Each day and sex has a name in Fante and therefore everyone has two names to remember. for me it is now Esi, a Sunday-born girl.
As Rebecca said on the ride to Cape Coast, it will never cease to be a marvel that taxis come to Putubiw. How any car can make that trip -- across puddles that look like ponds and hills reminiscent of roller coasters -- more than once in its lifetime will forever puzzle me.
The Form 2s were tolerably well behaved today, and the dreaded reading is behind us. Ghana time being what it is, we may make it back in time for dinner and the JSS session at the library. I really like working with the students and Ben and Kelvin our hosts at PUSU are fun to be around too. This weekend we are looking forward to a trip to Kakum National Park for a canopy walk as well as tours of Cape Coast and Elmina castles. All is well, and the sun even shone a bit this morning.
Til the next taxi trip...
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
It Must Stop Pouring
7Sunday was a great beach day; otherwise it's been gray since last friday. The past 4 hours of rain have competed with Kodwo's blaring R&B as thesoundtrack to my afternoon.
Rain is Africa's pause button.
If it doesn't stop, there will be no library hours tonight: nothing to do. Especially in and around Putubiw, where the channels engraved by downpours like this cut 6" wide and twice as deep into the roads, travel is both unpleasant and unpractical in the rain. Usually, at 5 we walk up the hill to PUSU's office/library (about a dozen books, a desk, a chalkboard, and benches). Primary school students come for an hour lesson in English grammar andreading. Yesterday we began helping with an open homework help session for JSS students between 7 and 9. It keeps the nights busy and is easier than working with a full class of40.
Mornigs at the JSS are slowly finding a rhythm. 1 or 2 classes each morning, though the number of children in attendance varies more than the rotating class schedule. Their textbook resembles our foreign language texts with a combination of readings, grammar, and oral/written exercises. However, the school still operates on a memorization-based system. Questions have a right answer, and my prompting of "why?" is met with blank stares. Our accents/vocabulary, lack of enforcement mechanism (I'd look ridiculous trying to wield a cane even if I desired to), and their age (between 11 and 17, with an average of 14 or 15) create a trying situation. The Form 1 class is more receptive and paragraph writing lessons yielded a small improvement. It's no small request to ask kids who have rarely read a story and whose native speech is an oral language to write compositions on a prompt such as "describe your clothes in three paragraphs." The Form 2s are good at avoiding gazes and bad at silence, but the reading we're trying is over their heads, and mine too as I try for the 1st time to explain it in English. My memory for simply synonmys and my ability to generate concrete concise definitions is improving.
There"s still thunder outside. Here, there is never confusion that a rumble was just a car or a trash can. Luckily all three volunteers brought 4 books and we have already scoped out the bookstore in Cape Coast. Since Casey arrived, major brainstorming has filled notebook pages, but assessing the practicality and value of such schemes is still to come. Working on Putubiw time is part of the experience.
Rain is Africa's pause button.
If it doesn't stop, there will be no library hours tonight: nothing to do. Especially in and around Putubiw, where the channels engraved by downpours like this cut 6" wide and twice as deep into the roads, travel is both unpleasant and unpractical in the rain. Usually, at 5 we walk up the hill to PUSU's office/library (about a dozen books, a desk, a chalkboard, and benches). Primary school students come for an hour lesson in English grammar andreading. Yesterday we began helping with an open homework help session for JSS students between 7 and 9. It keeps the nights busy and is easier than working with a full class of40.
Mornigs at the JSS are slowly finding a rhythm. 1 or 2 classes each morning, though the number of children in attendance varies more than the rotating class schedule. Their textbook resembles our foreign language texts with a combination of readings, grammar, and oral/written exercises. However, the school still operates on a memorization-based system. Questions have a right answer, and my prompting of "why?" is met with blank stares. Our accents/vocabulary, lack of enforcement mechanism (I'd look ridiculous trying to wield a cane even if I desired to), and their age (between 11 and 17, with an average of 14 or 15) create a trying situation. The Form 1 class is more receptive and paragraph writing lessons yielded a small improvement. It's no small request to ask kids who have rarely read a story and whose native speech is an oral language to write compositions on a prompt such as "describe your clothes in three paragraphs." The Form 2s are good at avoiding gazes and bad at silence, but the reading we're trying is over their heads, and mine too as I try for the 1st time to explain it in English. My memory for simply synonmys and my ability to generate concrete concise definitions is improving.
There"s still thunder outside. Here, there is never confusion that a rumble was just a car or a trash can. Luckily all three volunteers brought 4 books and we have already scoped out the bookstore in Cape Coast. Since Casey arrived, major brainstorming has filled notebook pages, but assessing the practicality and value of such schemes is still to come. Working on Putubiw time is part of the experience.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Happy Flag Day
this birthday mimicked the last: rainy, gray, and at the beach. But an overnight in a hut at the Anomabo Beach Resort is quite the (welcome) departure from a day full of seining in the Nature Center's communal waders.
the white noise of waves hummed at Rebecca, Casey, and I as we ate on the porch restaurant overlooking the beach and, later, as we used the covered recliners as an escape from the dripping skies rather than the sun. Despite the drizzle, or perhaps because of the calm that seemed to pervade the day, I quite enjoyed the 14th.
In honor of the holiday season, happy anniversary Grandma and Grandpa, happy fathers day Dad, happy birthday Grandpa, and happy flag day to the rest!
the white noise of waves hummed at Rebecca, Casey, and I as we ate on the porch restaurant overlooking the beach and, later, as we used the covered recliners as an escape from the dripping skies rather than the sun. Despite the drizzle, or perhaps because of the calm that seemed to pervade the day, I quite enjoyed the 14th.
In honor of the holiday season, happy anniversary Grandma and Grandpa, happy fathers day Dad, happy birthday Grandpa, and happy flag day to the rest!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
A Slow Start
the place that United Planet and its volunteers have in Putubiw is hard to understand. the oddity that is our presence here is certainly a door for cultural exchange but is also extremely brief. We're caught in a paradox: we're here to use our own knowledge and skills towards projects we can accomplish but are also tethered to PUSU. And any indigenous development project must demand that their volunteers work with its own vision. It's hard to balance enacting PUSU projects and filling in idle time.
It's easy to notice how far I've ventured into unfamiliar territory during the down time in week 1. Afternoons have been saturated withreading and apathy. Helping PUSU figure out what to do with us is mostly a trial in patience.
But there's hope yet. Rebecca and I will begin teaching at the Junior Secondary School (JSS) on thursday. In the evenings there will be a session for primary students. Yesterday we accompanied the students to a day of athletics (a track meet) in a nearby village Acrofo. It was fun, even as an unaffiliated spectator, to experience the unabashed joy of a hundred students whose years don't outnumber their fingers cheering for one of their classmates. The women, on reprieve from selling snacks, often yelled the loudest and jumped the highest. I guess some aspects of motherhood are universal.
It's easy to notice how far I've ventured into unfamiliar territory during the down time in week 1. Afternoons have been saturated withreading and apathy. Helping PUSU figure out what to do with us is mostly a trial in patience.
But there's hope yet. Rebecca and I will begin teaching at the Junior Secondary School (JSS) on thursday. In the evenings there will be a session for primary students. Yesterday we accompanied the students to a day of athletics (a track meet) in a nearby village Acrofo. It was fun, even as an unaffiliated spectator, to experience the unabashed joy of a hundred students whose years don't outnumber their fingers cheering for one of their classmates. The women, on reprieve from selling snacks, often yelled the loudest and jumped the highest. I guess some aspects of motherhood are universal.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Back to slow internet
Hi all,
We're in Cape Coast for the afternoon basically to check email. It's only about 20-30 minutes by taxi (which from Putubiw is a regular sedan). The keyboard is a bit troublesome, but if all works well, there should be two posts below from my first week. I'll be sharing a phone with the two other ND volunteers, the number is 00233248493396, just in case I can't email it. Wishing for some AC,
Sarah
We're in Cape Coast for the afternoon basically to check email. It's only about 20-30 minutes by taxi (which from Putubiw is a regular sedan). The keyboard is a bit troublesome, but if all works well, there should be two posts below from my first week. I'll be sharing a phone with the two other ND volunteers, the number is 00233248493396, just in case I can't email it. Wishing for some AC,
Sarah
Saturday, June 7, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Accra
"Ghana is what people see in their dreams. Those who are here are the lucky ones." That's how United Planet's young assistant describes his country to volunteers.
Lucky is: humid.When we touched down in Accra at 9:30am, it was 84F. Now at7:30pm, the heat of theday has at last escaped the buildings but it's still ridiculously muggy. Yao, the assistant, met Rebecca, another ND volunteer, and I at the airport and took us to a hotel in
Osu, a smart part of town with plenty of restaurants and a Wrangler Jeans store. After a briefing, we ate lunch at a cafe on a cliff overlooking the Gulf of Guinea. A flight of steps, tall and steep, led to multiple levels of tables which were protected by a wall from the drop-off and the spray of the waves throwing themselves toward the coast. We visited the tomb of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president, and a small museum about the history of the slave trade in an old fort. Accra is hot, roads are paved and relatively clean, named shops sell specialized types of goods, and people stare much less than in Kampala.
Tomorrow we'll travel with Raj, the UP coordinator, to Putubiw in the central region, west of Accra and just northeast of Cape Coast. Rebecca and I will most likely be co-teaching English in the junior secondary school (~middle school, lucky us indeed) for 1-2 classes each morning. After a free afternoon, we'll help with the review sessions run in the evening by the Putubiw Student Union (PUSU). the Union is our host in the village. We'll be living in a home (essentially as boarders) with a family just out of the center of Putubiw. What all of that will be in actuality once we reach the village is yet to be seen...
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