Nom Nom

IST

We just had our In Service Training. This was a training event for my swear in group. We all got back together and talked about our past 3 months at site and plans for our next 21 months at site.

It's a little scary how fast the time is passing by. Just two months ago I was living in what I thought was a small town (of about 1,000 people or so) and I thought I was roughing it without running water. Now I find myself in a village of about 400 people without electricity or running water.

I've never been happier in Ghana.

At the close of 3 months at site I realize I haven't done too many tangible things. Hearing everybody's stories about what they've been doing definitely made me realize the things I haven't been doing. However I came to understand something, and that is I have 21 months to do things still.  I'm here to learn just as much as I am here to teach. So I've gotten some great ideas and heard some really good plans and I think I can really take it and run with it.

During IST I found the sessions we had seemed to drag on and on though. There were definitely times when I started drifting off but I think that may have had more to do with my narcolepsy? Impossible to tell but I am happy be out of that stuffy room!

And I was lucky enough to have my birthday fall on IST where I could celebrate it with everybody. Somehow the group even managed to get a cake to me! Cakes are not really made in Ghana so I'm not sure how they got it to me but it was much appreciated. So I had some less enjoyable presentations and a more enjoyable cake on my birthday. All in all a successful birthday.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and I hope everything is going well!

Funerals and hair cuts

So on Friday I went to a neighboring village (called Tamalagu) to attend a funeral ceremony.  The ceremony was for the chief who passed away. I asked when he had passed away and they said 5 or 6 years ago. In my head I was thinking "whaaat... are you serious? Why are they still have the funeral??" and out loud I said "Oh, sorry. God will help him to heaven." Classic Ghanian saying. And save for Diana!

Funerals last a week here so maybe I'll show back up again later. I'm not sure though because, once again, I was made to dance in front of the entire village. The whole "let's make the 'white' girl dance" routine is getting old. Still a lot of laughs were had and I survived with only minor emotional damage. No big deal.

I've come to learn though that while the funeral for the Tamalagu chief had just started, the funeral for the Tamale (capital of Northern Region Ghana, aka a big deal) chief was just ending. The chief for Tamale died 20 years ago. So apparently Tamalagu was ahead of the game. Sons and daughters take out loans to pay for funerals here! That's dedication man (and the culture of Ghana).

 

This is my morning running path. Check out my backyard!

 

So I cut my hair this past Wednesday haha...

 So here is your photo shoot of me. It was pretty difficult trying to cut my own hair for two reasons: 

1.I've never cut anybodies hair (other than my roommates pet dog twice) before.

2. I lacked a second mirror so cutting the back of my head was... interesting.

   

(In case you're wondering how/why I had the guts to do this, it's because I was growing a mini-fro. Sorry but I didn't take any pictures of that. Plus I figured if I really messed up I would just buzz my head again.)

 

Three people on a moto- common. I barely look twice anymore. I once saw 5 people on a moto (that time I looked 3 times). The father was driving and the mother was sitting way far back on the moto with their 2 children sandwiched between them. The mother was also carrying a baby on her back.

 Ghanian version of Mancala. Who needs a board anyway?

Also! If you want to see my village here is a link to it on google maps! Yapalsi Now you can see my roaming grounds.

Pictures

I have received all of my mail! Woohoo! My mail got forwarded from Accra to Tamale. Once in Tamale they were forwarded to a sub office of Peace Corps, which I was unaware of. Okay I got a ton of letters to write back so here's some pictures to hold you guys over.

 

Cooking station in my compound

 

Two peculiarities in this picture. Can you spot them? 

 

Daily lunch and dinner- T.Z, fish, and stew (okra)

Setting fire to the rain

So I’ve much to talk about, too much actually. Let’s get started.

First and foremost: All of my mail has been getting lost. Ghana’s postal service has been eating up anything and everything for a Diana Hsieh since November. Depressing, I know. I’m sorry for any letters I haven’t responded to! I promise it wasn’t intentional. I’m trying to get it worked out and I’ll keep you all updated. 

Second: Integrating into my community is going well! I’ve stopped cooking at my site. My host mother makes me food every day and I’ve come to enjoy Ghanaian food. I remember just 3 months ago I was struggling and fighting to get through a starchy ball of fufu, but now I look find myself looking forward to it. I’m enjoying talking to all of the village people.

I believe I am becoming more and more accepted as a member and less like a guest. I’m laughing constantly with my village, mostly about some shenanigans I did or am trying to do. The other day my community dyed my entire left hand black with henna. Sometimes I wake up and think “Demon!!” before I remember. It’s a sign of beauty in my community to dye the sides of their feet black and their hands. They don’t do any type of decoration though (no cool swirls, dots, loops or patterns). They put my hand in a plastic bag overnight with crushed up plants and water. When I woke up my hand had swelled up and turned into grandma hands to the MAX. It was actually painful but no worries folks, it’s a-ok now (minus the scared looks I get from people who aren’t from the northern region of Ghana haha).

Integration is almost going too well… sometimes I wonder how I’ll be able to go back to the American culture haha. 

Third: Every compound in Yapalsi has a tube that allows liquids to flow outside of their homes. This drainage will contain urine, bath water, cooking water, laundry water, etc. Well I was tired of stepping over one of these sludge streams and decided to do something about it so I made a soak away pit in my compound.
A soak away pit is pretty much a hole filled in with rocks. You dig the hole right in front of the end of the tube (where the liquid is flowing out) and the sludgy water won’t turn into a stream of foul smelling-ness, but rather sink into the ground. So I just have to dig a hole and fill it in with rocks, simple right? No.

I get a hoe and begin digging up the ground. The beginning half foot is not pleasant and it isn’t an understatement to say I played in pee all day (or the next day) long. After about a foot down I realize that the hoe I’m using isn’t actually able to pull out the freshly dug up dirt and the metal part keeps falling off. It’s strange but somehow a shovel doesn’t exist in Yapalsi… so I’m forced to become creative. With a combination of a lot of squeals (“oh my god oh my god what did I just touch?! Gross gross gross!! Diana WHY are you doing this?? Do not touch that. Whatever you do don't touch it! Get it off, holy shit get it OFF.) and pure determination (perhaps stupidity) a make shift shovel was improvised out of a piece of sheet metal, a larger hoe, and… my hands.

Two days of work goes into this hole in the ground and then an hour or two searching for the rocks. Now I have to see how it works. If it works well I’ll share it with the other community members and if it doesn’t work well I’ll have to dig the hole deeper I suppose. Cross your fingers that 2.5x2.5 feet were enough.

Fourth and most recent: I went to a workshop in Togo this past week! It was a diversity training workshop where all the attendees (varying PCers in West Africa) learned about how to begin their own diversity committees, how to address diversity, and how to be a good ally. First a shout out to the Togo PC team for doing such an excellent brilliant job. It is no understatement for me to say that what I learned will stay with me for the rest of my life.  

It’s fitting for me to be writing this blog at this moment because the rain is pouring down (hello rainy season!) and listening to the beautiful Adele sing about “setting fire to the rain” I realize how I’ve discovered another dimension to myself and to society. We are all different and diverse people who come from varying cultures (isn’t this what makes world travel so much fun?). No one culture is completely correct or wrong, they are all just different. West African culture unfortunately discriminates against a specific community but I’ve seen that individuals are able to go against their culture and make decisions for themselves. It’s a breath of fresh air I got when I didn't know I was holding my breath.

Rain can burn.

Wedding

So I attended a wedding in my village recently. Weddings here are not a day long event but are 4 day events. Every day brides family will provide dinner for the community. This is a lot of people to cook for and is so much fun to watch.

So Ghanian dishes are the following:
T.Z (pronounced "Tee Zet" thus the reason why every child believes the letter Z is pronounced "zet")- This is a mix of corn flour and cassava flour. They add it to a pot of boiling water and then stir like crazy. It's really like an attacking motion.
Fufu- The ingredients varies from region to region of Ghana. Southern Ghana will use yams and plantains while the North will use just yams because plantains won't grow up north. You boil the yams and then pound them until they magically turn into a lump of dough. Without fail the women will form this ball of yam into a perfectly round ball.
Rice- Either in the form of a ball or cooked with a little bit of tomatoes. If cooked with tomatoes it is served by itself.

Those are the staples and then each is always served with some type of stew. You'll either eat it with some groundnut stew (tomatoes, onions, salt, peanut butter), Okra stew (okra, tomatoes, onions, salt), Dagban stew (local leaves off a tree, tomatoes, onions, salt), or Bra soup (leafy plant, tomatoes, onions, salt).

With these dishes I've mentioned you'll have learned about 90% of the dishes here.

So back to the wedding, this family is cooking for all 300 people in my village. Impressive. Watching the women cook the T.Z was like watching a really happy and joyful Iron Chef. They had this huge cauldron and a stirring spoon that measured up to my neck. I stood next to it but unfortunately didn't get a picture of it. So big cauldron, big spoon, a LOT of cassava and corn flour. There were about 12 ladies lined up behind the cauldron all taking turns spinning and attacking the T.Z. They tried to get me to stir the spoon and I probably only managed to move it a foot. Then I realized why it took 12 strong women to make this huge pot of food. I sadly didn't get a video of this (next time, as there are always more weddings).

On day 2 they made koko (porridge which is just like a really really watered down T.Z). Breakfast for all!

Day 3 they make Fufu. And yes, I got video's of this!

This is a video of women pounding fufu. There is such great coordination between them all it really always blows my mind. My mom is the one spraying water on the fufu.
"Twabu" which means pounding

This video is of them pounding a different ball (same day same time) and they had a super good rhythm going. It's really soothing to hear. The reason the video looks kind of weird/rushed is because at this particular moment I was trying to hide the fact I was recording because they felt self conscience they weren't in their good clothes. I told them you guys wouldn't mind. Fufu 

They had like 3 huge balls of fufu which they used to feed the village.

The family will get obnoxiously loud speakers and blare music the last 2 days of the wedding. There is some tribal scream that every women will randomly do when they feel like it and there is a ton of dancing and singing. The whole community really rallies behind these weddings.

Then the wedding ended (for me before I called it a night) with me being completely embarrassed because I got called out to dance in front of the ENTIRE community. The moment of "oh god... it's actually happening" will forever be engrained in my head

Random post

     I saw something funny the other day. My 3 house sisters all decided to have a group pee. Urinating (nobody here says “peeing”) is totally no big deal here. They all went into the bathing area of the house and urinated all around the hole that leads outside the compound. It was pretty funny when the realization dawned on me what had just happened. In general going to the bathroom here is no big deal. I’ll be going to fetch some water and somebody in the group will just say they have to “go to the toilet” and wander 10 feet into the bush and go about their business. Sometimes one of the girls will try to make a point that we can still see the person’s outline (if they haven’t gone in far enough) and then everybody will laugh.

     Now the music everybody here has been listening to! It is all moving music man. These songs are all the rage here and I have to say, I like them. If you got some time to burn and you want to listen to some Ghanian music then click away!

 

Azonto -Azonto is probably the biggest (or was the biggest) hit in Ghana. It was on the local news for the craze it was starting haha. Since I don't really know how to dance you can imagine how much laughing actually happens when I try to move to Azonto.

I love my Life - I mean this song is what every life lover (and one in particular) will love.

Yesi Yesi- I don't actually know what this song is about but the tune is just catchy man.

There are more songs but I realized searching up songs when the title is in a different language which I can't spell, is hard. So I hope you enjoy these 3 songs.