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
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
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
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
Sunday, September 6, 2009
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
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
Saturday, September 5, 2009
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
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
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