Limbo...

Sarah here, reporting from LIMBO!  Jordan and I just arrived in Accra last night and are safe and sound at our ex-pat family's house (the couple that we stayed with at Thanksgiving last year - we are very spoiled here: air conditioning, a pool, home-cooked meals with people that feel like parents :).  We spent the last two weeks in Tamale with Kelsey reading books, spending lots of fun nights with all of her Tamale friends, and just getting some good quality time with our best friend before she leaves for home the end of August.  It was a blessing in disguise to be able to spend that kind of time with her before she goes home!  Now we get to look forward to quality time with Phyll, Kev and Jake when they fly in on FRIDAY MORNING! :)  We are enjoying hot showers and watching the olympics :)  I am also looking forward to getting to help out at the Operation Smile event going on in Accra tomorrow, where they will complete a total of 125 cleft palate surgeries by the end of the week!  Wow! 

To give an update on our situation: last week, our country director and safety/security officer, along with an investigator from Peace Corps Washington, went to Wa to meet with the police, opinion leaders, the chief and elders, and other important officials to gain an understanding of the attitude towards the incident in Wa, and gauge the safety of the area for us to return.  We found out two nights ago from our country director that the Peace Corps Ghana staff will not know until the end of August what Peace Corps Washington's response to this situation is after their investigation, so we are back to waiting.  It's been a little frustrating to be waiting for so long, but recognize (and have to continually tell ourselves) that right now we have no control over the situation and can only control our attitude towards it!  (Sometimes easier said than done for me!)  The biggest bummer of the whole situation now is that we will be unable to visit our site with Mom, Dad and Jake :(  We were looking forward to them getting to really live our Peace Corps life here for a week, hear us speaking the language, interact with our village members, go to farm, and fetch water to handwash their own clothes!  So we are sad and frustrated, but guess we can't change anything, so will just enjoy our trip to Mole National Park which we now have time for, and our additional time at the beach! 

Jordan here:  Well, Sarah explained just about everything.  Of course, so much, at this point, is still up in the air.  That's the most frustrating part.  Lots of rumors bounce around which most often generate anxiety.  So its easy to see that, although we're relaxing most of these days, we're still a bit stressed out.  However, we just have to remind ourselves that there is little about this that we can control and try to patiently wait for confirmation from an official source.  Hopefully that comes sooner than later.  Of course we wish we could be back at site to see our friends and our projects we've been working hard on.  But life could always be worse, and we have to remind ourselves that we are still lucky to be where we are, and we're safe.  That's what important.  Thanks for all your thoughts, prayers, and support.  We'll keep you updated!

The whole situation in Wa...

So I’m sure that most have heard recently of this story developing in Ghana about some unfortunate events.  We’ve seen some of the news reports.  Some of the details they portray are not accurate.  So I thought we should put the correct story.

It all happened in Wa, the capital of the our Upper West Region.  Sarah and I were not there but we’ve been told the story from Volunteers that were.  2 of our friends, one male and one female, were walking back to where they were staying for the night very late in the night.  On the way home, they were confronted by 2 robbers armed with machetes.  The male volunteer stood in front of the female when the robber tried to search her.  This confrontation escalated and the male volunteer was forced to use a camping multi-tool knife to defend themselves.  One assailant ended up being stabbed in the abdomen.  The two then ran away.  Our friends went inside the place they were staying and locked the doors.  The next morning, they found out that the local man that had been stabbed in the abdomen had not made it far and had died right by the place they were staying.  After alerting Peace Corps and the local police, the police came and picked them up and took them and the other Volunteers in the area to the police headquarters for protection and questioning.  Staff from Peace Corps was already in route from Tamale.  The two Volunteers directly involved in the incident were relocated to Accra to remain in protection of Peace Corps and for debriefing. 

The rest of the Volunteers were immediately put on Standfast, which means we were to return to our site if we were away, and stay there until further directions.  At this point Sarah was at site and I was en route from Kumasi to go to Wa so I was a little nervous.  When I arrived at Wa, I went right to the station to head to Tarsor.  In the 2 hours I waited, I didn’t notice any difference in demeanor at the station.  When I got back to Tarsor, it was business as usual.  We had one day of getting back into our routine and getting back to work.  The next afternoon, about 36 hours after the incident happened, we were informed that Peace Corps was going to evacuate all Volunteers in the Upper West region to the nearest sub-office.  A Peace Corps car was to come from Burkina Faso to pick us and two other nearby volunteers up and take us to Tamale.  We were to pack an emergency bag and be ready to leave. 

We only had time (we thought) to tell a few people so they could inform others.  So I told Issah the whole story.  He was very sad we had to leave especially after just returning very recently.  He urged us to tell Peace Corps the safest place was in our village.  He got worked up, telling us that if anyone wanted to do us harm, all the village and all surrounding villages would be up in arms and would lay down their lives to protect us as one of their own family.  On a side note, this filled me a profound sense of belonging and community.  I fully feel that we were and would have been completely safe staying at our site.  Heck, the vast majority would probably not even have heard of the event for some time.  Oh well, we weren’t making the decisions, and Peace Corps is just being extra careful.  I respect that.

So now, in a few days, Peace Corps Security will go and meet people in Wa to assess the situation and safety of the region to see when we will be allowed back to our sites.  We hope we are allowed back very soon so we can continue our work and life in the village.

Interestingly, most (if not all) the support here in Ghana isn’t for the Ghanaian that died, but for the American that caused his death.  We heard people were congratulating him, hugging him, and applauding his standing up for himself to these criminals.  Most are happy that a criminal has died so they can be rid of him.  Here in Tamale, we were talking to a woman who works with Kelsey in her office.  She was saying that its great that he stood up for himself and showed the robbers that he wasn’t scared.  She was happy that he didn’t ‘just shiver’ when these men came to take their belongings and let the criminals run away.  But I explained to her Peace Corps’ perspective (which we agree with).  Our friend, in the struggle was struck on the shoulder with the machete.  His clothing protected a deep wound from opening and he was only left with a bruise.  He is looked at as a hero and a good man who made a good decision.  But imagine if that machete, instead of his shoulder, would have struck his neck, just a few inches over.  That injury could have meant much worse results.  How would he have been seen then?  Probably that he was wrong to have fought back and he should have just given the criminal their belongings and not resisted.  Then no one would have been hurt.  Things are just things. 

I, in a far distant relation, see it like the quarterback that throws the 70 yard touchdown pass instead of throwing it out of bounds.  Now everyone would revere him as the winner or the game.  But what happens if the defensive back stepped in front of the pass and intercepts the careless pass to seal the victory for the opponent.  People would have said he should have sacrificed a down by being safe but instead he lost the game for the team.  This is what can divide a hero from a scapegoat.

I was not with our friends that scary night, so I don’t know exactly what happened and the emotions that were being thrown around.  I stand behind our friends and support them in doing only what was absolutely necessary to protect their lives.  But all of you reading this, if this were to ever happen to me, here or anywhere, I will gladly give my things to them and walk away and think to myself that these robbers must be starving and hopefully will buy food for them and their families with the things they took from me.  I will be the coward ‘shivering’ when an armed person motivated by who knows what comes to take my things.  Things are things.

Essentially, we are all safe and sound.  We keep our friends in our prayers and all those who were affected by this.  Remember that the vast majority of places we’ll be in Ghana are as safe or safer than many places in America, especially since we take reasonable measures to keep ourselves safe.  So in conclusion, all you parents reading this, don’t worry, we’re safe and sound, and eating peanut butter cookies with Kelsey in Tamale  J

More Gambia pictures

 

This is a sweet use for old tires!

Another PCV from Gambia explains some of his bee projects

One KTB (Kenyan Top Bar) beehive

 Another good use for old groundnut (peanut) shells. Use them as mulch

We check out a honeycomb harvested the night before.

Bamboo trelasses to allow cucumber plants to climb up

We get to try some jackfruit, it was...interesting.

 

Lots of cucumber plants!! in the Gambia

Sweet looking grasshoppers!

The whole summit crew at the end of the meeting. We're a good looking bunch.

I am blessed…

I find myself nearly every day asking myself why I am so lucky.  So many wonderful people who have influenced my life including my family, my wife, friends and mentors have guided me to be who I am today.  So much time, energy, love, and other resources have been invested in me.  Many times I feel I don’t deserve all I have received.  Why was I so blessed?  Most people had to work a whole lot harder and longer to earn what I’ve been given.  I feel like this now, especially since I’ve been in Peace Corps and seeing what my village faces on an everyday struggle.  With these thoughts bring feelings of guilt.  But at the same time I feel that just since I have been come to find such blessings, I shouldn't feel guilty.  So what does one do?

For example, I was given a chance to a different country (Benin) to attend/work at an international conference to collaborate with the West African Trade Hub and the Global Shea Alliance.  The trip was very comfortable and I got to see whole different part of Africa all expenses paid.  Now I was asked, as acting Vice President of the Peace Corps Ghana Food Security Action Committee, to fly to The Gambia (the country completely within Senegal) expenses paid, with a stopover in Casablanca, Morocco.  I’ll fly back via a stopover in Liberia, both times will be long enough to go out and see the area a bit.  Sounds kinda touristy, right?  The food, hotel, and travel are/were all excellent.  My fellow Volunteers, including my wife, are back in Ghana with little to no chance to travel around and experience everything I get to.  Hence, there is a lot of playful resentment, and probably a lot of real resentment to those of us that are so lucky. 

The people in my village, who of course truly are the reason for Peace Corps, don’t get to come to these meetings.  A choice few are asked to come to meetings in Ghana on some kinds of new technical trainings the Volunteers may lead other villages to learn a new trade with their Volunteer.  For example, a good friend of mine who is the leader of the Kulfuo rabbit rearing group and is very interested in putting our beehives to use is meeting me in Kumasi to go to a beekeeping training in mid-July.  Sometimes when I come back from these trainings, some few people in the village may get sour when I didn’t buy them something expensive for them when I return.  Their rationale is that if I have enough money to go, I must have enough to give them.  In a way, it’s hard to blame them since people from the village who leave and come back from a big city usually have a relatively lot of money.  

So how do I relieve the guilt from my blessings?  The best I can think of is to make the best of these gifts and treat them more as ‘investments’.  These trips aren’t just trips.  I’m acting as a representative of my Peace Corps country, and my home country as well.  When it boils down to it, all of you that are reading this blog paid for my trip.  I owe it to you, to the Volunteers who could also benefit from what I’m learning, and to the people in my village for starters.  I hope that if I take my blessings and help them make work or life better for others, then the investment won’t be in vain. 

It takes me back to the pew as I was growing up at Good Shepherd Lutheran.  I had always heard that we were “saved by Grace through Faith”.  In other words, Heaven is a gift freely given by just believing in God and His son Jesus’ good works.  I’m not a wordsmith, and maybe there’s a little lost in translation from my 7^th grade confirmation class, but I think it applies here.  So we are all given Heaven for free, essentially.  The greatest gift you can receive.  How do I make that investment worth it?  I think the answer is to not to take this life for granted, work hard, and make life better for other life on this Earth in some way before we leave it. 

I keep thinking of a movie I saw and a simple concept.  When given something, the best things wouldn’t be to pay it back.  The better way would be to pay it forward.  In other words, the best gift you can give to a person that gives you something is to help 2 other people in some way or another.  That way your help, or you could call investment, literally doubles at every additional level.  1 becomes 2, 2 becomes 4, 4 becomes 8, and so on.  So to return to the present, I think the best way I can make this trip worthwhile, I need to bring back skills, ideas, and motivation to pass on to other Volunteers and see to it to the best of my abilities that they share it on to the motivated people in their villages.  Hopefully those people then acquire some skills to improve their food security conditions and teach their peers in the village for years to come. 

Run for your lives! The rain is coming!

Hard at work in our office computer lab preparing for training sessions and being goofy!!!

Whoa, Bob!  You decided to also visit Boti Falls!  Well, fancy meeting you here!

Elyse, Bob and Sarah (The best trainers ever in the history of...ever) after our long hike!

Sarah taking a moment to take it all in.

Wow!  The trees were phenomenal!!!

Well, the month that I (Sarah) was down in the Eastern Region for the new group's training is finally over!  Whew!  It was a long, busy, tiring, but FUN four weeks!  It was great to get to know the knew group of trainees, and impart some of my wisdom from the last year of teaching.  The above pictures are from a day trip we took with the group to a nearby waterfalls in the Eastern Region called Boti Falls.  The Eastern Region is full of lush green trees and beautiful rolling hills - very picturesque!  And definitely a different change of scenery from the flat savanah of our home!  But both places are beautiful in different ways.  On the way up to the lookout point in the picture, we had to climb some steep up and down trail through jungle-forest, I was getting high in the mountains!  Then, we got to have pizza for lunch!  After lunch, we drove to another falls, walked down the path to get there, got to the bottom, were there for two minutes before someone looked up and said, Whoa, looks like it might rain.  30 seconds after that, one of our PC staff members, Tony, yells, 'Run for your life!  The rain is coming!' And not less than 30 seconds after that, a torrential downpour starts!  Awesome!  So a bunch of us ran through the rain all the way back to the bus...then proceeded to wait for those that chickened out and tried to hide :)  What a great day :)

Tomorrow I'm off to Kumasi to get ready for our twice-yearly GYD meeting to be held on Sunday, and looking forward to seeing Jordan there too!  Definitely a fun time to interact with new peeps, and catch-up with friends from my group, but I am ready to be home, sleep in my own bed and see my friends in the village! Just in time to leave again the first week of August to meet my family!  Can't wait to see you Mom, Dad, and Jake! 

Casablanca & the Gambia

Beautiful African sunset

Monkeys just hanging out on a wall.

I'm caught in the middle of a laugh as the train takes off.

It seems a little quiet...turns out it was a holiday.

We eat paninis at an outdoor cafe.

A look at some of the houses in the city.

The view from our cafe as we waited for the cab to pick us up and take us back to the airport.

A look into the busier areas.

Outside this mosque, kids were playing soccer, girls were giggling, and there was a religious parade going on behind us. It was very peaceful.

We walk down the streets of Banjul, the capital of The Gambia, with our Peace Corps Volunteer guides.

This is what a beer in casablanca looks like. Much smaller than in Ghana.