Food glorious food!

FOOD!

This is a shorter entry on food! I am learning to eat with my hands - properly mind you. There is quite the technique to it. Also, not using my left hand (which is only used to wipe your a$$) is also something I am trying to do! The food here is predominately carbs. From maize, millet and cassava, to yams, rice and pasta, almost every meal, if not every single one has a carbs components. Fou-fou, banku, and T-Z are some of the staple things that are served. These are pounded down to doughy balls, some more fermented than others. They are served with a number of different types of soup, most of which in my case are meat free. I have been eating fish, since my family always cooks with it, but no-meat which is fine by me. A little note about why I am not eating meat. The first dish I had in Tamale has hair and fat and bones in it. Locally, this is fine, it is how it is done in many places. Why waste any of the animal. True, except when you are used to skinless, boneless meat, from a nice little package, this comes as a huge shock to one's system. So for now, no meat for me. In the picture below, you can see some traditional food. I would like to point out in the picture in the far bowl, there is chicken. If you loook close enough, you can see that the feet are still there. Funny enough, later that afternoon, I visited another village and was given a chicken. Alive, and squwacking. I gave it to my boss! I am slowly trying new things, and have found that no-matter where you go, there is always some form of peanut butter! Thank goodness. It may not be Kraft, but I would imagine that ground nut paste is much better in the long run.

Time to go to sleep. Until next time!

Tuna, my new home! (Funnily enough, completely land locked. I have not figured out why it is named that yet!)

I have arrived in Tuna, and have spent 6 days here. I tried not to imagine what it would be like in my head so that I would not set any expectations for myself. This was very challenging to do, especially since I heard two very different ideas of what Tuna was like. When I arrived, I thought it felt slightly more like a town than a village. Compared to Wa, which is a very big town, it would seem to be more village like, without power and running water. When I went to my first village with my placement, I definitely changed my mind. There is certainly more village-like places than Tuna! I am really excited I have the opportunity to work in these villages, and meet women who have started groups to work together to better their lives through income generating activities outside of what they farm.
SO I am jumping ahead of myself, alluding to my placement when I should tell you about my family and Tuna. I have been set up with a really great family. They are very kind, and friendly. They have 2 small children, Joyce and Augusta who are 10 and 5 years old. Then there are 3 older siblings to the parents, Rena, Fracesca and Titus, who are all in school or working. FInally, there are my host parents, Richard and Christina.It is a full house. There are always visitors, since Christina brews pito, which is a local beer, and many people stop-by to take pito, and chat. We live in a compound, that is very clean and well kept. We are not very far from the boar-hole either, which is nice! We have a shower closet and a pit latrine just outside of the compound (something I am getting used to - as I go to battle the cock-roaches every night!) One of the biggest challenges with my family so far os that they speak very little english, so communicating is very entertaining. I am learning the local language, which is Dagarre. I am starting small small ( a very Ghanaian expression) but I am learning!
Since I have been here, I have learned how to bathe with a bucket, wash my own clothes (which evoked at least an hour of laughing at my attempts) and have been able to help make supper and eat with my host mother. THis has been awesome, and has really made me feel like part of the family.
This morning I went to church with my family, and I was introduced to the whole congregation of about 250 people. I felt very nervous, but at the same time, many people have been greeting me and speaking to me. Ghanaians are incredibly friendly people. As a note to anyone who has been to a Roman Catholic mass service in Canada, Ghanaians take the cake for length. There is much singing and dancing, which is very enjoyable. The priest spoke for over an hour for the homily. He took the cake for any homily I have ever heard. I think that next time I go, I will attend the mass in English, so I will be able to follow what is happening:)
I believe that I am still riding the first wave of culture shock, getting used to the pace of life. No-one hurries here. For those who know me well, you would laugh to see how slow I try to walk and how I try to sit and enjoy doing nothing. It is TOUGH! I am also learning to live without power, which I thought would not be a big deal, but it has certainly been a big change.

I think this entry is getting long, so until next time!

The beginning!

So I have been in Ghana for about 4 days now. I don't really know where to begin, so I guess I will start at the beginning of my journey from when I left Halifax. I started off to Toronto, spending a week in Pre-departure training, which was a brain workout and a half! I lived with 24 other JF's going to Ghana and Malawi and interns (I think!). By sweet I mean crowded and by crowded I mean awesome for bonding and getting used to different levels of personal space. We set out on our travels to Ghana on Wednesday, April 30th, from plane to plane to bus. From T.O. to Amsterdam, to Accra to Tamale, 3 days the Ghanaian JF's went through 3 different time zones. When we finally got to Tamale, the 10 a.m. sleep in we had the next morning was very welcomed and much MUCH needed. So enough about that.

Ghana! Wow, it finally feels real. The minute I stepped off the plane into the blazing heat and humidity, the sweet and smoky smell, I finally felt like my journey had truly begun. My first night with my mosquito net did not work out so great. Turns out I am allergic to the treatment on it, so after two nights and painful days of my skin feeling as if it was burning off, I traded in for an older net. I am still getting used to the idea of my little cocoon, keeping the little guys away. We had two days of in-country training in Tamale. One of our first big tasks was to go into the market on a scavenger hunt. At first, I was very intimidated with the masses of people everywhere, but as we forged into the market and onward with the afternoon, it was a really fun time. There were people selling things everywhere. From clothes, fabric, apices, produce, to meat right from the goat. It was a patchwork of color and people and smells and language.

I am excited, nervous, anxious and yet feeling incredibly free, of time restraints, of constant cell phone communication, of email, and of the rush of Canadian life. I am curious how long it will take me to adjust to the slower pace of life. I think it will be a challenge, but also a very big opportunity to grow and learn about myself. I am heading to Wa on Monday to meet my coach, Josephine who is working with MoFa (Ministry of Food and Agriculture). I will head to Tuna the next day, which I am sure will be a big adventure. This is where our group of JFs depart from one another and begin our individual journeries, which together will set the footwork for EWB's long term plans. It is very exciting and at the same time intimidating to think of how we fit into the bigger picture. I hope people from the chapter are reading this, and I would love if you would post some questions. I will not be able to answer them right away but it would be very cool.

Until next time....