So, there are currently 3 Canada World Youth groups in Ghana right now,
Ghana 1- Women's /exchange. Moncton/Otuam
Ghana 2- Mixed exchange. St. John's/Saltpond (?)
Ghana 3- Mixed exchange. Fredericton/Northern Region (i dont actually know the town)
Ghana 1 is my exchange, lucky, lucky (fuckmylife) me, I'm in an all women's program. Ihavent had a lot of contact with the other two exchanges, especially the Fredericton group, but throught the grapevine, I've heard that each of the groups has problems of their own. none of which i'm really going to talk about, because I'm not sure how reliable the grapevine is, and it would all be speculation. I just wanted to tell anyone from those groups what ours is like, and then you can decide how much your lives suck in compareison. Because as awesome as this experience is (omgitsfuckingamazing), its not without its challenges.
first off, we're all girls. 18 girls. 18 females, all living with eachother, forced to do activities together, building a micro-community together. It can be great, there's so much freedom and a level of comfort that you can only attain in a gender specific group. We have become so close to eachother that we can talk about anything, from sex and penis size, to heartbreak and grief, to diharrea and vomit. In fact, as a group (at least with the canadians) we've got a long running "Thats what she said" joke,and we giggle whenever someone says the words "big" 'hard' or 'juicy'..... you should see us compareing coconuts. lol...anyway, yea so we're tight. but you can imagine the drama and bullshit that comes from 18 super hormonal, estrogen rich, sex deprived, incredibly intelligent ladies. fake friends, talking behind your back, tired of seeing your face, god she's such a spaz, at least i'm not a whore, i hate how much she flirts, that dress is really short, she gave me dirty looks, i dont know why shes mad at me, does she have hickies?, shes such a mooch, can i borrow 1cedi? you owe me 5, she really gets on my nerves, fuck my life. fuck my godforsaken life. Thats our group, that's a large part of our experience with CWY. I'm not gonna lie, it fucking sucks sometimes... you know,when you reach the end of your rope and you just want to slap a bitch? At least one of us gets that feeling each day. but it's all good...it's all cool... cuz somehow, through all the backstabbing, trash talking, gossip fuled days,at the end of the day, we are one big family. Each one of those 17 girls is my sister, and i've come to love her dearly. I go through days wishing i didnt have to see her face, but thinking about it, under what other circumstances would i have had the chance to meet this amazing young woman? and here, not only have we met, but we've cried, laughed, and lived together. We've seen eachother naked and not cared, we've talked about our deepest secerets, our seceret wishes and desires, we sit at the edge of the atlantic ocean, in a completely different world, we trust 100% the girls, even though its hard sometimes. This sisterhood is something that could never be created outside of a CWY context. As much as i whine and complain about this group, i seceretly love all of the girls from the bottom of my heart. I want to go home, to see my friends and family more than anything... but that only means seperating from these wonderful women, possibly never to see some of them again. Makes me want to cry just writing this.
Linda, Zarpa, Zankhna, Ania, Elisa, Laura, Jaz, Steph, Sheba, Grace, Anette, Vicky, Deborah, Bernice, Vivian, Patricia, Nomotey... <3 love love love. And Junie and Lydia too, awesome supervisors (even though we dont always see eye to eye).
xoxoxox
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Obruni, what is your name?
Obruni how are you? Obruni where are you going? Go and come ok....
Every single day, since we arrived in Otuam, people ask me those questions whenever i go out. Mostly little children, who dont know any other english... the same kids everyday go "Obruni what is your name?"... "My name is Janice"... "Chalice?".."No, Jaanice"..."Janet?"... "JAANICCEE".... "Jani?!"..... o_O "Yes, Jani"
I'm starting to get used to it, i feel like a tape recorder, with a script that i have to read and repeat day in and day out. I can walk down the paths "Hello"... "I'm fine"... "afternoon"... "My name is Janice"..."How are you?"..."buh byee" its so predictable that i dont even need to hear the question, one of those statements will most certainly answer anything people ask me. It's funny tho, whenever people ask "How are you?" the answer that we all expect is "I'm fine"... its a combination of not really caring how someone is and here, in otuam, not having a mutually intelligible language to communicate fully. Somebody asks how i am, I'm not going to say "I'm not fine. I'm hot, sweaty, tired, hungry because the stew sucks and i have a million mosquito bites that came out of nowhere. I need a shower, a cup of coffee and a day where the goddamn roosters dont wake me up at 4am, so I'm not fine ok. I'm not fine".... but no, "I'm fine. Just fine thank you. How are you?"..."fine!"
But, in all... I do like it here. Dont think that i hate it or that im complaining... its just that those questions get really old, really fast. and yet, everyday, every. sinlge. day. i have to smile and wave, smile and say im fine, my name is Janice, buh bye... to every person i see on the street.
but i'm learning fante, so the conversations should become more interesting as time goes on.
Every single day, since we arrived in Otuam, people ask me those questions whenever i go out. Mostly little children, who dont know any other english... the same kids everyday go "Obruni what is your name?"... "My name is Janice"... "Chalice?".."No, Jaanice"..."Janet?"... "JAANICCEE".... "Jani?!"..... o_O "Yes, Jani"
I'm starting to get used to it, i feel like a tape recorder, with a script that i have to read and repeat day in and day out. I can walk down the paths "Hello"... "I'm fine"... "afternoon"... "My name is Janice"..."How are you?"..."buh byee" its so predictable that i dont even need to hear the question, one of those statements will most certainly answer anything people ask me. It's funny tho, whenever people ask "How are you?" the answer that we all expect is "I'm fine"... its a combination of not really caring how someone is and here, in otuam, not having a mutually intelligible language to communicate fully. Somebody asks how i am, I'm not going to say "I'm not fine. I'm hot, sweaty, tired, hungry because the stew sucks and i have a million mosquito bites that came out of nowhere. I need a shower, a cup of coffee and a day where the goddamn roosters dont wake me up at 4am, so I'm not fine ok. I'm not fine".... but no, "I'm fine. Just fine thank you. How are you?"..."fine!"
But, in all... I do like it here. Dont think that i hate it or that im complaining... its just that those questions get really old, really fast. and yet, everyday, every. sinlge. day. i have to smile and wave, smile and say im fine, my name is Janice, buh bye... to every person i see on the street.
but i'm learning fante, so the conversations should become more interesting as time goes on.
Monday, December 27, 2010
coconuts are basically my life
I'm so sorry I havent written in a long, long time... it was hard to get on the internet the first few weeks we were here, then i bought a usb modem, which then sat there for another few weeks before i actualy used it (its sooooooo slooooooooow!!!)...
anyway, i'm back and i have soo much to say.. about ghana, about otuam, about my group and myself.... we live in a small village (of 5000 people).. it was really hard for me to imagine what kind of life i would live here... i knew we'd have no running water, i wasnt sure if we would have electricity, which we do. I new most people wouldnt speak english, i think i expected it to be a lot like inuit villages in terms of social structure and community... which it is, and i think that's one of the reasons its so easy for me to make myself part of the community.
the house i'm living at is actually quite nice, its spacious, my host mother, or auntie is the best of the best of the best, she's a single mother living in a house by herself that her late brother owned, and her other brother owns one of the better schools in the village. I live with another counterpart pair, which is great. The Cdn girl is from winnipeg and she's pretty awesome. we sit in my room and eat werthers originals and talk about canadian food, and snow and winter and other stuff we miss. and the two ghanaian girls are so nice to me, they help me so much.
I'll take you through a usual day here, then maybe you'll kind of get the picture.
alarm rings at 5:22am, snooze till about 7, if i got up around 6 i would go out and help my auntie sweep the compound outside, but usually i sleep in till 7, then i get up, sweep the bedroom if my cp hasnt already done it. check the water tank, collect water if need be. We live really close to the well, which is nice. i go to the pump with my buckets, small children fill them for me, everyone speaks fante and all i can understand is "Obruni" so i know they're talking about me... then someone helps me get it on my head and i walk back, leaving a trail of "Obruni how are you" and "Obruni what is your name".... fetching water is no small task. i continue till our big blue tank is filled. then i have breakfast, usualy i pretend to eat whatever porrige we have thatday, i dont like porrige at all, and thats pretty much all we have in the mornings. There's one i call peanutbutter soup because its the colour and smell and taste of peanut butter, its not bad, its justthe texture i cant stand... then there's cream of banku soup, which is nasty. I hate it, banku is a heavy, dough-like lump people eat with stew here, one of many kinds. it looks like heavy, unrisen bread dough and smells sour. the only way i can eat it is if the stew is really good. the porrige version is made from the same dough, and it just smells like vomit to me. I cant eat it. then we have regular oatmeal, which is canada i would never eat, but here its welcome... after breakfast, i take my anti-malarial pill (which unfortunately dosent protect against dengue fever, elephantitis or any othe rmosquito bourne diseases o_O) then either go to my work placement, which is teaching french and english in one of the smaller schools here (were on christmas holiday right now sowe just have the days off) or call up a friend and go to the beach.
The beach is amazing. Paradise on the edge of the atlantic ocean. there's a small reort in town, called awaa waa etuu, and they have a small restaurant that sells alcohol (most importantly), some food (fries, springrolls, rice etc) we go there when we havent eaten at home (because let's be honest, the food at home is not always bareable) and ice cream!! they also have coconuts. Oh my god the coconuts! I eat coconuts every, single day here. They are soooo sosososososo soooo amazing. i eat at least 2 a day, sometimes up to 5. and the pineapples are soooo juicy, its not mango season tey, but late next month it will be.. my mouth waters just thinking about the fruit here.
um. I'm going to continue this another day. My laundry needs to get done and there's no machine here to do it for me...
xxo
anyway, i'm back and i have soo much to say.. about ghana, about otuam, about my group and myself.... we live in a small village (of 5000 people).. it was really hard for me to imagine what kind of life i would live here... i knew we'd have no running water, i wasnt sure if we would have electricity, which we do. I new most people wouldnt speak english, i think i expected it to be a lot like inuit villages in terms of social structure and community... which it is, and i think that's one of the reasons its so easy for me to make myself part of the community.
the house i'm living at is actually quite nice, its spacious, my host mother, or auntie is the best of the best of the best, she's a single mother living in a house by herself that her late brother owned, and her other brother owns one of the better schools in the village. I live with another counterpart pair, which is great. The Cdn girl is from winnipeg and she's pretty awesome. we sit in my room and eat werthers originals and talk about canadian food, and snow and winter and other stuff we miss. and the two ghanaian girls are so nice to me, they help me so much.
I'll take you through a usual day here, then maybe you'll kind of get the picture.
alarm rings at 5:22am, snooze till about 7, if i got up around 6 i would go out and help my auntie sweep the compound outside, but usually i sleep in till 7, then i get up, sweep the bedroom if my cp hasnt already done it. check the water tank, collect water if need be. We live really close to the well, which is nice. i go to the pump with my buckets, small children fill them for me, everyone speaks fante and all i can understand is "Obruni" so i know they're talking about me... then someone helps me get it on my head and i walk back, leaving a trail of "Obruni how are you" and "Obruni what is your name".... fetching water is no small task. i continue till our big blue tank is filled. then i have breakfast, usualy i pretend to eat whatever porrige we have thatday, i dont like porrige at all, and thats pretty much all we have in the mornings. There's one i call peanutbutter soup because its the colour and smell and taste of peanut butter, its not bad, its justthe texture i cant stand... then there's cream of banku soup, which is nasty. I hate it, banku is a heavy, dough-like lump people eat with stew here, one of many kinds. it looks like heavy, unrisen bread dough and smells sour. the only way i can eat it is if the stew is really good. the porrige version is made from the same dough, and it just smells like vomit to me. I cant eat it. then we have regular oatmeal, which is canada i would never eat, but here its welcome... after breakfast, i take my anti-malarial pill (which unfortunately dosent protect against dengue fever, elephantitis or any othe rmosquito bourne diseases o_O) then either go to my work placement, which is teaching french and english in one of the smaller schools here (were on christmas holiday right now sowe just have the days off) or call up a friend and go to the beach.
The beach is amazing. Paradise on the edge of the atlantic ocean. there's a small reort in town, called awaa waa etuu, and they have a small restaurant that sells alcohol (most importantly), some food (fries, springrolls, rice etc) we go there when we havent eaten at home (because let's be honest, the food at home is not always bareable) and ice cream!! they also have coconuts. Oh my god the coconuts! I eat coconuts every, single day here. They are soooo sosososososo soooo amazing. i eat at least 2 a day, sometimes up to 5. and the pineapples are soooo juicy, its not mango season tey, but late next month it will be.. my mouth waters just thinking about the fruit here.
um. I'm going to continue this another day. My laundry needs to get done and there's no machine here to do it for me...
xxo
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