Off Again

Looks like I have been pretty active on the web as of late, but that is only because of the ICT lab here at the campus. Sadly, I will be drifting back to my haunts in Asafo (though I am quite happy to get back to my mom's cooking) and leaving the 'net behind. I will continue to write but all of the posts will be of the belated nature that are familiar around here. I hope to have more details and a good long summary about the swearing in ceremony in the month of August. Still keeping my toes crossed on that one.

I must also leave space here for an apology to those of you (maybe you in particular), who have left comments on particular posts. I did not see them because typically I am so rushed while updating this space that I don't review any of the old posts. Someone emailed me and asked if I had seen them, and much to my chagrin - no, I hadn't. Sorry about that. I will add more posts to make it up to you in the future. For the time being I am catching up on them and my thought is all of you are terrific for the words of encouragement and wisdom. I need all that I can get here!

Now, off to find some food in town and get packed for the return journey home. When traveling by tro-tro, wear your darkest darks and be ready to sweat it out.

I Made It To Hohoe

[Belated Post]

Well, all the work, all the patience, and all that time spent wondering if it would ever come to pass that I would land in my final spot has come to this: I am posting from within the community of Hohoe (pronounce that like ho-HOY) inside St. Francis' College of Education. This is the area that I will see day in and day out, and these are the people that I will be working with for the next two years in Ghana.

We got here by way of Bonsu College where all of the Peace Corps teachers were met by our counterparts at the institutions in which we will be teaching. Principles, Headmasters, and teaching counterparts were all there to meet and greet. I met the two that were from St. Francis and felt immediately at ease. It was a great start to the day, and later that night I went to the spot close by to the campus in Bonsu and shot the breeze with my fellow ICT teacher. Good stuff.

By Wednesday we were on the go. Seven adults forced and squeezed their way into a sport utility and made the trek to four campuses in the Volta region. I was the second stop, but even by that point my back was a bit achy from the rough roads we traversed along the way. Some roads were great, others weren't roads but rock and dirt and major gaps to navigate. Four hours after we started (at 5:15 mind you we got moving) I was unpacking and having my first encounter with the staff on campus.

So far I am impressed with everything that I am seeing. The campus here is quite nice and is well maintained. We are missing the students of course as this is the break period for the first and second-year students, but the third-year class is in session and about to go out into the teaching world. In a class of about 100 students I was introduced as the Peace Corps volunteer who will be teaching ICT for two years and the class was quite excited about the news. That was a nice cloud nine to ride for a while I must admit. The lab has a lot of computers and quite a few new ones waiting in the wings to be installed which is great. I will have to put some photos up soon to give the loyal readers some graphic representation of where I am here.

I am being shown around by one of the ICT teachers. He also teaches mathematics (shortened to 'maths' by all Ghanaians, and after thinking about it, it makes sense that it is plural given that mathematics is plural, but it sounds so strange to hear that word spoken) so I believe that my addition to the staff will relieve some of the load on the two teachers who deal in other subjects. My main counterpart is off reviewing and grading national exams in Kumasi. When I come back in August he and I will be reunited and off to plan lessons for the year.

For the past two days the school has treated me quite well, I have a unit that has two beds and a communal eating room but to date I have only seen one other person here in the bungalow with me. The food is great, the company is fine, and I have made a friend in the local feline who sees me as a table-scrap-giver of the best sort. That is what all domesticated animals do here by the way. There is no cat or dog food at market, you just feed them what you were just eating and they seem to do fairly well. This cat in particular likes kenkey and fish apparently.

So that is it. I won't know where I will live just yet, they are still making the arrangements here so upon my arrival in August I will settle down in the appropriate spot. I can hardly wait. I also have this sense that my Ewe will improve a bit when I can talk and interact with native speakers as opposed to in the class setting. We shall see. I am hopeful that my other volunteer friends are enjoying their stays as much as I am here.

Small, Small

[Belated Post]

I am still here and as it has been a while since I have stopped by a place that has had an interent connection, the posts are somewhat backed up. I hope that the readers forgive me.

So why title this post "small, small"? Maybe because I say it and hear it every day that I am here. People are always helpful when you try to speak the language that they smile, the politely correct or help you when you need it and encourage you to try more phrases if you can, and then the close with the small small comment. It is just a reinforcement that we who are learning the language cannot rush the job and that you must only learn a little bit at a time and before you know it you will have a good handle of things.

Small, small indeed.

Our Ewe is coming along at that small, small pace. Our small group has had two tries at speaking with a native-speaking Ewe person and each time has given us ample room to find frustrations. We know certain phrases but sure as shoot the person we speak to will use all the words that we have yet to master or learn in their response. Even if we do know the words that they reply with, the likelihood that we can hear them spoken is tiny. Right now I am making out blips and snippets of words I can recognize mixed in with a jumble of encoded syllables and consonants that have me dumbfounded.

To help remedy some of these gaps I went ahead and bought some index cards at the market to help me memorize my vocabulary and to get better versed at remembering the pieces and parts of my diction in Ewe. When a question is posed to me in class I thumb through all of my notes to find the answer which is teaching me not to think and remember but rather to thumb and regurgitate what is written. I hope it will help me out. Most of the volunteers that I speak with feel like they are in the same boat which more than likely means we are right where we need to be in training.

Here's to flash cards and learning small, small.

Details, Details, Details

[Belated Post]

There was a nice surprise again in the mail today. I stopped by for more training in Kukurantumi and was greeted with the best phrase ever invented, "Hey, you have a letter." Something neat about the hand-written note though I muchly appreciate emails and the like. You get to read it and have it printed out for you to look at later all in one nice little package. Thanks Mom for sending it!

She did ask some questions that I feel embarrassed to not have addressed already, so here you have a longer post filled with details.

Where I Live: I live with a host family that Peace Corps had arranged prior to our arrival in the country. They are the best host family a guy could ever want. My mother and father are especially kind and treat me as a guest is treated in Ghana. That means very nicely. Their house has several rooms and my room is quite nice measuring around 10' by 12' with a door that locks and two windows. The walls are an aqua color which suits me just fine and the floor is a smooth poured concrete type of surface. I have the following furniture: a desk, a chair, a bed with foam mattress, and a small coffee table that houses the water filter and many odds and ends. Yes, there is a mosquito net outfitted just so above my bed so I don't catch malaria at night. The color is akin to a slightly soiled ochre but it can be any color for all I care, so long as it keeps the critters out.

So that is the room. The house itself is spacious and it faces a courtyard that is part macadam and crushed rock. Opposite the house is the kitchen which is a stand-alone building where a fire is always smoldering away, cooking up something good. The plot does have one other building that is under construction which is meant to house family and in-laws but for the time being the project is on hold. Near the kitchen and the addition is your bath room. By bath room I mean four walls and no roof. At about five feet high, the walls are meant to block your view in to the bather while not blocking your view out if you happen to be the one bathing. I must say I have had some really beautiful views out while completely lathered up. Also, the bath is done by whatever water you can fit into a bucket. I still think this is absolutely neat.

Unto itself in this house description segment is the VIP. All of our prospective home stay sites had to have at a minimum a VIP installed to get the nod for accepting a volunteer, and by VIP I mean the latrine. Ours is quite nice and doesn't have the smell you would expect even from a port-o-potty that you see at fair grounds. It isn't smelling like roses either, but you had better get that expectation right out if you are living here. You can sit if you want to while in the latrine as there is a deck that is made out of concrete that covers the pit but I would advise against it. There is a story to tell about this, but that is best saved for in-person conversations later and not for a web log where squeamish eyes are glancing. Oh, and VIP sounds pretty regal, right? It stands for Ventilated Improved Pit. Not nearly so luxurious now, is it? I should say that it does the job right, however.

So those things make up the general layout of the house. I am one of about ten people that live in the compound and there always feels like there is room for more.

What I Eat: This was also a question that for some reason I have not addressed in full here. I eat anything at least one time to figure out if I like it and if my gut can stand it. So far so good. As a guest in the house I eat alone every meal, just outside the door to my room in a hallway. I know that sounds strange but the culture here seems to be that the guest has his or her privacy when taking meals so that is my own little spot to chow down breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I sit on a stool that stands around nine inches tall. My knees are above my navel at that height and it took a while to get used to. The table that my meals are served from is around twice the height of my stool. At some point I am going to get a camera out and take a photo of myself eating for posterity.

That is where I eat, but what I eat can range a bit. Things you may be familiar with are here. I eat a lot of rice and from time to time some pasta is mixed in with a rice meal. Chicken and beef are possible candidates for my meats as well as a fish that must be plentiful from somewhere close by. Smaller bananas than we have in the states are gown here locally and taste just as sweet. Ghana also grows oranges nicely but they have tended to be more fibrous than the Florida ones that I knew. Still, these are the familiar meals. Let's see what the new stuff is.

Fufu. A staple food that can be made from a few ingredients that will vary from region to region. I think mine here is made from cassava, plantain, and maybe some third plant. Each ingredient gets trampled to death by a long piece of wood. One person sits low to the ground and turns and folds the fufu over while the second person repeatedly drops a long piece of wood down to smash the contents inside the wooden bowl. If this makes no sense I would advise a trip to your favorite video library on the web and search “pounding fufu” to see the process. The consistency of fufu in my house is just a touch sticky. The flavor is somewhat bland since no spices that I know of are added to the mix while it is being pounded. It essentially is a carbohydrate-heavy staple food that needs some support in the flavor department.

Enter soup. The word in Ghana is used for a more viscous concoction that is spicy, oily, and most likely red in color. I had some of this pour out of a container into my backpack and to this day the whole bag still has a faint soup smell to it. This is what you do with your fufu: you pinch off a small ball of fufu with your fingers and then get it to stick to the end of one finger in particular, dip that ball of fufu into the soup, then insert that into your mouth and swallow with as few bites as possible. Simple?

No. If the soup and fufu are fresh, then you are talking about using your fingers to manipulate food that has a temperature close to that of a cup of coffee. From what I have heard your fingers will get used to this, but I have yet to hit that level and must wait a bit or use utensils to start consuming. As I said before, every area will probably have slightly different types of fufu so my hope is that Hohoe has a tasty version of it.

Banku is similar to fufu in that you are eating it with your fingers (Ghanaians are right at home eating all meals with fingers only) and dipping the banku into a soup. The texture is different as is the flavor hence the different name. This one is mostly if not completely made from cassave. I had banku tonight and rather enjoyed the mix. Finger-licking good if you will.

Other foods that come to mind are rice ball, yams, and fried plantains. Each will come with a side of soup and sometimes stew. Stew is more dry and can be spread over the main starch of the meal. Rice ball (em-O two-O) is just cooked rice that is hard-pressed into the side of the pot to slightly break up the rice grains and create a sticky dense version of rice. Form that into a ball and there you go – rice ball.

One unusual thing here that is taking a while to settle in is eating for calcium. That means chewing through some bones in the meal. I have gotten used to fish bones (the small tiny ones) but I have yet to really get behind eating a chicken bone. They are hard to crack and not pleasant to chew, but this is how most people find a source of calcium. I am hoping the family notices that I am leaving fewer bones on my plate! Of course, if I should fail to eat all of my bones there is always a FanYogo to grab. They are packets of frozen yogurt that you get pretty much anywhere so far as I have found and taste great on a hot day. One a day has been my habit as of late. For 60 pesawas you just cannot go wrong (40 cents or so American).

Those are just some of the things that I have eaten so far here. The food is pretty good and I think once a body adjusts to a new set of nutrients then it is just a matter of adding a bit more each week and enjoying the experience.

If you get the chance, stop by and have some fufu with me.

Home Sweet Home-Stay

[Belated Post]

We made it back. Nik and I finally arived home on the 6th after a few incidents on the ride back. My guess is that the trip had about an extra hour or more added to it by break downs on route. Our tro-tro had a tire fail and the spare must have needed some attention as we waited on the road for the driver to return back to the tro. He did a quick job of it actually. This may not have been his first repair job.

After that little stop, there came another incident with a taxi on the last leg of the journey. Our driver had an issue with frequent stalls in first gear. While he was adamant about trying to restart the engine many times over, that did not seem to fix the problem of the car stalling. It was dark out at the time and all the Peace Corps safety and security advice kept drumming along in my brain: don't be out late, try not to travel at night. Much ado about nothing though as within ten minutes we hailed another driver and he took us the rest of the way home. Funny thing though, the engine that we looked at under flashlight had the following issues: no air filter whatsoever, and a missing radiator cap. Those are parts that I thought you needed for the car to continue running properly and maybe that is why we took an unannounced pit stop in the middle of a road.

All told, we got home unscathed by our Project Shadow voyage. It was very encouraging to see a lab and a teacher going about her job doing the best she could with the resources available. I must say, the school we were at had a nice school with many features. I hope the site that I get to has just as much but I would settle for half as much and be happy. Those words may come back to haunt me though.

So we are back at the homestead and it was very nice to be back in my own foam bed under my own mosquito net. I bought a mirror at the market in Kumasi for my family since theirs was cracked in two spots. They seemed happy that I was back and smiled at the gift. I smiled at the great Ghanaian food that was there to greet me. Good times! We are back to doing our language learning. I need to spend a bit more time studying at night though as whatever I get during the day I will struggle with the morning after.

Small, small, the chicken drinks its water. I think that is the phrase we got in Twi but I don't remember that nor do I know the Ewe version of it. It still holds true though. Small steps.

Happy Fourth Of July

[Belated Post]

It was a happy fourth in Ghana. My shadowing exercise is still in session so I did not celebrate the holiday with the home-stay family but instead spent it with two fellow volunteers in Mampong. I believe it may have been my first July 4th outside of the U.S., and I still managed to be nostalgic about my country while removed from it. It helped a lot to have a book written by Henry Cabot Lodge in the 19th century that celebrates the life of George Washington. I had not reviewed a great deal of history of our first commander-in-chief but the book thus far does an excellent job at showing his mastery in the art of war and his adroitness in handling people and situations. It almost defies belief that the Revolution ever happened given that the army never had the pay or the provisions that the British had.

So, it was great reading the accounts of that time period near 1776 and to remember that it really was a struggle to achieve independence. The independence day for Ghana is celebrated on March 6th, so I have some time to catch up on my history here before that day comes. We as volunteers have talked quite a bit about the subject but I think I need a book that details the steps this land went through to obtain freedom and self-governance.

Our little group mentioned that both our countries escaped the control of the British Empire to find our way to freedom. Neat, yes?

So our fun festivities fell to a small gathering of several friends of our Peace Corps Volunteer on the campus and a few things American. We had our Ghanaian equivalent of hot dogs (sausages on a kabob), popcorn, trail mix, candy, beer and Coca-cola. And games! Our guests were treated to a fun game of Uno and then a hilarious game of Uno with the last man standing (and coming in as '8th winner') being Nic. Not content to stop having fun, we went ahead and started up the quintessential board game of the last 100 years, Monopoly. Sadly, all the Americans lost in the end, yours truly being the first one to go bankrupt. That too was great fun and qualifies me for having played Monopoly once a decade for the last two decades.

The night was not quite over yet though. There is one last thing you must do when saluting your country inside or outside of the land of the brave. Firework. That is correct, no pluralizing it as there was just one bottle rocket. In what might have been too late an hour, that little rocket made a lift off that scared our guests and gave us one heck of a jolt. I don't think we had heard something that loud in a while. Once the heart beat came back on rhythm, we all laughed again at the display. That was the way we do it back home.

Thanks America for being there. I'll be back again to participate in person in a few years.

Project Shadow: Mampong Edition

Peace Corps did it again. They got me to go out and enjoy the country. Darn them and their evil plans!

I am having a great time visiting a fellow volunteer who is ending her third year of service in the country. We (another PCV in Training) left our town at 7 or so in the morning on Friday to make the half-day trip over to the Ashanti region in Ghana. The first ride was air conditioned which was a huge plus, the second ride was in a regular air-cooled tro-tro and my trousers should the worse for wear by being covered in a black/brown dirt that I am sure won't come out in the next wash. Yet the trip was a success; we made it to our destination right on time.

It should be noted that we had a stop at the Kumasi station which is the 2nd largest market in the country. Words just don't work well enough for me to get the scene right. Think of a hustling and bustling Times Square in NYC but ten times more packed with people, cars, chickens, and other odds and ends plus every shop owner who can eek out a living in a three foot by three foot square. It was utterly amazing at how dense this market was. Hundreds upon hundreds of people selling whatever could fit on top of their heads. A shoe market that just ran up and down one alley way draped on a hill. Too many Black Star flags and apparel to count as the big game was going to be that night. So much action and it was all condensed into about an hour. I enjoyed Nic, my co-traveler trying his best to negotiate a fair price for items there - his Twi is much better than my own. I say "Good afternoon," and don't hear a thing after that when the speaker asks me something I haven't memorized. Nic can deflect marriage proposals with a shrug and a word and the crowd laughs and applauds him. Maybe my Ewe will be that good.

Onto Mampong. We arrived and got right to business. Where to eat, and where to watch the game. A restaurant close by was the best spot, and soon we were eating our fufu and relaxing in front of a television with 30 or 40 others. Darkness sets in early here, so the match began as the sun set, and into the evening we watched. Pandemonium broke right at the end of the second half on Ghana's first goal. Maybe the Black Stars would do it, move on past Uraguay.

So very close. So very, very close. It was awful to see the game end with a tie and proceed to overtime where a goal kick would have won it for Ghana, only to see the ball riccochet off the crossbar and then to see Ghana lose in a shoot-out. Everyone just became quiet, and into the night they went. Disbelief and sadness were there, but I am certain that everyone was very proud that Ghana played their hearts out and almost pulled out a win.

We went home and made up for some time spent watching the game by talking Peace Corps late into the night. I believe 2AM we all hit the hay, and we got ready for another day.

Just getting to know another region as Peace Corps has allowed us to do is something I'd like to do again. Those of us stationed east should find time to travel west. Those of us south ought to make it a pact to hightail it over to the north when time permits. There is just something exciting about traveling and getting to know another town. Today we had the great fortune of bumping into a young student who said she had the time to take us on a tour of her town, her school, and to help us understand what people said in the native tongue as we walked around. Many people do wonderful things here for us and I believe I really lucked out to get this chance.

Our contact has been a tremendous asset. We are sure to be only adding to what she has already accomplished in the ICT stream with her counterparts here. She and other ICT developers inside PC have set up a repository of useful software and references. I feel better already about my prospects for teaching students with that type of support.

Not bad for having about 24 hours of time in Mampong I'd say.

And I saw my first goat riding on top of the roof of a commercial bus.

Care Package Highlights

[Belated Post]

Mail day at the hub site came and went. I didn't think anything might be there for me (and this is just a mental defense against high expectations dear reader, not a slight against you for not writing, hehehe :O) but I went over to check anyway. Since the mailbox was being blocked up by my fellow eager volunteers, I went to check out the boxes that were laying about on the plastic tables. No. Not me. No. Not min... wait a second!

I was the proud recipient of an unrequested and far-too-kind care box from the states. The family of a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) friend of mine had the very nice notion of sending something my way. I have snacks a-plenty and will be meteing them out over the course of several weeks, savoring sugary-ness and chocolates as needed.

Thanks so much D & M, these donations will not go to waste!

Out To Boti Falls

[Belated Post]

Most Sundays I find myself taking a trip to the church in my town with my home stay mom which should be a post in itself, but not this Sunday. Peace Corps arragned for a little leisure time for us by booking a trip to a place called Boti Falls. I saw it on the schedule and figured that it would be a nice little trip, maybe see some water falling vertically and such. That seemed like a good thing.

Off I went. The really nice thing about this Sunday was that I got to actually hang out with the other half of our group. Again, we are about 72 volunteers now (sadly, one had to terminate early due to life circumstances. The shorthand for this is ET - early termination) but due to our different tracks, we are split almost down the middle for training purposes. This field trip though brought most of us back together for a day which means a lot more fun for me.

So off we went to see the falls. I dressed buisness casual again for no reason at all save for the fact that I am getting used to button down shirts and trousers. Oh, and they are trousers here, not pants. The term pants is used for your underpants. Knickers? those are shorts. Got that? Great. Back on to the story. I am ready for a leisurely stroll which ensues and we get to see the falls after descending 200 or so steps to  the base of a cliff. Sadly, this area has not seen a great deal of rainfall in the last few days so the falls were more trickles instead. One could imagine how impressive these would be though had there been a lot of water gushing over the edge. Instead our group witnessed a leaky faucet on two sides of the overhang. I have video and pictures of this, but they will be saved for a later upload.

Now we have gotten through the falls. What is next? Lunch. And then a hike.

I like hikes, sure, I'll go.

At points this felt less like a nature walk than an ascent up K2 provided K2 was in a jungle. The rise and fall of the trail had extremely sharp changes and while all of us made it unscathed, there were quite a few times where we could have had some really bad tumbles had we lost our footing. But the end,... it was worth it by any measure.

We climbed and climbed up to the highlight of the trip. The Umbrella rock was a giant boulder standing on top of a column of stone. The last 400 or more yards of the walk was straight up to this rock and me and about four others got there first to enjoy the view. For fifty pesewas (about 30 cents back home) you could climb a ladder that the locals set up for us tourists. From there the view of the valley was terrific. The look over the edge was petrifying. I'd say it was an easy 100 feet down if you fell off the top of this. No guardrails, no ropes to keep you safe, just you and a giant rock to walk on top of. Pretty neat, yes?

After cooling off in the cool breeze we then proceeded to move back to our transport buses and get moving back to Kukurantumi. I am glad that I got a chance to do this and am thankful that the Peace Corps allowed us to go. Next time though, I will pay more attention to what we are doing and dress accordingly. It is too warm to look good at times here.

What Am I Doing Here

Belated Post

No, this is not an existential tome about why I am here on earth. I only lately realized that I didn't provide much detail on what it is that I will be doing while volunteering 24 or so months of my time here in Ghana. The country has a sizeable need for teachers and Peace Corps tends to send about 40% or more of its volunteers to Ghana as teachers. The rest? Meh, we don't care about them right now, do we? Omnibus volunteers will not find that joke at all humorous.

Back to the point though of what I am doing here. My field is computers so they placed me into the Information and Communication Technologies track of education. This means that I get to teach about computers and related topics to my heart's content. During training the Edu volunteers are asked to teach before several classes so that observers can see what they have on their hands in terms of teachers. I am not alone in having zero teaching experience in my background. Most of the people that I train with haven't taught but were studying or working in their respective fields to know enough about the subject matter.

There are five ICT trainees and we all must catch a taxi or tro ride over to a school close to Koforidua. About an hour and a half depending on when the taxi sets sail out of Asafo. The school we are practicing in is a teacher training college. We teach future teachers. For our group we have had a few ups and downs getting classes together so of the four or five hours that I was to be observed teaching, I'd say I have clocked about three and a half hours so far. Classes and our understanding of where things are to be has snipped a few minutes each and every time.

So I get up in front of a class of about 20 or 30 and teach either Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint for an hour. I can quiz the class if I want, make them do homework, make them put their heads down and sleep, whatever I want. This all feels very strange.

Every class that I have had the pleasure of seeing has been incredibly well behaved, but this seems typical for the age group that I am placed with. Most will be in their very late teens or early twenties and they are looking to learn all the can so they may pass their large test in the second year. So I consider this a plus. From all the students I have seen, many will do just fine when they go to exams.

For each and every school that I have witnessed, all pupils are dressed in school uniforms. I am not sure why, but I really like this better than in the U.S. public system. Everybody looks neat and professional, better than me most of the time. (For those of you who know my appearance, you would be surprised to learn that not once have I put on blue jeans since I arrived and even on hot days I am in button up shirts and nice pants. Ghana has changed me!)

Most of the students are familiar with the enforcement policies of Ghanaian schools and to label them strict would be an understatement. Many of them have seen or been the recipient of a switch from a teacher or a headmaster, so I have learned that when I ask a question many of them will not venture forth with an answer because sometimes they have been taught that a wrong answer is punishable. I am having continuous talks with volunteers and my Ghanaian counterparts to find out all that I can to correct some of my habits when it comes to managing a class.

My toughest challenge though is clear to me: Remembering everyone's name! Patience and a bit of hard work should carry me through though.

So that is my job. I will be teaching from the basics to the complex in ICT while making sure my students are prepared for the exams that get them a degree. As my job gets going I am sure to write up more comments here and there. If I haven't mentioned this already, my comments do not reflect the views of the Peace corps program or anyone inside or outside the Ghanaian education system. They are all mine.

Tro-Tro Express: On Traveling In Ghana

I wanted to provide the best possible description for my counterparts back home in the U.S. to get a feeling of what it is like to go somewhere in Ghana. It may be a long post, but I hope that it accurately captures what you will find should you stop on by and visit me here during my stay.

First and foremost: You are not in the United States. This is not a bad thing at all, you are exploring and getting to know the world beyond your borders, so by all means view this as a positive step. What it is meant to do though is to remind you that the things you expect when in a vehicle aren't necessarily applied to travel in Ghana. It is great fun to ride around and see this really beautiful country, but you have to leave some inhibitions behind, and ready yourself (maybe steady yourself too) for some striking things.

Now, the venerable Tro-tro. That is my phoenetic spelling of what they are called, so it may very well be the case that this is not the right name for it, but that is what I hear when someone asks, "Should we take a tro-tro?" So what does it look like? Most of the vehicles are makes and models that we do not have in the United States, so right off the bat it will be hard to describe it just right. You can think of it as a passenger van from the 1970s or 80s, but we start to lose the look of things right there. These vehicles may be even older than that, I can't really tell, but they have two front doors for driver and passengers, and a sliding side door.

Most typically they will have at least three benches of seats that sit three tightly. The rear bench fits all the way across the width of the vehicle and can seat four. For every other bench seat, the right end of the bench has a fold-out seat bolted on that will allow for all benches to maximize passenger space. If you are on a full tro-tro, you are embarking on a journey with 15 people in a van. And their stuff. Which may at times include one or two children with their parents. So 15 is really a ball park.

The point here is that a full ride can be a very close and personal journey. We should observe at this point that none of these vehicles EVER had a working air conditioner, and so the interior gets rather warm.

The driver is a skilled man (I have never seen a woman driver in a vehicle for commercial service) who really doesn't talk much. That is not his job. His job is to narrowly avoid the following: other tro-tros, cars, motorcyclists weaving through traffic, pedestrians who must walk on the road as there are no sidewalks here, pot-holes the size of sink-holes, goats, chickens, bicyclists, dogs, and anything else that might leap out from the tall grass along the road's edge. It really is impressive to see these drivers maneuver their steeds. I mentioned that the driver does not speak; this is untrue. He speaks with his horn. He tends to speak about 40 words a minute by my estimation.

On the tro-tro we have the man responsible for loading the vehicle with human cargo. This is the driver's mate. He collects money, makes change, and if soliciting business, will be chanting the tro's destination to all who idle by the roadside. I loved listening to the mates in Accra as they had a great delivery. Accraccraccra! Circlecirclecircle! Sometimes the mate might see a volunteer and hope to rub a few extra pesuas from their pocket by charging extra so we have normally been on guard when getting money out, but otherwise they are just doing their duty to make a cedi (Ghanaian dollar).

So those are the people on this quite short yet purposeful bus. I have yet to really describe well the condition of the vehicle. There is nothing new on these vechicles. Everything has been fixed two times at a minimum. When I use the term fix, I use it as loosely as possible; blunt force seems to be preferred when fixing plastic trim. Most times the driver uses the key to start the tro-tro up, but sometimes a dip beneath the dashboard to touch a few wires together is necessary. The interiors have probably seen a million passengers before us, so there is a dingy, destroyed effect that builds up over time. The windows in the tro do open up which is a big plus, but during a heavy rain they never really do shut all the way closed. You aim for the middle seats if you think it is going to rain. Outside seats if it is sunny.

Of the odometers that function, they will not be fewer than 300,000 miles. Most have long since stopped working and you would be right in presuming a state inspection probably doesn't require those to work. I have kept a running total of cracked windshields and I am still standing at 50%. If it has one crack in the windshield, it will have two brothers to go with it almost without fail. There is serious doubt that any of these tro-tros could pass an emission test in the states even if the engine was turned off, let alone running. Yet they manage to get to the end of the line most of the time (discounting flat tires).

One of the very funny things here is that every rear window has a phrase stickered to the glass. "Hustler", "God is all", "In His Name", the list can go on and on. I am missing the funnier ones to be sure, but it gives us something to read while bouncing down the road. Oh, the shocks won't be working during your ride, I failed to mention that. The CV joint may creak a bit on hard right hand turns.

Other than this, you have the experience of a lifetime in store for you. They really are a lot of fun and I am purely amazed at the resourcefulness of the guys that drive them. You will enjoy them too, should you happen out here.

Oh, one last thing. Your driver may choose to pass another vehicle ANY TIME THEY WANT TO. Most roads are like that, so try not to show off that you are a novice by complaining.

I love this place.

Obroni!!

Belated Post

The magic word. The word you will hear probably a thousand times before you finish 27 months in Ghana. A word that instantly pegs you in a crowd as the focus of attention and eyeballs. "OH-BROON-NEE." I had read about the term before learning much else about Ghana from comments interspersed through Peace Corps material. The term has been described in varying terms - the one closest to a translation that I remember reading was "person from over the horizon". As it comes out of mouths of young and old alike, it has the feeling of, "White guy!" as I walk down the road.

I am not (yet) upset by the word. Everyone that I know in our group has been called obroni to the best of my knowledge. And by far, it is *never* meant as an insult since I have been here, it is just what someone who looks different goes by in these parts. When you hear about 8 little children, none over the age of 5 yell it, you can be sure that they are smiling very large smiles and waving furiously for your attention. It is quite easy to laugh, pause and wave, and then try your darndest to surprise them with a bit of the mother-tongue to see their reaction. There is something really fun about doing that, and by far having children yell is like a free ticket to feel happy for the next five or ten seconds.

The best moment so far with obroni came when I was walking home one night from teaching. I was on a dirt path a few minutes removed from my homestay families' home, and three small little girls blurted out, "Obroni!" which didn't phase me. What was surprising though was they were all running towards me and no sooner had they reached me then they all gave spontaneous hugs just above my kneecaps. I couldn't move and had no reason to, it was just the silliest but neatest thing ever. "That guy looks different from us," "Yes, let us all run and hug him!" You can't make up neat experiences like that.

So to date, I don't have any qualms with someone yelling obroni. It is a great chance to practice some language, and it also means that they really would like to talk and have a new friend in town.

Of course, a few times when traveling about we see a fellow PC Trainee and we are sorely tempted to yell out of the window, "OBRONI!!" for the fun of it. Good times.

The Eagle Will Be Landed, Soon

Belated Post

Today was the site announcement for all 70+ volunteers in our group. Without further ado, you should know that I will be stationed in the Volta region of Ghana, and that I will be teaching ICT and possibly English at the St. Francis College of Education in the city of Hohoe. That will put me in the eastern side of the country close to the border of Togo. Here is what I read about the school:

The college was established in 1968. It has a current population of about 623 students. The college offers specialist courses in Mathematics and Science but the Arts too are taught to a limited extent. You will be teaching ICT with two other teachers.

Not too bad. The accomodations will be on campus so my morning commute probably won't be based on tro-tro travel. Hooray for that.

So I am pretty happy. I am just writing this 30 minutes after finding out, so I should probably talk to my fellow Volta region volunteers and be sociable. I am especially excited about this. The only bad thing is that it means the 70 of us will be broken up into many regions throughout the country and we won't be able to meet the others as often as we like. Life changes though, so here is to more change.

Later update: This was a really fun day. I had a chance to talk to my mom and tell her the good news and give her the update on being sickly so she doesn't have to read it here first (we never, ever scare Mom through blog posts. That is the first rule here at MTN). And of course, I got better and better physically as the day went along. After our cadre found out about the posts we headed over to the bar close by to the Peace Corps Office (PCO) in Kukurantumi. I was merely a few minutes late to the fun and the moment I walked onto the premises was precisely the moment after the group photo was taken. My humorous pal Mayor Mike was there to save the day though, he yelled out, "SUCK IT BOYER!" and everyone broke out laughing. I did manage to get in one of those group shots though, I hope to get copies some day of them.

One Sprite later and I was dancing my happy-dance to the horrified faces of fellow volunteers. Actually, I was just gesticulating and everyone was laughing with (at) me. As near as I can figure almost everyone was happy and ready for the next step to begin and that definitely includes yours truly.

I was told before I got here by another volunteer that there might be days where the ups and downs pile on. I think I just went through my first one. Forty-eight hours does not a volunteer make, but that seems to be a good taste of how some of my weeks and months might go in the future.

As the evening wound down here at the host family's house, I was treated to more Twi practice even though they don't speak that in Hohoe. It was great to have my brothers and sisters help me parse out words and phrases. When I was at the PCO I met the woman who had interviewed and at the time I didn't know where I was going, but I said hello to her and mentioned something about Twi and she slyly pointed out that I would not be worrying about getting the greeting right for long. I could only smile at that, but I did have the feeling that I wanted Twi to be spoken at my site. I really want to tell my host mother how much she has made me feel welcome, and how I can let her know that she had a big part in making me a Ghanaian.

There is still plenty of time for that to happen, and a lot of wiggle-room for my Twi.

It Had To Happen Sometime

Belated Post

The first thing that I will mention is that I feel fine. Seriously, I feel mentally and physically fine. Yet yesterday I had the pleasure of hitting the latrine a few times and you can guess where that story leads. I suppose it is a common thing when adjusting to a new country, but I was hoping to stay nice and healthy for a good long while.

My hunch is that the food I have been eating with the host family (eating with is a misstatement - I eat at a small table just outside my room which is the way guests are given their meals where I am living) has been a bit much for my gut to handle or process. The other morning I grabbed a laxative and crossed my fingers. Let's say it worked, but I had to feel a bit green in order to go through it all.

So we can just agree that this is out of the way, and I can move on. :O)

I am teaching now! We had our first mini-lesson on Tuesday before a sample class and I think I did decently enough, but there are plenty of things that I can improve upon. My main impression is that many students may not have the background in computers that I was presuming so I need to be wary of the idea, "You all know what this is so let me skip right ahead." Just talking about input devices to the makeshift class of students felt a bit awkward. Some were not responding at all to the points or the questions. Overall though everyone is eager to learn which is great. And one big bonus is the ICT lab where we will teach practicum has an internet connection. Very nice.

I am running around between towns in order to my training (as are my colleagues) so we need to pack into vans and cars which has the approximation of a clown car from the circus. For a car that didn't look bigger than a Ford Escort (and picture that Escort in some disrepair), we had 6 adults packed in. Four would be not so comfortable, so you can paint the picture of all of us slammed into the seats, stacked on top of each other for a short 30 minute ride over dirt roads riddled with potholes. Fun stuff.

Soon we will be teaching pros here. On Thursday we learn where we are heading as our final destination for placement in a community. I am hopeful it is within the Twi language, but we will see. No big deal if it is not.

My First Internet Cafe

Everything considered, it was a nice break to head out to school today and get some classroom preparation done, and then move to the next best thing since sliced bread: the internet.  I had about half an hour to plop a few posts on the blog here, and then this quick message. My host family is tremendous and at times I feel like a king when I walk around. I know that won't last long.

There is now a cellular phone on my person, but calls to the states can get a bit pricey to and fro, so I have been limited on who or when I can call up people. Needless to say, there are certain things that one can get access to while still removed from the modern society.

My best description of the towns that we find ourselves in (the larger group of 70 has been split up several different ways now) is that they make do with what they have. In terms of buildings and technology, they adjust to what is present. In terms of fun and humor, they lack none of what I had in the states. Maybe they even have more, I don't know.

Yet for all of that, here are a few things I can live without. A bathroom that has a roof. My shower and urinary moments are inside a four foot tall concrete enclosure. The outhouse is as nice as can be expected. The food, that is just awesome and plentiful. I could not ask for more and quite frankly I had to ask for less food for meals since I would return the family more then half the plate. Culturally the guest must eat by themselves as a sign of respect for the guest, so I have been eating my food on a table one foot or so high and a chair just slightly shorter. It is different, but that is exactly what I signed up for.

I won't reveal names of the family on the blog, but the town is close to New Tafo. Soon we will be practicing our teaching and then in July our education group goes on VisionQuest so we get to run about the country and have some fun finding other volunteers.

Good times so far, and plenty more to come. Provided I find these cafes close to where I work.

Culture Tour de Force (Or, The Last Day In A Hotel)

Belated Post

Today was more training, of course, but this was also the day where the PC Trainers prepared us for a new family: our host family. The training staff prepared us with many details of what we should expect, and then they conducted a very entertaining skit introducing several things that might run counter to the Americans in us. Eating, greeting, where to go to the bathroom, and many more things made for an informative production.

Some things that I am eager for is some stability and a time to get to hear a language spoken by people a majority of the time. We were told that someone in the house is likely to speak English, which would be nice, but I need to be reminded constantly of words, phrases, objects, etc in the new language. When I am with my fellows here, I speak English 99.5% of the time. That means I am learning about 20 minutes a day of Twi. Not ideal. So as the morning progressed I had this feeling that finally I can get that confidence in my language skills by immersing my head in it.

Oddities though in culture: eating a meal at the family level is about eating, not idle chatter. Keeping silent and having the time to talk before or after is best in some families. Utensils for the food is not required so I should not have to worry about which side the fork goes on when setting the table. The toilet is really an outhouse, and the name they use for the upgraded outhouse is VIP (Ventilated Improved Pit), but you are still referring to it with the term 'pit' attached. That can't be pretty but then again, it might be similar to what you use when you are at a town fair and the port-a-potties are lined up. Still, no flushing. There were many other things that they reviewed but those were the most jarring in my mind as to what I was expecting. Or what was new to me.

So beyond that, what we really had in the morning was more Twi. I liked the set up (smaller groups) and the focus on breaking down what words meant versus memorizing one phrase after the other. That was good. The bad might be that I still don't have a good grasp of words and recall of useful responses. I spoke with our Training Leader and she said that it will all come. I hope she is right.

Again, all of the volunteers have been nice and I am really glad the group is friendly, altruistic to a fault almost, and really funny. Good times when you can find people who are more eager than you are to laugh.

It just occurred to me that we have been in the country a full week. Maybe I should let up a  bit on memorizing something completely new to me. It is still great fun, that is for sure.

Oh, I missed calling my mother last night. I had to leave a long message on the answering machine and I bet that while that might have made her happy, she was probably sad that she missed me directly. That should change soon when I get a cell phone. Ahh, technology in the jungle.

Kukurantumi And Training

Belated Post

Our class has moved on from Vally View and taken up roots in Kukurantumi for the beginning of training. Just the education group is here so far as the Omnibus (non-education) went hunting around the country-side to find volunteers serving in Ghana. We were welcomed just like back in Valley View; open arms and great smiles. It was terrific and the food here is just as good as it was in our last place, if not a touch better. Gifty, one of our Ghanaian trainers, is disappointed when we don't go back for seconds and I must say it is always tempting. Oh, she is incredibly funny and always in great humor no matter what time of day.

Back to Kukurantumi. We are in the Peace Corps Office here and by Friday, the 12th, we are either going to find out who are home stay families are, or actually go directly to their homes and get used to our surroundings. I am eager to get that going, because that transition is big but it also means I get to hear and experience the language of the home family rather than be with Americans all the time. I don't practice Twi now when I leave the training program, and that is killing my uptake of the words and phrases.

Our training is beginning in earnest though. Today the schedule is full of language, education training, and many other items on the itinerary. Should be exhausting if I am a good judge of things. Last night we were placed in a hotel and had a good time just chatting and playing games. I even got in a sketch of the classic Coke bottle that used to be a staple in America. That bottle is heavier than I remember them. Again, I am having a great time with the people that are here, and somehow I have been passing for being 27 or so. Feels neat to be honest.

Off to breakfast at 7AM.

Skipping Vision Quest

Belated Post

June 8, 2010

Since our education class had to stay on schedule for beginning the school semesters at the respective schools, we did not join our Volunteer-mates on a Vision Quest. That entails going out into the country, sometimes on your own, and making do with the minimal (and minimal is an understatement for me personally) language skills in Twi (pronounce that as CHWEE and you are close to the right sound) to connect to a currently serving PCV.

While that sounds like a blast, our group of education volunteers had to stay home as it were in the dorm rooms and get ready for arrival at our host families. But before we did this, the trainers asked us to visit various sites in the city of Accra and its outlying suburbs to see what we could find. Armed with a few basic places to start with, we ended up going off in groups of two and three to arrive at destinations unknown to us.

It was terrific.

The amount of things to take in is mesmerizing and daunting. What did that passenger just pay to board the tro-tro (I have no idea the Twi spelling for this so you have the phonetic spelling right there) and what did I have to pay? Did I get a better deal? Highly unlikely. What did the person taking money just say to the driver? Why am I in a vehicle that needs a few "minor" repairs? All of it just absolutely enjoyable.

We made a connection to the second line in Medina. Think of these large vans as if they were a big city's subway system. One line will take you here, the other will take you there. Just wandering the street to ask for help seems a nightmare, but with a gentle question, put in Twi thank you very much, yields all the help you could imagine. Many people here enjoy helping. With only four days of a brand new language, it is hard to get the hang of just quick banter, so quickly I am asking "Do you speak English," and hoping for the best. One poor woman had her baby right next to me on the tro-tro, and whenever the baby looked over at me, Mr. Pale Face, he started to cry. His mother didn't speak English and I clammed up and tried my best to stop making the little one cry, but that is the way things happen sometimes.

I was with two friends here and we did our best to find our destinations. We asked our questions and found out that a military hospital cared for veterans, active duty soldiers, and the civilian population alike. They would even help out a volunteer should we arrive in disrepair. How nice. I like that all of us just kept looking around the next corner for answers to our questions, as we were jumped to seven different people before we got to our last one, and even he directed us to the first place we asked to get proper clearance. Very funny.

One short walk from the hospital and we were at the Peace Corps HQ. I got to check my email and send a note to my mom and brother. I hope they read it and felt alright about my lack of updates in the last few days. It is hard not being able to reassure people that everything is well and dandy when it is just that. I know certain somebodies that tend to worry.

More work to be done, and some quick prepping for our departure on the 9th. I hope this update found you well and good in your part of the world.

Things That I Have Learned

Belated Post

June 6, 2010

All the meals have been provided up to this point for the two or so days that we have been there, so I don't know anything about cooking or buying food, but I do know now how to wash my clothes using only the bucket and bar of soap method. Seems a bit more time consuming that way was my first observation. Roughly ten minutes to get one pair of pants sufficiently (but not perfectly) clean. The drying part is self-explanatory, the sun does that nicely. And of course the bucket is useful in that one can take a sufficient bath in it. We have shower heads here but I felt I should do the experiment of my first bath with a bucket yesterday, our first full day in Ghana. It was nice actually, and the water was not cold nor warm, just the temperature of a pool in July I bet.

On the other end of the spectrum is learning the language. It was a bit overwhelming to begin with. The trip to the market wasn't helpful, I felt like a fish out of water. A fish out of water with a lot of onlookers witnessing the episode. After returning back it was brought to my attention that I would likely never see these people again, and that making mistakes was part of the process. So pride took its toll on my first day out. We were there for about an hour, and the food looked really good save for the dried fish that had flies hovering all about. Heck, I'd eat them anyway but they just don't have that much visual appeal.

Today (it was June 6th, Sunday) has seen a few more lessons on safety, some concerns
 on security, and all in all, be aware of who you are and where you are while on duty. That concept of being a representative of the states all day every day was drilled home.

Oh, and I can't ride a motorcycle unless it is life and death. That waits until I get back to America I suppose.

Really, I am not for wanting of anything right now. It is warm, but so what, you sweat and drink water and survive. Let's see if I am saying that 10 months from now.

I Am Actually In Ghana

Belated Post
June 5, 2010

Here I stand along side a wall typing on the netbook (thank you once again Damla) as the rest of my Peace-mates play volleyball (one rope strong across two columns and a make-shift volleyball which is actually a soccer ball) and also soccer keep-away in the open coutyard, I have to pause and consider how lucky I am to be here. The people are wonderful (both Americans and Ghanians) and so far, every anxious moment I had wondering what it would be like has passed and most things have turned out far better than I could have hoped for.

I have landed and somewhat adjusted to the new world here. The flight out to Ghana went well after the airport had to double check that all of our luggage was actually on board. We waited for alomst an hour before getting out of JFK, but then that was it, we were airborne and only a small, apprehensive sigh came out; it was really happening.

Then about twelve hours in the air passed by. I think I managed to sleep or slightly doze of for about an hour during the trip, and that put me in Accra, the capitol, around 8AM their time. I was not that tired, and the warm rains made sure to wake me up upon stepping off the staircase out of the plane. It no longer was happening, it *had happened*! I made it. What a sense of relief it was. Then came the airport. Or at least out departure.

We collected our bags, showed our passports to everyone, and then jumped outside to approach the bus which would ferry us out to Peace Corps Headquarters. It was large, bright green, and nicely air conditioned. This short trip to HQ gave us a quick acquaintance with the area. The streets, the vendors, the cobbled together shacks and some of the very nice houses made me feel that some have it nice, others have it pretty hard. The meet and greet at Peace Corps' office went well, and the rain kept coming and going for the rest of the afternoon. It really felt nice if it didn't pour too much.

With official business concluded and our behinds back on the bus again, we made the rest of the trip out to our temporary digs at a school about an hour or so from Accra. we had the same escort to the dormitory on a campus outside of town. Lots of honking, lots of not so happy faces peering back in the windows, but they were out numbered by the very happy faces who would wave.

Still, there we were, enjoying a new space and a new land. Small rooms but they had toilets and even a shower head, though I will probably try just the bucket for fun to get used to. The weather was a bit hot and humid, but fortunately it is the rainy season so the day time highs are not that high, mostly in the high 80s as the sun doesn't come out much.

Here we met the staff that will begin the training session for us. All Ghanians, and all smiling and extremely helpful. They fed us and made some great spicy foods which I could enjoy.

So for the first day, I had about 30 or 36 hours of up-time and little down-time. After dinner I crashed in bed without even taking off my clothes, and in the early morning I realized I hadn't taken my shoes off. Yes I was that tired.

No mosquito bites yet! That is a big victory in my book, though I haven't seen one yet so that is a good thing.

Saying Goodbyes

Who knew they would be so tough.

Well, of course they are tough. Still, it is tough to do it and if anyone knows me they know at least one thing - I am terrible at them.

So after some tearful goodbyes, it seems that the only thing left to do is to arrive in Accra and get acquainted with some tropical sun and some mighty friendly people. Care to come along?

Great!

(updates though may be a bit spotty, so go ahead and sign up via that email link and get them sent directly to you!)

Staging In Philly Begins

This is where posts get tricky. The access to the network is a must for posts naturally, and given that I am sitting in the airport awaiting the flight to arrive and take me to Philadelphia means that I have wifi here at the terminal. Whence I leave this terminal things become less certain. I presume there will be spots in Philly where I can crack open the netbook and give it a whirl, but Wednesday the 2nd means business Peace Corps style; lots of things to soak up and prepare for.

That means I might be hit and miss for a bit. Thursday afternoon is the road trip from half-way-'round-the-world. Leaving Philadelphia means a bus ride to NYC and to John F. Kennedy Airport to depart for Africa. Exciting? You bet! But I want people to know that I am all right while I am out and about and that gets a bit tricky since I know next to nothing about where I will find myself in Accra and parts beyond.

So stay tuned. It should get much more interesting from this stage forward.

Just A Few More Days Here

There are only a few more hours to go state-side and then I am off to Africa. It still hasn't sunk in completely. Each step has been a theoretical leap, nothing changed about my life or my surroundings, just an update or a form to fill out and that was that.

Now it is getting a bit more real.

My apartment is becoming more barren as each hours slips by. The vehicles are sold, the accounts that I used to pay monthly (and take for granted) are now closed. I have books, some music, and a phone which also will be leaving my side very shortly to keep me company.

In addition to that, I still have my friends and an American culture that I am still quite comfortable with at my fingertips. That will be the scary part - seeing that disappear over the horizon.

I am anxious to get started but I understand one important thing, I am going to be returning some point in the future as a different creature. What I lose here I am sure I will gain on the other side of the Atlantic. Still, it is quite the unknown.

Just a few more hours to go then. If I manage to pack just half of what I need in Ghana then I will be happy.

What To Do

Nothing is quite like packing up your life and figuring out what you will need for the next two years. I haven't figured it out just yet, but with some help I have a shopping list and a few great suggestions on what to take to Ghana.

The apartment is getting more vacant and everything that I look at lately gets categorized instantly again and again. Take, don't take, dumpster, sell, give away, etc. It feels as though nothing is really being condensed or narrowed down, but I imagine after a few more trips to the storage unit and the dumpster, things will be gone and I will be left with only what I need. Or rather, what I think I need. Probably my best guess now will look foolish in about three or four months. Part of the fun of it though.

One other problem is what to do with the time remaining. I want to spend it with everyone of course, but time doesn't quite permit everything. So I am doing the best I can with talking and seeing people where I go. When someone says, "See you next week," I now explain that this might not be the case. After a while that starts to wear a bit on the head; this may be the very last time I see this person. Should the handshake be extra firm? Should I just say 'later' and move along? Odd changes of the mental state keep coming back and sometimes I just go quiet thinking about it all.

When not stuck in deep contemplation I have enough sense to just try and enjoy and laugh and absorb the good times. Some good times are still left and in my better moments I realize there are some great times to come.

The British Petroleum Spill Senate Hearing

While on the road for a good long while yesterday I had the pleasure of tuning into C-SPAN II radio while passing through the Washington, D.C. area to listen to a hearing regarding the Gulf of Mexico oil spill / leak. Senator Lieberman chaired the hearing and Senator Collins sat as the ranking minority member of the committee. They brought out DHS Secretary Napolitano to answer questions and then the chairman of BP America, Lamar McKay. Both had answers for some questions but not others.

All-in-all, I thought that it was a rather enlightening session. A couple of points brought up struck me as significant: there are many deep water oil operations in the Gulf but at the outset of the meeting it was thought that they constituted less than 5% of the operations in the Gulf - more like 60% if I remember correctly; the contingency plans focused on clean-up were in effect presuming the spill was on top of the water, not from its source below the water's surface; that there hasn't been a catastrophe of this proportion earlier.

The idea that the U.S. government allowed businesses to secure rights to drill this deep yet have no real requirement to determine the means of containing a disastrous worst-case scenario such as this is baffling. This is not the first time a well has been drilled in 5,000 feet of water either. So by sheer luck and some forethought, most wells have gone in without incident. I then could completely understand the position of BP to paraphrase lightly - we really don't have a case history here to deal with an explosion and rupture so deep, so this is all an experiment. I gather some paper diagrams saying how they would contain the bleeding would have been sufficient to say they had thought about it, but there again that type of preparation wouldn't guarantee that it would work in reality.

It certainly struck me as I listened to this entire session that I was able to take it all in from the luxury of my four-wheeled vehicle that is always in need of some nice crude to be pumped or procured from somewhere else on earth. I am repulsed at the amount of damage that this leak has and will cause in the Gulf of Mexico, but I can't say that I want all off-shore drilling and production stopped.

Rather, I am more agreeable for costs such as this to be added to the price of oil products that we as a whole buy. Plastics, oil, gasoline, all of the hydrocarbon-based things that we buy should have an actual cost that covers the necessary destruction of the environment whether that is air, land, or sea pollution. That cost isn't to punish us but to make us aware that there are many unknown expenses associated with these modern-day conveniences. It seems more fair and makes all of us responsible for the world we leave behind.

Visiting The Family

I have spent the better part of the last nine days visiting family and it has been great. I had the chance to spend an entire day relaxing with my brother by the pool for his birthday party festivities, I had a chance to go to the beach with my mom and dip the toes into the Atlantic Ocean one more time, and then yesterday I was able to visit with all my extended family on the other side of the state and receive all the great well-wishes. You couldn't ask for a better time.

But with all that great time, you get to figure out what you will miss most. Twenty-seven months is a long time to go without a hug, but I am sure some family will have a chance to travel and visit me, so I will be counting down the days to those visits for sure.

Until that time, I enjoy these moments and get to hold on to them for quite a while!

One Update One Day Late

Yesterday I happened to re-check my online application status. My girlfriend suggested it, and while I hadn't received an email (the usual way I would find out if any changes were made to my account at Peace Corps) I went ahead and took her very wise advice. Nothing was different - or so I thought.

I had neglected to check one part of the account. Your Application. Since I had been nominated and now my account had changed in the look and feel department, I hadn't gone back to review what my application had listed. Yes, it was different and all for the better. It said that something had been mailed to me on the 4th.

I had called the main office earlier and they seemed a bit surprised that I hadn't received anything. I still did not know they had sent something at the time, and I just chalked it up to someone getting a signal crossed. Of course that certain somebody was me. Naturally.

I went to the Post Office and picked up my mail, and in the mail box was a key for a package that had been sent. It was my Invitation. Oh joyous day. I was so incredibly excited that I called her up and let her know that I was coming home with what was sure to be an invite.

I got home and she helped me open the envelope. She gave me the cover-letter and sure enough, it was there. "It is with great pleasure that we invite you to begin training in Ghana for Peace Corps service."

We hugged and the smile on my face was impressive I'm sure. So Ghana. I quickly helped myself to all the information inside and while I do need to fill out a few things, I think this is it. What I have hoped for since the start was a chance to serve, a chance to see what I am made of and a way to help out. All the while learning about who I am.

Pretty neat huh?

Where Are We In The Process

To be honest, I am not so certain where I am in the process of the Peace Corps application. I had a notice about a week and a half ago that I had an invitation. Sure enough I checked my account and there was an invitation listed for me (and hey, that is tremendous news in and of itself since that is what I have been after for a long while now), but the invitation was lacking something. A tiny bit of crucial information.

Where to?

The invite seems to have left off a continent or a country for the destination so most of the pages in my account are available to me, but the juicy information is omitted. I can only imagine that this is a great first step towards finding out where I am heading to, but then it twists me in knots to NOT know where it might be. After a call to the headquarters in D.C., it seems that either I am to receive something in the mail or I should expect a call.

More. Waiting. To. Go.

But still, you should know that there is an invite, but I don't know where to! Hooray for that, right?

Well Then, That Is The End Of That

It has been a while since I had something to update, but here we have it. After many months of being in the lurch on the medical aspect of my Peace Corps application I have come to find out today that I am now fully medically cleared for the second time. The surgeon wrote out a clearance paper for me that says I am fully healed and ready to depart the moment they say "go". Which means... yes, I can now go!

What that depends on though is the Peace Corps having a position open for me to move into which has proven problematic at the end of 2009 and at the beginning of 2010. The countries that are putting out the requests now need to put up a position where I am a perfect match and then I get to head out.

Keeping the fingers crossed this long still seems to pay dividends. In the meantime I have kept busy with different scraps of work and hobbies. Having quit the full-time job so long ago I forget what it is like to get up earlier than 9AM, but I am sure that I can swing right back into the flow once something concrete comes my way.

More patience for 2010!

Ah, It Goes On And On

Boy, I need to update this site more often. Yes, the deployment has been delayed and looks to continue its delay until 2010, maybe in the spring. While waiting I have had a few calls with the Placement Officer and her response has been toned down but encouraging. Hang in there and you will be placed since you have been waiting a while.

So obviously, I have had the misfortune of being placed back into the waiting game for my Peace Corps placement. The unfortunate medical incident at just the perfectly awful time made me sit out while others were sent in earnest across the globe. I just had to be patient. I had to keep repeating that to myself whenever another form would come across or another update would be emailed or phoned to me.

Now I am back in line with the Medical Office. They sent me the following letter:

"Dear "You",

Thank you for submitting your medical information to the Office of Medical Services. We have reviewed your medical records and determined that we must defer our evaluation of your medical qualification until you have completed your 3 month follow up visit for evaluation of the right zygomaticomaxillary complex fracture.

If you wish for us to reconsider your application at that time, we will need a report from you physician that includes current evaluation of this condition.

You may request review of this decision by the Peace Corps' Screening Review Board. You must make this request in writing within 60 days. Please send the request to your reviewing nurse. The request must be accompanied by some new information from your physician or other licensed health care provider not previously provided to Peace Corps. The decision of the Screening Review Board will be final, and not subject to further review.

If you have any questions, contact..."

From what I am gathering, it is stating that I am out until that 3 month follow up visit is received by them (they received the 2 month office notes because that is how they learned about the 3 month appointment).

What is getting me upset, and not a temper tantrum upset I should say, is that the 2 month office visit stated that I was clear to leave if the Peace Corps offered me a placement opportunity. The surgeon keeps putting me into the "how about we just see each other again next month" routine and I have yet to say no.

Either way, this leads to yet more back and forth-ing and I am contemplating a request to review this decision, but if it only takes a short office visit and a doctor's note explaining in plain english that is acceptable to put me on a jet plane then that is what I will do. A call on the 8th should help out.

A Bump On The Road (And On The Face)

As of this writing I am uncertain if I will be leaving for Peace Corps at the time they had intended me to leave. I was interviewed on Tuesday, the 4th, and things went well with the Placement Representative until I had to disclose a medical injury to her. Unfortunately I took a punch or three to the head late Sunday and have to have a surgery scheduled to fix the broken zygomatic process on the right side of my face.

Honestly, I realize that patience and flexibility were all a part of the process here but this was distinctly NOT on my plan when getting into the Peace Corps. I will be alright I think, and the story that got my into this position is long to tell but suffice to say, all parties are being responsible and I feel it will work out. The aspect of getting deployed though looks likely to be put on hold for a while unfortunately. I have an initial examination with the plastic surgeon to see what they can do for my bones to fix the damage, and from there we figure out what can be had in terms of timing for Peace Corps.

I suspect this will be a longish delay, not weeks, but months. Then again, things have worked out for me without my understanding in the past so maybe I will be fortunate here and have things go my way.

Either way, it was neat to find out that my theory of when I might be heading out was pretty close. Not quite August, but not quite winter either. Now where is that ice pack?

Medically Cleared - Finally

After all those visits to all of those healthcare specialists I finally get to declare myself medically fit for the Peace Corps. Or more correctly, I get to report that the Peace Corps thinks I am medically fit to enter.

The letter finally came today and while not an invite to a country, it was a great relief just to get to this stage in the process. Now I need to wait for the last little thing - an invite to join.

More patience. A lot more!

A Letter Is Coming

It has been a few weeks since I had an update for or from the Peace Corps to post about. I had my last medical questions filled out and returned back in early June. I received a notice that the Medical Office was in receipt of them and that put me back in the position of waiting.

That waiting may (or may not be) over soon.

I received another update on my account this past Tuesday, July 6th stating that I should look for a letter to come to my home in the next few days. I do not know what the letter will have and the status chance on my account now shows my medical kit has been fully completed so I know for certain that this letter is not more information that I will need to fill out with the help of my doctor. I just don't know what the letter has in it!

More patience. From my Peace Corps account, it read as follows:

"A decision has been reached regarding your medical review. Please look for a letter in the mail."

I don't know if the letter is one qualifying me for a position, disqualifying me, or something altogether different.

I am incredibly nervous but there is nothing that I can do but wait for the mail to come each day and be hopeful for good news.

We shall see, and I will write with the next installment of this Peace Corps saga.

Happiness

I just finished a fascinating article in the Atlantic titled, "What Makes Us Happy?" written by Joshua Wolf Shank. An incredible digest of the 70+ year Grant Study of Harvard students and its longtime director, George Vaillant.

I am not sure that I had ever heard about it prior to reading the article, but it is truly worth the time to read and think things through. Since I've been trying to find my own slice of happiness in the world it should come as no surprise that many others have done the same and probably bounced around the same paths as I have.

Without permission, this one particular passage stood out:

case No. 218, continued

On first glance, you are the study’s exemplar. In Dr. Vaillant’s “decathlon” of mental health—10 measures, taken at various points between ages 18 and 80, including personality stability at ages 21 and 29, and social supports at 70—you have ranked in the top 10 of the Grant Study men the entire way through, one of only three men to have done so.

What’s your secret? Is it your steely resolve? After a major accident in college, you returned to campus in a back brace, but you looked healthy. You had a kind of emotional steel, too. When you were 13, your mother ran off with your father’s best friend. And though your parents reunited two years later, a pall of disquiet hung over your three-room apartment when the social worker came for her visit. But you said your parents’ divorce was “just like in the movies,” and that you someday “would like to have some marital difficulties” of your own.

After the war—during which you worked on a major weapons system—and graduate school, you married, and your bond with your wife only deepened over time. Indeed, while your mother remains a haunting presence in your surveys—eventually diagnosed with manic depression, she was often hospitalized and received many courses of shock therapy—the warmth of your relationship with your wife and kids, and fond memories of your maternal grandfather, seemed to sustain you.

Yet your file shows a quiet, but persistent, questioning about a path not taken. As a sophomore in college, you emphasized how much money you wanted to make, but also wondered whether you’d be better off in medicine. After the war, you said you were “too tense & high strung” and had less interest in money than before. At 33, you said, “If I had to do it all over again I am positive I would have gone into medicine—but it’s a little late.” At 44, you sold your business and talked about teaching high school. You regretted that (according to a study staff member’s notes) you’d “made no real contribution to humanity.” At 74, you said again that if you could do it over again, you would go into medicine. In fact, you said, your father had urged you to do it, to avoid the Army. “That annoyed me,” you said, and so you went another way.

There is something unreachable in your file. “Probably I am fooling myself,” you wrote in 1987, at age 63, “but I don’t think I would want to change anything.” How can we know if you’re fooling yourself? How can even you know? According to Dr. Vaillant’s model of adaptations, the very way we deal with reality is by distorting it—and we do this unconsciously. When we start pulling at this thread, an awfully big spool of thoughts and questions begins to unravel onto the floor.

You never seemed to pull the thread. When the study asked you to indicate “some of the fundamental beliefs, concepts, philosophy of life or articles of faith which help carry you along or tide you over rough spots,” you wrote: “Hard to answer since I am really not too introspective. However, I have an overriding sense (or philosophy) that it’s all a big nothing—or ‘chasing after wind’ as it says in Ecclesiastes & therefore, at least up to the present, nothing has caused me too much grief.”

That bolded passage above struck me - the very way we deal with reality is by distorting it. How can you know you are not distorting reality? And the subject's admission that "it's all a big nothing." Happiness is so elusive in its application to the human condition that it astounds me where other people find it, or how they relate to it in their lives.

Again, a fine article not only on the study itself but on what conclusions we can draw from it.

A Fill-Up On The Enthusiasm Tank

It has been some time since I have had any word on my application to the Peace Corps and honestly, without any news the whole idea recedes into the back of my mind if there isn't something new to ingest. Over the past week or two I have been more preoccupied with my upcoming vacation than with an update on my medical kit from Washington, D.C.

An enthusiasm gap was settling in - will I ever get going with this? Do I still want to do this if it should come to pass? Without the wind in my sails I felt more adrift, and just a touch less ready to get to that next stage.

Tonight's get together over in Northampton changed my perspective somewhat. Past and future Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) were invited to a pot luck dinner and meet-and-greet at a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer's (RPCV) house. This was the fastest 3 hours I've spent at a pot luck ever. The time whizzed by as I was privileged to speak with those who have already been through the process and gone through the emotions. My very good friend (and RPCV herself) Rebecca was there, as well as my brand new RPCV friends Joe, Jill, Sara, and "Betsy". Many more were in attendance but once you get rolling with the questions and the answers come at you in waves it is difficult to talk to and meet everyone. Probably about 20 in all were in attendance.

It is hard to pinpoint what I gleaned from the evening as there were 3 suggestions and 2 intriguing stories for every question I had, all of which I wanted to memorize or do my best to store away for later use if I am so lucky to be invited, but the most important thing I got from this evening was that connectedness to something bigger, grand, and exciting. It has been quite some time since I felt like that, possibly even going all the way back to the night where I couldn't sleep because I was thinking about applying. Just tremendous fun to talk about this possible life.

I really took too much of Sara's time with my questions, but she had served in Lesotho (a pronunciation that sounds much more like leh-SU-too than how I was accustomed to saying it) and I was zoning in on those who served in Africa without realizing it. Great information from her as she described what it was like living there, getting used to the situation, making new friends, and even coming back and the difficulties that imposes on the volunteer.

I could go on but the picture is pretty much done there - a friendlier group of people it would be hard to find.

As the night of stories moved along I realized that some of those old comforts that I am so used to right now won't be here for long if I really were depart in July or August (who knows when the date might be), so I strolled over to the convenience store that is open 24 hours a day just for a whim such as mine and walked out with a pint of ice cream. I know I shouldn't do that, but while I still can...

I made the exception. It was delicious! Enthusiasm and blood sugars are at an all-time high.

Spare Time And Evolution

Since there is no news on the Peace Corps front (patience... flexibility), I found myself wandering back to items in the political sphere again.

From another web log I was directed to an article written by Tamim Ansary who claimed deep experience in the educational textbook arena for K-12 education. It was published in the November 2004 issue of Edutopia under the title, "The Muddle Machine: Confessions of a Textbook Editor". The copy of that article is online still, and sheds a bit of light on what, at the time, was the process of publishing a textbook in the United States.

This passage is the striking information:

"In textbook publishing, April is the cruelest month. That's when certain states announce which textbooks they're adopting. When it comes to setting the agenda for textbook publishing, only the twenty-two states that have a formal adoption process count. The other twenty-eight are irrelevant -- even though they include populous giants like New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio -- because they allow all publishers to come in and market programs directly to local school districts.

Adoption states, by contrast, buy new textbooks on a regular cycle, usually every six years, and they allow only certain programs to be sold in their state. They draw up the list at the beginning of each cycle, and woe to publishers that fail to make that list, because for the next seventy-two months they will have zero sales in that state.

Among the adoption states, Texas, California, and Florida have unrivaled clout. Yes, size does matter. Together, these three have roughly 13 million students in K-12 public schools. The next eighteen adoption states put together have about 12.7 million. Though the Big Three have different total numbers of students, they each spend about the same amount of money on textbooks. For the current school year, they budgeted more than $900 million for instructional materials, more than a quarter of all the money that will be spent on textbooks in the nation."

In effect, three states call the shots as to what gets in and stays out of curricula for the nation's students. Of these three, only Texas administers their purchasing agreement for all grades which obviously covers high school textbooks as well as elementary programs. Hence, if you can sell it in Texas, you hit the mother-lode for your sales figures and you can sop up bonus money by pitching the textbooks to the other states who don't follow the adoption process.

The author details the process by which the Texas Board of Education reviews textbooks submitted, and the open hearing process whereby the public may question and comment on the textbooks. It has been through this (and the conservative make up of the Texas Board of Education) that the curriculum held in the hands of students in the Lone Star State have received watered down versions of science for quite some time. Just as recently as March 2009 the Board succeeded in adding language which will require students to "examine all sides of the argument." Clearly a dive for creationism in the classroom at all costs by the board, several of whom are very vocal about their support (any statement by Barbara Cargill on science makes her views perfectly clear).

This is not to put aside Ansary's view on the flawed system of textbook publication in this age, with diluted facts and subtle self-censorship on the part of producers, but to highlight what places the stress on science education almost across the board: a fifteen member panel and vocal activists with little background in the sciences insisting that political and religious views be foisted onto the masses.

To be honest, they are playing the game fair and square (as fair and square can be in Texas). I wonder if colleges and universities might make it known that fewer scholarships for math and science will be issued to native-taught Texans for the foreseeable future; that if given the choice, maybe a student from Michigan, Ohio, or Pennsylvania will have the background suitable for a rigorous education in the honest-to-goodness sciences more than a Texas senior would.

Then again, that probably wouldn't bother some Texans in the slightest. And that is a true shame for the next generation.

And So The Medical Kit Is Returned

After receiving my medical evaluation kit back in November of last year I have tallied the visits to the doctors, sifted through old medical records, scratched my temple to figure out what was being requested, done double and triple reviews of my documents in comparison to what the Peace Corps wanted returned; so finally today I sent the whole batch of papers back to their office. Hoooray!

The last official duty was making copies of everything that I was sending to them so I had a record of what I passed along. My hunch here is that this medical evaluation just serves as another step in the process to weed out potential candidates. Then again, maybe college graduates don't have much more then one visit to the doctor and the dentist to be finished with this part.

All in all, the ordeal is done and it treated me to a full battery of medical tests which is a good thing. I am sure my health insurance company can't quite figure out why someone would go for a Polio booster, but the Yellow fever shot my clue them in that I may be traveling soon. I'm hopeful that they pay for some of these things at least.

There is still a chance that Peace Corps receives my reply and finds something out of place which may delay the deployment. I hope this isn't the case. Another opportunity to practice patience and flexibility I suppose.

Onward and upward.

Back In The Clear

I neglected to post on Friday that the results so far of a more thorough eye exam is negative - that is the result was good for me and positive for my Peace Corps application. The ophthalmologist could not see anything on the retina other than a nevus that just should be looked at closely on further visits to ensure that it is not changing. That made me much happier. 

What I have left to do is some more writing, a few more references and then I can ship off a packet full of papers to the main headquarters and wait patiently for any follow-up questions. I may try to do a page count of what I am sending just for the humor of it all.

Our 44th President

Today was the inauguration of the Obama presidency. I happened to be fortunate enough to view the broadcast of the event while still at work but I certainly wish I had been there front and center to witness it with my own eyes. What an impressive day, more so for those who have felt the brunt of an oppressive society during the last century.

As I am an incredible devotee to the Presidency of Lincoln, it is very reassuring that President Obama has the same fondness for our 16th president. I really do hope that he can match the kindness and humility that Abraham Lincoln put on display in both public and private matters. Even if he falls only a little short of that superlative example, I am fairly positive that Obama's presidency would be a success.

We will find out soon enough; for now, it is a nice day to be alive.

The quote from Lincoln's second inaugural address:

"With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds."

Patient And Flexible

I was told earlier in the process, prior to the interview as a matter of fact, that using these words - patient and flexible - would get me places. They represent the need to understand that things operate differently in a different culture, that sometimes it takes all of your strength just to adapt to the most simplest and mundane changes that are bound to occur.

This ideal of patience and flexibility are already being used, and I am only at the medical portion of the application process. I am thinking of doing a new meditation technique where I only hear these two words looped over and over again to a new age sound track whilst I say aloud, "aum". It might just help.

More appointments today were made and met. I had to return back to my primary care physician to have her sign off on two sheets of paper that I had misread prior to my second visit to her. Just another sheet acknowledging past conditions and her signature. A second Hepatitis B shot as well (they are starting to hurt less now) for good measure. Just two more shots to go plus the Yellow fever and Polio boosters, and I'm almost done with the injections.

It was the second visit to the optometrist that threw me a curve ball. I needed new glasses in the worst way and before I go I need to have two pairs as a precautionary measure. Many hundreds of dollars later, I had the glasses I needed. Before I was out though, my optometrist dilated the pupils to take a good long look at my retina. He did notice something in the left eye. After far too much prodding on the eyeball, he could not get a good enough look at a small lesion in there. He then proceeded to tell me that this was more than likely nothing but a second opinion wouldn't hurt. 

Then the disconcerting news came. Something to the effect of, "If I saw this in a patient who had a history of melanoma, then I would definitely get this checked out." 

Yes, that would be me there mister. Back in 2001 to be precise. Any alarms and whistles at that?

While no horn fired off nor steam whistles blared out of his ears, he gave me a choice of specialists to visit so I am off to see one next Friday for a second look. I should say that it is a good thing that Peace Corps is this thorough with there medical checks for an old man such as myself, but I would have preferred to have news of the A-Ok variety. If it is nothing, then all I am out is an hour or two Friday. Better to be safe here, that is for certain.

And now on to practicing some more patience and flexibility.

A-u-m. A-u-m.