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Published: August 9th 2008
8/7/08
I just got back to home stay in Old Tafo from my site visit in Akrokerri. Before we left for site we had a counterpart workshop where we meet our headmaster and counterpart from our respective schools, or at least we were supposed to. My headmaster didn’t come. Instead he sent two teachers to the workshop. The vast majority of the material covered I had already heard at least three or four times. The real purpose of the workshop was to inform the headmasters and counterparts about the Peace Corps and its policies because it is the first time many of the schools have had Peace Corps Volunteers. We did have a pretty awesome traditional night where a couple of different groups played music and danced in the style of northern and southern clans. The rest of the time I continued practicing my patience.
The two teachers from my school accompanied me to the site in Akrokerri. The first leg of our trip took us to Kumasi. Since a number of PCVs were going north we decided to travel together for convenience. The counterparts planned the transportation and they didn’t factor in all the luggage the volunteers were taking to leave at their sites to make travel back to site after swearing-in easier. I wasn’t surprised when our planned departure time of 6am was pushed back to 7:15am. It took about 3 hours cramped in a van to get to Kumasi and another half an hour to get to the station in Kumasi. From there we took a taxi to the main station in Kumasi, Kejetia, where we hopped on a Metro bus headed to Obuasi. After an hour on the road we dropped from the bus at Akrokerri junction and it was only one more taxi ride to get to Asare Bediako SHS. Needless to say, travel in Ghana is typically LONG, uncomfortable, and tiring even if you aren’t going a particularly long distance. I’m just glad that my house is in the school compound so my morning commute involves walking 100 yards to class. So when you’re cringing next time your at the gas station because it’s over $4 per gallon, just remember that at least you don’t have to take Ghanaian public transit.
The PCV that I’m replacing, Jason, hasn’t left yet so we shared the room and bed. On the plus side, the foam mattress is a full size so there was just enough room to make sleeping totally awkward. So here is the down low on my accommodations. My bungalow is in the school compound and connected to my headmaster’s house. My room is really small but it’s nice. Like I said I have a full size mattress but the bed is broken so it’s sitting on slats. I have a shower and a flush toilet, but no running water so I have to bucket bath and fill the toilet tank with water by hand. The borehole is 50 yards away and the students usually fill up my water barrel. I have a nice porch that almost doubles my living area. None of the lights currently work, but I do have electricity. I can see the cell phone tower from my room so I have full bars all the time, so don’t be scared to call.
As for the stuff I’m inheriting. Sadly, Jason gave the fridge that he had to another PCV because he said he didn’t know if I was actually going to stay. I am getting a nice boom box that picks up short wave BBC pretty good. I’m getting an electric burner that trips the circuit if I turn it up past 4. I also have a nice set of shelves that will double as a dresser and a book case and anything else I need it for. Besides that I’ll get a bunch of little miscellaneous stuff like pots, utensils, hair clippers, and whatever else Jason decides to leave.
Now here are the home improvements that I plan on making as soon as I move in. Firstly, I’m going to have the school electrician fix all of the lights so I don’t have to sit in the dark all night. Then I am going to buy some netting and wood and have the school carpenter screen my porch so I can cook and relax outside without worrying about the mosquitoes. Then I’m going to buy a used fridge so I can keep all the Gatorade you guys are sending me cold (hint, hint). After that I’m going to ask either the school carpenter or the Peace Corps to fix my bed so I don’t have any insects nesting under my mattress, I’ll talk about that more in a second. After that all I really have to do is clean the bathroom and the shower and I’ll have myself a comfy little bungalow.
I can eat the food that the school cook, mama comfort, makes for free. If I give them a couple cedis per week I can have an egg sandwich every morning and extra meat in the stews cause protein is hard to come by. If I really wanted to, I could stay at the school compound almost the whole time, but that’s not going to happen. Eating the school food will save me a bunch of money and I wouldn’t have to cook for myself very much, but Jason said he got the runs all the time so we’ll see how long I eat the school food. The fact that I don’t have a kitchen or even a sink, which every PCV is supposed to have, will make it a little more difficult to cook for myself.
Jason showed me all around Akrokerri and introduced me to all the important people like the Regent and the presiding district assemblyman. Since Jason was leaving and I am new to the community we were invited to meals from many people in the community; I ate a lot of fufu in the last week. Jason also took me to Obuasi, which is my market town, and it has all the resources and accommodations I could want. It has supermarkets, internet cafes, transportation to everywhere, banks, and pizza joints. Obuasi is only about 7 miles down the road, and surrounding PCVs often meet there to grab a pizza. While I was in Obuasi I bought a couple DVDs that have up to 20 movies on each of them. I picked up James Bond, Harrison Ford collection, and one that has all the Star Wars, LOTR, Back to the Future, and Predator series. We watched one of the Indian Jones movies and the quality was pretty good considering there are 20 movies on one disc and they only cost $4.
Since the lights don’t currently work we listened to a lot of BBC radio when it got dark. On the night we watched Indian Jones, we were getting ready for bed when Jason yelled and started stomping the ground. I grabbed my maglite to see what happened. From the sound of it I thought he just stepped on my nalgene bottle in the dark, but that wasn’t it. There was a centipede looking bug that had a pair of sizable pincers on its tail, and it had pinched Jason. He stomped it dead but there were two little puncture wounds on his foot from the encounter. It was the first time Jason has been bitten or stung by anything other than a mosquito in his two years in Ghana. He cleaned the area, and we went to bed because there was no swelling after a while so we assumed it wasn’t poisonous, which it wasn’t. I thought I had seen an insect like that before, and when I woke up the next morning I knew why. There was a smaller and dead insect of the same kind lying on top of the mosquito net, because the nets are treated to kill mosquitoes when they touch it. This is the main reason that I would like my bed and lights fixed. We have plenty of raid, but if there are literally bugs under my bed, then I want to be able to see them to kill them. Jason’s foot is fine. It was nothing more than a bee sting. I kept my maglite on after that just to play it safe.
This is the best part of the whole trip. If you aren’t in a good mood, then this story will put a smile on your face. I was “running” while I was at site, which takes up a lot of the water barrel when you have to flush the toilet a few times everyday. This bout of “running” wasn’t nearly as explosive as the first. It was just more of an annoyance, but that’s bowel movements in Ghana. During one of these trips to the toilet I had wrapped up the deed and was going to exit the bathroom. To my great surprise and wonderment the door handle turned right off the door and was lying calmly in my hand with the door closed tight in front of me. My natural instinct was to place the handle back where it was supposed to be on the door in the hope that magically the metal would fuse together and be good as new. As you can guess that didn’t work. I didn’t really believe what had just happened, and I felt like I was in some ridiculous movie where someone gets locked in the bathroom that they had just befouled. I quickly gathered my wits, and in typical McGuiver fashion I started looking around to see what I could use to get myself out. Obviously I could try kicking the door down but that seemed a little extreme for the first option. I then realized that I had a few coins in my pocket, and I thought that if I could use the coin like a screw driver then maybe I could turn the remnants of the handle just enough to open the latch. After endless attempts, what was left of the handle was too rounded off to have any grip and I was no closer to getting out of the bathroom. Without seeing any other means of escape, and not wanting to break the door to the bathroom that would soon be mine; I knew what I had to do. After taking a deep breath, not too deep because you remember what I had just gotten done doing in the bathroom, I held my head high and yelled for Jason. Luckily for me, Jason had been sitting in the room just feet away listening to the BBC on the radio. He answered with an air of uncertainty. I explained to him my situation and asked if he could do so much as to help me get out of the bathroom. He came to my aid at a moments notice and I was instantly free from my captivity. On my first trip to visit my site, I locked myself in the bathroom… On the bright side, I’m really glad that happened when Jason was there to release me instead of a month from now when I am there all by myself. I hope that made your day, because I thought it was pretty humorous.
On my way back to home stay I spent the night at the Kumasi Sub Office and enjoyed A/C, self-filling toilets, working showers, French toast with banana syrup, and door handles that hugged firmly to their doors. I met up with another trainee, Vicky, who is the lady I travelled with on vision quest ironically enough, and we traveled back to home stay together. The trip was surprisingly easy. When I got back to Old Tafo it had felt like I had been gone for a long time. When I was walking through the town I was shocked at how many people recognized me and called me by name when I was no where near my home stay house. I can’t explain how welcoming it was to hear everyone welcoming me back and using my name. It really felt like I was returning home. It has taken a while, but I finally feel like I am a part of the community in Old Tafo and not just another obruni. The sad thing is that I’ll be leaving Old Tafo in just a couple weeks.
I’m excited to get back to my site after Jason has moved out so I can start moving in and making those home improvements. My accommodations aren’t the best, but they definitely aren’t the worst by a long shot either. I think I fall nicely just above par. I think that is long enough for one post. Keep sending messages and letters; they make me smile like when I got locked in the bathroom. Take care and I miss everyone.
8/9/08
I just wanted to say that I got a bunch of unexpected mail when I returned from site visit and it was awesome. Thank you everyone that has sent mail already. On Thursday I have my language assessment and I must pass with at least intermediate-mid to swear-in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. After my language assessment, training is practically done. Wish me luck on my Twi test…
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Baby D
non-member comment
Wow Hewey, just reading up on all your blogs...This is some pretty cool stuff! We miss you over here buddy!