Back in Ghana and the Accra Marathon

---

9/30/09
Hello again everybody. I know it’s been a long time since I last posted anything on the blog, but I’ll fill you in on everything important that has happened. As most of you know, I was able to fly home for Sarah and Anthony’s wedding. Congrats, you two. Welcome to the family Anthony. I hope you know what you got yourself into. It was great to see all my family and friends. Thank you to everyone that made my trip home as enjoyable as it was. It’s hard to believe that I’ll be home for good in about 10 months.
Traveling back to my site was LONG to say the least. When I got back to my school in Akrokerri, I noticed a couple important things. The first thing I noticed was that the pump for the second borehole at the school was installed the same day I got back. It’s been a long time since I wrote about this borehole, but that’s because it was drilled in September of 2008. It only took 1 year to complete the borehole, so that should give you an idea of how fast things happen in Ghana. Another observation I made was that the new Headmaster hadn’t reported to school yet. I have now been back for a couple weeks and the Headmaster still hasn’t reported so the Assistant Headmaster is taking over the duties for now. Personally, I think we should give the new Headmaster a deadline to report to school, and if he doesn’t, then I get to move into the headmaster’s bungalow and out of the servant’s quarters. I think it’s safe to say that won’t happen though.
Shortly after I got back to site, I had to attend a PEPFAR Conference in Kumasi for the Peace Corps. Yes, I have another acronym that none of you will probably remember. PEPFAR stand for the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief. President Bush established PEPFAR to prevent the transmission of HIV as well as provide care for PLWHIV (People Living With HIV). Although Ghana has a relatively low HIV prevalence compared to many African countries, PEPFAR funds are still important to continue HIV education and lower the prevalence rate even more. If I remember correctly, the PEPFAR budget for the next 5 years is in the ball park of $50 billion. Ghana only gets a small portion of this money, but it allows us to do many HIV/AIDS programs. The conference took place in Kumasi with a number of PCVs and their counterparts and it was a very well organized conference. At the end of the week, a group of the PCVs at the conference, including me, travelled to Accra for the Accra International Marathon.
On Sunday, 11 Ghana PCVs and 1 Mali PCV ran the 2009 Accra International Marathon. I don’t want to talk too much about the marathon, but I will say that it was the worst experience of my life. The rest of my Peace Corps service should be a cake walk compared to the marathon. Ghana mentally and physically destroyed me on Sunday. The important thing is that I finished it. It does feel good to have my first marathon under my belt, and I look forward to running another one in America. Despite the horrible memories I have from the marathon, there are a couple entertaining stories from the experience that put a smile on my face. In the morning we had to go to a hotel near the airport to be picked up by a shuttle to go to the start of the marathon. Two things happened while we were at the hotel that I never could have expected. Shortly after we arrived another group of marathon runners came out to join us in front of the hotel gate. Everyone in the small group was Japanaese and they were wearing some hardcore marathon apparel. One of the runners had the shortest shorts I’ve ever seen, flip sunglasses, a running visor, and each article was some bright neon color. The award for best outfit goes to the oldest runner in the group though. This guy was wearing a hot pink kimono without a shirt that barely came to his upper thighs. Luckily he was wearing shorts though so it left a little something to the imagination. The guy in the kimono also had a sweet bear backpack with the bear holding the Japanese flag. I think one of the PCVs got a picture of us with them and I’ll try to get a copy of it so you can fully appreciate this running attire.
A few minutes after the Japanese runners joined us, a couple more people approached the front of the hotel, but they definitely weren’t runners. Keep in mind that all this took place around 4am since the marathon was supposed to start at 5:30am. A man and a woman came from the hotel and walked to the gate of the hotel. If I thought the kimono was a shocking outfit, it was nothing compared to the dress the woman was wearing. I’ll describe the dress simply as scandalous. You just don’t see women wearing revealing clothes like that in Ghana. The guy just looked like a regular guy. Then the woman started smoking a cigarette. This is significant because in Ghana, the cultural perception is that only prostitutes smoke; similar to the generalization that Rastafarians with dreadlocks sell pot. A taxi pulled up and the John gave the hooker a kiss before she left by herself and he walked back into the hotel. The entire time this happened all of us were standing there with our mouths wide open. I’ve never seen such an obvious interaction between a prostitute and a John. We all know stuff like that happens all the time, but it was still shocking to see it happen so openly.
School is back in session and most of the form 2 and 3 students are back at school. Like I said before, the new Headmaster still hasn’t shown up to school yet. This year I will once again be teaching all the form 1 core math classes. I requested to teach the form 1s again for a couple reason. For one thing, I already have most if not all the lesson plans written out from last year, plus I think I’ll be able to teach the topics better the second time around. Teaching the form 1s will also give me the opportunity to teach a wider range of students. Hopefully I am able to teach them some critical thinking skills that they can apply in all their classes. The downside to teaching the form 1s is that they won’t come to school until the middle of October at the earliest. Students are still waiting on their results from the BECE before they can be placed at a senior high school. My goal is to use this time to try and finally get a secondary project going to put bars around the computer lab. I’ll let you know how it goes.
That’s all for now. Laters.

---