Life in Hohoe

These past few days in Ghana have been quite calm. I find that there is not much to do in this small village of Hohoe so most of my time is spent talking with the other volunteers and exploring the different restaurants around town. A few days ago a new volunteer arrived and today another left. I was sad to see her go because it amazing how close you can become to some of the volunteers here, being that most of us have similar interests and are kind, open-hearted people who chose to come to Africa to help. Working at the orphanage has been quite fun and a great learning experience. I am teaching grade 2 right now which is full of ready to learn kids ages 9 - 12. While at times its hard to keep the attention of all 9 of them, I try my best to find clever ways to teach division, telling time, the vowels, and other educational skills that I at time took for granted in the states. I remember learning to tell time with my own personal plastic clock, where I could move the minute and hour hand wherever and whenever I wanted. The educational materials here are very scarce and they really do try to make the best of what they are provided, but drawing several clocks with chalk on the chalk board and constantly erasing what time it is, is starting to test my patience, but not in a negative way. If anything I am learning about how these kids learn and it is so rewarding to see them getting and comprehending what I am saying. I try to change things up and reach each child individually to make sure they all catch on, but of course there is always a couple how need extra help and its unfortunate that many times they do not have the access to extra resources that would aid their learning. All of these children are proof that all you need to get somewhere in life is the ambition and will to move forward and learn. It is unfortunate that so many students in the States don't realize the resources available to them in all parts of the education and how people here are advancing in education with very little and much less then most schools in the States. Being here has taught me to not take so many things that are easily available in the United States for granted. I really do wish the best for all these children. They are all so lovely and kind and want to learn and attended school in hope of reaching their big dreams.

I have talked to some of the locals and the few volunteers and have found somethings out about the HIV/AIDS effects here along with other drug abuse and crime. Ghana seems to be one of the countries in Africa that seems to be least effected by HIV and AIDS. In Hohoe, there is a unit in the hospital that offers education on HIV/AIDS, may it be about prevention, what to do if you do attain it, and about the illness in general. Pregnant mothers here are encouraged to get tested for the virus and if they have the virus are given medicine one month prior to giving birth to prevent mother child transmission. Of the babies tested who did have positive mothers, about 90% tested negative for the virus while only about 10 percent tested positive. This information is about 30 mothers and their babies who were tested last year. Of the 30 babies, only 3 did end up having the virus. I will look into this situation more and keep updates about it.

The drug of choice in the village of Hohoe tends to be marijuana. When I did ask a couple locals about other drugs they replied that other drugs are more expensive and maybe be found in the bigger cities. Marijuana is the drug of choice because it is cheap and easily accessible. While although it is illegal, little law is ever enforced here and there does not to be an attack on marijuana possession coming any time soon. This falls back on how many people mind to themselves in certain situations. The rich are happy rich and many feel no need to help the poor, while the poor make do with what they have as this has been life for them for so long. The police here often don't mind enforcing the law with the poor or with the rich but when they do enforce crime, it seems that there is some type of money factor behind it and the situation could probably be paid off. It is unfortunate and corrupt but people seem satisfied and comfortable with life here. This is just my opinion and at times it is hard to explain, but I do hope I am able to get my point across.

Again, crime often goes unreported here. There seems to be several rape cases that are seen at the hospital, but few are ever reported. Here, women are looked down upon if they are raped and many times it is seen as the woman's fault for putting herself in a situation where she could be raped. Only in certain situations, like a brother raping a sister, an unfortunate situation that I did hear about from a hospital employee, is the male seen at fault. Women are also looked down upon if they abort the babies they conceived and many have to live with the babies they conceived during the act of rape. I can not even imagine how hard it must be to live like that.

I continue to learn many things about the very different culture and country. While many things seem similar, many things are also very different and I am glad I am being able to experience and learn about these situations.

Weekend trip

This past weekend was full of new experiences and fun times. We took an 8 hour very bumpy trip to Cape Coast to accomplish the worlds highest canopy walk which was amazing, everything was so green and beautiful. We then went to Cape Coast castle where part of the slave trade had taken place and I took some great pictures of the different slave caves and the cannons pointing out to the vast ocean on the coast. It was so interesting walking the castle and learning about the culture. I find the people here to be very religious, but in their own unique way. A pastor that was also touring the castle asked where I was from and when I replied America, he went on to let me know that this (the slavery and harsh conditions in the castle) is what my people did to them. I was not quick to get offended but just thought it very odd that a pastor would judge me. I am beginning to see that while some people here are very friendly, like our friend who opened his nice house to us with the nicest hospitality, some are quick to judge and constantly shouting remarks to the yevos (white people) who are walking in the street. I feel this is probably because we are such an odd sight, but we are here just to help. I was also amazed at the division between classes here. We saw a couple beautiful houses along these slum filled streets, the very well off and the very poor live side by side and it seems like little progress has been done to aid those in need. We also shopped in Accra Mall which looked like something right out of a city in the States, very westernized with an Apple Store and movie theater. Had I first arrived in Ghana and gone to the mall first, I would never imagined all the poverty and ailing conditions that lie outside such a nice, modern marketplace. It really was mind boggling to me the differences between the two. On the way home to Hohoe from Accra we came across an accident between a huge bus and a small taxi. The sight was horrific. As traffic slowed, everyone traveling along the road parked their cars on the side of the road, got off, and walked towards the sight of the accident. Being that these are mostly back, vacant roads, this went on for about a mile. As our tro tro (small bus) was parked along the side, another volunteer and myself walked to the sight with all the other Ghanaian people who were walking back and forth along the street. When we got there we just expected to see mangled cars in the street and police helping, but when we got there the emergency team (which was just one small truck) had picked up the bodies and put them in the back of the truck bed and the cars were no where to be found. The people motioned and encouraged us to go look in the truck, and not knowing before exactly what was in the truck, we went to look. What we saw was very disturbing and I could not believe the way the situation was being handled. People were taking pictures of the bodies in the truck with their phones and digital cameras and showing them to others. Something that would seem so odd in the States was seen very normal here. Soon traffic got back to normal and we loaded back in the car to drive to our destination. When driving we saw the very damaged taxi in pieces with its hood completely ripped off and the large undamaged bus also parked along the side. It was a very crazy sight. A total of 6 people passed away in this very unfortunate accident. Upon arriving home we shared our stories with the rest of our host family and being exhausted from all the traveling went quickly to bed. I am excited to see what the next week has in store for me being that so much has happened in my short week stay here already. Until then...

First few days in Ghana

I arrived in Accra, Ghana Sunday night and took a tro tro to Hohoe, Ghana Monday morning. It was a very bumpy ride and went by very fast because there is not much of a speed limit here. I am so far enjoying my stay. The other volunteers are very nice and everyone here is so welcoming and friendly. I am still trying to get used to the heat though, but I'm sure I'll be come used to that soon as it seems everybody does. The orphanage I am working at is full of excited children who love to learn and like hanging out with volunteers. I just want to bring all of them home and show them the states! It is so interesting learning about the Ghanaian culture and even about the UK from the British volunteers. I have learned so much in my few days here. For some reason my mosquito net will not stay up but mosquitos have not been a huge problem yet and hopefully they won't. We come to the internet about twice a week for a short while so I will try to blog whenever I can. I hope to learn even more in the next few days. This weekend we are going to Cape Coast so I will be sure to blog all about that next week. Until then..