The ants go marching

Sometimes in Ghana you wake up and there is a parade of thousands of army ants going through your yard. There is nothing you can really do about it but wait until they are gone. My 14 year old sister sprayed some chemical on them but they just started walking a new path.

There are some tiny moths that fly around my room at night that, if squashed, turn into shiny gold dust. I think they might be fairies.

Update on my shroom project: 

Finally we finished building the cropping house. All the mushrooms are now inside and I have started watering them. Now they are producing mushrooms and now the real fun begins. The farmers seem really excited and eager to learn how to grow mushrooms, but I am waiting to see how much effort they put into the project. Lots of people were talking to me about it while I was still preparing, but often in Ghana people just say what they think you want to hear. So I don’t know if they will actually build their own cropping houses and organize the group to buy the compost from Techiman. I will give them some of my mushrooms to try so that they can decide how many they want to grow. I have already given a few people some to try. It’s crazy how long it takes to get projects going here when they are driven by the people. If someone came in with money and wanted to build something the result would be different but because I came to help with grassroots development the progress is slow. Slow but empowering, I like to think. ;)

Update on my chickens: 

My chickens are now old enough to roam about during the day. Now that I have let them out of their cage, they have taken to following me around, sometimes attacking my skirt or legs. Before I let them out of the cage when I give them their food, they have now broken my skin several times with their pecking. What is really terrifying is when I open the door to their cage to let them out. They will approach the door, preparing to jump out (it’s a few feet off the ground), they look directly at me and jump/fly at me. They are so aggressive! But they are big and healthy and definitely are worth more money than the local chickens.

Now that my stomach is not disagreeing with life anymore, things are going really great. I just want to note how lucky I feel to have the host family that I have here. Their methods of parenting are not ones that I would chose for my own family; but that will happen when you stay in a household other than your own, regardless of the location in the world. Ghana is a place that has some gender inequality deeply rooted in the culture. Some houses may be run with the men controlling everything, giving their wife no choices while making them do all of the work in the house. My family here is not like that. My “parents” discuss family matters together and both work hard separately to save money to give their children the best life possible. Also my parents talk and laugh together, discussing problems in the family or in the community, but also enjoy joking and having a great time with each other. It’s nice to have parents that love each other, so I feel lucky. I don’t even have that in America. Sometimes volunteers don’t really bond with their families, even sometimes they have problems at their adopted home, but I am not one of those. I am so happy to be here with them, and thankful that they have welcomed me to be a part of this family. And its nice to see that there are marriages that are working out, and people are happy. On the other end of the spectrum my neighbor’s relationship is going bad lately. They have been quarreling a lot and it escalated into a fight the other day but I wasn’t there when it happened. What I was told by one of the children was that the guy was beating the woman because they were fighting, and he gave her money to go to her parents house. She didn’t go, but she did sit at the corner of my house after the sun went down with her head bent down and arms crossed while her baby sat on the ground crying and she wouldn’t pick him up and comfort him. Everyone came to tell her not to take out her problems on her baby and not to treat him like that but she ignored everyone. I tried to tell her she could traumatize him by making him cry for so long but it is really difficult to explain traumatize in the simple words that I can communicate to people here. Honestly Im not sure how that night ended for her, whether she stayed at her house that night or not, but I do know the crying eventually stopped. She didn’t go to her parents house either, she is still here. 

A volunteer that was leaving gave me their french press so if anyone wants to send me coffee grounds I would be eternally grateful. Seriously miss real coffee....also I am craving almonds, the non-roasted kind. :D

Last random note: Im pretty sure my cat is pregnant. And im pretty sure the father is this ugly cat that belongs to my neighbor. Not sure how to feel about it. I guess we will see when they come out.