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
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