End of Term, Parents' Visit, Conferences, and Back to School

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5/23/10

A thousand apologies. I know it’s been a really long time since I posted last, and my only excuse is that I’m getting lazy in my old age. Here is a quick rundown of what has happened since I last wrote. We had end of term exams, my parents came to visit, there was an all volunteer conference, it was my birthday, I had my close of service conference, chose my COS date (my last day as a Peace Corps Volunteer), started the third and final term of school, my project to put bars over the windows and doors of the computer lab is almost finished, and we’ve been frantically planning for the STARS conference next week. I could leave it there, but I think I’ll elaborate a little bit more on some of the topics.

At the end of last term, I rushed to mark my exams and get my grades ready so I could enter them in the terminal reports before my parents got here. After a few long days of marking, I was able to get it all done. The only problem was that when I went to record the grades the day before my parents arrived, none of the terminal reports were ready to be filled in. That meant that I couldn’t fill in my grades until returned to school a month later after the next term began. As of right now, I’ve only recorded my grades for 2 of my 4 classes because 2 of the terminal reports still aren’t ready.

We still don’t have a headmaster. The district director says we will have a headmaster by the end of the term, but I’m not holding my breath. Construction on the new classroom block has finally resumed. There is now a roof as well as window and door frames. I doubt we’ll use the classroom this school year, but they should be ready by next year when the school increases to 4 forms and 16 classes. More exciting news is the progress on my project to upgrade the security on computer lab. Last week 2 of the 4 sets of bars were installed by the school mason. Everything should be done by the end of this week, and pictures will be up shortly. Thank you again to everyone that donated this project.

At the beginning of April, my parents came to visit for almost 2 weeks. Not only was it a vacation for my parents, but it was also a vacation for me. It was the first time I’d been to many of the touristy attractions in Ghana. It was the first time I’ve ever really felt like a tourist in Ghana, and I’m glad I had two years of integration into Ghanaian culture to set us apart from most of the other tourists. The highlights from our tour of Ghana included slave castles in Cape Coast and Elmina, the canopy walk in Kakum National Reserve, Kente weaving in Adanwomase, Adinkra stamping in Ntonso, the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, Kristo Boase Monestary, Kintampo Waterfalls, and Mole National Park. It’s hard to pick a favorite moment from the trip, but the animals, crafts, and history were amazing. Make sure you ask my parents about the trip too though, because they’ll talk about different things than me. Many of the things that were amazing to my parents are things that I see and experience everyday so they don’t stand out in my mind as much. I have to say that I was very impressed with my parents throughout the trip. They were good sports the whole time, and surprisingly open to everything Ghanaian from going to the market to trying Ghanaian food. Granted, we had a private car and driver the whole time, but they still got to experience some of the day to day frustrations that are typical in Ghana. If you ask my mom, the low points of the trip were breaking down and sitting in the car for 2 hours while mechanics worked on the car, and a 3 hour drive on an extremely rough dirt road in a tropical downpour that included spinning out in the mud. We had a little scare at the end of their trip when the volcano eruption in Iceland affected all flights through Europe, but luckily things cleared up just in time for their flights. Like everything in Ghana, somehow it all worked out in the end.

After my parents left, I made a quick trip up to Wa in the Upper West Region to go to the Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary. And by quick trip, I mean it was a 13 hour bus ride, and I was there for 3 nights. The sanctuary was really cool. It included an hour and a half bike ride in and out from the lodge near the river. On the river safari I saw a group of 9 hippos and they were impressive, but it was kind of anticlimactic. I personally thought feeding the monkeys and getting up close and personal with the elephants was much cooler.

After the Hippo Sanctuary I headed straight for Ho in the Volta Region for the All Volunteer Conference. Most of the sessions we had was information that I was hearing for the third or fourth time since I’m on the tail end of my service. The conference was a blast though because it’s the first time in almost a year and a half that all 132 PCVs were together. To make it even better, my birthday was during the conference so it was nice to be able to celebrate with all my Peace Corps friends. And celebrate is exactly what we did. We also had Peace Corps Prom and a Talent Show. At the talent show, another PCV and I sang a parody of the Lonely Island song “I’m on a Boat.” We put a Ghanaian spin on it and changed it to “I’m on a Tro.” Eventually I’ll get a video of it up on facebook. Needless to say, many of us were exhausted after a week of playing in the pool until all hours of the night or dancing the night away after full days of sessions.

Directly following All Vol, my group had our COS (Close of Service) Conference. Unfortunately, it was at the exact same place as All Vol and we we’re kind of getting sick of the hotel we were in. It’s not that it wasn’t nice, but the same hotel for a week and a half and sessions everyday got old. Plus, this was the first time in I don’t know how long, that the COS Conference wasn’t held at the beach. It wasn’t as big of a deal as it should have been because we had all just spent a week together for the first conference. The purpose for the COS Conference is to prepare us to return to life in America. Part of that included watching movie trailers of upcoming movies and recent music videos. I have to say that Lady Gaga stole the show. That chick is crazy, and her videos/outfits are even crazier, and we loved it! I expect the club scene to look like a Lady Gaga video when I come home, so don’t disappoint America. The most exciting part of the COS Conference is choosing your COS date. My last day as a Peace Corps Volunteer is officially August 11, 2010!!! Let the countdown begin.

The last few weeks I’ve been busier than usual with school and planning for the STARS Conference. It’s crunch time since the conference starts next Sunday, May 30. It looks like everything will come together, and as I said earlier, somehow it’ll all work out in the end. I’m really excited for the conference and it’ll be a lot of fun, but it’s also been a lot of work and I’m going to be very relieved when it’s all over. I’ll try to write again not too long after STARS because I shouldn’t be as busy, but I’m not making any promises. Until we meet again. Yebehyia bio.

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