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Wow, it has been a while since the last time I wrote. I have had some problems with the internet so everyone has to understand, it is not always easy to write or (especially) upload photos...but I am determined to get them up today.
I left Accra on October 30th and went through Bole District where I stayed with my aunt and uncle and cousin for a few days. I got some really nice cornrows done (not without taking 15 minutes to try to explain to them what the hell I wanted, of course!), and my aunt and I took the few days we had together to meet a Canadian lady working with VSO(Voluntary Services Overseas) Canada in Wa. She has been here for 3 years and is married to a local rastafarian man (who you don't come by often in the northern region). She is helping to monitor the schools in wa and is a consultant to the teachers. Normally, a VSO contract lasts 2 years, so I was surprised that she has stayed here so long but I think she actually prefers it to Canada! And I am now starting to understand why....
On November 3rd, Saturday, I came to Kaleo which is 15 minutes away from Wa, and is like Bole district - a small community with its own customs...and you don't easily come across a beer bar and there is no internet cafe. I have come to Kaleo to help with a VSO volunteer from the UK who has been here f afternoon, however, I get use my leadership skills to organize games or book reading and use this louuuuuuud voice of mine to get the kids to sit in their chairs and stop yelling! Someone needs to do it! haahah it has shown me just what a tough mother I will be one day...
Even though I may have to take authoritative measures at times, the children have come to really appreciate me, and everyone is so eager to read tor 8 months. Her name is Sophie, and she has been teaching at a resource centre that has been established by VSO, where teachers bring their classes to learn English. It is mostly primary schoolchildren, but in the afternoon children come to play games and read books or use the computers. When I talked about coming to volunteer, my position was kind of foggy and I had no idea if I was going to be left to teach the children all by myself! - but, thankfully, I am just a mere sidekick in the morning where I monitor the children and help them to pronounce their words clearly. This was a relief to me because I had a few sleepless nights before coming up just imagining just HOW I was going to teach with zero teaching experience ...hahahaa. In theo me. The second day I was in Kaleo, Sophie and I went to the local church where I had to introduce myself and that my father had come from natouh (a very rural village about 1 hour from Wa city). So the word has been going around that I am a "dagow" (dagow means dagharti, one of the tribes in the upper west region, but there is a great debate over what the correct term is...but I will be using dagow (singular) or dagaaba (plural) to refer to this tribe), and people have been spreading the word about me all over town...so this has been a very interesting occurrence. I will walk down the street, and kids may call me "mansala" (white person or foreigner) when the first see me from far but when I come close they see that my skin is brown and then their parents start yelling "natouh ma! natouh ma!", which means woman from natouh.
I pretty much get the celebrity treatment everywhere I go because children crowd around me waiting to touch my hand...its the coolest thing ever! The only problem is trying to get them to go back to their homes when we are closing the centre :) Overall, though, I think the centre is a great place for children to come and I have told them to start bringing their homework so we can discuss it in English and I can help them with it.
Two men sent by the ministry of rural development came from accra to make a documentary on VSO and they came and filmed the centre (to my horror) and it was a very hot day and I had forgotten my handkerchief at home. You should have heard me pleading with them to edit me out - ha ha - I must have looked horrible that day...but it did, however, capture this game I was playing with the children where everyone was interacting and having a lot of fun. I heard afterwards from one of the locals they spoke to that they were really impressed, so that is good news.
I do feel bad for Sophie though, because she only has one other person is helping with the centre (and one boy who is giving computer tutorial to those who sign up) and this lady is not exactly the most serviceable. Next year, Sophie is supposed to go around a assess the schools but unforunately, with no one around to take over the centre, I don't know how she is going to do that. Oh the challenges!
Anyway, I am trying to do my part in Kaleo by trying to organize a fundraising program near the end of November. I want to have a football (soccer) tournament and get everyone to come and watch. I'm still figuring out about the entertainment because I am trying to get a rapper who comes from the northern region to come and make an appearance - his name is Batman Samini for those who listen to hiplife. We have some connections because he is the uncle to my cousin...and it would be really great if he could come. Anyways, I have been really excited about this and started to think about organizing it when Sophie told me that someone wants to send 10 computers to the centre from the UK, but we have to pay for transport costs...which is about 800 pounds. We only have 2 computers at the centre, so if we could get more computers at the centre it would be a breakthrough! I know a man who owns an internet cafe here who may be able to help me with the connections to get internet in kaleo and to cut down the costs for it. Imagine all these children who have never even seen a keyboard before coming and learning how to navigate the internet and use it as a tool for learning...So that is my goal right now, and I went and met some of the necessary people to make this happen so I feel I am making considerable progress...and if everything goes right I will try to hold an information session for them next Sunday.
Tonight I will be celebrating a friend's birthday and also talking business with the landlord of a centre that I want to use for the night venue (maybe hold a dance or gathering)....so hopefully everything will go well.
Other than that, I have been making alot of friends and, ahem, alot of admirers too I guess. But I didn't come to Ghana to find a boyfriend and I'm staying focused on making this volunteer experience a solid one. I finally got to taste the "pito" though, a fermented drink made from guinea corn, and it tasted very good! A sour, sweet like hot drink that is served in a clay drinking pot. It has been so fun learning all the small social formalities surrounding this drink - from the way you hold your cup to the way you pour it out (which I have nicknamed "poppin" because you have to make the liquid make a "pop" sound when you pour it). This is really at the centre of the social activity in the northern region and it is a very good way to just kick back and really spend time with friends and family.
On the weekend I went to Wa because the Canadian VSO lady, Leslie, invited me to a birthday dinner with some other expats (foreigners with other organizations). There were two people from Peace Corps and one was from Engineers without Borders (which apparently, you do not have to be an engineer to participate...who knew?). It was really funny to me because we were there with Leslie's husband and my friend (a local man who is running a grassroots called Women's Integrated Development Organization - WIDO) and another local man, and we all started talking about things particular to Canada and North America, and the other people were just sitting around like "huh"? I was laughing because it is normally the other way around. Sitting there with the others, though, I realized that I was pretty young in comparison to all the other expats, and maybe this might give me a comparative advantage in the long run in future development projects. Coming here for 3 months has really been an excellent amount of time to allow me to pick up the slang/language, understand the customs and taboos, and see myself in the whole slew of things as well. I have to admit, I have never felt so Canadian in my life as during my stay here in Ghana, and it has made me really understand who I am. Wherever I go, because I am a visible minority, people have asked me where I come from, and even if you say you are Canadian, they will give you a second glance as if to ask, "no, where do you REALLY come from", so I think that is why alot of people have been taught to say their home country even though they may have lived in Canada for the majority of their life. I know I have heard this being discussed before, but I understand that I am not one or the other, I can be both Canadian and a Dagow. And even on the Ghanaian side, I know feel like I am more of a dagow than even a ghanaian, because the northern region is vastly different from the rest of Ghana. So I have just been discovering all of these things and I know that this trip has allowed me to mature and to feel complete with who I am. Knowledge is the key to happiness!
Anyway, I haven't explained what I did for my birthday yet! My sister, cousin, and a friend all went to this nice restaurant called Frankie's which was in Osu - a very tourist area of Accra. As I looked around I could see Filipinos, Lebanese, English, and a lot of fancy looking people. The food was alright and the prices a little high, but I was so happy to see Osu. So happy that I went again two days later by myself - and I got a smoothie, which was like heaven on earth, and explored the boutiques, Indian food, health food stores and pastry shop - I brought some REAL cake back for my sister and cousin (who I see basically as my sister now too). If it hadn't been for making friends with a taximan, I could have been paying alot for that trip (especially as you can spend 30 min- 1 hr in traffic in accra).
I also spent a week staying with my sister and cousin at their hostel in East Legon. This bathroom at this hostel is the nastiest bathroom I have ever seen and I basically walked on my tippy toes the whole time I was there. The head mistress (of the hostel) was an Ewe and she liked to shout in Ewe all the time which really annoyed my sister. The boys stayed on one side and the girls on the other and on Saturdays there was a man who came at 6 am to wake everyone to take them to protestant church service. Only, this service was just upstairs and it woke everyone up!! grr. But the singing and clapping was very nice so I didn't mind too much.
A few days later, some friends I made at the airport came to greet me at this place we call "Bonjour's", basically like a depanneur/corner store combined with pizza pizza, macdonald's and yogenfruz (is that what its called? I forget). They came and brought me a big pink princess cake which I took a picture of and I was so proud to cut it in front of everyone :) . This place is the big hangout for people in Tema and Legon. Then, after, we went to a fundraising event for the Northerner's displaced by the floods where John Legend was playing and LUCIANO!!!!! KING OF KINGS!!!! I didn't get to see John Legend :(, but I got my groove on with all the other rasta's as I flipped my "rasta-cornows" to the tunes of Luciano! I was so moved by his music that I tried to go closer to get better picand then I started to get farther and farther away from my friends and my cousin that all of a sudden I found myself just at the stage where the security guards had let me in! hahahaha I love to do that at concerts. And after I batted my eyelashes some more :), I got to go backstage as I waited for Luciano to get offstage. I was right in front of luciano (even when he was singing to me on the stage) but he got into his car pretty fast...and I didnt get to talk to him :(. Oh well, I had so much fun with the ghanaian rastas yellin "jah love" all around the place. But, unforunately, I had forgotten that my cousin and friends were in the crowd waiting for me!! Anyway, it was all good, and we all found our way back home and I was happy to be contributing the northerners - my people! - who had their homes destroyed by the floods. Where I am, we did not get that problem, but I saw it on the way going to bolga(tanga) in October, so I saw the devastation the rain caused. Anyway, it looks like the political parties CPP and NPP are donating foodstuffs and money to the areas that were hit, which is good, because the people up here feel like the government has failed them.
So it looks like the month of November will be busy as I want to see if I can visit Mole National Park to see the game - elephants, monkeys, chimpanzees, crocodiles and hopefully more. I just hope I find time to do it, but it is basically $110 CAD so I am saving a stash of money for it.
So much has happened since I last wrote that I am finding it hard to keep up with my thoughts! It truly has been an adventure for me, even more so at Kaleo because now I have the chance to be more on my own and make friends and so on...and really integrate into the society. This last week I went to visit this pond called "Cocore" (co-co-rey) that has alot of magical and historical significance to the people of Kaleo, and forunately for me, the landlord of cocore happened to be my friend, so I needn't ask permission to enter.
Basically hundreds of years ago, two vagabond men found this pond and saw it had clean water. They wanted to build a community there but in order to choose who would bring their families, they both threw stones into the water and went hunting, and whoever came back to collect their stone first would live there. The first man came back after to collect his stone, but found that it had dissolved because it was only seasalt. The second man found his stone and brought his family, and called the people something in dagaare that means "just arrived/just come". The people have relocated within the time but they all belong to the same community. There were other stories about magic like how an old man used to prepare food in a very tiny cave at cocore and when he died all the crocodiles were sad, and there are also taboos about the pond. People can only fetch water there in the afternoon, because the rest of the day there is lots of magic going on, like instance, one woman saw a man with his family just sitting on TOP of the water. The people of kaleo are supposedly very cautious about who goes to the pond though because supposedly a white man came one day and destroyed all the water lilies because they wanted to turn it into a tourism site...and since then, the crocodiles rarely come out (not the first time I heard them say a white man has brought shame to their community! it seems to be a trend here) I never saw one, but all the locals have seen them in their lifetime. I took some really nice pictures so I will post them ASAP.
On early saturday morning, Sophie, two friends, and I all trekked up to a place called Ombo which is a huge hill near kaleo. We had to ask the elders for permission first and go and bring them "aperteshie" which is a strong alcohol they enjoy drinking and they pour out for their ancestors. It was crazy because our friend was told to bring half a bottle but when we got there, they refused to accept it, so we had to buy more to fill the bottle. Ha ha, they like to exploit you anytime they get a chance...but if you saw these people, you would not feel bad about giving them money...Anyway, a lot of time went by because EVERYwhere I go people are so curious about me and everyone wants to either marry me or be my friend - celebrity treatment! When we finally got to Ombo hill, we were climbing up the hill and the oldest man there was basically running up the hill and making us all look bad! haa ha and poor sophie was really struggling with the hill, but I showed everyone I was strong even though I was sweating like a pig. When we got to the top of the hill we took nice pictures and signed our names on the hill. I signed my local name, Mwinyela (I have been forced to change the spelling). Also, I we were very cautious about the hill because it was taboo to spit or go to the bathroom on the top of the hill and we had been warned not to do anything else but explore the hill. Once again, they said a white man had gone and shamed one of their old stories, that even if you cut yourself on the hill you cannot bleed - and supposedly the man had purposely cut himself at the top of the hill to test this myth and the people say he didn't bleed until he got off the hill (and proved them all right).
Later on, I attended a "magic show" with a friend and basically it was two men with two boxes on the floor pulling things out and teasing the young boys in the crowd and dancing. It was nice to see all the children there though and I saw some children from the centre and I was teasing them. I tried to take a picture but it was very dark.
Anyway, within the next few weeks I hope I get to visit more places and I hope the fundraiser is successful. Until then I will be thinking of everybody back home and I can't wait to see you all again. I know that baby's are being born and people are getting engaged and I need to celebrate with everyone for Christmas Time. So God bless to everyone and until next time.
P.S. If there are any typos here, I'm sorry, but I'm too lazy to edit it... :)
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