Similarities to George Clooney...

I am now similar to the sexy George Clooney... we have both had Malaria!  Not to fear though, I am feeling better already, laughing and enjoying my life.  Malaria, if you have the money for treatment, is basically like having the flu.  One of my teachers has had malaria 7 times in one year.  A few of my friends had already gotten and recovered from malaria, so when the symptoms began, I knew exactly what was happening.  I felt achy, my fever came on very quickly (although it never got above 101), and I felt very nauseous.  Luckily I am in the best city to get sick, because the SIT staff know the doctor here well and I was the first in line when I reached the clinic.  I saw the doctor, got a blood test, diagnosis, and my medicine within 2 hours!  Last night was a bit rough because I felt like I had the stomach flu, but I couldn't get sick because I had to keep 8 pills down so that I could begin to feel better... and although it was a fight with my stomach all night, I managed to keep the medicine down... I win malaria!  Today the nausea was much lighter, and the only symptom I had was feeling very tired and weak.  I joked with my friends that I felt like an 80 year old woman.  However, I couldn't imagine being sick with anyone else... my friends havebeen absolutely amazing.  Last night, everyone staying in my hostel from my group (8 other people) came into my tiny room and we watched the hilarious show Modern Family on my friend Dan's computer, and my close friend Erica who is my roommate here helped me during the night.  Today I was able to rest and watch a movie on my friend's computer, and all of my friends and academic directors came to check on me throughout the day.  All I am hoping is that tomorrow I will get to go with everyone to Mole, where we will see so many different animals at a National Park!  I love you all, and know that although I am not 100 % now, I will be back to health soon enough.  I have been in Ghana for 6 weeks, so getting sick now is to be expected!  My spirits are still high, and I am surrounded my so many incredible, nurturing, loving friends! I feel very, very fortunate.

Life in the North

Yesterday we arrived in Tamale, a city in the Northern Region of Ghana that has a very large Muslim population... very different from the strong influence of Christianity in the majority of Ghana.   The city is much smaller than any city we have been in thus far.  The population here is much poorer than in the other areas we have visited.  It is here where 7 out of 10 individuals are living on less than $1 per day, below the globally-defined poverty level.  We are staying in an international hostel, where we actually have running water (a change from the rural village), although the electricity goes out even more than in the village, and it is INCREDIBLY hot here.  It's so hot that you cannot even concentrate, you are thirsty every second of the day.  You could literally cook an egg on the pavement.  I have yet to feel hungry in this heat, especially because, aside from the peeled fruit, we cannot eat anything uncooked. It's o.k though, I am still feeling happy and healthy despite the challenging weather and food situation!  I will never take for granted the variety of foods we can eat in the states.

Not to scare anyone, but a fair portion of my group has gotten sick, from malaria to bacterial infections.  We are all trying to take care of one another, and from here on out we have easy access to hospitals and doctors, but in the heat it is very difficult to be sick.  Luckily, aside from feeling nauseous because of the heat, I have been relatively healthy.  Those of us who are healthy are trying to help keep the spirits high of those who are sick, but we have all definitely realized that living in another country, particularly a developing country, for an extended period of time wears on your body quite a bit. 

We have 4 more days in Tamale, where we are learning a great deal about the cooperatives and vast number of NGOs that have been set up in this city, and then we are off to a new location!  We are in our fast-paced tour of the rest of the country, and then once the beginning of April comes, it's on to Independent Study month.  I cannot believe how quickly this trip has been going!  Still laughing and loving life, I hope you are all doing the same. Love!

Onwards

I cannot believe that our time in this village is almost up.  We leave on Friday morning, and I have just gotten used to living here.  The quiet streets that I can walk on without worry of cars passing by with inches of room, the simple mattress on the cement that constitues my room, the kids and adults greeting us everywhere we walk.  The constant greeting is at times frustrating because when you are so hot and exhausted that you want to lie down with a cold ice-pack on your forehead (impossible because the water gets warm within 10 seconds), the last thing you want to do is be followed by a million children.  However, not having this will be strange and I will most likely miss so many aspects of a more simple but difficult life that is lived by those in the rural village. 
After working with Herbalists for my mini-Independent Study Project, I have had some major realizations that have aided me on my path for my larger Independent Study Project.  Working with Herbalists, I realized that if I decided to work with individual Priests and Priestesses who practice Traditional African Religion, I may encounter some frustrations.  First and foremost is the issue of relying on one person (or a few people) as a mentor.  I did not enjoy having to be on someone else's schedule at all times just to gain access to the knowledge I was interested in seeking.  Secondly, after teaching in the village school in Ntinanko, I realized that if I am working on a project for a month, I need to be working in a setting that is hands on  as opposed to simply observing.  Thirdly, if I am working on a project for a month, I need to feel that I am making a difference in the community in which I am living and studying.  Simply studying with Priests and Priestesses would not achieve any of these three goals.  However, working within the educational system here in Ghana, particulary in the village schools that are underserved, seems like a more meaningful project that will allow me to sustain my involvement beyond my time here in Ghana. Additionally, because all teachers in Ghana have been on strike since Tuesday (although the teachers have been happy that we have offered to teach their students for them during this strike), it seems an opportune time to study the Ghanaian educational system.  My passion for teaching will carry me through this project as well.
When I told my teacher Yemi about my new ideas for my project, he was so excited that I saw this as an opportunity rather than a challenge to study education during a turbulent time in the educational system.  He gave me a few ideas, including the study of female education and the issues regarding the lack of knowledge on sex and sexual health, especially for female students.  The classes are dominated by males, and many females are either told to stay home to take care of the house, the farm, or get pregnant at a young age and cannot continue their schooling.  My teacher already has an advisor at the University of Ghana, Legon regarding education and women's issues, and I think that teaching, discussing these issues within the classroom, and even attempting to implement a sexual education class and/or discussion would be so incredible.  I would love feedback from anyone at home! Additionally, my friend Tess and I (after teaching English and Social Studies) had a discussion with the class asking what the students felt they needed in order to learn more easily.  Then today, we all put together some money to buy the school protractors, pens, pencils, chalk for the blackboards, paper, colored pencils.  When I get home I hope to run a book drive and send the books to the school, because all of the students want to have a library so badly. 
Anyway, I am sad to leave this beautiful village, but I am quite sure I will return to teach in the village school and compare this government-funded schooling with private schooling in the city of Kumasi. Also, I am loving life! I hope you are all loving your lives as well. Laughter is currently the music of my soul! 

Village Life!

Hello all! I am alive and well here in Ntinanko, our small village stay here in Ghana.  Internet access is very difficult to find, but this village stay has been the best part of this trip thus far.  Laughing SO much, dancing, farming (SO difficult), learning about traditional herbs in the bush with a 100 year old Herbalist who dances with me, teaching in the village school, sweating from the intense heat, feeling exhausted, feeling overwhelmed by the friendliness of the people in this village (who want to greet you even when you are so tired that you want to stop moving all of your muscles)... but incredibly happy! Savoring this sweet life. Love you all!!!

Off to the Village!

Tomorrow we are off to the village!  I am excited, nervous... a new adventure awaits! I will most likely not be near a computer for the next 2 weeks, so don't worry if you don't hear from me! I will miss Kumasi so much, especially the dancing, the silliness, the constant laughing, my wonderful homestay family, my friends...  but I am ready for a new chapter of this beautiful, enlightening journey. Peace, love, and happiness to you all!

Life in this Ghana

I titled this post "Life in this Ghana" because every morning during what my teachers call "Life in this Ghana" we share our trials and tribulations during our time in this beautiful land! The past few days I have really felt settled in this new city, and now in just a few days we will be off to the rural villages. The days go by so quickly here, they are so full that as soon as I get home I am exhausted!  The heat takes so much out of you, and on top of the heat we are walking everywhere and dancing every day... it's a lot, but I love it!  Feeling tired, though challenging, means the day was full of life.
I laugh so much here. It's that big belly laughter that comes from the core, the kind that tickles your insides and forces tears from your eyes.  Every day.  Either from my hilarious teachers, from my friends, from the events that occur during the day.  It helps that we are all a bit dehydrated all of the time and feel a bit drunk, delirious and giggly, particularly after 12 noon.  We laugh at pretty much everything, make fun of ourselves... it's such a hilarious time.  Today a group of about 7 of us got drinks after class at the gas station/restaraunt in my neighborhood, and we laughed and talked for a couple of hours after dancing.  Life is very simple, yet so beautiful here. 
Ghanaians are some of the friendliest people I have ever met.  The other day on my way to see the Priestess again, I was very early and decided to sit on the curb of a gas station as I was waiting for my friends (you don't sit on the curbs close to the street because they smell strongly of urine).  The man pumping gas told me to sit in his seat, and I tried to politely say that it was his seat and that I was content on the curb.  Well, he insisted that I must sit in his seat, so I did and we ended up talking for 30 minutes about all of the regions in Ghana that he has been to (and that I will be going to very soon).  Sitting at a gas station in America, it would be very unlikely that anyone at all would strike up a conversation with a stranger! But people here are beyond friendly, and I love it.  I make new friends every day.  The only time making good friends is not the best situation is when it is a man who you did not realize is interested in you, and will call you at least 10 times each day until Papa Atah pretends to be your father and tells the man in his deep voice that you are his daughter, and that you got married yesterday.  This has already happened multiple times on the trip. It's hilarious, and we all crowd around to listen to the conversation.
I went back to the Priestess on Sunday, and the experience was incredible.  It is difficult to remember everything that happened there, but Nana told me that she had a dream about me the night before I came to see her again.  She told me that the spirits love me.  She lit a piece of paper on fire without a match or flame of any kind in order to summon the spirits... I took a warm herb bath in water that was heated without a fire... just some snip-its of the spiritual energy at work.  Nana kept hugging me, she is really an incredible woman.
I have only really written of the positive experiences here, because life is overwhelmingly beautiful here in Ghana.  But of course every traveling experience has some challenges, and the biggest challenge here has been the food. It is very difficult being a vegetarian, but even if I wasn't following a vegetarian diet, the food has been rough on everyone's stomach.  The food is so spicy, and just so different than American food.  I have really sensitive taste buds, so sometimes my friends will think a dish is not spicy at all and my mouth will be on fire!  Its actually pretty funny. Usually if I try a new food I get sick to my stomach, and because of the heat I am usually a bit nauseous and not very hungry.  The malaria medicine also contributes to nausea.  It has gotten better and I have learned how to speak up and make sure my homestay family makes food that I can eat and digest, but food in a new country is always a challenge.  However, the fresh mango, pineapple, and avocado are daily aspects of my lunch, which is my favorite meal of the day! Once we get into the rural village, we will have someone that SIT employs to help cook for us, and then we will get much more choice in our food.  This is our last homestay (unless we choose a homestay for our last month ISP time), so the choice in what we eat will be much greater in a few days, and offending the homestay family because you cannot tolerate the food will no longer be an issue! 
The heat is also something to get used to, and by now my skin is so dark!  My sandal tan lines are hilarious.  We sweat pretty much every minute of the day and night, but it really has been just a matter of being under the shade of a mango tree in the middle of the day, drinking enough water, and taking care of ourselves.  But we have the support of our group and our teachers, so the food and the heat, although challenges, are really not too intense in the grand scheme of life here.  Sending you all my love!

Meeting a Traditional African Priestess!

Today was so intense, we met a traditional African Priestess and the experience was out of this world, magical.  It is difficult to explain every aspect of the experience, but I will try my best.  We drove an hour outside of Kumasi to the shrine where the Priestess and members of her community live.  We asked her questions while she was her human self, and she was a sweet woman who hugged me very tightly.  We danced to the sound of drums with Nana (the name for one who communicates with the spiritual world) and our father here in Ghana, Papa Atah.  Then, Nana entered her room and entered into a trance, possessed by one of the traditional African spirits.  She came out with white powder all over her body (a sign of spiritual possession), a black and white outfit, and a red hat.  She was smoking a cigarette, because this particular god liked cigarettes.  Nana gave us all hugs and danced in trance.  She was then possessed by another spirit, and she changed outfits to fit the personality of this new god from the North, who spoke a language that not even Nana in her unaltered state knew how to speak.  This spirit greeted us and danced, and during this time of possession Nana's eyes had an intense yet far-off look, tinted red.  I was not scared, I was simply in awe.

While Nana was possessed by this particular spirit, we were able to have individual consultations with her and ask any questions we wanted.  The waiting period was nerve-wracking, and I went into Nana's room for a consultation second to last.  There were two interpreters in the room, one interpreting from the language of the spirit into Twi (the language spoken here), and one from Twi to English.  The meeting with Nana was nearly indescribable.  I gave her a long hug when I entered the room, and she told me that the spirits really loved my energy.  She said that I have a spirit originating from India that protects me wherever I go, and will continue to protect me my whole life.  She had no idea I had gone to India.  Nana also told me that I have the ability to connect with the spiritual world, and she asked me if I wanted that ability to become clearer.  I said yes.  She said that if I went back to see her again, and if I wanted this, I would take a bath in special herbs and would then have the clarity to see into the spiritual world.  She told me that I would be able to see what was going to happen to those around me after this bath. 

Nobody else in the group got a proposition like this.  Two of my friends were also told they could come back for healing having to do with their families, but my proposition was about my clarity to see into the spiritual world-- a whole other can of worms.  I think I am going to go back this weekend and take the bath.  If nothing happens, it was an experience. And if I am able to reach a greater understanding of my connection to the spiritual world, that would be life-changing. Our program directors have said that there are many specific cases where Nana has been right about what would happen to their students, from a student getting a bad case of malaria but being ok to a student breaking a bone during the trip.  Who knows what will happen, but I am so intrigued and everything feels so right to me, so I must go with the flow of this life.  I am thinking very seriously about having an incredible journey during my Independent Study Project and studying traditional healing amongst traditional Priests, Priestesses, and Diviners here in Ghana.

Still loving my group, my hilarious program directors (I have never laughed so hard in my life than I have at some of the things our program directors say!), and loving life here in Ghana... Peace to you all!