Pictures

Joe here: posting some of the first pics, from top to bottom: 1)The staff and I at the Roman Catholic school in Kukurantumi 2)the JSS form 1(7th grade) class I taught for a week and a half, look for me in the middle 3)The whole group lined up at the site announcement ceremony, notice the map of ghana in chalk on the ground. they had us come stand on our future site. 4)the classroom where we observed Ghanaian teachers 5) the quad arrangement at valley view university, where we spent our first week in ghana

Site Description

Joe here: We found out where we will be staying for the majority of our time in Ghana. Part of my site description sheet reads as follows:

Name of School: Atakora D/A JHS
Postal Address: PO Box 42, Donkorkrom
Region: Eastern
District: Kwahu North
Major Language: Twi

The Peace Corps gossip is that we are replacing a couple in Donkorkrom, and that they have nice housing and amenities: tap water, electricity, private bath and kitchen, and spare bedroom. Hallie's school is about fifty meters away from our future home and mine's a bit further. Last, to get to Donkorkrom from points east, south (i.e. Accra), or west you must cross Lake Volta on a pontoon.

So, Ghana has advanced to the next round of the World Cup where they will face the US. Trash-talking has been pretty heavy from some Ghanaians namely my fellow teachers, of course all in good fun. The game begins tomorrow, Saturday, at 630 our time, so about 230 or 130 yours. Watch and keep us in mind.

About our arrival

Joe here: Here's what I had written earlier, read it as my first post from Ghana:

Upon landing in Accra, we were taken by charter bus to the main Peace Corps office very close to the airport. We 73 trainees sat beneath tents and a 'sun hut' in the rain for self-introductions by PC staff and an arrival blessing by local religious figures. One priest stood gesturing a primative looking shot glass back and forth while speaking rapidly in foreign tongue, the words "Obama' and "Peace Corps" interspersed. After the ceremony we were bused to Valley View University on the outskirts of Accra. We spent day and night on the campus getting to know our fellow trainees and Ghanaian trainers. One night a talent show was put on, and I am proud to say that I am part of a very entertaining group of singers, musicians, dancers, and comedians. To say more about our group, we span about forty birth years with Hallies and mine among the most recent and three in the 1940s. We are scientists with higher degrees, artists and art teachers, mechanical engineers, farmers, a cowboy, a somelier, a former marine, a couple repeat Peace Corps volunteers, and more. On a different occasion, the teachers in the group, led by a couple Ghanaian PC staff, took a tro-tro from Valley View to a nearby market to practice some few Twi phrases: Way-yeh dee-en (What is this?), Sen, sen? (How much?). Being the first time, aside from the airport, that we 'obronis' had ventured out into public, sensing the staring adults, the giggling children, and the sunscreen-stinking trainees, I couldn't help but have the realization "Whoa, I'm really in Ghana."

Fufu, mm

Joe speaking here:

It's been 16 days since we left, but it's felt like much longer. Hallie and I moved in with our host family this last weekend in Kukurantumi. Our host mother Mama Doris has fairly strong ties to the PC: she started and NGO that trains young adults to cook and those that attend her cooking school serve their food to PC trainees during the initial weeks of training and has hosted PC volunteers for the past three years. This past weekend we watched as her tenants and cook-steward pounded cassava and plaintain into a doughy mixture called fufu. Hallie, Ma Doris, and I then ate fufu in ground nut soup with lamb at her nicest table.

I had just written much more than this but the connection timed out when I was trying to post... I will be back soon with more.

Earlier that day, Hallie and I accompanied Kwame for Sunday mass at the Community Methodist church. Ma Doris being pretty involved in the church, Kwame thought it fair to mention that at some point during the service, the pastor is going to request our presence in front of the congregation for to introduce ourselves. When the time came, Hallie and I mustered up our best Twi to state our names, where we're from, and that we are Peace Corps teachers(Kwame filmed it with Hallies camera).