if you leave two to three inches of steaming water in a bucket on the porch, at least a thousand mosquitos will immediately commit suicide by diving in. You won\t notice this until you have added the cold water and carried it up to the bath house, and are starting to pour the water over your body. Still, I think the mosquito vector people should be interested in this bit of info.

Good news on the job front. We are hosting a conference for 24 people at my guesthouse on October 21 and 22. Coming right up. They are bringing in their own cook and food, but apparently no generators. I think it\s candle time, because although there are kerosene lanterns at the site there is no kerosene to be found anywhere around! I am gathering up "product" from my fellow PCVs, hoping to have baskets, jewelry, shea butter soap, etc., on display in the visitor center as an idea of what we can use to make money for the center.

This is my first crack at on-line since my birthday, but still have to go because I am meeting someone with beads for me. You should not worry that on-line time costs me money...it's about 60 pesua an hour. The ghana cedi, composed of 100 pesuas, is currently trading at about1.46, so it\s no big deal. It's getting here that is hard. Although at the obruni hotel there was a functioning business center, but they wanted 60 pesua per MINUTE.

We are paid six cedis a day, and I am really struggling to live on it. *But I do have some other resources, so it\s more the challenge than the reality. Anyhow, when I was making $27 US an hour I would never consider paying that much for a bottle of wine. Here I have found a very nice Argentinian sauvignon blanc for 3.75 cedis, which is more than half a days pay, but it doesn\t even make me blink! It's all relative. More later.

Miss youall more than I can say. And Hotmail still doesn\t work here, so I can\t reply to anyone with that e-mail. I can download Facebook at this site, and plan to spent a lot of time next week doing that. XXooXX Cheers, dw

Emergency road service

To answer some questions, a tro-tro is a 12 to 15 passenger van (often holding as many as 25 people) that make regular runs between villages, towns, and cities. From my village I usually have to take a taxi to Osiem, 60p, and then a tro to Kofaridua, 1 cedi 70 p. Today I caught a tro in my village that was coming all the way here, so It took less than three hours. They are sometimes brand new with AC, and sometimes not. On the way we encountered a problem on the highway and the PCV I was meeting here had to help push their tro to get it started halfway here. Ours had no problem, but I thought you would be interested in this part. I have not been on any road in Ghana that is more than two lanes, except for the ones that are under construction and may be four lanes of dirt or mud. Anyhow, if your vehicle breaks down and will block the lane, or if there is an accident. the procedure is this:
Take your cutlass and cut down as much greenery from the roadside as possible, and strew it in the lane for at least 50 yards on either side of the accident. Whaddaya mean you don\t have a cutlass? At home we call them machetes, but here its a cutlass and everybody has one, including little three-year olds who aren\t as tall as the cutlass is long. Anyhow, that\s the drill. No flares, no traffic cones, but everybody knows what the signal means and it seems to work. We wormed our way around the stalled cars, and had no problems.

Talked with the kids this weekend and got most of the news from there, but there is some local stuff here that I need to get updated on. The Ghanaians, Christian and other, have an absolutely admirable ability to accept the one true god along with the other ones. So here\s what happened a couple of months ago, when I was in homestay in a different village. Two boys were doing something bad with the lottery. I don\t know if the lottery itself is evil, or just what they were doing, and I have been told both. In any event, one of the river goddesses turned them into snakes to punish them. Somebody, maybe the parents, took them from the jungle, or the forest, because a real snake would recognize that they were not real and would kill them. So they were taken and kept for safety in a locked room while they contacted a fetish priest to try and reverse the spell, or undo the curse, or whatever. In that room, however, the snakes began to vomit money, both Ghana Cedis and US bills. (20, but I\m not sure of that part. No euros.)It was a big deal in my homestay village, but there were big color posters at some of the news stands in bigger cities as well. I saw before and after photos of the boys (and snakes), and it was very sad. Anyhow, the last I heard is that it has taken the priest a long time, but he says it takes a lot of different items for such a big curse. However, some people are beginning to think that perhaps he is more interested in the money than in rescuing the boys. Ya think? I will visit my homestay family soon and try to get an update. I mean, I\m sorry about Walter Cronkite and all that, but I think they ought to forget the money and get those snakes turned back into boys so their families can get some relief. I will keep you posted.

A ghana cedi is currently trading at about 1.46 for one USD. Peace Corps pays us six cedis a day, and I think minimum wage in Ghana is 3cedis a day. Even in the part of my village that has electricity, almost 2/3s of the families aren\t connected because it costs 175ghc for the meter and the hookup. My first project is the guesthouse and the visitor center, but my secondary project is to see what can be done about that. Will keep you posted, as well. Gotta go, last tro leaves in about an hour and I have to carry all this wine to the lorry station. Miss you all. Keep those cards and letters coming in!. Cheers, dw

Its Really Me This Time

And now that I can actually post something, I don\t know where to start. There is a difference here between small boys, just what it sounds like, and smallboy, one word, which can be a 30-year old guy 6 feet tall. And the emphasis is on the small. They are guys without real jobs, who do chores, chop grass, go to farm, carry water, etc. It can also be a put down. But this morning I was dazzled by two small boys, no more than 5 years if that, who had obtained a big palm frond from some roofing project. Using a machete taller than they are, they cut off all the fronds and the spikes. Then, with two tin cans salvaged from the rubbish pit, they got to work. They pounded the cans open with a rock, using the machete for a little finish work. I can\t explain the engineering, but the cans became wheels at the bigger end of this long stick. This was a two-day project, at least, but today was the finishing touches. So then they each have a long stick with two wheels at one end, and they go racing down the hill making zoom zoom sounds. Then they trudge back up and race down again! Dodging taxis and tros, and having a great time.

Someone asked me about thrift shops, etc., and they do exist in the bigger cities. But almost every small village has a big market place and market days once or twice a week. \on market day you will see a guy with a blanket on the ground covered with heaps of shoes...new and not so new. Next to another vendor with a blanket full of clothing, both new and used, but I don\t know the logistics of how it gets here. Ghanaians are extremely careful in their dress and style, and the local cloth is plentiful and not very expensive, depending on the quality. Hand stamped batik can be quite pricey, but you can get two yards of good fabric, actually called a 2-yard, for about 3 cedis. And dressmakers are cheap. But there is all this other stuff, and the locals call it Dead White Mans clothes. Sure enough, there was a sweet little housecoat with the label from the nursing home still stitched in the back. And one of our PCVs was wearing a pair of trousers that I am sure were Dead White Arizona Golfer clothes, but they fit and they only cost 2 cedis!

When I have a computer I will be able to write and then send, instead of doing it off the cuff like today. But it is great to be at a ICafe that works, and let me post this. I will try to do a weekly update, so stay tuned, but keep those cards and letters coming in. Somebody said they felt bad complaining about life at home, but it keeps me grounded and in touch, and I love hearing about it. I haven\t canceled Facebook yet, but find that it is too much even here. It is simply too big a file, and not possible.\

A bit of local news, however, is that a district assemblyman announced that he was going to maintain contact with his people through his Facebook, and it created quite an uproar. The number of friends you can have is limited, only a tiny fraction of his constituency even has electricty, let alone a computer, and they were quite volubly annoyed at the very idea. See you next week, I hope. Cheers, dw

Spoke to Dorothy this morning

She is doing fine, except for the bug bites and the heat. She has tried to update the blog but ran into some problems with the password. We straightened that out so she should be able to update the blog soon.
Keep the letters coming, she really loves to hear from home.

It gets dark at 6:30 and she said that dark is "really dark" so she reads by a candle. I asked about her headlight for reading but she said all the bugs come to it and then go up her nose! YUK I don't know how she is managing such a glamorous life!

I am not sure I will get this right but she said the local kids call out to her when she is walking "hey white man where are you going?" they don't have male/female in their language. So she learned to say in their language "hey small black person, where are you going?" The kids get a big laugh out of that.

I really look forward to her calls. It is weird she can text Colleen and I but we can't text back. She can read all the e-mails everyone has sent but can't reply back very often......More later

Update from Connie

This was sent to Connie from Dorothy. Slightly edited by Ken.
Lots of great detailed information about where my Mom is.
Kelley

Today I can actually access my e-mail AND blog. Last time I couldn’t post either, today I can respond to e-mail but not the blog. Thank gawd the kids are posting for me occasionally. I cant tell you how much I miss the humor, the conversation, and just the easiness of random conversation. Ghanaian English is a combination of Brit and local terms, and has a very different cadence. So I speak very slowly, and repeat a lot, and they must do the same for me. It’s easy to adapt to; we don’t bathe here, we bath, and there’s a flask and a torch, but some of the other stuff is more arcane. I have been so desperate for communication, and now I don’t know anything to say.
There are trees in Ghana that would be the perfect solution for outside Franks unit, but nobody knows what the name is! Straight trunk with branches that grown down so it looks like an upside down cone. I will keep asking, and somebody will know.

I have been at my site for a week today, and this is my third time in this big town that takes 2.5 hours by bus. But this time the internet is working! or almost working. The site is beautiful, in a small bowl kind of surrounded by mountains and low hills so it is cooler there. Surrounded by cocoa farms, which breed a really vicious little invisible bug. There is absolutely no ambient light, so when it is not overcast the night sky is astonishing. I don't recognize anything, but its stunning. That’s also when the bugs come out, so I don’t spend a lot of time out there after dark.

The guesthouse was built to house researchers working on cocoa agriculture, so when their project was finished they gave the buildings and the keys to the village chief and suggested it should be a tourism spot. Unfortunately they don't have any monkeys, or hippos, or crocodiles, and there isn't that much interest in watching trees grow. Except for people like you and me. I am the first peace corps volunteer there, so I have two empty rooms and a settling in allowance. Hard to know where to start, but right now I am sleeping on a cot and cooking on a butane tank with a burner on the top. Hard to do anything with more than one ingredient, especially since there is no refrigeration. If you don't eat it now, it won't keep, so I am doing pretty basic stuff for now. One of the other PCVs is living in a four-bedroom house with full kitchen, plumbing, etc., and says she doesn't feel like she’s even in the peace corps!

I don’t think I would trade, because she is in a big loud city, but sure wish there was some medium ground. The village elders had the local carpenter build a gorgeous wardrobe, with drawers, sealed doors, etc. Of course, you don’t want to put anything in there and close it all up because of the moisture, but it serves as a place for some stuff...and i leave the doors open. It has beautiful brass fittings. On the other hand, you cant lock the door to the latrines or the bath house, so life is full of tradeoffs.

I also have access to a room in the chiefs palace in the village, where there is electricity. The palace, like all other buildings in the village, is made of mud bricks covered with a stucco like paint that washes away over time. And the room is usually full of young guys watching soccer, or futbal and it is properly called. I don’t have a computer yet anyhow, and I can keep my phone charged there. Besides, my space is at the top of a long steep hill, and if I walk that a couple of times a day I will be in great shape when I get home. I have been going down every morning, buying two eggs, or fruit, or whatever, and coming home to breakfast. I was afraid that if I ever had anything but Nescafe it would just make me more homesick and miss my morning paper. However, Kel packed the coffee with copies of the Bee, so mornings are great!

Hope you will tell the Woodside ladies that the iPod has kept me grounded a couple of times. All Ghanaian sound equipment has two speeds, off and top volume. The guy in the room next to mine during my homestay used to turn on a religious program at 5AM, with some guy shouting how we are all doomed, real fire and Brimstone, but he always finished up by shouting what people could do to save themselves before it was too late. I couldn’t understand much beyond the shouting, which lasted a full 45 minutes. This morning somebody had that same station on an amplifier up the hill from my site, so I am again in danger of being doomed. But Neil Young and Richard Thompson will remind me of life’s truths.
I have to get an e-mail off my the non-profit that is supposed to be funding my site, because I want a bed and a proper stove, for starters, so will close now.
It feels so rich to have mail from you AND access to reply. Keep those cards and letters coming. There is a new internet site that is only 45 minutes from my home, should be up and running by next week, so I hope access will be much easier. Just in case this stops on me any moment, you might want to forward it to Bry and Colleen and see if they want to post part of it on the blog.
Miss you lots.
Cheers, DW

Graduation complete!

Hi everyone,
I talked to my Mom Friday August the 14th and she did in fact graduate, they had a ceremony and all!
(I am a week behind and I am here in the US) She passed all her tests with a 95% and had to give a speech in her "new language" at the graduation, she said it was a very short speech LOL.
She was on her way to the beach with the rest of the group for some much needed relaxation. She was drinking a beer which thankfully she can drink there with no Migraine, SUPER! She received my "care package" and was excited to hit the beach for 2 days with some books and coffee from coffee works. It has been pretty grueling and she sounded very happy and glad that this phase was done. She is excited to move on to the next adventure, I am so proud of her I can't even tell you how much!
By now she is probably getting settled into her new digs at her new project. Once settled she will figure all the stuff out and hopefully be able to get to the Internet regularly to keep us all updated........More later, Kelley

Dorothy the Graduate

Hi Gang, it's Colleen this time with the latest on Dorothy's adventures! She has passed her Peace Corps Training and her language course and she graduates on Thursday.
Good work DeeDub! The rumor is that she and a few other volunteers are going to sneak off to the beach for a couple of days before heading to their new assignments on Monday. Sounds like she is leading those young people astray. Typical.

Next week she will move to her new home and begin work. Her first project is to find a way to get electricity to her end of the village. It's hard enough to deal with utility companies here...must be a real treat in Ghana. Good luck with that!

She's glad to hear from all of you so keep those letters and emails coming. More news as it happens, stay tuned!

Hi, Bryant here with an update on Dorothy's escapades.
I spoke to Dorothy last Saturday and she is doing well. She was visiting the village where she will beliving and working, beginning in two weeks. She was happy with the living conditions there and thinks they are much better than where she has been staying. She has two rooms in a nice, clean guesthouse. There are separate kitchen, outhouse and shower buildings, but they are all fairly new and nicely maintained. She will be working on a project at a coco plantation near Adjeikrom (I hope that's right) in the Fanteakwa district in Ghana's Eastern Region It's a ecotourism project started by Cabury-Schwepps, Earthwatch and a Ghanian nonprofit organization. If you google Earthwatch Ghana or Cadbury ecotourism or any combination, you should be able to find out about this project and maybe see some pictures of the village. It sounds like Cadbury buillt a nice visitor center and the guest house, left the keys and said see ya! Dorothy will be working with employees of a non profit organization and with Earthwatch volunteers to make it a working tourist attraction. This may involve getting local crafters to give examples of their work and, of course, selling it.
There is no electricity at her end of the village yet, but the Chief has electricity at his house and he will provide a room for Dorothy to work in at "The Palace". She likes the people she will be working with and is anxious to get started after all the moving around she has done during training. It will also be nice to have her own home after living with host families for so many weeks.

If you would like to write to her, use this address:

Dorothy Wooldridge
Peace Corps
P. O. Box 5796
Accra North
Ghana, West Africa

This is the central Peace Corps address in Ghana, they will distribute the mail from there. I know she would love to hear from you.
Her email is deedubsmf@gmail.com, but she doesn't often have access to a computer.