Back in the Swing Again

Jordan here:  Well, we arrived at our site again, welcomed by many smiling faces, excited children, and the interior of our house covered with a thin film of harmatan dust.  The mammoth trip from Accra to the boonies of the Upper West Region was and will always be exhausting.  It wasn’t helped by the 3 huge bags of stuff we were dragging along with us.  Don’t get us wrong, it was worth it, since inside was enough food from home to outfit a bona fide Cold War bomb shelter.  Unpacking that is always one of my favourite parts of coming back.  We also printed out over 100 4X6 pictures to hand out to a number of people .  To see their faces light up was priceless.  They seldom get to see pictures of themselves.  Interestingly, they didn’t like the ones where they were actually smiling genuinely.  Of course those are our favourites, but they like the stone-faced, expressionless faces.  Oh well.  And of course as we walked around seeing people for the first time in over a month, we used our scripted-sounding responses to all the same questions: How is your mother, how is your father, the chief (assuming our home town has a chief of course),your family, your travel, etc.  By the way, they greet everyone who is reading this.  

We spent a couple days of good thorough harmattan season cleaning and got our language chops back in shape.  Now its Monday and we’re back to the grindstone.  Sarah went back to some of the same frustrations that come with a new school term.  I had planned a big trip with Issah to buy some large materials we need for the dry season garden.  That means we had to go on a market day to Wa, where some specific materials could be purchased.  Well since  the village we go to to board a bus or car travelling to Wa is along the road, and tons of students were heading back to Wa from Tumu (where the cars start), they filled every single chance of Issah and me getting to Wa.  So we sat for 6 hours watching overloaded cars pass by before biking home.  By now Sarah and I have adopted the “well, that’s Ghana” mindset and just moved on from it.  We’ve learned that whining about run-of-the-mill troubles is pointless.  People here don’t let it bother them too much, so why should we?  

Anyway, I guess this isn’t the most interesting update, but we’ll try to post some pictures as well.  We hope all is well with you and your life is being lived and you think it should be.  Until next time! 

January 2013

LOVE the sunsets

Clay pot beehive seems to be on its way to success

The view on the road into the village

Dry season leaves lots of time for loafing around. This is our friend Sanni

Common sitting place in the afternoon

Alijah and her kids Hafida & Hikama

She is one who makes moringa products and supports her family with the proceeds. 

Mango nursery is looking good! We hope to expand.

One fly was particularly annoying, so I grabbed him out of thin air!

Issah & Alija with the moringa leaf drier we made.

Sarah making shea butter

Even the students love Connect 4

Returning "home"

After a month, we lifted up the scissors and this gives an idea what that month of Harmattan dust winds, when our house was as closed up as possible still happened.

Some have Spring cleaning, we have Harmattan cleaning — 

After a snake was killed a few days before and Sarah Panzer Wein remembers her snake experience last year, she orders me to burn all our piles, or else I will be walking with her to the latrine in the middle of the night.

This is how people have to ride so they don't choke on dust in the air.

I think this is one of Sarah Panzer Wein's husbands.

Our tomatoes coming in the dry season garden supported by a seed request grant

Issah among the okra, carrots, lemongrass, tomatoes and vetiver grass.

Our green peppers are also coming now.

My first attempt to play around with my new fisheye lens. Lots more to come.

Ramazia among the grasses

Ramazia with lifelong buddy Nura

The snake that was killed outside our compound. 

Any idea what it is?

A closer look at the head.

Presentations

Sarah talks at her friend and teammate (Becky Skrypek) classroom. It was the first of many while we were back.

Pictures from our Aberdeen home

With nieces Terrina & Olivia

Decorating the tree with niece Izebella

Jordan & Terrina talk computers

while Sarah plays Barbies with Izzy & Olivia

and a tea party with Grandma Butcher

Jordan, Grandma & Sarah

Jordan relaxes with Vivian

skating with the girls

Presentations at Home

Presentation at Holgate Middle School

Presentation at Simmons Middle School

Friends, Carla Kaaz & Bill Gerdes at Good Shepherd Lutheran

Presentation at Good Shepherd

Picture in American News of Presentation at Bethlehem Lutheran

Back at home away from home...almost!

Jordan here:
Well we just about to leave to head back to our site from Accra.  We’re pretty pumped to get back to seeing our friends back in the Upper West Region.  There will be some adjustments getting back to no electricity, pumping and hauling all our water and filtering the drinking water, washing our clothes by hand, bad phone reception, etc. Etc, but it won’t be bad at all.  We’ve now gone from the village, back home, and on our way back to the village, and both places, we’ve confirmed have their pros and cons.  It was amazing being back in America.  We really made use of just about every single minute while there.  We saw lots of family and friends who gave us that boost of confidence in supporting comments and warm embraces.  It’s well understood that our Peace Corps service has its ups and downs.  Sometimes they’re quite extreme.  But this month back in the USA was really reviving.  It gave us a chance to reflect, organize, and plan for our last 8 months. 
    While at home we had some great chances to achieve Peace Corps’ 3rd Goal.  That is, we got many chances to share our PC experience and talk about life in Ghana.  We spoke at 4 different schools, 6 different grades, 2 church services, and throw in a church youth group, totalling almost 1000 people.  If we would have unlimited time to talk to people, we wouldn’t be back yet!  We loved the support and excitement about what we are doing.  It was wonderful being back for the holidays too.  Christmas is such a special season for us, and it’s no better than when you’re with family and friends.  We got a chance to embrace the cold (yes, we actually like our winters, at least 30 days of it) and get some skiing and sledding in.  And I got a chance to watch some football!  Glad I was there for the awesome Vikings game and not home for the cruddy one :-( 
      Now we’re packing up all our stuff (a lot of packaged food from home, thanks Moms!) and on the way out the door.  We hope to get some new pictures from us.  For now, maybe my mom can upload some of hers of us back home.  If anyone is new to following the blog, we’d love to hear your comments, and glad you’re joining us for this wonderful experience.