Favorite things in Ghana

I have to thank Laura Hattrup for the Prompts and asking me about my experience. I am not good at writing about myself just to do it. I am better at answering questions. If you want to hear more just ask more questions. Thanks for reading.

Favorite thing to do is actually two things: First is dancing here it is a whole lot of fun and so easy. The drumming and enthusiasm everyone has makes it impossible to remain seated. They all love to see the crazy white dancing. They tell me I am pretty good but I cannot tell if they are being nice to me I just know it is fun and it has brought me closer to the people. Second thing is simply taking my afternoon 3 o’clock walk around town. It takes me about an hour because I have two places where I like to sit and watch people and the lagoon. I like it because I have to greet maybe 30 to 40 people as walk around. They just love to hear me speak the local language Ewe. Another thing that is fun is that there are about 10 to 15 different little kids who see me while I am walking around. They have one of three different reactions. First reaction, complete terror even though I have been here for almost a year and see these kids on an almost daily basis some of the little ones are still terrified of me. They think there is something wrong with me because I am white. Second reaction, they are playing or doing something and they just yell Efo Yao(My Local name) and wave really big. Third reaction, this is probably the most common one they see me and yell my name an run towards. When they get to me they are jumping up and down. They want me to lift them in the air all I have to do is lift them in the air once and they are happy as can be. One little girl lift up by her head because she always grabs my arms. One little boy I pick him up and shake him upside down because it scares his little sister. Another little I just lift her up in the air and when she is the highest she has a look of complete terror. Then when I put her down she turns around and runs away. It is hilarious. There will never be anyone in my life that is happier to see me than those kids are on a daily basis. Favorite new food is Akple which is ground corn that is cooked and stirred into a giant ball of starch with the consistency of slimy mashed potatoes it is really hard to describe it because I have never had anything else like it. You take a piece of Akple with your hands and dip it into a stew which is made up of fresh cut tomatoes and onions. It also has ground Peppay in it which makes it really spicey and delicious. The protein comes from tiny fish maybe two inches long that have been fried whole and are very crunchy. I know it may not sound that great to you but it grows on you and I guarantee when I get back to America I will be craving it.
Favorite people that is the hardest question to answer there are many many of them but I will narrow it down to three and not include any small children. First, The Old Man I call him that because I do not know what else to call him. He is the oldest man in town and he is my neighbor I use his latrine and his house to bathe in. He is probably 90 + years old speaks no Ewe and can barely walk. He is however the most respected man in town and even though we have two chiefs in my town if there is anything that needs to be decided they go to him first. He is like the godfather who he sits in his house all day and people just come to him to say hello and talk to him about the village. I would say on average 50 different people come to his house every day just to talk to him. He has told me I need to learn Ewe better so we can talk with having a translator which would be awesome but I do not think my Ewe will ever be that good. Second, is the old lady who lives at the house of the people who cook my. There are three women who live in the house with some children but I like the old lady the best. Again I do not know her name and she does not speak English but she is really sweet and nice to me. She says we should marry so she can follow me back to America and cook for me she has been telling me this since the first time I met her. Third Person is Winfred he is my counterpart, supervisor, coworker, best friend and cultural liaison. It is pretty safe to say if it was not for him my service would not be near as fun or fruitful. He is a really good person to work with and with him we have gotten a lot of work done and have big plans for my next year in Ghana. I really cannot say it better than that he is very important to my work and life here.
My job, very good question I do not know exactly what I do here but I have been keeping very busy. My job is to promote tree growing and Agro-forestry techniques in Ghana and also promote alternative livelihood projects to help people find other sources of income. What I have done is start a tree nursery and we have nursed over 7000 trees. We have had amazing support from two villages. To nurse them we first had to collect and cut water satchets wich are small plastic bags filled with pure water. We cut the tops off them and cut holes in the bottom for water and roots. So we had to cut them and fill them with dirt and place them in beds of 600 then we planted the seeds in them. After we nursed them for 3 months we have started to transplant them in a field we have transplanted about 3500 with the help of about 100 people from the village I live in. The people have been great. We hope to get some support from and NGO called Trees For The Future and be able to promote Agro-forestry with our trees next year. Agro-forestry is a technique of planting trees on your farm to help improve soil and yields. Another thing I am doing is working with a group of farmers and fishermen/women to start a cooperative to get some help to start fish farming. This is more difficult to do but potentially really exciting. I have made some good contacts but we are struggling to get some help but I think help is coming from a new worldwide initiative about food security. The third thing I am doing is I want to build a public latrine in my community. The current one is really disgusting and one of them has no roof and the waste either is released in the lagoon or eaten by the pigs which roam free around town. I am going to ask my friends and family help and donate some money and we hope to build a new 10 seat latrine that is better for people and the environment. This project is only in my head and I hope it gets more attention when our trees are planted.
Most beautiful scene has to be coming in to my village when the water is high. It is a picture that is on my facebook page. It really is awesome and I cannot believe I have been lucky to get such a cool village. I call it Peace Corps Paradise.
Best moment was probably two weeks ago when we decided to transplant our trees. We had been talking to my village for 3 months and telling them we will need their help to transplant our trees. I did not know if anyone would help us. When the day came over 100 people men, women and children came together to help us plant 1500 trees in one day before 10 AM. It was awesome and probably my best moment and Peace Corps. I cannot tell you how rare and awesome that is for a community.Most interesting situation, about two months ago there was a funeral in town for three people. These people where not Christians they were as we call them traditionalists who believe in native African religion. Most people in my village fall in to this category but not everyone has a funeral like this. In the morning I heard them coming into town they were singing, drumming and dancing. I saw three women coming with idols on their heads. There was also a few traditional priest following them around along with a group of about 40 people. These women represented the dead people and they and the group wondered around town for about an hour visiting every shrine. They acted crazy and wondered around without rhyme or reason. Then everyone in town came together and drummed and danced for about 4 hours in front of the idols. While they where drumming about 10 women began cooking in four pots that where placed near the dancing ground. They gave the food away and when they were done cooking the put oil into the pots and lit them on fire. The same women who were cooking then walked around the pots and waved at the fire until it went out which took at least an hour. It was one of those holy shit I live in West Africa days and it was really cool.

Thanks for reading
Derek