Ghan-a long time!

Hey Everyone! Sorry about the horrible pun I started this entry with, but can you believe I’ve been gone for a year now? September 30th was our one-year mark since we’ve arrived in Ghana. There are days where it definitely seems like its been longer, but I think I’ve learned more about myself and about the world in the one year I’ve been here, than my whole four years in college. Some of the volunteers who have been here for two years and are getting geared to leave keep reminding us that the second year goes by in a flash. At first, I was relieved, knowing I’ll be back home where I can drive my own car, go to baseball games, and eat glorious amounts of goldfish crackers and apple pie, but than I felt sad, realizing that I’ll eventually have to leave all the relationships I’ve developed, and the community I’ve been living in, behind. Well enough of the reflection, here’s what I’ve been up to in the past few months.

The month of Ramadan just came to an end on September 20th, which is a lunar-based holiday. The people in my community are mainly Muslim, so the whole community was partaking in the month of fasting. They were only allowed to drink water and eat food before 5AM and after 6:30PM. In support of my community, I also decided to attempt the fasting, but unfortunately, failed miserably. I didn’t even last 7 hours! On the first day, I was feeling so hot and dehydrated by noon, so I had to drink water. I have so much more respect for the adults and youth as young as 14 who do this year after year. People would ask me how I was doing with the fasting, but I had to confess that I had to give in, but I promised that I would try again next year. They just laughed and told me that I needed to build a stronger body. I also admire the strong dedication the Muslims have to their faith. They do their prayers five times a day, without ever missing, even one! I hear the loud call to prayer every 4:30AM, 12:30PM, 3:30PM, 6:30PM, and 7:30PM, selfishly, knowing the daily schedule of prayers has become very convenient for me, since I don’t need to rely on a clock anymore.

There’s a hippo sanctuary that’s 18K away from my village, and is known to be a great tourist attraction. It’s a community based ecotourism site, so its run entirely by community members and all the profit goes right back into the community. They were started up and supported by the Calgary Zoo in Canada and also by an NGO called NCRC. October 10th marked the Hippo Sanctuary’s 10th year anniversary, so we had a grand celebration! There was a lot of dancing and dancing.

Many of the people who live in my village have never even been able to enjoy the hippo sanctuary, even though they live so close. So, I decided to create a program called, “Race to the Hippos!” I proposed an essay contest to all the Junior High school students. The prompt being, “what does it mean to do good in one’s community and what kinds of things have you done/plan to do?” The prize would be a free night stay at the hippo sanctuary and a riverboat tour to see the hippos. I had a lot of entries, and the hardest part was having to pick the six best essays. I also invited some of the volunteers within my region to bring a student in their village that exemplified being a positive role model. All in all, we had 12 students and 10 volunteers participate in the event. So, this is where the word “race” comes in. I challenged the students and volunteers to run the whole 18K to get to the sanctuary to promote healthy lifestyles. We had seven student runners and only two volunteer runners (me, being one of them). The rest of the people biked. I think during the race, I hated myself all the way, but at the end, it was well worth it! At the sanctuary, we took the riverboat tour and saw some hippos. In the end, I think the students really enjoyed the experience and appreciated the value of the sanctuary in their community even more.

I was donated some oral hygiene products from an organization at UNC. With the products, we did an oral hygiene lesson with the Primary school students, forms 1-6. We had a student come up and demonstrate the correct technique of brushing one’s teeth and we discussed the various diseases one can acquire when we don’t have proper oral hygiene. After the lesson, as the students walked out the door, we handed them a toothbrush and a small tube of toothpaste. I think the kids enjoyed the fun designs on the toothbrush more than the toothbrush itself.

From my latest entry, I mentioned that I was working on a PEPFAR proposal to fund my HIV/AIDS program. Well, I got word that the proposal was accepted in late July, which prompted us to begin with the preparations. Since late August, we’ve started the program and have been doing outreach in various communities that we have mapped out in advance. So far, we have reached out to about 25 communities, tested about 600 people, and educated about 8,000. The program has been going pretty well, but nothing comes without its downfalls. Unfortunately, we are in the middle of rainy season, and the weather has been tempestuous. This has caused some of the roads to become inaccessible due to flooding and/or cancel the program due to the rain. Other than that, I’ve enjoyed venturing to some of the communities. It’s incredible how isolated some of the villages are and the reaction I get when they see me. You can tell that some of the people have never stepped foot out of their villages, by the sense of bewilderment they get by seeing their first “white person,” magically appear in their village.

Well, that’s all for now. I hope that everyone is healthy and happy!

Peace!