Palm Wine

After the stop at the mining site it was on to the place where Palm Wine was being tapped. In case you are curious, Palm wine is a semi-alcoholic drink very common in Ghana. It is made from the liquid in the palm tree and the process requires a palm tree be dug up by the roots and tipped over on its side so all the liquid from the roots drains out of the sides. Palm wine can be drank fresh in which case it tastes like a Smirnoff ice mixed with coconut milk or it can be further distilled and made into an evil hard alcohol from hell called akpeteshie. Fresh palm wine is tasty and refreshing, akpeteshie gives me a week long hangover.

Palm wine tapping sites are generally located in the bush near a grove of palm trees. The one we visited on this particular day happened to be next to a river which was perfect for cooling the copper pipes in the process of distilling the akpeteshie from the fresh palm wine.

Here are some photos to enjoy:

Distilling the akpeteshie

A scary dude pounding fufu

Gold Mining

Hiawa is in the Western Region and right in the thick of Gold Country. Although the omnipresence of Gold mining is conspicuous (new SUVs often zipping through the town filled with foreigner prospectors), I had never had the opportunity to visit an actual gold mining site. The men who work the mines are called Galamse boys and are known for being very strong, a little rowdy, and always throwing their money around. Galamse work pays very well sometimes up to 70 Ghana cedis a day (roughly $50) and in the Western and Ashanti regions Galamse work is easy to find. This all poses an interesting problem for promoting the value of education in these communities. Considering most Ghanaian teachers make roughly 8 Ghana cedis a day and even well paid professionals less than 30 Ghc, how is it that you can justify coming to school and working hard to better your mind when with your body alone you can accumulate quite a lot of wealth. In fact, Alex has two students the Aguri brothers, who live less than a 10 minute walk from several mining sites but a 2 hour walk from their JHS. How can you possibly explain the value of walking two hours to school when simply working across the street could make you a very rich man by the age of 30. It is a problem indeed.

My mining site experience went a little something like this: One afternoon after a long day of painting Paa Yaw met us in his taxi and asked us if we’d care to see how palm wine was made (more on this later). This offer usually includes a delightful walk through the woods and frankly a glass of Palm wine was just what this girl needed after a long day of World Painting. We drove a several minutes out of town, down a dirt road, and were informed that we would be making one stop at the mining site before continuing on to our Palm Wine destination.

I honestly don’t know what to say about this particular experience other than my jaw dropped to the ground as I stepped over the ridge to see a large pit full of workers mining gold by hand. This is no 49’s gold rush operation but more of a man-as-machine situation. The sound of the pit alone was astounding with its rhythmic clanging and banging. It was an assembly line of sorts- one man would place a shovel load of earth into a tin pan which would be tossed to another man, again to another man, and then handed to another who would dump the dirt through a hand-cranked sieve. The work seemed never ending-- tin bowls being tossed every this way and that but all in perfect rhythmic efficiency. It was truly a site to behold. The pictures definitely do not do it justice and I am unable to post the video I took.

Truly an Unbelievable sight

A view of the mining site from the top

Galamse Boys

Painting Stuff

Next term I have grandiose plans to work with my Visual Arts classes to slather my school with painted murals. One of these paintings is going to be a world map. Having never actually drawn or painted a world map before, and given the enormous number of students I will have to control in implementing this project in my own community, I thought why not use some of 4 week vacation to go help another volunteer paint a map at his school. A little practice round if you will.

So, just after festival time in Abura Dunkwa, I headed to Hiawa to paint a world map at the Hiawa Catholic JHS with Alex. With the exception of the walls of the school not being perfectly perpendicular and thus causing our map to look a little crooked, I think a great job was done by all- by all I mean Alex and I, as we drew and painted to whole thing after realizing the project took far too much skill for adolescent Ghanaian hands. I believe that my SHS Visual Arts students, however, will be quite capable of completing the map themselves. All of the skills required are well within the topics we’ve covered in our Picture Making classes this year.

Here are some pictures of the process:

It sure does help to have a monstrously tall friend to comfortably sketch those hard to reach areas.

Alex

Countries Painted

Best shade of blue for an ocean ever!

Frame ala Ari

A detail of our hard work

Ice Cream Truck?!

There is a festival during the Easter holidays in my town and so naturally I invited a slue of friends to come tear up the town with me. After several beers and hours of dancing we emerged from a local hotspot only to here the delicate ding-a-linging of an Ice Cream Truck?! Seriously, if I didn’t have this picture of Alex buying a Vanilla cone (the first of three) I’d be pretty sure it was just another mefloquin hallucination.

Alex thoroughly enjoying the Ice Cream Truck

Chocolate, Vanilla, and Twist!

Gender Youth and Development Logo Contest

I really enjoy posting pictures of my students’ artwork (mostly so I can tell them that their art is on the internet) so here are a few submissions I got from my Visual Arts students for a GYD logo competition that was held. GYD is an organization within Peace Corps which does great things for women and children in Ghana.

Lawrence Miano, Form 3

Georgina Donkor, Form 2

Cornelius Anan Gyan, Form 3

Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride

Hitchhiking may be a thing of the past in America what with our overwhelming paranoia and strict law against in on nearly all major highwaysl, but here in Ghana it is still a great shoestring method of transport. It is surprising how eager people are to pull over pick up a few Obruni and sometimes even go out of their way to tote them to their destinations. Gotta love that Ghanaian hospitality.

Most of the time the recipe for a free ride goes something like this: with your backpack snuggly at your back--you gotta look like you want it--position your Chacos along the roadside, hold out your left palm and gently tap the back of your right hand with two fingers extended against it. This is the Ghanaian sign for begging (it gets over used in my classroom when I am BEGGING my hundreds of students to be quiet while I try to teach). Within 10 minutes, someone will stop a few seconds down the road- quickly jog to the car, greet the driver and any passengers that may be present (I like to compliment ladies clothing, it gives you something to talk about after you are invited in the car) mention your destination to the driver and see how close he can get you. Generally once the driver stops, he will feel obligated to take you even a small way down the road, the way I see it- the closer the better. Once in the vehicle, make small talk with the driver, he usually has a cousin living in the US or is himself a resident simply on vacation in Ghana, returning to the US any day now. I whip out all the stops and try to use as much Twi/Fante as I know and a good fufu joke always goes a long way. Most of the time the rides are uneventful, maybe some grooving reggae tunes will set the pace or a quick stop to pick someone up or drop someone off will be made. This is most of the time- however occasionally, you get lucky—real lucky.

On my way from Kumasi to Kukurantumi a few other volunteers and I were fortunate enough to bum a ride with two Ghanaian gentlemen in excellent spirits (that may be a pun because I am pretty sure at least one of them was drunk which I am realizing is generally the case when you are with more than one Ghanaian). Sure enough they were cousins and one of them, who lived in the Bronx, was returning to the US any day now. The ride started out in the usual fashion, we pretended to love fufu and groundnut soup and they talked about President Obama. Just as the Bronx resident was confessing his secret love for George W. Bush (I believe his exact words were “He is never afraid of any man”, whatever that means) we see a most hilarious site. Beth, one of my fellow PCVs spots it first- a Rastafarian on a motorcycle with a Baboon clinging to his back. The man is driving on the shoulder because his motorcycle doesn’t have the power to keep up with the big dogs on the Accra-Kumasi highway, so naturally we zip by him. I barely even caught a glimpse. However, Beth convinces the guys to pull over so the motorcyclist can catch up with us and then we can snap some photos. It was truly a ridiculous site. Enjoy!


As if that wasn’t enough laughter for one ride, not more than 40 minutes down the road, the driver sees someone on the side of the road holding up a dead animal. We stop, he buys the animal, more photo ops. I am still not sure what kind of animal it was but man did it really smell up the back seat. Photos wo ha:

Roadside Buffet

Beth and I

After the bush meat was purchased it of course needed to be butchered which was yet another stop on our wild adventure. A few hours later we arrived safely at the Bunso junction. Hopped in a tro and headed for the hubsite. Hitching isn’t always the fastest way to get there but it certainly is the cheapest.

Ghanaian Wedding

A colleague of mine Mr. Isaac Wiredu was kind enough to invite me to my first Ghanaian wedding. Not as the bride, this time, but as an honorary guest along with the rest of the Aburaman SHS faculty and staff. The wedding happened to be in Kumasi on a weekend when I was there for some meetings and so I was very much eager to attend. Here are a few pictures from the event. Don’t all these teacherfo clean up nice?!

Me and 3 of my female teacher friends
The Happy Couple
Sporting some serious Kente

Art IST

I was thankfully invited to workshop portion of the Art Teachers Inter-Service Training. This was by far one of the most productive and inspiring Peace Corps training attempts I have endured thus far. A group of no more than 10 of us, were taken on daily field trips to learn about traditional Ghanaian arts. The three workshops were in ceramics, wood carving, and bead making. Each one afforded us the opportunity to see profoundly undervalued craftsman who have dedicated themselves to a life artistic creation.

First Stop: Afari Village outside of Kumasi. We visited the Afari woman’s Pottery Co-op where a group of about 8 woman showed us the process by which they create ceramic pots and grinding bowls for sale throughout Ghana. Although the previous government in power brought several pottery wheels for the women to use, they failed to supply adequate training so the women rely on a traditional method of hand sculpting pots. They are so good at what they do, it is virtually impossible to tell that the pots and bowls they sculpt were not thrown on a pottery wheel.

The shape is perfect without the use of mechanization


They add a thin layer of red clay for their signature look


The woman make over 50 pots and bowls every day

Next Stop: The Foase Wood Carvers. Again Foase is a village right outside of Kumasi which several master carvers call home. We learned about the various types of local highly carveable woods and were able to watch the masters at work. The strength and precision required for this craft is a lot to wrap your mind around. Their work is generally sold to the Kumasi cultural center for resale and someone also mentioned J.C. Penny’s getting a lot of its African decorative art from Ghana, I am assuming the carvers in Foase may have something to do with that.

A master carver sketching out his plans for a mask. He explained that most of the time they don't sketch, they simply see the face come out of the wood as they carve. They are Truly masters.



A few love/fertility idols carved during the 2 hours we were visiting. The carvers are extremely productive.

Last Stop: Bead Making village. Although, the actual bead making process seemed a little mundane to me, in that the skills required to make aesthetically pleasing beads were well within my reach, the village itself was fascinating. As we walked through the village if you looked down you could see hundreds of broken beads and bead making molds that had been swallowed by the Earth. Each of the mud houses had beads sculpted into its clay bricks, not by choice but by circumstance. Every inch of dirt in this entire village was somehow an archaeological tribute to the bead making craft.

We had the opportunity to make some of our own beads:

Picture 2

A close-up of the Bead Mold with cassava twigs placed



The clay oven fired up with all of our bead creations baking inside

Hard at work, placing cassava twigs into the bead molds



The finished product

Students and Puppies

Isla and the Puppies

It turns out Hiawa (Alex’s site) not also names some of its babies after me it also has puppies and students. His dog, Isla who has only three paws (I don’t know why that matters- other than maybe you will someday ask me to tell you the story of how she came to have three paws, which only goes to suggestion incredible strength of character for all parties involved in the odyssey), gave birth the second day I was there to two puppies which we had to go into the bush to find i.e. send students into the bush to find. When they were peeled from their nest, the puppies were brought to Alex’s house where most of the pictures were taken. I mean, who doesn’t like pictures of puppies?

Sleeping Puppies get extra points

Stupidly Cute

A few of Alex's JHS Students post Puppy Extraction from the Bush.

From what I know of the internet, these pictures alone will increase my blog hits by no less than 15%, guaranteed.

A Namesake

It’s virtually inevitable that upon arriving in West Africa, and attempting any sort of community integration a child will be born and it will be named after you. There is a village in Senegal with no less than four 5 or 6 year old Modjulies running around and even a Joelking. Well, finally my time has come, but in a most unexpected way.

About a week ago, I attended a conference in Kukurantumi (you may remember the name from my Pre-Service Training posts) for ICT, Math, and Science PCVs. Each volunteer is asked to bring a counterpart who would also benefit from the learning tools and methods discussed throughout the weeklong event.
This is a wonderful opportunity for us as volunteers to get together with Ghanaians (and PCVs) from all over Ghana and discuss challenges we face and strategies to resolve them.

Paa Yaw is Alex’s counterpart (you may remember Alex from the Lerry’s Cornflake Picture) and I have grown to know the two of them quite well. Alex stays in the Western Region a short 6 hour trip from me so I’ve had the opportunity to visit his site and meet Paa Yaw several times. Well, on January 1st, 2010 Paa Yaw’s wife gave birth to beautiful baby girl. Although, the hope was for a boy that would in turn be named after Alex, a girl it was and low and behold she needed a name, more specifically she needed my name. Per Alex’s listing of all the female PCV names Yaw chose mine (along with several others as Ghanaian tradition dictates- a name from the father side, mothers side, day of the week, order of birth, etc. This is why I had such a hard time figuring out who’s who in my grade book) for his daughter. I think he name is Arianna Effia _____ _____ Gyapong. I couldn’t figure out the whole thing.

The Naming Ceremony occurred in a Catholic Church at Dawn Service and for most part remains somewhat of a blur to me. It was still dark out and despite my eyes being opening my mind was not necessarily there (you all know my brain doesn’t wake up until at least noon regardless of what my body may be zombieing around pretending to accomplish). Here are two pictures from the event:

Paa Yaw and His wife sharing a Fanta (significance unknown)

This is Alex and I with the happy family. I don't know why this picture is blurry. Sorry-o.