This Blog Entry Took Forever To Make.

October 23, 2012

Almost 5 months since landing in Ghana.

So many things, including, but not limited to, Army Ants, Small Cat, wardrobe, teaching, pink ducks, and the death of herbs.

There are these creatures here called Army Ants and, boy, do they suck. I knew they existed from my many years of watching Animal Planet, but I didn't know they lived here until I was swarmed. Army ants have giant heads, with pincers, and do this thing where they make a road with their bodies. Here they are:

I guess they are seasonal too because they haven’t made their presence known until recently. I was walking across the backyard, after dark, to throw my garbage in the garbage pile when all of the sudden my feet were burning alive! I tried slapping their fat heads off, but in the dark I couldn't see them and they were biting with a vengeance. I think I stepped on their body road and that’s what made them try to eat me alive. I ran to a water bucket and just stood in it, hoping the suckers would either drown or go swimming. Thinking they had done one or the other, I stepped out of the bucket. Those jerks were just holding their breath and went right on gnawing on me when they could breathe again. I ran to my room, for light, and smacked the hell out of my legs until I had beaten all the ants to death. My feet stung for a while and I kept expecting some tiny ant bite welts to appear, but they never did. Since then I have been carefully studying the ground everywhere I walk. It’s a good thing too because they make their body roads everywhere. I decided the best way to deal with these maulers is to spit my toothpaste on their body roads every morning.

My neighbor moved and he took Small Cat with him so the Moringa experiment has stopped till further notice. I couldn't see a marked improvement before Small Cat moved away, so we may never know whether I was actually helping or not.

As of today the Form 1’s have started arriving. I still haven’t started teaching because there just aren't enough of them yet and it would be dumb to start teaching when barely any of your kids are there. I am really hoping I start teaching sometime this week. I feel so completely useless at school. Can’t start projects, can’t start teaching, so I sit around and do Sudoku and cross words puzzles, make lists, and daydream. I should have started a mural somewhere so I would have a project.

To keep myself from going insane I have been doing a crap ton of art. Drawing and ceramics and painting and even carving wood (I’m terrible at this) and leather work and doodling on my furniture.  The leather work has been only observation because I haven’t gotten the materials yet, but I am more than excited to get started. The most frustrating thing about being here is the fact I can’t go outside and brush my teeth, let alone do any projects, without 2,000 kids coming over, messing with everything, and basically driving me nuts. I try to do the projects with them and show them how to do it while sharing my materials, but they break everything and are completely insatiable. They can never get enough of me, my art supplies, and my art work. It’s a fun little love/don’t love relationship with them, which is teaching me patience, sharing, and probably more patience (it also really makes me appreciate America, with its privacy fencing and nervous parents that keep their kids from wandering into other people’s backyards). I love them, but they know no boundaries and have no concept of what’s OK to touch and what isn't (which I totally understand, but it's frustrating nonetheless). I think because of the language barrier, they don’t respond to me explaining things to them and asking nicely, so when things get to be too much I have taken to gathering up my ssupplies and just locking myself in my room. They bang on my door for, on average, 7 minutes and then go find something else to do. This breaking point only comes after I have been nice, been mean, explained everything, told them to stop, and had the better English speakers tell the kids that if they don’t chill out I’m leaving. I know this will get better with time, and it’s gotten a lot better over the last few months, but, lord have mercy, I don’t want this much attention, and I would love to go for a walk, sit outside, draw, read, walk around, anything,  without being mobbed.

I have already started making Christmas cards for friends and family. I am having a hard time designing the actual cards, but the envelopes are coming along nicely. If you would like one please email/facebook/post your address somewhere. It feels weird to be thinking of Christmas before Halloween and while its 80 degrees outside. Speaking of Halloween, I am so sad I am missing fall this year! No apples, sweaters, cider, boots, pumpkin flavored everything, and beautiful, beautiful VA mountains. And the wine festivals! Sucks. The good news is I should only miss one more fall and then I’ll get back just in time for the next.

Thanks to some Ghanaian help I have finally found a legit seamstress and she is amazing. Even with the language barrier she was able to give me exactly what I wanted.  Here are pictures of her first 2 creations for me.  

Why yes, those are high heel boot roller skates. 

Keys

I look forward to having her fill my wardrobe with whatever I can come up with. This is going to be awesome!

A few weeks ago I wandered into the school “library”. The walls were lined with boxes of books. The shelves were empty. It was really dirty, and not really an inviting place to read or study. Luckily my headmaster happened to be wandering by while I was looking around and I asked him about the room with the books. Last term they had moved the library to this room and had not had a chance to set it up yet. I asked if I could help, since I had nothing to do, and finally I had a project. With help from the students and the teacher in charge of the library, we were able to turn it into a functioning book depot. (On another tangent, the school was donated tons of books from a NGO, but they either got a million of one book or the books are completely irrelevant to Ghana. What is a school of 600 Ghanaian students going to do with 200 American Government textbooks, books written by Rush Limbaugh, and sailing books??) After 3-ish weeks, the library is basically finished. There isn’t much more I can do with it until I get the book drive started (oh yes, there will be a book drive that I could definitely use your help on). I am waiting for the school to finish the application before I release the details and ask for help, but no worries, as soon as the application is sent in I WILL do my best to get these kids excited about reading by providing them with some interesting reads. 

There is a pink duck that wanders around my school campus. I had seen it several times and I couldn’t figure out how or why it was pink. While having a leather working lesson I asked why the duck was pink and after interviewing a few people I was able to find out the duck had been painted by someone to claim ownership. They know they own the duck that is pink. Hilarious.

I have gotten very good at killing herbs. The only thing I have gotten to grow is Basil and 2 tiny Cilantro plants (which I think I may have killed by harvesting them too early).  I planted a ton of Dill, which sprouted and then died, Parsley died, and the Chives didn’t even show their face. So, if anyone has any leftover herb seeds (yes I know it’s almost winter) I would love to try again. I have a few ideas about what went wrong (I drowned them) so I want to give it another shot.

I went on a day trip to the beach and met a Rasta family. The dad makes beautiful bracelets and is teaching his 3 children the tools of the trade. The oldest is a lovely girl, and then there are 2 boys. The children have never set a foot inside a school, but the father has taught them to be fluent in English. I asked the man why he doesn’t send his children to school (in fact, he seemed opposed to it) and here is what he told me (this is the condensed version of what I remember):

Most children go to school and come home and do nothing. They learn a bunch of information that does not help them make money. His children will learn a trade and if something happens to him they will know how to do something that will bring them money. If they went to school, he would be finished with his work by the time they got home and they wouldn’t know how to do anything. He can teach them everything they need to know in order to support themselves.

There are definatley holes in this logic, but I commend the man on making sure his children know how to make enough money to eat. I guess with the unemployment rate being so high among young Ghanaians, this man thought he would give his kids an alternative (although this might be their only alternative without having an education).

Groundnut paste and banana for breakfast. Think natural peanut butter and a super sweet banana. Mmmmmm.

So it might be a while till I write again. I’m going on a couple training events and Thanksgiving at the ambassador's house is coming up (I’m so excited J). Things should settle towards the beginning of December. I figure that’ll be the next time you get to read through my affairs lol.