The adventures of Afia Dola in Techiman...

Before anyone asks, "Afia Dola" is what i am most commonly called in my homestay community... So it works like this: I found out from my mom before I left America that I was born on a Friday. This is very useful info in Ghana, because everyone at birth is given their "Christian name" (mine being "Dara") and each person in Ghana automatically gets a "Day Name" based on the day they were born. There are different names for each day and different names for males and females. Since I am a female born on Friday, I am "Afia" (pronounced "Ah-FEE-yah".)
Ghanaians get really excited when an Obruni (translation: white person, or foreigner) introduces himself or herself with the day name. But since approximately one out of fourteen people in Ghana have the name "Afia", I try to cut down on confusion by introducing myself as "Afia Dara".
Greeting in Ghana is of extreme importance. If you do not greet everyone you come into contact with, you are considered very rude. And there are specific rules in Ghana concerning greetings and how and when they should be done.
So, as I pass someone, the exchange goes something like this (keep in mind, I do it in Twi, so it is not always as simple as it looks in English - there are extra things you have to say in Twi that do not translate into English):

Me: "Good Morning"
Ghanaian: "Same to you"
Me: "How are you today?"
Ghanaian: "I am fine, and you?"
Me: "I am also fine"
Ghanaian: "What is your name?"
Me: "My name is Afia Dara."
Ghanaian: "Afia what?"
Me: "Afia Dara"
Ghanaian: "Afia Dola?"
Me: "Afia Dara"
Ghanaian: "Afia Dayla?"
Me: .........sure...

After a while I just figured it was easier to agree to the first attempt of "Afia Dola" to cut down on confusion, especially since this is the third person I have greeted since I left my house, and I am only three houses down on my way to hail a taxi. Add to that the fact that the interaction doesn't end there, but goes on to include me telling them where I am going, what I will do there, where I am from, and how long I will be in Ghana.
Luckily if my Ghanaian sister is with me, she can step in and cut down on a lot of the confusion that often happens.
I really like the family I am staying with. My sister, Constance, is the primary person in charge of taking care of me. She cooks all of my meals for me, and pretty much does everything else that I prove I do not yet know how to do the correct way. She and my brother, Amponsa are the only two who speak English... except for my father whom I rarely see, because he lives elsewhere.
Meals are always an interesting negotiation. I was highly relieved to discover that I rather enjoy most Ghanaian meals, and that there are very few that I just can not stomach. And my sister is always sure to ask whether I like the meal or not, and I am allowed to be honest. This helps a lot, because the meals that I am fed are easily large enough for a whole American family. The other day, my sister told me she made my breakfast "small small". It consisted of two eggs, three peanut butter sandwitches, two oranges, and a thermos of milo (sort of like hot chocolate).
I can't eat that much, especially all in one sitting. Luckily, there is a little puppy that is happy to take the occasional scrap that I throw to him. This helps me look like I have eaten more than I have. The tricky negotiations come in with deciding how much to leave on my plate before I can get up and declare myself done. If I eat too little, my sister asks "Why did you not eat all?" and I have to come up with a really good answer to convince her that it wasn't because I didn't like the food. If I make a habbit of not eating enough food, word gets to my Peace Corps trainers, and an impromptu meeting comes up to decide whether my sister is taking care of me as she should, or if I am being honest when I say that I like the food. This has often made me feel that I should eat beyond the point of being full, but then I have found that what I don't eat is given to the children... and I am very interested in leaving as much as possible for them to eat what is leftover. It is not like they would not eat without it, but the food I get is special food that I don't think they would normally have access to. So I am always trying to evaluate during each meal whether I have eaten the prescribed "ok" amount before getting up and declaring myself "satisfied".
My mom will be astounded to find out that my Ghanaian sister has found the key to making me WANT to do the laundry and the dishes. Yep. Reverse psychology still works on Dara. The key is to act like I am too much like an ignorant child to know the correct way to do it. Don't allow me to do it for two weeks, and then allow me to take on the least complicated parts of the task, such as rinsing... after seeing that I can handle that ok, let me graduate to the actual washing of the dishes or the laundry, but be sure to ask me every so often whether I need help or can I do it by myself. You can be sure that I will pipe up with "I can do it! I don't need help, REALLY!!"
I am hoping that by the end of my homestay, I can graduate to cooking a meal by myself. Today, my sister let me peel an orange, so I am pretty happy today.

I hope to update more later! Keep praying for me!

Ete Sen?

Ok, we will see how much I can power write in the less than fifteen minutes that I have left on this computer.
Sorry it has taken me so long to put up my first official post from Ghana, but here it is!
I arrived in Ghana about two weeks ago, and everything has been a whirlwind ever since.
Ok, So I will start at the beginning and say as much as I can.
Staging seems like three years ago in Philly, but the highlight was that I got to know my other PCT's (That is Peace Corps Trainees for the acronym challenged - and there are a LOT of acronyms in the Peace Corps).
The flight was really long, and needless to say we were all exhausted when we got to Accra (pronounced Ah-KRAH). The first thing I noticed about Ghana was the sky. It was about sunset, and it was pretty amazing looking.
Accra is big and crowded, and can be fairly confusing, but we eventually got to explore a bit and get somewhat familiar with it before we went on our Vision Quest (several day trips to visit a current volunteer at his or her site).
I had my first Tro Tro rides... Think of a five hour ride in an old Eurovan packed with about twenty people plus baggage, and you have an idea of what a Tro Tro is like. I have been learning my first Twi - "Maachi" is "Good Morning"...
I have hiked to an amazing waterfall (ok, for those who hike in Colorado - imagine hiking with a hot wet towel over your head - not like the crisp air on Pikes Peak.) I bought some awesome beads at a bead market. I have eaten Banku at a Chief's house. And a lot of other experiences that I unfortunately am out of time and unable to write about.
But, I do want to let everyone know - I have found out where my site will be - in the Volta region, right next to lake Volta. I can not post the exact location on my blog, but if you are curious, you can email me, and I will let you know what town it is closest to. I have already had my first lesson in Ewe (pronounced Eh-vey). This is a little bit tough, because in class I am learning Ewe, and at my homestay,my family is teaching me Twi. Hope I don't get too confused.
My family is very awesome, by the way. I hope to be able to write more about them later.
for now I have to go.
Love and miss you all!

One week until I leave for staging!

Well, I have finally gotten around to setting up this blog. It took me long enough, considering that I started telling people that I would be doing this at least four months ago. Dara's procrastination strikes again!

Before I go any further, let me say a little bit about the purpose of this page. I will be serving for two years (well, two years and three months to be exact) with the Peace Corps in Ghana. I am creating this blog so that I can tell friends and family a bit about what is going on with me as I serve in the P.C. This way, if a friend wants to contact me by email, I am hoping to be able to spend more time on personal correspondence, instead of having to fill all of my emails with different versions of "well, this is what has been happening with me for the past three months..."

Also, the P.C. has three main goals;

1. To help the people of interested countries in meeting their needs for trained men and women;

2. To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served;

3. To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of all Americans.

I am hoping that this blog will help serve the third goal through giving those reading this blog a better understanding of the people and culture of Ghana.

I am very excited to be leaving for Ghana next week - and getting pretty nervous... not nervous in the way you would expect, but just with the realization of all that I have to get done before I can leave. I pretty much have been pushing the BIG SCARY thoughts out of my head as much as possible. I am not very good at anticipating things ahead of time, so it probably won't hit me very much until I am over there that I will be so long away from family and friends, surrounded by a culture and languages that I don't understand.

So, anyway. I just thought I would get this thing started. I don't know how much access to internet I will have over there, or how often I will be able to update it, but I am hoping that at least once a month I will be able to let people know what is going on. And I will post pictures as I can.

Pray for me as I go into my new adventure!