August 14, 2007

I recently attended my COS (close of service) conference. It was for all the people I came to Ghana with September 2005. Of course, my group is much smaller is size - more than 30% of us went home for personal or medical reasons. The conference was 4 days, in a very nice beach resort in Accra, really good food 3 times a day. We talked about everything we need to do to end our Peace Corps service (it's more paperwork than I had to do join PC), how to say goodbye, re-entry into American life, and what's next for each of us. It's the last time I will see many of those people - many of who've I would not have been friends with before PC but people I've grown close to, some I've grown to depend on, my support system, some, I know, lifelong friends. It was sad in a way but a good way to start the closure process. I think leaving my village is going to be much harder.

So, I'll spend the next 4 months wrapping up projects, saying goodbye to friends in the village and Peace Corps staff, last minute traveling and shopping. What's next? Not exactly sure. I've been having sleepless nights recently with business ideas that would keep me in Ghana. Not sure if that's a sign or just my mind's way of telling me to not to go. Of course, they usually don't seem like such great ideas the next morning. Maybe one will stick. Who knows. I'm certainly not ready to leave Ghana, but I think it's a good time to end my life as a volunteer. What I can tell you is that I hope to wake up in my mom's house Christmas morning. Perhaps by the fireplace with snow on the ground outside. I want to visit family and friends, eat mexican food, spend some time unwinding and starting the readjustment process to "life in America". To be honest, I'm more nervous about coming back to America than I was leaving!!

I didn't want to leave West Africa without seeing a few other countries, which is what I did last month. A few other volunteers and I traveled to neighboring countries Togo and Benin. We spent 6 days in Benin and 3 days in Togo. I wasn't sure what to expect. I really thought it would be more of the same, but it was different and very neat to visit and compare to what I know in Ghana. I took lots of pictures (some things never change) which I've posted.

Surprisingly, my projects in Binaba are picking up (rather than winding down). A proposal I helped write at the beginning of last year was recently approved and so now the fun begins (spending the money and starting the work)!! The proposal was for a large HIV/AIDS awareness and education campaign in Binaba and the surrounding communities. I'm hoping to take part of that before my service ends. I'm also working with a few other volunteers in the region on HIV/AIDS projects ... one of which will put me on the radio in a couple weeks answering questions. Agh!

I'm still working at the maternal and child health clinic twice a week. An environment volunteer near me are hopefully going to start educations at some of these clinics on the benefits of the moringa tree. There are many health benefits, but it can specifically be used to treat malaria. We are starting at her site which is about 40 km or so from Binaba and then we will come do some workshops here.

Rainy season has been wacky this year so the farmers are very distressed. We got almost no rain at the beginning and so many farmers lost a portion of their crops. Now we are getting too much rain and the crops that survived the draught are starting to drown. What does this mean? Well, there will be a big shortage of food next year during the "lean season" (April-June) and what is available will be very expensive. The weather changes this year have been all over the country (not just in the north), but it seems like I live in a place where it affects lives more.

At the beginning of July, Ghana changed it's currency. It's called a re-denomination actually - "the value is the same" is the ever so popular slogan. Even 3 year old Stirling goes around singing the motto "the value is the same". There's also a huge campaign in Ghana for people to take better care of the paper money. There was actually a headline story on the nightly news a couple weeks ago where they talked about how people don't take care of the money in Ghana. I find that humorous actually - not something we think about in America. Anyway, I'm doing some education with some of the market women in Binaba. Unfortunately, some people are taking advantage of the situation and inflating their prices, but most people are actually keeping the value the same. Now, there are much more coins floating around which I find annoying, but I guess it helps the "taking better care of the paper money" campaign. Haha! :)

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