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Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone at home! I'm on my way back to the north after a wonderful Thanksgiving vacation spent with almost every other Peace Corps volunteer in the country at the U.S. Ambassador's House in Accra. I soaked up as much American culture as I could over the few days I had there and it was AMAZING. I stayed with one of the American Peace Corps staff and his wife in their house in Accra where I took my first hot shower since I've been here, helped cook in their American-style kitchen, and even slept on a bed with springs in a room with AC! It was blissful. After dinner at the Ambassador's, which was *and this is coming from a ex-vegetarian and non-Thanksgiving-day-food fan* DELICIOUS. I even had a margarita at an Irish pub that caters to foreigners. It will be a difficult few days adjusting back to my site, but I'm considering it all a rejuvinating experience. The hours upon hours of travel were well worth it and the built-up aniticipation, that could easily rival a five-year-old on Christmas Eve, was well met. Thank you Peace Corps. Thank you Ghana.

But back to reality on the home-bound front. My life at site is progressing. Daily life is getting easier. Projects are starting to pick up. And I reach new levels of understanding all the time. However, the cultural steps are probably the slowest for me, so there's one in particular I would like to share with you. Every Sunday morning (though I missed it today because of my wonderful vacation) at around six o'clock am--or more specifically, about an hour after the guinea fowl, roosters, pigs, and goats get REALLY loud--I put on a Ghanaian looking outfit and walk to church. The general good morning greeting, "bulika" is always followed with a short or long "how are you?"/"I am fine" conversation. Specifically for foreigners it's usually followed up with "ho kingla be?" (where are you going?). Usually I respond with school, the market, or work, but on Sundays, I get to mix it up and respond with church. Then, in contrast with American culture, they ask me to pray for them. It's about a half hour walk on the dirt road through the market. I continuously wear my chaco's, but I am always met with women impressively wearing heels and long dresses and sometimes with a baby strapped on their back with a two-yard. And this isn't all that I'm impressed with on Sundays. The church really does do good things for its community. They were the point of funding for a *I think* government-built dam. The church site serves as a soccer (football) field, volleyball court, and physical education center for the community's adult teams and school teams. The church funds the only orphanage in the area for babies 0-3 years of age (the time when babies are normally breast fed here) by providing housing, food, and caretakers. After the three years, the babies return to the household of the mother's with the live-in caretaker, who is also from the mother's family. The church's common area hosts meetings, such as a the malaria/malnutrition stakeholder meeting led by the local clinic. There is a women's group (the Christian Mother's Group) that doubles as a shea producing group and is already registered with the District Assembly as a cooperative- a group I am just starting to get involved with. They had a speaker talk about Hep B and testing after church (though it wasn't for free). And after being in a homestay and living in kind of a homestay as a volunteer, the church provides much, much needed direction and moral discussion for youth. And the majority of the people I have met and am becoming friends with in my community go to the church as well. So going to church is a win-win as a volunteer and an interesting way to spend my Sunday mornings with my community.

Generally, the service isn't that much different. I like that it reminds me of home. There is some singing, incense, bible reading, alter boys, collection, prayers, kneeling, sacrament, and a even a reading of church's upcoming events. But within these there are a magnitude of differences between mass here and mass at home:

- First and foremost, it isn't in English. The entire mass is in Gurune, and though I'm getting more and more comfortable with the language used for directions, shopping, and general greetings, the langauge at this level is currently beyond me. Needless to say, this makes it quite a long two hours. Well actually I should correct myself, there are about ten minutes of english during the two-hour mass. When this happens, the father stares directly at the one white person in the 300+ person mass, me, and summarizes his sermon in English. Though I still have trouble understanding his Ghanaian-English, I appreciate the sentiment. According to my neighbors, he didn't always do that before I came along.

- They sing the songs in English. But Ghanaians, not particularly gifted in this arena, and even difficult to understand in English generally, I usually have no idea what song they're singing. The one song that is genuinely recognizable is the first song they sing: When the Saints Go Marching In. Not, to my knowledge, a traditional church song, but I suppose it is a logical choice. They play it when everyone stands and the father of the church enters.

- What they lack in singing they make up for in dancing and drumming. This is the more local tradition coming in, and I've come to appreciate it more and more. The dancing here is a sort of elbow-y, clap-y shift from left to right. Nothing you would see in the Paso Robles Saint Rose Catholic Church.

- Collection. This can only fairly be described as a conga line. There are ushers that sort of 'release' the next row of people to join the line to what you would think was a club, not toward the alter. And the pace of the line around the church is almost faster than a trot. With the intense patterns and wide pallet of colors that make up the outfits appropriate for Sunday's best, the first couple of times I went I had to look away to keep from getting nauseous. DEFINITELY not something you would see in the Paso Robles Saint Rose Catholic Church.

- The seating arrangement. I've been assured multiple times that anyone can sit anywhere they want, but with the exception of a few late comers and the choir it's always men in one section, mothers in one section, older women in one section, children in another section, high-school aged girls in another section, and high-school aged boys in yet another section. I've never seen a family actually sit together, which is a sharp contrast to church at home.

The differences continue with almost every aspect of my days here in Ghana, and being away for the holidays is hard, but reflecting on everything makes me thankful for it and church seems to have the most parallels of all in terms of differences within something you know. I hope all is well in the states and you had a wonderful and thankful-filled Thanksgiving!

Love and miss!
Sonia

Plenty Busy

Hello! So here it is, my first post at site as a fully-committed Peace Corps Volunteer! I've been in Ghana for four months now, and have completed a whole 1/24th of my service at site :) . So far, it's been going well! The ups and downs have been a bit more drastic than I've ever felt in the states, but I'm learning. Mostly I'm just taking it day by day, and reflecting and relating it all back to the states isn't a part of that. I've been really focused on what I'm doing here, and in a weird and unexpected way, I try to not to think about it too much. 'It' being the bigger problems I can't tackle, and trying to relate what I'm doing here back to home brings all of those obstacles up again. But on the brighter side, I thought I'd be reporting back having discovered new levels of boredom, but so far it's been the opposite! And along with the many frustrations, which are now from actually trying to do things as opposed to bug bites, I'd say it's been a pretty successful first month at site, and the following are a few reasons why-

I started teaching! It's an overwhelming, enjoyable, and incredibly eye-opening experience. I'm teaching integrated science for form 3 students (the equivalent of about 8th grade in the US). It's provided stability in my schedule that I couldn't be more grateful for (Any and all meetings with groups of my NGO invariably start 2-3 hours late, which is fine and it's always for understandable reasons, I'm just never made aware of them until 2-3 hours after the meeting was supposed to start). So back to teaching- I guess I should start with how it actually started. I've been making a point to go to all of the schools in the area for a number of reasons- find out where they actually are, potentially start environmental clubs, teachers and students always speak fairly good English, etc. There are 10 primary (equivalent to elementary) schools in my community, 3 junior high schools that I know of, and one senior secondary school. I started with a few of the primaries, where most are suffering from a lack of adequate space and hold classes under baobob trees. Nothing I can do there. (But this night-time read is making this a little frustrating.) I knew that one of my neighbors taught at the Sirigu Junior High School (JHS). I was told by many that it was close, but someone would have to take me there because directions are a crapshoot. This didn't put that school very high on my list of ones to visit. Regardless, one day I just started with the little directions I had- "there's a path that starts at that Neem tree, and you have to cross a river". So I followed the uniformed students through fields of millet and maize, through a river (notice how I didn't 'over'), and eventually, to Sirigu Junior High School.

This turned into a very good day. It turns out there is actually and JHS A and JHS B. First I went to A, and was greeted by curious students, and met the headmaster of that school. He told me there was already a science and environment club. Perfect! They would be meeting the next Friday (I went to this meeting- gave an impromptu speech on environmental problems and solutions to a group of 40 and was really impressed with the clubs organization). Then I headed over to the other block of classrooms. I asked for the headmaster (actually headmistress), who wasn't in, but after talking to her the following Monday, I started teaching on Wednesday. The form 3 students didn't have a science teacher, so it was just an empty period for them. The school system in Ghana is a lot different than America- when you go to senior secondary (high school), you have to apply. These students have to take a test at the end of the year, that will include science as a core subject, and do well enough to get into a (hopefully good) senior secondary. So I'm filling that gap for them four times a week for 1/2hr to 1.5 hours.

Like everything else has gone since I've been here- I'm doing something I couldn't actually picture myself doing. Teaching is a case in point. I was given a half-inch notebook (large print and pictures on almost every page) and a scheme of work (syllabus). The challenges are endless: almost no lab equipment, no powerpoint for pictures, no at-home internet research, no way to make handouts, my american english is hard for them to understand, usually the first example that comes to mind for me to explain something has no relevance to their lives here, and they don't have textbooks. But the most interesting challenge is that they weren't taught the same way I've been taught. For example- I was teaching them about different mosquito control methods and the advantages and disadvantages of each one. So I made a table- columns of advantages and disadvantages, and rows for efficiency, economics, and the environment. I wrote chemical control methods, and then filled in the table. Then I erased everything but the table and its headings. This was a problem, and I wasn't expecting it to be. We made it through, but it was just one of many examples of different teaching styles.

Now that it's been a couple of weeks, getting to see that the students understand something by their expressions and the questions they ask is a really great feeling. When getting to a new topic, I usually try to remember how it was presented to me. I always liked science, and thankfully remember quite a bit from Mrs. Thompson's class, Mr. DiMaggio's class, and random classes from elementary school- depending on the topic. Usually this is useless because I remember a lap or really eye-opening picture. But sometimes it is a description. One of the more vivid ones is a case study we read in Mrs. Thompson's seventh grade class about the environmental effects of DDT. How the chemical had made its way up the food chain and was cracking egg shells. How it was overused by farmers. It wasn't until years later that I learned that DDT was used to control malaria. As you can imagine, the textbook on malaria control in a country where 1 in 12 children under the age of five dies of malaria, the DDT story is different. DDT is still used here. It's still overused in some cases, but it's a case of tradeoffs. So instead of just hearing Rachel Carson's story, they're actually living amid the tradeoffs. I still told them about the food chain and the eggshells and biomagnification, and judging by the questions, they really understood what was going on. It was a good day in the classroom. And let's be honest, this wouldn't have been a true blog post if I didn't at least mention malaria.

But back to exciting things in my community-

A few weeks ago, I purchased a bike. It's even a big purchase in the states, but here it was like buying a car. I read this book during training, What is the What (a wonderful read by the way, if you're interested), and the man shared an experience from his childhood in Sudan (now South Sudan) of the beauty and prestige a bike has. He talked about how glorious the bike looked with all of its shiny parts, and the lengthy discussion that ensued about if the plastic cover should be removed or not. It's a little different here though, they're fairly common. In the weeks before, I was receiving tips on what to look for in a good bike (all of which are used 'village bikes'- the equivalent of a beach cruiser that I constantly take offroading, and imported, so I hear, from Japan) and what I should pay for it. So on the big day, I had my counterpart with me to help with negotiations.

bikeshop guy: "145 cedi"

bikeshop guy #2: "110 cedi" (I was told by many that I should pay 100 cedi)

me through my counterpart: "will you do 90 cedi?"

bikeshop guy #2, again through my counterpart: "I will do 100 cedi, but I won't give you a basket"

me: Oh but I want the basket.

bikehop guy #2 and my counterpart: speaking Gurune at a level above my comprehension, and the bikeshop guy #2 retrieves a basket from inside his shop. Success!

The following week, similar to buying a car in the states, everyone commented on my new, pretty, red bike, gave me advice on bike care and informed me that I still needed to get a bell, asked me how much I paid for it, and told me: "you had done well". A common Ghanaian expression that I have come to appreciate. Since all of that, having a bike to get around has been great, and it's worth it solely for the breeze it creates when I ride it.

I have yet to really talk about my NGO, the thing that's been occupying most of my time and energy, but I'm going to keep focusing on it for now so that I can reflect and relate later. I do have another bright thing of my month to share-

According to the monthly peace corps newsletter, Global Handwashing Day is on October 15th. I thought this would be a good entry point for me with my community. I started doing some research, and Ghana has some work to do in this area. From a national study, it was found that the handwashing with soap rate after using the latrine is around 3%. I've been using this as a point to talk to a couple of the primary schools and the clinic, and most recently, it was a focus of a meeting I organized with one of my NGO's youth groups. This is going to sound a lot simpler than it was, but during the meeting, we built a tippy tap (low-tech handwashing station) in front of the house. I thought it went well- the kids were entertained, and we made educational posters to hang up at the clinic about the different times you should wash your hands. But the thing that really showed me it had hit home was when I met with the mother's group (the mother's of the daughters) and they had gathered around the tippy tap the kids had built, and one of the mothers said (translated to me) that her daughter had come home and started building one! It's a small step, but a positive sign toward behavior change. I couldn't have been more excited! However, someone did steal the soap from the one in front of my house the next day, but hey, choose your battles wisely.

There will be pictures of all this tomorrow! I'm heading for Tamale (capital of the Northern Region) with the rest of the volunteers in the region to get a flu shot. It's kind of a long trip (3-4 hours each way) to stay one night for a five minute activity, but it is what it is and it does mean that I get to stop by the vodafone cafe where the speed of the internet will hopefully know no bounds.

Miss and love lots! Hope everything is going well stateside!

Sonia

Health

- How is your malaria?

- Malaria?

- Yes, how are you feeling?

During training, we spent a week at our respective sites we will be calling home for the next two years (site visit). It was great getting to see my site, but I was unfortunately sick for most of the week. I had a string of visitors at my door welcoming me to the community, and this was generally how the conversations started. My symptoms were a sore throat, runny nose, and fever. Apart from the later, my symptoms were in no way characteristic of malaria. Though I do have more than my fair share of bug bites, I have been taking malaria prophylaxis, using a bug net, and again, did not have the right symptoms. These questions were my introduction to the misconceptions surrounding malaria. It has become synonymous with virtually all forms of sickness. I knew that by coming here I would battle misconceptions, and it had even been the focus of a few sessions during the prior week’s training on HIV/AIDS, but this takes me by surprise. The misconceptions surrounding AIDS have culminated in a disease known as the silent killer. Millions, maybe billions, are spent on awareness campaigns and testing. But the malaria story is different. It suffers from over diagnosis. How can you ever eradicate a disease when everything is called malaria? Similar to AIDS, the simple understanding of transmission is half the public health battle, and because of this, the cultural and social issues play a key role. And again, similar to AIDS, the malaria story is full of controversy. Remember DDT? But unlike AIDS, malaria is propagated and controlled by environmental factors. The cesspools of urine behind the latrine let them breed, the missing mosquito net and holes in the trap door let them in, and the lack of bug spray lets them bite. Each of these widespread problems is an environmental factor. Having the opportunity to deal with these challenges in a village is why I became a volunteer. But as with every problem, it’s a package deal. Social and cultural barriers play a huge role in environmental problems. During my site visit, later in the week, I had the opportunity to visit my village’s clinic. They were welcoming, and it was everything I had pictured a clinic in Africa to be. I’m really excited to help where I can there, and hopefully I can help with malaria efforts.

Each week of training has almost always shown me a new region of Ghana, a new set of potential projects for site, and most importantly, a new level of comfort being here. Training, on the whole, has been fantastic. It’s been a mix of lectures, practical, and being thrown into the culture and Ghanaian life. The logistics since my last post—

Week 5: Counterpart Workshop (an agricultural college in Bunso, Eastern Region) We spent a week at an agricultural college doing an HIV/AIDS workshop with our counterparts.

Week 6: Site Visit (Sirigu, Upper East Region) I won’t talk too much about it here, solely because it will be the setting for nearly every other blog post from here on out. But so far so good!

Week 7: PEPFAR Site Visit (Savelugu, Northern Region) Spent a week at a current volunteer’s site to see a PEPFAR project in action. PEPFAR is the President’s (President Bush) Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. I went to a site just north of the Northern Region’s capital, Tamale, and helped with a project coordinated by a few current PCVs. It was an educational movie night with free testing and counseling during the film (or flim as Ghanaians call it).

Week 8: Offsite Tech-Training in Techimon (Techimon, Brong-Ahafo Region) This was the beginning of technical training. We learned about moringa, neem, and organic agriculture. We also went on a beautiful afternoon hike in the hills near the monastery where we were staying.

Week 9: Offsite Tech-Training (Bolgatanga, Upper East Region- my region!) Tech training during this week included beekeeping, visits to government agencies we might work with, and tree identification. During this offsite tech training, our day off was spent visiting a crocodile pond (I touched a crocodile and have pictures to prove it!) and an arts and pottery women’s group that has a visitor’s center in my village, Sirigu, and Kofi Annan visited the site a couple of years ago (pictures to come as well).

Week 10: Offsite Tech-Training in Tamale (Northern Region) We stayed a few days at a really nice hotel outside of Tamale and did shea grafting and visited a mango farm.

Week 11: back to homestay for language and tech-training exam (Maase/Kukurantumi, Eastern Region) We learned about committees that PCV have organized, I can’t wait to get involved.

Next week- Week 12: last week at homestay, and the much anticipated language proficiency interview

Market (or in Gurune- the da’a)

In market life, I’m progressing from one foot in front of the other to having the wherewithal to look around. We were away from our homestay communities for five weeks, and our return brought a small sense of comfort. Instead of seeing the market as a place where local children yelled ‘obroni’ and wooden hutches and boxes lined the way with food I couldn’t name, I now see families at work and an array of consumables. Blue cooler means water. Large metal bucket with plastic lining means chop (local term for local food). Sometimes there is consistency between the days, but a lot of times there isn’t. Coming from a world where shopping is a matter of ‘where’ something is bought, a new element of ‘when’ will now take precedence. I guess the idea of it is similar to something being on sale. The year-round supermarket doesn’t exist here.

Bug Bites

Amid all of the other inconveniences, I have to say, infected bugbites take the cake for the most haranguing obstacle. Before leaving, I would have told you I knew what an infected cut looked like, but being here has taken that to a whole new understanding. I sleep with a mosquito net (when the logistics allow), wear bugspray, and keep hydrocortosone cream within reach at all times of the day, but it’s never enough. They’re painful, sometimes swell, and go weeks without healing, all the while, the bites and itching continue. It’s what makes long sleeves and pants the ideal in a country that nearly borders the equator. With every tickle on my bare skin, I immediately brush away whatever might have been there without even looking at what may or may not have been there. I’ve taken to this so much so that when I spent a night at the Tamale PC sub-office, I brushed something away that had some weight to it, and in the light of a door jam, saw that this had been a lizard.

Mosquitoes are nearly invisible, I’ve only seen about three total. However, I haven’t gone more than a day without seeing a cockroach, spider, or absurdly oversized insect. Of the three, I have to say that the beetles are my least favorite. They are slower than the other species, so I feel obligated to kill them. Without a can of raid, this is a little more difficult with the bigger ones. Chacos or a door jam will do the job, but the worst is that their insides squirt out of their bodies. It really is disgusting. Dealing with bugs is, among other things, the simplest way to deter my being out after dark and using lights at night.

As simple amenities become luxuries, I am starting to feel comfortable here and can't wait to get started at sight. Hope all is well in America!

Adjusting

To follow up on my last post:

We've been here three and half weeks. In most ways, it feels like it's been about three months. But it's a drop in the buck for how many weeks are left. It's been a mix of excitement, fear, and a constant state of discomfort. I'm happy to say, I'm easing my way into it. I severely overlooked the prospect of being in a developing country. So many things are shocking but at the same time, everything is stories I've heard before, pictures i've seen before, and problems there aren't yet solutions for. It's always easier to watch than think. Though it does feel like it's been longer than three and a half weeks, I still haven't 'experienced' that much of living here.

A brief on the events so far-

Staging (in DC):

This was basically a get-to-know-you- sort of function. It’s a pretty big group and everyone is really nice. They are a lot different than my class from last year. Everyone here is on the more practical side of the spectrum, but I guess with a group of Peace Corps volunteers, that goes without saying. I am much less out of my league than I thought I would be. Though I’ve been really impressed with the knowledge and experience of most, especially the ones in my sector. But to talk about staging- the exciting part was that the director of the Peace Corps, Aaron Williams, came to speak and was really amazing; quite the well-spoken African American, with the plus of being a returned Peace Corps Volunteer. PC has been in Ghana for 50 years now, and he said a lot of Ghana’s political and government leaders have worked with Peace Corps volunteers at some point when they were younger, granted, these were mostly teachers, but meaningful nonetheless. The rest of the time at staging was mostly just a what-to-expect session. We were given a yellow fever shot on day two and took a bus to the airport later that day.

Week #1: (Accra/Valley View College)

On day three, we were scheduled to go in groups of three into the capital city of Accra. They showed us skits, told us of the horrible things that could go wrong. During the night before, I don’t think I have ever been more panicked in my life. It was like being in a bubble of happy PCVs, and going into a seemingly structure-less but dense city- less structure than a bubble. The list of things to be afraid of is endless, and it isn’t like I had a clear idea of what to do if things go south, aside from the blanket reassurances from different PCV trainers and staff that “Ghanaians are really nice” and that we shouldn’t create an opportunity for a criminal. With this is mind we left the training site to go into the capital city, Accra. It was a severe wake up call. Everything I saw throughout the day was this weird mix of things I had heard about before, but of course hadn’t actually seen or experienced. The most striking being transportation, probably because it was the only part I actually interacted with.

The biggest eye opener that's come my way so far has been public transportation; the only real part of the Ghanaian society I've interacted with. There really aren't many ways to get from point A to point B, and the mode you opt to take, be it for comfort or economy, says a lot about you no matter what society you're in. So I think this is a good place to start. I'm thankful it was the first part of Ghanaian culture that I've interacted with.

The most common forms of public transportation is the tro-tro. It's a van that seats 12+ people and primarily goes from one town's station to another. I'm serious about the + too, and it's all encompassing. Be it luggage, two children, goats, and your two white friends--they will all fit. It is very cheap to take them, but being at one of the bigger stations is intimidating. The mates-a guy that rides in the tro-tro to take trip fares and recruit passengers. If you just say the name of the town you are going to, someone will show/pull you to that tro-tro or where you need to wait for it. The name of your destination is the only aspect of it all that doesn't change from day to day. The transportation system has developed organically and lacks what we know to be the most fundamental thing: street signs. Literally there are no street signs and the roads have no names. The public transportation system on the whole is limited by this, and the driving is fearless.

Week #2: (Vision Quest)

The second week of training was spent on “vision quest”. As cheesy as it sounds, we even had a worksheet to complete and spent five days with a current PCV. I went to the Eastern Region and visited a science teacher. It was relatively cold compared to Accra, because the town was at a pretty high elevation. It was an incredibly beautiful area; lush vegetation everywhere. Getting to stay with a volunteer ‘in the wild’ was really helpful. She had electricity, but no running water-which is what I will have on site. Her room/house (1 large room separated into a bedroom and living room/kitchen by sheets) was really well decorated and clean. She even had a gravity sink—exactly what it sounds like—which I want to make when I get to my site.

Week #3: (Homestay)

Well, the New York Times was right about the funerals. Ghanaian funerals do last for days and put any American party to shame. It literally goes for three to four days- 24 hours a day. A full night of sleep is impossible to come; obscene heat, no fan, obnoxious pygmy goats, roosters with absolutely no sense of time, bug bites, psychoactive malaria prevention medication (the dream thing is true), and ill-fitting mosquito net (however, I did just upgrade to a double wide). The funerals are just an added bonus, though they are Ghanaian culture at its best-my appreciation will come with time. There has been at least one every weekend, and by weekend I mean college party weekend- Thursday to Sunday.

Arrived!!!

I'm here in Ghana!! And it feels oh so good. Most important things first, we got our site placements this week, and I couldn't be happier! Well, with the limited amount of information I have at least, and here it is:

I'll be in the Upper East Region (borders Burkina Faso and Togo) and I will work with the Ghanaian NGO, Sirigu Ecological Initiative for Sustainable Development (SEISUD). I will have electricity (yay!), but no running water. It is the least urbanized area in the country and since it is on the way to the Sahara, can get up to 125 degrees. I have yet to see about internet. I really can't explain how excited I am about my job and site! The assistant country director here (who also served in the Upper East) said it is the peace corps experience that is most romanticized. I'll be about 30 minutes from Bolgatanga, the capital city of the Upper Eastern Region, and learning Gurune. I am the only one of all the volunteers learning this language, so I don't foresee using it in the future. There are a few volunteers nearby, but they are learning different dialects.

Here is the job description:

1. Identification and establishment of Tree nurseries.

2. Training of farmers groups in; Group dynamics, record keeping, Tree nursery management and ICT.

3. Support SEISUD to write proposals and look for funding to expand programs.

4. Promote the establishment of Agroforestry Systems (AFS) - combination cultivation of trees (fruits/lumber) or other appropriate plants (legumes etc) and regular crops using leader farmers of identified groups.

I really can't wait to get started! I found someone's dissertation that interviewed my counterpart and supervisor, so it's an established NGO.

I will have a better blog post next time- I'll have to write it beforehand and post it. But generally, things are going well here. The Peace Corps really does have it together. My nerves betrayed me for the first few days, but now I'm adjusting. I'm living with a homestay family for the next couple of months. Well water, limited electricity, no fan, and only some english. I'm not learning Twi either, so the communication thing won't change. But I have a phone and will try to get internet again soon!