April 24, 2007

I guess I'm coming down to the last lap. I only have 7 months left of my service. Hard to believe I've been here so long. I almost can't imagine leaving but I'm also looking forward to whatever is next for me.

Between the time I started writing this update and now, hot season came in full force and already started to go. We've had a few really good rains and wind storms the last couple weeks. It's starting to turn green and the temperatures are much more bearable. This hot season didn't seem as bad as last year. I think my body was adjusted to the heat, plus I had electricity (i.e. fan and cold water!). I still took several baths a day and stay in the shade from 10am - 4pm. But I remember suffering more last year.

My adopted daughter, Mary, delivered a baby girl on Good Friday, April 6th. Just one week prior, she was harvesting onions with her husband. Women here are unbelievable!! She was walking to the health clinic when she went into labor, so the baby was born on the road not far from her house. She weighed 4 lbs. and was 18 inches long. Mary and Johnson call me the mother and asked me to name the baby. There will be a big naming ceremony in a few weeks but I've decided to name her Leslie in honor of my grandfather who came to visit last November and really made a great impression on the people here.

Easter is a very big holiday in Ghana. Even more so in the south where there are more Christians. Schools break for one month and people enjoy all the funerals going on during this time. I spent Easter in Binaba. I took Mary and Baby Leslie to the health clinic for a check up and then had friends over for lunch after church.

I talked about funerals a lot last year. It's a very big part of this culture. I've managed to stay away from funerals this year. They tend to be at night and I try not to roam much at night. That's when the witches come out! (That's the warning I keep getting.) I enjoy listening to the drumming and dancing from my house, though. Binaba is currently performing the funeral for our chief who passed away February 2005. I'll certainly go greet the family and enjoy some of the daytime activities.

Things are going well for BWFA. I helped the women take a loan for purchasing onions this year. If you remember, we purchase the onions, store them for several months, and sell when the market price increases. Unfortunately, it's a high interest rate but I'm hoping we can negotiate a better rate for our next loan if all goes well this time. Vic and the women are very busy right now going around to various markets and farmers buying onions. Of course, the women are all getting their farms ready for the coming rainy season.

I'm assisting a young girl in Binaba to teach literacy classes to BWFA women at night. We have classes every night except market days. They alternate nights learning English, written Kusaal, and basic math/numbers. Ghana will be changing their currency in July, so I expect that we will start including some education on that at some point. I imagine it's going to be a scary thing for the women to understand.

After secondary school, students write exams which determines their next step. It's a big deal and very difficult. Most students have to write more than 2 or 3 times before they do well enough in each subject to go on to the next level of education. I've started teaching extra classes (math, english, business management) for anyone sitting for the exam this year. I have mostly students finishing SS this year but also several other people in the area. It's going well, but I'm really having to go back and re-learn a lot of stuff that I haven't looked at in so many years.

I've been spending a lot of time recently exploring more of Binaba and the surrounding area. I've been visiting neighboring villages and visiting friends. Guess it's starting to hit me that my time here is coming to a end. We won't dwell on that, though, until later. :)

Cheers, MJ

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