July 19, 2012- Day 14

This summer is just flying by. I looked at the date today and couldn't believe it. Its already been two weeks!

This morning at work we sprayed more weed killer everywhere.  They bought us rubber boots and as I was stomping around in my boots feeling like a 5 year old, I stepped on a pricker and it went through my boot and stabbed my foot, so now there is a splinter in my foot that I can’t get out. after a few hours of spraying, we stopped working and Aya brought me to a parent/teacher meeting at her children’s school.  She put her baby(Monica) on my back and I carried her the whole way there.  Its really cool to feel like I’m starting to belong in a weird way.  I don’t really, but they allow me to participate and that is cool.  I feel like I am part of the family, the older daughter who is helping her mom and dad out on the farm and with the cooking and the children.  Oh wait, first, the weed repellent started leaking all down my back (the sprayers are like a backpack full of liquid with a pump) which is potentially harmful if it gets absorbed by the skin, so they made me come into their hut/house and tried to make me take a bath. I decided not to, but Aya made me take my clothes off and put some of her fabric around me.  Then she washed my clothes, and gave me a pair of her clothes to wear.  So there I am walking through the village, wearing her clothes, carrying her baby on my back, going to a parent/teacher meeting.  So we get there and there are all these parents, mostly moms, and they’re all yelling and talking and debating about something.  And I can’t understand them but I was watching closely because it was getting really intense.  Aya was super pissed, just yelling and pointing her finger in the air, while nursing Monica.  And then her daughter Jessica who goes to school there and is four years old, came in and looked really sad.  I realized she had a fever because she was so hot on her forehead and especially under her armpits. Jessica came and laid in my lap for a long time and I just held her and rubbed her back as Aya was standing up shouting about stuff.  Then finally we left and Aya carried Jessica on her back while I carried Monica on mine.  It’s funny that they carry kids on their backs.  If my child was sick and couldn’t walk home I’d carry her in my arms in the front, not the back.  But to them its just the way things are.  It’s so interesting to me. 

Did I mention that Monica peed on me while we were walking to the school? Babies and kids pee everywhere.  They don’t wear diapers so if the baby has to pee she’ll just pee while sitting on your lap, or on your back or standing on the ground.  See, I told you I was getting the full cultural experience: Wearing her clothes, baby on my back, pee on my back like any normal Ghanaian mother.  On the walk back, Monica fell asleep on my back which was really cute and made me happy.  

Then back at work, the man who is the overseer of agriculture for the government of Ghana was there. He asked me questions about my life and the work we do there.  Reverend Sam filmed it as if it were a promotional video for the project and said he is going to put it on the website because I made it sound so good.  

When I got back home, I showered thoroughly for the first time in a while and went to the ProWorld house to be interviewed by the staff there about how my project was going so far.  They just want to make sure the participants are happy.  I also got a sheet of paper to fill out for what to put my project money toward.  A small part of the money we pay to ProWorld gets given back to us to donate to the project that we are working for.  We have to fill out a sheet in conjunction with the project director in order to designate the money to a particular area.  There are so many things that need to be done on the farm and so many awesome ideas that Rev. Sam has come up with for improvement.

I found something awesome today. Its cookies that are basically chocolate graham crackers with chocolate cream inside.  I ate two packages of them immediately.  They are so good and pretty cheap.  It was very satisfying.  I also got to talk to Jake, email everyone and upload photos so it’s been a pretty good day on every level (other than the splinter in my foot).

I am reading a book called “The Power of Now” which is a spiritual guide to enlightenment, one of my Zen Yoga type of books.  It’s really eye opening which brings me to my point which is that I am doing a lot of wonderful things here.  I am having many many experiences while still having downtime to just enjoy life, be happy, contact the people that I love, and eat delicious cookies.  Life is amazing everyone!

There is a lot of random stuff going on this weekend that I will of course journal about.  

July 18, 2012- Day 13

Yesterday was a quick day at work.  Drew and I continued to weed the field.

Aya is the woman who owns the farm, along with her husband Kofi.  Yesterday she asked me to take her home with me.  She wants to learn English.  She said her hands are tired from working her whole life.  She said she would clean my house every day if I brought her home.  She can’t speak English, just some words, but there is a woman who works with us and translates for her.  The idea of bringing her home is so right in my mind.  Maybe someday when I have money and a home, I could help her and get her a new life, a life that she wants.  Everyone here wants to go to America.  It’s the dreamland to them (streets paved in gold, all that).  It was really moving to hear her say her hands were tired.  I want to help her.  It’s so hard being here for that reason.  I want to help everyone.  She’s the most wonderful person.  She is always laughing very loudly, smiling and helping us with everything.  I love being around her and being at the farm.  The people are so bubbly and wonderful.  I feel like I am becoming a part of their family.  Today she taught me how to put a baby on your back the way they do, tying the baby with a piece of cloth. It’s a really smart way to carry babies.  I wouldn’t mind doing that when I have kids, keeping it close to you tied to your chest or back.  She is also trying to teach me how to balance things on my head.  It is not easy.  The point is that on the farm I really feel like I’m getting an Ghanaian cultural immersion experience.  I’m working with Ghanaians, eating with them, socializing with them, holding their babies, laughing with them, and most importantly being taught by them.  It’s so incredible.

Last night, ProWorld went out for pizza and ice cream.  It was a nice relief from the food here.  I ate so much pizza because it was so good.  And the ice cream that I got was cookie ice cream- chocolate chip cookie pieces inside ice cream is genius.  I got to socialize a bit and just enjoy myself.  This kind of stuff is making the days go by really fast.  But when I got home I started feeling really homesick and frustrated by being here.  It’s hard to not have constant access to back home.  I’m not in control of my bank account, my relationships, my life, everything is put on hold and there’s nothing I can do about.  It can be upsetting at times, but not too often because I am staying busy.  

Today at work we weeded more and sprayed some areas with weed killer.  Then we were given a really cool opportunity.  On Wednesdays, Pastor Sam talks on a radio show for 1 hour, doing marital counseling.  This week he took us with him. We sat in the studio and watched them discuss marriage, speaking in Fante.  It was really cool to try to read their expressions and intense hand gestures, despite the absence of a visual audience.  The topic of the day was spiritual marriage.  People in Ghana are very superstitious and  believe in spirits and things of that nature.  Reverend Sam told us that often when a marriage is going poorly, people blame it on spirits that have come in and taken hold of the marriage or the person.  He said that instead of taking responsibility for their problems, trying to improve the situation, etc, they just blame it on a bad spirit and act like they can do nothing to help it.  So he tries to explain that this is neglectful and give advice about God and staying knowledgeable on biblical principles.  They took a moment to talk to us and ask us questions. They asked us about spiritual marriage but we just told them it doesn’t really have a place in our culture. We got to be on a Ghanaian radio show! After that, Pastor Sam took us out to eat at a restaurant and where we ate fufu, again.  Lately I haven’t been feeling well.  My stomach has been on edge and I have been having bathroom issues.  I am a bit paranoid so every ailment I feel, I begin to add up the symptoms and wonder if I am getting malaria or something else. For now, I am just waiting it out.  Suffice to say, fufu is the worst thing to eat on a bad stomach.  You eat it with your hands and the soup is very strong and spicy. It is a lot to eat and each piece of the dough that you swallow without chewing plops into your stomach like...well, like a ball of dough. All of those are bad things if you’re trying to settle your stomach.  To help heal sooner, I have been eating a lot of bananas which are easy to digest.

One day at a time, everyone.  That’s my new life motto.  There’s no purpose in really worrying about things that aren’t occurring at this precise time.  It is okay to plan ahead, but not to stress ahead. Stressing ahead is like playing make-believe.  You are pretending that something is happening when it isn’t actually happening yet.  So in order to stay calm, happy, and enjoy my time here and also when I get back home, I will be living my life slowly and calmly.  Lately I have been thinking about how much I have grown as a person over the past few years.  I really have broadened my view on life, experience, and enjoyment.  I have dealt with a lot of anxiety in these past few years and am getting a lot closer with myself, getting to know myself and understand myself much better.  I feel like I am climbing to the top of being able to really enjoy life in even very adverse situations.  I really can see the progress and feel the progress in my own mind, being there for myself and talking myself through things. This experience has really given me a sense of self confidence.

July 16, 2012- Day 11

Today on the farm we were weeding the organic plant garden.  The garden is a small field and is a complete mess.  The people who are in charge of the farm, and the help that the Reverend Sam, my project director, has paid for, do not really do their job.  He said that often he will pay them a lot of money and weeks later the work will still not be done.  They planted the seeds for a variety of vegetables on untilled ground.  There are roots, sticks, glass bottles and garbage everywhere and now little plants are growing.  So Drew and I went through, dug up the ground around the plants, and tried to get as many sticks and garbage out as possible.  But, it is a very large garden and will take many days to finish.  

Reverend Sam has many dreams and aspirations for this farm to come into.  He wants to breed grass cutters and rabbits in order to sell for meat.  He wants to dig an area to make a pond, fill it with ducks, and then sell them as meat. He wants to buy another processor to process palm nuts into palm oil (used to make margarine).  He is constantly talking of new things to come in the future, but I’m worried that at the pace of life here these things will come in the very distant future.  Ghanaian time is very different from American time.  Drew and I actually try to work more than they will let us.  We feel guilty taking 20 minute breaks every 1.5 hours.  They make us sit, they take us home early.  This is very good for us, but in terms of getting things done, it is a very slow moving process.  The pace of life is like that here.  People walk slowly, no one is in a rush.  The only thing that moves fast are the taxis.  If someone says they will be there by 8 am they mean we will leave at 9.30.  Its really different than in America.  Everything is by the hour at home.  We always work as hard as possible, as fast as possible.  Everything we do is rushed and planned out and organized and speedy.  The people here seem happier.  They have more time to enjoy each other.  They take breaks and talk and laugh and eat.  They work hard but they socialize and take time to live.  Its not that people don’t work here; they work all day and night sometimes.  They just do it at a snails pace in comparison with the pace that we do it at.  I don’t want to make judgments about either side, just observations and facts.  I don’t feel biased toward either one because both frustrate me for different reasons, based on different levels of my personality.  I love relaxing and taking breaks, but when Reverend Sam talks about the project and gets so passionate about making sure that things get done and looks so disappointed that these other workers he has hired are not doing their job, it makes me feel like I could be doing so much more to help along the entire process.  It would be amazing to get more people on this project that volunteer because if we had more than just the two of us, so much would get done and we would see actual change.  

One thing that is really exciting is this:  Upon arriving at the farm and doing the work, I really felt like I was just helping a family get their chores done and I thought that this, for me, was just going to be an experience in Africa in which I help out and learn from their culture.  However, Reverend Sam was telling me that after we leave he will stay in communication with us, sending us pictures and updates on the progress here.  Also, due to our work here we will be able to contact other projects with similar goals in many different areas of the world in order to encourage them to give donations to this project which would be a great help.  I’m really making connections in the world.  I was thinking of how cool it would be to come back here later in my life and see the farm and how different things are and somehow get involved with this work here again.  I'm not sure what I want from my life, but just the thought of knowing that there is an organization out there in the world that I have been a key component in and am now a part of the family of that project, really excites me.  Even if I do nothing with it, it’s just cool to know.  This is why I love opportunities like this and why I love the idea of traveling and getting involved in communities.  You are constantly making connections everywhere you go.  You are spreading yourself across the world and becoming a part of more and more every time.  This inspires me.  It even makes me want to do more community service at school this next year.  I worked in the soup kitchen one day last year.  Imagine what it would be like to work at hospice every weekend, to work in a soup kitchen, etc. People are incredible. The more people you meet, the more you are touched, changed, molded and the more you grow and learn about living and thriving.  I want to help people, but not just because I think that I can change the world.  I want them to change me so that I can go out and help even more.  I think the best thing we can realize about life is that we are not high and mighty and able to help everyone.  Learning is the best thing we can do. If we open ourselves up to learning from the people we encounter, then in our most unaware moments that part of them that is wonderful and good will come out and help someone else and spread that goodness to others.  As we all interact, we all pass each other on to one another.  I hope that when I come home I will be able to pass on some of the people I met in Africa to all of you; wonderful, happy, appreciative Africa.  And maybe this will help you to help yourself and others be more happy and appreciative because if there’s one thing I’ve learned in Africa it is to never take the small things or people in your life for granted because everything is precious whether it is someone you’re used to seeing every day or just a roll of toilet paper.  
Everything is something to be happy about.  Honestly, if you’re not worried about dying of malaria, then I don’t know what you really need to stress or be depressed about.  Have any of your relatives died in the past month or year suddenly due to inexplicable illness that they just came down with 2 days before they died? Are you concerned about where your next meal will come from? Do you only own one pair of clothes, and have sores oozing on your leg because you cant afford even the smallest bandage? The fact that all of my friends and family are okay and have been for a while and that everyone is warm and healthy and well fed, makes me beyond happy.   

Later:

I miss home a lot and I miss everyone that I know and love.  I miss being surrounded by family and love and noise and happiness and people who understand me.  

However, it has been really nice to get away.  I haven’t been without anyone in such a long time.  To finally have my own perspective and my brain back to myself feels refreshing.  I have endless amounts of time to read, do French Rosetta Stone, take walks and just be me by myself.  I haven’t really had this since going to school in 8th grade.  I used to love reading and being alone, and then I met so many people and spent all of my time with them. At university, there are always at least 2 or 3 people in my room at all times. I am always in communication with someone. On my walks back from class I call people from back home because that’s my only free time.  Here, I work and then have nothing to do all evening.  I have time to reflect and enjoy myself at a slow easy pace.  It’s a really nice time. I have met people here but I’m not really in a rush.  I’m enjoying going to bed early, and then waking up at 6 am to do yoga before work.  I hope I can bring some of this back with me because it is very relaxing and enjoyable to do things I enjoy doing instead of stressing about school and running around always busy.  

July 15, 2012- Day 10

Yesterday we went to the place where the slaves were taken to have their last bath.  That was a really intense place to be.  The tour guide made us close our eyes and walk the path that they walked while holding onto each others shoulders in a line.  That made us feel really involved in the experience and showed us that when things are hard you really have to depend on the people around you so that you don’t lose your way.  It was so intense to be walking down that path.  There were a lot of images of chains being broken to symbolize freedom painted on the walls.  One thing that really got to me was the fact that just in 2007 they found a cannon ball and a chain in the river there.  This was from the slaves who walked through there.  That could have been attached to one who died there.  Just found in 2007!  They also told us that if women had children they would often bash in the heads of the children, so the women would sometimes put their children in bags and send them down the river, hoping they would survive.

This story was nothing in comparison to what we experienced next.  They brought us to the final destination of the slaves before they were shipped off to America.  This is called Cape Coast castle.  They showed us the cells where the slaves were held.  They showed us a small cell called the punishment cell where they held 50 slaves at a time who were sentenced to die for trying to escape.  They were kept in there with no light and no food.  They died in there.  The tour guide brought us into this room, shut the door, and turned off the light.  It was ridiculously real, far beyond just knowing about slavery.  I started to feel claustrophobic and panicked just being there for 10 seconds like this.  They also brought us into the cells where the slaves were held for 3 months before being sent off to America.  These cells also had no light.  And the people there sat in their own excrement and vomit for three months.  They had a marking on the wall for how deep this stuff piled up.  It was at least 3 feet tall.  Imagine sitting in a pitch black room with hundreds of people and a pile of poop up to your neck for 3 months. After all this, crawling through a long dark tunnel and exiting through a door called “the door of no return” in order to be shipped off to America.  These are human beings and over 1 million were shipped through there.  I am honestly astounded that these people did not lose their sanity and that when they got to the Americas they were still able to be a family and have religious practices and sing and dance and still be human.  I was actually in the place where these people suffered.  Standing where they were tortured and starved and died; where they experienced inhumane levels of fear and agony.  I felt like weeping at the reality of it.  No one really talked during the whole tour because we were so shaken up.  This is humanity.  This happened and its happened many many times and is still happening.  People are disturbing and this is a part of human nature.  How can we really do these things? I felt very uncomfortable being white and being told these things by a black man.  But he said that many black chiefs at that time sold their own people into slavery, to the English.  

Last night, when I finally got back home, I took my first bucket bath because the shower wasn’t working.  It was pretty fun to just be able to have that experience, to have to dump water on myself while standing in the shower.  It was a little difficult, but definitely a must have experience.  It definitely saved a lot of water that way.  I’m probably saving everyone that is responsible for me in the U.S. a lot of water because my showers at home are not short at all.  I’ve realized that at home I use so much water and toilet paper.  Those feel like rights that we have at home, normal things that we take.  I can’t imagine being at home and not being able to take a 20 minute hot shower. That has never been an issue.  Endless amounts of toilet paper are always available as well.  It’s so weird to be aware of these things here.  I’m so much more conscious of every part of existence here.  A lot of my thoughts go to things that are just routines at home, things that you give no thought to.  Whether or not there will be somewhere for you to go to the bathroom, shower, the food you eat, wondering when your next meal will be so you eat as much as possible just in case, being concerned about getting enough water to drink, how it smells outside, every feeling that your body experiences just in case you’re sick, every step you take, your entire environment around you.  I am honestly aware of every single thing going on here.  You always have to know who is around you, where you are, what you are doing, what they are doing,  how you are feeling, how much sun is on you,  I have literally never been so aware of my existence.  I can’t think of one thing that I am not paying attention to. It’s actually really cool because I don’t feel so dazed or confused about life in the respects that I usually do.  I think it’s easier because I can’t understand or speak to barely anyone here so I spend so much less time speaking and so much more time paying attention. It’s very cool now that I realize it in this way.  I’m much more of a single unit here as well.  I have to get everything done on my own and navigate my surroundings without any help.  A lot of times at home I let Jake guide me everywhere we walk, following as he looks both ways for me.  It is easy to get used to someone else getting stuff done for you.  But it’s pretty cool to see how well you can adjust to something on your own.  I feel very adjusted and able to adapt to things.  Within just 24 hours I went from panic to normalcy.  And now I know everything there is to know, and it’s pretty incredible to feel like I’ve progressed and changed a lot from being clumsy and unaware, to being always aware and careful and all knowing.  It’s very much about necessity though.  At home I feel like there is no need to pay attention to any of those things.  We get away with living a passive life, not too worried about our basic survival.

The funeral is still dragging on here.  Music until 2 am, then starting again at 4.30 am.  It’s a nonstop party.  People coming and going everywhere.  I feel unable to participate because my host family isn’t really involved and I’ve been busy all weekend, but I would have loved to have gone to the actual service and burial just to experience it.  I am going to go to a church service here next Sunday just for the exposure of it.  Everything here is religious.  You see sayings and catch phrases about Jesus and God on the back of every taxi, used as business names such as “By God’s Grace Fashion” or even cell phone booths named using Jesus in their title.  It’s very bizarre to see this because it’s literally on everything.  I would love to do a study of religions here and their intensity in society and how it really drives their entire culture.  The thing is, to us this may sound obnoxious, as if they are trying to advertise their religion and push it on everyone.  However, that’s not the case at all.  They are merely expressing a mutual love for something.  They all feel this way so they all talk about it and display it everywhere.  They don’t even have to think about cultural sensitivity.  That concept doesn’t exist because its all like one big family all having the same type of system of living.  It’s not a multicultural nation the way ours is.  There is nothing wrong with them being so religious because its all religious.  

I learned the other day that there are people known as traditionalists who have clans that they are affiliated with.  There are 4 clans in Ghana that have their own beliefs and gods and they each have a different staff with an emblem that represents them.  These are based on family heritage and old regions of Ghana.  Muslims do not belong to the traditionalists, but often Christians will still be affiliated with these clans.  I don’t know if they follow the beliefs or culture of these clans but since it is passed on by family, it still prevails.  I want to learn so much more about this.  When I get home I am going to do a lot of research on stuff about Ghana that I now need to know.  I would love to become as educated as possible on their culture because at this point I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface.  I see daily life and I participate but I want to know the roots because ancient culture, the history of how the people are the way they are, is so interesting to me, for any culture.  Modern culture just doesn’t do it for me.  I want to know how it came to be this way.  Christianity wasn’t even here until it was brought here by colonialism.  How are missionaries able to be so influential? How did those colonizing drive their religion so relentlessly that now peoples entire life is based on this belief?  People here are very devoted to God and very dedicated to going to church, open about their participation.  They aren’t vague about religion the way we tend to be in the United States.

Today, ProWorld held a race to raise awareness about AIDS. After the race, we walked through the town handing out condoms and slips of paper with information on them.  It was absolutely pouring rain, non stop all day, so we got soaked.  It was kind of silly to just hand out condoms.  People didn’t really know what they were and the  little kids were blowing them up like balloons or they were getting thrown on the streets.  I feel like just having a race for AIDS awareness doesn’t really do much.  To the locals it is simply an entertaining event because they don’t really know a lot of what you’re talking about.  You can’t expect to educate and change a community in a few hours of handing out condoms.  But I spent some time with a few Proworld volunteers eating really good pizza at a local beach resort called Oasis.  That was a nice relief from Africa time, just talking about college life with college kids and eating good food.  Also last night I passed out at like 7.30 or 8, completely exhausted and slept till 8 the next day.  It felt amazing to just sleep and ever since the AIDS race I’ve been relaxing and watching South Park on my laptop (the only show I have on my laptop for some reason) going outside to enjoy the music, eating, etc. It’s been a good weekend of just having fun here instead of doing intense labor.  Back to work tomorrow!

July 14, 2012- Day 9

Today I am exhausted. I feel tired here often.  It is most likely from heat and sun and lack of water.  I try to drink water often but it is difficult to keep up.  Also we walk and exercise a lot here and I am sure I am not getting all the nutrients that I need.  

Today we went to the sight where slavery began.  It was rough. I still feel too weird to write about it.

July 13, 2012- Day 8

Yesterday work was very repetitive and pretty exhausting after a whole week of working on a farm.  Its so cool to get a first hand look into the intricacies of the world here.  I’m not just working for them, I am also spending time with them and learning about how they get through their day, observing the childrens behaviors, the interactions between people, the relationships. All of it is so cool.  Yesterday we cooked cassava over a clay fire area.  The heat and smoke were so strong that it was making me cry and my nose was running nonstop. It was painful and we kept doing it for hours. 

I love seeing the women interact here.  The men are not around often and there are just so many women laughing and spending time together.  A lot of the fathers that become educated in the towns will leave the wife and children to go live and work somewhere else.  Fathers are not a general part of the home life here.  

Today we went to Kakum National Park.  We walked through the jungle and had a guide telling us about trees and roots growing there.  He showed us the tree used to make the sticks that pound cassava into fufu.  Apparently it is a very strong tree because while pounding it will last for ten years, whereas other trees would crack in just a couple of days. There was a water from this tree he showed us that if you drink for 5 days you will never have the bad asthma you once had ever again. I wish we had trees and roots back home that healed us instantly.  How cool is that? And there is a root that people chew that gets rid of mouth sores.  These are all natural, automatic healers.  It’s like we were meant to live in Africa….oh wait. We were.

At this park we got to walk the seven canopy bridges which was so incredible, and also scary.  It was really thrilling and cool but really high up in the air, about 150 kilometers.  On our way back down from the canopy walkway I bought a fresh coconut and drank coconut water straight out it. It was really cool! I’m so glad I did it.  Usually I would just stay back and not do something like this.  But afterward I felt really accomplished and happy about it.

After this we went to a really nice restaurant hotel on the water.  There were lily pads covering the water and a small island in the middle with birds on it and crocodiles swimming around in the water.

Something interesting to know is that everything comes in bags here. Water is in bags.  You break the corner with your teeth and then suck the water out.  Ice cream also comes in bags.  There is this kind called Fan-Ice and it’s the best ice cream ever. The vanilla flavor is so creamy and weirdly differently good.  

Tonight back at home there is a funeral for a relative of the family.  Funerals are always on weekends.  Friday they have fun, dance, eat, but wear black.  Saturday they wear black and go to see the body in the house and they cry and mourn the death and then in the afternoon they bury her and have a church service.  On Sunday they wear white and celebrate her life.  Although my family barely knew the family, they later found out that they were related so they are now in charge of hosting the funeral.  The body is not here though, it is at the house of the woman that died.  She was 38, I don’t know why she died.  They advertise funerals as if it’s a big party on posters around the neighborhood.  If you know someone who knew someone who knows someone, you are invited. 

On the first day, if everyone wasnt wearing black you wouldnt know this was a funeral.  Even their clothes are casual at this point.  On the second day they all wear the same cloth.  Someone buys cloth and gives it to them all, then they sew a new dress with this cloth for the sad day, which is the second day.  

I sat downstairs and watched the women cook for a while.  I watched them talk to each other and watched the little girls singing and playing clapping games with each other.  Then I went and sat outside and watched the people for the funeral just hanging out and having fun and listening to music.  I ate a really good meal that my sister Francesca makes and sells in front of their house every night, Tilapia.  It is a whole fish, even the head is there. And there are onions tomatoes and green peppers next to it and a spicy tomato based sauce to dip in.  I must be getting used to the food and the atmosphere because the smell of it has made me so grossed out for the past week but now I thought it was pretty good.  

Last night and into today I felt really homesick.  Sometimes it just hits me really hard and no matter what awesomeness is occurring, its so heavy on me to feel lonely and unhappy here. Its hard to adjust to being away from my home and world. I was feeling really stressed about it.  But I called my mom and talked to her and she reminded me of why I was here and that I don’t get to do this every day.  This is my time to learn everything from them possible because I came here to soak up their culture. Since I’m here I need to change my attitude and get as much out of being here as possible.  And that got me excited all over again.  I need to do that.  I want to learn how to do laundry and help make meals but its not very easy because there are a lot of things that they wont let you do because they want to help you and wont let you do things yourself here.  

July 11, 2012- Day 6

I've been having really odd dreams. Apparently this is a side effect of malaria medication.  They are kind of interrupting my sleep and I keep waking up at 3 or 4 in the morning feeling wide awake. Then I lay in bed until 6.30 and then get out of bed only to wait around until 8 oclock when I have to walk to the taxi station.  I do yoga though and eat big breakfasts. I have been eating a type of baby food cereal that actually tastes pretty good.

Today was such an incredible day. To start I’d like to tell you a little bit about something called fufu.  It is one of the main dishes in Ghana.  Now I will tell how it is made from start to finish and then how you eat it.  Fufu begins in the fields.  A plant called cassava is uprooted and carried back to the home. From there you peel the cassava, wash it, then put it in a machine that is started by pulling a string to start the motor, kind of like a lawn mower.  You put the cassava into the machine and push a wooden piece so that the cassava pushes against a sharp moving blade.  It comes out of the side looking like mush.  From there you put it in bags and the bags are tied and laid on a presser.  You put large pieces of wood or tree branches on top, then you lower a bar and clamp it there.  This presses as much liquid out as possible.  Any end product made from cassava is known as gari. What comes out of the bags at the end is gari which is a dried grain like substance that is ground up.  You can add water to that and eat it like cereal.  However, to make fufu you cook the cassava just after it is peeled and put it into a large pot.  From a tree branch they make a pounding stick. They use this to pound the pieces of cassava. As you continue to pound and turn the cassava over and over it starts to look like dough.  The pounding is very exhausting. Often the man will pound while the woman turns the dough. It can be dangerous, so it involves a rhythmic pattern. It is said that if the man and woman can make fufu together than they are a good match.  

After this you take the dough and put it in a soup.  It can be several kinds of soup.  One is called ground nut soup which is a spicy peanut butter kind of soup. Ground nut is similar to peanut. The meal is a bowl of broth with the fufu dough inside of it. To eat this you use your right hand, two first fingers and cut the fufu to the bottom of the bowl. Then pick it up, scooping some soup broth along the pay, put it in your mouth and swallow immediately. You don’t chew. This is a very important to them that you swallow it. That is how it is done. Then you can also drink the soup.  

I was involved in every step of this process. It was so incredible.  To start in the fields uprooting the cassava all the way to eating the fufu!!! It was so cool to be a part of all of it. This is Ghanaian life. This is how the entire country survives, from start to finish.  The soup was pretty good, but kind of weird to have to swallow.

Something that is important here is the use of the right hand. You only ever use your right hand. You shake with right hand, eat with right hand, give with right hand, point a direction with right hand. This is very important because to them the left hand is what you use to wipe when you go to the bathroom so it is very important to only use right hand.

Another process that I learned today was the making of coconut oil. I took dried coconuts and put the chopped up pieces into a machine, poking them down into the mechanical grinder which then produces coconut oil.  This oil is used for cooking and also can be turned into soap.  

I am so happy doing all of this work. Its really exciting and cool to be a part of it. I can't even explain how amazing it is to be working on a farm in Africa. My project partner and I kept saying that to each other. We’d just be working and suddenly just say, “Wow, we’re working on a farm in Africa.”  

After that we sat around for a long time and played with the women’s babies.  We are working with a man named Kofi and his wife named Aya.  They have three children. The first she gave birth to at 15.  He is now 9 and named Kingsly.  The second is Jessica who is 4 and the third is Monica who is 10 months old.  Her sister visited today who is 19 and has a 2 month old baby boy.  When you give birth here you put on a white beaded necklace and white beaded bracelets for the first three months of the babies life to show that you are a new mother.    

So we sat around and played with the babies and other children around the village.  We took pictures with them and showed them the pictures. People here love when you take pictures of them and then they want to see the pictures.  Even the people we work with make us stop and take pictures of each other working.  Its really funny.  

Something that is really strange to observes is that these people live in such poverty out where we work. It is a small village 40 minutes taxi ride from any main town. They are sleeping on the floor and the children walk around almost naked.  Yet, they all have cell phones and you will see some wearing shirts that say Calvin Klein on them.  It’s a really bizarre image to see, almost disturbing. I have watched some videos in my anthropology classes showing people who come out to villages like this and do advertising for western products like coca cola and cell phones.  Its ridiculous that the priority would be using a cell phone over having running water and sanitation.  

I am so sore from work.  My whole body is aching and exhausted.  The work here is very hard.

Honestly though, today was such an incredible day.  I was smiling all day, filled with excitement and having my mind explode with so many thoughts and just being able to explore a new world.  It is really a great experience being here. I have also noticed that I go to take pictures of where I am living and realize that I wanted to show you guys at home the poverty that I am living in.  However, I find that my mindset has completely changed.  I go to take a picture while walking down the streets and it all looks so normal to me.  I don’t feel the need to take a picture anymore because its not some crazy looking thing to me anymore.  This type of living is becoming okay with me because I am seeing it and living it every day. I’m so used to using the bathrooms and walking down the streets with sewers on both sides, seeing animals and naked babies running everywhere.  Broken down shacks look like normal sights to me.  I feel like going home is going to be like encountering a new amazing culture that will blow my mind, rather than just being the norm. I most likely will experience culture shock in reverse come August.