Saturday, December 31st, 2005
I hope this update finds you enjoying the holiday season! It’s certainly been a different one for me. Since my last update, I’ve been spending most of my time adjusting to “village life”. The only thing it might be similar to is living in a really small town in the middle of the nowhere. I’ve made a few friends in my village, so I spend a good amount of time getting to know them better. Building relationships is the key to living here! And everyone is anxious to get to me, so managing my time has become important.
Things are pretty slow at work. I’ve gone to the office several times just to get a feel for how things work and who does what. Just before I got to Binaba, the farmers harvested rice. Now it’s onion season … they just planted the onions which will be harvested around March-ish. I’ve met with one of the non-profit organizations in Ghana that serves as a technical consultant to my organization. More than anything, I’ve just been learning about the farming seasons and what crops can and can not be grown in my area.
My language is getting better, but I still have a long ways to go before I’m fluent. I’m currently looking for a tutor in Binaba who can teach me once or twice a week. The problem is finding someone who can speak and write the language. Kusaal is not taught in schools so very few can actually write it.
I’ve managed to stay mostly healthy. I have a cold right now, but it’s going around so it’s nothing really weird or anything. Eating properly has been my biggest struggle so far, but I’m learning to cook with what is available to me. The key is starting the cooking process earlier (around 4 or 4:30) so that I’m finished before it’s dark (around 6). Cooking in the dark is a challenge. As a special Christmas treat for another volunteer and myself, I made brownies in a Dutch oven (big pot w/ 3 inches of sand in the bottom and a tuna can turned upside down that serves as a stand for my 5 inch round cake pan). I was impressed with how good they turned out … of course my standards might be lower than 3 months ago. Not sure, but those brownies were awesome!! I’m also attempting to bake bread, pizza (pending I can find cheese), cinnamon rolls, and cookies.
It seems every time I write, I have so many “first times” to share, so I’m thinking I’ll just start listing them for you. Here are my “firsts” for the last month:
* Ate 3 new types of meat: guinea fowl, donkey, dove
* Killed and prepared a guinea fowl for Christmas dinner
* Received money to dance … traditional African dance at a funeral
* Spent ½ days salary on a can of Pringles and 12 oz. bottle of Ghana’s version of Sunny D … and later the same day spent more than 1 days salary on a small pizza. I don’t regret either purchase and I’ll probably do it again the next time I travel out of Binaba.
* Helped a friend construct a mud-brick room in his house
So, here’s until next update (probably in about a month or so). Cheers!
Mary Jayne
Oh, and I've posted new pictures on my website ... check 'em out!!
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