christmas in march?!

So here is a picture of solider ants… they’re crazy scary. I’ve actually been fortunate to never get bitten by one or many before, but I’m pretty sure its not pleasant. Here is my little story regarding soldier ants… so Major used to call me lazy every Saturday because the family would go to farm, but I wouldn’t go with them because I had training. So one Saturday when I didn’t have training I decided to go with them to farm, and I kind of wished that I just sat around being that lazy American, because farm was farrrr, hot, and hard work. The trek to farm was a good two hour journey in the hot sun, passing the paths of several soldier ants and through a small stream. Then after I’m already beat from the trek, the actual work begins! They go to their farm and cut down plantains, weeds, gather contumere, and whatever else. (I think they actually felt bad for me because they could tell that I was tired and not used to the work, so they let me rest at their farm house while they finished the work) Then after all that work, they have to carry back a whole bunch of plantains, contumere, cassava, and whatever else that they needed from the farm. So I got to carry back the lightest bag of them all, but I was still dying on the trek back. I seriously don’t know how they do that every Saturday, but at least at the end of the day when we were back at the house, Major said I did well. (Ghanaians like to say “you’ve done well” or “you are trying”) Now she can no longer call me lazy, even if I didn’t do much at farm.


So you know, having electricity isn’t all that bad… somehow I’ve sort of adjusted to being in the dark. The only thing that I hate about not having electricity is when I come home and start searching for things in the dark and then somehow can’t find it so I have to use my flashlight (I have one on my phone, its awesome!) and then I find some huge spider by near where I’m searching. NOT COOL. The other day I found a scorpion near the shower room… my first scorpion ever! Now every time I got to the shower or walk outside at night, I’m so scared I’ll step on one. I really hope we’ll get some electricity soon.

This past week was basically the best week of my life here in Ghana. Who would’ve thought that a whole week of training would be fun, but it was awesome. It was like Christmas in March!! Minus the snow (which doesn’t even matter cause it doesn’t snow in Hawaii), carols, trees, lights, and everything… okay, so maybe it was like Packages Galore in March! So basically since a lot of people live far away from the Accra office where our packages get sent, they brought all our packages to the training we had this past week! It was like amazing goodness overload!! Someone got sent Joe Joes and they were pretty much the best thing that has been inside my mouth… well, besides bacon wrapped hot dogs. Joe Joes are like oreos with little candy cane pieces inside the filling… reminded me of Thin Mints! (I’m salivating right now thinking about how amazing those were.) Not only did we have all these snacks to munch on, but the catering that they have during training is pretty much awesome. During training in Kukurantumi I would look forward to Thursday and Friday lunch because it was catered. I think I must’ve gained at least ten pounds this week just gorging myself on all the tasty food.

So training was good, got a lot of useful information… got to talk with other pcvs and hear about their stories about their site and what else not. Everyone seems to be doing really well at site, so that awesome. It was also just nice to be away from my site, site can get a little overwhelming at times, so it was perfect timing. Because as much as I liked being away from site, now that I’m finally back its like ahhh relief. Kind of like that feeling when you finally get home after a trip. Only bad thing is that I got home and Junji was flea infested!! ): Not happy about that at all, and now for some reason he likes to roll around in dead things. ): My friend said that he is a hunter dog, so they roll around in dead things because it hides his scent? I don’t really understand, but hes so smelly now. ): I even gave him a bath this morning, and it lasted like an hour and hes a smelly Junji again.

But anyways, I’m going to continue talking about food, because well… I’m a fatty! So after training it was my friends birthday so we went up to this place called Sunyani, which is so out of place in Ghana because its like an American town. Went to this amazing hotel and ate sausage pizza. Mmmmm. It was amaaaazing. Then went to this bar and his friend in Sunyani had been marinating meat for the past two days, so they barbequed the meat… it like melted in my mouth. (okay, so it wasn’t a DKs/Ruth Chris or anything, but after eating shitty/questionable meat since coming to Ghana, it was basically like eating at one of those places.) It was actually kind of funny because we were like vultures around the meat stand, just waiting for the next piece of meat to be taken off the grill. I told my friend to go and check to see if the meat was ready, and then like five seconds later he texted me saying “Now…!” hahaha. I basically pushed everyone out of my way, kind of like that Seinfield episode where George pushes everyone out of the way to get out of the burning building. Joking.

two of my favorite people in peace corps. julie and i are in the same sector, and since we are asian they call us ping and pong. and they play that gong asian tune any time they see us. so culturally sensitive these peace corps people. anyways.

Then the eating frenzy continued when we decided to order double cheeseburgers with french fries the next night for dinner. But well, now I’m back at site, so its just Ghanaian food all day every day. Which is good, I think I must’ve ate a months worth of food in a week. But now the snacking frenzy will start because I got amazing packages filled with goodies. (: Pork grinds, cheez-its, arare, cheetos, oreos, bacon bits… Thank you!!!!

here is the picture that wasn't letting me post last time. intense huh the three rocks with the fire burning underneath!

Twi Word of the day: Mame! (I’m satisfied)

Adinkra Symbol of the day:

MATE MASIE
"What I hear, I keep"
symbol of wisdom, knowledge and prudence
The implied meaning of the phrase "mate masie" is "I understand". Understanding means wisdom and knowledge, but it also represents the prudence of taking into consideration what another person has said.

cooking update, marching, and junjiiiii. <3.

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD?!

in case you are wondering... my cooking is becoming, uh... amazing! here i made some creamy italian disting. with potatoes! and meat! (okay, so the meat was already cooked from my kebab man, but i'm still quite impressed with myself! i also actually cooked meat one night, to add to my curry... but well... it looked gross, so i didn't actually eat it, it was a waste of money, but well, lesson learned.) even junji likes it!!! and i didn't get sick! whooohoooo. maybe i'll become a pro chef... the next rachel ray?

curious what african children do in their free time? well they cook. and they don't have those pretty little plastic play sets like in america, but they use like scrap food that their parents arent using and cook up something yummmmy! i told them i wanted to eat it, but they told me that i couldn't. booooo. ): i'm sure it couldn't be worse than my actual cooking.

photo to be added later... ): booooo internet.

they told me they were cooking potatoes! haha. it was pretty intense... do you notice the three stones holding up the tin can? well, theres a mini fire under those stones... they get small charcoal thats left over and use that, or they light fire to branches or small pieces of wood. can you imagine if when we were kids we started doing that in america... our parents would freak! i remember the time that we decided it was a good idea to empty out all the morning glory power and then start a huge fire. it was pretty awesome and then baba got her hose and put out our hard work. haha, it was amazingly fun though. i guess thats not really the same as a controlled fire like these kids are doing, but i thought it was fitting to this story.

so march 6th was ghana independence day. and what does that mean? picnics at the beach, fireworks, green yellow and red, hot dogs, hamburgers... mmm, god, i love africa. (: okay, so just kidding, basically it means... MARCHING!!! so kids, they march and march and march! these kids practice like a month before to march? i didn't quite know there was an art to marching, or that one needed so much practice, but well... i guess its true, practice makes perfect. or at least good enough. so i went to my teacher friends site and watched her students march. (btw, my teacher friend teaches art at a deaf school, super awesome but super crazy living situation since the kids are boarding and she lives on campus... so basically she lives with like 6464314 kids that are deaf... i guess my living situation ain't so bad?)

so this is her school marching. apparently they only have one deaf school per region. ive stayed at her house a few times, the kids are amazing... they always make the sign for short... because shes so tall. like when i leave they ask her where did your short friend go? so basically i can sign, hello, how are you, i'm fine, and short!

here is jess. she is super excited to be marching with the kids. so basically they all line up along the side of the football field and then each school takes their turn marching around the field. they stop infront of the tent in the center which is covering all the big men and important people. and when they stop, they salute to them. i wish i had one of those pictures on my flash drive to share, but well... i don't, so thats that.

since my mom keeps requesting the status of junji, here you gooooo!!! and junji is not africa, hes totally asian!! actually... he looks kind of scary, but well... hes not. hes adorable!

he totally likes to hump legs... especially with the brush in his mouth. doesn't my "house" actually look pretty decent?! i'm quite impressed... i moved things around and it feels so much bigger. yay! my landlord keeps asking if i'm going to castrate junji. that word castrate just sounds so horrible. /: he tells me that he knows people that live in zongo that castrate sheeps and goats, but i'm not quite sure thats the same as dogs... so i'm kinda scared. i also took junji to the "vet" and it was such a horrible experience. he pooped on the table and then screamed so much. i have to take him back... but i just keep putting it off.



Twi word of the day: fa mami bokiti. (go get me a bucket.)

adinkra symbol of the day: "no one should bite the other"
bi nka bi

symbol of peace and harmony

work?

So you’re probably wondering what the heck I’ve been doing here in Ghana; well, besides playing li hing mui tricks on Ghanaians, trying my best to not shit my pants, detoxing (although some how I had one beer in a remote area not even in my town with a friend, and some how every one knew, I guess this is what Britney Spears feels like), playing with junji, and perfecting my cooking skills... and I can say that I honestly haven’t done much yet to save the world, or at least Ghana.

I want to give you a little background so maybe you’ll understand why I haven’t done much yet… but I know I have lots of work ahead of me.

Okay, so the Ministry of Tourism came and funded the building of the visitor center in Ntonso. (this was about a little more than a year ago or so) People in this community have been doing Adinkra stamping for many many years, so tourist have been coming here way before this visitor center was built. There is one family here in Apatem that has been doing the demonstration for the tourist (the family does it the traditional way using carved calabash, while most people now days do screen printing) but apparently members of the TMT has had problems with this family. There is also a chieftaincy dispute in my community; there hasn’t been a chief for 19 years; so we have a queen mother. I have yet to meet the queen mother because she lives in Kumasi and doesn’t like to come to Ntonso that often because people here will “attack” her because they want a chief. So apparently, people that oppose the queen mother dominate the TMT and the family that does the traditional printing is on the side of the queen mother. (are you confused yet? It gets better.) So after the visitor center was built the TMT wasn’t functioning properly for the Ministry of Tourism/Ghana Tourist Board to feel comfortable handing over the management of this new facility to the community of Ntonso, so they hired a private company FM24 to run the visitor center for 2 years.

Then, the TMT was given a contract with FM24, but it was never signed because the TMT didn’t agree with what was stated on it. (so I thought that apparently means that the contract doesn’t exist?) It was given to them on March 2008, and it still sits at the desk unsigned in its envelope. But then again, I guess since the “real” contract is with the Ministry of Tourism it doesn’t really matter. Once the community found out that the visitor center was handed to a private company, it was no longer solely a community based project. Meaning, that money generated from tourist, will be split between the private company and the community. Personally, I wouldn’t have signed the contract either. The community would/is basically making no money off of tourist coming here, sometimes even losing money. There was a part in the contract that stated that if tourist didn’t buy any cloth from the demonstrators that the TMT was to pay the demonstrators, which I totally agree with since the demonstrators aren’t paid and they should somehow be compensated, but the TMT isn’t making much money off of the tourist so having the TMT pay would mean that they are losing money by having tourist come here. The TMT makes .30 peswa off every tourist, if they don’t buy cloth they pay the demonstrators .50 peswa. Tourist pay $4 cedi if they are foreign or $2.50 cedi if they are Ghanaian.

Visitors are suppose to report to the visitor center and register (pay fees) and then they will get a tour of our museum with introduction about adinkra and then get taken to the demonstration site (Apatem) to watch the process of adinkra stamping. But like I said, the family has been doing demonstrations long before people had to register, so most tours know just to go straight to the demonstration site. (the family is suppose to tell them to come here to register if they just go their first, but they don’t tell the tourist, and seriously why would a tourist want to come to register if they know that they will have to pay something when they could get away with it?) My counterpart and I have been visiting the regional manager of the Ghana Tourist Board to talk to him about this problem, but hes told all tour operators that they must come to the visitor center, but they still don’t come. It sucks because I do language lessons and I’m friends with the people at Apatem, so I’m usually there in the mornings, and I see many tourist that come, and then when I head to the visitor center to see Mavis and ask her if people came she always says no.

Even when tourist come to the visitor center first to register, things are still not functioning properly to be worth coming to register first. There are two tour guides (well, really only one because the other one refuses to give tours because of FM24, although if they just come without registering he gives tours… because he knows that he’ll get money from it, while if they register he doesn’t get any money) who are suppose to get called when there are tourist at the center. Mavis apparently doesn’t like to call them when there are tourists here, so she gives them the tour herself. She gives a very brief information about adinkra, and then walks them over to the demonstration center and sits while the people at Apatem take over the tour. Since Apatem doesn’t like the idea of FM24 getting the money from tourist, they somehow are able to charge tourist as well. They let tourist stamp their own adinkra on a piece of kente cloth for 5 cedis. When tourist come to the visitor center to register they pay 4 cedis. I know that 9 cedis doesn’t seem like a lot of money (it really isn’t for foreigners, but for people living here/volunteers, it’s a heck chunk of money), but its fricken expensive for a half hour tour. (I recently found this out because a PCV came to my site to do the tour and told me, she also told me that right as they are about to stamp the cloth they are told about the 5 cedi)

The TMT wants to build their own demonstration center on the side of the visitor center and create a mini market of adinkra and kente (excellent idea I think). The TMT hasn’t seen a penny off the money made off of tourist coming to Ntonso, so there is no capital to invest in an extension. (well, that’s what they tell me, they’re always like FM24 has all our money, we haven’t seen any of the profits.) The land that they want to build on is part of farming land for some people in the community and although they have been told to uproot their crops, none of that has been done. The one bonus of this all is that the people at Apatem are working outside of their house, which is on school property (I’m told that they were asked to move, but nothing has been done of yet) so hopefully it will be easy to convince them to move if this demonstration center is built.

Since no one is happy about FM24 running the center, we are working on a letter to the Ministry of Tourism asking for complete ownership of the running of this facility. But we also need to make sure that the TMT is capable of managing the center if it is handed over, and make sure that is what they want to do. The TMT just finished writing their constitution and will hopefully go sometime soon to the District Assembly to register the TMT as a CBO (community based organization), and then start working on a short term/long term plan for this project. Start looking for agencies interested in African textiles to write proposals to so hopefully we can make this demonstration center/market area a reality.

So that’s kind of the situation in Ntonso, I’m still trying to figure it all out… everyday I seem to get a bit more information from people, but I hope everything works out. I guess its good that I still have pretty much two years to get shit done.

Wanna know something funny, Mavis hasn’t gotten money from FM24 for three months to pay the electricity bill, but somehow we still have electricity! Gotta love Ghana sometimes. I would love it even more if they put up free electricity in my house!

So in addition to my Twi word of the day, I thought I would add adinkra symbol of the day. (: enjoy!

Twi word of the day: me ko eduwamah (i'm going to work)

Adinkra Symbol of the day: Onyankopon adom nti biribiara beye yie

“by gods grace all will be well”

Literal Meaning: hope, faith, providence