Danny V Peace Corps Updates from Ghana

Bye Bye Ghana

2010-09-13T15:41:00.002-04:00

I might do a few more blogs talking about adjusting to real world, which will probably be harder than adjusting to here, but this will be my last entry from Ghana.

Last week our COS conference was extremely fun. We’re the only group left that came in with under 70 and our group got really close after two years together. The conference was about reintegration into the States and all the paperwork that we have to do so it shouldn’t have been too exciting but it flew by. We did “Fufu Awards” between each section (ex. Most likely to bring Kente clothe to Broadway-me, Most likely to require a nap while walking to his car-our boss). 97% weren’t politically correct enough to quote here but they were hilarious.

The resort was gorgeous (Will Smith and lots of other celebs have stayed there), the food was so good, and the company was perfect. The last day the environment volunteers gave out a cutlass award to each of the 3 sectors to signify hard work and accomplishments. Hannah Frank won Health and Water Sanitation, Sam Frankel won Environment, and in a favorite moment of PC I got the cutlass for Small Enterprise Development. Kris Laurie, one of my closest friends during training, gave the speech. The level of respect that I hold him in really added to the meaning of what was said.

20 of us headed to the remote beach for the weekend to delay our goodbyes. A good amount have even came all the way to Accra to see Marcus and I off. We have a week full of paperwork, medical stuff, and last minute arrangements until we fly out Thursday night for Munich and Oktoberfest! From there we are going to Fussen in the Alps, Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris. I should be home October 10th.

Bye Bye Kpetoe

2010-09-05T13:32:00.000-04:00

Leaving America was hard because 2 years seemed so long. Leaving Kpetoe was rough because I’ll probably never see most of these guys again. Despite that it couldn’t have gone much better.

It was our Kente Festival this weekend so everyone was around and the town was crowded. Lots of PCVs and even the Country Director came. So basically all my Kpetoe friends were there, most my closest PC friends were there, and there was a huge festival going on. I got to say individual goodbyes to Michael, Bright, Joshua, Lawrence, Mr. Agba and Suzzy. It wasn’t easy but the fact that the last 2 years have been a blast really helped.

Tomorrow I leave Ho and our whole group that came in 2008 gets together for our Close of Service conference. 34 of our original 42 will be there and 2 of those missing will finish their service but can’t make it. We are a great group with lots of personality so it will be a fun few days together.

Master WEaver Ceremony

2010-09-02T07:19:00.010-04:00

My PC Boss

Mukaila and me. He's the big man in town that's always been there for me

Going into our newly opened visitors' centre!

All Powdered

Beza, Julie, Steve, and Chrissa came.Ceremonies here are not exactly fun so this really meant a ton to me

The traditional rulers of the Agotime Area

Don't mess w/the Queen Mothers

My boss from PC even gave a speech

Mr. Agba, who calls me his son, powdering me as part of the ceremon

The entire Agotime Tourism Management Team

All the weavers of the shed. One of my favorite pictures because thses are the guys who I spent the most time with.

Master Weaverfied

2010-08-31T15:54:00.003-04:00

(Big Sister will add the pictures later that would take me hours)

Yesterday was one significant day for me. We opened the visitors’ centre with a big ceremony. This centre was the end product of all of our work. Basically everyone I’ve worked with over the last 2 years was there as well as some big men and women (including a member of Parliament, our District Chief Executive, and all the chiefs and queen mothers) and the place looked great. When they were introducing the Tourism management team I was called last and then pulled aside to get dressed to become a master kente weaver. We’re mostly certain I’m the first Caucasian one ever.

Mr. Agba, who has taken me out for 100s of Guinness’ and calls me his son, actually performed the ritual which included getting powdered. Julie wouldn’t have missed it even if I begged her probably and Steve, also from our PC group, came and took great pictures. My replacement and even my PC boss came. Having these friends there with all my site buds was all I could ask for.

Here’s a summary my boss had me write up:

My apprenticeship lasted around 18 months. For the great price of 30 Cedi ($20) and a bottle of booze I purchased the services of 2 master weavers, Bright and Joshua. Now they are best friends. They taught me everything from buying threads, setting the warp, spinning the threads, threading the pulleys, and the actual weaving. Who knows how many hours they spend fixing my mistakes.
My first pattern was a plain warp weave meaning just the background showed through. My second pattern was a plain weft weave meaning just the colors in the shuttle showed through. From there we continued to increase the difficulty. I excelled at motifs and tricky patterns earning the nickname of “the designer” but am definitely still extremely lacking in the speed department. Currently I can do one women’s strip in a day. When I told them I wanted to be the first white person to weave a patterned men’s cloth they probably doubted it but they let me try it. They told me if I finished it’d I’d could be a master weaver. I know it took a lot of their time but I never could have finished without their help.
A master weaver can see about any pattern and know how to do it completely. They are also allowed to take on an apprentice.

It shows that I’m pretty proud but many titles given are honorary, I actually earned this.

Today when I was weaving it was all congratulations from the guys. The oldest weaver in the shed came up to me and gave me a real hug, unheard of here, and told me tons of way too nice of things. Then he gave me a strip with one of my favorite traditional patterns. He said he didn’t have much but he wanted to give me this. How am I supposed to say bye to these guys?

This post could go on for days so I best stop it here with 2 good articles about Technology and how it’s changing Peace Corps and Readjusting back into life in the States after an experience like Peace Corps.

The picture of us from Obama actually made the NPR website too.

Last Tour

2010-08-26T12:15:00.002-04:00

Cute kid waiting for us to start painting that day

PC Logo that took me quite a long time.
Showing the kid where the shirt is from.

Last weekend the World Map Project was lots of fun. I basically spent most of my time helping with the grids and then painting the Peace Corps logo but it’s done now. Jake and I decided that the World Map Project is cool but the Midwest Map Project would be even better and want to get that started. He's from Wisconsin. On the way to and from the site of the project I stayed in our bunk house in Kumasi with Marcus (who’s going to Europe with me) and Mikey who was my roomie through training. With all the new PCVs sometimes it’s just nice to hang out with people you really know.

Today I gave my last kente tour. It’s Chrissa’s site now but Marian of Alan & Marian (our couple that has done PC a few times) had most of her 1965-67 Peace Corps Morocco group visiting. This called for the veteran tour guide. Showing them around was lots of fun because they had tons of questions and really took their time appreciating the weaving (and spent a ton). Talking to them about their PC experience verses ours was very interesting. I was texting and calling in the tro to coordinate things and they made 1 call home over 2 years. At the same time they said that the sanitary, food, and infrastructure situations here are worse than they were in Morocco then. The tro we were using did get stuck in a rut but it was right by the welders that helped me with the basketball court so all worked out.

The small world connections keep coming my way as one of the ladies is a good friend from high school, Katie Guerriero’s aunt. It was crazy to talk to someone who knows Katie even better than I do while being in Africa.

The best part of the day was easily seeing all the weavers, especially Bright and Joshua, and above all Michael, my neighbor boy. He’d been constantly asking Chrissa when I’d be coming back. I’ll only get to see him a few more times so I gave them my contact stuff in the States.

Replaced

2010-08-18T10:26:00.002-04:00

PC celebrates 50 years next year and we need a logo; here's the one I designed with help from Tony and Julie

The rest of my service will be so different. I will always be with at least 1 other American and most the time I can walk to an internet café. So far it’s been a complete blast but I do miss my alone time and Kpetoe.

The new group had their swearing in ceremony which was followed by a large gathering of new and current volunteers. This was the last time I’ll see anyone outside of the group I came with probably. I remember being the new volunteer so well and now we’re the ones going home. All my journals from my 1st year were handwritten causing me to type them so I don’t have to drag the notebook across Europe. I can’t believe how much my thoughts have changed. At the same time the things that have remained the same (especially the support from home and friends here) say equally as much if not more.

After Swearing In, I had a meeting down on Keta Lagoon. We took the most disgusting, sinking, and fun canoe ride of my life after a great meeting. The years of rowing probably kept us from completely tipping and the other canoe definitely had more issues. Now I’m at Julie’s playing catch up from 2 years with limited internet and commuting out to Kpetoe to show friends around, weave, or hang out with my buds there.

My replacement has moved into the bungalow and has started to make it much more feminine; I don’t plan on going in it again since it’d be so weird but the change is definitely for the better. It’s very hard to let go of the project but it’s in good hands and will continue to grow. Our ecotourism project even made national news with like a 5 minutes segment. I still have like 6 full days of weaving and master weaver ceremony along with Kente Festival in Kpetoe before I leave.

This weekend I head to the middle of the country to paint a world map on the side of a school at a friend’s site. It’s a very popular PC project that I haven’t done yet so I’m excited. It’s very valuable to show the kids where Ghana is and how it fits into the world. “Oh, Ghana is very small small” is a popular 1st response.

Being around so many PCVs lately hopefully will help get my social skills back. I even went on a date this week which was really fun. 29 days left in Ghana.

Movin' Out

2010-08-06T06:00:00.006-04:00

Packing doesn’t sound like fun so I continue to put that off. Instead I’ve been devoting most of my time to weaving. My best friends are in the 2 looms next to me so it’s what I want to do. I’ve almost finished 2 strips on the 11 for the women’s cloth I’m weaving for a PCV friend. She came and picked out the pattern and colors which is cool because I get to learn new techniques and very uncool because of the colors. My men’s cloth was blue, black, grey, and white. That’s a men’s cloth for sure. Cynthia’s women’s cloth is pink, purple, blue, white, and cream. I have to make it very clear to visitors that I did not have any say in the colors.

I’m finally to a point were I’m getting decent at weaving. Almost any pattern is doable and my speed is getting up there. In a day I can weave a high quality tough pattern strip. It took me 2 years to get to here and now I’m leaving which is frustrating.

I’ll move out of the bungalow on Wednesday and have meetings for the rest of the week then I’ll be mostly staying with Julie in Ho. I’ll have a lot more internet access and more importantly time to spend with Julie. She and I are pretty opposite but as the only PCVs remotely close to each other we’ve become extremely close, like other PCVs mock us about it. I know I wouldn’t have made it without her and I’m glad my last month here will be with her. With our other 2 best friends Alison and Andrea back in Canada and Tennessee (both locations almost too easy to mock) already it’s starting to feel like it’s time to get going.
1st strip of Cynthia's pattern
Chessboard and bag I made for another PCV outta the leftovers of my men's cloth.

Haven't posted random pictures of the kids on the neighborhood lately....
We had Fafa act like she used to when she saw me.
That's more like it

Men's Cloth DONE!

2010-07-29T06:23:00.007-04:00

Grand Valley State University Colors
It's HUGE. Taller than me (6'3") and twice as long.
Joshua, Bright, and I. The best master weavers ever and soon to be perhaps the only Caucasian kente master weaver in the world.

Tuesday at 11:11 I finished my men’s cloth! 19 double strips (38 regular) make this massive cloth up. It took me about 5 months but with lots of travel in there too (Bright could do it in less than 1.5). When I started I was doing 3 squares a day and on my 2nd to last day I did 27 (779 in entire cloth). I’m still slow but the weavers were even more excited about it being done than I was. They all tried it on and we took lots of pictures. Goodbye entire group shot is planned for early next week.

The guys have had even more to be happy about as we are having the best month any of them can remember. As of yesterday we have sold GH 1,456 from 117 guests…117!! Both are easily new records. I couldn’t have asked for a better showing on my last full month here. With the guidebooks, brochures, signboards, website, and such more people are giving us a try. The guys weave so well, are laid back and the prices are low so once people come they tell their friends. You would think with all the visitors I’d be getting my social skills back but they are still far from where they need to be for home.

Now I’m weaving a pattern that uses 4 shuttles (5 really) so I’m slow again. My men’s cloth was 2 shuttles (really 3). I still might try to weave a women’s cloth which is ¼ the size of a men’s cloth.

This morning I gave my neighbor girl Wonder some Jello. She kept in in her mouth for like 10 minutes and still isn't sure about it.

Oldest weaver in the shed goofing around.
Foster and Lawrence with me. Lawrence does all my orders for the German embassy (my commission is 2 Guinness) and is the happiest guy in the shed. Many Ghanaians like to look serious in the pictures and we made fun of him for it and I promised I'd post it.

Squeezing in what i can

2010-07-23T06:45:00.002-04:00

The walls of my house are now empty; less than 20 days left in it. I’ve been staying so busy that all I do there now is sleep. This week after giving a presentation for the new group 2 of them came to do a “Job Shadow” of me. The basketball, weaving, chess, darts, walking to Togo, palm wine, cloths shopping at market, and good eats might not have added up to a good job shadow but we definitely had a great time. It’s interesting how coming just 2 years later will completely change their PC experience.

I have a PO Box because when we got here internet was 45 minutes to open Yahoo. Now if I wasn’t leaving in less than 2 months I’d get a wireless modem. Roads are paved, power seems to stay on longer though water still goes out a lot. PC will also be doubling its number of volunteers within 2 years. Of the 70+ in the new group 28 are coming to my region, Volta. We have 6 in my group here. For a long time Julie was the only PCV within 3 hours of me. The increased net will allow for even more cultural exchange and that along all the other improvements and closer neighbors will make for happier volunteers. Happy volunteers do better work. I love how PC adjusts to progress rather than try to stay the same. Being a PCV is hard enough; they deserve every added comfort available. I’m excited to hear how these guys do.

1.5 strips left of my men’s cloth since I’ve been hosting and coaching a lot lately. We had a big meeting at the visitors’ centre with all the weavers and the paramount chief and talked about the future of it. The guys know I’m leaving and have been incredibly nice. They decided I get made a master weaver on August 30 at the opening ceremony of the Kente Festival! I have to have my cloth finished to become one so they’ve been helping any way they can. Bright takes my weight back and Lawrence will pick each string to make sure there are no knots in the warp whenever I’m gone. Both processes take me 30 minutes. I love these guys.

During basketball warm-ups Monday I was the proudest I’ve been here. We looked just plain sharp doing layups. Smooth, agile, and having fun. I should have taken before and after video. The guys still aren’t great but they’re getting good. I love that my starting 5 is Courage, Wisdom, Fiesta, James, and David with Wizzy as 6th man.

The new nets mom sent me even outlasted the rims as I had to take them down and weld them yet again. One completely snapped; they get used a lot. This time we added some extra support and so far so good. Wednesday was probably my last practice with all the guys there so to end it we did 2 on 2 with me and the 3 best. I showed my age in the end, spraining my ankle and having to stop. I’ve been limping to my loom and back since.

The huge guidebook to Ghana, Bradt, who is easily the most important aspect to any tourism sight, emailed me and said that Julie and I will be getting free copies of the newest edition for our help. That along with all the praise from the new group and my village has me pretty proud of what we’ve done here.

2010-07-11T06:55:00.002-04:00

Marcus and I got September 16th as our official Close of Service date. We have to be out of our houses by August 12th for our replacements so we get just over a month of homelessness to finish up our service which should be kinda fun. That gives us like a month left living in our villages. That's like no time at all and it's really hitting me how close I am to leaving.

My replacement Chrissa coming is when it really hit me how much I've put into this project. Like people always say give it everything you got; well for 2 years we have and we've made lots of progress. It's weird to be showing someone else around and I'm very protective of it. Luckily, I really think Chrissa will do great things and will be a great change of pace for the guys. Working with a woman will be such a good thing for them. When she told some of my weavers she would be replacing me asked "Are you sure...?" She seems really excited about the project, ready to get to work, and has lots of good ideas.

Other great news is that there will be 2 PCVs in my village this next group. Brian is an environment volunteer but more importantly to me used to play basketball and can't wait to take over coaching. He'll also be able to maintain the court which was a huge worry to me. It looks like I'll be leaving things in good hands.

4.5 strips left of my men's cloth!
This might look incredibly slow, and for a master weaver it is but for a kid from Michigan it's pretty good. Each zig zag section takes me like 25 minutes now; when I started it took almost an hour so I may be slow but I'm improving.
These sections only take me a few minutes now

Blackstars Out

2010-07-05T15:44:00.004-04:00

Friday night the Blackstars played against Uruguay in the World Cup Quarter Finals. If they won they would have been the most successful African team ever. They should have but ended up losing in a shootout after missing a penalty kick in overtime. A group of us headed down to Accra for the match. It was INSANE. BBC said it was like a carnival atmosphere. Big screens all over, everyone sporting Blackstars apparel and businesses closed down or made it possible to watch the match. It was easily the best vibe I’ve ever felt for a sporting event. I’ve never wanted a team to win as badly as I wanted them to. After the loss, everyone was just quiet and semi depressed. The next day Accra was still pretty empty. Some of us are still recovering from the lose.
Other than that lots of weaving and guests. I’m down to 6 strips left of my men’s cloth but only have a little over a month left in my house so it’ll be tight. My replacement, Chrissa, comes for site visit on Wednesday so that’s exciting. Marcus and I are getting our plans for our trip home together which is exciting. It’s bittersweet though because right now we have a lot of fun. We’re comfortable here, have great friends, and lots of freedom. This weekend a group of us went to a great beach appropriately called “the Hideout.” It took almost a day to get there but so beautiful and worth it.
Video after we qualified for the next round..after a loss.
Trevius Jones, the TCU o-lineman and me
Weaving, it's what I do
The Hideout
Awesome bridge you have to cross
USA vs Ghana party in the weaving centre
My new turbo fan and my old one in the background (without the duct tape and 2 spoons it had that used to hold it up)

Loss PARTY!

2010-06-27T11:49:00.000-04:00

After Ghana LOST to Germany 1-0 Wednesday the entire country went into a crazy party. The streets of Ho were absolutely nuts. Thanks to an Australian upset, Ghana made it to the knockout rounds of World Cup to play against no other than the USA. Lots of my excitement was lost on the fact that everyone was so happy after a loss. One of our players was running around the field with a Ghanaian flag and the Germans, who won the game and group, just walked off the field. I’m still not used to that aspect of the World Cup.
The buildup to yesterday’s game against the US was huge. Everyone was telling me how much they were going to “score us.” They kept saying how they beat us in 2006 and they’ll do it again. I pointed out that the 2 finalists from 2006 had already been eliminated but that didn’t change the amount of taunting. Actually even now I’m still not sure who I was really cheering for. I mean Ghana got me hooked on football and I’ve seen the Blackstars play 30 times more than the US but still US is home. It was definitely a fun night with the weavers watching on a tiny tv. Now I know I’ll be pulling 100% for the Blackstars again on Friday. Last night after the game, however, I played it safe and came straight home as the street in my village was packed. It’s a great atmosphere but dangerous. Up in a northern region there were a few fatalities; I love football but not that much!

GO BLACKSTARS GO!

Summer Days

2010-06-22T05:47:00.000-04:00

The weather has been wonderfully cool or at least for Ghana. This morning I thought it was cool and it was 83. I’m not sure if it’s the wetter and cooler weather or what but lots of my stuff is breaking. My pipes have a leak so I have to turn off the water when I’m not using it. Right now, however, that doesn’t matter since there is no water. My fan finally gave up after a 4 month battle but that’s fine since it’s been so nice out. My surge protector started making noises and stopped working but that’s alright since I don’t need it if I don’t have a fan. It all works out.
The newly arrived 70+ PCTs just got their site assignments. My replacement is named Chrissa. I haven’t met her yet but I hear she’s from Nebraska so she must be cool. I think having a girl will really be a good change of pace for Kpetoe after almost 5 years of guy PCVs. Hopefully she can pick up where I leave it and take it even further. It’s weird to think that someone else will basically take over the last 2 years of my life. We’ll overlap some so I can teach her the bit I’ve learned but then I’ll hopefully leave Ghana in September.
Thanks to having an Ipod again I’ve been putting more hours in my loom lately than ever, setting a PR for weaving twice within the last week. 21 squares on Thursday and then 24 yesterday; my previous record was 13. I have over 10 double strips out of the 19 I need for my men’s cloth. I wasn’t even able to get out to the basketball court for 2 weeks due to traveling, weaving, World Cup, and training for a regatta in October.
When I did finally get out there it really was astonishing. I was expecting it to be empty and I’d have to go round up the kids. I ride up to the court to find a full game going on with plenty of kids waiting for next! They stopped the game to welcome me and ask where I’ve been and then Wisdom drained 2 middle range jumpers when they started back up. Wisdom is the hardest worker of the lot, not the best athlete by a long shot but he practices his shooting all the time. He’s easily got the best jumper inside the arc and it’s something else to see his confidence rise. Seeing that the court is still being heavily used even if I’m not pushing it was really gratifying.
World Cup matches haven’t really went my teams’ ways so far but tomorrow that could all change. Go Blackstars and USA! Julie comes back from America tomorrow too so I get my closest neighbor back! It’ll be great to have someone consistent to talk to again.

World Cup!

2010-06-15T06:48:00.002-04:00

World Cup has totally changed the daily life here. School was canceled to watch the opening match and any time an African team plays. Every house that has a tv has it turned to the match with the constant vuvuzeela (horn) noise becoming part of your day. Normally there are a lot of Ghanaian flags on houses and cars but this week it has been insane. Some cabs can barely see due to 7 flags on their cars. We set up a tv in the weaving centre so we can still get some work done.
I was actually in Togo and Benin for some of the matches but they were still extremely interested since all of Africa is cheering for any African team. So far Ghana is the only one to win but Ivory Coast plays this afternoon. Ghana’s win was huge and puts them in great position to advance.
Togo and Benin are both Francophone countries so communication was hard but the food was absolutely amazing. Peace Corps Volunteers there should weight more than here in Ghana but Ghana is a little better off financially. Crossing African borders is a painful yet humorous process. They wouldn’t believe that Sinae was American because she’s of Korean decent and they all wanted bribes. Luckily we knew the prices and are well traveled. I also forgot my Yellow Fever card after making sure to tell everyone else to bring theirs. I sure as heck wasn't getting a shot in the hut they were giving them so I just acted like I didn't speak english or french and repeated. "Yellow card?" "Yellow card" and walked on by despite them yelling after me.
Stilt village in Benin. So big..

Mountains & Goodbyes

2010-06-09T03:40:00.005-04:00

Michael, and if you look hard his girlfriend struggling in the background; great pic!

My great Dutch friends left on Saturday. Since February we’ve been having good times. While I will be visiting them in Holland on the way home (3.5 months!) it was still sad to see them leave. The day that they were to leave they decided to climb the mountain that dominates the horizon around Ho. I had never done it so Marcus, who was visiting, and I went with them. A light rain made it a rather dangerous climb and we even had to climb a HUGE tree upside down because it had fallen and blocked the only way but it was so worth it.

That’s close friends Julie, Andrea, and Kristine all leaving within a month. Luckily I’m going to Togo and Benin with Cynthia, Sinae, Rachel and Lindsey tomorrow for a week so I won’t get too down. The weather has been amazing lately too so I hope it holds for our trip. Rainy season is marvelous; like, I don’t sweat 24/7. It looks like that was my last dry season and I can’t say that I’ll miss it.

Summer’s always fly by, even here, so I’m trying to get as much work done ahead of time as I can. I made our new brochure and sent it in for revisions this week. Compared to my 1st brochure this one looks great (not saying much). You can really see the progress I’ve made in Photoshop; not exactly a skill I thought I’d develop in PC. May also set an all time record for sales and guests with GH 1,202 ($850) and 75 respectively! Lots of those guests came from the basketball tournament but they still count, just not sustainable. We’ve also been setting up arrangements to deal with the overlap of the new volunteer and myself. My top weavers have been so busy with orders that I have Guinness stocked up in the fridge (the commission the guys give me for each cloth I sell) so we’re all pretty happy here. I even got an Ipod from the Hubbells which will make my weaving, running, and traveling 100xs better! Thanks guys! World Cup on Friday too, GO BLACKSTARS GO! USA!!

(At a BBQ at the Canadian Embassy)
Cute girl as leaving: So maybe I’ll see you in Grand Rapids sometime.
Me: Yes please.

The PCVs I was with got a good laugh outta that but I need to get back into the social life…
Kente made for an Apple Laptop. We had an appleoff between Bright Joshua and me to see who got to do it. My apple took second to Joshua's shown above.

Old Brochure

New Brochure

Thanks!

2010-05-31T04:39:00.005-04:00

The Thank You postcard before African Printers got ahold of it.

They announced the winner of the Barclay’s best places to watch a match competition and we didn’t win but top 10 out of 5,000 isn’t bad. Entries came from 190 countries. I asked if they could get us a banner or something to hang up in the TV hut saying we were top 10; they probably won’t but it’d be amusing if they did.
Last week we had a group of students come from Texas Christian University. They were polite as can be and bought lots, both favorites. Each weaver in the centre took one of the students and had them weave on their loom for like an hour, teaching them the basics. Bright said since I’m a full weaver now so I had to take one too. Enter Trevius Jones, an offensive guard for the #7 ranked TCU Horned Frogs. He was far too big for my loom so I took him to our biggest loom and started teaching. We were the only group without a language barrier and he caught on really fast so I actually had him doing 4 shuttles at once by the end. He didn’t weave as much as everyone else did but he did much harder designs with better quality. Tons of strings were broken from his pure power weaving technique but the weavers loved it.
He was hilarious, polite, and modest and therefore now I’m a Horned Frog fan. I needed a DI team anyways. His talking about missing Mexican food after a week without it has had me craving it since. The pictures from his fancy camera should be pretty cool; he’ll send them to me soon. Topping it all off he sent me an email saying I have TCU tickets when I get back this fall. The weavers made tons of money and I got to meet an awesome guy, which makes for a good day.
With less than 4 months left I’ve started to travel to the places I need to get to. Until now I’ve traveled lots less than most PCVs. The basketball guys won’t always have a coach 6 days a week but they’re catching on and we have some definite leaders emerging. Finishing my men’s cloth will be very hard as I barely wove last week and the next 2 I’ll be going to Accra and then Togo and Benin for a week. I’m pumped for Togo and Benin since my 1st planned trip there got canceled due to a hippo attack. Last week I traveled via ferry and that was the first time I’d been on a boat in almost 2 years; a mortal sin for a rower.
Slave Defense Wall at Adam's site. The villagers built concentric circles around the entire village to prevent slavers from capturing villagers.
1st Boat ride in a while!
End of a practice.

2 links you need to go to

2010-05-19T07:31:00.003-04:00

Seriously awesome links
Our village website has just been published thanks to the hard working students of Dr. Pope's class at Grand Valley State University.
Check it out at:
www.visitkpetoe.com
It's a work in progress so feedback is needed.

VERY COOL
My village was just picked as a finalist for the top 10 places to watch Premiere League Football in the WORLD. I submitted a picture, video, and text and if I win I get a round trip to an Arsenal game!!! I've at least won a team shirt.
Second from bottom on the list:
http://www.barclaysfootball.com/finalists/

Some more Bball pictures

2010-05-15T06:49:00.007-04:00

The Champs

End of practice this week

Saying bye to Julie and Andrea on consecutive days sucked. My cell phone will be pretty quiet and my social life at a standstill with them gone. Luckily I have basketball and weaving to keep me occupied.
I really need to get on my weaving because it’s almost official that I’ll be leaving Ghana right after our Close of Service Conference in September that is supposed to take place 3 months before you leave. This means I won’t miss the World Series or GVSU in Bama and I can bike and row before it snows. This also means I’ll need to get traveling, sort lots out and get a job, anyone hiring?
Basketball has started to take over my days but it’s been something else. This week we officially started the AgoSec basketball team. Sometimes we have girl’s practice in the morning and guys practice in the evening since it’s too hot to play during the day. The guys and I have really connected but if anyone wanted to have a great reality TV show they should have people coach a team of 13 year olds of the opposite sex with a language barrier in a sport they’ve never played. My best players for each team respectably are named Courage and Charity which I think is awesome.
Maintenance on the court is still almost a daily occurrence but its holding steady. The nets are long gone and I’ve had to take down and weld each rim as well as add a metal plate for reinforcement. I think that will keep them solid for a while and Ma is looking for heavy duty nets to mail me. The court being used this much is a good thing so I’m definitely not complaining. Last night after finishing reinforcing them I stayed and shot for a bit alone even though it was dark. So many people helped to build this thought and now it’s actually there and I love it.
When I’m not coaching I’m weaving and am now on my 7th double strip for my men’s cloth. Ipod is in the mail from Meg Hub which will really help me be able to weave longer.
We got our kente signboards placed throughout the region and so far I’ve had 4 texts about how great they look. Now we just got to get that visitors’ centre decked out and opened.

Sign Up

2010-05-08T03:13:00.003-04:00

Basketball has been quite a hit. The kids even asked if we could move playing up a half hour to be able to play more. For now a group of 10-25 guys informally get together everyday from 4:30 until dark. It seems there’s always some form of maintenance to do. I haven’t started an Agotime Secondary School team yet cause I’ve been gone lots and am still playing catch-up but I should next week or so. Yesterday I finally convinced some girls to come onto the court and shoot. It was just for a few minutes but you gotta start somewhere.
Of the regulars some leaders and standouts have already emerged. Richard is easily the most responsible of the group, Courage and Christoph are probably the best, and Alan is a brat. The progress over just a few weeks is insane (Granted lay-ups are anything but a sure thing). We almost looked sharp warming up one day. Their defense however is still exactly how they play defense in football. 2 guys without much pressure on the ball, 2 on the nearest 2, 1 deep and they just float and rotated around. It sounds like a decent zone but it’s not at all.

The visitors’ centre is basically done and looks great, complete with a signboard. We’ve had some major issues with placing the signboards in other districts. Actually we’ve had lots of issues lately. With my service coming towards the home stretch I’ve been stepping back more and more and honestly I’ve been kinda disappointed in how poorly the governance board has performed. I gotta get it through to them that it’s not my project, it’s theirs and that I won’t always be there.
Today I have a big meeting with my boss and counterparts to decide for good if I get replaced or not. I’m really not sure how it will go. There’s still lots of work to do and I think it’s one of the best sites in PC but lots of villages want PCVs. Tomorrow we have a meeting to sort out the issues on the governance board with the paramount chief. It should be pretty interesting.

This week my 2 closest friends (location and level) leave. Julie is going home for a while for a wedding and Andrea is going home for good. The 3 of us have been a constant over the last year and it will definitely take some adjusting to life without them. They’re the only ones that I saw consistently enough to be up to date on what’s going on in Kpetoe. You rely a lot more on a lot fewer people here. I plan on weaving an excessive amount until Julie gets back.

Here's the link to Andrea's great fall during para sailing that Julie so kindly posted for the world to see.
http://vimeo.com/11440320

KPETOE BASKETBALL

2010-05-03T05:09:00.004-04:00

The last 2 weeks have probably been the busiest and most fun of PC. With the All Volunteer Conference being so close to Julie and me we planned events on either side of it. The weekend before 14 of us went down to the ocean. A storm rolled in late afternoon, so cool. 3 of the guys stayed out in the huge waves; I stayed in the water but not quite as deep since I swim like a rock.

126 volunteers went to one of the best hotels in the region for conference. AC, wireless (1/2 the time), warm water, swimming pool, and good eats. PC ran the conference exceptionally well. We didn’t have too much free time between HIV/AIDs and admin meetings but when we did we took advantage. Thursday night was prom. Julie and I both made Prom Court. Sinae and I were one of the best dressed and the 1st couple to jump into the pool still dressed. Adam Luck is the best DJ in Ghana. Friday night was talent show. I showed some of the kente I’ve woven and some of the acts were just hilarious.
We make animal prints look good.
Rock, Paper, Scissors competition.
Biggest personal news out of the conference is that it looks like I’ll be replaced by another PCV. I had been told that I would not be so had started working accordingly but this is great for my community. Not official, but if I do get replaced due to the change of training schedules there would be an overlap with the new PCV. It looks like I could be headed home in September rather than Nov/Dec since I know I wouldn’t have wanted the old PCV there for my first 3 months. I could move to a large city and take on an admin role but if I’m in Ghana I want to be in Kpetoe. This means leaving all my friends earlier, I have to get my US life in line real quick, and work harder on my men’s cloth. We also got a 40% living allowance increase which tells you how under paid we were but still great news.

We invited everyone out to my site after the conference for a basketball tournament and kente, but figured 20 max. At least 57 PCVs came! We had 9 teams for the tournament (complete with trophy), on a boiling hot day. Since some people had to travel that night we had to play from 10:30-3:30…suicide basically. I swept the court with my phone on my hip so I could give directions but some sweat wrecked it leaving me phone-less on the day that I would need it the most of course. Due to the ugly 9 teams bracket and double elimination my team ended up playing 6 games. By the time we made the championship against a great team that had played 3 we were seriously hurting. Adam Luck and I both had heat strokes and are still recovering but it was still so much fun. All night my legs kept cramping but having so many people seeing my site and what we’ve done was absolutely amazing. When people who are doing amazing things compliment what you’ve done it doesn’t get much better.

My friends at site came through huge to help host everyone. Patricia took off for the weekend so we could use her beautiful home. Since it’s so nice we had our older PCVs stay there and they loved it. Mukaila got the District Assembly Hall for me, Bright got me mattresses, and all my weavers transported them. Andrea, Julie, and Kristine were running around town getting stuff all day. Basically all of my close friends came through huge and allowed people to have a great time. It was the biggest non-PC organized event in our time.
Can Ghana handle these moves?

Court is Done!

2010-04-19T03:55:00.003-04:00

Great Aunt Ann Acker Athletic Area is finished and being used! Armed with 3 years of technical drawing, a tape measure, chalk, some string, my last roll of duct tape, and some paint brushes and a roller Andrea and I set to painting the court on Friday afternoon.
We got a late start while we were tracking down supplies so the first afternoon we only did 2 perimeter lines. Goats came and ate some of our reference string too but it was worth it to see Andrea chase them away. I did take the first shot on the court that day. It was a pull up jumper from about 15 feet out..Nothing but net, after an afternoon beer.
Saturday we got an early start and by the time Julie joined us we had the perimeter and center circle outlined. Julie, our PC fashion expert, is also the premiere fingernail polisher in Tennessee. With this knowledge we put her to work on the detailed aspects of the midcourt design. All day somehow it stayed cloudy but didn’t rain even though I’m pretty sure it was pouring on 3 sides of us at one point. The clouds let us work all day and we were just able to finish the entire court. We used up every drop of paint but it looks good. I knew we could do it; but I didn’t know we’d actually do it this right.
People were literally watching paint dry, that’s how exciting Kpetoe can be. We were going to go out and celebrate finishing but we ended up asleep by 9.
Having the court done put me in the best mood. Sunday Afternoon I went out to shoot around. In no time there were 6 of us, then 10, then 15, etc. They think I’m the best player in the world so obviously we have a long ways to go when it comes to skills but I got a few more months to coach them up.
I wish all the people who donated towards this idea of mine could see the kids (and adults) playing. I really didn’t think we could ever actually build something this cool but here it is.

“Are you near a computer?”-My sister on the phone with me.
“Beth, my computer is right next to me but the nearest internet is an hour away.”

Court's Paved!

2010-04-16T05:27:00.002-04:00

Hopefully today and tomorrow my friend Andrea and I will be painting the court. I used to paint the badminton court onto the grass in our backyard at home and am pretty good at geometry so it might look decent. Bright and Joshua have offered to help too. The wet season is just starting so it’s been raining almost daily which may slow us down.
The visitors’ centre has it’s tin roof on it now! Their prediction of opening in June may actually be accurate. We also just installed 4 ceiling fans in the weaving centre. Unfortunately they aren’t close enough to hit me when I’m weaving, but Joshua sure likes it. April has been slow tourist wise with only 9 so far but our sales are high. We haven’t put brochures in Ho for a while so we better do that before all the summer volunteers come.

This week I started my 5th strip outta 19 for my men’s cloth. After much research, (“Hey Bright, has a white guy ever wove a real men’s cloth?”) I found that I may be the first Caucasian to weave a patterned men’s cloth. I also gave my longest weaving lesson to Kristine, the Dutch doing research on kente. It ended successfully with a nice section shown below.

Wednesday I took the GRE in Accra. Taking the GRE in a developing nation is probably not a good idea but it’s nice to have it out of the way. Best part was Monday night Maria and I went to ice cream and movie which was both of ours first date in a long time. We gotta start practicing for home.
Things have been busy and will stay that way for about another month. Then I go from meetings, socializing, having construction at 2 sites, and GRE studying to…weaving. I guess I’ll be able to start coaching too but I’m nervous that I won’t have all that much left to do. To top it off Andrea leaves for America in May and Julie will be going home for around a month too. The 3 of us have been inseparable. I hate it when people leave. Right now things are going great though so I shouldn’t complain.

Live life on the edge; jump off it

2010-04-06T07:34:00.006-04:00

Each year on Easter Weekend Nkawkaw (“incocoa”) hosts a Paragliding Festival; the perfect festival for the type of people who do PC. We got there super early and I ended up being the 1st PCV to go. It was awesome. My pilot was interviewed on BBC and Julie and I got interviewed by a Ghanaian TV Station.

My takeoffSome of my flightMy friend Andrea's takeoff 1 (in her defense the pilot jumped on her back & had all 3 failed takeoffs of tandems)Andrea's successful takeoff. I didn't want to get another crash on video so the camera moves for a second.

I also went to “The Future of Dance” put on by the University of Ghana’s Dance Department. Interpretive dance isn’t really my thing though and I had barely slept the night before so I struggled staying awake. The girls liked it; I liked the set. They had a ramp coming down from a tree.
Lately everything has been breaking on me. Luckily my projects are going very well and I’m doing as much as I can in my time left here or else I might not be so happy. My Ipod, which is probably my most crucial possession next to my laptop and headlamp, fell out of it’s case while I was running and is dead. My ATM card was eaten by the machine when I had a friend try to get money out for me. My 2 favorite shirts and the kente shorts I wove may be spoiled by how trashed they got going up and down the mountain this weekend. The basketball court money finally ran out and I had to ask my parents for money twice in a phone call; a new record even for me.
It shouldn’t take much more to finish paving the court and then my friend Andrea and I will do the dimensions since the kids are on break for 3 weeks. We need the court finished by our All Volunteer Conference in Ho at the end of the month so PCVs can hop over here after for a tournament. The half of the court that is paved has been getting used and is already even a little beat up. At first I was kinda disappointed but another PCV was like that just means it’ll be used and it’s a good project.
The other money is going towards buying the rights for the website that Dr. Pope’s class is developing for my village. I really think that internet and the Bradt Travel Guide are the 2 most powerful advertising tools we could have. I will admit I also got a nice new shirt for PC Prom but I gotta look good.
The visitors’ centre has all the walls basically done. We’ve also had a good amount of big kente orders lately. Things are going very well.
All that's left to be paved of the court.
The visitors' centre yesterday

Lots of Cement

2010-03-29T07:01:00.008-04:00

Visitors' Centre as of this morning with WALLS.

The Court 1/2 paved.

Earlier this week we had some really strange weather. All day it was hazy and extremely humid. Someone told me there was a big sandstorm up in the Sahara causing it. Now it’s back to normal bright and hot but you kinda miss the sun when you have it so much and then lose it.
Lots happening at site but I really haven’t had to do too much besides pay people, make sure things aren’t too crooked and be around if they need me. Basically I’ve been weaving a bunch. The basketball court is over ½ paved and moving fast now that we switched masons. My friends Alan and Marian built a school and they went through 3 masons so Alan says I’m not doing too badly. The water has been out for a vast majority of the time slowing progress. This morning we organized all the 1st years to go to the stream with buckets even. I felt bad but the kids didn’t seem to mind. The changing of masons and lots of extra costs will be cutting the cash really tight but I guess we can do without pimp uniforms.
Rumor has it our All-Volunteer Conference at the end of April is going to be in Ho. 130 PCVs 25k from my site sounds like the perfect time to have our opening ceremony and tournament. Gotta have it done by then. We already have our men’s and women’s captains for the PC teams and my weavers are even getting a team together. I’m tempted to play for the weavers; I’m getting halfway decent at weaving and they need me a little more. But I really like to win so I’ll probably play for Team PC.
The visitor’s centre is moving along very quickly. These builders are from the capital and don’t mess around. We got off to a rocky start when we couldn’t find some of them a place to stay and we weren’t helping unload the trucks when they came. They’re used to working with small communities where everyone knows what’s going on and helps. We have 12,000 people living here and not even all the weavers know what’s being built. That’s my fault along with the board. The paramount chief came up big with an extra room for them to stay at and I asked the guys at our weaving centre to help unload the cement bags. Now things are going smoothly.
The days are flying by and there’s lots of fun stuff coming up. I’ve even been on the same book for over a week now which is unheard of (granted it’s on the Supreme Court and Sandra Day O’Connor doesn’t exactly make for a quick read). Spring is packed with trips, social events, conferences, and unfortunately some work. Summers are very busy for us so it looks like my 230ish days left here will be gone in no time. Got to start thinking about what to do when I get back…well after Europe on the way home that is.
Guy we randomly saw in Accra. I helped build that playground with my entire 8th grade class and we all got those shirts!
We get everything in plastic bags and they litter the ground. People try to make things like purses and such out of them. This is a rain coat made from frozen strawberry yogurt packages. I wanted to get it for my niece's 1st bday but not sure if her parents would let her wear it.

2010-03-21T09:32:00.008-04:00

Some of the first pictures of kente weavers taken by missionaries. Just this week I was given a huge Dutch report on kente which is awesome.1912
1908
1907
1906
1888-1895
1865-1868
We’ve made no progress on the basketball court the last few weeks. This is mostly my fault. My primary assignment has been keeping me busy which is great. The people building the visitors’ centre will be coming back Monday to start up again, I have a few orders from the German embassy, and there is a SNV (Dutch) volunteer doing research on kente who I’ve been trying to help out. Kristine stole Bright for like a week to conduct interviews all over the traditional ruling area making my hours of weaving a day very lonely and she’s also doing a supply chain analysis. I’ve gone along on some of the interviews and have even learned some new stuff. She and another volunteer drove Bright and me to the biggest kente market on St. Patrick’s Day. The market is close to my favorite beach in the world too and Bright had never been in the ocean so we had to go. Bright and I needed shorts though so we stopped on the side of the road and I found the only green shorts (Nigera Football) I could. We were off for Guinness on the beach, come on it was St. Patty’s Day. This research stuff is hard.
On the way there we experienced a first for me in Ghana, a radar gun. We got clocked going 72 kph along the coast and apparently the speed limit was 50 kph. Luckily the police here are beyond corrupt and 2 Cedis ($1.33) and a smile from the girls and we were on our way. Bright swimming in the ocean made the whole trip worth it. He swims in a local creek so he can stay afloat but that’s not exactly the ocean; especially here the waves can get awesome. The ripe tide is also intense and very dangerous so we were worried about that and didn’t tell him other things we probably should have such as closing your mouth when waves come and not to open your eyes under salt water. Whoops, sorry Bright. He still had a blast and I could tell the other weavers were jealous when we got back.
There is also another American living in Kpetoe now! Patricia is retired and married to a Ghanaian so she just moved here. Their house is very nice and we’ve met a few times for meals. Between her and Kristine I’ve been socializing more than I ever here in Ghana. I still even get to see Julie and Andrea once in a while too. It’s weird to say the least but very nice.
I haven’t forgotten about the basketball court though. We actually are getting a new mason because we’re so sick of waiting for the old one. Lots of PCVs are waiting for the opening tournament. The kids at the secondary school are too. All this had to wait however because the president of Ghana came to town on Friday to break ground on a new youth employment dealy. It’s been busy but lots of fun. By looks of it I’ll be all over the south of the country the next month so it won’t slow down for a while which will make my time left here fly by even faster. 2.5 strips of the 19 needed for my men’s cloth.

Holy Mole (it rhymes here)

2010-03-10T03:23:00.008-05:00

One of the best part about visitors is that they take lots of pictures! Here's a hodge podge of the last 2 weeks.

Katie’s 2 week visit flew by. We covered more of the country than I ever thought she’d want to. It’s great having guests because I probably wouldn’t travel to the tourists sites if they didn’t come (or be able to afford to!). The highlight of the trip had to be Mole National Park. We went to Accra to catch an overnight bus to Tamale (13 hours) then ended up hiring a cab at 4 am to cover the last 4 hours on probably the 2nd worst road I’ve been on here. We made it with one flat tire and our cloths COVERED in dirt. It was so worth it. A monkey stole our sunscreen, warthogs were everywhere, antelope roamed, and we probably got within 30 meters of 2 elephants on our safari. After almost week on the road we made our way back to Accra. There Katie bought me a t-bone steak, took us to the irish pub, and even got us a room at a resort that cost more than a month of our living allowance. It was awesome.
The last month has been the hottest since I got here. Of course that means no power or water (3 days and counting so far this time). The nights are just miserable and my water barrel has a hole in it so my emergency supply is 2 buckets. Michael saved me after my run this morning by giving me one of his family’s buckets to bath with. I really hope water and power come back soon.
The last 6 weeks or so have been my happiest times here. I’m not really sure why; just lots going on and lots to look forward to. Everyday I am just excited about what I’m doing and you can’t beat that. There’s only 8 months left so I gotta get as much done as I can in that time. The basketball court is 1/3 the way paved, don’t ask, but I’m hoping to have it done by the end of the month so we can host a basketball tournament right before hang gliding on Easter weekend. With power out if the sun’s out I’m weaving. Finished my 1st of 19 strips for my men’s cloth this morning!
Togo, the country I live on the border of, just held “elections” and there has been some riots in the capital Lome (2 hours away). Last time lots of Togolese came over to Ghana, thankfully the border guards all know me and still let me run through.

Party Pants

2010-02-27T05:12:00.002-05:00

Your lucky week, I let Katie write up the blog so you don't have to read my writing! Here's what she's got to say:

It definitely is a different culture over here. It is a lot more laid back. If something doesn’t get done today there is always tomorrow or next week. However, everyone has been nothing but nice and polite. I seem to be muddling my way through conversations. Most people here know a little English with some actually being pretty fluent. I, on the other hand, know like maybe 1 or 2 words.

Dan didn’t have to focus on too much work this week which was nice since it then gave us a chance to hang out and travel a little bit. We went to market one day and it’s kinda like Shipshewana. Dan is an excellent bargainer and can always talk someone down in price. We bought matching fabric and had party pants made out of them. They are probably some of the ugliest pants ever but we pull them off nicely.

We went into town to watch a football (soccer) match in town this week on the only TV in town. Words cannot describe the experience. First it’s beyond hot and it’s packed with people. The noise, cheering, and chanting made you think you were in a packed stadium at home except it was louder and had more energy. The best word I can come up with is intense. I have never experienced a sporting event like it before. I don’t think everyone there understands the rules or know what is going on but they love their football and to cheer for their teams.

Thursday we went to Wli falls and it was beautiful. It was a nice little hike up to the falls but definitely worth it. The falls were gorgeous and the water was nice and cool. We actually met some Michigan State students at the falls – what a small world! I guess they are here to do an 8 week internship in Accra but get to do a little traveling before they start. I had on an MSU shirt that day and they recognized me. A few of them even knew where Eaton Rapids and Jackson were!

Two PC teachers brought some of their students yesterday to see Dan and his weavers. We spent the day showing them around the weaving center and the Kente products. It is fascinating to watch and see how fast they can weave and the complexity of their patterns. I think I am going to give it a try before I go but am terrified on messing up all of his hard work.

I’m only half way through the trip and have decided that this is the only way that you should travel Africa. There is no way that you would get immersed in the culture, the people, and the experience if you came here for your first time without having a friend to show you the around the “real” Ghana and not just the tourist spots. I think we are getting a healthy balance of both. Hopefully we will be seeing elephants sometime early next week. Wow, this was a lot harder to write that I thought it would be. Definitely have to give Dan credit for writing the blog week in and week out.

Custom made Party Pants!!

Some pictures from the first leg of the construction of the Visitors' Centre. I (Dan)never thought we'd actually get going on this so it's pretty exciting.

This week we're in search of Elephants!!

Basketball Court....ASSEMBLE

2010-02-19T13:32:00.011-05:00

My new pattern.

Great Aunt Ann Acker Athletic Arena taking form.

Always avoid alliteration at all costs.
How you transport huge poles over a mile....

This week’s been uber stressful but really fun.
Sick of waiting for the school carpenter to cut 6 inches off 2 boards (2 weeks) I rode my bike stopping at every house with workbenches looking for a carpenter. After like an hour I find Clemens; I think it’s really Clemence but Clemens’ a better name. Clemens doesn’t speak English but he has a hand saw, tape measure, screwdriver, and a manual drill with a huge bit (basically ¼ of what I used to carry in just my tool belt at all times). In no time at all we have the backboards cut and the rims on with my Leatherman being on of the most used tools. I miss my tools.
We go to put the backboards on the poles and the school thinks they should have more metal welded on for support, good idea but no way to move the poles. Enter Ghanaian schoolboys. They carried the poles well over a mile each way to a welder. Then we assembled the boards and the visual arts students painted them. This all took 3 long days which sounds long but I really couldn’t be happier with how quickly we got it done. Thursday our mason decided to show up which was perfect timing and we raised the hoops after digging the holes 2 nights before. “Next Monday” they will start laying the concrete.
This would have been enough for a busy week. The NGO that’s building our visitors’ centre came to start the first phase too. I am riding my bike between work sites all week (exciting since my breaks stopped working). This hasn’t gotten off to such a great start with yet another land dispute but we arranged for and the storage of most materials which is a big step. After a day of painful meetings the settled the debate only later to move the site but the new site is great.
Over 30 guests this week too! We are running out of some stuff but the guys are working hard to restock. Katie comes on Sunday and I’ve been getting ready/pumped for that too. The guys know that while she’s here I’ll do some work but would prefer to have it done before or after. I’ve barely traveled this year so a few days away from site will be great.

2010-02-13T04:38:00.006-05:00

This week was a nice break from the dreaded Dry Season. It only rained for about 10 seconds on Thursday but the air was a little thinner and cooler. Friday it stayed cool and then it even rained for a few minutes. I walked across town and my shirt wasn’t drenched in sweat; it was great. Dry Season will last for a couple more months so any break is great.
We sold 3 smaller cloths this week which for this time of year is very good. Our biggest ones are Men’s cloths; 19 strips wide and double long strips so roughly 6x11 feet. Instead of saving up for one (anywhere from $200-$400) like I had planned I decided to go big and try to weave my own, perhaps not my wisest choice ever due to my weaving speed. Bright can finish a men’s cloth of the pattern I’m doing in 2 months with 6 day weeks dawn to dusk. I weave 5 days a week for like 2-6 hours and have a few out of town meetings coming up. The guys are taking bets on how long ranging from 2-6 months. If I finish it before I go home (9 months) I’ll be happy.
The international marketing class back home looks like it will really help us out. They are even designing a website for us. This is huge because there is very little information on the net for traveling in Ghana and that’s where everyone goes for everything. This is the type of stuff that I can’t do at all. They said they’ll make it easy to update so I can do that while I’m here and train one of the guys to after I leave. They even planned on an online kente store which is so tempting but I just don’t think we have the product consistency or technology to handle that. Mukaila is one of the few people in town with email and he checks it like once every 3 months.As you can see, summer months are huge and that the little advertising we've done has made a difference just in the time I've been here.
As great as sales are, this is really what matters; the number of people exposed to kente. The tourist community is based on word of mouth here so making sure these visitors have a positive experience is equally important as to actually selling if not more so.
As of this week every piece of the basketball court is at the school. Monday we’re supposed to assemble the backboards and rims and have it paved (they say) by the end of the week. The plan is to have it paved by the time my friend Katie comes and visits for 2 weeks next Sunday. That way she can help me paint it (you’ll be put to work if you visit). We might try to head up to Mole National Park which is our biggest wildlife reserve where we’d surely see elephants, warthogs, and hopefully no snakes. It’s at least 2 days travel each way though so maybe we’ll stay by the coast drinking coconuts on the beach. Enjoy your snow!
That reminds me, check out Ghana’s lone competitor in the Winter Olympics Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, a skier nicknamed the Snow Leopard.
http://www.ghanaskiteam.com/newsite/features/profile

Not an apprentice anymore

2010-02-04T05:05:00.010-05:00

8 strips outta the 20 some I wove of this pattern.

Despite never enjoying it a friend convinced me to do Sunday’s 2nd reading at church on short notice. He gave me a slip of paper with 1st Corinthians 12:31, 13:13 on it. “Wow, I’ll do it if it’s that short.” “Yes, it’s small small.”
I do the whole procession in and it’s been lights out for days so no microphone; both not favorites. I go and read my lines that didn’t make too much sense but lots of the bible is like that to me and was pleased because I didn’t stutter and was audible. I even spoke slower and remembered to say “The word of the Lord” unlike last time. The Eve translation was going on a bit longer than mine I noticed. Things are just longer in Eve right? A lot longer….? Like 10 times longer?
Turns out it was 12:31-13:13, not 12:31, 13:13. Who would think it was just 2 verses? Me.
I read: “Set your hearts, then, on the more important gifts. Best of all, however, is the following way. (skip to 13:13) Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love.”
I skipped 12 verses about Love that are like the most read verses at weddings. You know the whole Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous, it’s eternal stuff. I kinda like my version better.

Projects are moving a little bit again which is a vast improvement over the last few weeks.
The NGO building our visitor’s centre came to Kpetoe for a meeting to approve the land and agree on our signboards and their location. The say by end of the month the signboards will be ready and by end of the year the visitor’s centre will be done. These seem a bit ambitious considering how long it takes me to get things done here but they have a little more push than me hopefully.The big men approving the site for the centre.

After almost a month of searching we got the 6 loads of sand we needed to take the next step on the basketball court.
Hard to see but they are paving the road to market so the entire thing is lined w/dirt, hense the lack of availability of trucks.

Sunday was a huge football day for my teams. It was a great atmosphere but Arsenal got owned by Man U and the Blackstars lost in the championship match of the African Cup of Nations. At least the Blackstars looked good.

“Your lizard looks like a goat.”-Bright about a Motif on the cloth I just finished.
the lizard is red in the middleish.

Warning: over 2 mins long. just skip to the end if you want to see what i'm actually weaving

2010-01-28T07:05:00.002-05:00

which one doesn't belong?

A whole lotta nothing lately. I did set a new personal record and wove an entire patterned strip in a day yesterday. Marcus came over for his birthday last weekend and we played some basketball in Ho, went to the beach, and lots of darts.
Hopefully next week will be a little more productive for the basketball court. GO Blackstars GO!

2010-01-20T08:09:00.006-05:00

Laughable moment in Ghana:
this has been up for 11 months now

I would kill to have all my power tools here. Not only would it be another hobby to keep me busy but it would make things go a lot faster with the basketball court. It has taken literally 3 days to get the school carpenter to cut a board in half. With the lack of progress on the court I’m glad there have been some steps taken in my primary project.
I work with a new NGO called the Kabor Foundation that works in many fields to fight poverty in Ghana. In November I wrote up a proposal for a tourism customer service workshop for them and didn’t think too much of it. Suzy, the chairwoman, took the proposal around and got it funded and set up the entire workshop. She found me on Thursday and told me I was going to be presenting on Saturday. I didn’t really want to but I figured I could make an opening presentation. Friday I wrote up a good (at least I thought so) presentation with lots of info but figured just do a handout and cover the main points. I show up and find out I am the ONLY presenter. Suzy had 30 people there from the District Assembly and local tourism sites which is very impressive (including 5 of my weavers). My buddy Sylvanos translated most of my presentation and we ended up covering everything I had written down and then came a million questions of very good quality. It took almost 2 hours! People really seemed to get a lot out of it. To top it off Suzy made me the Project Coordinator (like 5th in charge) of the NGO which is a nice resume boaster.
This was probably the most influential thing I’ve helped with for my primary project besides the rubbish bins and my mom’s stationery and I did minimal work for it. It was definitely a nice change of pace from the usual time/payout ratio here.
I’m also getting help from a GVSU international marketing class. We’ve had people from over 30 countries come to Kpetoe now so it’s about as international as you can get. This lets the class work with a real project and above all helps me where I’m the weakest; marketing. Last semester Dr. Pope’s class helped us advertise our Kente Festival and we ended up with our biggest festival yet. They help with brochures, flyers, posters, tour groups, internet references, etc. It’s a good thing for everyone involved.
Without like our top 6 players the Blackstars still snuck out of group play and are in the quarter finals of the African Cup of Nations, go Blackstars go!

My weavers that attended the presentation.

Back in GHANA

2010-01-14T05:53:00.007-05:00

It was so hot and the kids were bored so obviously it was water gun fight time.

While in America:
“Are you excited to go back to Ghana?”
“I’m excited to go back so I can come back to America again!”-PCV Julie Nguyen

Home was full of family, friends, laughs, supermarkets, hugs, cold weather and delicious food (gained 12 needed pounds). I answered more questions about Ghana and what I’m doing than I thought I knew answers to. It was motivating to see how interested people were.
Transitioning back worried me but within a day I was back into my routines. I’m not saying it was/is easy but it helps that I also got to bring 100 lbs of American goodness (dart board was 10).
Ghanian Moonshine (Akpethesie) wasn’t such a great item to transport. My brother and Joe (basically brother) both did a shot and didn’t feel well. The one I did was bigger and I was fine which makes one wonder about my stomach. Joe bounced back like a champ in a couple hours but my brother ended up going home for the night! Joe made the wisest choice of the night and dumped out the rest.squirt gun fun
My assignment is getting more convoluted yet it’s still calmer here. If everything doesn’t get done today there’s always tomorrow; just be sure to get something done. We aim to break ground on the visitors centre within a month. I’m hoping/praying that the basketball court will be done before. Today I’m taking the dimensions for the backboards to the school carpenter. Put those together with the rims and poles we already have, throw them in the ground, find even more sand, pave and paint it and we’re good to go. Easy right?
Dry season is in full swing (last night it got down to 88). That means bush fires to burn out animals. Therefore power is on and off and cell phone service has been horrid. That normally wouldn’t change my day much but I had to get a message from PC to everyone in my region. I rode my bike all over the district sending out 1 text message at a time if I was lucky. Still it’s great to be back and I think I’m ready. Being nonstop at home reminded me that this laidback lifestyle is pretty sweet. 10 months.

NEWS: The President of Ghana has forbidden all Government workers from watching TV during work hours. This sounds legit but that means they can’t watch the African Cup of Nations going on right now, which is all anyone is doing, especially after the attack on the Togolese team. They are not happy. We set up a radio in the weaving centre and the guys even found an English speaking station for me.

Sorry it's sideways but Desmond is a reader favorite. I had to pick from like 6 good shots of his moves..

2009-12-14T08:52:00.000-05:00

The exams at AGOTIME SECONDARY SCHOOL (where the court is being built). Too hot inside the buildings.

Akpeteshie distiller James. Palm wine goes through this twice to become Akpeteshie.

foundation of court filled w/sand

Michael's class only had 1/2 day of school so they came over to play catch.

2009-12-14T07:21:00.000-05:00

Lately the Hammonton (I spell it differently each time I think) season has been in full effect. It’s when the winds change and the temperatures do too. After this it gets really hot. Right now the nights are cool and there’s a constant breeze. It sounds refreshing but lots of people, especially PCVs, get sick during it. I’ve been sick for like 2 weeks now but only 1 really bad night and day. That night I had to put on my longsleeve tshirt for the 1st time here and covered up with my lightly used sheet and was still freezing; it wasn’t fun at all. The next day I just stayed in bed, read, and listened to BBC and now am feeling a bit better.
As for the basketball court, our sand man (literally) finally found a new source and got us the needed loads. Now the foundation is filled and it’s a good spot to stop as both the school and I will be going on break and the sand can settle. When I get back we will get the backboards made, install the poles, lay the concrete, and paint the court. That will still probably take a while but overall we’ve moved pretty well even if it doesn’t seem like it to someone in the States.
All the required information for the visitors’ centre will be with my NGO as of Wednesday so hopefully by the time I get back things will be ready to roll on that too. Lots of stuff has been happening in Kpetoe so it’s pretty cool. Topping all of this we no longer have a “tv hut,” we now have a building with walls and a ceiling fan! Next thing you know that internet café that’s been “coming soon” since March will open.
With my trip home this close the last week has gone by so slowly! My friends here have given me presents for my parents and will cover for me on work, yardwork, and bills. I’ll miss them but I think I’ll be so busy catching up with family and friends that the 3 weeks will fly by. My computer lessons with my friends here haven’t quite reached the point where I’ll let them blog for me however, so this will be the last entry until I get back January 8th.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

2009-12-08T09:02:00.000-05:00

Our first try at the floorplans for the visitors' centre. All those years of Chuck Messengers Architecture class being used.

Poles for the basketball court at the welders.

This is my token cute African kid for the day. Ladies I'll be home in 10 days; I'm building him a court.

Our initial signboard, we'll see how much it changes.

2009-12-08T08:56:00.000-05:00

Internet everyday last week was fun but once I found out I was healthy I was ready to get back to site. While I was gone there was absolutely no progress on the basketball court which was disappointing but we’ve made up for it lately. Still doesn’t look like it will be done when I go home but Friday Mukaila and I finally tracked down some poles! The welder did them over the weekend and yesterday Mukaila got them delivered all the way to the school. Now we just need to find some more sand (something my dad says Africa shouldn’t run out of).
I’ve also been getting kente ready to take home and meeting with our tourism group about the plans for the visitors’ centre. We get to design our billboards and pick 6 locations throughout the country to put them. We also got to design the actual visitors’ centre within given dimensions; this is the stuff that I love to do and the guys are excited about it.
I have only been weaving about an hour a day so progress is slow on my latest pattern but we did set a 1 day record with 28 visitors on Saturday. 18 were Ghanaians from Accra and spent more time watching me weave than any of the other guys. I thought they’d be mad but they were amused. Bright and Joshua also decided that it was insane that I had been here for 15 months without having the “meal of the chiefs.”
One night I asked what they did for Christmas since I had only been in my village for like 2 weeks last Christmas and didn’t know anyone. They said go to church and have a special Christmas meal. Worst decision I’ve made in Ghana was asking what that meal was.
Cat. Only men are allowed to eat it the “meal of the chiefs.” They wouldn’t let me go home without trying it. Joshua tracked down one and told me how feisty it was. They were so excited about it all week. Sunday rolls around and they come to my house to take me to where it’s prepared. On the way we did a shot of Akpeteshie to “grow our appetite.” Rule to live by from Danny V: “Anything you need to take a shot before eating can’t be good.”
Akpeteshie is by far the worst thing I’ve ever tasted. It’s Ghanaian Moonshine, double distilled palm wine that tastes like gasoline mixed with tequila that’s “industrial strength alcohol.” Seriously, it’s disgusting but it’s very cheap and gets the job done.
There was plenty of cat to go around especially since I only had 2 pieces. They made fun of me a lot for not eating much. By the time we were done I was late for my tourism meeting (usually I wait hours for them) but no one was mad, they were so proud that I’d finally had cat.

Thanksgiving in a small World

2009-12-01T01:50:00.000-05:00

Congrats to Lumen Christi football for their 8th state title!!
Grand Valley is moving towards another national title too so that helps me deal with Arsenal's falling apart of late.
Thanksgiving at the Ambassador’s was very fun. I was the first to arrive at embassy employee’s house of the 3 of us staying there. You might not think much of it but it had Armed Forces Television, hot water, and AC in every room. I watched Home Alone 2 one morning!
Me-What state you from?
Host-Michigan.
Me-What high school did you go to?
Host-You wouldn’t know it because it’s not around anymore but it was St. John’s.
Me-Which combined with St. Mary’s to form Lumen Christi.
Host-…yes
Later that night we figured out that he’s friends with my aunt who is now a nun. If you met Sister you would know why after he found that out he was even nicer to us.
Thanksgiving had awesome food that I have never been more thankful for. It was open bar with actually good drinks too. Before I knew it the Ambassador was mixing my drinks and from there it got fun. I did lose my Adidas sandals that I had worn for over 430 straight days here. My feet have so many blisters from this new pair I’m trying to wear now.
While hear I also sold a lot of kente to other PCVs or Expats that I’ve met. I’m getting to know more and more Expats and they are an extremely interesting bunch. I feel pretty lame compared to most of them but they can’t weave kente so it’s ok.
I’m stuck in Accra for Midservice Medical so I can’t really do too much for the court. I did what I could so they could get some stuff done while I was away but we’ll see. It’s Hammaton Season which means the changing of the winds and I’ve got a cold. This is the first time I’ve been sick in Ghana.
Today I have a meeting with my supervisor about starting work on our visitor’s center! The plan would now be to break ground by February. There are a few steps we have to do until then which should keep me kinda busy when I get back from the states! 17 days!
Happy December!!

2009-11-24T05:38:00.000-05:00

The fully blocked foundation. This court ain't going nowhere.

Entire court dug out

Getting the trench dug

The court is moving along nicely. They finished the blocks which will make for a very strong foundation. We are still having some issues locating poles but everything else is going well. Next step is to have the kids fill in the space between the bricks and then comes the laying of the court itself. It’s cool to ride out there and see where the project is each day.
The Trade Fair in Ho last week was pretty nice. Think Jackson County Fair but without elephant ears or a Vainner winning largest sunflower head. I’m not sure how much our district sold, it wasn’t a ton, but we got our name out there a little more. I didn’t do too much work for it but was still in Ho for a little bit of most days. That cut down on my weaving but was still fun.
Meg Hub’s dad sent me a package which was perfectly awesome. I mention this because it also had tons of pictures from when Meg Hub visited me here for the kids. Pictures might not seem like much to us but these kids were going nuts. Singing and dancing and showing everyone nuts. I guess you have to realize that theses are their first picture of themselves and will probably be the only pictures they’ll have of their youth. That’s sad but makes these mean a ton to them.
Wednesday I head down to Accra for Thanksgiving! Last year Maria and I killed the turkey for our group and this year the US ambassador is having some PCVs come to his house for dinner AND we get to stay with embassy employees! A little different than last year. That means super nice house probably which could mean NFL game on satellite. I can’t watch the huge Grand Valley or Lumen Christi games which stinks but watching the Lions would be awesome. I’ll also be purchasing the rims for the court at the mall while I’m there. Then I’ll go back to site on Friday to take care of stuff for the court only to have to come back to Accra on Sunday-Thursday next week for my Mid-Service Medical.
They do a few tests, send us to some dentist, and just check up on us now that we have under a year left. One of my best buds Marcus will be down there with me so it’ll be fun. We’ll probably go to the only movie theatre and to the only sports bar in the country and have internet every day. Does life get any better? Oh it does, it’s almost Christmas Season!!! Christmas is always amazing but this year it means home for 3 weeks!

2009-11-16T07:57:00.000-05:00

Taken this very morning, setting african blog posting records. This is Bright's loom set up at the Trade Fair. He stole my seat pad because mine is a lot newer than his, jerk.

I am under orders from some big donors to take LOTS of pictures of the Basketball court being built so here are some:

Bricks for the foundation

Truck dropping one of the loads of sand.

This court is for them and they're glad to help.

Land after clearing

Part of the planning committee

Land before clearing.

The site of the court, directly behind the Secondary School
The court is coming along very nicely, well for Africa. The land was cleared and fairly leveled by the school kids in no time, which was awesome to see them all out there excited about the project. Mukaila wants this to be around for a long time and is making sure things are done correctly. That means right now they have formed bricks that will be the base for the court so that it doesn’t sag and crack. We’ve had 10 truck loads of sand and stones delivered and have a platform made for all the cement work. Things were flying until we ran into our current problem. There are no poles to be found in all of southern Volta region for some reason. Today we’re going to look some more but we have to have the poles before we lay the cement so this could be our first (of many I’m sure) delay.
It’s extremely weird to be on the other side of things. I’ve done construction in the States for like 7 years but started as the grunt and then ended as crew chief, never the guy paying for it but rather building it. If I wanted things to go faster I would just work harder. So far I’ve lifted 2 bags of cement and they yelled at me for doing that. They call me “sir” or “Mister Daniel” and have me look at things and approve them. I don’t like it, give me my 20 ounce Craftsman hammer with straight claw (think I miss my tools much?).
On the weaving side of things today we packed up Bright’s loom and hauled it to Ho for the Volta Region Trade Fair. Not sure how it’ll all turn out but they have a very nice set up at the parade grounds and people are coming from all over. They were just opening the stalls this morning but I thought it was really cool. This week I’ll be splitting time in Ho and Kpetoe. I don’t think I’ll actually be doing too much work in either but it’ll be nice to mix things up a little.

2009-11-10T08:41:00.000-05:00

Things are starting to get going on the basketball court. Mukaila has been so clutch. He sets up all the meetings with the artisans and even drives me to see them and when appropriate he negotiates stubbornly all while continuing his big man job at the District Assembly.
The nice thing about working at a school, especially in Ghana, is that the kids are used to doing work. Usually they do work for others but this is so they can get a court so they don't complain a bit. I can only imagine if Lumen asked us to clear ground for a new football field (good luck in playoffs this week!). They cleared the entire area of bush, trees, and weeded it in a day. Today and tomorrow they're leveling the land. Bright and Joshua were almost upset when they found out they wouldn't have to organize the weavers to do daybreak labor. I'll try to get some pictures but I've been running around getting stuff.
I was very impressed with my Barclay's bank. Usually if I go in to get money out they see I'm white, see my name isn't Ghanaian, give me my money, and say "Thanks Thomas" (they don't do middle names much here so they get confused. However when I went in to get more money than I'll make off my living allowance for my 2 years here they didn't just hand it over.
They kept apologizing about having me do my sloppy signature one more time. Then I went and talked to the manager, and he said I wasn't wearing glasses, I showed him I had contacts in. He called Peace Corps. In typical PC manner the first 5 numbers we tried didn't go through. Finally our awesome secretary answered. She verified I should be getting money out and that I was "very tall, white, and had the bushiest hair." I don't think my hair is that bushy.
Plan is to get materials delivered this week and hopefully get going w/the concrete on Monday. This is Africa however so if we do it within 2 weeks I'll be happy. Either way it's great to be moving forward.

Hippo attack stops vacation

2009-11-03T06:15:00.000-05:00

Adam Luck's man purse pattern woven by Dan Vainner, watch out Coach.

Aladdin and Jasmine. Actually he wasn't supposed to be Jasmine but his costume was so close it had to be.

Creepy huge statue of Mary on the mountainside at the Grotto.

This is Julie next to the SMALLER statue and that statue is on it's knees.

October was the hardest month I’ve had since February. We were between steps on all our projects and it’s been miserably hot. I thought I needed a vacation so Kevin, PCV, and I were planning on going to the coasts of Togo and Benin and relax for a few days to break out of it.
Nothing here is easy or goes to plan however. It took 3 entire days for me to collect and submit the stuff for my vacation request due to signatures, printing (lack there of), power outages, and emails. After some discrepancy it got approved; we’re ready to go. Not so much. Kevin calls me on Friday and is like “I don’t think I can go man, a hippo bite me.” I thought he was joking; not in Africa.
There was a hippo in his village and everyone was watching it when it started to come towards them. Kevin tripped while people were fleeing and doesn’t really remember much after that. Hippos kill a lot of people here so we are very lucky Kevin is ok but he is pretty shook up (rightfully so). The big bite on his butt required lots of stitches. Boys will be boys and Adam Luck and I call him “Hippobottomous.” Too soon? Anyways, no go to Togo. To make myself feel better I decided to use the money I woulda spent on visas to go to the mall and buy lots of stuff. My entire bill, with lunch, was only 22 Cedi (~$17) not even close to a visa. I’m pretty used to this PC living apparently.
Not going is fine however because as of this morning I have the funding in my account for the basketball court! I got all the official paper work from Washington and was reminded just how many people donated and how fast it filled. The generosity of people back home is enough to break any bad mood.
A few articles have been published on what I’m doing over here. It’s a lot of pressure because I really don’t do much but they are much appreciated. The Global Connections one I submitted a write-up for and was the only one I was aware of before my parents read it. I have no idea who did the Lumen Christi Alum Newsletter one or the Faith Magazine one. Whoever did didn’t miss a beat about my projects and I’m impressed, very. My quotes are pretty cocky but I like that. I’m not some saint and people give me too much credit.
Speaking of Saints, Julie and I visited Amber one day and went to the biggest Catholic Grotto in West Africa which was really creepy/cool. There were all the Stations of the Cross life-size and a statue of Mary that was GINORMOUS. It looks like November will be a much better month than October. And how many people can say that a hippo biting someone's butt prevented their vacation!

2009-10-27T12:02:00.000-04:00

My new pattern

The maroon and gold pattern is the hard one that I used to break like 37 strings while doing.

Let’s see this week I wove, worked out, and read…a lot. That’s about it. Really changing the world eh? Highlight of the week was probably the Spam sandwich I had compliments of Mrs. MegHub. It was delicious; which I think means I need to go home.
Still waiting on the transfer for the basketball court money. We did finalize, or at least I think we did, the location for our visitors’ center which took months. We’re hoping to be able to start building the court after I get back from Togo and Benin Nov 8th if we have the money. Hopefully around then the construction manager will come and approve the site for the visitors’ center too. Ideally the court is built by the time I go to the States for the holidays but that’s not very likely. I want to be able to show people who donated the finished product that they funded in like record time.
Togo and Benin should be a nice break though. Kevin and I don’t really have an agenda but they are French colonies so the food is better. We’re gonna stay close to the coast and there’s voodoo villages, who doesn’t love witchdoctors and beaches? I know I do.

2009-10-20T13:23:00.000-04:00

My closest PCV neighbor, Julie, works with an NGO and found this as proof of the amazing work and cultural understanding she been able to promote in her time here in ghana. the following is a VACANCY flyer she found this morning that her counterpart typed up. this is how the counterpart views her job:

If not for her hard work there would be nothing crossed off, though she does need to work on their speaking good english.

2009-10-20T07:31:00.000-04:00

Friday night in the Under 20 World Cup Final the Ghana Black Satellites (Sr national team is the Black Stars and Women’s team is the Black Starlets) played Brazil. This match was HUGE here; everyone stopped whatever they were doing to watch it. Ghana didn’t play their normal exciting game of quick crosses and athletic deflections, Brazil was in control. Just before half Ghana even lost a man due to a questionable red card and would have to play down one man the rest of the match. They somehow held on for regulation and 30 minutes of OT to force a shootout. Tension in the TV hut was high.
Twice during the first 5 attempts it looked like Ghana had lost. All Brazil had to do was score but our keeper stopped one and a player kicked the ball inches over the net. After 7 shots finally Ghana won and the chaos started. Singing, dancing and chanting while the showed them receiving their medals and then it all moved to the streets. Parading up and down our main street with drums and any noisemaker they could find. In Accra apparently the partying didn’t stop until 4 am. This was the first time an African nation had won any World Cup. Keep your eyes on the Black Stars come South Africa 2010, we’re ready.
Other than that it’s been extremely hot and power has been out a lot. Sunday the entire country didn’t have power. We’ve been trying to find a better location for the visitors centre but have really struggled with that. The current spot is almost 5k out of town and is just ridiculous if you ask me. If we build there it pretty much will be useless so hopefully we can secure better land. Between waiting on that and hoping that PC transfers the funds for the b-ball court I’m lucky we’ve had some fun guests lately and that I have hobbies. It took me a few days to get the hang of it but now my next pattern is coming along nicely. A guy from Accra said I was the “hottest weaver in town” since lots of people stop in to watch a white guy weaving a medium level pattern.

“It may be the strings are not strong.”-Bright from his loom on why my strings kept breaking while I tried a hard technique.
“It’s you.”-Bright after pulling on the strings to test their strength.

2009-10-14T06:40:00.000-04:00

Some of the strips of Obama sewn into a cloth.

Yesterday I was typing a write-up and a guy comes up to my window and explains to me that there is a big snake just on the other side of my house. My Eve is horrid but “snake” in any language will get my attention. He was just wearing a pair of flip flops and shorts and was holding 2 big sticks. Apparently one of these lethal armaments was for me. “I don’t think so Tim.” I hate snakes more than the Yankees. I went and spun threads the entire morning so I didn’t have to come home.
I wasn’t in too good of a mode last week and some of it was because I was between patterns and not weaving. I walked into the centre and the oldest weaver (like 70 years w/7 teeth) starts giving me a hard time about how he hasn’t seen me in days. I got the message and started getting set up again. You should see my loom now, it looks like an X-Wing cockpit. I went from 4 shuttles, a set of pulleys, 2 crossbars, 16 bobbins, and 4 colors to 8 shuttles, 2 sets of pulleys, 2 pedals, a weight, 4 crossbars, 32 bobbins, and 8 colors. I understand about 65% of my tools right now but it’ll come.
Joshua and Bright keep pushing harder patterns at me and I love it even if I am incredibly slow again until I get the hang of it. They have shown everyone my Obama cloth including tourists. Joshua woke up at 2 am yesterday morning to finish threading my loom for me so he could teach me some techniques before he leaves for the weekend. Then I go to the thread store to get more shuttles and bobbins and the guy won’t take money from me. He says I work hard for them and that he likes my weaving. I don’t work that hard and my weaving is a work in progress but alright.
Ghana is in the Friday finals of the Under 20 World Cup. The games have all been really close and in the afternoon so we listen to them while we weave and when there’s a goal we go find the nearest TV. Grand Valley, the Tigers, and the Red Sox all lost last week so I need Ghana to win this thing.

2009-10-08T11:02:00.000-04:00

Pretty average week at site and it was great. Yesterday I finished my “Obama” cloth which took almost 3 months to do due to travel and my weaving speed. I put in about 5 hours/day in the loom this last week to finish it up. All the guys had bets on when I would finish so I had to make sure Bright or Joshua won. It took over 70,000 passes to make the 12 strips. This cloth is a thicker pattern than most so progress was extremely slow. It was based off a traditional pattern and it’s customary to fire a musket in the air while you’re cutting one of those from your loom. We were in the weaving center so cheers and mock firing of guns (fingers) had to do but it was great. The palm wine guy in town just tapped another tree so we had a calabash each to celebrate. The guys at the thread shop didn’t think I’d be able to do one this hard so I can’t wait to go buy threads for the next level up this week. This one should look pretty sweet, I’m pumped.
On the way back from my morning exploratory bike ride (I’m cutting back on the running so now I go down bush paths on my bike and check out the tiny villages which is really cool) I ran into some Germans here for kente so I showed them around. After lunch they went to leave and a girl gave me her email address and I said, “Oh I’ll email you in case you want more kente.” She laughed and said, “No, that’s in case you ever find yourself in Germany.” Real smooth Dan, real smooth. Maybe it was because this time I didn’t try my German…
When Harry Potter 6 was coming out the kids and I did a HP movie marathon on my front porch. The girls really loved Emma Watson, the girl who plays Hermione, because she was smarter than the boys and better at magic. They think I’m famous cause I met Obama and hang out w/the big men in town so they asked if we could write her. We did and today when I checked my mail I had an autographed picture from Emma in it! The kids are gonna love it when I go back tonight.

2009-10-02T05:07:00.001-04:00

some pictures of twister fun!

Really cool sky one night that I tried to capture...not so much

Marathon route
PC hasn’t said a word about it yet but I think the basketball court is fully funded! My mom, the best PCV ever, called me 2 days ago saying the website says it’s funded. AWESOME. They had predicted 6 months to fill one that large but my family and friends did it in 2.5 months, very impressive guys, you rock. We’ll see how long it takes PC to get me the money but hopefully we can get going on this.
Between that and the talk of the visitors’ center and sign boards it’s very exciting at site. A lot of PCVs say how much I’m doing at site but really in a day about all I do is a few hours of work and weave a lot. (I should be starting my next pattern within a week.) People back home funded the court and NCRC is funding the visitors’ center, I’m just the bridge.
Last week was no running water, this week looks like no running water and no power, gotta love dry season coming back. Now with the marathon out of the way I got my bike fixed up and can start lifting again. I’m working on planning a bike ride through Togo into Benin and back but working out the details is pretty hard here. We gotta start traveling because we’re almost ½ done with our service.
Mukaila’s going to visit a friend of the guy I replaced in Washington this January and he’s really pumped about that. I can’t wait until he sees snow. Some of his questions are pretty awesome.
Under 20 World Cup is going on and the Black Satellites, our team, are doing great so far. They just whopped England 4-0. The TV hut was bopping. They won the African Continent earlier this year in some thrillers; they’re a fun team to watch.
Another month down and another record month of sales. The festival helped that however. Hopefully we can keep this up into the tourist off season.

If you were wondering about the marathon here’s my thoughts, it’s long. I put it separate so only people who really wanted to read it would have to:
Running your first marathon in Africa probably isn’t the best idea ever. Despite being a quick twitch athlete (sprinter) I think I trained pretty well with my long weeks of 20 and 22 miles. I was aiming for under 4 hours. We woke up at 3am and eventually ended up at the start line around 5 with the race starting at 5:30. It was quite a variety of runners there. Like 10 of us PCVs, Kenyan runners, Ghanaians, US marines and some expats. It started pretty late with the African sun already up, not good. It was delayed because they didn’t have water ready yet, also not good.
We started off and I settled in about middle of the pack. About 5 mins in I was running with a cute PCV from Mali and she had this satellite watch that told you your mile split. She ran in college and we were at a 8:30. I held that for my 20 miler and it hurt so bad so I knew I wouldn’t make it for 26.2 miles. Push your body to try to stay with cute girl or drop back and play it safe…Rower Dan wouldn’t have thought about it and stayed with her but I told her cya later and dropped back. A German tried to stay with her and I passed him about an hour later, he finished a long time after me.
Most of the run I was completely by myself which I’m told isn’t normal. How do I know what is normal? It’s my first one. Our veterans were not happy with the marathon and it’s very randomly and misplaced KM markers (not miles), drastic ups and downs and obstacles, lack of food (I had 2 halves of bananas the whole run), the hills, heat, lack of direction, and it’s course which lead us through a developing nations capital without closing anything. Dodging tro-tros, venders, and women wider than buses in Accra is a rough way to end a marathon. Also pacing yourself with KMs is much harder than miles. I did the math in my head and knew I had to do 5:40 KMs but try multiplying 27 x 5.40 then convert it to hours and mins after 3 hours of running.
About half way through I felt great, like really great, I had paced myself and passed a lotta people that went out too fast. I don’t think I picked it up but I had long given up on even looking at the wrong markers or my clock. A few kms later I was passing guys on their 17th marathons who said this was by far the worst one ever, thanks guys, very motivating. The whole time I’m expecting Kimmie, our running pro, to pass me with a smile on her face telling me to keep it up. After ages between markers I come up to one that seems way too far from the finish and they only hand me ½ a cup of water. I need electrolytes or something and I’m out of the amazing GU packs. I’m slowing down and hurting like crazy but still passing people and turn a corner and there’s Andrew, a PCV whose goal was 3 hours a ways ahead but barely moving. Catching him had to be the most hilarious site.
We were only 2 white people in the packed streets of Accra and our bodies are cramping and we can barely move. Eventually I catch up with him and I’m dieing, like chest cramping, worst pain ever dieing, but going faster than he is. We’re both competitive and we look at each other. Then my leg massively cramps again and I say “Let’s walk” something I never thought I’d say but I had no choice, my body was done. He was like “Thank God” and we started the most painful and humbling hour of my life. We were 3:32 into it and had we continued running at our average pace would have been done in 28 minutes.
Walking sounds easy but we could barely do that. Every once in a while we would try to “shuffle” but one of us would pull up with a cramp. The KMs seems like an eternity and the streets were packed. I had nothing left. The thing was everyone else must have died too because I think a total of 3 people passed us in over an hour of walking. We turned a corner and could see a far ways and couldn’t see the finish, horrible. Not too much farther there was a hidden turnoff and Julie and Andrea were there cheering for us. These are my only 2 friends within hours of my site, so we do everything together. Julie yells “Only 10 miles left guys!” and I gave her the bird. Just before that we had started shuffling again so when we passed them we picked it up. It was the last like .1 mile and I’m a sprinter so we sprinted. In rowing we used to do 7 ups, which was up a beat every 7 strokes so we did that with steps and crossed the line together looking strong with a time of 4:43. We came in 40th place, 3rd of Ghana PCVs. They got my numbers and the cheering section came to take care of me. Sinae, Julie, Maria, Andrea, and Marcus all took care of me while the rest worked on others finishing. I couldn’t breathe without pain. The rest of the PCVs started to trickle in. When Kimmie came in we knew she had been hurting, she was 1.5 hours over her previous worst time.
At first I was pissed and swore I’d never do one again. That night I partied it off and was the only runner still going somehow at 1 am. The next day we were in tons of pain but I was feeling better. I asked Andy, who had to stop to use the lack of facilities twice why we ever did it and he said, “I dunno but I’m not gonna let Africa beat me like that, I’m gonna get it next year.” I won’t make any promises but I think I will too.
I gotta thank Jen Shen, KTP, and Anne Varner. Without their help I never would have came close to finishing.

a year in africa by the numbers

2009-09-29T04:29:00.000-04:00

exactly 1 year ago today we stepped off the plan in Accra
42 Peace Corps Trainees arrived
40 Peace Corps Volunteers Swore in
40 are still here
I've had:
4 hot showers (3 of which when Meg Hub paid for hotel rooms)
44 books read
18,061 pages read
49.48 pages/day
261 games of minesweeper won on expert
1 woman driver out of all the cars I've been in
1 cell phone tower
20 hours longest time in a tro tro in a day
1 cinnamon roll
200+ morning runs
1 marathon ran
4:43 marathon
43 minutes off my goal
0 times wearing jeans
368 days without hugging mom
15 months since Tripp and I have lost in darts
over 25 countries represented in tourists at my site
5,836 cedi sold of kente (recorded)
2 bear fights with Adam Luck
1 US presidents hand shook
1 first ladies hand shook
1 goat hit on bike
1 crooked nose from hitting goat on bike
1 chicken break in
1 lion attack near my village
3 Skype conversations with family
0 baseball games attended
$4,000ish donated towards basketball court so far
1 kente pattern designed and named by me
365 days in the same Adidas sandals
75 ish buckets of laundry by hand
1/3 of my clothes ruined until i learned how to wash better
5 languages attempted to be used in conversations in 1 day

2009-09-22T07:05:00.000-04:00

My water’s been out for a few days which just means living off the water in my barrel for a while. I only have a few cups since usually I do dishes after each meal because the ants will attack if you don’t. With water out I didn’t do dishes after dinner last night and only had one cup for this morning. After my run I made up some Propel and a neighbor boy about 6 years old comes up to me. They like to try American things so I go to make him some Propel and realize I’m outta cups. So I grab my Michigan double shot glass and fill it up with Propel (which is clear) for him, hand it to him, and we hit glasses on my front porch. As soon as we go to drink my neighbor comes out of his bungalow. “For Daniel, It is too early for that and he is too young!”

2009-09-17T09:57:00.000-04:00

Some Kente Festival Pictures (before batteries died and I picked a fight with Brits and Germans)

Yes, that is strips of kente

Bright's speed caught in picture

imagine this on a full court.

2009-09-17T09:56:00.001-04:00

Being away from site for almost 2 weeks can be overwhelming. It was refreshing and reminded me of how great I have it in Kpetoe. However, it also exposes just how daunting of a task that PC and the likes have taken up. I’m very partial but I truly believe PC goes about development the right way. It’s definitely not the easy or short way.
We don’t come offering money, we offer trainers/facilitators. Often we don’t get to see our results and yet we spend the longest time here. While we’re forming groups and trying to transfer knowledge NGO’s are constructing buildings and donating vehicles. It can be extremely frustrating when people don’t want to work for something because they think that someone else should come and do it for them. Luckily I don’t deal with this too much but lots of PCVs do. The others leave infrastructure and buildings, what will we leave?
These are just the tip of what PCVs deal with. If you don’t like sports or carpentry and want to have a long conversation with me pros and cons of development is a good choice. With this much time to think sometimes stuff just gets to ya. I say all this because I just got to catch up with about half of my group and I’m hoping it’s just a phase but overall we’re just not that happy. No one has gone home yet but it looks like that will be changing relatively soon. A year away from home is a long time especially when you don’t have that many concrete accomplishments. We all miss people and know we’re not even half way done.
At the same time I look at how our group has changed and what small changes we’ve helped to bring about and I’m honestly pretty proud. We can eat just about anything, picked up new hobbies, languages, and friends and really have had some successes. The cultural exchange is there just by us living alone in our communities. Our health volunteers have done HIV/AIDs camps, programs, and even dramas. Our environment volunteers have planted millions of seeds and aided in alternative livelihood projects. We business volunteers have the most range to our work but we’ve had our share of things to write home about too. I may not have done much but when you add it to the little things the rest of the group has also done…then we’re making progress. It’s slow and frustrating but we’re going about it the right way.
You’re probably like after all that dependency talk you’re getting your family and friends to build a basketball court? Defense: It’s not something they need to survive, it’s for the kids, and HIV/AIDs awareness is something that I truly believe we need to continue to do. I want to do that in a fun way. Also, have you seen “The Air Up There”?.

“Local bands in California sing about Michigan.”
“Really?”
“Chh...no”
-Marcus after asking who sang a song about California of mine.

2009-09-10T19:08:00.000-04:00

Conference has been kinda long but very legit overall. Marcus and I have won 2 best of 7 Euchre series making us the best players in the country and it’s been great to catch up with some of the group. The hotel we’re staying at is hilarious. I call it an IKEA store cause everything looks really awesome but doesn’t work.
We had a person living with AIDs here in Ghana come and talk to us a few days ago and that was probably my favorite presentation so far. She was very calm but very powerful. Oscar forgot to bring a belt so on our way here he bought one with a belt buckle that says “NO!” in huge levels. We call it his chastity belt. Some of the statistics and whatnot are really staggering.
I know I’m still no HIV/AIDs expert so when I do the basketball gala and presentations I’ll have some of our more medically inclined PCVs come and present, I’ll ref the games. Gotta do what you do well.
We watched Game 5 of the NBA finals tonight and the commercials were almost as cool as the game.

2009-09-07T13:35:00.000-04:00

Festival was pretty slow all week until Friday when all the chiefs and big men went out to a small village with muskets and home brewed Akpeteshie. I didn't think this "Firing of Musketry" sounded all that safe and I ran 22 miles that morning so I took a rain check. When they came back and I saw what state they were in I'd say I made the right choice but they gave me a hard time. Should PEACE Corps volunteers be firing guns anyways?
Rest of the day was just awesome. The national breweries sponsored a street Jamboree Fri and Sat nights. The roads were packed and I won a towel, t-shirt, and Guinness jersey. Saturday was the Grand Durbar complete with VP of Ghana and South Korean (Chrissy musta sent him) Ambassador. They carried all the chiefs and a small girl in canoes from town to the grounds which is now Julie and I's long term goal for next year. There were at least 20-30 obvious tourists and 1,000s of Ghanaians so hopefully the ads we put up helped.
The only negative would be the quality of some of the people that came. I love the people of Kpetoe but not always the big city people. 2 characters from Accra tried to make me pay to take pictures. Our strength is that we don't do crap like that to our tourists so I was not happy. All in Eve (somehow) I asked them where they're from, told them I lived here, and that I'm sure my personal friend, Paramount Chief Nene, would be intrigued to hear about his personal photographer being harassed. They seemed to lose some authority. The next day a friend of mine had 2 phones stolen from her. That stuff never happens in my village and if I would have told Michael and crew they'd still be looking for the culprit.
The next day Oscar and I took off for Kumasi for the HIV/AIDs workshop we're at now The hotel has wifi!!! Doesn't always have water but still awesome. Kpetoe to Kumasi is like Jackson to Grand Rapids. We left at 8:30, 7 cars, 2 breakdowns, and 10 hours later we arrived.
I think I need these 2 weeks of conferences as a break but I'd still rather be at site. Around the 1 year mark it's not supposed to be easy and lately I haven't been quite as excited about being here. Others in my group are similar. We all love it here but have been here so long and are still not even half way home.
Today we had to say what we're doing for HIV/AIDs awareness and I talked about the basketball court plan and how my family raised $1,000 via garage sale. The whole room applauded, wish you guys coulda been here for that. I'm getting some great ideas for how we can maximize the effectiveness of the court once it's built. Alan and Marian are trying to beat me to filling their proposal. They're retired so their friends hopefully don't still have college loans like mine!

2009-09-01T10:21:00.000-04:00

It’s Kente Festival time. All over the Agotime Traditional Ruling Area people have pitched in to help. Sounds like a lot of fun but 8 hours of preparation debates in Ewe gets a little old, over 2 hours were spent on the prizes for the Ms. Kente Pageant, they decided not to have a Mr. Kente since no one could challenge me. It’s still going to be really cool with the speed weaving and design contests. The guys want me to enter the speed weaving competition because I’d be the fastest white weaver ever (big accomplishment). It was weird promoting something that you’ve never been to however; we’ll see how it turns out.
The more I work with the big men and Queen Mothers the more I appreciate my weavers. Bright, Francis, Richard, Oscar, Joshua, and the likes are just all around good guys. Joshua weaves all day 6 days a week and then sings in the choir at his church on Sundays. He and Bright are also the first guys to help with any manual labor for our projects or to come cut my grass. If he sees me struggling in my loom he’ll jump out of his and come over and set me straight which can take a while. There are up to 20 weavers in the center at once and they pretty much just weave and chat. They don’t compete against each other for sales but rather sell for each other if they’re not there. When tourists come they just hang up their cloths and get back to work. Their laid back attitude and quality of work are our best selling points. Some strips take up to a day to weave and then they’ll sell them happily for like 4 or 5 cedi (~$3). I’m glad that I get to work with them the most because as much as I’d like to complain they got it rougher and they’re still happy.
Football season has started again and that really helps. Weekdays I’m usually great but weekends alone with nothing to do can get to ya. Back home weekends were nonstop fun, sometimes too much so. I really get into some of the football matches which makes up some for the lack of social life. I was legitimately depressed after Man U came back and beat Arsenal last week, like I was really into that game and so was the rest of the packed TV hut. My dad wouldn’t be too proud to hear that but I promise if the BoSox make the series I’ll go watch the games in Accra, which will start around midnight here. Until then the Blackstars’ World Cup Qualifier Saturday will have to do.
August broke the streak of consecutive increase in attendance months at 6 but still had a solid 50 guests. We did set a new record in sales with 1055 Cedi.
Megan successfully smuggled bootleg Harry Potter 6 DVDs home, my little sister is using hers a ton.

2009-08-25T10:18:00.000-04:00

A PCV that just left told me it's great to get guests from home cause they take lots of pictures of stuff you wouldn't at your site. It's true, here are a few(she took like 500) of Meg Hub's pictures. (used completely w/o her expressed written consent)

2009-08-25T10:16:00.000-04:00

I just had lunch of Peanut Butter M&Ms, canned peaches, and Pringles. Afternoon snack might be Cinnamon Toast Crunch, does life get any better?
The last few weeks have been very refreshing. The night before Meg flew in Amber and I went to see the new Harry Potter at the only theatre in Ghana. If you don’t know I’m that jock that loves musicals and Harry Potter (and still somehow has cool friends). A year alone in a village is great but you forget certain things, like how it is to laugh for real. Amber and I are very different people and we hadn’t seen each other in 2 months but during one funny scene we started laughing and just couldn’t stop, like heads on each others shoulders cracking up. My description really doesn’t do it justice but I’ll never forget how good it felt to laugh that hard.
Having a friend from home was awesome but it was also just great to have someone to talk to. Like 90% of my thoughts never leave my head here, I used to never shut up. I can tell people what it’s like here but it’s cool that someone knows. We talked about how it is here vs. back home and old friends. I don’t get to do that. Meg’s parents also covered EVERY travel expense which let us do some really cool stuff. Most of our meals would’ve cost me over a day’s salary. Very interesting to see how I’ve adjusted to things here. Also amazing is the real food I have now! It’d been months since I’d picked up packages and Meg brought suitcases (one packed expertly by my mother) full of stuff for the kids and I. So many volunteers have already benefited from the goods. Thanks to everyone.
Site is still busy but that’s a good thing. Might not break last month’s attendance record (59) this month (45 so far) but we’ve already sold more. The rubbish bins are up, being used, and emptied. We are starting to work on a tour, pricing of the tour, placement for billboards, and the location of our visitors centre, all very big projects. Also our annual Kente Festival begins on Sunday. Speed weaving competitions, street jamborees, Ms. Kente Pageant, and the VP of Ghana at the closing ceremonies, you know you want to come! We had our press conference last weekend and I’ve been using the projects that the GVSU International Marketing Class sent me to advertise.
Perhaps the biggest thing that I’ve been part of happened just yesterday. There is one guidebook that almost every tourist/volunteer in Ghana uses, Bradt, I have 2 actually. Like we live and breathe by this guide. My supervisor called and said they’d be coming last Monday. They came a week late but it was still huge.
I didn’t warn my weavers because our strengths are our quality, prices, and laid back..ness. Turns out our prices were almost half of their last kente village and if you’ve seen pictures you know the quality is there. After visiting one of the guesthouses they mentioned they hadn’t had breakfast so I offered them some. Talk about pressure cooking! I don’t cook much well but luckily what I do I do well. My bacon, egg, and Laughing Cow (“cheese”) sandwich is the best this side of the Volta. Mostly it’s because it’s the only one with bacon. Between that, M&Ms, and cashews they were extremely happy. I used packages to brown nose guidebook writers but I don’t feel bad about it at all. As they were leaving I asked if they could put the TV hut in the next edition and she wrote down their info, if they make it I will freak out. Our shopkeepers were amazing and I’d say we got a great write-up. The most important thing I’ve done here for my project only took 3 hours.
I continue to be awed by the support from home. Letters, occasional texts/calls, and packages are extremely generous and appreciated. My relatives and friends do more and even more for me. I’ll miss a name if I list them so I’ll just say relatives got together and held a garage sale for the basketball court. They spent days prepping and had a great sale raising somewhere around $1,000. All I could say to my mom when she told me was “awesome, simply awesome.” If you look at any successes I’ve had here you can tie them directly back to someone back home, speaks volumes about the quality of people in the States.
I should have written tons more about Meg’s visit and the garage sale but then this entry would never end so I’ll just say…
HAPPY 4 MONTHS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!

2009-08-18T11:52:00.000-04:00

Canopy Walk at Kakum National Park

View of Cape Coast Castle from the Governor's bedroom.

2009-08-18T08:35:00.000-04:00

I figure people might want to hear another opinion on Ghana. Megan is fresh from the States and apparently I’ve become numb to a lot of what I do because she thinks some of it’s crazy. So here are Meg’s thoughts on Ghana:

After being here for almost a week and a half, I think that Ghana is indescribable. No matter how you try you will not do it enough justice and it can vary so much from village to city. You can go from a big city with a mall, movie theater and amazing American food, to villages with mud huts and no running water or electricity and everything in between. Pictures cannot capture its beautiful landscapes and amazing sites.
The most remarkable historical building we visited was the Cape Coast Castle. Obama visited here a few weeks ago. The architecture there was unbelievably beautiful, but the story behind it is heartbreaking. This fort was built in the 1600’s and played a major role in the slave trade industry. People that were captured for slavery were sent into the slave dungeons for three months before passing through the Door of No Return. After touring this building I was almost speechless. It is hard to believe that what happened in that building was allowed to occur!
While we were in Ghana’s Eastern and Central regions we visited a waterfall and Kakum Nation Forest. The hike to the waterfall took a little more than an hour. We stopped many times to take in the sites and the small villages along the way to the top. As we were getting near we could hear the water flowing down the falls. The water rushing down and the mist in the air was an incredible! While at Kakum National Forest we went on the Canopy Walk. It is a boardwalk that is suspended above the canopy level of the forest about 100 feet up. The boardwalk was made from rope and ladders with wooden boards to walk on. Once again the view was marvelous!
Ghana is not only filled with amazing sites, but also wonderful people! The kids are kind and love to play and learn sports. Everybody is incredibly welcoming! They even call to check in on Dan when he is away, just because they haven’t talked in a few days.
Ghanaians love President Obama! All over the country there are signs with President Obama and President Mills. Michelle Obama is even on a few! At market you can purchase Obama t-shirts. You can even get into a cab and hear a song written about Obama. Today the neighborhood kids sang the song and translated it for me! Hopefully this song will make it out to the United States!
But Ghanaians love football (soccer) more than anything in the world! The kids love to play it and everybody talks about it. We watched the Manchester vs. Chelsea pre-season football game in the TV hut last week. The hut was packed and incredibly hot! The excitement in the room was incredible! Dan and I wanted to leave early, but were forbidden because of the excitement. After regulation it was a 2-2 tie, Chelsea won in a shoot out. There were so many cheers and high fives in the room. Remember, this is a pre-season game! I have never seen anything like this in the States. The closest thing to compare it to was the Stanley Cup Finals. In the States we have so many different sporting events/teams that we can chose from that it almost takes way from the excitement of watching games or following teams.
Over the course of my visit I have gotten the opportunity to meet some of the most amazing people, see beautiful sites and learn a new way of life. The biggest thing I have learned from this experience is don’t ever set your mind on anything- you need to be flexible! You cannot just walk into a gas station and grab a Nutra-grain Bar or Snickers bar. You can’t even be upset if the water goes out at the hotel you are staying at. There is nothing you can do to get it back on and complaining about it really isn’t going to help!

Quote: I was walking to the garbage to throw out a mushy banana. Michael says, “Ahh, let me feed that to my goat.”

2009-08-05T06:17:00.000-04:00

My new pattern. They named it "Obama"

Harry Potter marathon, Day 3

My last pattern, Bright said no one's ever made a chess board out of kente before.

Joshua's new bags (think all in this picture have sold already)

We set another record in July with 59 guests and are off to a good start in August with 16 already. Joshua designed new small bags after I describe some to him. They’re not what I described at all but they’re selling. With this many tourists we haven’t had the time to make stationery lately and we’re down to 5 cards left at the centre. My friend Megan from GVSU is coming to visit for 2 weeks on Saturday and she said she’d be glad to help make stationery.
Having my first visitor from the states is exciting. It’ll be great to see what a friend fresh from home thinks of it here. So far I can only tell people what it’s like, now someone will actually know which is cool. One of Megan’s suitcases will be devoted to me/PCV’s/Kpetoe coming here and to family on the way back which is also very cool. It’s gonna be like Christmas. Also we’re going to spend a few of the days doing touristy stuff that I haven’t even done yet like visiting slave forts, Kukum National Park, and at least a night at Green Turtle Lodge, the ultimate tropical lodge, http://greenturtlelodge.com/
I asked one of my marketing profs from GV to put me in contact with the international marketing prof because I thought they might enjoy working on a project that is real and marketing isn’t my thing. Over 25 nationalities have visited Kpetoe in my time, that’s pretty international. I just got her summer classes’ final projects which were promoting our Kente Festival (Sept 30-Aug 5) and wow. There are some great posters, brochures, logos, tour group contact information, and the likes. She said that they really enjoyed doing it and she would love to have her winter semester promote kente in Kpetoe in general. Also my friend Jacquelyn, who is a graphic designer, is going to redo our brochures so it doesn’t look like a 5-year-old made them (me) and NCRC might sponsor them in their next budget in October.
I wasn’t even there but I laughed when Julie and Andrea told me about a team building meeting their NGO had. They split into groups and had to say what item they’d take if deserted on an island. The first Ghanaian said “Bible” and instantly another Ghanaian said “I was going to say that!” and snapped her fingers. The next person said “prayer” because bible was taken. Then it came to the other bible lady. She just couldn’t bring herself to bring anything else so she also said bible. So the group ended up taking 2 bibles, prayer, and a pocket knife (volunteer’s choice). The CEO of the NGO said, “Zat group doesn’t have a prayer.” (she’s French)
Basketball Court is up to $1,500, awesome!
I've tried to post this for weeks, hope it worked!

2009-07-27T11:30:00.000-04:00

This was in Kpetoe, the world is a small place.

2009-07-27T07:53:00.000-04:00

One of the small rubbish bins and all my buds that helped.

2009-07-27T07:12:00.000-04:00

The basketball court is off to a great start with $600+! Thanks so much to all that have donated already.
Things have been happening at site and any one of them used to be the highlight of the week for me. We’re having another record month of tourists, 53 so far, had lights installed in the weaving centre, been posted on BBC’s “Save our Sounds”, and installed the towns first 23 rubbish bins.
The lights in the weaving centre are overall a great thing. The lighting in there just isn’t very good all the time and sometimes the weavers just need more time. I just hope they don’t work too long as they already work more than anyone else in town.
BBC is doing a “Save our Sounds” campaign that you send in a sound that is in danger of being lost or sums up a lifestyle. I think the clicks and clatters of the weavers is an awesome sound and really sums up what it’s like here in Kpetoe. When I went to the website the only sound they had for Ghana was an old school modem, lame. I sat between 2 weavers, recorded and sent it in. They said describe it the best you can so I wrote like a few paragraphs. We got posted! They also copied the entire email I sent and put it with the sound. The link is www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specialreports/saveoursounds/index.shtml
Who’d have thought rubbish bins were so cool? NCRC (Nature Conservation Research Centre) is one of the main NGO’s that I work with. They promote eco-tourism and really do amazing things for our community. The next step for Kpetoe after finishing our constitution was placing rubbish bins throughout town. This not only makes a town more tourism friendly but also makes it much more sanitary. We did a few write-ups and picked the locations for the bins and last week 10 large bins on wheels and 13 standing ones arrived!
This was the first lasting physical influence that I have helped bring to my community. The brand new District Chief Executive (remember elections in December? Ya, he just got here) came out to thank us complete with press coverage. I had just gone to introduce myself to him the day before so now he probably thinks I can do things like this easily. He forgot my name so I was just “white man” in all his quotes; least they’ll spell it right. The day before my crew of weavers (Bright, Francis, Joshua and co.) had filled bags with sand and gravel as prep so after the ceremony we installed the first one at the District Assembly before dark.
Mr. Agba then said that we should meet at 5 the next morning to dig the holes for the standing bins. Joshua and I said that was too early but everyone else said that was fine. 5:15 rolls around and it’s only Joshua and I sitting on a log. The digging didn’t take long but the walking and the debates over placement once people woke up did. The district environmental officer left his office for the first time in a year and decided he should have the biggest say in where they went. It was sad to see how surprised he was at the state of our sanitation here. Everyone in town wanted one near them, especially the big men. During one debate Joshua, Bright, and I had a Guinness; I don’t like arguments. 8 am is a new record for first of the day, well here at least. Everyone thought a white guy riding around later in the back of a pickup and doing manual labor was hilarious. Bright couldn’t believe that I’d roofed for 5 years and was used to it, they think I’m some professional.
After we installed all of them I went to the NCRC construction manager to apologize about the debates. Before I started he told me this was the easiest installation they ever had. The holes were already dug and the fighting was nothing compared to most communities apparently. Now it’s tremendous to see people actually using them and they already want to start a Phase II of bins.
The easy part was the installations though, picking locations, determining how they will be emptied, and who maintains them wasn’t fun. Thanks to NCRC I’ve done my first sanitation project in the community and it’s pretty popular already.
This no football stuff stinks; I not only found but actually listened to the track meet in London on my radio..

2009-07-17T12:21:00.000-04:00

a summer volunteer weaving compared to my boy Bright

2009-07-17T10:43:00.000-04:00

The sales of most of the stationery are going to pay for the bricks of Bright's first house. He was orphaned and had to drop out of secondary school to support himself by weaving. So basically my mom's idea is building him his first house, attagirl ma.

2009-07-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

Great news! My basketball court proposal was finally posted on the Peace Corps website. That means that now it's up to my family and friends to fill it.
The link is:
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=641-272
Or you can go to the PC website, donate now, and search for Vainner.
I know it's a lot of money especially with the state of the economy but I really want to give this to Kpetoe. Any money spent on me should instead be put towards this. That means no packages or anything of the sort! We can't get any of the money donated until the entire $5,000 is received. Donations are completely tax deductible. Every small donation helps!

Other news, the AP picture made the homepage of the PC website, www.peacecorps.gov. Alan texted me, "Dan, you are on the PC homepage and your basketball court is listed." Good way to start the day eh? The picture changes each time you go to it but if you refresh it enough you'll see me.

Photos

2009-07-16T18:17:00.000-04:00

2009-07-12T12:42:00.000-04:00

Jacquelyn found this on the web!

Barack, BARACK, Barack, Obama

2009-07-12T10:46:00.000-04:00

Lots going on at site but everything got put on hold for OBAMA!!
PC told us that we had been invited to come to Accra on Saturday to see Obama speak. They kinda made it sound like he was just going to be talking to us and that none of the trip expenses would be covered and most hotel rooms were booked. Would PCV's take off for the capital city where things are expensive, crime is high, and not many hotel rooms available to see the leader of the Free World? Is the Pope Catholic? I just left most valuables behind in case I had to sleep on the streets with friends.
Getting ready in my village to go see Obama was like a redneck going to prom. Everyone helped out. Matthew washed my good shirt and pants up because he know I'm not very good at hand washing. Bright went all around trying to find me shoes and kept asking if I had enough money. Emmanuel polished up his best pair of shoes for me (Adidas sandals just wouldn't do). Mr. Agba did a little dance and gave me the kente to make the vest for Obama. My tailor worked overtime and early the morning I left to get it done in time. I also might add that my last haircut was via Leatherman by Julie.
PCV's traveled by bus all night from all corners of Ghana, we slept 6 to a bed at a shady hotel, met at the embassy and waited hours in lines. The event ended up being his departure from Ghana! There were about 3000 tickets issued and PCV's got VIP tickets. VERY High Security, so high that I left the kente vest behind (will mail it to him). I had one short girl in front of me and then it was just 15 feet from the podium!!! Obama and his entire family were coming from the slave fort in Cape Coast and were flown in via helicopter, awesome, snipers and secret service and all. The president of Ghana joined him on stage and spoke first.
Obama gave a short speech on Ghana (link below) and talked about the PC a few times!! The first time he mentioned us we went CRAZY. Most of my pictures didn't turn out too great cause I was shaking so much. After national anthems Obama, Michelle, Atta Mills (Ghana President), and Teitelbaum (US Ambassador) walked around and shook the hands of people in the front rows. When he shook mine he looked at me (probably thought I was an idiot for my kente vest but little does he know he's getting one too) and said "You're doing a great job." I didn't know he's been to Kpetoe!! After that Michelle was doing a kinda shaking 2 hands at once thing and so we had an awkward backwards left hand shake. She did touch PCV Mikey on the cheek and say "What you're doing is amazing." Which was matched in class when PCV Marcus gripped Michelle's hand like they were gonna arm wrestle and screamed, "You are SOOO BEAUTIFUL!"
Then they flew off in Air Force One. I will never forget how much pride I had in my fellow PCV's, Ghana, and America.
Most my village was watching and saw me on Tv, they were so excited.

Quotes:
"I want to recognize our PCV who are here.....(cheering for at least 25 seconds) You know Ghana, Ghana was the very first nation to host young people from the Peace Corp and for decades our two nations have formed vital partnerships & lasting friendships because of this program. So all of you in the Peace Corps you are doing an outstanding job & we're proud of you". Barack Obama

"Young people of Africa ...... serve like these PC people, serve in communities, and harvest your energy & education to renew & build connections between the world."

Entire Speech. (if it still works)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLwpvzqlSv4

2009-07-07T06:02:00.000-04:00

2009-07-06T10:45:00.000-04:00

2009-07-06T10:43:00.000-04:00

I’ve been so busy lately that my list of things to do has reached 2 pages. Remember accomplishing one thing a day is a success here so it’ll take a while to get it back down. Definitely not complaining however, it’s been great. The rubbish bins will be installed July 16th, out constitution is finally completely complete, and they said the basketball court proposal should be filed in like a week.
We ended June with 52 guests and over a 42 day stretch had 75 guests. We had 8 in January and February combined. This is the peak of summer volunteers but even the weavers have said this has been a great summer. Bright was down to 6 strips left to sell last week, that’s a good thing.
A group of students from Ohio State was in Ho and their supervisors wanted Julie to talk to them about PC. Julie didn’t want to do it alone and knows I love a reason to go to Ho so had me come too. They bought us dinner, a beer, and then we talked and answered questions for like an hour. After basically talking about how much we love our lives they handed us an envelope for coming. They gave us each 30 cedi which is like 5 days pay for us! Be great if it ended there but 2 days later they called me back via my business cards that other PCVs tease me about (they work though, instant Big Man status if you have them). “Can you bring like a lot of kente to sell to us?” Is the Pope Catholic? Julie brought the necklaces she sells and I brought an entire “Ghana Gucci” (cheap bag the size of a suitcase) full of kente. Kente sales alone were over 200 cedi. The weavers were so happy when I came back that night; they took me out for a beer and then bought me pasta, tomatoes, and onions because they know that I love to make pasta. That they trusted me enough to take basically their entire inventories/savings meant a lot to me. As I was finishing up packing up each weaver’s best stuff a van of 10 tourists pulled up so we had to hang everything back up and ended up having to redo the inventory too, the gusy thought that was really funny.
My buddy Benchy from back home sent me a Chelsea package including a scarf, real replica Essien (Ghana’s best player) jersey and a tote bag. People shouldn’t spend money on me, wait until the basketball court gets approved and give to that if you have to, but I’ll admit this package was the talk of Kpetoe. No one has ever seen a jersey of that quality, like the letters stay on after you wash it! So many people felt its quality. It was Republic Day and Mukaila had come over to tell me they needed a program made up for the presentation that started in an hour (we got them made up just in time) when he saw the stuff. Mukaila, like 98% of Ghanaians, LOVES Chelsea so I wanted to give him something. He sure as heck wasn’t getting the jersey or scarf though so I parted with the Chelsea tote bag. I should have had my camera at the presentation; there in the middle of the front table was the District Chief Executive and District Director in suits and Mukaila in shirt, tie, and Chelsea tote bag.

2009-06-30T06:06:00.000-04:00

Emancipation Beach. A volunteer said it feels like you're on the edge of the world there. I told him "it's round, dumbass"

2009-06-30T05:53:00.000-04:00

I can go home now. I’ve had my biggest successes in Ghana and know that it will be tough to top. Desmond slapped my hand.
Since the day that I came to Kpetoe Desmond would run away screaming anytime he saw me. Once I passed he would start yelling “For Daniel” until I waved at him. His house is between mine and the road so I go by him a few times a day. Each time same story, his mom tells me to touch him and he screams and does a run/waddle away. White people are scary. Sometimes I would chase him; it is the neighborhood joke. So much that Michael was talking to me one night:
Dan: You will be very happy when I go home, I’ll leave you my baseball glove.
Michael: No, I will cry when you leave (Michael is the toughest 11 year old I know), just For Desmond will be happy when you leave.
Tuesday, when I walked by Desmond after my run he comes up to me and I reached out like I do to scare him and instead he slaps it. He looks at his hand to see if it’s alright then gets this look on his face of great accomplishment; it was the most joy I’ve ever seen in a child’s eyes, then he runs away. A day that starts like that can’t be a bad one.
There have been some frustrations with my projects lately. My basketball court proposal has been sitting at the Accra PC office for over a month now, and as we speak all the quotes on it are changing due to inflation and exchange rates. It still has to go through Washington too. After taking the constitution all over the country to get signatures the Ghana Tourist Board in Ho has had it for 3 weeks, they’re the last Herbie Hancock we need and we said we wouldn’t have another meeting until it was all finalized. We worked hard on a proposal to NCRC for rubbish bins throughout town and hadn’t heard from them for over a month but I think they’ll be installed July 16th. Basically lately the only work I’ve been able to do is work with the District Assembly, host tourists and my computer lessons. Luckily number of tourists continues to be on the rise and I have my weaving so I haven’t gone crazy.
After Desmond slapped my hand I realized that meant more to me than if I got them a theme park built here in Kpetoe (be sweet though wouldn’t it!?). PC is more about the relationships and exchange of cultures then the actual aid work. I look at how my feelings have changed from being all alone in some African village 5,660.15 miles and 771 days from home (273 days down but who’s counting) to being part of Kpetoe and I’m very happy with all the little successes I’ve had here so far.
If that was too cheesy for ya we did have 18 art students from western Canada (apparently they do exist) stop by last Sunday, hilarious. How do I explain to Bright and Joshua why people pierce their tongues and lips or why they are taking a picture of the ground? “No Bright, her lips aren’t naturally black.” When they left they were wearing kente in ways I’ve never seen before. One of my best friends is an art student and I used to tease her about how weird they were, little did I know, they weren’t that bad.

I hate snakes, like run and scream like a little girl, hate snakes. On the rowing team if there was a snake by the river they’d always manage to scare the crap outta me with it, real mature guys. I’m getting better here due to seeing so many, mostly dead, on my runs. Well yesterday there was the thickest one I’ve ever seen that had been run over by a car. Today I run by and pray it’s been moved and most of it had, I was relieved. Then I saw a guy on the other side of the road starting a fire, I won’t go into details but I think you can figure out what he was grilling, disgusting. Probably shouldn’t have shared that but it grossed me out and that takes a lot now.

Adam Luck (remember the name, he’s gonna be famous), my best friend in PC, just starred in a Ghanaian movie as “white man who brings education to village.” Ghanaian movies may be the worst acting in the history of mankind and all of Adam’s lines were improv, sounds like a sure hit to me. Can’t wait to see it.

The only way that Spain won’t score 5 goals on America is if they put 11 men on the goal line. –BBC World Sports Update June 24
US won 2-0 the next day and almost beat Brazil in the final yesterday. AWESOME.

Desmond's reaction for me until Tuesday

Desmond giving me five for like the 5th time

2009-06-19T18:40:00.000-04:00

Lisa sent me some Boston temporary tattoos, entertainment for like 2 days.

Don't Mess with Kpetoe

2009-06-19T17:34:00.000-04:00

A Day in the Life of….

Samuel Agba (Mr. Agba)
Age: 67
Occupation: Owns best Kente store in Kpetoe, retired weaver, farmer, Chairman of the Agotime Tourism Governance Board & Staff
Has been to textile exhibitions in Denmark, US, and France
Dropped out of Secondary School at age 11 to support his family by weaving in 1953
Father of 16
One of my favorite people to just chill with ever.

4:30-Wake up, bathe and eat rice
5:30-Open store
6:00-Take tea
6:30-Check on weavers he buys from all over town collecting strips and paying for them
8:00-Take strips back to store and organize
9:30-Guinness (“refreshment”) with Daniel
10:00-Send strips to tailor to get them made into ties, bags, and clothes. Also inspects and pays for finished products.
11:00-Go to farm on outskirts of town
11:30-Farming
5:00-Come home from farm and bathe so “I can go out again”
6:00-Dinner of yams, rice, plantain, or fufu
7:00-Close the shop, see what was sold
7:30-Socialize
8:00-Bed

2009-06-19T07:19:00.000-04:00

As with most summers, the last few weeks have flown by. Why is it that summers are still so much fun even here where the weather doesn’t change all that much? I will admit it’s been the coolest temperatures since we got to country lately, but still hot.
Between all the summer volunteers, the new group of PCTs, and even PCV’s from other countries visiting Ghana I’ve been meeting people from all over. Having Jake stay with me last week reinforced my opinion that I have a pretty amazing job. The best part about it is that I get to meet all these people but they only come to my village for a few hours so I still get to live most of my life with Ghanaians. It’s a very rare mix even in PC to be able to see many volunteers yet still live Ghanaian style.
Jake was a trouper and tried everything that I did including going on a run with me, eating Fufu, washing cloths, and even cooked breakfast for us twice. Mom sent bacon bits so we had fresh eggs, tomato, onion, and BACON sandwiches, amazing. We also met up with other PC people on the beach in Afloa (border town that you can see Togo’s capital from) where we played basketball on the court from White Man Can’t Jump and proved the movie true losing horribly. While standing in the water there I decided my US friends should be there too so I used all the credit on my phone calling them, well worth it.
My neighbor Matthew and I spent a morning cutting my grass with cutlasses. When we were about 10 minutes from being done he hit the plastic pipe that brings my water (yes I usually have running water) and it started spraying everywhere. While he ran to fetch the “plumber” I figured out how to turn off the water. The guy came as fast as he could, meaning he borrowed a bike, and brought with him a piece of pipe and a blade. We told him I did it because obviously an American would hit the pipe, not a Ghanaian. He asked for some matches and I watched as he started a fire, heated the plastic, molded it to the right size and after 2 tries had it all fixed, it took a while but I was impressed.
I also had power issues. I figured it was just lights out for the day but when I noticed my neighbor’s power on I went and checked into it. Bills are put on your house but there is no where in town to pay them. Guys come around to tell you to pay the bill but you can’t pay them, so I had given money to Mukaila to pay mine. Mukaila forgot to pay it so they cut my power. I rode all over town asking around and finally found the guy turning off power. I paid my bill and he agreed to come turn the power back on if he got to ride my bike to do it and if I bought him a Guinness. Cost me a beer but now I’m back to having power about 60% of the time.
I also started my 2nd kente pattern. The guys at the store didn’t think I’d be able to handle it but Bright said I could. After a few inches I decided the first strip would be practice. It was a good call as that strip leaves to be desired but the next 2 have come out really well. There aren’t many better ways to spend a warm afternoon then weaving kente in an African village with buds like Bright and Joshua.

2009-06-12T07:08:00.000-04:00

Adam and I with our matching cowboy hats, I wove the kente on them!

Kumasi, 2nd biggest city in Ghana. I don't like big cities.

OH my gosh!! Jesus has a brother!

A typical vehicle name in Ghana.

2009-06-09T12:19:00.000-04:00

Found this painting in Accra, not exactly the weavers I know but still cool

2009-06-09T12:15:00.000-04:00

May ended up being out best month to date for tourists with a whopping 33 and we also sold quite a bit. This is great since progress towards our visitors center has basically been halted as we’re still waiting for an NGO’s contractor to install the rubbish bins.
Last week I went to Alan & Marian’s place before going to Accra. They are our oldest couple and are amazing. Between the 2 of them they have like 30 some years of overseas volunteering so they know how to enjoy it. They actually met volunteering together and got married on some Pacific island. It was great to catch up with them, see their site, and hike to a gorgeous waterfall.
Accra is like the most modern place I can imagine right now. Officially I went to refill my malaria meds and visit my supervisor but a few of us met up there to welcome the 67 new PCT’s as they got off the plane. Traffic was so bad that morning that we actually missed them getting off the plane and could just wave to their buses as they pulled off. We did still get to meet a few of them back at the office. The first one said, “I’ve been reading your blog and it’s really great.” I had no idea what to say to that other than he has no taste in literature. After that I was scared to talk to any of them. Even though we didn’t get to know any of them I can’t be unhappy in Accra. Accra means packages from home, AC, good food, and lots of people from all over the world and I also saw sliced bread for the first time since I got here, it was the greatest thing.
Thursday night 9 of us went to the only sports bar in Ghana. They even had satellite that picked up ESPN. I watched Sportscenter and saw highlights of the Bosox beating the Tigers! The best part was it was quiz night. They do current events, music, and such. The questions were intense but the guys who run it are British so we knew they’d get current events off of BBC and studied, we were right. I don’t know how many countries were represented but it was interesting to see what questions were hard to who. For example we may have been the only group to get the Indian princess from Peter Pan right. (Tigerlilly, and I’m still taking crap for knowing that and the 2 catholic questions) We struggled with some French stuff and got killed on identifying songs and artists and ended up in 5th, only 1 point off winning some prize money.
The Blackstars played Mali in Bamako in a huge World Cup Qualifying match. Our captain, Appiah, isn’t on the team anymore but my favorite player, Agogo, is back on the team! As long as we have Essien in midfield we should be fine in qualifying. The TV hut was packed to capacity for the match but it just would not come in. It looked liked an old school Nintendo would if you loaded the cartilage wrong. Apparently they still managed to win 2-0 without like anyone in Ghana being able to watch. I told my dad about the big match and he asked who’s pitching.
Today I am meeting one of the new PCTs and taking him to live with me for a week, poor kid. I had Karley, who is an amazing cook, host me while this guy gets to put up with me and groundnut paste with jelly. During their first 2 days they already had one faint, one seizure, and one person ET (Early Terminate, or go home). Welcome to Ghana.

A Day in the Life of…..

For Daniel (Brother Daniel)
Age: 23 but I just tell my village I am young, cause I would still be a small boy at 23 here.
Occupation: Peace Corps Volunteer, Small Enterprise Development
5:45-Roaster wakes me up
6:00-Run
7:15-Go get rice pourage and greet the women under mango tree. One about 50 years old claims she is my wife. On the way tell Michael what I am doing for the day.
7:30-Read/minesweeper/chess while eating.
8:15-Stop sweating then shower
8:17-Dress and load up backpack for morning
8:30-Take off on bike (hopefully avoiding goats) for town. Usually I check in at the District Assembly with Mukaila, the weaving center with Bright, all stores in town to see what they sold the day before, and if the Paramount Chief is around I might stop by the palace.
9:30-Guiness with Mr. Agba (no joke, probably like 3 times a week)
10:00-Work on whatever projects I have going on.
11:30-Go to stands to pick out lunch of things like noodles, rice, beans, bread, fufu, banku
11:45-Make Lunch
12:00-Eat
12:15-Dishes
12:30-Work/Play with the kids/Read/Write/Computer lessons
2:30-Weave or chill with the weavers
5:30-Get stuff for dinner
5:45-Make Dinner (same choices as lunch)
6:15-Dishes
6:30-shower
7:00-Football match at the TV hut if there’s one on, if not read
9:00-Episode of M*A*S*H or read
10:00-Fall asleep to BBC on my shortwave
Market is every 4 days and I usually go to that. I go to Ho about once a week for internet, mail, and to speak American English with Julie. Sunday is 3 hours of church and phone with Ma and Pops. Hand wash laundry once a week. When tourists come whatever I’m doing stops for them. I lift like every 3 days after it gets dark, it’s the most exciting thing going on in the neighborhood so I always have spectators.

2009-05-30T19:05:00.000-04:00

I wish I could publish the whole shoot. Robyn, a fashion designer from NY, came out to look at Kente and loved my house. I'm not allowed to post any of the sweet pictures of her in her pink boots that we did all over town but she did make me poise for 4 shots in my Kente vest.

2009-05-26T05:47:00.000-04:00

2009-05-26T05:06:00.000-04:00

The full line of Kente Stationary

Bags for home

2009-05-26T04:15:00.000-04:00

Obama is coming to Accra July 11^th and 12^th! When Clinton and W. came they visited our Headquarters, I hope Obama does too. If he does and I get picked to meet him (which won’t happen) I’ll wear my kente vest and tie (which is why). I think he’d look good in Kente.

Water and power were out for a few days last week. The funny thing is just how little my days changed because of that. One day we had some embassy people come out. The Spanish Ambassador’s wife asked me why PC is still in Ghana because “it’s a very peaceful nation.”

Mom and Dad had to do an international handshake via MoneyGram so I can go up north to visit my friends last weekend. (Julie says my mom is the best PCV ever). A few summer volunteers from Ho came with. Traveling 2 days one way to see people isn’t that big of a deal here, especially when it’s to see my friends from training. Bright, Oscar, Mukailia, and Mr. Agba from my site all checked up on me. Breaks like that really help.

Last week I got the final quote for the basketball court! Inflation hurts, a lot. I’m going to get the proposal in asap so it can get up on the website and hopefully filled before the price increases more. Right now it’s about $5,000. If it gets approved through PC Ghana and then PC Washington it will be given a spot on the PC website where anyone can make any size tax deductible donations. I know it isn’t exactly the ideal time economy wise to be trying this but I wouldn’t be if I didn’t think it was worth it.

Alon-Did you get your haircut?

Dan-No

Alon-Did you dye it?

Dan-No

Alon-It looks good

Dan-I washed it…

A Day in the Life of….

Victoria Ahadzie (“Mrs. Ahadzie” to me)

Age: Even here I don’t ask mothers their age

Occupation: Business Women (market lady) and Housewife

Mother of 4

Notice the tribal markings under her eye, really cool

Her English was slightly better than my Ewe so this is what I got out of it:

5:15-Wake up and pray

5:30-sweep the compound

6:00-Bathe

6:15-Make breakfast for entire family

6:45-Eat

7:00-Clean up after breakfast

7:30-Laundry

10:30-Start making Lunch

12:00-Eat Lunch

12:15-Clean up after Lunch

1:00-Housekeeping

3:00-Start making Dinner

5:30-Eat Dinner

6:00-Clean up after Dinner

8:00-Put kids to bed and close the house down

11:30-Pray

12:00-Go to bed

*Every 4 days is market day and she takes the young girls. The girls sell pure waters off the top of their heads, she sells slippers and fabric.

2009-05-15T06:18:00.000-04:00

Some strips for the Golden Jets of JCC, I really like the one on the right.
Just a really pretty day

Where they usually announce the football matches I found this instead, being Budgey's brother I had to go.
My tailor is pretty much a pimp.

2009-05-15T06:04:00.000-04:00

Tuesday I finished my first pattern and have like 300 feet of it. Matching smock, camera case, and laptop case is pretty sweet right? I’m excited to start my next pattern but that will have to wait until next month. My tailor has taken like 3 weeks longer than he said he would on my set of bags for home but I won’t even think about changing tailors, he’s good, really funny, and they’re coming out great. Hopefully next month I can afford to ship them, maybe they’ll get there in time to be Christmas presents.
Sunday Bright took me out to a village that makes pots. The ride out there was just as cool as the village. It’s close enough that if visitors want to see kente and pots being made we can do a combo.
When visiting a village you are supposed to see the chief and inform him of your mission. We were well trained in how to handle these greetings but I don’t get it. Why do I have to either pay for or bring Schnapps when meeting a chief? Then they go around in a circle with a shot glass and fill it up, you pour some on the ground as an offering then you drink the rest. This sounds like something Tripp, Cody, and I would have freshmen on the rowing team do for us. I know PC reads these so I’ll say I have nothing against Africa Traditions like this, you just don’t pay us enough to support the good ole’ boys drinking habits.
Someone called Mr. Agba (I put his number on our brochure) and I was out on a run, when I got back…
-Oh Daniel, your brother, he call and liked the distings (word for EVERYTHING and he can never remember “stationary”)
-(Budgey would not like stationary so) Ah, what was his name?
-I forget, he wants to make a deal for the distings.
-Awesome, did you get his number or anything?
- No, he asked if I was Peace Corps.
- What did you say?
-I told him I am not Peace Corps, I am his father! (starts laughing and patting me on the back)
We didn’t make a deal but Mr. Agba was very pleased with himself.

A Day in the Life of….
Bright

Age: 26
Occupation: Master Weaver at weaving centre & Tour Guide in Training
One of the 2 fastest weavers I know
Mon-Saturday
5:30-Wake up and bathe
6:00-Get porridge and buy daily supplies if needed
7:00-Start weaving
1:00-Lunch of rice and beans
1:30-Weave
3:45-Fix all the errors Dan has in his weaving so far that day
6:00-Close at centre
6:30-Dinner of banku or fufu
7:00-Relax (TV or friends)
8:00-Sleep

2009-05-05T05:47:00.000-04:00

Last weekend my church hosted over 2000 people from the rest of the diocese. One of the events was a "5k." With all the training I've been doing lately I figured I could do pretty well. When we were being driven out to the start it was obvious this was more than 5k, it ended up being like 10kish. At the start 65 Ghanaians took off at a sprint and I was like, have fun guys, you'll be seeing my backside in a few miles (saw that on a running shirt once, it's a bad thing in rowing to have you backside seen). Well a few of them flied and died, but not nearly as many as I thought. The problem with being the only white person is that no one wants to get passed by you. I would pass someone then they would sprint back ahead of me and we'd repeat a few times until they finally quit. This was like every person that I passed. I steady stated it and had to bust out a Dan Vainner sprint to not lose to a 9 year old in sandals, no joke, he was fast. I ended up getting 12th so my new goal for the marathon is to just finish.
The stationary has been selling faster than we can make it which is great.

A Day in the Life of…
Michael
Age:12
Student at CEPS School Complex
Level 5
Wants to be a football player or 1st Ghanaian to play baseball in America
Neighbor and personal favorite
5:00-Wake up and brush teeth
5:15-Sweep compound
5:30-Eat Ken-key (pounded millet)
6:00-Wash dishes and bathe
6:30-Dress for school then go ask Dan what he is doing today
6:45-Walk to School
7:00-Classes (English, Math, Science, Environment Studies, ICT, Citizenship, Art)
10:30-Break
10:45-Classes Continued
12:00-Lunch (beans and rice) and Football
1:00-Final Classes
2:00-Walk home
2:15-Eat snack (rice)
2:45-Play (football, baseball, American football)
5:00-Study
6:00-Dinner (banku)
6:30-Wash dishes and bathe
7:00-Watch film or study
8:00-Bed

2009-04-30T07:18:00.000-04:00

Last week I had my first repeat tourist. This time she brought a different friend and gave me Girl Scout Cookies. Weave a few hours and people bring me cookies, this ain't so bad. Another guy mentioned that for being in Africa so long I seemed to be in good shape. Then he said that he rowed for his university in England until last year and had lost a lot of weight. Bloody ‘el, fancy that. Needless to say we had a pretty long conversation about Henley, Empachers, Hudsons, and missing the teammates.
We’ve also started selling the stationary and it’s received great reviews. Bright said, “The women, they really like your idea.” I had to clarify for my ego’s sake that it was definitely my mother’s idea.
With the European football leagues approaching their championships there have been a lot of big games lately. Watching games here makes me wish we were this into one sport back home. At the main junction in town the biggest signboard is a chalk board where they list all the games for the week. Everyone in town, especially at the hut with satellite, knows I’m an Arsenal man. Ghana’s best player plays for Chelsea so they’re everyone’s favorite team. Whenever Arsenal scores, I basically get tackled, last night we lost 0-1 so no tackling but plenty of friendly taunting. Sometimes the power goes off during the game and you have to guess who won, adds a whole new aspect to watching sports. When I ride my bike through town I hear lots of “ARSENAL”, “Go Chelsea”, or there is the mechanic that calls me “Junior Agogo” (my favorite Blackstar, who recently got cut). I still like baseball a lot better but don’t tell them.

Thought I’d try to get you a better feel for life here rather than just what I do so here’s
A Day in the Life of...

Bless
Age: 17
Occupation: Student
Siblings: lots
Family lives in Kpetoe but he attends Keta Senior High Technical School where he lives in a dorm that has 3 rooms and 100 occupants.
5:00-wake up, morning prayers and brush teeth
5:30-Sweep dormitory, clean rubbish, bathe and dress
6:00-Inspection (checks on beds, facilities, and uniform)
6:15-Go to School
6:30-Clean and sweep campus
7:00-Assembly with morning devotion
7:30-Breakfast of rice pourage and tea
8:00-40 minute classes
12:00-Lunch of Wache (rice and beans), yam, or kenke (fermented corn, not bad)
12:30-More Classes
2:30-Siesta (Spanish?)
3:00-More Classes
5:00-Bathe
5:30-Dinner of Akpla (green yuckiness), Banku (kinda like kenke), or rice
6:00-Required to watch evening news (cool idea)
6:30-Extra classes or study hall
9:30-Back to dorms, homework until sleep

2009-04-24T15:26:00.000-04:00

A few of my favorites. The face is getting better from the bike/goat incident

He is not photoing well today but normally he is very good-o.

2009-04-20T07:10:00.000-04:00

The next big thing to hit kente

1/4 the way through already

2009-04-20T07:01:00.001-04:00

Last week a few of my favorite PCVs and I went to the capital to get packages, heck ya!, and do some legit work. Adam and I went to the Ghana Tourist Board and had a really great meeting with one of the big men; he even drove us to our next meeting. I spent a good couple hours catching up on things on fast internet for Africa. It’s hard when most of my work involves the internet and it’s just so unreliable around here. It’s getting better, speaking of which they are now putting up a 4th cell phone tower in Kpetoe. Along with work we also had some fun. On separate occasions I had a ham sandwich, pizza, a cinnamon roll, and a burger. We also went to the only movie theatre in the country. It was seriously like being home, can’t even explain how weird it was.
I definitely am going through baseball withdrawal. Summer isn’t summer without the Tigers on in the background. I’m going to miss 3 World Series, that’s like uber mortal sin.
We sign our constitution this Sunday and hopefully will make some progress on our next step, rubbish bin placement. I also introduced my mom’s stationary idea to the weavers and other PCVs already have some, I think they will really sell great, awesome work Ma. Between that, visitor center stuff, getting estimates for the basketball court, and weaving (made my first cut and I had 13 strips) I’ve actually been kinda busy, which is great. I just hope things keep going as well as they have. Yesterday we almost doubled our sales so far this year with over 830 cedi sold to some Ghanaians visiting from Accra since the President was in Ho.

2009-04-15T05:11:00.000-04:00

We had around 26 people come to Ho Ho Ho Easter and I would have to say that we pulled it off pretty well, though I’ve used my entire monthly allowance already. Julie spent even more and was such a great host. With my site being so close I came back a few times with other people to show them my village, kente, and let them weave. Hanging out with friends, Euchre, chess, maybe a beer or two and selling kente, what else could I want?
The neighborhood kids thought that Alan was my dad and Marian was my sister (they’re married). My kente vest and matching tie made their debut for Easter mass as well. I looked like a Vegas card dealer.
We have great group, came in with 42, swore in 40, and still have 40 which is unheard of. The group that is leaving in 3 months (more goodbyes..) has 22 left and 2 of them were transferred from Kenya when they evacuated. We’re not the newbies anymore come June 4th when around 80 new trainees arrive.
Lately I’ve had to get online for my assignment a lot which has really been awesome to catch up with people from back home and still manage to be at or near the top of my fantasy baseball league (Ya Kpride of Kpetoe). This brings me to the big question, what the heck is Twitter? I’ve been gone 200 days and I’m already out dated.
Things have been changing here too. Prices are soaring due to inflation and our living allowance doesn’t adjust (I still live comfortably for now because I brought USD and still mooch off my parents 6,000 miles away). In Kpetoe they are working on our 3rd cell phone tower and paving our second road. I’ve even heard talk of an internet café opening within a few months. Within a year or so I would think that a lot of PCV’s will get internet on their cell phones. I really wish some of you could see what it’s like here because it’s not at all what I expected and I’d already been to West Africa.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t America at all. If you dropped into a day in my life you would definitely notice so much more than I do now, but you get used to it. I do still think 2 kids who just walked by in winter coats and hats, it’s like 75, are humorous. 2 of the 3 goals of PC are about cultural exchange and I’ll try to get more film of some of the daily occurrences here posted soon. If anyone has any questions or topics that they’re curious about just let me know, it’s part of my job and I’d rather answer questions than just talk about me all the time.

“Whose cows are these?”- Front page story in the Dailey Graphic complete with picture of cows walking around the capital city. They literally wanted someone to claim the cows and get them out of there.

2009-04-15T04:54:00.000-04:00

Some strips at the weaving center

Kente up close and personal

Cha Chang

Progress..I am slow but I've still done some

Entire Cloths

2009-04-09T11:20:00.000-04:00

Bride and Groom during the 4 hour ceremony...all in ewe. Notice the Kente

The groom and I before the wedding, note Kente.

Mukaila and I after the wedding

My design for the new logo of the Agotime Tourism Governance Board and Staff