The end of the beginning, and the beginning of my new life

Election day in Ghana is pretty cool, school is canceled and everybody has the day off of work so that they can go and vote. The village was full of family that came back home to vote. My compound was no exception. The teacher who lives in my parent's compound had several people come and stay with him the night before the election. One of my parent's daughters came from Accra also. The morning of the election I could feel the excitement in the air before I even got out of bed. I could hear everyone buzzing around. We (the trainees) had the morning off so I walked around taking some pictures. The village had four different places where you could vote. In order to vote you had to be registered, and when you register they scan your fingerprint, so when you go to vote they scan your finger to make sure it matches and then you use your fingerprint as your voting mark on the ballot. At the end of the day they counted the votes in front of the village for whoever wanted to watch. The village we stayed in was composed of mostly NPP supporters, judging by the party T shirts that I saw around town. It took several days to get the official result, but the night of the official result there was some serious noise going on in the town. I woke up to go to the bathroom around 1 in the morning and it sounded like a riot was going on, with a thumping beat and yelling. There werent actually any riots, but the NDC won the election and apparently the NPP is taking them to court over it. But the election was violence free which is very wonderful.

During the days around the election we were not allowed to take public transportation, but we still had to go places for training. One particular day the Peace Corps bus was driving us home. We have two drivers, one drives pretty normal, some would even say he drives slow, but the other one drives fast and a little bit crazy, like all the drivers in Ghana seem to drive. This day we were driven by the fast driver and as we were coming up on a chicken in the road he swerved to miss this chicken, jolting everyone on board. When we got back to the homestay village there was a taxi at the front of the village. This taxi was totaled, and what had happened was that the driver was avoiding hitting a chicken. This irony is shadowed by what happened next. A huge truck came, serving as the tow truck except without cables or towing gear, and the people proceeded to lift the car with their hands and put it into the back of the truck. And no one was hurt. The people of Ghana continue to amaze me.

Upon our return to homestay I no longer had my water filter so I needed to buy water satchets. In doing so regularly I formed a new friendship with the family that owns the shop near my house. There was a mom, two boys and a girl. They all started regularly calling my name anytime I walked by their shop. It was kind of awesome. One of the boys was the youngest, maybe four or five years old. What was not awesome, and I have no idea how this started, but every time I came to the shop he would run up and give me a hug and then try to poke my boob. One time he poked his fingers into my glasses and said “Specs!”, and I responded by pretending to poke my fingers in his eyes and said “Eyes!”. Except I accidentally actually poked him in the eye. I think he was taught a lesson though because I dont remember a lot of poking after that.

The neighbors that live behind my compound have had a strange relationship with me during my stay. This strangeness is the fact that they always yell things at me, and it is never my name. First of all, Tierra stayed with them so its not like they didnt already have an Obruni for entertainment. It started when some kids were trying to teach me this hand slapping game called practical where you have to count up by twos, and it starts with a little song. When I was trying to sing along, I said “Practical, practical, blah blah blah” which they thought was hilarious. After this day they yelled “Brah brah brah!” at me whenever I walked past to my house. At this I responded “Br-r-r-r-ra” sort of like a machine gun noise. Then they just started calling me Br-r-r-ra and even kids that I had never seen before were calling me it. Then when we came back from Techiman one day I did Azunto in front of them and they went nuts and started yelling azunto at me every time I went past, and they did not stop until I did the dance. And the mom would yell her own name, Lydia, along with the demand for azunto. So as I walked by their house I would hear, “Lydia!! Azunto!!” which in my opinion makes no sense whatsoever.

In our final days of training, drumming and dancing was a daily practice. They made us practice this dance, I never found out the name unfortunately, but I think we got pretty good at it. Eric and Alex took it a little too far with over enthusiasm, they were jumping the entire time. We had to do this dance at our swearing in ceremony. My family said I did a good job. After swearing some of the volunteers from Eastern Region came and gave those of us going to the Eastern Region a bracelet, a calabash, and some palm wine. It was a nice greeting and I would like to do the same for new volunteers in the future. It was pretty sad to say goodbye to everyone and go our separate ways. I started to tear up for a second but then didnt. I still havent cried in Ghana. I thought it was going to be a little bit scary to be on my own, but we have been here for a while and I feel like I have been on a million Trotros, so at this point I felt normal and it wasnt bad at all. Now that I am on my own it is just a struggle of forcing myself to get out there and talk to people. Our first three months at site we arent allowed to do any projects, instead we just focus on making friends and integrating into the community.

So far I think I have done okay. I keep wondering what I should be doing, but in the end I decided that I am going to do things my way and slowly get to know people one by one, because that is just the way I am. I set out to walk around the entire community and say hello to everyone but ended up only getting to one house, and that was my neighbor's. In Ghana when someone pays you a visit if they do not sit it means they are not friendly. So I sat down and one of the women was making banku and I told her how I love banku and how I was going to be living there for two years and she told me to teach her kids english. She brought out a little weird songbook and abc book in english and I went through it with the kids but some of the stuff in the books was not something they will ever need to know and some was not even english. There was a page that said, “Two letter words” and one of the words was mo. As far as I know that is not a common two letter word in english. They all had a good couple laughs at me for whatever reason, I cant be sure, I like to think that they laugh just because I'm white and they think its hilarious for me to be there. In my language instead of saying obruni for white person they say blefono. There was this girl that I encountered today, probably 15 years old, who just kept yelling “blefono!” and laughing uncontrollably. It doesnt bother me yet. I love their reactions when I say something in Krobo, they look super surprised and say “Ay! Blefono is trying” except they say it in krobo with big smiles on their faces.

My site is really great, people in Ghana are so incredibly friendly I am already feeling how hard it will be to leave. Everyone is so nice to me. I have only successfully fetched my own water once because every time I try to they do it for me. This morning I carried my bucket down to the well and the women who were there just grabbed it and filled it up for me. When I was about to pick it up this guy, I forgot his name but he is an SHS student I have met before, he grabbed it and said "Let me carry it for you" and carried it back to the house. Yesterday I was about to wash my clothes but my counterpart's daughter insisted that she do it. It is pretty nice but at the same time really weird. My mom doesn't even do my laundry in America. I am assuming that they are just doing this to help me get settled in, but at the same time I have been told by volunteers that small girls do their laundry all the time. I think I will buy her something small while I am in town today. 

So what I have in store for the next couple of months is just getting to know the people and learning more of the language. This morning on the Trotro I made several friends, and some of the people that got on already knew me, so really I am having a great start and it should just keep getting better.