The Place Where the Yams Are Kept

re The intrigue of travel often lies in the juxtaposition of foreign and familiar: what attracts, what is relevant to the known, what frightens or bewilders. Today, after watching A Cinderella Story, something staring Amanda Bynes, and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, I walked to the porch where I was immediately spotted by a band of pointing 5-year-olds. The transition from watching American films to waving at Putubiw"s youngest made me realize why snippets from my own life in DE felt like scenes from a TV show when i got back from Uganda. White people are "abruni" here; I heard that a lot today.

Ghana is beautiful. Trees are tropical, the non-major roads are peachy tan earch eroded by the rainy season, the coast is in places both rocky and sandy and always alive with breaking waves. Putubiw, which means "The place where the yams are kept" was named for its useful location atop a hill. It overlooks plenty of green and 4 other villages. Our first task upon arrival (after a jaunt to Cape Coast to pick up mattresses) was to meet the chief. Observing tradition, a "linguist" was present to speak for us, though the chief Nana is a seemingly welcoming and reasonable leader and spoke to us directly as well. Having been accepted into Putubiw officially by the chief, we"re protected, are part of the village of 2,000, and are freen to move around. Putubiw,while rural is what would come of a Kampala suburb chipped away from the city and transplanted a 20min drive away. The first thing we were shown upon arrival was the open air distillery (series of covered water tanks and containers of fermenting sugarcane juice) where "apatuchi" is brewed. One constant during the days has been the putter of the machine 100m from our house pressing sugarcane to extract the juice.

At the bottom of the hill lies "Beatrice"s House" where we"re staying. It is a concrete structure with water and electricity both larger and nicer than my homestay in Kampala. There are 5 bedrooms, a spacious living room, small kitchen, and a bathroom with a working shower (!). The issue of hot water is not relevant. We spent most of today with the kids of the house watching movies on the desktop computer set up there. We also walked to the school, about 10min away. PUSU"s Ben, Kelvin, and Joseph seem very nice and dedicated to the project; PUSU"s been working with volunteers from UP since they began arriving about a year ago. It is still a tiny operation, and I"d guess about a dozen volunteers have been through. On monday, we will go meet the head teacher and will know more about the teaching which will begin Tuesday.