John's Next Step

I did not hear any jingle bells and did not see any stocking hung by the chimney with care. Christmas in my part of Ghana is not commercialized. It may be different in the big cities in the south. I'm in the Upper West Region. The region has a very high poverty rate. There are plenty of cars in the capital Accra and other southern cities. There are plenty of motorcycles a few hundred miles south. Many people here cannot afford a bicycle. This is not to say that no one has a car – there are some around and a good number of people have motorcycles. There are a lot of bicycles, but most people walk. Walking miles at times.... Most everyone has a farm to have staple food to eat and perhaps something to sell. Money is required for school fees, cell phone credit, and to buy a few things. Teachers, bankers and some government workers get a salary and have days off. However, most people here have shops, sell in the market, or otherwise find ways to make a little money. Ladi...

Busy this week. On Tuesday I needed to go to Lawra to get money from the bank. The tro was looking like it would take awhile to fill and getting a ride back is ALWAYS a pain so I rode my bicycle. Lawra is 20 miles one way – part dirt roads and part pavement. It would have been easier if I had a front derailer, lighter bike, better tires, this, that, and the other thing. The ride down in the cool morning was relatively easy. The ride back in the heat of the day with the wind in my face was hard. The last 5 miles was very difficult. My left knee still hurts a little, nothing major, but just an old man ache. I don't know if the bike ride is a sign that I'm physically healthy or mentally ill. On Thursday I gave the math end of term exam. Thursday was also the last day of class. On Friday I went 10 miles away to see a volunteer working on a world map project (more on this in a future blog with the project is finished. Basically, this is a mural of the world map dr...

In the “it's a small world” category a Facebook friend in the 50+ Peace Corps Volunteer Group sent me a message about a month ago saying that he was coming to my area of Ghana for a short term USAID Farmer to Farmer volunteer program. Bill Zimmerman is also from Missouri and lives closer to my mom than I do (well than I did when I was in St. Louis). Care Package Delivery So someone stateside was coming to my part of Ghana. A surprising the number of people travel to Ghana. These people tend to get loaded down with items to or from the volunteers. So Bill agreed to be my personal courier and my mother sent a care package to him before Thanksgiving. It was a great package with a couple of bags of M&M, a good peeler, grater, and a steamer along with safety glasses and dust masks and other things. The care packages from my mom are always great.  I am finding ways to enjoy 4 or 5 M&Ms – one at a time over the course of 30 minutes or so.  There is something a...

There are rocks in the millet. Not exactly something that seems like a cause for celebration but that is the meaning of our harvest festival “Kakube”. The millet harvest has been brought in and spread out on the ground to dry before being collected for storage. There are invariably small rocks mixed in at this point. Millet is an important local crop used for a porridge and, as mentioned earlier, the local alcoholic brew consumed by men and women – pito, or daa. Kakube was started about 30 years ago in Nandom by the Paramount Chief of the area. Previously the local communities had their own harvest festival and there was no common gathering to celebrate the harvest. The idea of Kakube was to bring everyone together. The local celebrations have moved to Christmas time in this Catholic area. The local soccer (football) field is converted to the festival grounds in about two days. Chairs and tents are placed around the festival grounds. The Paramount Chief and/or Queen ...

Training This past week I went down to Kumasi to attend an In Service Training (IST) and to reconnect with the volunteers in my group. Kumasi is about 550 kilometers or about 12 hours travel from my site – not counting waiting for the bus (hours) – but I've already written about travel and besides being long there is nothing else to report.  (Oh - sad note - I lost my dorky looking 20 year old cloth hat, don't know maybe a happy note considering it was sort of dorky looking.) The major purpose of the training is to see how we are doing after about 3 months at site and to give us ideas about coping with problems. Traditionally this is a time when a lot of volunteers are getting down about service and things. Yes, the Peace Corps tracks the typical high and low points in the two year service period. Lows are common at six months (3 months training plus 3 months a site) and after the first full year at site (some wonder about accomplishments half way through service an...

After many weeks on site the Peace Corps pulls everyone in my group left in country for "In-Service Training" and reconnecting the volunteers as a group again.  Two people terminated their service and one person is under medical care in Washington D.C. (Peace Corps does take care of the volunteers) So I'm back at Samaritan Village in Kumasi.  I got to the bus station in Nandom at 12:30 am on Friday November 21 - and got to my destination at 2:30 pm same day.  The place is 549 kilometers (341 miles) away from Nandom. I'll be celebrating "our" (family and friends and my) harvest festival (Thanksgiving) with hopefully something resembling an American meal.  No hope for Turkey - not in the budget - but I'm sure it will be nice.  I'll post about the training and Thanksgiving Ghana style to keep everyone informed when I can - but maybe not for a couple of weeks depending on how busy I am with the training. I'll be here until Friday November 28th....

On Friday, I went to my first funeral of someone I knew. I had seen and talked with the old man at church services under the tree in the community several times. His name was John and he was always in good spirits and seemed healthy. So I was a bit of a surprise to hear that he had died. This was not my first funeral. I attend on average between one and two funerals a week. I attended two on Friday as well as sat in the background for the first sitting (family meeting) to set the date and location of the funeral for a lady who had just died. So I thought I would take this week to write about funerals in the Upper West of Ghana. Setting the date and preparations Upon the death the family will get together to determine the date and location of funeral. Like most decisions made here the people get together to sit and talk things out to reach a consensus decision. If the person was living far away or there are relatives that will need to travel then the date may be moved ou...

Corn, rice, and millet are the common grains grown in my region of Ghana. All three are used food, but millet is also used to produce the local brew – pito, or daa in the local language. “N nyu daa” - in Dagaree means “I drink pito.” There are several varieties of millet grown here – a red and white varieties have loose heads. These are used for pito and other foods. There is also a smaller seed variety with a tight head of seeds that is mainly used for porridge. (Don't have a picture of that variety yet.) In all varieties millet grows on a stalk with the grain head at the top of the stalk. White and red millet in the field Two bundles of while millet to be used for seed next season Converting a grain to alcohol is a common practice in various cultures. It provides a way to capture and digest the nutritional value of the grain. In some places, like Germany and the beer brewing monks, the making a beer was a way to preserve the harvest. In Ghana the millet is ...