Shower Power

While even the existence of this thing would have brought a smile to my face the fact of its location in a hotel room in Kukurantumi, Ghana puts me in an infinitely better mood. Enter, “The Shower of the Future”.
Yes, this shower was in my hotel room complete with: foot massager, overhead shower, clock-radio, and sink (yes, a sink in the shower!?) Hilarious, right?! I am not saying that it worked to its full potential, (sure, the running water was turned off at most hours of the day and night) but just the mental image of 6 or 7 Ghanaians carrying this monolithic cleaning device up the stairs will make me smile for years to come. I mean really, how else did it get there?

I should mention the room I was placed in (along with my roommate Katherine) was clearly the honeymoon suite so maybe a shower like this is common suit for honeymooners in Ghana. The room had many other interesting features, for example, it came equipped with a conference room, balcony, bar, and refrigerator, although these amenities paled in comparison to the shower.

Vision Quest

Vision Quest is a 5 day trip designed to show us trainees exactly what it is like to be an old and sometimes jaded volunteer who has been at site for a while. I was fortunate enough to be chosen to go to a great little town called Nalerigu in the Northern Region. Despite the size of the Northern Region (it takes up more than half of Ghana’s land mass) it is considered much more remote and undeveloped than the Southerly regions. Some volunteers dread being banished there but I had sort of had my eye on this region as I heard it could deliver a serious cultural experience and I was eager to dive in.
The trip was long. In fact it took two days. Day one dealt us an 18 hour bus ride from Accra to Tamale and Day Two a few colorful Tro-tro rides (more on these later), and a little hitchhiking delivered me safe and sound and in record time to Nalerigu.





Luckily, it was market day and my host was more than eager to go buy some supplies and (if you know my host) of course, take some new fabric to her seamstress for a new dress. I have personally nominated her as the best dressed Senior High School Madame in all of Ghana. She had a gorgeous dress for each day of the week I was there, and am pretty sure she could have kept up the pace for many weeks after I left. Everybody spends their salary on something or other, why not a great wardrobe!?


The next few days were very busy. Caroline took me to her computer lab where we began to install Ubuntu on many of her computers (apparently it is virus proof in Ghana which is a huge problem with ICT labs). I also had the opportunity to watch her teach a few classes and snap some photos. Pepto pink happened to be the color of her students’ required uniforms, which made for some nice photos.




Alas, Vision Quest was over and it was time to begin the long journey to Kukurantumi where our next 9 weeks of training would be in or near. We got back and compared our stories and it seemed that the people who went to the Central Region had the most fun what with their proximity to some gorgeous beaches.

The Ambassador

After a few days at Valley View enduring some basic training lectures and activities it was time for our big night at the Ambassador’s house. It was posed as quite the event as there would be an open bar, and since most us were in desperate need of a drink by then, we were more than happy to bucket bath our dirty selves and put on our best duds. Proudly we drank the ambassador out of house and home just in time for our Vision Quest trips early the next morning.



Here is a picture of me and some of the other trainees posing with the ambassador.

Working on it!

I wanted to post just a short message to let you all know that I have many posts written and ready to go, I am just working on finding an internet cafe with internet that is fast enough to upload pictures because as we all know, a picture is worth more...

arrival in ghana

I have arrived safely in Ghana. Our plane arrived at the Accra International Airport at approximately 8:30am local time.
The new volunteers and our more than 2 tons of luggage filled up the baggage terminal. It was a zoo making sure everybody was reunited with their luggage but in the end no bags were lost!






We were piled onto busses and brought to the Main Office.
Exhausted and overwhelmed from the flight, we were forced into a full day of work. We were given tours of the Peace Corps office, surrounding Accra area, given some vaccinations, and lastly language lessons and more than 8 hours later finally taken to a University about an hour outside of Accra, called Valley View to finally sleep. As you can imagine I was more than happy to see my bed that night where I would be staying for the next few days before the infamous “Vision Quest”.

Packed and ready to go

When the time comes, all you can do is pack your bags and go...




Much to my surprise, it all fits in my two bags and weighs less than 80lbs. I have a feeling when I look at these pictures from my new home in Africa I will be most nostalgic about how soft the carpet was. It is interesting how quickly our perspectives can change.


With everything packed up tightly and I can't help but realize there is something refreshing about being so utterly....portable.

Next stop, Ghana!

Let the Packing Begin

A few more things crossed off the list:
Sleeping Bag- check! Bike Helmet- check!

And so it begins...

I am a legacy volunteer. It means I am expected to succeed. It means my support network is endless and expectations perhaps more realistic, but it doesn't mean any of the next few years of my life will be easy.

I've already battled all of the things leading up to Peace Corps, or rather the things that draw us little lambs there in the first place. The restlessness- foot tapping the seconds of my life away, chained behind a desk by own lack of motivation in an office on the fifth floor of some building somewhere. The waiting- approximately one year to be exact, filled with paperwork endless doctors appointments, checkboxes, faxes; enough bureaucracy to kill a mailman. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. I am just convincing myself that I am truly ready to go. And, believe me- I am.

Now all that is left is to pack and go.

I will miss these beautiful hills

Transition isn't for the faint, the sick, or really the sane to be perfectly honest. Neither is leaving the only place that ever felt like home, and a bay full of friends, lovers, family, mentors, and even some admirable enemies. Oh, and that big big big blue house. Always opening her arms to reveal a swarm of smiling faces (and a bevy of bicycles which if nostalgia can work her magic I may one day also remember fondly). There were just so many things I wasn't through with but sometimes when it is time to go, there is nothing left to do but leave.

What better way to kick off an epic departure than with a month of willful unemployment, a giant naked mural of myself on the half-shell, a stellar going away party, and a seemingly endless road trip with but one purpose- to hug the people most deserving of my last hugs.

In the Half Shell