sorry for the delay, the two months after returning from america have been rough. every sickness/emotion that one person could have in their entire life i've had in two months. but don't you worry... i'm still alive. somehow. (:
Mephloquin, mice, and scorpion king:So you all know that I’ve had a mouse problem for some time, but lately its been annoying. I know where it hides out, but don’t know what to do with it. Do I kill it? How will I kill it? But what happens if it jumps at me again and I get rabies? So, since I have no idea what to do and keep forgetting to buy the stupid mouse trap, I guess it will just be my annoying unwanted company until I figure out something.
Then one night, I saw a massive scorpion in my room. At first I thought I was hallucinating. you see, I take mephaloquin (its malaria medication) and it causes you to intense and crazy dreams. Which, I didn’t have at first, but now I’m having. If I haven’t seen/talked to you in the past couple of years that has all changed because I have done so within the past month due to this medication. Anyways, back to the story, so I woke up in the middle of the night because I had to pee, and then with my flashlight I see a HUGE scorpion behind my shelves. I didn’t know what to do and had to pee bad so I just left to pee, and when I returned it was gone. (thus why I believed I was hallucinating) so I just went back to sleep… actually I think I took out my “where there is no doctor book” and looked up scorpion bites, when I realized it wasn’t a huge risk to my life, I went back to sleep.
The next morning, I woke up, looked behind the shelf and saw nothing… that’s when I really thought I was going crazy. But luckily, when the night creeped around, it appeared and reassured me that I’m not crazy. I didn’t know what to do with it, like the mouse… so I poked at it a bit with a stick, and it went back into hiding. I played this game with it for about a week… poke it and hide. I was going to leave it for my friend to come and see, but good thing I didn’t because he didn’t end up coming. So one night, I was reaching for my toothbrush and something started to crawl on my arm. Of course, I screamed like a little girl (it was a dirty small cockaroach) and then the people outside asked if I was okay. I told them yea… and was like, well, I do have this scorpion inside my room. They were like scorpion?! And I was like, yeaaa! And so the lady came in with a broom and smashed it! it was pretty awesome, and I’m quite jealous that I never had the guts to do it.
So, scorpion down, mice still around… I guess we can’t have it all.
huge? i tend to exaggerate at times. especially when it comes to critters. that could potentially kill me.
Galla Galla Galla!!:
So my neighbor and I have been planning a football gala for sometime now, and yesterday it finally came! Of course like most things in Ghana, the event was suppose to start at 9 am, but we didn’t start until 10:30. But other than that, I think the event was pretty damn successful. We had education on HIV/AIDS and tourism during the halftimes and breaks of the games, the grand finale was a speaker who was living with HIV. Voluntary testing and counseling was also available at the event, they said they tested 200+ people which I was happy about because people kept telling me that no one would come because of the stigmatization that goes along with HIV. We just went to check with the district health services and found out that out of all the people they tested that day there were no positives, so thats a good sign, but still plenty education needs to be done to make sure that it is kept that way.
Motivation:
I’ve grown to HATE this word. Every time I went to the District Assembly to meet with the Cultural Officer to discuss the football gala with him, he kept telling me that I needed to motivate him. So I asked him one day what his job description was, and he said it was dealing with cultural events in the district, which includes anything dealing with kente, adinkra, woodcarving, etc, which includes tourism. This event was basically helping him do his job. Plus, all he does is sit on his ass all day and do nothing… and all the jobs we had for him to do, NONE got done. (causing much stress the day before, scrambling to find buses and security for the event) Then, after I paid the health worker for doing the testing at the event, she said it was too small (it was $15, which may seem small to you, but farmers who slave all day in the fields make $5 a day and I make $7 so I should’ve told her to shove it) and that I should add more to it. When I told her thats what the Head Nurse told me the fee would be, she demanded I give her toffee. So I just looked at her and walked away. Ugh, I can’t stand it sometimes. Everyone always asking asking asking for money. For toffee. For my bag. For my tshirt. For anything really. Kids I’m a little bit more understanding, but man, adults… especially the more educated one… I just can’t handle.
Peace and Unity:
I also started a club at the senior high school in the town next to mines (I wanted to do it in my town, but it was a Seventh Day Adventist SHS, and the headmaster told me I couldn't because I wasn't "one of them") Anyways, I haven't been able to meet with them weekly because of all the event drama, but I finally got to meet with them the other week. At first I thought it was going to be bad… when I first came to the school no one was there, and a teacher I ran into asked me if I reminded the students, kind of implying that if I didn’t they weren’t going to show up. I asked one of the girls who was standing around to look for the president, but when she returned, she told me he left for home. I was a bit disappointed, but thought I would hang out for a bit to see if anyone would show. Then a girl came in, and said that they were having classes or cadet, but said that she would go around telling them I have arrived and that they would be in shortly. And shortly, they started to come! The last week that we met we did the tangled arm spider web, and it was a complete failure. Half because they didn’t really understand my instructions, and half because I don’t think they are given enough freedom to make their decisions/problem solving. So when given a task where they have to make decision to help them get out of something, they are a bit confused. Its quite sad, everything is about memorization and you wouldn’t dare think about questioning or thinking for yourself. But this week, we tried again, and it was some what successful. I was sooo happy. Then we went to talk about capital for the company and splitting them up in different departments, like human resources, public relations, finance, production, and marketing. They've decided that they want to start a bead business, so once they've sold their stock and got money, we are going to buy beads, produce them, and start selling. sooo, anyone interested in beads? holla.
the cultural officer and the district chief executive talking to the players before the start of the match.
visual aids and lovely peace corps volunteers that came to help that day.
the speaker that we had for the event... he did an AMAAAZING job. more people were asking about being tested after he finished his speech... been living with HIV for 5 years now.
three generations of volunteers with mama major. and nana.
twi word of the day: mEhu wo kyea. (its been a long time)
***more pictures to come of the galla galla galla!!!
the final two teams, my team is in blue and my neighbors team is in green. 
this man stole all the glory! so my town played his town in the championship match. our team was better but couldn't score. it went to shoot out, and we all know shoot outs are bullshit.
the senior high school drama troupe did two dramas... one on hiv/aids and one on tourism. this drama is on hiv/aids... about a pastor who helped a man after a car crash and contracted hiv. these students did an amazing job.
and of course we promoted tourism... so they brought their stuff to show off.
this is daniel, hes absolutely an adorable child... i have this awesome video of him saying ANYOUNGGG!!!
