Liz goes to Ghana

Happy Thanksgiving

2006-11-25T06:55:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I’m in Guinea right now, so I spent my Thanksgiving holiday here. Thanksgiving is not a holiday here, clearly, so I worked Thursday, but got off early. I worked Friday too, even though Thursday and Friday were supposed to be days off at my American-based NGO. But I was actually very happy to work on our days off, because I got lots of comp time and I’ll be able to take more time off when I take vacation. I’m planning on traveling during Christmas, but I’m not sure where I’m going yet.

I’m in Guinea for work, on a “traveling circuit ride.” When we are traveling we go in groups, and in our group here there are five Americans, including myself, and seven Ghanaians. We are in Guinea to interview refugees who are applying for resettlement in the US. Most of the refugees we are interviewing here are from Sierra Leone and Liberia. If you don’t know much about the civil wars in these two countries, which I didn’t before I came to Africa, you can read short, but informative, descriptions on the BBC’s website. The refugees all have horrific stories of the atrocities that have been committed against their families and their tribes. Most of the refugees I interviewed were targeted because they or someone in their family was a member of a certain tribe, or a member of a certain political party. The rebels attacked certain tribes because of longstanding prejudices against certain tribes. Alternatively, in both Sierra Leone and Liberia, the major political parties had their own rebel groups, who routinely attacked supporters of the opposing political party. All of the refugees I interviewed had been attacked in their homes by rebels, their entire families had been beaten seriously, some family members had been beaten to death, and all of the women and girls had been raped by the rebels, usually in front of the rest of the family. In many cases, the head of the family (the father or grandfather) had been beheaded in front of the family. Also, in many of the cases some of the family members were tortured, some were mutilated with machetes, and some had hands and arms hacked off by the rebels. Sometimes it’s really hard for me to listen to these stories, but it’s gratifying to feel like I’m doing something to help them.

Guinea is a beautiful country. If you don’t know where Guinea is, don’t feel bad, I probably didn’t either before I moved to West Africa. Guinea is in West Africa, on the coast. It’s cooler than Ghana, and greener as well. And there are hills and mountains here, which is a nice change from Ghana, which is mostly flat. We are staying in a really nice hotel, with a nice pool and gym, and it’s right on the beach. It’s been so nice to have air conditioning when I get back to the hotel after a long day at work, and to take hot showers. And of course, the pool and gym are great too. We’ve been really busy though, and I haven’t had too much time to enjoy the amenities. Last week I worked 12 or 14 hours most days. I really like the work though, so I haven’t minded working long hours at all. And of course, I get comp time for any overtime I work. But I had Saturday and Sunday off, which was great.

Guinea is a francophone country, which means that the common language here is French, and very, very few people speak any English. Most people don’t speak French either, but only speak local languages. It’s been very interesting spending time in a country where it’s so difficult to communicate. I speak a little French, but not much at all. I’ve had the advantage of usually being with other people that speak French, but the French that’s spoken in West Africa is very different than French that’s spoken in France, so we’ve still had problems communicating. But it’s been very fun at times, having to find creative ways to communicate with people. I'll be going home soon, back to Accra, but I've had a great time in Guinea!

Going to Guinea

2006-11-13T07:27:00.000-08:00

I’m leaving for Guinea tomorrow! I’m going with 11 co-workers to Conakry, the capital, to interview refugees. We’re going to be gone for about 2 weeks. It’s going to be really long hours, and we’re working over Thanksgiving, so I’ll get tons of comp time. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun, we’ll have to wait and see though. Two of my close friends are going on the trip as well, so I think we’ll have a good time, even though we’re going to be working really hard. I don’t know how much time I’ll have to see Guinea, but we’re supposed to have Sunday free, so hopefully I’ll be able to see a bit of the country. They make really beautiful fabric there, dark blue dyed with indigo, so I’ll at least have to fit some time in for shopping. We’ll probably also go to the beach, which is supposed to be gorgeous.

Everything is going really well at work. I’ve been really busy, and I enjoy the work we do. I feel like I’ve learned all of the different aspects of our job pretty quickly, and I’m confident in my abilities to do my job well. Many of my co-workers are good friends of mine, so it’s a fun work environment, even when we’re really busy.

I gotta run, lots of preparations for Guinea to do. I’ll still get to check my e-mail occasionally while I’m in Guinea, so everyone can feel free to e-mail me. By the way, I have my own laptop and continual internet access at work, so feel free to e-mail me and distract me from my job!

I love my job!

2006-10-25T01:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven’t updated in so long, I’ve been really busy. I love my new job! I had to wait a while (seemed like forever) for my work permit to be processed before I could start working, but it was nice to have some time off, even though it got boring after a while. I read a ton of books and spent a lot of time hanging out with friends and watching DVDs.

When I finally started working I had training sessions for a few days, which were kinda boring. Then a circuit ride started, and it got really busy and interesting. Circuit rides are when we are actually interviewing refugees, and last from one week to several weeks. When we’re not on a circuit ride, we are reviewing cases and doing other things at the office, but aren’t actually working directly with refugees. During circuit rides is when we spend all day doing hands-on work with refugees. We have circuit rides here in Ghana, and also all over west and central Africa.

Anyways, shortly after I started working we had a circuit ride here in Ghana, so I spend a couple of days observing other people as they did interviews, and I then I was on my own. I really enjoy working with the refugees, and it’s very interesting and fulfilling as well, being able to help in a hands-on way. We were extremely busy during the circuit ride though, and worked really long hours. For every hour we work over our regular 7.5-hour workday, we get an hour of comp time that we can take whenever we want. So for every couple of days we work long hours, we get a comp day that we can take off work whenever we want. It’s great!

I really enjoy interviewing the refugees, although it can get really intense. Sometimes it’s hard to stay composed while they’re telling their stories of torture and rape and family members and friends being murdered. Many of the refugees have absolutely horrific stories, and get extremely upset while telling them, and we have to calm them down while staying collected ourselves.

I like all of the people I work with. There are about 25 expats (expatriates, i.e. foreigners) who work at my organization, and about 75 Ghanaians, but I work mostly with the expats and only a handful of the Ghanaians. I was already friends with most of the expats when I started working here, so it’s been really fun to be working with them now. And all of the other people working here are great too; they’re all really interesting and have lived all over the world. It’s a great work environment.

I’m living with two good friends (who I also work with) in a three-bedroom apartment right now, but I’m planning on moving in with some other friends in November. Both places are nice, with housekeepers, and are in the same area where most of my friends live, so they’re both great.

Before I forget, I’m traveling with work to Guinea in November! A group of us are going for a couple of weeks to interview refugees. I’m really excited! All our expenses are paid, we get tons of comp time, stay in nice hotels, and get paid extra for every day we travel! Overall, things are going really great for me right now. I love my new job and am having fun living in Accra.

One more thing, I have a new address. Everyone should send any letters or packages to the following address:

Liz Kah
O.P.E.
#10 Quarcoo Lane
Roman Ridge
P.M.B. K.I.A.
Accra, GhanaWest Africa

Some Ghana Highlights

2006-08-29T11:55:00.000-07:00

While in the states, I got the opportunity to tell people about my daily life in Ghana (over and over), and some anecdotes proved to be extremely popular. Such as the fact that I occasionally kill my own chickens. It’s not hard, you just slit the throat, and I feather and gut them myself too. To buy any food, I used to ride my bike to the market to get everything I needed (or whatever was available at that time (but there is pretty much nothing available in Ghana (ever))). One thing they do have in Ghana is chickens, but you can only buy live chickens. I never cooked meat when I was cooking just for myself (I think the reasons are obvious), but whenever I had guests over to my house, I had to cook meat for them, because in Ghanaian culture it would be extremely rude not to. So I bought the live chickens, strapped them in the basket on the back of my bike, and went home and made dinner.

I also killed a goat once. It was during a huge festival with drumming, dancing, chanting and singing- it was really cool, straight out of National Geographic. All the dancers were wearing cool masks and headdresses, and body paint and traditional loincloth type things. They also had metal things hanging off their ankles, similar to bells, but not quite the same, which made noise when they danced. It was amazing. Anyways, I was the guest of honor because I was the only white person there. So they gave me the honor of killing the goat. Goats have thick, tough skin, so it was a bit hard to slit its throat. It was pretty gross, but definitely a unique and amazing experience.

I Love America

2006-08-29T11:49:00.000-07:00

I had such a great time in the states. I was in a bit of culture shock, but it was good to appreciate things that I have always taken for granted. I was so grateful for things like reliable electricity and running water, paved roads and trustworthy law enforcement and government (comparatively). I was staring wide-eyed at the tall buildings in New York (which are quite rare in Ghana, especially since there are only a handful of elevators in the whole country). I was also grateful for the fact that I have the best family ever, seriously. If I were to write out all the amazing things they did for me, it would take forever, so here’s a really abbreviated version: Mom- shopping (tons), facial, nails, hair, packing, use of phone, car, jewelry…; Dad- tickets Ghana-NYC-Ghana, tickets NYC-DFW-NYC, tickets NYC-DFW-NYC again (sorry about that!); Daniel- portable DVD player, movies, visiting me in Dallas twice!; Carl- ipod, music, visiting me in Dallas twice! I also have the best friends ever, both in Dallas and in NYC. Unfortunately, even an abbreviated version of all the cool stuff they did for me would take way too long, so I won’t include that here, but thanks guys! I had such a wonderful trip, especially getting to spend time with my family and friends. Sometimes it’s difficult to truly appreciate our relationships with family and friends until we spend time away, and I now realize more than ever how blessed I am to have such wonderful people in my life.

While in the states, I was an honor attendant in the wedding of Abbey Thomas and Dane Daniels, which was my original reason for traveling to the states at that time. I had fun going to the showers/luncheons/parties and hanging with Abbey, and Kat Higman (who was also an honor attendant) and our other friends and friends’ families. The wedding was gorgeous, Abbey looked gorgeous, tons of people came, and everything went beautifully. Abbey and Dane are going to be ridiculously happy together. I also got to spend some time with friends in New York, which was great. I stayed with one of my best friends from college, Alissa Zulvergold (thanks Al!) and had a blast hanging out with friends from college. My whole trip to the states was amazing, and I hope to return again sometime soon:)

New Job!

2006-08-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

I am back in Ghana now, but I am no longer a Peace Corps Volunteer. I got a real job working with refugees, and I am so glad. I am so happy that I don’t have to deal with all of the bureaucracy and hypocrisy of Peace Corps anymore. Overall, I had a wonderful time during the last year in Ghana, and I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world, but in my opinion, the Peace Corps organization itself is not the best. So I decided to look for a job so that I could stay in Africa, but not with the Peace Corps.

I was extremely fortunate and I found a job with OPE, which is an international non-profit organization which aids refugees who are seeking resettlement in the US. OPE works in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to assist in the preparation of documents for refugees who are of “compelling humanitarian concern” in West and Central Africa.

I will be working as a caseworker, which means I will be interviewing refugees to determine whether or not they are eligible to be resettled in the US. It’s a complicated process, but basically a refugee is eligible for resettlement if they can show that they cannot return to their country of origin because they would be in imminent danger. Also, there are some reasons some refugees would not be eligible for resettlement, such as involvement with a dangerous rebel group etc. I have not started working yet because the government has not finished processing my work permit, but I should start soon. I’m really excited and I think I’m going to really enjoy this job. I will be living in Accra, the capital, and the job also involves traveling to different parts of Africa.

I have several friends who also work at OPE, and lots of friends who live in Accra, which is nice. I don’t have a permanent place to live yet, but right now I’m staying in a friend’s room while she’s traveling. I’m definitely very excited and happy about this new job, and look forward to starting work soon. Although, it is also nice for right now to just hang out with friends and chill all day. And in case anyone was wondering, I’m planning on returning to the US in May of next year, and then starting med school in June at NYU’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Good News and Not-so-good News

2006-07-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

The good news is I'm coming home on July 24th for about a month. I'm coming home because my best friend Abbey Thomas is getting married on August 12th in Dallas. So I'll be in Dallas from July 24th until around August 17th, then I'll fly to New York, and spend a few days there before flying back to Ghana on August 21st. I am so excited I can't even find words to express it. Seriously, I can't wait.

The other news is that I'm changing sites. It's a really long story, but I've been having problems with the NGO I work with in Koforidua the entire time I've been here, and it's finally gotten to be too much, and Peace Corps wants me to move sites. I don't know where I'll be moving to yet, but hopefully I'll find out soon. I've been really busy trying to find a new site that I like, which is one of the reasons I haven't updated my blog in so long. Sorry.

I spent last week in Tamale, in northern Ghana, and I really liked it. It's very different from southern Ghana, which is like a tropical rain forest, and is mostly Christian. The north is more like the desert, and is mostly Muslim. In the north people are more laid back and less aggressive, which was a really nice change. The culture is entirely different, and it was very interesting to see the changes as I traveled north.

Hope to see all of you soon in America!

I have the best mom ever

2006-05-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have the best mom in the whole world. She bought me a new ipod to replace the one that broke, and then she took it to Abbey to have her download music and videos on it (thanks Abbey!), and then she arranged to have someone who was coming to Ghana bring it with them and give it to me. And she did this all on Mother's Day. No kidding. She spent Mother's Day running around doing all this for me. She even got a case for the ipod, so hopefully this one won't break. Thanks Mom! Seriously, I have the best mom ever.

ummm...

2006-05-13T16:56:00.000-07:00

During the rest of April it was pretty much the same old stuff for me. I did lots of HIV/AIDS education and outreach programs and worked on various programs providing care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS. From May 1st to May 6th, I had in-service training with all of the other Health and Water Sanitation volunteers from my group. There were 20 of us volunteers altogether, and we each brought our Ghanaian counterpart with us. The training was held at a hotel in Takoradi, which is on the coast. Overall, the training went pretty well. I gave two presentations, one on working with groups providing care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS and on income-generating projects, and one relating to HIV/AIDS education and stigmatization and discrimination. Both presentations went very well. I also arranged for an HIV positive individual to come and give his testimony, which was very powerful. I had a lot of fun hanging out with my friends from my training group, many of whom I haven’t seen since training ended in November. It was very interesting catching up with everyone and hearing everyone’s stories from their sites. After training I went to the beach at Busua for 2 days with some of my friends. It was gorgeous and so relaxing and fun. After that, I came to Accra for some meetings I had to go to.

I really like Accra, but it’s crazy trying to get around the city. It’s just a huge mess. Somewhere around 2 million people live in Accra (depending on which source you believe, since there is no official census) and it is a sprawling urban tangle with unbelievable congestion. There are tons of twisting, winding streets, most of which are not paved (i.e. dirt roads) and most of which don’t even have names. Even for the streets that do have names, usually none of the locals know what the names are, so that doesn’t really help. So if you need to go somewhere you’ve never been before, you’re in for a big headache. And the traffic is horrendous. Accra (like many cities in Africa) has had huge population growth recently, and the infrastructure hasn’t caught up with the number of people and cars. There are big problems with access to water, sanitation facilities, and electricity, in addition to the traffic problems. I have definitely spent 2 hours in traffic just to go 5 miles before during rush hour, and of course there is no air conditioning on public transport, so it’s a really sweaty affair. Transportation here is quite a unique experience. On the other hand, Accra has many amenities that can’t be found in many other places in Ghana, like restaurants, bars, hotels, and places with air conditioning. There are also other foreigners living in Accra, and it’s nice to hang out with non-Ghanaians occasionally.

As I’m writing this, a torrential downpour has started outside. It’s the rainy season again, and in the room where I am writing this, the roof has started leaking. It started with just one leak, but now there are areas of water dripping from the ceiling all over the place, and I’m getting wet, as is the computer equipment, so I’m going to have to leave now. Later.

Happy Easter

2006-04-17T09:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter! I had a pretty good Easter weekend. Friday I worked, and Saturday I cleaned my house and washed clothes and hung out with Ghanaian friends. Yesterday I went and had dinner with another Peace Corps Volunteer in her village. It was really nice, we made alfredo pasta and jell-o instant pudding, which my parents sent me in a care package, and had veggies with it. It was delicious! Today I put on an HIV/AIDS awareness program, which was disguised as an Easter party. It went really well, tons of people came, we talked about HIV/AIDS for a few hours, and then we had music and dancing and games. I’m exhausted though.

The eclipse was awesome. A bunch of my friends came and stayed with me in Koforidua, because the eclipse passed directly over the city. We went to the top of a mountain which is right beside the city. It was gorgeous, and the view of the city was unbelievable. The eclipse itself was pretty amazing. As the moon covered more and more of the sun, it got cooler and cooler. There was a total eclipse for about 10 minutes, and it was actually cold! There must have been a 30 degree temperature change. And it was really dark during the total eclipse, almost as dark as night. It was very interesting. Some Ghanaians flipped out, others praised God, and others sacrificed animals and such. I gotta run, will write more later. All the best!

same old stuff...

2006-03-25T09:43:00.000-08:00

hey guys, hope everyone's doing well. i've been pretty good. the hiv/aids conference went pretty well, although a few of the speakers were quacks, but i've come to expect these things. some of the speakers were very good, so it more than made up for the quacks. i've been really busy since i got back to koforidua, having been gone, i had a lot of stuff to catch up on.

there's going to be a solar eclipse in ghana on march 29, and it passes directly over koforidua, so a group of friends are going to come stay with me and we'll all hike up a nearby mountain and watch the eclipse from there. (with the funny paper sunglasses, of course). should be fun.

i have been reading a lot lately. my laptop broke several months ago, and my ipod broke a few weeks ago, so i have had no music and no source of entertainment at my site other than books and my hand-crank shortwave radio. so i read a lot, and i listen to the bbc a lot. not too exciting, but i have read some really good books lately and i am extremely well informed about international politics.

the other night i stayed up late finishing a book, and was getting ready to go to bed around midnight. i was sitting at my desk and picked up my messenger bag off the floor, and a huge scorpion falls out of it onto my lap. i screamed and jumped in the air, and the bag and scorpion fly into the air and onto the floor. the scorpion was at least 5 inches long, maybe more like 6, not including the tail. it was huge. i was freaked, even though i had previously been proud of myself for not being as scared of spiders anymore, and chasing them around my house trying to kill them. the spiders here are hard to kill because they're so fast. one kind of spider here jumps, and can jump really far and fast, so it's almost impossible to squash it. but if you're quick, you can spray it with raid, which slows it down, and then squash it. the same with another type of spider here, wall spiders, which are flat and really fast, so you spray them and then kill them too. so anyways, i'm standing in my living room, looking at this huge scorpion, and am absolutely petrified. i couldn't even move for some time, but the scorpion didn't move either, thankfully. so i go and get the can of raid, but then i'm looking at this huge scorpion, thinking that one can of raid is not going to kill this thing. but everyone's asleep, so i didn't quite know what to do. i wash my clothes in this big, plastic tub, so i take the tub and turn it upside down and put it over the bag and the scorpion. but i wasn't convinced that the tub was heavy enough so that the scorpion couldn't get out, so i put my big, heavy-duty water filter on top of the tub, and then went to bed. the next morning i asked my middle age, male neighbor if he could help me with a scorpion. when he saw the contraption i built to entrap the scorpion he laughed and laughed. then he proceeded to get a big stick and squash the scorpion with it. there was a rather large pool of greenish black scorpion goo on my floor. my neighbor then said that this was only a small scorpion. if that's the case, then i really hope i never encounter a big scorpion.

This is a really long post

2006-03-12T12:33:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, sorry that I’ve been MIA for so long, once again. I’ve been extremely busy. Towards the end of January I put on a workshop for teachers in Akosombo. Then in February, before Valentine’s Day, I put on 3 HIV/AIDS workshops with a V-day theme in Koforidua. The 3^rd week in February I attended a training review conference in Accra (the capital) where we planned the pre-service training for the next group of volunteers coming to Ghana. The next week, I stayed in Accra and worked with a committee to re-evaluate all of the training and resource materials given to health and water sanitation volunteers. Since I had an important meeting in Accra at the beginning of the following week, I decided to spend a long weekend at the beach with a group of friends. March 6^th was Ghana’s Independence Day, so there were big celebrations all over Ghana. In Accra there was a huge celebration at Independence Square (a huge monument to Ghana’s Independence). Ghana gained independence from Britain in 1957, and was the 1^st Sub-Saharan country in Africa to do so. Next year will be the 50^th anniversary of Ghana’s independence, and heads of state from all over the world will be here. This year the celebration was still pretty big, though. We briefly attended the crowded celebration in Accra, which had huge bands and military personnel in full regalia and stuff like that. Something that I thought was a little bizarre was that they have school children, in their uniforms, march around military style, like soldiers, all very precise and kinda creepy. We only stayed at the official celebration for a little while, then we went to some nearby villages and saw the celebrations there. The school children in the villages marched too, but weren’t very good at it, and had problems with timing and coordination, and were actually very cute. Not at all like the creepy kids in the capital who looked like a miniature army. Well hey, nothing says democracy like marching, I mean, err, education.

So I had my big meeting last week, and a few others, and am now back at my site, in Koforidua. I spent my entire day cleaning my house and washing my clothes. I had been gone for a while, and the amount of dust/dirt in my house was unbelievable! It’s all but impossible to have a dust and/or dirt free house for more than a day. By the next day, it’s already getting dusty and dirty again because there’s so much dust and dirt in the air, and there’s no AC, so you have to keep the windows open (all covered with mosquito netting, of course). It also takes me an eternity to wash my clothes, since it all has to be done by hand. And considering all the dust and dirt, your clothes get really dirty really quickly. But now my house is clean (more or less), and my clothes are clean (more or less), so I’m taking time to update you special people on the happenings in my life.

The teacher’s workshop in Akosombo in January went very well. I was really surprised by how little the teachers knew about HIV/AIDS. I mean, these people are teachers, they’re supposed to be educated, right? Guess not. But they were very interested in the topics and very receptive. I taught them, first of all, how to protect themselves from HIV. The UN estimates that over 1 million students lose their teachers to AIDS every year in Sub-Saharan Africa alone, which affects the quality of the education system. Without quality education, there can be no development, and without development, Africa has no escape from poverty, so 1^st I taught the teachers what HIV/AIDS is, how it’s transmitted, and how to protect themselves. Then I taught them how to teach their students about HIV/AIDS and tailor the messages to different age groups. We also talked about girl empowerment and the importance of keeping girls in school. Many families in Africa only send boys to school, and keep the girls home to do housework. But studies have shown that a girl who finishes grammar school is 4 to 5 times less likely to contract HIV than a girl who drops out. And Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the UN, and a Ghanaian, once said that “girl power is Africa’s own vaccine against HIV.” So I encouraged the teachers to encourage their female students. Sugar daddies are a real problem here too; a girl will have sex with an older man in exchange for money for school fees which her family won’t give her, sometimes for as little as around 50 cents. It’s really tragic, but the workshop went really well and many of the teachers asked me to come speak at their schools, which I’ll try to do as soon as I have the time.

The workshop was held in a beautiful open-air church on a mountainside in Akosombo, over looking Lake Volta. Akosombo is the site of the hydro-electric dam which is Ghana’s main source of electricity. Because of an extended drought, the water levels in Lake Volta (the world’s largest artificial lake) are extremely low and the dam is not producing enough electricity to satisfy demand. One of the other reasons I haven’t updated my blog in so long is that even in the capital city, Accra, the electricity goes out on a daily basis, usually for at least several hours. Power cuts here are humorously called “lights out,” and are part of everyone’s life here. After the workshop in Akosombo, we went to see the dam, which was pretty impressive, especially considering it was built over 40 years ago in the middle-of-nowhere in Africa.

The next major even I undertook (in addition to the talks on HIV/AIDS I give at schools and churches several times a week) was the V-Day HIV/AIDS workshop. I wanted to do a workshop for apprentices, young people who are learning a trade, are usually uneducated, and very poor, and so they are especially vulnerable. HIV/AIDS education in Africa is now trying to focus on behavioral change communication, so that we don’t just educate people about HIV/AIDS, but also help people understand that they are at risk and convince them to change their behavior in order to protect themselves. Part of this is to tailor presentations to specific audiences. So we did 2 workshops for female apprentices, mostly seamstresses and hairdressers, and 1 workshop for male apprentices, mostly carpenters and mechanics. For the female apprentices, the presenters were all females, and for the male apprentices, the presenters were almost all males. I trained individuals at my NGO to give the presentations, which were all in the local language, Twi. We talked about HIV transmission, prevention, testing and counseling, as well as stigmatization and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS, and some HIV positive individuals gave presentations and told their stories. We also talked a bit about pressures associated with V-Day and how to make good decisions. Overall, the workshops went really well. There were some challenges, of course, and some surprising issues which I wasn’t expecting. Some of the people who attended claimed that HIV is spread by juju magic, or curses, and I found it surprisingly difficult to convince them otherwise. Although, in the end, with the help of my colleagues, I think they were convinced. It’s still remarkable though, that people still believe in voodoo and juju.

In Ghana, everyone is religious. Everyone is Christian, Muslim, or holds traditional beliefs, i.e. paganism. The south is mostly Christian, the middle of the country is a mix, and the north mostly Muslim, with traditional beliefs held mainly in secluded, sacred, traditional areas. Ghanaians do not understand the ideas of agnosticism and atheism. They literally can’t conceive that there are people who don’t believe in any god. Religion is a huge part of everyone’s life here. Every Ghanaian goes to church, the mosque, or the shrines, every single week, usually for services lasting 3 or 4 or more hours, and they love it. (I guess it’s their only form of entertainment, in a way). And there’s a great deal of religious tolerance, there is little religious discrimination. Almost all shops and stores all over the country are given religious names: Jesus Saves Barber Shop, God is Watching Motor Repairs, There is Only Allah Tailoring, and so on. But the really bizarre part is that Christians and Muslims alike still believe in curses. A few weeks ago, in a crowded market in Accra, someone claimed that a woman was turned into a chicken, and a huge crowd gathered around the chicken, the man who claimed he saw it, and the man he claimed had cursed the woman. In less than an hour, 1000s of people were screaming and yelling and arguing over the issue. Eventually, the police took over the situation and both men and the chicken were taken to the police headquarters to sort the mess out. The next day, the headline on the front page of the most widely circulated newspaper in Ghana was “Woman Turned Into Chicken.” I brought the subject up to my university-educated, church-going, god-fearing Ghanaian colleagues. And their response? “I know, can you believe it? In this day and age, in 2006, people are still being turned into chickens! They should send that man to jail! I hope the chicken gets turned back to a woman eventually…” Oy vey.

As a final note, I’ll be attending a conference on HIV/AIDS in Accra next week, sponsored by the World Health Organization and UNAIDS. It should be good.

I met Laura Bush

2006-01-17T07:28:00.000-08:00

Today I met the First Lady, Laura Bush. There was a reception for her at the Ambassador’s house, to which Peace Corps Volunteers and some other foreign service personnel were invited. She came in a huge motorcade, and there were secret service agents everywhere. Over 200 secret service agents came with her to Ghana, although not all were at the reception. She came in and gave a short speech, only a few minutes long. But at the beginning, and again at the end, she thanked the Peace Corps Volunteers for their service and talked briefly about all the good work we do. Apparently, she’s a big fan of the Peace Corps, and held the reception just so she could thank us. Or there were some political motives behind it, but there weren’t any reporters there, so who knows. When asked where the volunteers from Texas were, the Peace Corps country director pointed us out, and Mrs. Bush came over and shook my hand and said hello. She smiled a lot, and was very short, and very small. The whole affair was a little weird, there was so much security and so much planning and coordination, and then she only stayed for a few minutes. But I’m glad I got to meet her. It was just a little anticlimactic in the end.

How's the weather?

2006-01-12T11:14:00.000-08:00

There are two seasons in Ghana, the wet season and the dry season. In the wet season, it's really hot and humid and rains alot. In the dry season it's, somehow, even hotter, and really dry, and it doesn't rain at all. When these seasons occur differs in different parts of the country, but most of the time I've been here, it's been the wet season, and then the transition into the dry season. During the wet season, it rains, but I'm not talking about a drizzle, or a moderate rain, or even a really heavy rain. I'm talking about torrential rains, monsoon rains, Noah's Ark rains, I've-never-seen-it-rain-so-hard-in-my-life kind of rains. For example, once during training, I was standing on the main road in my village talking on my cell phone, and all of a sudden, it started raining. There had been some dark clouds gathering, but I wanted to finish my phone call, and I wasn't really worried about getting a little wet on my walk home, so I kept talking on my phone. I barely noticed that everyone else in the village sought cover indoors somewhere, so that by the time it started raining the village was nearly deserted. So, as it happened, one minute it wasn't raining, and the next minute I was in the middle of a torrential downpour. It was like someone turned on a huge faucet in the sky (one with good water pressure). I ran under the overhang of a nearby building, and decided I would wait for the rain to let up a bit, and then go home. So I waited...and waited...A lady from a nearby home came and invited me in to escape the rain because she was worried about me. It was evening by this point, and she even offered to let me spend the night, but I thanked her and declined. I was getting the sense that the rain was not going to let up anytime soon, so I decided to brave the downpour and head home. To get home, I had to walk down a long dirt path, which was severly rutted and filled with gulleys, and was flanked by houses on both sides. Because it was raining so hard, the dirt path had become a small, rushing river through the houses. So I was wading through rusing water, usually up to my knees, but at some points almost to my waist, as I was trying to make my way home. At one point, I saw a chicken being swept away in the water. At another point, I saw what I believe was a small sheep being washed away. There was a short tree in the path in one part, and as I waded past, I saw that there was a goat taking shelter in the tree, perched on a wide branch. I kid you not, a goat in a tree. I've seen it other times here too, those goats are impressive little animals. Anyways, I got home, laughing the whole time and feeling like I was on an adventure. But I found I had been locked out. I banged on the door for quite some time until someone finally heard me and let me in. Since I hadn't come home before the downpour started, my homestay family just assumed that I would spend the night wherever I was, which is what most Ghanaians do. The whole episode was pretty hilarious.

On the other hand, we're now in the beginning of the dry season. In the dry season, during the day it gets even hotter, but at night it gets cool. And it doesn't rain at all and gets really, really dry, hence the name. It's during the dry season that the Harmattan winds blow through Ghana. The harmattan winds blow down from the north, and when blowing over the Sahara desert, the winds pick up sand, and then dump the sand on Ghana as they blow through. In the north it's the worst, and sand is constantly getting in your eyes and mouth and any food you eat is always kinda sandy. By the time the harmattan winds reach the south, they carry less sand, but even there, everything is a little hazy, and you can't see very far in the distance because of all the sand in the air. The air is very very dry, but I prefer it to the extreme humidity of the wet season.

Last week I was traveling for a few days, and my house was empty while I was gone. I made VERY sure that any food in the house was well packaged to make sure ants didn't take over my house while I was gone. However, when I returned I found that ants had, in fact, taken over my house. There were several lines of ants traveling through my house to each of my water barrels, and my water filter too. I didn't know that during the dry season you have to keep any water sealed as well, but I certainly learned my lesson. I was reminded of this lesson when, a few nights ago, the electricity was out and I was cooking dinner by the light from one candle, because it was the only candle I had left. I picked up a water bottle and took a drink, and then I started feeling something on my face. I put the candle next to the water bottle and realized it was covered in and filled with ants, that were now all over my face and hand and arm. If I remember correctly, I believe I let out a scream as I jumped in the air, throwing the candle half way accross the room, where it went out as it hit the floor. I then proceeded, in the dark, to jump around and try to get all of the ants off of myself while I looked for my headlamp to find the candle and the matches. Eventually I restored light to the room, and rid myself of all the ants, and continued making dinner. It was a fairly hilarious scene, and these aren't ants that bite, so I didn't get bit, but I was pretty disgusted that I probably swallowed lots of ants during the whole ordeal. But you really must have a good sense of humor to make it here, so I just laughed at myself and ate my dinner.

Wedding Woes

2006-01-12T10:00:00.000-08:00

I went to a wedding this past weekend, which was an interesting experience. The bride wore a white dress and the groom wore a suit, in the "western" style. Except that I have never seen a wedding gown covered in as much lace and as many sequins- it was unbelievably tacky. And the groom wore a suit that looked like he stole it from the set of the Sopranos. But everyone else, myself included, wore traditional African outfits made out of local fabrics. The local fabrics are usually really bright colors with geometric designs. The men wear one, really long piece of frabric, and drape it around themselves like a togo. The women sew the fabric into skirts, which are really high waisted and floor length, and tops, which usually have huge puffy sleeves. The ceremony was 4 hours long- I wanted to die by the end. And it was all in the local language- which I don't understand. But I did notice when the preacher said something and everyone turned around and smiled at me- he had thanked me (the white lady) for attending the wedding, as someone was kind enough to translate for me. Slightly ackward. There were fun parts too, there was singing and everyone was jumping around and dancing in the isles. It was a wholly African affair.

On a side note, the last few times I've gone to an internet cafe, the internet has been down, or so slow it takes about 20 minutes to load one page. But since I'm there, I just type up my blog entry anyways and save it on my pen drive. So if I don't update my blog for a few weeks, and then there are several entries on the same day, that's what's going on.

Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday to me, and Happy New Year!

2006-01-12T09:54:00.000-08:00

In response to the people who wanted to know how I spent Christmas, my birthday, which was December 28th, and New Year's, here's a little recap. During the week leading up to Christmas day, I helped my organization organize a Christmas Day event to feed people living with HIV/AIDS, the needy, and the sick in our city. Everyone who came received a free meal, some food to take with them, and there was music and entertainment too. It was a lot of work, so I was really busy before the holidays and didn't really have too much time to miss everyone back home. On Christmas Eve, we cooked all day, and people continued cooking all night as well, but I met up with another Peace Corps Volunteer and we hung out in town with some of our Ghanaian friends, which was really fun. On Christmas Day, I worked from early in the morning until late at night with all of the logistics and details of the program. In the end, about 400 people came to our organization's building, where the event was held, and we took meals to about 400 patients and staff in hospitals. Along the way, we tried to briefly educate all the people we fed about HIV/AIDS. The whole day went really well, and it was really fun too, even though it was a lot of hard work. In the evening, all of us who worked on the program had dinner together at the director's house. It was really nice, and we went out afterwards to celebrate the program's success.

For my birthday, I met up with some of my friends at Axim, on the beach. It was gorgeous. There were beautiful white sand beaches with tons of palm trees and pretty thatch huts. And the beaches were mostly deserted, except for us, so it was really peaceful and quiet. We had a nice dinner on my birthday, but nothing too crazy. For New Year's, we went to Busua, which is also on the beach, and is equally gorgeous, but there were more people there. Most of the Peace Corps volunteers in Ghana meet up in Busua for New Year's, and there were volunteers from neighboring countries too, including Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Benin. It was really cool getting to hear about different people's experiences, and I met a lot of cool people. We had a big party at a resort on the beach, with huge bonfires (30 ft!) and fireworks. I had a great time. Busua is really nice. There's no cell phone reception there, unless it's low tide and you walk to the ocean, and usually if you walk into the water to your calves, you can get service. One of the days we were there, I had to call one of my friends to make plans to meet up, but it wasn't low tide, so I had to go out till the water was above my waist before I got reception. But while I was talking to her the waves kept getting bigger until I couldn't talk to her anymore because I was having to hold the phone in the air over my head while the waves were crashing on me. It was quite humorous.

Let's try this again...

2005-12-28T04:41:00.000-08:00

OK, this is taking an eternity. I'll try again later.

These are some village children fetching water from a pond. People here carry everything on their heads- it's amazing. It's not uncommon to see a woman carrying what looks to be about 100 pounds of firewood on her head, with a baby strapped to her back, while pregnant.

Contact Info

2005-12-27T13:46:00.000-08:00

Yes, I may be in Africa, but you can still contact me. I usually have cell phone service, except when traveling out of service range, and when the network gets overloaded. You can get cheap calling cards online, and at asian supermarkets- buy a card for africa. And I love getting mail. So here's my info.
Phone: 011 233 24 221 5865
Address:
Liz Kah
c/o Peace Corps Ghana
P.O. Box 5796
Accra North, Ghana
West Africa

Pictures

2005-12-27T13:12:00.000-08:00

It only let me download 2 pics and then stopped working. I'll try again later...

Jenell and I in the back of a Land Rover

Elephants at Mole National Park

long time, no see

2005-12-27T12:34:00.000-08:00

So, I’m in Africa, in Ghana to be precise, where I’m serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer. I’ve been here since September 23rd. I came over in a group of 50 trainees. We had training in Accra, the capital city, for a week, and then went on individual trips to visit current volunteers, when I visited a volunteer in a tiny village near Lake Volta. After that, we were in Techiman, a city in central Ghana, for about 2 months for training. We stayed with families in villages around Techiman, and went into the city for training sessions on certain days. I stayed in Krobo, a village of a few thousand people. I lived with a Ghanaian family and they cooked my meals for me. In my family, I had a mother and father, 13 brothers and sisters, and who knows how many nieces and nephews. Thankfully, not all of these people live in the same house. In Krobo, there is occasional, sporadic electricity, and no running water. While there, I was like a member of my Ghanaian family. I took bucket baths, I hand washed all of my clothes, I went to farm with my family, I helped the women cook dinner, I helped the kids with their homework, and so on. It was an interesting experience, and I learned a lot about Ghanaian culture.

During training, I also went on a "field trip" to visit a current volunteer at his site for a week. I went with a group of about 10 trainees, and we visited a volunteer whose site is on the beach. It was beautiful, absolutely gorgeous. I also went on some other short excursions during training, including a national park, a monkey sanctuary, a sacred monastery, botanical gardens, and a waterfall.

There have been some challenges, but overall, Ghana’s pretty cool. And, of course, when I say cool, I’m not referring to the temperature. In regards to the climate, it’s really rather hot, it being equatorial Africa and all. To be perfectly honest, it’s always, always really, really hot. But it’s amazingly beautiful. There are lush, green, rolling hills covered in beautiful tropical plants as far as the eye can see. And the beaches on the coast are beautiful too, gorgeous white sand and tons of palm trees. I often feel like I’m in a movie that is set in Africa, like the Lion King. There are lots of cool animals here too. There are elephants, lions, wildebeests, antelope, hippos, hyenas, vultures, monkeys, and others. And there are far too many insects, which is one of the challenges. There are ants anywhere there is food of any kind, and it is seemingly impossible to keep them out. And during the dry season, there are also ants anywhere there is water, so it is essentially impossible avoid ants. The other day I saw a bunch of ants carrying an entire, rather large, bird somewhere- impressive teamwork, I must say. And you never see dead bugs anywhere, because as soon as the bugs die, the ants carry them off. Although the ants leave the wings behind, so I often find wings lying around on the floor. I briefly visited the rainforest, which has some of the most beautiful and bizarre looking bugs and plants I’ve ever seen. Of course, there were also cockroaches and spiders that were each around 6 inches long. Thankfully, I don’t live in the rainforest.

One of the most challenging parts of living in Ghana has been dealing with the cultural differences. Here, it is not at all rude to shout out "OBRUNI," which means "white person," whenever you see a white person. So, every single time I leave my house, people shout "OBRUNI" at me, everywhere I go. They don't mean it as an insult, but there are very, very few white people here, and they want say "hi." But it gets very frustrating. It's the worst in the small villages, like where I lived during training. People who live in these tiny, isolated villages hardly ever see white people, so they gather around you in a crowd and follow you around, shouting "obruni" at you and asking where you're going. People here are really interested in white people, especially in where we are going. Everyone asks where I'm going. People driving by in cars or on motorcycles, everyone I pass on the street, people in shops. But it's really kind of humorous. Like when I'm trying to talk on my cell phone, and a crowd of people gather around me, just staring at me-I have to just laugh and realize the hilarity of the situation. I try to be understanding, and compassionate too. Most of these people are illiterate and live in extreme poverty. The poverty here is really shocking. A report by the UN said that outside of major cities, 80% of Ghana's population lives in extreme poverty. In villages, most people live in thatch huts or cinder block houses, and they are almost all farmers. They have almost no possessions, only one or two sets of clothing, a mat to sleep on, and usually that's about it. There are certainly lots of people living in poverty in the cities too, just not quite as many.

My site is Koforidua, which is the capital of the Eastern Region of Ghana. It’s a beautiful city, about an hour inland from the coast, in a hilly area at the foot of the mountains. All of the hills are covered in beautiful tropical vegetation, and the climate is much cooler than in northern Ghana. I’ve been assigned to work with a NGO (non-governmental organization) for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) and orphans and vulnerable children, for whom one or both parents have died of AIDS. It’s a really great organization and I think they do really important work. They provide counseling for PLWHAs, pay for their hospital visits and medications, including antiretroviral drugs, give them food supplements, help them find ways of generating income, train them and help them find jobs, arrange socialization meetings and events so that the PLWHAs can interact with each other, and assist them with any other needs they might have. My NGO also works with orphans and pays their school fees, provides them with books, uniforms, shoes, and other necessities, and makes sure they are well cared for. Also, we do outreach programs to educate people about HIV/AIDS, how it’s transmitted, how to prevent becoming infected, how to make wise choices, and we also encourage people not to stigmatize and discriminate against PLWHAs. We go to schools, churches, community meetings, businesses and so on. I do many things at the organization, but my main role is to act like a consultant. I’m helping them organize their offices, keep better records, apply for more funding, find more and better ways to assist the PLWHAs and orphans, and grow and improve as an organization. I’m expanding the educational outreach programs and working in partnership with other NGOs in the area. I’m also visiting the PLWHAs and orphans in their homes and trying to find out their needs, and ways of meeting those needs. I’ll be giving talks on nutrition and health at PLWHA meetings, and working in schools in my area too. I’ll also be working at the hospitals in my area, educating and training the staff about caring for PLWHAs. So, all in all, I’m really busy. Later.