Adventures in Teaching

Kim Comes for a Visit and My Last Day in Ghana

2009-06-23T22:04:00.001-07:00

My good friend Kim, aka McGee, arrived on Wednesday June 10th to Accra. This was her first trip to Ghana and I did my best to give her a tour of Accra and the Cape Coast area before we both flew back to the US on June 16th.

Our first stop upon her arrive is a spot called Duplex, owned by a friend named Bob. We ate pizza as we visited with Vossie and Betsy. Then we hit the hay for our big day in Accra.

On Thursday we woke up, ate breakfast at Frankie's and then headed to the National Museum. It took three taxi's to get there (first one got lost, second one broke down).

The museum was educational and well put together. Above Kim stands next to a Kente cloth loom. We also saw artifacts from archeological digs. It was a worthwhile visit.

After the museum we visited W.E. DuBois's (an American, Pan-African civil rights leader) mausoleum which was also W.E. DuBois home in Ghana. A tour guide showed us around and gave us the background of the grounds which included W.E.DuBois's extensive library.

Below is where W.E. DuBois is lay to rest and our guide. It was interesting to find a Clark Atlanta banner that was on display on his grave.

After this day in Accra we made our way to the bus station to catch the 4:30pm bus to Cape Coast. We stayed our first two night in a hotel called the Savoy. First thing Friday morning we had "Brother" my favorite cab driver come take us to Kakum National Park, where Ellen, Tracy, and I visited in January. Kim braved the bridges and we made it through the forest safely.

Once we finished at Kakum we went to a Hans Cottage Botel (a hotel on a boat). The Botel was special because not only was the hotel and restaurant on a swamp area, but the swamp was full of crocodiles. Kim and I were able to touch one without feeding it a live chicken!

Once we left the crocs we headed back to my favorite place to eat- Assasa Paa in Cape Coast. I had a delicious tofu salad, vegetable pie, and tofu kebab. Yum!

After the lunch we headed to the Cape Coast Castle, where Ellen, Tracy, Obama, and I have visited before. It was education and moving.

We hit the hay after a this long day to be ready for our day of Workshops! I signed Kim and I up to attend a Batik (a cloth dying technique with the use of wax)) workshop and Drumming and Dancing workshop from the Women in Progress association. It was a very busy day, but amazing.

Above I am stamping my sheet with wax and below Kim dips her stamp in to the boiling wax.

My finally product is below! As well as our great teacher, Mary.

Below are our drumming and dancing teachers.

Kim drumming during our workshops.

When we finished our workshops we hoped into a cab and headed to Anomabu Beach Resort. This place was fantastic! A must stay if your are traveling to Ghana. It was on the beach and had fantastic rooms, serve, and food. I was so excited to see POTATOES! My first fresh potatoes since I have been in Ghana.

We left Anomabu and headed back to Accra. Once we reached Accra we spend the next few nights with the friends I had made at my time in Accra. Friends like Vossie from South Africa, Mario from LA, Lori from North Carolina, Gemma from England, and Avi from Ghana. We ate great food and did Karaoke at Duplex.

Above Mario and Kim break it down for the crowd at Duplex. Below Gemma and her friend Sharon, who was on holiday visiting, hungout to the wee hours for our (Betsy and I's) going away party.
Below Kim and I have Khebabs at Venus for my last night in Ghana.

George, Avi and Cindy met us out at my final dinner.

Since my flight left at 10am the next morning and Kim's left at 5pm, Lori (on left) hung out with Kim for her finally day in Ghana. This was my last picture of my dancing partner Lori...I hope to see her soon when she returns home to North Carolina.

I couldn't sleep at all my last night in Ghana (June 15th). Kim and I stayed up late talking and even got a call from the hotel manager because we were keep up guest...a first! I tossed and turned. I was worried about forgeting something and sleeping in. I was picked up at 7am by Vossie and he dropped both Betsy and I off at the airport. It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone, but the worst was Vossie. He has been a fantastic friend and it was hard knowing that was the last Vossie hug I would get in a really long time. Below is a picture from a few weeks before of Vossie and Betsy eating sushi at Monsoons.

Betsy and I got our baggage checked, found our gate, and waited for an hour longer than expected. Both Betsy and I sat silently as we waited to board our plane. Here is Betsy looking much more awake then I expected.

Once the flight began to board I felt overwhelmed with sadness and fear. I was sad because I have no idea when I will ever see my Ghanaian friend's again, or if I will ever be back. The fear was due to having no idea how it would feel to be back in America. Back to a overbooked schedule, overpriced items, and overwhelming lifestyle.

The flight home was long, but altough I was exhausted I couldn't sleep. As I flew for hours to New York City I watch countless movies that had been out in the US, but I had never heard of. I already felt as though the culture shock had begun.

June 16 around 5pm we landed in New York City and I exited JFK for my first trip to NYC. As I type these lines it ia August 5 and I can't believe that was months ago. I have been putting off this entry for months, because I haven't yet dealt this the fact I am really back in the US for good. I feel like I am just on some vacation.

I daydream about Agogo constantly and miss the sunsets over the mountains. I miss the children in the neighborhood that called me Madam Alice. I wonder what Ma and Josephine are talking about right now and if my favorite vegetable lady is still selling out of carrots by the end of market day. I even miss the packed tro-tro's and loud chickens that would wake me at 5am.

When people ask me, "How was Africa?" I don't know what to say. I don't think they have the time for me to accurately answer that question. One word will not do, and so far I can't find any words.

When people ask me, "Would you do it again?" I easily say "Yes". This experience has changed me in the best ways I know. I came to help teachers, but the teachers, friends, and coworkers I met gave me 10 times the amount of knowledge that I could ever give.

If you are planning a trip to Ghana or any new country to teach people...UNDERSTAND THIS- you are not there to teach....You are there to LEARN FIRST and help second. Africa is amazing place, but they don't need more foreigners coming the telling them what they need to do. They need support in their quest to better their own communities.

If you have been reading my blog for the last 9 months- I hope I haven't bored you to tears. I have had a great adventure and plan to keep having adventures....so stay tuned. And thank you for your support!

alison

Last Days in Agogo

2009-06-19T22:31:00.000-07:00

Betsy and I left Agogo on Sunday, June 7th around noon. It was heart breaking to say goodbye to our coworkers, friends, and students without knowing when we will be able to visit again. On Saturday, June 6th we attended a graduation ceremony for the alumni of APCE (already in their teaching positions). During the graduation ceremony the faculty and students presented both Betsy and I with gifts. The students gave us both nice Woodin cloth (a very fancy English made cloth that is popular in Ghana). The faculty and staff gave each of us Kente cloth, the handwoven cloth originated in Ghana, dresses. We were flabbergasted by these amazing tokens of appreciation.

The hardest part of moving out of Agogo was having to say goodbye to the children in our neighborhood. Betsy spent time with Portia(2) and Vida(3) while I sat with Stephen(9) and Emmanuel(9). Many tears were shed, but I am hopeful that one day I will return to see them all grown up!

The vice principal, Papa, and our old principal, Ma, escorted us to Accra on Sunday. Here we are pictures outside of the IFESH office in Accra.

Broken Foot= New Friends

2009-06-10T00:22:00.000-07:00

I didn't brake my foot, but on Tuesday, June 26th I thought I had. I took a step down toward my TRC and I slipped and fell on my butt. As I sat on the step while on lookers were gasping I thought...my foot really hurts. I got up and wiped off my bottom and walked down to the TRC where I put my foot up for 30 minutes before class started. The moment I stepped down on my foot to help a student a shot of pain crippled me. I haven't had the best luck in Ghana lately so I thought, "Even though my foot isn't swollen...I know it is broken". So after sitting down during our 2pm-3pm class I had Betsy take me next door to the hospital for an X-ray. We even had a driver drive us to the hospital, that is seriously next door to the college. The X-ray guy was closing up, but opened his office back up for me. My 10 cedis spent on my X-ray's showed that nothing was broken, but I was asked to wait to see a doctor.

I sat for three hours waiting. While sitting I saw a white girl about my age walk by, which isn't something you see often in Agogo. I introduced myself. Her name is Gemma and she is from the UK. She was spending two weeks in Agogo working at the hospital, but she is living in a village outside of Kumasi for the next few months. She was very friendly and told me that I could walk on my foot and that nothing was wrong....great- I felt really silly for freaking out. After meeting Gemma and met Jope and Floris from Holland. They are working at the hospital until June 23rd. So even though I felt silly thinking my foot was broken I was happy to make some new friends. Below is the crew (Gemma, myself, Floris, and Jope) eating dinner at my house the following Friday.

But before I get too far...let's go back...
Tuesday though I broke my left foot by stepping funny
Wednesday foot felt much better
Thursday I waved to a friend and stepped on a rock and hurt my right foot---IN THE SAME PLACE! This time I just iced it and took some Advil. My right foot hurt for a week.

Well more pictures with the new friends: Below Betsy and Gemma show off our favorite dinner- French Toast (or cinnamon toast for me).

Below is the last dinner we the crew which was two days before we left Agogo for good. It was fun..wish we had met them earlier!

More pictures to come of my new friend Gemma, because she came to Accra before I left (June16). I am now back in the US...but I will write more about my adventures prior to my arrival state side!

World Vision Workshops

2009-06-09T15:59:00.000-07:00

Before the last break our students took, in early April, Betsy and I had visitors to the TRC. Teachers and administrators from villages outside of Agogo came to see the Agogo Presbyterian College of Education campus. This teachers, administrators, and students(primary-middle school) were able to see the TRC and hear about what we do. Betsy and I met also met a gentleman named Jonathan from an organization called World Vision. World Vision offices are throughout Ghana, and we have one down the road from us in Agogo. We discussed visited these village schools and hosting workshops for these teachers.

Jonathan was so easy to work with and arranged a trip to take use to seven of the schools of this farming communities. We were able to discuss with the teachers their needs and see their schools progress on utilizing TLMs. Some classes rooms held multiple posters and English labels for "door", "window", etc- while other schools held classes outside under a basic shelter with no walls. After meeting with teachers and administrators we decided that we would come back to a school in their community to teach a three hour workshop for schools in the surrounding areas. We asked teachers to bring rubbish to help in the creation of their own TLMs and ideas for topics of which their students are having difficulty.

When Jonathan and I returned to Magyeda on June 2 (Betsy had to visit a cocoa farm the same day...so we had to split up) teacher had done their homework! We had a great turn out of 22 motivated and attentive teachers.

The teacher above created a number line with positive and negative integers
from pieces of a cardboard box

All of the men, there were no female teachers in the area, worked hard to create one of more TLMs to take away from the workshop. I was amazed at the variety, creativity, and usability of the items made. This was the best workshop I did in the 9 months I have been in Ghana. I am so lucky we made this partnership with World Vision.

A teacher at the workshop breaks out a saw to get the job done!

On June 3rd Betsy, Jonathan, Stella (his associate) and myself ventured to Ananekrom for another beneficial workshop. We had a great turnout and were able to leave behind rubbish for TLMs in the future (examples: cardboard boxes for puzzles, waterbags for pocket charts, etc). I am thrilled by the positive feedback we received and hope that the next IFESH volunteer continues to strengthen the bond we have created with World Vision Agogo.

My partner, Jonathan, from World Vision
is pictures in the red and blue stripes to the left.

Weekends in Accra--May 15 & May 22

2009-06-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

My bestest buddy in Accra- Vossie- had his birthday celebration on Saturday May 16th. Besty and I came down to start celebrating on May 15 and finished celebrating two weeks later. Saturday night Lori, a friend I have made that is orginally from North Carolina, and I decorated our favorite Accra hangout- Duplex. It was a night of dancing, visiting, and singing. Yes, Vossie loves when I TRY to sing "Ms. Jackson" by OutKast---so since it was his birthday I did my best job. The turn out was great and I think Vossie had a great birthday.

Sunday, Lori and I went to a beautiful pool in Accra at a hotel called La Palm. I believe it is the same hotel that Obama will stay in when he arrives in July. It was huge and over crowded because most of Accra was without power and the best way to cool down is to hit the pool. They had a huge jungle gym and a swim up bar. After the pool Lori and I met up with a peace corp friend of hers (Lori did peace corp in Togo) and a group of exchange students from University of Ghana. It was strange to meet about 10 Americans at one table. Also- one of the Americans I met was Haley Joel Osmont from the Sixth Sense (the "I see dead people" boy). He is grown up now and was very friendly. He told me that he has family in Norcross, GA. After that Lori and I stayed up by candle night talking like middle school freinds. It was a great day.

Monday, Betsy and I packed up and headed back to Agogo, but we returned the following Friday for Memorial Day weekend.

Memorial Day weekend was: watch TV, work on IFESH report, watch more TV, visit with my favorite Irish man Jimmy (who was leaving), watch more TV, sing karaoke, and watch more TV. Good times were had. And pictures will come later.

My Trip to the Western Region-April 30

2009-05-04T06:21:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not- this was my last planned trip with a fellow IFESH friend. On Thursday morning I met Martha, a therapist and yoga teacher back in LA, in Kumasi for our trip to the Western coast of Ghana. We boarded the STC in Kumasi at noon and arrived in Takoradi about six hours later. Takoradi is a busy industrial city on the coast. It has many ports where goods are shipped in and out. We found our way to the tro-tro stay as night fell. We couldn't find a tro-tro to Beyin, but a gentleman told me he would drop with us and make sure we could get a cab. I expected to be dropped with him at a taxi station, but this wasn't the case. He had the tro-tro drop us at his uncle's house. His uncle, Ali, just returned two days earlier from Maryland, where he lives. His uncle gave us a tour of this new house he was building, gave us a water, a coke, and introduced us to the whole family. He was very gracious. He works traveling around the world, Afgahaistan, India, and many countries in Europe. He was home this time putting the finishing touches on a health center for this community, the Alhaji Nuhu Memorial Health care Centre, in honor of his father.

Muhammad called this cousin who is a taxi driver and took us all the way down a very bumpy road to the Beyin Beach Resort. This beach resort has the best place I have stayed in all of Ghana. It was a quaint resort (4 chalets and 6? smaller rooms). Beyin Beach Resort had hot running water, doors that open a wall up so that the beach less than 30 yards from your door step, amazing food (filtered coffee and for the none vegans -croissants and warm brownies), countless lounge chairs, and fantastic serve. It had a nice king size bed where I can hear the waves.

The Nzulezu village on stilts was interesting. We started out our trip wading through mucky water to our canoes. Once we said down our guides paddled us to a beautiful lake. Once we arrived at the village we got off our canoes and wandered around. After paying the caretaker a donation and 5cedis of a bottle of liquor he told use the history. All I remember is that they moved from Mali and settled many places until they came all the way to this lake where they built their houses on stilts. All children learn to swim early in life- since they could easily fall into the water. They fish the lake for catfish and do have farms on the nearby land.

After the village we paddled out to the nearby crocodile pond where there were no crocs to see, but it was still very nice. As we paddled back to the entry it was just getting hot, which was nice because the day before the people we saw that had gone were sun burnt and tired. My guide/ canoe man let me paddle for a bit after I bugged him enough.

Back at the Beyin Beach Resort I hate more amazing food- my favorite was fufu and light soup that was vegan- yum! Martha and I also met and extremely nice Dutch couple that were on a two week vacation in Ghana. They were even gracious enough to give us a ride to Elmina! That saved us so much time and headache that I will be forever grateful.

I had a great weekend!

Weekends in Accra (Easter Weekend and Jessie's Goodbyes)

2009-04-28T02:59:00.000-07:00

The Wednesday before Easter Betsy and I headed to Accra for the long weekend. We stayed at our friends house...it was so nice not have to pay for a room. While there I had a blast. I had not been in the big city since V-day. Wednesday night we went to a place called Duplex where I had great pineapple juice and groundnuts. Thursday we ran tons of errands around town- the highlight was going to Max Mart to buy soft shell tortillas. Later we ate at beach bar and grill called Tawala. It was literally on the beach. As you sit at your table there is sand making its way between your toes. Their vegetable fried rice was fantastic. After Tawala- Lori, a girl from North Carolina, and a few other friends went to the US Embassy for a "Dress You Decade" themed party. It was fun to see what the US military in Ghana do for fun. The Embassy was really nice too. After this short outing we head to yet another destination- Bywells. It was an outdoor bar with a dance floor. I boogied down hard until a woman in high heels stepped down on my bare foot (I only wait sandals here). It was great night. Friday was Good Friday so most things were closed. Vossie, Betsy, Bruce & Rianna (a nice South African couple that the moved here for work), and Awa (Lori's child) spent the day hanging out at the mall. We even when to a MOVIE!!! I forgot how much I love going to movies in the theater. We saw Marley and Me and we all cried our eyes out- all except Awa (she has never had a dog). Later we went back to Duplex where I had a great veggie pizza and did KARAOKE! Could this weekend get any better? Well yes it can when you spend Saturday and Sunday watching TV(tons of rugby which I love), going out to a great hotel for pizza and swimming, ordering pizza delivery, sitting in the A/C and taking hot showers. We left Tuesday to go back to Agogo. I for once missed Accra.

The following weekend was Jessie's last in Ghana. Jessie and I did tons of great stuff on Saturday. We went shopping at the crazy and frustrating Cultural Centre, saw handmade crazy shaped coffins (a lion, tanker truck, camera, a crab, a chicken, a bible, and a Star Beer bottle), and visited Global Mama's for last minute gifts. Sunday we hit our friend's pool and Jessie got more tan to show off to her friend back home. The weekend was fun, but I already hate that she is gone- damn you Jessie!

Currently I am back in Agogo just reading and making TLMs.

My Trip to the BA- April 3-5

2009-04-19T05:35:00.000-07:00

Many of my IFESH peers live in a region northwest of me called the Brong-Ahafo region (or the BA). On Friday, April 3rd I traveled to Bechem where my friends Karen and Jessie work at St. Joseph's Training College. The campus is much larger than ours, but there town was a bit smaller. It was fun to see their Teacher Resource Center and compare it to ours. The room is the same size, but they have a woman that runs the center so that students can come and go as they please. They also have a working copier, two working computers, two working printers, and a working laminator. The walls were filled with tons of TLMs . I was also jealous because of there wireless Internet! It was amazing. After visiting the school Jessie and I had dinner at the Orange Hotel with was on the outskirts of the town. I ate a plate of plain rice with a side of a pepper sauce. It was nice and the restaurant was interesting because it was an old hotel room that had been transformed into a small dining room. After dinner we went back to their bungalow for a good night's sleep before our big day.

The next day we took a taxi to Sunyani which is the capital city of the BA region. It is a nice sized town with a large, fancy hotel with a pool, gym, and restaurant with pizza. We meet up with Pamela, an IFESH volunteer that lives and teaches in Sunyani. She hired a mini bus for the day to take 12 of us to Kintampo Falls and the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary
Kintampo Falls. On the way to the Kintampo Falls I made a new friend Samatta. She knew Karen and works in Sunyani. We sang camps songs and played games for the 2 hours that it took to arrive at Kintampo. We walked down over a hundred stairs to the the base of this powerful waterfall. It was fun to walk long the base and get pelted by the water.

We had lunch at a nearby Catholic Church that Father Vincent, Pamela's coworker, new of. I ate a mango, but learned that cutting it is much better then just biting it. Thank goodness Karen had floss. We also took a moment to take pictures at the Center of Ghana.

After the waterfall we went to the monkey sanctuary. It took us a few hours to get to there due to bumpy roads and bad signs. But once we made it we were able to be less than two feet from tons of monkeys. They are sacred monkeys that are even given proper burials. They live freely int he forest around this small town. Folklore says that during a time of war the people of this town transformed into monkeys as a form of protection and then many didn't change back to their human forms. So the monkeys are treated well. We also say many beautiful trees. One was hollow. It was my highlight of the day- I wish I had the pictures it was outstanding.

After the long day, we traveled from 8am-7pm, Martha, another IFESH volunteer, and I had great fun in Sunyani and then traveled to her home in Berekum. When we arrived to Berekum
her roommate/IFESH volunteer, Amyianna, was cooking salmon croquettes. There kitchen is twice the size of ours and has the largest variety of spices I have seen in a long time. We visited until midnight and then I passed out.

The next day I visited their TRC which was amazing. They have alot of space to work with and computers, a copier, laminator, and tons of TLMs. They even made TLM of a computer monitor, printer, mouse, and keyboard. It was also so much fun to see and talk to Martha and Amyianna. I left Sunday around noon and got back to Agogo aorund 7pm. It was a nice trip.

Bad News

2009-04-19T05:30:00.000-07:00

There won't be many or anymore pictures from my trips in Ghana. My computer is no longer with me so I can't download my pictures from my camera and many of my old pictures have been lost. This is very sad, because I went on a fantastic trip to waterfalls and to see monkeys- but these pictures are gone. I am going to try and get some pictures from friends, but for now words will have to do.

sorry

TLM Contest at A.P.C.E. with prizes from the Schoolbox

2009-04-06T10:47:00.001-07:00

The first update I have for my readers is that the school I work at has changed its name. It was called APTC – Agogo Presbyterian Training College, but now it is Agogo Presbyterian College of Education. So if you read my blogs now APTC is the same as APCE.

Now own to the contest. Months ago Betsy and I met with educators from KNUST in Kumasi and began a partnership based on the creation of TLMs (teacher learning materials). During out meeting we decided that students from KNUST should visit our TRC to get ideas for their own TLMs. They did visit our campus early last month. Next, Betsy and I brainstormed things that our students could do to share with the KNUST students. I came up with an idea of a TLM contest.

I asked a few of our APCE students if they would be interested in entering a contest where they would create a TLM and win great teacher prizes from the Schoolbox. The few girls I surveyed said that this sounded like a great idea- so I got to work. I created a flyer that listed the rules for the contest:
• Participates are able to enter just one TLM
• Your TLM must fit in one of the following categories:
-Mathematics
-Science
-Social Studies/ History
-Health/Physical Education
-Language/Literature/Reading
• TLMs must be created primarily from found objects (example: bottles, boxes, tubes, etc)- at least making up of 30% of the TLM
• No posters will be accepted
• TLM must also have attached a handwritten or typed sheet (no longer than one page) explaining the TLM use to teach a part of the Ghanaian curriculum
• Finished TLMs are due to the TLM teachers by 4:00pm Monday March 23

And I created a rubric that explained to the contestants that they could be graded on neatness, their explanation, creativity, grammar, usability, and learning styles addressed.

We decided to have the TLM contest coincide with the students S.R.C. week- which is a week that the students get to celebrate being students! They had a beauty pageant, dance party, clean up day, and sport activities. On Saturday, March 28 they would have a program where guests were invited from all around the community and beyond. This sounded like the best time to have our students’ finished projects out for viewing.

APCE first and second year students were invited to enter the contest. Students had three weeks to work on their TLMs. They could work on the TLMs during class time or during open hours. We hosted additional Teacher Resource Center (TRC) open hours times on Sundays after church and on Friday afternoons as well as extended hours on our regular days (Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays). The pupils that entered the contest worked countless hours on the TLMs that they submitted on Monday, March 23. It was nice to be able to give them help them get ideas to create TLMs that were much more interactive then posters.

On Wednesday, March 24, we began the first round of judging. This round was strictly for the “Kids Choice Award”. We had six children from the neighborhood come to give their expert input. This judges’ ages ranged from seven to eleven years. Each child took their duty very seriously and each had their favorite. In the end one vote put the winner over the others.

The second round of judging took place on Thursday, March 25. Earlier in the week I went around to multiple teachers and administrators in the community to deliver an invitation to the TRC to be the official contest judges. The judges, one head master of nearby school, one secretary of a primary school, and four teachers from lower and upper primary schools, received refreshments as they judges the projects with the rubrics provided. Each judge took their duty seriously and gave fantastic feedback for the contestants.

On Friday, March 26, Betsy and I had the contestants meet us in the Teacher Resource Center to find out the winners. Betsy took hours creating homemade 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place ribbons for the top winner.

Most of the prizes awarded (stickers, pencils, crayons, markers, pens, rulers, notepads, teacher tote bag, and a teacher resource book on creating crafts from found objects) were donations from a teacher supply store in Atlanta, Georgia called the Schoolbox. To find out more about the Schoolbox click here.

The first prize we awarded was the contestant that used the largest percentage of found objects.

Tina from class 2c had used cardboard, bottle tops, and water bags to create her Odds and Even number display with attached activities for the teacher.

Next we awarded Bernice the Kids Choice Award winner. Her 3-D intensive and extensive poultry farm was excited to the kid judges.

Finally we award the two honorable mentions. The first awarded was Cynthia from class 2d. She had created a pyramid from bottle tops.

The second awarded honorable mention was Irene from class 2c for her Ghanaian village diorama which included houses, a woman cooking over a fire, and pictures of two Ghana’s most popular crops, plantains and maize.

After honorable mentions we awarded Tina third place for her interactive displace of Odds and Evens.

Second place went to Bernice for chicken coop and chicken yard to show the different ways in which chickens are take care of.

Finally, first place was granted to Dorcas from class 2d. She worked hours on her project The Little Kingdom. Her 3-D diorama included over ten different animals, mountains, a river, a waterfall, and trees. The project included a corresponding poem that students would be asked to memorize. The most exciting part of her project was the added reward of a crown of the student to wear when they have correctly memorized the poem! She did a fantastic job on her explanation and creativity.

Participants were excited about their prizes and extremely gracious. After the ceremony Dorcas gave a heart-felt thank you to Betsy and I on behalf of all contestants that left few dry eyes in the room.

Although the projects never were displayed for the visitors on Saturday to see the judges, contestants, Betsy, and I were extremely impressed with the outcome of this contest. I hope that next year’s IFESH volunteer will continue this activity.

Scorpian and Runaway Horse

2009-03-14T09:42:00.001-07:00

While walking to the TRC the other morning I saw this in the pathway.

It was dead and very big.

It was an interesting morning.

While walking to the bank on Thursday, March 12, down Agogo High Street (the main street in Agogo) Betsy and I saw a horse running in the lane with traffic. The horse had a lead, but no one leading it. It was galloping quickly toward us as we were walking median in the middle of the two-lane street. All of a sudden we noticed it was heading straight toward us. We stopped and the horse came right to us and then walked across the median toward on coming traffic. As soon as it passed I realized I had my camera and snapped the picture seen below. Both Betsy and I wondered if we should have tried to stop the horse and tie it somewhere safe, but we just hoped that an adult caught it before the crowd of school children chasing it.

After spending 15 minutes on our trip from the bank to town we came across the horse tied to a tree in the shade next to a tro-tro station. Betsy took a picture of me with it.

As soon as we snapped the picture a gentleman came up and wondered why were taking pictures of his horse. I said “Because I love horses”. So later, further in town, he finds me again and asks me to take his picture…not with the horse- just a picture of him. So I did.

It was an interesting day in town.

KNUST came to APTC

2009-03-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

On Monday, March 9th Mariama and a fellow arts education lecture, and 29 Arts Education Masters and Doctoral students from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology came to Agogo Presbyterian Training College. During their visit we showed them our TRC and examples of TLMs that our students had created. It was fun to see these students get so excited about everything. The students and teachers traveling with them snapped pictures left and right. Papa and Ma paid our visitors a visit at the TRC.

After our introductions Betsy and I talked about the benefits of using TLMs in the classroom and how using found materials is cheaper and environmentally friendly. Then we let this art students show us their stuff by stepping back and letting them form groups and create. They came up with so many amazing TLMs.

Another great use for water bags...a small bag!

The following groups created a pencil holder/flower holder out of a toliet paper roll and the lid of cheese.

I also thought this Styrofoam house was a hit.

And what about this Styrofoam duck with a liquid pump head.

The movie screen for counting used to be a raisin bran box. How cool.

Here we have Shape Man. Can you name all of the shapes?

The group presenting below has a nice 3-D poster with water bags holding the words to match the Styrofoam shapes.

Here we have movable toilet paper rolls to demonstrate the primary colors.

This bottle cap match primary colors to make secondary colors.

Below is a basketball net for throwing words into. If you don't make the basket you have to write a sentence with the word.

This group created an interactive color wheel.

The group below used bottle caps to help students identify their colors.

It was so much fun to see what new ideas for TLMs could be made from toilet paper rolls, boxes, water bottles, and water bags.

After class we went to Agogo’s finest restaurant, Dollar Days Inn. Here Marima treated ups to delicious fried rice on the three-story porch over looking our beautiful town. After lunch we set them on their way back home. It was a successful and fun visit.

On the 28th of March APTC is having a celebration for the students and Betsy and I are going to put together an exhibit of the TLMs created for a competition we are having. We have invited the KNUST students back and we hope they can make it!

Send-Off Service for Mrs. Grace Ofosuhemaa Odjidia

2009-03-14T09:01:00.000-07:00

When I first met my principal, Ma or Mrs. Grace Pfosuhemaa Odjidia, she told me she had retired the previous year. However, no one was found to replace her. So as soon as her replacement was found she would be leaving Agogo. In December she told me she would be leaving in February. Luckily I got an extra few weeks with her. On Sunday, March 8th the Agogo Presbyterian Church held a Send-Off Service for her. Betsy and I walked to church with Gloria, Emmanuel, and Rama.

Rama is Ma’s niece that always comes when she has college breaks from her teacher training college in Kumasi. This past visit we traded books. She read the first three Twilight books and we discussed them. Now I am reading two of her book The Judas Touch and The Kite Runner. She reads so much faster than I and is so excited about good books. It has been really fun hanging out with her over the past three weeks.

When we headed to church the service started right on time at 9:30am. We saw many coworkers and community members. Agogo's chief showed up as well.

It was a nice program. We left church at 1:30pm and then headed to the dining hall on campus for the presentation of gifts. People brought their gifts to Ma and then said a few words at the microphone. We were also served water, minerals (soda), and fried rice. I gave my rice to a friend since it wasn’t vegan…but it looked good.

We got home around 5:00pm and I made myself dinner…fried rice. How fitting.

Ma just left campus yesterday, Thursday March12. Not only did she leave, but Josephine (my Twi teacher/cooking teacher/friend) too. I am going to miss them both I so much. But I am planning to see them in Accra soon.

IFESH and World Cocoa Foundation Visit #2

2009-03-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

On Friday, March 6, 2009, not only did Betsy and I celebrate Ghanaian Independence Day, but we also received a visit from: our Country Representative, the World Cocoa Foundation Education Program Director, and the IFESH Program Director. All three gentlemen were excited about visiting our principal before she left the school for retirement, and seeing what work we have done in our TRC. The week before this visit I had more time to send in the TRC since we had no workshops or classes. So I made a bunch of new posters and created new bulletin boards for the TRC.

My favorite board it one that Betsy and I are going to keep adding to. It is called “TRASH = TREASURE” where we showcase a piece of “trash” and talk about what TLM you can make from it. Currently we have shown bottle caps and boxes.

It was a nice visit and I think Betsy and I have done a good job added on to what the past IFESH volunteers had created.

Ghana’s Independence Day

2009-03-14T08:48:00.000-07:00

On Friday, March 6, 2009 Ghanaians celebrated the anniversary of gaining their independence. Weeks prior to Independence Day students in schools all over Agogo were seen and heard preparing to march on this special occasion.

On this Friday I caught the parade while on my way to town for the Friday market. It was so much fun to see all of the different schools marching in beat to the student drummers. All of the schools made there way down to the park grounds, which is the open area across from my school where the Minster of Finance’s funeral was held.

Once in place each school took turns marching around for the crowd to see while on lookers cheered for their favorites and were able to buy snacks from vendors.

After each school (over 15 schools from primary to high school) and other organizations (police, military, etc) marched people celebrated in town. Each school was judged and the winner was announced later on the radio.

Workshops for APTC Primary School

2009-03-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

February 17th, 24th, 25th, and 27th Betsy and I hosted workshops for the Agogo Presbyterian Training College Primary School. We divided the day up into three one-hour workshops KG/1, P2-3, P4-6. Our workshops included classroom management tips, graphic organizers, and creating TLMs with items already in the classroom. We began the workshops with a “Burnout Quiz” to have the teachers self assess their stress levels and then we gave suggestions for burnout prevention. Our classroom management tips included a go around cup (slips with each child’s name on them placed into a container to be used to call for answers), classroom helpers, being consistent with rules and consequences, and funny cheers to encourage students to keep up good behavior. We taught graphic organizers such as KWL charts

(charts used to assess students prior Knowledge on a subject, find out what they Want to learn, and what they have Learned once the subject is finished) and Venn diagrams

(used to compare and contrast) to be used on the chalkboard. Since the workshops we have already had teachers come during the TRC’s open hours to create TLMs and borrow from our collection of big books.

Valentine’s Day Weekend- The Last Weekend for the Canadians

2009-02-22T04:49:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Accra around 3pm and I got food from my favorite vegan stand! I had a tofu kebab and a veggie pie for only one cedi! It was fantastic. But more fantastic still was that Betsy’s good friend, Vossie, offered us a room at his house to stay…for free! I was so excited, because Accra is so over priced and I was soooooo tired of staying in hotels. It was so nice.

Friday night Jessie, Betsy, and I meet up with Laura, Rabina, and Shanti at Champs. Champs is the ex-pat bar that has Tex-Mex. It is wonderful. Tonight was karaoke, but we waited hours to be called up to sing (Jessie and I were going to sing Human League “Don’t You Want Me”) and weren’t so we left.

Saturday morning (Valentine’s Day) Laura, Rabina, and I chilled at the Labadi Beach Resort pool. It was catch up with them and wish them the best before they left for home.

Saturday night Lori, a friend of Betsy that attended college at Emory, had a dessert party at Vossie’s house. Below are Betsy, Vossie, and Lori.

It was so much fun even though I couldn’t eat the desserts. Prepping for the party was half the fun. I helped bake. I haven’t been in a proper kitchen since I left and it was fun to make snickerdoodle cookies, apple pies, mango pies, and a chocolate cake. After people arrived I kept up my old routines of cleaning and filling trays, like I do at home, and then stopped to talk and dance (which is rare since I do not drink). Yes, I danced my little heart out!

The Canadian came for a bit. I was said to have to say goodbye to them. They had been my best friends, next to Betsy, and now Agogo wouldn’t be the same. We had had countless dinners and movies, but I guess everyone has to go home sometime. I hugged them all goodbye and already miss them.

After the Candaian left I managed to still have a good time. I enjoyed meeting so many nice people- Vossie and Lori are amazing. After everyone left I watched Jessie’s bootleg version of Twilight! That made my night. The movie wasn’t that good, but I had been dieing to see it after finishing the book. I didn’t get to bed until 4:30am.

Sunday morning I finally packed up to go home. I didn’t want to leave Vossie’s house, but I really missed Agogo. I headed to the bus station then realized I left my phone at Vossie’s house. I had to take a taxi back to pick it up, but I still made it to the bus in time.

Once in Konongo I made a long sigh of relief to almost be home again. I boarded a tro-tro to Agogo and couldn’t whip the smile off my face. I must have looked crazy as I gazed out the windows at the rolling hills, the mountains, the vendors, the goats, the buildings, and just smiled so big. I had been traveling for almost three weeks and was so happy to be returning to the small town of Agogo. Where the gate man always smiles when I leave and return, where Ma always has some priceless words of wisdom, where Papas dogs follow him around campus, where the neighborhood children call out “Madam Alice” as they rush to help carry my bags, and people smile and mean it. I think I was most happy to see Gloria, my 13-year-old running partner and Emmanuel her 11-year-old nephew. They smiled big and told me that they missed me and I missed them too. Gloria had a chorus competition while I was gone and unfortunately lost, but I told her that at least she had fun.

This week back has been nice and I haven’t missed traveling one bit. But I guess traveling makes it more fun to return home. I hope that it is that way when I return to Atlanta at the end of June.

My Trip to Northern Ghana- Paga and Bolgatanga

2009-02-22T03:36:00.000-08:00

Well…in Paga the Chief has a special pond. Inside this pond are sacred crocodiles.

The crocodiles have a long history of helping out the ancestors of the Paga people. The crocs don’t hurt the people that live around then and even swim in the pool with them. In return the crocodiles are not killed, they are feed live chickens from time to time, and given proper funerals. I am fine with seeing wildlife in the wild and in many ways the crocs were. This pool of water is there home and they aren’t being hunted. But the crocs are a source of entertainment and revenue for the people of the area. I have done my best to keep my blog positive and non-judgmental, but Paga was hard. So why did vegan Alison go to the crocodile pool? My friend Jessie was dieing to touch a live croc…it was pretty amazing.

I told her I could do without it, but she paid for me and I had the experience. I touched a 95-year-old crocodile. Then he was feed a live chicken.

It was bizarre.

After the crocodile pool we headed across the street to see the compound of one of the guides.

It was neat to see the different style of mud buildings

and hear more stories about the culture.

Above I am lying on a bed in the coolest place (cool= low temperature) I found in the dry and hot north. It was a mud hut that was degrees cooler inside. It was great.
I was instructed to put on the old warrior gear because as he said, “it will make a good picture”.

If there is anything this guide knows…it was how to take good pictures.

He was better at taking pictures with my digital camera then many people I know.

After these tours we hopped in a shared taxi and befriended a Ghanaian heading to Accra. He was funny, friendly, and married to a woman he told us all about. It was so sweet to hear this, days before Valentine’s Day. Our shared taxi broke down so we all climbed in the next taxi that came.

A wonderful surprise we got when we found he had paid out taxi fare! It was so nice! Thank you where, ever you are.

Jessie and I got a room at the Sand Gardens Hotel in Bolgatanga and it was exactly what we needed…a/c. I guess I failed to mention that it had gotten to 120 degrees F when we were at Mole. Thank goodness for the pool.

The following morning, Thursday, we took a Metro Mass bus to Kumasi. Below are some chickens we met eating eggs at the bus station. It was strange.

Then hopped aboard the bus.

Once we arrive we booked a room at the Guestline Hotel. It was cheap and had a fan…until the power when out. But it was a stone’s throw from the STC bus station where we left the next morning at 6:30am for Accra.

All and all the North was a great trip. If you are in Ghana during the dry season you must make it up to Mole!

My Trip to Northern Ghana- Tamale and Mole

2009-02-20T06:06:00.000-08:00

Our 10:30am bus left Kumasi on time and we were off to Tamale. No really exciting stops on the way up, except the Mandatory STC Stops. At the one we visited I found a new yummy snack like Pringles called Kracks.

As the bus moved along the road the lay of the land changed from green rolling hills to dusty plains. It was interesting to see the change in architecture. The south has more churches, while the north has more mosques.

We had heard that the trip could take anywhere between 5 hours and 10 hours. I decided to say 8 hours just so I didn’t get my hopes up too high. When we pulled into Tamale around 6:00pm I realized I was on target.

The most excited thing I noticed about Tamale, and was unable to get a good picture, were the bicycle lanes.

Sidewalks in Ghana are hard to come by, so the bicycle lane was a great surprise. I had never seen so many bicycles in my life being ridden to and from everywhere. I also enjoyed seeing motorbikes with woman in traditional clothing wearing….helmets! (helmets are also rare here). It was exciting to see Tamale in full swing on a Saturday night.

Jessie, Betsy, and I checked in to the Catholic Guest House, which was hosting a wedding reception at the time.

It was packed with people and music was playing outdoors. We dropped out things in our rooms and headed out to find a place to eat. After giving up on a place that we thought we could locate we settled for a restaurant at a local lodge called the Jungle Bar. It had a neat atmosphere and a decent menu for meat eaters, but since the cook was unwilling to create a vegetarian pizza without cheese I had to have a cheese burger without a burger or cheese---which was a bun, lettuce, tomato, and a squirt of mustard…for the same price as a burger.

Needless to say I was still hungry after dinner.

We returned to the guesthouse (cute bathroom)

and passed out. We woke up on Sunday morning (Feb 8th- my 29th birthday) hoping to find a restaurant serving breakfast after an hour and ½ of traveling to five different restaurants from our guide it was obvious that Sunday mornings in the North are just like Sunday mornings in the South- closed for church. We finally took a cab to a fancy hotel and asked them to serve us, although it was obvious there kitchen was closed. They whipped up the standard hotel breakfast- eggs, toast, and tea. I had four slices of toast and water. We visited an Internet café that was open. After browsing for one hour we caught our 2pm Metro Mass bus to Mole.

I had never been on a Metro Mass bus before. It was more or less like a nicer and larger tro-tro. People buy tickets for seats, but they also pick up people that are welcome to stand in the aisle. I was sat between Betsy and Jessie on the three-seater side. The dry heat was almost unbearable, but luckily when the bus moved it cooled off quite a bit due to the wind through the open windows. Our bus made plenty of stops to let people off and on throughout the day, but we finally arrived to Mole National Park around sunset (6:30pm).

The bus driver, conductor (takes the tickets- acts like a “mate” from a tro-tro), Jessie, Betsy, another obruni girl, and myself were the only ones that were on this 60 or so passenger bus when it let off at the Mole Motel.

We checked in and headed strait out to a table near the poolside to eat a large meal. I befriended the other obruni from the bus. Her name was Emma and she hailed from England. She was on her last week of her teacher, volunteering program in a Ghanaian town of Walewale in Northern Ghana. This was her final vacation before she returned home. It was nice to make a new friend on my birthday.
I had a plate of chips (French fries) and pasta.

Then Jessie and Betsy gave me birthday presents. Jessie bought my dinner (which was so nice) and gave me a travel size package of Kleenex (really fancy and useful here). Betsy wrote me a story in a Ghanaian exercise book (so sweet) and gave me a 7.50 phone card.

I was so happy that my presents were so thoughtful and that I didn’t have to carry in my stuff on this trip!

Here are Jessie, myself, Betsy, and our new friend Emma.

Our room at the Mole Motel was nice and large and once we opened the countless windows and put the fan on high the dry heat was bearable. I slept like a rock.

The following morning we woke up for the 7am safari walk. We headed up a hill to the park headquarters and met our guide, James. There were so many other obrunis it was very strange. I decided that Mole is like the obruni’s pilgrimage…our Ghanaian Mecca. We didn’t have to walk 100 feet to see the first elephant. He was standing in the trees directly behind the park office. I was amazed and so were the 30+ oburnis standing nearby. After gazing in awe for a few moments we started our hike. After walking for 5 minutes we came across another elephant. It was crazy to be so close to an elephant just doing its daily routine.

We were only gone about 2 hours and saw countless animals. It was a fun hike.

I also got to step in an elephant track...how cool.

After the morning hike Betsy, Emma, Jessie, and I got breakfast and then laid out by the pool for hours. It was funny because the motel is on top of a large hill that looks down onto three pools of water. So at various times you could gaze out and see elephants drinking and swimming in the pool of water.

As we sat near the pool we also got other visitors- warthogs. They just wondered around and didn’t want to have anything to do with the humans.

Jessie and I made the 3:30pm safari walk with our same guide, James. On our walk we saw even more elephants- 4 at one time!

I took a great video of them. It was so spectacular.

The night ended with dinner with Emma and goodbyes since she left the next morning at 4am. It was a great day- new friend, old friends, countless wild life, and lounging.

The next morning Jessie and I were eating our standard breakfast before a tour we planned, when a baboon started to head our way.

He all of a sudden jumped on our table, knocked over the milk (or evaporated milk…which is the milk of choice here),

jumped off the table, ran to another table of people, stole some bread, and ran away.

It all happened so fast. I did my best to capture it in snap shots. My friend Laura had been a month before and had to chase down a baboon that had stolen her bag with food and cash. The food was taken, but he left her the money.

After the eventful breakfast Jessie, Betsy, and I hopped in a SUV with our guide (the bartender at the motel as well) Hasan,

his friend/coworker Jared, and the driver. We headed to Larabanga, the town just on the outskirts of the park. Here we picked up another guide, it is part of the deal, and headed to a large stone in the middle of an open area. This stone has a mystic story behind it, but I still cannot tell you it, because I really never understood. I think the founder or Larabanga stood near that stone and through a spear. Where the spear landed is where they have the well-known Larabanga Mosque. The stone is large, but supposedly people have moved it, but it always end up back in the same spot.

After seeing this stone we visited the Larabanga Mosque. It is by far my favorite building in Ghana. It is a beautiful white and black mud- and- thatch mosque. The age of the mosque is still in question. Some say 13th century, others say 1421, and some say1643. So I don’t know. But it is old, it is beautiful, and it is really interesting.

Once we finished with Larabanga we dropped off out guide and picked up another when we reached the Eco village of Mognori. We took a village tour to:

see the houses,

climb the roofs,

sat on benches,

play the drums,

hear stories, (pigeons are used for ceremonies here and are special to this village- the pigeons won’t drink their water unless it has these special coins in it)

learn ancient medicine, (this ring is not used by the medicine man anymore- but history goes that he would give it a spell when needed for someone else to fight- it was always tested on a tree first. After being punched the tree would die. This ring reminded me of the Lord of the Rings…I know I am a dork)

find out how to make shea butter into soap, (this process will be too hard to explain, but lets just say it is really detailed and takes along time. Shea butter in the US is expensive and the wealth is not trickling down as it should)

view their food storage (they had a hut full of ground nuts- or peanuts- it was amazing!)

and see their crops (they grow tobacco).

I learned so much and had a blast doing it.

After our trip we went back to the Motel and did more hanging by the pool. We went to bed early as not to miss our 4am bus ride.

The bus ride wasn’t so bad back to Tamale. At Tamale Betsy caught a bus to Kumasi while Jessie and I headed to Bolgatanga. While on the way to Bolgatanga we passed Walewale. I knew Emma would be in town somewhere, and thought it would be hilarious if I spotted her from the window. As we passed by a school in Walewale I was floored when I saw Emma on the back of a motorbike outside of the school. She didn’t see me, but I know it was her. There aren’t many obrunis in Northern Ghana.

Once in Bolgatanga we took a shared taxi to Paga. Paga is the northern most city in Ghana. It borders Burkina Faso. Why were we going to Paga?

That is an interesting story…

IFESH Meeting- February 6

2009-02-20T05:50:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, February 5th, Betsy and I headed to Kumasi for an IFESH meeting. Our meeting was set for Friday, so Thursday we planned to meet up with our KNUST partners. We arrived by tro-tro to Kumasi around noon and then checked into our hotel. It was beautiful and had a pool, restaurant, gym, hot running water, a/c, and Internet (3cedis an hour though). It was called the Miklin Hotel.

After saying hi to our IFESH friends we headed to a meeting with Mariama, an art education lecturer at KNUST. During our meeting we planned the date we would host workshops for her graduate art education students and the topics that would be helpful to cover. The meeting was fantastic and we did this all over amazing India food! The selection of vegetarian options at the Moti Mahal restaurant was superb.

Once we were good and stuffed Mariama dropped us at our hotel where we relaxed and visited with the crew. It was nice to catch up with how everyone is enjoying their placement and positions. One of the other volunteers has even gotten engaged to a man she met while living in Accra! There wedding is set for March 14- so I am sure I will have a pictures and stories later.

Friday’s meetings went well. All of the volunteers spoke about what exactly they had been doing in their IFESH position and it was nice to share ideas. I am excited about this next semester, because I have a much better grasp on my position and what it entails now. We also received new and improved forms for reports- just like working in the public schools. It was nice to see Kwesi and Stella, our country directors, and catch up.

After our meetings wrapped up Amiyana and I went shopping at Opuku Trading Company, a great grocery store, and she bought me a birthday cake.

It was so thoughtful that I hated the fact I couldn’t eat a slice since it wasn’t vegan. When everyone returned from eating out we had a nice cake and wine party for my birthday (which was the following Sunday).

It was also interesting to celebrate a birthday on Friday, February 6th when that was my deceased mother’s birthday. It is funny how things work out.

On Saturday, Betsy, Jessie, and I boarded a STC bus for Tamale around 10:30am for the most exciting trip I had yet to have in Ghana.

The Americans Come to Visit- Part 2

2009-02-18T05:03:00.000-08:00

After our lunch at Asasse Pa we took a few minutes to walk on the beach. Then we hit the street to walk to the Cape Coast Castle (or dungeon).

This was the sight where thousands of Africans were taken as slaves and shipped to countries around the world.

It was a beautiful building, but the historical events that occurred on its grounds made it hard to enjoy its architecture. We walked around an educational museum that housed chains and shackles from the slave trade.

As our guide Eric took us in the male dungeon, the female dungeon,

the door of no return, and the “Cell” I was overwhelmed. To think that 150 “trouble makers” were taken to “The Cell” that was no larger than the room I am currently typing this in, a door shut behind them, no food, no lights, no windows or air source. Then the door was opened a week or two later to drag out the dead bodies is something hard to grasp. There are many other stories about this haunting building, but I don’t have the skills to retell them now, but if you want to learn more click here. The following are pictures from our tour.

We went to the internet in Cape Coast and then headed back to our hotel in Elmina. We decided to take advance of the location and take pictures out of the windows of our hotel. Here they are:

Below in the Elmina Castle

We picked up food on the street: oranges,

bread, laughing cow cheese (for the girls), and soda (called minerals here).
The sidewalk was pretty cool too.

The next morning, Friday, we packed up, walked around Elmina, and then headed to the bus station for the 1:30pm bus to Kumasi, which didn’t arrive until 3:30pm.

While we waited patiently we made friend with an Aussie named Becks.

She is an international tour guide extraordinaire from Tasmania. Her job leads her all over southern and eastern Africa and living out of a bus for 58 days at a time. One day I think I will have to book a 58 day trip with her. What a story that will be!

Our trip to Kumasi took about four hours. When we arrived we met my IFESH friend, Jessie. Then we all went to dinner at Vic Baboos.

Vic Baboos is where I have eaten countless times due to its large vegetarian friendly menu. This time I had a veggie burger while Tracy had a yummy pasta dish shown here.

We headed back to our hotel, Sambra, and Jessie and I stayed up late chatting it up. The next morning we got the standard free breakfast, toast and tea, and hit the Kejetia Market to sight see and buy fabric. Ellen wasn’t feeling so well so we left her sleeping in the A/C while we hit the hot streets and multitude of people. Jessie, Tracy, and I found tons of fabrics and made friends with the sells lady.

When we returned from shopping we chartered a taxi, which was reasonably cheap with the four of us, to Kuntananse and then hopped in another cab to Lake Bosumtwi. This is the same Lake Point Guesthouse that Jessie and I spent our Christmas day lounging around. Minutes after we arrived Betsy and the Canadians, Rabina and Laura, arrived for our exciting visit. It was fun checking as the Brown Family of 7.

I had great meals – as usual. I had a yummy veggie pasta dish with a side of vegan coleslaw-ish salad.

For dinner I had a zucchini dish over rice- yum! And a coke- nice to have a taste of Atlanta anywhere I go.

Dinner was nice. Below are Betsy, Rabina, Laura, Tracy, Ellen, and Jessie.

Ater showering Betsy and I thought alike and dressed in our matching dresses. How cute/dorky are we?

We had a blast journaling,

talking, laughing, eating, lounging,

swimming, boating,

reading, and resting. It was fun to have this time with my American friends and my Canadian friends since they would be living in only a few more weeks.

Above is Laura, Jessie, Betsy, Ellen, Tracy, myself, and Rabina at the lake.
Sunday morning we waited patiently for our taxis that didn’t show, so we had the friendly owner of Lake Point call us a pair of taxis- since there were 7 of us. Only one cab pulled up, but we decided that since it was a station wagon we could fit Jessie in the front seat, Tracy, Ellen, Laura, and Betsy in the back seat, and Rabina and I would huddle close to the luggage together in the trunk.

It was hilarious and after 25 minutes in a trunk of a taxi I was let out in Ejisu to take a tro-tro to Konongo and then own to Agogo.

Sunday night Betsy made a wonderful pasta dinner for the seven of us. Along with tea bread (the closest Ghanaian French/Italian bread), olive oil dip, pineapple, minerals from Ellen and homemade cookies from Laura and Rabina.

It was a nice night.

After dinner it was FINALLY time for me to open the larger suitcase Ellen and Tracy had brought full of goodies for me!

I had Jessie, Laura, Rabina, Betsy, Ellen, and Tracy watch as I closed my eyes and reached my hand in the bag taken everything out one at a time. It felt like a wedding shower as pictures snapped and we sat in a circle. I received movies, food, books, clothes, an ipod, music, knick knacks, and birthday cards. So thank you everyone that put so many great things in that bag. It made my birthday fantastic! Thanks goes out to Jill and Tony, Ryan James, Blair, Patrick and Lisa, Jen, Robin, Molly, Tracy, Ellen, Leigh and Ken, Genna, Tori, and whoever else I am being so rude to forget (seriously I am sorry- there was a lot of stuff).

And Besty got coffee! She was excited too!
Monday morning Tracy, Ellen, and I explored Agogo. I showed them my favorite vendors and what a typical day in my life is like. It was so funs to have my Ghanaian friends meet my American friends. It was also nice to have a day off of traveling.

Monday night we ate at the fanciest restaurant in Agogo, the Dollar Days Inn.

Here are Tracy, Laura, and Ellen at Dollar Days Inn.

We sat out on the porch of this three-story building until we were hit with a hard downpour. Which was unexpected during the dry season. We all had fried rice- because it is good, and it is the only food offered at the restaurant.

We went to bed early since we had to leave at 5am for Accra. It was a rough morning due to a long night of upset stomachs- so much for the good fried rice. We made it to Accra before noon and checked into my hotel- Hotel Crown Prince. The staff there is nice, but the location is too busy for my liking.

We spent the day doing my grocery shopping and souvenir shopping. I took Ellen and Tracy to the Accra Mall. It is the most western place in all of Ghana and they loved every minute of the A/C. Afterwards we meandered around Osu. Finally we headed back to my hotel to pack up. After writing postcards we headed to the airport and realized that I couldn’t wait with them. I had to say my goodbyes before I was ready- although I wouldn’t have ever really been ready-and got a taxi back to my hotel alone.

Everyone in this world needs to see and experience Africa and I am so happy that Ellen and Tracy did. I am also grateful that they came halfway through my stay here. I miss home at times, but most of all the people (and my dog) that I feel like I can be myself around.

Thank you Ellen and Tracy- you both made me so happy and I will never forget our stories from A-Z, Tracy’s love for the 5 peswa oranges, Ellen’s interactions with our funny Cape Coast Castle guide, and seeing you guys walk out the airport doors. Thank you for being such amazing friends.

Asasse Pa- A Vegan’s Heaven

2009-02-18T04:46:00.000-08:00

So when I learned that I was going to travel to Ghana I was excited because I was told that Soul Vegetarian, my all time favorite place to eat, had a restaurant in Ghana. I had heard that it was in Cape Coast, but had not been yet. I asked our cab driver/ my new best friend, Brother, if he knew of a fantastic vegetarian restaurant. He took us to Asasse Pa. Asasse Pa in Twi for “the good earth”. This restaurant was the most beautiful and yummy place I had been to in Ghana. Not only did it have fantastic vegan food:

Fried Tofu salad

Potato Salad

Tofu Kebabs and Best Fried Rice I have ever eaten with a fresh green salad

And Tasty, Tasty, Tasty veggie pie!

But it is also a health resort. They have nutrition consultations, vegan cooking classes, lifestyle counseling, iridology, colon hydrotherapy, massages, reflexology, aqua chi, exercise sessions, and an Internet café. Oh, did I mention it is on the beach? While eating we watched the waves roll up on the shore.

It was fantastic. Every vegan must make this trek while in Ghana.

I heart Asasse Pa!

Side Note:

Also as a Ode to my love of the Flight of the Conchords (the best band/comedy duo) I had us all take pictures with our Kebabs because of the song, “The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room)”.
With the lyrics:
“Let’s get in a cab I’ll buy you a Kebab
I can’t believe that I am sharing a kebab
with the most beautiful girl I have ever seen
…with a Kebab”

Ellen, the most beautiful girl eating a kebab.

Tracy, the most beautiful girl holding a kebab.

Me, the most hungry girl holding a kebab.

I heart Flight of the Conchords

The Americans Come to Visit- Part 1

2009-02-18T04:22:00.000-08:00

My friends Ellen and Tracy told me on Thanksgiving day that they had bought tickets to come see me in Ghana. I was excited everyday for months before their arrival on Wednesday, Jan 28.

I picked them up at the Accra international airport and then took them back to my hotel, Joska Lodge in Osu. We then wandered around Osu. We got lunch at Frankies, a restaurant with a ton of non-Ghanaian dishes, while the Black Stars (Ghana’s football team) beat South Africa. We shopped around the main strip and then made our way to the STC bus station to catch the afternoon bus to Cape Coast. We ended up leaving around 3pm on a bus headed to Cote d’Ivoire. The trip took about 3 ½ hours and was beautiful.

Once we dropped at the STC in Cape Coast we found a cab to Elmina (a town less than 10 minutes from Cape Coast) to our hotel- The Coconut Grove’s Bridge House. It was beautiful.

Our room was very nice.

It is less than 100 meters from the Elmina Castle. Our hotel also had a great view of all of the fishing boats and the fish market next door. It was a great location. Did I mention hot running water and a/c?

The next morning we had the standard free breakfast of all Ghanaian hotels I have stayed at- eggs (usually fried), toasted “butter bread”(the Ghanaian equivalent of white bread), a fruit of some sort (today pineapple), and tea or Nescafe’. I only have the bread with jam and sometimes tea. Today nothing since I freak out on traveling days (more on my IBS on a later date- all I have to say is it sucks and runs my life).

We hit the road with Brother, the cab driver from the day before, and went to Kakum National Park.

Here are Tracy, Ellen, and Myself at the park.

Above is Ellen with an elephant skull.

There we visited the nice gift shop, museum about wildlife of Ghana, and then hiked to the well known bridges that hang high above this rainforest’s canopy. It was so much fun!

Below is our fearless leader.

Tracy is showing how to be safe walking across the canopy.

Here is another person that came on our tour. He is training to work at a national park too!

Our guide also showed us different plants and tons of fun facts about the park, but what I remember most was looking across the bridge I was walking on and seeing my friend Ellen walking along one behind me and thinking, “I can’t believe I am in Ghana with Ellen and Tracy- how amazing”.

Below is an example of Tracy following the rules. Good job.

After our trip to Kakum, Brother drove us to the most exciting place in Ghana for a vegan…

Above are Tracy, Ellen, Myself, and Brother on our way to...

Work Work Work

2009-01-22T03:08:00.000-08:00

Not much to report this week. Betsy and I have been cleaning in the TRC and library. I am working to finish my schedule of workshops with teachers this semester. I am beginning a pen pal program of sorts (I think we will do our interaction through the web instead of letters in the mail) with a school in Pennsylvania. It is quiet around the campus because the girls are preparing to start taking their exams next week. Since Betsy and I don’t give exams (aren’t we nice) we have been working on planning for our future workshops and classes for this semester. I am also so excited about our TLM contest! We are going to have all of our students create TLMs and have a science fairish display and have awards. I can’t wait!

In other news- my friends Ellen and Tracy will arrive in Accra this coming Tuesday! I can’t wait. I won’t update this blog again before then- so please be patient. I am sure we will have tons of great pictures to show as we travel to Cape Coast, Kumasi, Lake Bosumtwi, and Accra.

Christmas in Janurary

2009-01-14T01:38:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the Millers (Betsy’s Family) and the O’Brien/ Kipars (my grade school best friend’s family) Betsy and I had a Christmas party Monday, January 12, night. Betsy and I retrieved our packages in Kumasi Monday morning and took our wrapped goodies home. We decided to have a late Christmas party. We invited our friends, the Canadians, over for boiled peanuts (first time I made them in Ghana- yum), Christmas songs (thanks to Betsy’s brother-in-law’s flash drive), homemade cookies (thanks to Betsy’s mom), and present opening.

As Bring Crosby sang Jingle Bells Betsy and I decorated a corner of our living room with the ornaments, stocking, and garland Cindy, Frieda’s mom, sent. Then Laura came over and helped us unwrap our prizes. Santa was far too good to us with scented candles, bug hotels (not very vegan of me),

decorative napkins and plates, Bath and Bodywork soaps,

anagrammed notepads, insulated tumblers, baby wipes, a novel,

CDs, hand sanitizers,

and much more. It was a fantastic time.

So far this past year I have had Thanksgiving in September and Christmas in January. I love Holidays that keep on going. Below are Laura and Betsy after the festivities.

Teaching Teachers

2009-01-14T01:26:00.000-08:00

Up until now I have only been working with students of Agogo Presbyterian Training College. They are women that are in training to be teachers, but have yet to do their student teaching. While the APTC students were away on their Christmas break we had teachers from surround communities come to complete course and tests for there teaching certification. I did not have a set class time so I just held open hours everyday from 3pm-4:30pm. Once the free time to make Teaching Learning Materials (TLMs) became more popular I came earlier and stayed later.

I went from having 15 visitors to 53! It was very exciting. On Sunday, the teachers last day on campus, I started open hours at 1pm and stayed until after 5pm. I gave everyone that came a free homemade poster (from earlier classes). The teachers were thrilled to get a poster and to have the supplies and aid to create their very own TLMs.

People were making big books, pocket charts, phonics slides, and flash cards.

On the last day there were so many people that there was not enough room in the TRC so people worked on tables outside. I look forward to seeing what these teachers create when they return in April on the APTC students Spring break.

More Food

2009-01-14T01:10:00.000-08:00

So Laura and I have been trying our best to think of new dishes using the ingredients most available to us: black eyed peas, cabbage, carrots, green peppers, onions, tomatoes, garlic, ginger, hot peppers, curry powder, peanuts, yams, cassava, avocado, and plantains. If you have any recipe ideas I would love them. I had created Mexican flavored beans with veggies, salsa, guacamole, and plantain chips weeks back. Last week Laura made a Thai peanut sauce with stir-fried veggies.

It was delicious. She also blew my mind when she made sweet avocado pudding. It was out of this world yummy.

While in Kumasi this past Monday I hit up the vegetarian restaurant again. Here is the menu.

And the layout of the place.

I took my food to go and ate jollof rice and tofu kebab.

Great food=Happy Alison.

Georgia State University Magazine

2009-01-10T00:57:00.000-08:00

The Georgia State Alumni magazine is going to do a short piece on me teaching in Ghana. I feel like a mini celebrity. How cool am I?

No news this week. Worked and read. Betsy gets back from Malawi today. Hooray!

My Holiday Travels with Jessie- Finally More Pictures

2009-01-03T01:42:00.000-08:00

Part 1 of my holiday trip: Christmas at Lake Bosomtui

On December 23, 2008 Jessie, my IFESH friend, came to Agogo. We got packed up for our big trip around Ghana. Jessie and I left for Lake Bosomtui in Ma’s car. This was much quicker and more comfortable then riding in a tro-tro. They took us all the way to Lake Point Resort. It was beautiful.

Our room was fantastic.

The restaurant decorated for Christmas and the service and food was great. For lunch I had “Pizza” Toast with no cheese. It was just tomato sauce and bread, but tasted good.

Then for dinner I had my favorite- red red, rice, and fried plantains.
Jessie had barracuda.

Jessie and I loved our little hut. It was spacious and even had a cool toilet.

The lake is also good for swimming. We took out a pedal boat and jumped out into the middle of this huge lake. It was really fun.

The beachfront was well landscaped too.

I spent hours reading and writing in my journal.

Needless to say, my Christmas was very peaceful and chill. We left the day after Christmas to return back to Agogo for the next part of our trip.

Part 2 of my holiday trip: Near the Volta River
On December 27th, a Saturday, Jessie and I were lucky to catch another ride to Koforidua with Ma. Once we were dropped off we got on a tro-tro to Akosombo. Akosombo is in the Eastern Region and is on the Volta River. Jessie and I stayed in town just south of Akosombo called New Senchie. The hotel was called the Senchie Riverside Resort. It was very beautiful and was right on the river.

Next door a beach club has opened up and has a variety of activities: trampoline for jumping on the beach, trampoline for jumping into the river, canoes, kayaks, boats, tug-o-war ropes, music for dancing, and food for eating. Unfortunately we were so tired we weren’t up for parting.

We sat down at our hotel garden restaurant and had lunch. I ordered vegetable fried rice with no egg and got egg anyway. While eating by the river we had company. A female peacock and her three chicks (I guess that is what you call them) followed her around. Then a male peacock came and had a stare down contest with me.

After lunch we went to the Agomanya Market in a town nearby to see their variety of beads. In this part of Ghana there are many bead makers and bead making factories. It was interesting to see the variety of old and new beads. It made me think about my cousin Autumn that makes her own jewelry. I think she would have enjoyed it.

After the trip to the market we headed to Akosombo to check out the Volta Hotel, the fanciest hotel around, to see the river dam and get a bite to eat. The hotel was nice and had a balcony that on a high enough hill to see the river blocks away. I had a simple salad for dinner.

Our “hut” wasn’t at all roughing it since we had A/C, CNN, and hot water! I was in heaven. I hadn’t taken a hot shower since the US election night.

Here is another view of the lake from out our hut door.

The following morning we hit the road to our next stop- the mountains.

Part 3 of my holiday trip: The Ride on Election Day

On Sunday, December 28th Ghana had to have a runoff election for their president. During the first election day the numbers were too close to declare one man the winner. So this time it was Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the NPP (New Patriotic Party) verse John Evans Atta Mills of the NDC (National Democratic Congress). I have noticed that most regions of Ghana have a pull to one of the sides- much like our states back home being red for Republican and Blue for Democrat.

So during my travels from Akosombo to Hohoe I had the opportunity to see people at the polls voting. Most election sites were outside under trees on church or school lawns. The sites were easy to find with signs and the area was marked off with tape. I wish that I could have taken better pictures, but the tro-tro was on the move.

As I write this (Jan 2) there still has not been a winner named. The election is said to be very close, but they are letting a polling site in the Brong-Ahafo region that needs to be redone. So today, Friday- Jan 2, they will have them revote and there should finally be a winner. Everyone is very excited here. I am glued to my new short wave radio listening to the BBC.

Part 4 of my holiday trip: Wli Waterfalls

On Election Day, we took a tro-tro to a town near Hohoe where the Wli (or Agumatsa) Falls are located. These are the tallest falls in all of West Africa. We placed our bags down at the Wli Water Heights Hotel and made our way to the falls.
Our Hotel:

Since our trip to this location took so long we were in too much of a rush to eat lunch. I hadn’t eaten all day (I don’t like to eat when I travel)- BAD idea. I almost brought a Cliff Bar (thanks to my care package), but I forgot it at the hotel. So I ate two Hobnobs (a great cookie that Jessie found) and drank some water and started making the hike to the upper Wli falls. You pay about seven Cedis to just hike the 45 minute trail to the lower falls, but you must add three more Cedis when hiking the upper falls and a 50 peswa fee to use a camera.

After all of the money paying we started the trek with our guide, Prince. The hike toward the lower falls was very simple, but then Prince said, “This is the way to the upper falls” as he pointed to a vertical path in the bush. I thought to myself, “I should have eaten breakfast”. I am by no means in good shape, but I wouldn’t say I am in bad shape. This hike, however, kicked my bottom. I was so tired hours later when we reached the upper falls that my legs were shaking.

The upper falls were beautiful and powerful. The water splashed so loudly you could barely hear yourself think. The water splashed so high that the cold spray coming off chilled me. We did not go swimming in the upper falls pool, but you can. I was far too cold and tired to do so.

As we made our descent down the mountain I slipped and fell on my butt a total of five times. I wasn’t even going that fast, but I couldn’t stop myself. I never hurt myself, just my pride.

Once we got back to the main path Jessie and I took a dip in the lower falls pool. It was loud and beautiful too, but not as windy. I jumped in, but quickly jumped out since it was just so cold. I was a sweaty mess from the hike, but I was never in the sunlight since the trees were shading us the whole way.

Also there were bats on the mountain.

After our splashing around we walked next door to the Waterfall Lodge, another hotel in this town, and had dinner. We sat where there was a beautiful view of the mountain and feasted on vegetable stew and couscous. It was a great meal.

As we walked back to our hotel I wished that I had a jacket and jeans on because it was finally cool outside! I heard that the Volta region was cooler, but I was skeptical. It was a nice surprise. When we returned to our hotel the owner was worried about us. She knew it would take us sometime on the hike, but since it was getting dark she was happy we got back safe. I love when people are looking out for me. We watched some of The Office (thanks to Matt’s DVD) on Jessie’s computer and then headed to bed.

The next morning we packed up and got ready for our trip to Biakpa in the mountains.

Part 4 of My Holiday Trip: The Mountains in Biakpa

We boarded a tro-tro heading toward Hohoe. Once in Hohoe we found the tro-tros going to Kpeve and got dropped at Fume. When at Fume we didn’t have to wait to get a taxi up the mountain to the Mountain Paradise Lodge. In our guide (Bradt Ghana guide by Philip Brigss) it said that it didn’t have electricity yet, but it was beautiful. We found out they did have electricity! It was a nice surprise and the landscape and view was amazing. The rest of Monday, December 29, we spent reading and chilling out on the porch of the lodge.

There was a pineapple plant in the front of the place. It reminded me of my step mom, Linda. She always buys a pineapple for me when I come to visit.

Near the front porch were large termite hills- crazy huh?

They still had Christmas decorations up.

For lunch I had spaghetti and “tofu”. The “tofu” wasn’t like the tofu at home. It was much more like that fake “chicken” cubes you add water too and it expands. It was like a spongy seitan.

Before dinner Jessie and I made friends with the cat that lived at the Lodge. Jessie named him Mr. Snickers- although I thought that it was a girl. Any who- the cat loved me as you can see.

For dinner I FINALLY had fufu! Fufu is ground cassava, plantain, and sometimes yam mixture that you eat with a stew. I have had trouble finding a vegan stew, but here they just made me ground nut soup vegan with “tofu” in it.

The next morning Jessie and I had the lodges hiking guide take us on the Kulugu Trail down to another beautiful waterfall. We asked for the shortcut hike, which was still pretty tiring.
We saw banana trees along the way.

We also saw a coffee bean tree.

And cocoa trees.

And Cassava.

Once we got to the waterfall we jumped in for a swim. It was cold, but very refreshing.

We got back to the Mountain Paradise Lodge and regrouped and headed down the mountain to Fume by foot. It took about an hour and then we took a tro-tro to Tafi Mado and started a long walk down a dirt road to Tafi Abuipe to a Kente-weaving village. Once we arrived at the city we meet our two guides and walked around the village to see all of the different kente weavers and looms round.

We saw the old fashion, and the guides say the best, looms made out of trees.

Then we saw a boy wrapping the thread in a shuttle and this is said to be the first job a new weaver learns.

Next we saw a man preparing the thread or yarn to be woven by unraveling it and organizing it.

We then visited the new weaving shelter with new looms made by a carpenter in the village. It was nice to see a woman weaving because it is less often seen.

Finally we saw finished pieces and learned about their meanings.

I would strongly suggest coming to this village for a Kente-weaving experience. They were not at all pushy and I learned a lot.

Also- I saw ducks there- which was strange because I saw no water and I haven't seen a duck sense I arrived in Ghana. I also got to see dinner being cooked over neat fire stoves.

Once we finished seeing the village we said goodbye to the guides and headed back to our mountain top lodge.

During our finally meal there Jessie and I made friends with a Ghanaian man and American man and discussed the elections. Then we went to bed before our trip back home. The trip from Biakpa to Agogo was a long one, but we did arrive home safely.

New Years in Agogo

Jessie and I arrive to Agogo on New Years Eve. We created a fantastic meal of guacamole (avocados were back in the Volta!), salsa, rice, and plantain chips. Yum! We watched at least ten episodes of Flight of the Conchords (thanks Genna) and then hit the hay.

Visit to the Mampong Babies' Home

2008-12-21T02:15:00.000-08:00

On Friday I was invited to travel to the Mampong orphanage. Betsy and I had donated to crafts to the orphanage thinking the children would be able to create their own crafts to keep. Little did we know that the orphanage was made of only babies from newborns to four year-olds. We still left crafts but hope they are not too advanced.

The babies’ home was around two hours away from Agogo and the drive was beautiful. The drives took us up through the mountains where there were many breath taken sights. The van of travelers was: three teachers (Betsy could not attend due to travels) six APTC students, the driver, and myself. I felt like I was aboard Santa’s shield with gifts of rice, milk, juice boxes, candy, and crafts.

When we arrived the director was so friendly and welcomed us nicely. She told us a brief history and explained what they did there. None of the students or teachers had been there before (every year it is the second year students that visit) so none of use knew what to expect. The director made us feel right at home and was very thankful for our donation.

After introductions we visited the babies. They were adorable and seemed to be getting great care. The babies left here are rarely (if ever) abandoned. The babies here are orphaned from their mother’s death during delivery. They come to this place to be taken care of a nourished from the first years of life and then are taken home to their extended family. Taking care of a baby is a full time job, and many extended families have jobs that wouldn’t allow them to be able to care for the baby as well as this home.

I am happy for the work they are doing at the Mampong Babies’ Home and am happy that they are have many sponsors to keep it running as smooth as it is.

Kumasi Post Office Run

2008-12-21T02:07:00.001-08:00

Thanks to leaving my back on the STC bus and my friends Robin, Aubry, Ellen, Tracy, Matt, Kevin, Danny, Jeannette, Genna, and Sean sending me a package- I had to travel to Kumasi on Tuesday.
This was some of the stuff in the package!

The most excited thing of the day was the great package (don’t worry grandma (yoga book), Linda and dad (meds and People magazines) and Frieda (homemade tea) your packages were amazing as well and I didn't have to travel two hours to get yours :-)), but the second most exciting thing of the day was finding a vegetarian stand with porch seating right next door to the post office! Since I can’t really eat and travel I got my food to go and headed back to Kumasi with a box filled with wrapped gifts- how fun!

So went I got home I ate my delicious vegetarian meal of joloff rice and something “meaty” that was very wheat gluten-esk. It was so yummy and cheap. Only 1 cedi 50 peswas. It made me forget that I left ten cedis worth of food on the STC two nights before.

Random Post #1

2008-12-21T01:56:00.000-08:00

Here are things I just want to show you guys:

Funny Ghanaian medicine for headaches that claims to “blow your pain away”.

A coworker buying grass cutter for dinner

Before
Now I have been working in the library to straighten it up.

After

I had beans and rice in taco shells the other night- with soft “shells” and Lousiana hot sauce from Koala.

This kids is awesome- he is Kofi. He is Josephine’s grandchild and he speaks great English. The other day I came over to the house and he was crying and whipping his eyes. His mom and grandma were trying not to laugh- then I realized his mom was cutting onions and his eyes were just burning. Josephine had him wash his eyes with water and he was back to normal. Then he came back in the kitchen and started tearing up again. We told him to move away from the onion. This was so funny, but it is hard to laugh at a kid that is crying.

Here is Gloria, my new running partner, and Kofi’s baby sister. Isn’t she the cutest?

There are two dragonflies that hangout on my back porch. One is black and I have named him Roger. Then he has a girlfriend named Franchesca. Here is a picture of her hanging out on my drying line.

Visitors from KNUST

2008-12-17T01:15:00.000-08:00

Here are Besty, Mariama, Papa, Nana, Ma, and I at our meeting on Monday.

Over a month ago Betsy and I visit Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and met with the Art Education department. This was due to an art teacher I am friends with back in Atlanta named Cissy. She told me that she had a friend that living in Kumasi. She hooked us up and the rest is now going to make history.

So at our meeting in Kumasi Nana, Mariama, Betsy, and I decided that they should visit our TRC in Agogo to get some ideas for their students TLM assignments. They called last weekend and told us that they would be coming to the TRC Monday, December 15 at 10:30. We were so excited. So we cleaned the house and laid out examples of what our students had made this year so far. It was so nice to see what Betsy and I had accomplished so far this year. Our girls are so creating more and more exciting things.

Nana and Mariama came, meet Ma, meet Papa, visited the TRC, and visited our house for snacks and lunch. It was a great visit. Mariama was adorable as she snapped pictures in the TRC and Nana wrote titles of books down from the collection that Schoolbox shipped. It was a great afternoon. The art education students will be coming here next semester to see what we have going on and hopefully we can send some students to visit KNUST. We are even planning for an international conference that will be held in Kumasi in July. They have asked us to stay on to present at the conference and I am very tempted. Being able to put that on my resume would be fantastic and the experience would be even more exciting.

This will not be the last post about this wonderful partnership.

Shopping for Groceries in Accra

2008-12-17T01:04:00.000-08:00

Sorry gang, there aren’t many pictures this week. I guess once you get use to a place you don’t see the need for pictures. I guess that means it is starting to feel like home around here.

Well Friday night was what I like to call the “Never Ending Tro-tro ride”. I am thinking about turning in to a movie. I must start by telling everyone that I love riding on tro-tros and plan to keep riding tro-tro until I leave. They are a good deal and you meet great people. Now back to my saga.

Betsy and I started to walk out the door to the tro tro station (around 1:45) and her favorite basket salesman showed up. Once he left 10 minutes later we started walked to the station. Then I realize I forgot my cell phone, so I had to walk all the way back home then return to the tro-tro station (13 minutes later). Finally we get on the tro-tro to Konongo. Once we arrived in Konongo we walk around and finally find the Accra tro-tro, but it was full so then we get taken to a larger bus that isn’t full. We assumed we would need to what for it to fill up, but off we went. We got good amount of seats to pick from- how exciting. Within an hour and a half we have stopped enough times that we have filled up all 19 seats with passengers and the floor space with 5 bag loads of oranges. By this time I am still having a great ride until I notice that the pace we aren’t traveling isn’t that quick and I start this think this 5 hour trip to Accra will be much longer. The next thing I know I hear a strange pop that reminds me of when my tire had blow out- well that was what happened on the road to Accra at a beautiful space with green fields of corn. So we get out and I hit the bush for a rest stop and then back to water as the driver followed by 6 male passengers change the tire. We are back on the road about 15 minutes later. By now it is getting dark. We finally get to the pothole part of the trip. It was funny to watch the head to the passengers bob around like bobble heads and the driver on his cell phone. During this time is when Betsy and I decided that her chair had issues. She was sitting in from of me and every time we hit a pothole her seat would lean back a little more and some dust would fall out on my feet. I decided to hold the back of her chair up with my tired head. I also don’t eat a few hours before traveling so I am starving as the exit the potholes and enter a ….gas station! So we get in cue behind other tro-tros filled with customers. We get the gas and get back on the rode it is about 6 pm by now. The good thing is now we are in one town away from accra, but that doesn’t mean much because on the main road between Kumasi and Accra they are building a new road, but since it isn’t finished yet it is all dirt with many potholes. It also doesn’t matter what time you come or go it is always a busy road. So we spend about an hour or so on the dirt road and finally make it to the dropping point! This is a point out of Accra centre that I always get dropped, but Betsy told me she has gotten dropped further in, so I stay alone for the “better drop”. Our driver turns down a back, dirt road that I had yet to go down in Accra, but I knew about where we were. I assumed that is was another short cut- I love short cuts! Then I noticed tons of tro-tros parked in front of use and realize that we are at the huge Kumasi-Accra tro-tro station. This would be fine anytime, but at that moment it meant we had to walk through all of the many tro-tro to get to the taxis. Which we did, and it only took about 8 minutes. We find a taxi and tell him to drop us in Osu, a part of Accra, and he set a fair price. Then our taxi driver stops the cab and said, “Hold on, I just need to give this man something”. He was only out of the car for seconds, but I was laughing my bottom off because I felt like I would never get to my destination. But he did get me to my hotel safe and sound by 8:30pm. That was a long day.

And that wasn’t even the end of my day. I went out with my South African friend I meet in Accra weeks before. We went out for sushi at a place called Monsoons. It was so delicious. I had vegetable fashion sandwiches. They were like vegetable rolls only cut to look like sandwiches. Only down fall was that I had to wait over an hour for my food. I thought I might just die, but I didn’t. I got back to my hotel three hours later go into bed and crashed.

When I awoke at 6am, I can’t sleep in any more, I watched CNN for at least 2 hours and then got ready to hit Osu. I went to breakfast at Frankies. It is a really nice restaurant located at the hotel by the same name. I had baguette slices with jam, orange juice (that I think was really pineapple juice), and hash browns and ketchup. Yum. Then I started the most shopping I have done is over a year. I went to two fabric shops, bead street vendors, a bookstore, DVD street vendors, and Koala. Every time you read the word Koala I would like to hear a choir of angels singing, because to an American living in Ghana Koala (insert singing angels) is a home away from home. Koala is a two-story superstore with friendly employees at every corner. They have vegan Skittles, Soymilk, A1 sauce, paper napkins (rare in Ghana), cleaning supplies, and tons of household items.

After shopping the morning away I ran into Betsy in Osu and we had lunch at this great restaurant called Sunshine Salads. If you are vegetarian you should try this place on your trip, because it had so many vegetarian options and they weren’t all salads. I had a great veggie wrap and a vegetable samosa.

Two of Betsy’s new friends met up with us. Laura, an American that is from North Carolina, but went to school at Emory- crazy, and Christine, a Canadian that works doing marketing in Ghana now for a great shop called Global Mama’s. Both girls were so friendly. After lunch we walked to Global Mama’s.

Global Mama’s caused me to loose all my sense of saving money. It is a store with beads, clothing, potholders, bags, etc etc etc. Woman of Ghana makes all of the items in the store and it is a fair trade store. So I spent more money than I would have off the street, but I have more warm fuzzy feelings from shopping there. After spending at least an hour in the store I went back to my hotel to chill and watch more CNN. I love the news.

Later Saturday I met up with some friend to eat and ran in to two of my IFESH buddies. It was great to catch up and hear how their experiences are going. I am happy that everyone is settling into their new surrounds well.

Sunday- oh Sunday- it is one of those days that you think, “Am I on a TV show because this is too funny/sad that this is happening to me”. I woke up around 7am and watched some CNN. Got dressed and decided that I would pack up and just chill out at the hotel until the 9am then go catch the 9:30 STC bus. This plan seemed to work until I arrived to a very empty bus station because the next bus left at 12:30pm.

Since I had already checked out of the hotel I asked the taxi to take me to the Accra Mall. I have a love and hate relationship with the Accra Mall. I hate it because it is so overpriced and doesn’t help Ghana where it needs help, but I love being able to shop in a store that reminds me of home and many American things. I had planned not to come to the Accra Mall this weekend, but it was the only other place I knew would most likely be open on a Sunday. So the driver drives to a part of town that is not near the mall and I see a building with the word, “Mall” on it and I was like, “No, Accra Mall- Shoprite, Game…” I have no idea why he thought an Oburni would want to do to a clothed down Mall on the backstreets of Accra on a Sunday? Seriously- taxi drivers in Accra need to have classes with maps or just learn the big Oburni attractions- Koala, Accra Mall, Champs, and Ryan’s Pub. You have no clue how many times I have had to give directions to the BUS STATION(???) seriously.

Finally, my driver made it to the Accra Mall and I got out, after having to pay him more for getting lose- I fought him- don’t get me started. I didn’t know what shops would be open, since it was Sunday, but I had a good feeling that Busy Internet (my favorite internet place is Ghana) would be open. It wasn’t. So I brought my HUGE bag filled with stuff and dropped it off at the bag check outside of Shoprite. What is Shoprite you may ask? It is like Koala (remember those angels signing), but is a worst location, only one story, but way more food products. Here I browsed the frozen fake meat sections and bought veggie sticks and chicken nuggets. Then I found (drumroll please) VEGAN BUTTER!!! I was so excited that I almost lost it in the store. On the countless aisle I got Mexican seasoning, corn flour, can of chick peas, can of red beans, instant mashed potatoes, and tomato soup.

After shopping I returned to the bus station to wait. While I was waiting, Ma called. She told me she was in Accra too and wanted to see it I wanted a ride. I told her that I already bought a ticket. Then I called Betsy and told her Ma was in town- incase she was wanted to hitch a ride in her private car.

So, I couldn’t fine a cooler to buy so I just wrapped my frozen food in a few plastic bags and put it in between my clothes in a small bag I carried on the bus. Mine you, the bus left at 1pm instead of 12:30pm. Usually STC are very punctual. The driver was very nice and even told us that if we needed him to stop just to ask him. I felt great. The air conditioner was on. My big bag was under the bus, my bag of soymilk was at my feet, and my frozen foods and butter was up overhead.

When my stop in Konongo came I got my red book bag of soymilk and said goodbye to my friendly neighbor and got off to be my bag from under the boot. I found a taxi and realized as the STC left- I FORGOT MY BUTTER!!! I was heart broken. This is the second time I have bought frozen food from Accra and I haven’t gotten to eat it. I called the STC station in Kumasi and told them my situation. She was VERY helpful. She told me that she was find the bag when the bus arrived. Later when she found it I told her to eat the food because otherwise it would spoil. I don’t know if she did, but I hope she did.

I get to back to my house and no more than five minutes later Betsy arrive with Ma. They left hours after me, and arrived 5 minutes later. I moped about and then something amazing happened. The power went out. Why is that amazing? Even if I had gotten the food back to my place, it would have spoiled. So I am happy I “donated” in a sense.

I had a good time in Accra, but what a crazy weekend.

More Election Weekend Events

2008-12-10T02:29:00.000-08:00

There wasn’t much going on in Agogo during election weekend so the Canadians and Americans joined forces for fun. After my trip to the waterfalls Saturday we all headed out to a Chop Bar. Chop Bars are usually a stand on the side of a road. Usually a table with a wire “sneeze shield”, if you will, covering the three feet above the table. Basically they are a vendor like you would find at a fair. Some Chop Bars are more like a restaurant thought with seating for their guests and they even play music.

On this night we were more interesting in the stall-like Chop Bars. Most of my Ghanaian friends have told me that I can’t get vegan food at Chop Bars- but I wanted to prove them all wrong. So during my hike to the waterfall I kept repeating the Twi phrase for “I don’t take meat” or “no meat”. Which sounds like Men-pin-nom, but is probably spelled totally different. We three oburnis walked to downtown Agogo that was half closed up due to elections and looked at a few stalls. We decided on a stall selling rice and stew. I have no idea what was in the stew. I told the server “Men-pin-nom” at least 3 times. She said, “No meat, no fish, no egg” I said “Yes no meat, no fish, no egg”. I assumed that she would give me just white rice plain, but instead she also gave me the stew. I still have no idea what was in the stew. It was spicy and brown- seriously- what was in it? Everyone else got the same with the meat or fried eggs that was on the side. I also walked down to another stall for fried yams. Each was 50 peswas. I bought five. I ate them with Heinz ketchup as if they were fries. After dinner we watched a movie.

Sunday was another chill day of ironing, watching the movie The Lake House, and reading (yes I read now- who knew). The Canadians brought over pasta sauce and we donated the pasta and drinks. Have I said recently how much I love lemon-lime Fanta? It is so darn tasty. After dinner we watched another movie- Snatch (from The Lake House to Snatch- that seems odd).

Monday was more of a workday. I went to the TRC and cleaned out more of our new office room, a room that had been locked until Thursday. We took everything out of it, cleaned the room, and reorganized it. It is amusing that every year since I have been teaching I have had to move classrooms: second year of teaching we moved school buildings, third year of teaching I changed schools, fourth year they wanted to have me move closer to the other second grade teachers, fifth year I moved to the third grade hall, sixth year I moved to the fourth grade hall, seventh year I moved to Ghana. So once again I spent a day covered in dust and dirt, cleaning up things another teacher left for me. I found many treasures in this room: phonic slide posters made by teachers, woven baskets, and a mop bucket!

After a hard day at the office I made dinner for the Canadians “farewell”(they are not leaving Ghana, they are just starting a trip that will last over a week and we will miss them). It was salsa, plantain chips, rice, black-eyed peas in more taco seasoning, and garey. What is garey you might ask? I don’t know. And I don’t know how to prepare it well yet either. Josephine had made it for me in the past (by the way- Josephine stopped cooking for us months ago, but is always up for doing a cooking lesson when we want one), but I put far too much liquid in them and they turned out like cold grits with a taco seasoning after taste. I ate the garey, but just mixed it with everything else.

After dinner the Canadians watched one episode of the Flight of the Conchords (the one when they get mugged- “please remove these cutleries from my knees”) and then left for a good night’s sleep before their trip up to Mole Park.

It was a nice chill weekend in Agogo.

Waterfall in Hwidiem

2008-12-10T02:13:00.000-08:00

This weekend Betsy and I stayed in Agogo. It was nice and peaceful since the students on our campus went to their hometowns to vote (this meant no 4:30am jogging/singing fest). On Saturday Betsy worked around the house while I went to Konongo. As I was leaving Konongo a white girl got on the tro-tro to Agogo with me. This was weird because I know what all 5 of the white people in Agogo looked like- and this girl wasn’t one of them.

She then asked if I knew Rabina, my Canadian friend, and I realized that she was Shanti, a friend I had heard them talk about. I ended up talking to her none stop on our ride home and took her to Laura and Rabina’s door step. Later that day Betsy, Rabina, Laura, Shanti, and I took a tro-tro to the town next door, Hwidiem. This is town that lost their Chief this year. We went there to see its waterfall. We went to the Chief’s palace and got a friendly guide who goes to college in Agogo. It was a beautiful trek through tall grass.

Many preteens decided to walk along with us to the falls. The falls weren’t very large since we are now in the dry season, but I thought it was beautiful.

It is worth seeing if you are in the area.

Election Weekend

2008-12-06T01:42:00.001-08:00

I don't have much to report this week. Classes with my Agogo girls are going well. My students are getting more and more creative each week. Friday and Monday we have as a holiday so that students could leave and go home to vote. The Presidential election is this Sunday. I haven't left town though. I have stayed put to clean up the TRC and hangout with my roommate and the Canadians. Today we are going to go to a waterfall near by and are going to take pictures of a beautiful mountain nearby. Later tonight we are going to eat out at a Chop Bar which is the name of food stands or resturants here in Ghana. I haven't eaten at one yet because I wouldn't know how to ask for food with no meat, but today I am going to come with a bit of Twi to make sure my food is meat and dairy free. Wish me luck!

Sorry no pictures this week.

Mexican Food Ghanaian Style

2008-12-02T02:32:00.000-08:00

I have been craving Mexican food for a while know and finally attempted to create a Mexican meal with the things I can find around. So I used one hot pepper (only one and it was really hot) sugar, salt, cooked tomatoes and onions, and raw tomatoes and onion to create a great salsa. I used plantain chips in place of tortilla chips. I brought a pack of taco seasoning from the US and I used it to spice up some cooked black eyed peas. Then I placed the black eyed peas on top of a bed of lettuce and cooked green peppers and onions. Sort of like a taco salad with no shell. It was a yummy meal.

For dessert we had no back vegan cookies (oatmeal, peanut butter, oil, sugar, vanilla, and soy milk). I got the recipe from Vegan A go go website. Which was funny since I am a vegan from Agogo.

Christmas Wish List

2008-11-28T08:47:00.000-08:00

I remember the days when I would create a wish list for Santa. If Santa showed up in Ghana I would like him to bring:

Complete's Blink and Clean contact solution for my roommate
More Craft Books for my Agogo students to get ideas from
Fiction to read (I brought a ton of nonfiction)- something fun like a Chuck Palahniuk book
Old Navy tan tops in small (any color) because my laundry lady has stretched everything out
Vegan goodies (cliff bars, box mixes, etc)
Running Water
World Peace- that would be nice

The Totals

2008-11-28T08:44:00.000-08:00

Matriculations attended: 2
Funerals attended: 2
Weddings attended: 0
Text messages from America: 8
Cards received: 11
Bags of fried plantains eaten daily: 2 ½
Bags of groundnuts eaten daily: 1
Sacks of water I drink a day: 4 to 7
Dresses/skirts made by my tailor: 4
Books began: 7
Books completed: 2
Monkeys seen after going to wildlife preserve: 0
Crocodiles seen after going to wildlife preserve: 0
Times I have gotten to use my new rain boots: 3- we are in the dry season now
Marriage proposals: 8
Cliff Bars left: 1

Thanksgiving in Agogo

2008-11-28T07:51:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Thursday, November 28, I celebrated Thanksgiving in Agogo. I woke up at 5:30am to prepare for church and my 7am class. After class I ate breakfast and headed to town to buy a table. We have been eating meals at our coffee table and that is just getting a bit old. So I found a plastic table for 18 Ghana Cedis. It looked great on out back porch. Then I taught two more classes and had after school open hours where we had around 40 girls working on creating posters for their classrooms. It was a great workday, but very busy. At 4:30pm I headed to the house to start our Ghanaian Thanksgiving feast while Betsy set the table with a fancy tablecloth and candles. Around 5:45pm the Canadians came over to our banquet dressed so nicely I felt like a slob. For our feast we served: Betsy’s Famous trail mix, fried plantains, red red, rice, vegetable samoas (I got in Kumasi), olive oil, tea bread, watermelon, fried bread, and lemon Fanta (my new favorite soda). It was nice to sit outside under the stars and candle light with good food and great friends. The weather felt like a cool summer night and the conversation was just what I needed. It was a great evening and I look forward to many more nights under the stars with my new friends.

THANK YOU SCHOOLBOX!!!

2008-11-26T02:29:00.001-08:00

I finally got the chance to travel to Kumasi on a week day to visit the post office to-FINALLY- pick up my package from the SCHOOLBOX. The Schoolbox has been my employer for on and off for four years. It is a great teacher supply store with locations around Atlanta (although they also have a store in Tennessee too). You can also check them out at www.schoolbox.com. They were so excited about my trip to teach in Ghana that they told me that would be happy to ship any supplies I would need. I was so excited that I purchased a bunch of really great teacher resource books. The top three books I would highly recommend were:

The First Days of School by Harry K. Wong and Rosemarry T. Wong
-every teacher should have this book!
Look What You Can Make With Dozens of Household Items by
-unfortunately out of print…but worth looking for- my favorite for Arts and Crafts
Alternatives to Worksheets: Motivational Reading and Writing Activities Across the Curriculum by Karen Baur and Rosa Drew- Creative Teaching Press
-fantastic way to get away from worksheets and have the kids make something fun and educational- I use this on a weekly bases throughout the year

I felt like it was my birthday as I opened my package of books, markers, rulers, crayons, and stickers on the post office counter. Also- the employees in the Kumasi general post office are so, friendly! I was astounded by their politeness and helpfulness.

My students at Agogo Presbyterian Training College are very grateful for this donation. I have already logged the new books into my Teacher Resource Center Inventory and have decided to save some of the goodies for a Teacher Learning Materials competition that I am going to hold next semester. I can’t wait!

Also- you should check out www.schoolbox.com because they have a link to a page about my adventure here. There is also a video clip of me before I left the US. Enjoy!

Bomfobiri Wildlife Reserve

2008-11-26T02:13:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, November 22, Laura, Rabina, and I chartered a taxi to take us to the Bomfobiri Wildlife Reserve. It is so close to Agogo, but you have to drive around in almost a complete circle because the direct road to it is far to bad. It too a bit over 2 hours to get their.

Above are Rabina, Laura, our guide, and our cab driver before our hike.

The guide told us about the Bomfobiri waterfall, monkeys, crocodiles, and how to get their. Once we arrived at the office to get our guide the pricing was just like Bradt said (a first). It was very beautiful. You could see mountains everywhere, long grassy plains, and the beautiful waterfall. However- no crocs and no monkeys. Our guide, who carried a loaded shotgun for our protection, or maybe his, told us that we should come in January in stead. Oh well- it was nice.

Above we hid in the grass- can you find us?
Below is the picture our cab driver took. I don't think he should quit is day job.

On the way back we stopped in the town of Bonwire, that is home to Kente cloth- seriously- this is real Kente cloth- (History fact: the people of Kpetoe claims they started it and Ashanti added their own style later). We went to a Kente cloth manufacturer and had the chance to see a weaver in action. I didn’t take pictures because I would need to pay extra and I was strapped for cash- so I will come back when I have money to spend.

Then we headed home. Below is Laura with Betsy special recipe trailmix (raisin bran/plantain chips/ground nuts).

But before I forget- when I left the Bomfobiri Wildlife office I say a bunch of turkeys hanging out near a tro-tro. I thought of how happy this turkeys should be they don’t live in America. Although I am sure they will be someone’s dinner soon. It makes me happy to see turkeys just hanging out with their friends waiting to get on the tro-tro.

Rabina's Birthday Party and Funny Story

2008-11-26T02:07:00.000-08:00

Betsy and I have made friends with two other Oburni’s in Agogo from Canada- Rabina and Laura. Pictured here.

Wednesday night, the day after Rabina’s really birthday, Betsy and I had them over for DVD watching and snack eating. Betsy brought home ice cream and cake from Konongo. I just watched since the ice cream and cake aren’t vegan- no worries I ate cookies. Here is Rabina at her birthday “party”.

While watching a DVD on my computer in our dark living room I felt a bug land on my mouth. This is not too uncommon here, but as I went to swat it away I realized it was HUGE. It was literally covering my lips. As soon as I brushed this GIANT bug off my lips I began to scream. The bug then hit my leg and next landed on Laura’s, who was sitting next to me. I pulled my feet up into the chair I was sitting on and waited for Betsy to turn on the lights. I didn’t see anything at first, but then from under the seat cushion I saw a long antenna. I jump off the couch only after squealing, and yelling to Laura “Open the Door- Open the Door”. By now Betsy had seen the antenna as well so I grabbed the cushion and ran for the door. I hurled the cushion out on to the porch. This event happened around 9:15pm and all four of us were talking loudly while the rest of our neighbors were quiet for once, seriously. I turn over the cushion to reveal the largest grasshopper I had ever seen. It was about as long as a deck of cards and this just made me scream a bit louder. Finally we all started laughing at my fear of this harmless grasshopper. About this time I heard Nicholas, my neighbor, calling to me to see if everything was alright. He was in the middle of putting on a shirt and running over to my front porch. I said, “I’m fine”, feeling embarrassed to be screaming my head off at a grasshopper. He found it funny as well. He said he heard the screams and thought if must be a snake (which would have been my worst nightmare) so he jumped out of bed, got dressed and ran over. It is amazing that Nicholas got to my house so quick- within seconds. He may need to quit teaching and become a firefighter with that response time. I thanked him for his heroic deed and he sweep the grasshopper into the yard and we went back inside to watch our DVD.

Seriously the grasshopper was on my lips- it was scary at the time.

I Love My Students

2008-11-19T02:03:00.001-08:00

Have I told you how much I love my job lately?

Here I am with my students during the afterschool open hours at the TRC.

Weekend in Kumasi- Nov 14-16

2008-11-19T01:14:00.000-08:00

Before I left America a friend that works as an Art teacher in Atlanta Public Schools gave the contact information for a friend she knew in Kumasi. I contacted her as soon as I could to see what she was doing in Kumasi. Mariama is a part of the Art Education department at Kwame Nkrumah College of Science and Technology. I told her was here teaching teachers to create TLM with found objects. Then it clicked- her students’ art skills could be used to help teach TLM in Kumasi! We decided right away to meet up in Kumasi (an hour away by car, but 2 hours away by multiple tro tros).

Pool at Ashanti Gold

Pizza from Funkies
So Betsy and I jumped on a tro tro after our last Friday class and headed to Kumasi. We decided to stay at the Ashanti Gold Hotel, which is near the National Cultural Center (“Centre” here). We arrived around 4pm and called our Canadian friends from Agogo (they are here working with an organization that is working to improve literacy in parts of Africa; we have had them over for dinner and a movie a few times) that had also come in town for weekend.

All four of us met up for dinner at a place called Funkies, although no sign said Funkies- they said Queen’s Gate???. I ordered the pizza, which looked great! It had tons and tons of raw veggies on top, but the sauce wasn’t enough to balance the raw veggies dryness. I still ate the rest of my leftovers though. After dinner we all were exhausted and just went back Ashanti Gold for an early night. Once back to our room we found that we had- HOT WATER! (did I mention we didn’t have running water at our place in Agogo again?) We were both just excited about the running water- the HOT was a bonus! I took a nice long shower then went straight to sleep before 9:30pm.

Saturday, Betsy and I slept in- it was fantastic. I slept in to about 7:30am- which is late for me recently. We hung out in the room until we left for our 10:00am appointment to meet Mariama and her Department Head, Nana. The campus was very beautiful and larger like an American college campus. We meet Mariama and Nana and hit if off. We both took time to tell what programs we are currently working on and find a way to collaborate. We decided that Mariama and Nana should pack up their art education graduate students and bring them to Agogo to see our Teacher Resource Center and have us motivate them to create TLM’s of their own. They will then return to their campus and begin create TLM’s of their own, which they will be sharing with Primary and Secondary Schools on their college campus in Kumasi. I am also thinking big- that we can have an “art show” of sorts in Kumasi where we can display the TLM’s our students make with those of the graduate art students. Long term I am hoping this Agogo-Kumasi partnership will stay strong. This meet was most definitely worth traveling to Kumasi for. Thanks Cissy for giving me Mariama’s contact info!

Eggless Omelette

After our wonderful meeting, Betsy and I went to meet Laura and Rabina, the Canadians, for lunch at my favorite place to eat- Vic Baboo’s Cafe. They have the most extensive menu with Indian, Thai, Ghanaian, Chinese, and American food. For lunch I had an eggless omelette made from pea flour and veggies. It was very tasty. After lunch Betsy and I set out to go food and book shopping around downtown Kumasi. It was nice, but I was unable to find Soy Milk and that was on the top of my list. It is funny, because there is a Soy Milk sold in Agogo, but it isn’t vegan- it has milk powder in it- why?

Due to the heat we retreated to our hotel room for a bit and then regrouped for our big trip out. Where were we off to this time- only the largest open market in all of West Africa- the Kejetia Market! This was an amazing and stressful experience. I was very happy that we waited for the heat of the day to pass- and many stands were closing down. This was good, because there is way too much to be seen. This market is much like the market in Accra- that I haven’t yet ventured into- with everything you could possibly want and more. Here people come to sell food, clothes, fabric, electronics, jewelry, furniture, beauty supplies, and much, much more. We were strictly coming to look around, which isn’t easy when everyone wants you to buy something, and find new fabric for more dresses. I found some nice Ghanaian (most fabrics I had been buying were English) tie-dyed fabrics/ printed fabrics. I can’t wait to get my dresses made.

Pictures of the Market

After the market we regrouped and then went back to Vic Baboo’s for dinner- it is just so good! I had the best veggie burger I have had in awhile- so I am going to get the ingredients next time to really make sure it was vegan. I also got a fancy fruit drink with grenadine (I don’t drink alcohol- so grenadine as exciting as I get) and they served it with a candle. The A/C kept blowing out the candle so the server kept relighting it. How funny. We left Vic Baboo’s and headed to Vienna City Pub. It is the chain of the one in Accra, but not as large. I got a lemon lime Fanta, really good, and hung out with my roomie for a while.

My fancy drink

We came back to our hotel by 10:30 and I began a cheesy movie that put me to sleep. I slept in until 8:30opm- I couldn’t believe it either. When I woke up I turned on the TV and found one of my favorite movie- Wallace and Gromit’s Curse of the Wererabbit (my friend Missy would have loved this). Betsy and I got ready and then went on a trek to find an Internet close by, but our map was wrong and we never found it. After that fruitless journey we headed over to the National Cultural Centre, which would assume is closed on Sunday, and the grounds were open.

We wandered around and found out that everything started opening at 10am, which was another great surprise, so we waited happily at the Kentish Restaurant. When things opened we visited the gift shop and were able to have a guided tour of the open-air museum. It was very interesting to learn about the lives of different Ashanti Chiefs. One interesting fact I learned is that the chiefs’ cooks are all men and they have to taste the meal and see its affects before the chief has it make sure it will not make the chief sick. I bought some children’s books and then we headed back to the Ashanti Gold for check out.

This is a picture of what Chiefs use/ used to bathe. Their feet are to rest on the elephant tusks. Also- chiefs are never to be seen without their sandals.

Here is a picture of where the chief's cook cooks.

Staff of the chiefs. Each staff has a different animal for the different tribe.

Me and a stone Chief just hanging.

I had a nice time in Kumasi, but was happy to get home. Once home Rabina and Laura brought over red red and plantains for dinner. It was nice to come home to great home cooked food, friends, and an exciting feeling that APTC (Agogo Presbyterian Training College) may have a new partnership with KNUST (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology).

Ghana’s Finance Minister’s Funeral

2008-11-12T01:13:00.000-08:00

For over two weeks I had seen orange and red fabrics with the picture of a man’s face, the Honorable Kwadwo Baah Wiredu-Ghana’s Minister of Finance that was originally from Agogo, printed on them. My tailor had to postpone starting my next dress to fit more time in to complete the shirts and dresses people had ordered for his funeral. I began to realize that this man was very well known all over Ghana and that this funeral would be a larger deal for our small town.

On Friday, September 8, 2008 the funeral preparations began around 8am in the field across from our college campus. Adults and children cleaned and set up stands for food, drinks, and souvenirs (much like the chief’s funeral). By 5pm people were all around town. People were dancing and playing music in the streets.

When Betsy and I ventured out to the downtown around 7pm it was in full swing. It reminded me of Bourbon Street in Louisiana without the loud and obnoxious drunk people. The main street was packed and all of the side streets were full with people coming to town. Aside from Bourbon Street it reminded me of a college town on Homecoming weekend before/after a larger football game. It was amazing. Agogo’s population isn’t very large, (between the population of Macon, GA and Vidalia, GA) but during the funeral celebration it had to be doubled or tripled in size. Betsy and I people watched, found new nightclubs we had never noticed, and visited with friends and students we saw in town. We were back home within the hour, but we could hear the music and crowd from our living room.

The party ended around 4:30am Saturday for only thirty minutes to an hour, so that people could go home and change and then line up to proceed into the funeral. Meanwhile Betsy and I slept until 6:30am, although the music had made sleeping a chore, and then woke up to begin preparing for the funeral. We weren’t sure what time it began, because it seemed to be going on for over 24 hours already. Once we walked down to the field that where the body was set up for viewing we realized that many of our colleagues had already lined up and gone though the procession. So Betsy and I got at the end of a line longer then the queue for Six Flag’s Superman ride on the first day of middle schooler’s spring break. The line winded down to the open casket and a long line tents (I think it was about 40 tents- seriously- or more) with hands you were welcome to shake. Once the line got moved about due to the Head of State’s arrive we gave up and just walked around the out skirts of the circle of tents.

Our first stop was a yellow tent with smoothie machines! They weren’t smoothies though, just different juices, but still very tasty. We also purchased sweet popcorn and fans with the man of the hour (or the weekend)’s face on it. While munching on popcorn and drinking sweet juice I realized this reminded me of a fair without the rides and games. People were everywhere- and vendors selling everything you could want to remember this man and funeral with.

On our walk around the grounds (much like fair grounds) we found a dance party, boys climbing trees to see what was going on beyond the tents, chief’s entering with their entourages, vendors selling things much like vendors at a baseball game- but I never found cotton candy. We bought some more snacks and then brought them home and took a lunch break.

After our lunch break we walked up and down the street of Agogo that was blocked off because of the amount of food traffic- much like Atlanta’s neighborhoods do during their yearly festivals. People seemed happy, especially our students, that we were coming to pay our respects and join in the day, which made us feel good since we didn’t have the chance to meet Kwadwo Baah Wiredu. Around 2pm a larger crowd formed because Ghana’s president was on the way. By this time the body had been taken to its burial place and the crowd was just as large as ever. Many official looking camera men videoed as 7 or more SUV’s arrived escorted by 5 or more police on motorcycles. Betsy, our two friends, Reubina and Laura, and I watched from behind the president’s tent for his arrive. We saw the cars, police officers, cameras clicking, but never got the chance to see his face due the crowd and the fact that I’m too short. But I was less than 50 yards from the Ghanaian president- how cool is that! Also the new patriotic party’s presidential candidate Nana Akufo Addo was also at the ceremony.

The funeral cerebration of life went on until around 9pm Saturday night. Then started up AGAIN on Sunday morning after church. People were dressed in more fabric that had the minister’s profile printed on it, but on Sunday the colors were white and black instead of red and black. The music, vendors, and crowds left around 1am Monday morning.

It was a fantastic experience. I think that people in Ghana have funerals right. Get people together to remember you and enjoy the time instead of moping about. When I past I hope I have a wake with parades, food stands, and people visiting one another. I wish I had the chance to meet the Hon. Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, because he must have been a great man. He died at the age of 56 and that is far too young. I send me condolences to his family and thank you for letting me attend this memorable ceremony.

A Chief's Funeral/ Wake

2008-11-12T01:06:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, Nov 6, Betsy and I were invited to attend a chief’s funeral by Papa. It was the most exciting event I have had since I arrived to Africa. The chief’s name is Nana Anarei Kokortoh and he lived in the town right next to our called Hwidiem. He was 75 years old when he passed. I never had the chance to meet him, but I have heard great stories about him. Many students that needed help with tuition received scholarships from him. I was honored to get the chance to attend this ceremony.

Needless to say it wasn’t like the funeral’s back home. On Tuesday he was laid in state for people to come by to see and to give condolences to the family and community. However, the people don’t believe that he is dead- and that is it. They believe he has taken a journey to a new state of life. Much like Christians believe in transcending to heaven after dieing. Hundreds of years ago when a chief died someone was sacrificed to carry the chief’s bags to the next stage. Luckily this tradition hasn’t been practiced for centuries due to further education.

I rode in a large van with many teachers and administrators from my college. As we approached the town we saw signs directing use to the ceremony. We got out and followed the crowd of people dressed in black and red fabrics to the tents filled with community members and visitors. Vendors came by to sell red bandanas with the chief’s name on them, which many people were wearing, and a rope necklace with red and black. Papa told us that this is a traditional accessory that people wear at African funerals. He bought us each one to wear.

After walking down to the area with around 10 tents of people sitting we began our greeting. We walked around to the people sitting in the front row of these ten tents and shook their hands. I must a shook between 120-180 peoples’ hands. At one journey in the hand shaking we came to a group of men that were guarded by boys holding out symbolic staffs and a large group of people to ask who we are. This I believe was the family of the deceased. One of our group members explained who we were and asked for permission to shake hands, another formality, and then we preceded past the guards. Later I saw people bringing gifts to the family, which included a cases of Fanta wrapped in cellophane tied in a brightly color ribbons and a goat.

Chiefs from around the country also came to pay respect. You could tell when a chief arrived, because they would have a large entourage that included people holding large umbrellas, three to four people playing traditional drums, a person to dab their sweat from their brow, someone to hold their hand out to shake others hands, and a few men that held large guns and from time to time shot them into the air.

Once our hands were done being shaken we walked back up the road we came in on, and I thought we were leaving, but then we turned a corner and came into the courtyard of a house. We were in a single filed line with Papa and other tutors from the village leading the way. They led us to a doorway that had a sheet in front so you have no idea what is inside. Guarding the sheet were two men dressed in military wear holding rifles. Our leader asked for permission for us to enter. After permission was granted I walked through the sheet and realized this is the chief’s viewing. I hadn’t seen a dead body since my mother’s funeral- and had wanted to keep it that way, but since he was lying in a large gold post bed with nice attire I was happy I had this experience. Papa also told me that we could take pictures if we wanted, but I just couldn’t at the time. We exited the back door of this house and were greeted with the man at the back door shooting gunshots into the air that sounded like fireworks.

We walked back down to the tents and found seats. This is when the people watching really began. Also countless vendors showed us the multitude of products and memorabilia you could have for this event. It seemed like I was at a popular bands concert. They sold fans, t-shirts, programs (nicely bound like a soft back novel), key chains with a bottle opener, and pins-each item had either the chief’s face and/or his name printed on them. Other vendors sold bracelets, candy, handkerchiefs, and kebabs. It was amazing. I left with a red and black bracelet (thanks Betsy), a bottle opener key chain (thanks to a coworker), and my new funeral rope (thanks Papa).

"Wild Life" of Ghana

2008-11-01T03:19:00.000-07:00

So far I have had countless people ask about the animals I have seen. I have yet to get to a national park where there are "wild" animals- so I thought it would be funny to show you the animals I have photos of. Enjoy.

ECHOES/IFESH Visitors to Agogo

2008-11-01T03:05:00.000-07:00

This week was a busy week in Agogo for Betsy and I. Monday we started classes, Wednesday we had our country rep and a representative from the World Cocoa Foundation visit, and Thursday we had another visitor from the ECHOES project. Classes were very fun. We had the girls create name tags, introduce themselves, tell us what Region of Ghana they were from, and explained what things we plan to do with them this semester. Below Betsy hole punches our student’s name tags.

Wednesday Kwesi, our IFESH Country Representative, came with Charlie Feezel, the Education Program Director for the World Cocoa Foundation. Together we visited the Agogo Primary School that is a part of the college I work for. We meet to discuss what things we want to accomplish this year. Last year, the IFESH teacher began a pen pal program with a school in Pennsylvania, which was very successful. We are discussing continuation of this program or possibly doing something via the Internet, but currently the Internet isn’t very reliable here. We just want the interchanges between schools to be maximized. We also too a trip to our Teacher Resource Center to show what we had done with the space, although the TFA’s before us made it very easy to look good. Pictured are the students that were apart of the pen pal program last year, the principal of the primary school-Ellen, Kwesi, Agogo Presbyterian Training College Vice Principal- Gertrude, Charlie, Betsy, the primary school’s secretary, and myself.

Thursday Diane Mull from International Initiative to End Child Labor came to visit and discuss our progress so far and review with us our goals for our year here. Her visit was very helpful and it gave us more guidance in our duties. Ma and Papa have done a fantastic job with our job description here, but Diane made sure that we understood IFESH’s objectives for our country for the year. Diane and Charlie are both apart of group working with ECHOES. Their overall objective, as I a have taken it, is to improve the lives of Cocoa Farmers and their families and their communities. Following is a picture of Betsy, Diane, Gertrude, and myself in the Teacher Resource Center.

This week was eventful!

A Day in the Life of Alison in Agogo

2008-10-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

Many people have requested to have a play by play of my typical day here. Unfortunately everyday seems to be very different or unexpected. However, we received our time table for this semester and I think I am finally going to have a schedule ( I love schedules and planned events!). So this “Day in the Life of Alison is Ghana” is my first day in my new schedule. Hope you enjoy!

Tuesday October 28, 2008
4:30am
Through my open windows I hear my favorite rooster begin to crow (there are many different chickens and roosters outside- some crow at 1am or 5am, but this guy has a distinct crow and time schedule) and the first sounds of sweeping hit my ears (every morning at 4:30 people in nearby houses head outside to sweep off their porches, dirt driveways, and yard).

5:38am
I finally get out of bed after snoozing 3 times and hit the shower (sometimes I shower at night) or hit the bucket since the water isn’t running. I have to boil water in our electric kettle and then mix in colder water to keep from burning my skin and then I get all cleaned up. I get dressed, brush my teeth with bottled water in a coffee mug.

6:08am
I walk up the dirt road on campus to chapel for devotional, which is held Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings at 6:15am. All of the students attend and sometimes they are the ones leading the sermon, which I find really interesting. It is usually only a 15-minute program, but today a staff member named Nicholas has a rousing sermon that went a few minutes later. After the closing there is an announcement from Ma and we are dismissed. The staff shakes hands outside and say, “Good morning” or “ Maakye” (sounds like “marching” because the ky makes the “ch” sounds ) to each other.

6:50am
Back home and ready for breakfast. This morning I am having some ProNutro (a mixture of a chocolate vitamin filled “cereal” with Silk soy milk, and a side of crackers and cashew butter on top. Ma also has come by to have tea with us while we have breakfast. We show her what we have done with our kitchen.

8:07am
I pack up my computer, camera, and water and head to the Teacher Resource Center. On the way a four-year-old child waves and says, “Oburni”- which means white person. This is the name we are called throughout every small town in Ghana by young and old alike. It isn’t meant to be rude, it is just a way to say “Hello- you”. Here I plug in my computer and beginning playing music, today I play The Good Life. We both review are lesson plan for the day, clean up around the room, and start creating new TLM’s for next weeks classes (puzzles, foldables, and pop up books).
9:00am
I run home to get my Twi dictionary and on the trip I see my favorite child in all of Ghana- Porche. She spent two weeks yelling, “Orburni” as we walked by each day. We would smile and wave to her. On the past Thursday she saw me after being gone for about a week and yelled “Orburni” and ran full speed from about 20 meters away and hugged my knees and looked up and smiled at me. This three year old is the sweetest thing in Ghana- by far.

9:33am
Our students arrive and we have a getting to know you session, create name tags, review what TLM’s are, and create rules for the semester. The girls have a lot of fun creating their nametags and seem excited about the things we will be doing this year.

10:40am
I return a call from the IFESH and find out that the packages I sent three weeks before I left the USA (so it has taken them about 7 weeks) have finally arrived in Ghana! I will pick them up in Accra next Wednesday. We clean up from out lesson and I head over to the Internet place in Agogo, but it is closed as usual. So I head home to meet Betsy.

11:15am
Betsy and I eat lunch. Usually we have lunch with Josephine at noon, but today we have leftovers from many meals to pick from. I have spaghetti with tomato sauce, and a cabbage salad with carrots, green peppers, and tomatoes. As Betsy and I sit in our living room having dinner we talk about how our lesson went and decided to walk into town to buy water and phone cards.

11:45am
Betsy and I walk to town. Two school girls stop to ask our names, an often occurrence, and we take a second to stop and look at the mountains that are in plain view of the road we walk to town on. It is beautiful here. We buy our phone cards and return home for a break before our next class.

2:07pm
Our second class of the day comes and we do the same as the class before. We have to borrow 10 chairs from the class next door because we don’t have enough seating for our students- ever. I wonder what we are going to do on the days that both of our classes need the chairs. The girls in this session, 2A, are some of the ones we have gotten the closest too. It was fun to finally have a class with them, because they have come buy at least 4 times asking when classes would start. It is nice to be around people eager to learn.

3:35pm
We want to go to Kononogo to the Internet, but it is about to start pouring, so we head home just in time for the down pour.

3:55pm
We reward ourselves with an afternoon movie- “Three Kings” using my laptop computer with a 13-inch screen. We lay our yoga mats on the floor and place cushions on top followed by sheets. We get tons of snacks and cold water and have a fantastic time feeding out faces.

6:15pm
Time to spray down in “Peaceful Sleep” bug spray. Usually I would get in my workout gear and put on our yoga DVD, but since we ate so much we feel like lying around longer. So we put in “New World”. I took an intermission of more cabbage salad.
Usually we go to dinner a Ma’s house and get fed a great meal from Josephine.

7:28pm
Kwesi calls and we find out that we will be going to the Cocoa Farm tomorrow with Charlie from the World Cocoa Foundation.

7:40pm
We finish the New World and after we discuss how the story matches the historical events. Betsy is a big lover of history. We also compare and contrast Pocahontas’s trip to England, to our trip to Africa. In many ways people here look at us as something very different. It is a great conversation.

8:45pm
After brushing my teeth and getting in pj’s I put on more “Peaceful Sleep” and I climb into bed and tuck my mosquito net in around my mattress. I try to get comfortable and pretend it isn’t hot. We have all of the windows of the house open (they have screens) so I have started to sleep with my bedroom door open. It seems to help keep my room much cooler and I end up using my sheet. I use to not even use a sheet over me because of how hot I was- even with my ceiling fan on.

9:00pm
I’m fast asleep and ready for what the next day will bring.

Weekend in Accra Oct 18-22

2008-10-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

Betsy and I were taken to Konongo, the town 30 minutes away with internet, to catch a trotro to Accra around 8:30am on Saturday, Oct 18. The trip was pretty good- although once you arrive in Accra from the way of Kumasi (the main road we were on takes you to Kumasi) you get stuck in the WORST traffic. A woman from LA says that Accra is worst then LA , and I am from Atlanta- and I think it is worst then Atlanta rush hour. The reason being that you aren’t on a paved road where people pretend there are lanes for about 5-10 miles. Which is funny because you are paved all the way there and from there- just not at this silly point in the trip. People pass on the sides and cut others off, it is horrible. The reason it is so crazy at this point is because they are building a new road, but it never seems to be being worked on when I have passed. I will be patient.

As soon at our trotro dropped us off we caught a cab to the Accra Mall. Yes, it was a bit cheesy of us, but it was nice to get to Shoprite (grocery store with appliances) and Game (like Target). I found vegan chocolate bars, ginger biscuits (their name for cookies), peanut butter, jam, measuring spoons, measuring cups, a pillow that wasn’t lumpy (seriously- the pillows everywhere here are SOOOOOO different), cereal, crackers, new knives, Tupperware, and A TOASTER OVEN!!! However the toaster oven was 64 Ghana Cedis! My heart was breaking as I passed it by. I REALLY want a toaster oven to make cookies. I plan to keep looking and try the markets for a better deal.

So after shopping we arrived at the Pink Hostel, where we and other IFESH people planned to stay, we threw our things down and found FAST- yes I said it- FAST Internet. It was heaven. Then we were off to a restaurant/bar called Champs. It was nice to see other expats that were from all over. I met South Africans, Nigerians, Irish, Scottish, and a guy from Stone Mountain, Georgia. How nice. After dinner with other IFESH people I met up with Betsy at Champs for my favorite------KARAOKE! I was in heaven as I stood on stage singing Young MC’s Bust a Move with the MC for the night. Since I was the first to go, and I played “Price is Right” early, I received a whole bag of “prizes”. I won a t-shirt, a six-pack of beer (wasted on me since I don’t drink), a bottle opener, a notepad, and a jar of Heinz ketchup. I had a great time.

On Sunday, Jessie, Betsy and I headed to the beach for a day in the sun. Here is a picture of my avocado sandwich and chips (or fries). Yum!

Then we went back to Champs that night, again, for American movie night. I stayed for the fajitas with veggies, guacamole, and beans, but left before the movie since it was a scary movie and their had been a young kid following around the restaurant- I didn’t need any nightmares so I turned in early.

Monday my doctor appointment got moved to Tuesday so I just wondered around Osu, a part of Accra where there are many places to shop and eat, until Jesse and Betsy met up after their trip to the embassy. We had lunch at Ryan’s Irish Pub. It took a while to find it, but it was worth getting lost and paying for a cab. I had another avocado sandwich and humus. The sandwich was good, but the humus was off. The lightly of this beautiful and expensive place was the bathroom. It was beautiful! And worked! After lunch we spend too much money buying random stuff and then heading back to Champs for dinner. The waiter brought Jesse and Betsy their usual drinks (witch was special since it is a large and busy place and we had only been their twice). I had the server surprise me with a soda of his choosing. Bad idea. He brought me soda water- I really dislike soda water, but pretended to like it because I felt bad.

After Champs we went to Vienna City (there is also one in Kumasi that Jessie and I went to) to play pool and drink fruity drinks, It was well worth the 4 cedi cover charge.

Tuesday I went to the doctor which was so much faster in the states that they saw me early and got be out before it was even my appointment time. After the appointment I walked a few miles to the Vegan stand I saw on my first trip to Accra. I got their at around 10:30am and found out that she usually doesn’t get there until 11:30am. I waited until 12:30pm and finally she arrived. She felt so bad, but I was so ready for a totally vegan meal made by a vegan. It was so yummy and worth the wait. I was hoping for some sweets, but she only had juices instead. I ate my meal there on a patio with a tent off the side of the road and then walked back to the hotel with a bunch of goodies for dinner later.

The next time I am in town I plan to go to her restaurant, which I didn’t know existed. I meet back up with the girls at Ryan’s Pub after lunch and then we went on a hunt to get funny bracelets made. Since Jessie, Betsy and I are white, in town the children and adults will say- “Oburni” which is Twi for white person. It cracks me up. I feel like a celebrity because kids yell and wave as I pass by. So we got matching bracelets that say “Oburni”.

The guy making the bracelets didn’t get why it was funny, but it makes me smile. After a day of shopping I let the girls get dinner out while I retreated to the hotel room for a hot shower (I love hot water by the way) and my vegan leftovers. She fixed me:
two juices-which were too much ginger for me to handle-but good
a burger- which had the best bun ever, but the tofu “burger” wasn’t really a burger”
a samosa- YUMMMM it was the best by far, not traditional, but really tasty
a tofu kebab- onion and tofu in a currish power- pretty good
All and all it was pretty good. I was so happy to have a complete vegan meal from a vegan place. She was very pleasant and I think anymore going to Ghana should give her place on Ring Road a try.

Wednesday morning came and Betsy and I had to say goodbye to Jessie. It was sad, because none of us wanted the weekend to end.

Betsy and I tried to go back to Champs one last time, but it was closed so we settled for the restaurant attached to Champs called the Paloma. It was very nice. I just had a coke, since I don’t eat much when I travel. We had the chance to take the STC bus back to Konongo which was five cedis more, but to me so worth every cedi. The bus was air conditioned, our bags were put underneath, there were movies, and I had two seats to myself. I listed to my ipod (really Kevin’s ipod- thanks!) and chilled out all the way home. Part of me was sad to leave the city again, but then I was excited to get back to my home and my new family- Ma and Josephine. Ma even called me on the way home. It is nice to be missed.

Go Back and Check it out!

2008-10-20T03:36:00.000-07:00

I have just gone back to old blogs and added pictures. They are start back when I moved to Agogo- so go check them out.

Shout out to the Foodies Out There!

2008-10-20T03:07:00.000-07:00

Above is a picture of Gloria, on the left, and Josephine, on the right. Gloria is the sweetest girl that calls us for dinner each day. Josephine is my mom/cook/language coach/friend. She takes the time to tell us about every dish and is going to show me how to make some of them on my own. I love her.

Here are some pictures of the yummy foods I have been eating over the past weeks. I wish I had more documentation of the foods I have eaten, because I have been eating so well.

Below I have a stew that Josephine prepared and yams. We eat a lot of yams here so I included a picture of a cocoa yam plant.

Here I have another meal Josephine made= white rice, tomato sauce, oranges (that tastes like a mixture of oranges, lemons, and grapefruit) and a salad.

Below is my favorite that Josephine makes- Red Red!

Above is “Bless”ed Bread and Betsy. It is sugar bread and very good.

Last but not least I have my first homemade Avocado sandwich with Vegenaise! Since the fridge works is was nice and cool and yummy. I ate it with butter bread. Yummy! I also learned that avocados are called plums here and egg plants are called garden eggs. Very interesting.

Sorry- but this is not the last blog I will do about food. I already have countless more pictures of the yummy things I am eating- so I hope you don't get too bored.

Personal Wish List

2008-10-20T02:59:00.000-07:00

Many people have been asking if I wanted or needed anything. I seriously don’t need much- I have the basics. But if you guys are dieing to send me a care package here is a long list of things I miss/ want. Please don’t feel like you have to send me a thing, but some people were wondering (Mrs. Crider, Jen, Jill, Grandma, etc).

DVD’s – any workout videos (we do yoga or Pilates every night), any of The Office, It is Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Arrested Development, or ANY (really ANY) other movies or TV shows you think I would enjoy. (we don’t have a TV so we watch them on my computer- and there is a lot of down town in Agogo)
Vegan Snacks- cookies, brownies, the chewy bars that are vanilla and cashew, tings, etc
Letters- I got my FIRST POSTCARD from WILL EVANS- it made my day. I was so happy to get his cheesy LA postcard- so THANKS Will! My new BFF.

I am not going to publish my address, but if you need it email me.

Thank you in advanced.

A wish list for the Teacher Resource Center is coming soon. I need to finish my work inventory to assess my school and students needs.

Starting Work in Agogo

2008-10-20T02:51:00.000-07:00

Last week, Ma, my principal, and Papa, the assistant principal and chaplain, have been taking use to various places to meet people. This week Betsy and I have been much more busy with the Teacher Resource Center. Here is a picture from the Teacher Resource Center where we will be holding classes on creating Teacher Learning Materials (TLMs) and hosting workshops for teachers in the community on various topics. Betsy and I set out to create an inventory of all of the items in the Resource Center on an Excel document (thanks for the idea Jessie). So between logging in books we would move a few things around. The IFESH volunteer before us, Erica, had done a fantastic job with the place- so not much was changed.

Since the World Cocoa Foundation is one of our partners were are asked to think of how we can use available resources to create TLM’s. I can’t wait to see what great things we think to create.

This week we also got a chance to visit another Cocoa Farm in a town around 30 minutes from Agogo. Agogo Presbyterian Training College has partnered with woman in the community to create a soap making business. It is very interesting. Betsy and I will be working with these woman to find funding to finance another building for them to expand the operation. Here I have a picture of the woman boiling the soda created from the filtered water from cocoa husk ash. The boiling takes about four days. It is a very long and interesting process. We plan to see more of the process next week.

Above Papa, the assistant principal, is exiting the soap making building. Papa hopes that we can build another building this year. Wish us luck!

Also- "A Day in the Life of Alison is Agogo" is going to be coming soon!

Kumasi Visits

2008-10-17T02:18:00.000-07:00

Since I have been in Ghana I have visited Kumasi, the second largest city, twice. The first time I traveled to Kumasi with my principal to get things for our house. Last weekend I went to Kumasi with Jessie, from IFESH, and we were there for hot water, A/C, internet, and western food. Both trips were fun so here are some pictures from these visits.

These are pictures of a busy street in Kumasi- one of the many busy streets on Saturday market day. These were taken from inside our van.

We have a picture of the city which is densely populated and has a lot to offer.

The picture of the clothes line was the view from Jessie and my fourth floor hotel room at the Fousaa Hotel.

While in Kumasi with Jessie, we went to three internet café’s, ate “pizza” twice, visited the Vienna Pub- that had a 4 Ghana Cedi (the Ghana currency) cover charge???, and stopped at countless shops to browse. It was a nice change of pace from the rural ness of Agogo.

No Internet makes it hard to have a blog

2008-10-14T08:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry that I haven't been able to update my blog as much as I had hoped. It is really hard getting to the internet and when I do it is terribly slow. I spent two hours at an internet cafe in Kumasi this weekend, but only got the chance to check and answer only six emails. I also am having a hard time upload my pictures to photo bucket, because there are so many I want to upload. I hope to have time this coming weekend in Accra to get a great blog or two done.

Well- the house is shaping up- we have running water again (we were out for around 5 days), our fridge is fixed, the stove top has been replaced, and we are having some shelves build by a local carpenter. Tomorrow I am going to town to get my first two new dress that were made by a tailor named George. I can't wait. I have found that I really don't like wearing pants hear, because it is hot and most woman where long skirts. I also have only worn my jeans two days. I can't believe it either (my friends know that is all I wear). I have been having an easy time staying vegan here, because a woman named Josphine cooks amazing vegan Ghanaian meals for Besty and I. I am really lucky.

Things I miss- Internet, the Office (TV show), Target, my car, my friends, my family, and Lola. But I am not homesick yet- give me a few more weeks and we will see.

Agogo- Home Sweet Home- MORE PICTURES!

2008-10-05T07:58:00.002-07:00

Before/After
I finally arrived in Agogo Thursday, Oct 2nd. My principal, Grace (we call her ma) assitant principal, Daniel, and their driver,Fred, picked Besty and I up from Accra. We drove to Agogo through many towns of the Eastern Region, which is Grace's orignal home.

We arrived at our home around 5pm (17:00 miltary time). It is a nice home on the college campus and we share the same yard as our principal to our right, and assitant principal, to our left. The house is very cute. It has a large livingroom with a ceiling fan and large windows, two large bedrooms with fans and windows, a cute kitchen, a large shower, and a toliet. We have running water, although currently it is out, and power, which has only been off once. We are getting a new stove top put in tomorrow, and are soon going to have an oven and a fridge.

Until then our principal has had us over for every meal. This amazing cook's name is Josephine. She has made me Jollof rice and Red Red. She also promises me that she is going to teach me to cook. I can't wait. I am also trying my best to learn Twi- the main language here beside English.

I do not have internet in Agogo, so Betsy, my fantastic roomate, and I have traveled to a near by town of Konongo (spelling?) for 1 Ghana Cedi (GH$1) to get to an Internet cafe'. We have been on the computer of an hour now and plan to add 30 minutes to the clock. As for pictures- I'm not sure when those will be posted since I usually do that from my own computer and their is no wireless internet here.

Well- until I have more time...take care everyone!

Kitchen- it is much cleaner now

My room on laudry day before I got my net put up.

My trash can full of water- this is where I get water for everything when the water goes out. I love running water!

IFESH Ghana Buddies

2008-10-05T07:58:00.001-07:00

I have told you about my group, IFESH, and now I am going to tell you a bit about my group her in Ghana. First up are Stella and Kwesi. They are in charge of the IFESH Ghana Office in Accra. They are warm people and very helpful.

Here we have Cynthia. She is teaching Financial Markets in a college in Accra. She is from Florida. She is an extremely knowledgeable lady who can crack you up with her amazingly honest facial expressions.

Next is Pamela. She has been mistaken for my mom on a few accounts. I don’t know if she likes it, but I do. She is originally from South Africa, but went to school in England. She now lives in New Jersey in a historic and haunted house. She is a world traveler and went to Cote d’Ivorie two years ago. She loves to run every morning- I hate/love her for this. One day I will be more like her. She is teaching English in a college in Fiapre-Sunyani.

Shukriyyah has been placed a teacher training college in Jasikan in the Volta Region. She is a feisty woman that has written her own vegetarian soul food cookbook. She has a great amount of energy.

Jessie and Karen are next. Jessie was my roommate when I went through training in Phoenix. Karen was originally suppose to go to Namibia, but we are so happy she is in Ghana instead. They have both been placed in Bechem to work at the teacher training college there. Jessie is from Washington state and Karen is from NY. They are both really down to earth and funny as all get out. I enjoy texting them throughout the day.

Amiyana and Martha also serve as my other mothers. Amiyana is a New Yorker that now lives in Cleveland and Martha is a yoga instructor from LA. They both have great spirits and have taken me under their wings. They are in Berekum Training College working with teachers. I know they will do great.

In Sefwi Wiawso we have Amber and Maxine who are both from NY. Maxine is a wise woman who is great with motivational support. I love being around her. Amber has the biggest heart and bubbly personality. Together they will be great for the training college there.

Last, but not least is my crazy redhead roommate Besty. She has the best laugh, is obsessed with wicker/matching our decor, loves Nescafe, hates mornings, loves Malawi (where she was originally placed), and is from North Carolina. Thank God for Besty or I may have already lost my mind.

Cocoa Farm Trip

2008-10-05T07:57:00.000-07:00

The trip to Tettah Quasha Cocoa Farm was very exciting. Here our guide showed us around the first cocoa farm in all of Ghana. Ghana is responsible for producing the second most cocoa in the world. The country that gives the most is Cote D’Ivoire next door.

Below we have a picture of our guide showing us a cocoa pod opened up. It was interesting to see how slimmy it is inside. We also got the chance to taste the outside of a cocoa bean before it is dried. The "slimmy" placenta was sweet, but Betsy face doesn't tell you that.

After they take the beans out of the cocoa pod they place them on leaves of surrounding trees (plantain trees) and cover them to ferment. The come back from time to time to stir them and them leave them covered by these leaves until it is time to dry them.
Here is how the dry the beans. It was interesting to learn the process and I know that I am not doing it justice in this journal entry. The guide gave much more info. When I get more time on the Internet perhaps I will add on a few more things.

Day at the Beach

2008-09-28T11:22:00.000-07:00

Today Jessie, Pamela, and I journeyed to the beach. We spent $3 on our cab ride to the Lebadi Beach Hotel where we paid to have access to their beach (you can't swim on all beaches in Accra) and their pool. Below is a picture of the pool area.

After getting their Jessie and I walked out to the beach. On the way out to the beach we walked across a walkway over a "swamp".

Then we walked under beautiful palm trees.

Once we got to the beach we were greeted (or hounded) by people wanting us to get on horses to take pictures. I did not want to do this.

The beach was nice, but very rough. So we spent most of the day by the pool in lounge chairs with lizards that came to visit and protect us from insects.

Out to the Martket on Saturday

2008-09-28T00:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday our country representative hired a tour guide and driver for us. Their job was to show all eleven of us around and let us pick up a few things that we needed before we got out of Accra. So we set off down the road to go to a market that sells touristy stuff/ beautiful art- outfits, baskets, art, jewelry, etc. The next few pictures are what we saw on the way there. The first is a typical street in Accra, not as busy as the downtown or market area.

As we drove through the city, even busy parts of the city, vendors would walk though the lines of traffic. This reminded me of back home when firefighters or middle school football players ask for money at stoplights, but instead of one or two people is it five or six and they will walk anywhere on the street, not just at stop lights. They also don't ask for money they want you to buy Pringles, batteries, fruit, and water as seen below.

I don't know why I thought that I would only see people carrying things on their heads in the village. It is extremely common here and I am wondering why don't more cultures carry things on their heads. It is also something that old and young people do as well as men and woman. It is just an easy way to move a large item (eg. 7 thin mattresses, crate of glass coke bottles, and the list goes on).
While driving through the neighborhoods near Jamestown Fort (now a prison) it was hard to witness the poverty. I would just remind myself that Ghana has come so far and is still moving forward. Then my glimmers of hope were the football (or soccer) fields as any open area.

Finally we reached the National Cultural Centre or Arts Centre this was the arts and craft market. My guide book quoted as saying, "readers begin to be split evenly on whether or not the level of hassle and pushiness is acceptable or not." I would say it was a bit much, although the artists there were quite talented. I also saw a monkey on a chain and almost lost it. Luckily for all of you my camera ran out of battery power.

After the Cultural Centre we treked to the monument for Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president. They just celebrated 50 years of independence in 2007 and you should click here for more information the celebration and history. Even though my camera was dead I wouldn't have been allow to take pictures of this beautiful structure. That is the same for many buildings here- to photos allowed.

After the memorial we drove to the part of town where Makola Market is located. Basically picture New York City, at rush hour, traffic jams, in the heat of the summer, and then multiply that by 2. It was crazy. So we had had enough hassle full shopping so we voted to just see it from the road. It is the one of the largest markets in Ghana, and it is probably the biggest I will ever see. It is said that Accra population triples when Makola Market is open- which is daily.

Next stop was lunch at Dynasty Chinese Restaurant. It was expensive and pretty. I didn't eat, because I didn't want to chance getting an upset stomach. For those that don't know me- I have IBS and it causes me to worry about eating or not eating. So far on this trip I hadn't missed a meal until this lunch. I also made up for it by eating a whole plate of Red Red when I got back to the hotel.

After the Chinese Restaurant we saw where WEB Du Bois is buried. If you don't know of this mans accomplishments click here. This was something I wanted to see while in town, but unfortunately there were no more tours for the day.

Last stop on this long day was to the Accra Mall. It was extremely westernized and expensive. I did however find Soy Milk!!! It was as at a store called Shoprite. They had a brand I had never heard of and Silk. I bought both. I also saw tons of fake meats in the freezer section. I was in heaven, but didn't buy any because I really want to try new things while I am away, but at least I know where I can go.

That is pretty much the day. Today I am off to the beach!

First Few Days in Accra

2008-09-27T00:39:00.000-07:00

Above is a picture of me yesterday in the courtyard of my hotel. As you may notice the hotel is beautiful. They have so many amazing tropical plants that it reminds me of my trip to the Caribbean. My room has a TV, refrigerator, A/C, hot water, and wireless Internet. So much for my hopes of "roughing" it. I loved living with Aubry, my friend whose couch I surfed for over a month, but this place is amazing.

Our country representative, Kwesi, gave all of us Wednesday/Thursday(felt like two days-not one) to lounge around, because we were all so sleepy and off our schedule. Then yesterday we had a meeting where we met with USAID and our accountant. The bulk of our meeting topics covered- "what does one Cedi buy (the Ghanian dollar which exchanges for one US dollar)? when should we tip? are there names for the peswas (the Ghanaian cents) like nickel, dime?" For the most part it was an informative day.

Eating hear has been pretty good. Thursday for lunch I had Red Red which was fantastic. Red Red is fried plantains and red beans in a spicy sauce. Want to know more click here. For dinner I didn't want to ask as many questions, because my server at lunch had a hard time understanding me. In Ghana they speak English, but unfortunately I speak American really fast. so decided to be the Vegetable Salad- thinking it sounded safe. I was wrong. It was many vegetables- green beans, cucumbers, squash, and egg (didn't know that was a vegetable) covered in a white sauce (that didn't smell like mayo, but I don't know what else I could be) on a bed of lettuce. I picked out all of the lettuce that didn't have any dressing on it and tried to find vegetables not cover in dressing, but it was found to be difficult- especial when I thought one was a cucumber and was an egg. That was my low of the day. Needless to say- I will be asking more questions.

Below is a picture of my lunch yesterday between training sessions. I love fried plantains now, and I think that is good because I have seen quite a few. There is also fried yam- which is nothing like a sweet potato. There was white rice, red beans and rice, and a yellow starch that reminded me of cous cous. Also- not pictured was the steamed cabbage and other veggies that I ate too fast.

My low point of these two days was eating a part of an egg and my high are these next pictures. Yesterday after our training sessions I journeyed out of the hotel to the nearest main road. Here I bought a phone card and just wondered. As I was walking I saw the word VEGAN. I thought I must have been seeing things, but then I saw VEGAN STAKES and TOFU KHEBAB. This is what I saw...

Heaven I tell you-

I couldn't stop smiling...

Too bad it was closed, but I am going back before I leave for sure!

Last night many people from my group ate together by the pool, our favorite table, and listened to a live band. I seriously feel like I am on vacation. Today, in a few hours, we are going to see the market. My brother, Cameron, told me to check see the heart of every city I travel too- where the business is- to see how the economy is really doing. Did I mention that my brother is a stock broker? Wish me luck. I will leave you with this last picture of the live Band playing during our meal.

I Arrived

2008-09-25T04:21:00.000-07:00

I just wanted you guys to know that I arrived to Accra, Ghana today around 7am. The time here is 4 hours ahead and when daylight saving comes it will be 5 hours ahead. I will write more about the city and have pictures when I am not really tired. Just so you know- the Vegenaise made it here in one piece!

To Fold or not to Fold....that's the question

2008-09-24T00:43:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday morning/ afternoon I work on the task of packing up for my trip. I am not really into clothes, shoes, and make up. So I had that going for me in terms of extra space. However I still managed to bring a lot of stuff. I planned to fill the extra space with food items- to make the homesickness less sever and veganism easier. The following picture is what made the cut- Pro Bars (find them at Cosmos Vegan Shoppe), Smart Deli Bologna, Eco-Planet Cheddar Cheese Crackers (taste like Goldfish-only vegan, find at Cosmos), Cliff Bars (I like the cranberry apple cherry flavor), Egg Replacer, and ABC cookies (not pictured).

We are only allotted two checked bags- each weighting fifty pounds, one carry on, and one personal item. I started packing a month ago while at my step mom and dad's house. Linda, my step-mom, is a master packer. I had her pack up my duffel bag with everything I didn't need of the next month (extra toiletries, shoes, work clothes, and a few books). So when I went to pack Tuesday I had only a bit of space left in the duffel which I some how fit a whole box of Cliff bars shoved around my things.

Once I moved on to my new bag I was faced with the time old question- To Fold or Not to Fold.

I have talked to many packing geniuses and they seem to be split on rolling clothes or folding them. So I did both and I used a space saving device called Space Bags. I bought the kind you roll out the extra air since I may not have a vacuum to suck the air out. It seemed to work well, but I didn't end up really need too much extra space. But just a reminder for those people out there that think Space Bags are the way to go, don't forget that getting the air out gives you more room, but it is still the same weight.

Well- If I find the really answer to Fold or Not to Fold- I will let you know.

I'm off to the airport!

Thanksgiving in September

2008-09-22T12:25:00.000-07:00

Since Thanksgiving is a USA thing- I had Thanksgiving early. We didn't celebrate the questionable relationship between the Native Americans and the Pilgrims, but we did eat a vegan feast. There was Tofurkey, stuffing, corn casserole, seitan pot pie, biscuits, gravy, mashed potatoes, salad, bunt cake, cupcakes, apple pie, green bean casserole, pigs in blankets, and dip. Needless to say I felt like I would explode, but I didn't.

The Official Going Away Par-Tay

2008-09-20T22:20:00.000-07:00

Saturday at 1pm I had my official going away party. I had it at Piedmont Park in downtown Atlanta. I stayed there from 1pm until 7pm. I had a blast playing bocce ball, eating BLP ("bacon" tempeh, lettuce, and pepper) sandwiches on English muffins, fryed dough and candy, swinging, rolling down a hill with friends, doing cartwheels, and sitting in the shade. The weather couldn't have been better nor the company. Here are a only a few pictures from the party (I have tons more).

Above are Jill, Destiny, and Kim looking tough after playing ball.

Above from left to right are Shep, Sara, Jen, Aubry, and Robin hanging out on this nice summer day.

Here I am with my surprise from Ryan(my shirt twin)- yummy BLPs!

It was a great day. Perhaps I should go out of town more often.

Schoolbox Website Update

2008-09-19T13:36:00.002-07:00

I have officially been added to the Schoolbox website (www.schoolbox.com). Go to their website, scroll down to the box titled "Alison's Adventure" with a funny pictures of me, and click on the box. This will bring you to a page that has way too much information about me (just kidding). There is also a video of the interview I did for them. I can't bring myself to watch it yet, but I heard that it isn't horribly embarrassing, but Jill Price is often too nice to me.

Last Visit to Augusta

2008-09-19T13:36:00.001-07:00

I just got back from my last trip to Augusta. Augusta, Georgia is the city that I grew up in. I leaved there from birth to eighth grade. Now quite a few family members live there so it is a one stop shop of family bonding. First I visited my step sister, Cortney, her husband, Aric, and her fourteen month old girl, Taylor Ann. Here is her doing what she does best- laugh.

Next on the scheduled hangouts was dinner with my father's brother's family at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. Here is me with my uncle, Ace, and my aunt, Jeannette.

Here you see my cousin, Reita, who I spent most of my summer with, since I babysit her in Atlanta. I love this little girl.

And this is the whole gang! From left to right- Ace, Jeannette, JoAnn (my cousin), me, Kathleen (my sister-in-law), Reita, Cameron (my brother), and in front is Harriett, the best niece ever.
After that tear filled goodbyes that night I spent alot of time with my brother, his daughter, my sister-in-law, and Lola (my dog/bff).

I met Lola at the Fulton County Animal Shelter back in March of 2004. I took her on April Fools Day. Since the first minute I met her I knew something happened to her in her past to make her extremely skittish. She hates doorways, doesn't like sudden moments, and takes a while to warm up to people. She is not mean at all, just scared of everything. Needless to say it was a hard week getting Lola to chill out at my brother's house. She isn't used to having so much attention paid to her (I guess I am a horrible parent). By the end of the week she had gone on a walk with Kathleen, laid on the couch downstairs for hours, and ran around happily in their huge backyard. I am so happy that I have family willing to put up with my crazy dog and give as much love as I do.

On Thursday night I had one last family dinner. Here is a picture of dinner with my mom's side of the family. From left to right- Grandma Anne (my mom's mom), Me, Harriett, Cameron, Kathleen, Cathy (my aunt), and Joey (my mom's brother).

It was nice to visit everyone. My grandma even made me oatmeal Friday morning before I left and sent me home with a bag of boiled peanuts.

What a great visit. The only down fall was having to say goodbye for 9 months. The hardest goodbye was Lola. If you don't really do the "pet" thing you may not get how much your pet become apart of who you are. Lola is with me more than anyone else and vice versa. I know she will have a blast with my brothers family (he has two great kids that are going to spoil her rotten), but I can't help missing my partner in crime.

Vegenaise Update

2008-09-19T13:36:00.000-07:00

Leigh from Cosmo's Vegan Shoppe and I talked about my love for Vegenaise and decided how I am going to get it to Ghana. Since Vegenaise is perishable- I need to have it on ice for the hours I will traveling. So I am going to bubble wrap the jar, stick in in a small cooler with ice, and stick the cooler in one of the bags that I am checking. Wish me luck!

Comments?

2008-09-13T21:59:00.000-07:00

Just in case you have tried to comment, but could not due to the need for an account- I changed it. So comment until your heart is content!

Schoolbox Interview and Donation

2008-09-12T11:54:00.000-07:00

Schoolbox has been my employer over the summer and I had worked there for two years back in 2005 or so. Schoolbox is a teacher supply store that has tons of great resources for teachers, parents, and anyone that likes to learn/ or teach. Checkout there website www.schoolbox.com. When I started back to the Schoolbox in June of this year I talked to Aimee, one of the corporate office marketing superstars, and told her about my plans to teach in Ghana. She asked me how I was getting my teaching supplies over to Ghana, and I told her that I didn't know because I wasn't sure IFESH would be reimbursing me for shipping fees. The next week Aimee called me into the office and told me AMAZING news- Schoolbox wanted to ship my supplies to Ghana for me! I was floored. This solved one of the biggest problems I had faced in this move. The only catch was they wanted to interview me and have me dialogue with Schoolbox shoppers about my experience. Little did they know -I love talking to strangers about my adventures! So I signed up for the chance to share my adventure with the Schoolbox world.

On Tuesday, August 26th, I meet with Phillip from Schoolbox to do an interview. I talked about the IFESH program, what I would be doing, how long I would be there, what goals I had for myself, how I felt and what I would miss about being so far from home, and what three things I would love to have in a care package. I did a pretty good job on the quiz- but since the interview I have thought more about the top three things I would like a care package of. So here it is:

TOP THREE THINGS I WOULD LOVE A CARE PACKAGE OF:
1. Veganaise (vegan mayo- mayo with no dairy(I don't eat meat, or dairy, or buy animal product/by products)
2. Homemade Vegan meal (Jill's Pesto, Jen's Lasagna, Chris's Thai Tofu, and Sean's soup are my favorites)
3. The Office TV show this season or other good movies I will know nothing about.

IFESH Training Days 6-8

2008-08-25T18:19:00.000-07:00

The last days of training for the trip to Africa were very interesting. We had sessions on HIV/AIDS awareness, gender equity, best teaching practices, cultural sensitivity, and diseases spread in tropical areas. I learned so many great techniques and met so many amazing people. After a long day of training sessions I went out to downtown Tempe with a few people from the program. This picture is of my new friends- From left to right- Jessie (my roommate during training), Sonya (going to Guinea), Jennifer (going to Malawi), and Rose (going to Cote D'ivoire).

We had a great time. Then on Friday night we had a banquet. It was very nice to have speakers motive us and thank use for "taking a year out of our lives", but I don't think I am taking a year off, I think I am finally doing something extremely worthwhile. The following are pictures from our banquet.

I had a great trip to Arizona and I am really excited about my adventure. I signed my contract on Friday- so it official- I AM GOING TO GHANA!!! If you would like to visit- just email me. So far I have one visitor on my list- Kim McGee. I love the travel agent for IFESH- so if you want to come check out his site- www.tzell.com

I will write more when there is more to tell.

IFESH Training Days 1-5

2008-08-20T17:48:00.000-07:00

For the past five days I have been in sunny Arizona at my IFESH training. IFESH stands for the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help. This is the program that is sending me to Ghana. The founder is the late Rev. Leon H. Sullivan

To find out more about this amazing man please visit:
http://www.ifesh.org/content.php?info_id=138

who was a social change agent that worked against discrimination in America, apartheid in South Africa, and many other issues to better communities around the world. IFESH came out of his many trips to Sub Saharan Africa where he saw a need to for help in developing countries education systems.

The training has been really interesting. So far we have talked about our countries, learned how to track out progress, and discussed lesson planing ideas for topics of environmental, health issues, gender equity, and HIV/ AIDS awareness. Tomorrow we are going to learn more about Malaria which I am very passionate about due to the fact that one of my former teachers and mentors died from it.

The hotel we are staying in is very nice. I have included pictures from my balcony. There is also a comfy bed, warm pool, and great breakfast. I will write more when I find more time.

Homeless

2008-08-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

I am currently without a home. I moved out of my house on August 1st and two really nice people moved in. They have two dogs and I think they are going to take really good care of my house while I am gone. Lola and I are bunked up at Aubry's house, and have already been to Tony & Jill's, and Blair & Jen's. We are having a blast on our tour of homes.

On Saturday I will be flying to Scottsdale, Arizona for my Teachers For Africa training. I will be gone until August 23. Once I return I hope to have much more information about my program. So far all I know is that September 24 I am off to Agogo, Ghana to become a teacher trainer. Crazy.