Never Ghana Regret It

All the kids that live nearby have been really fun to hang out with. The younger ones only speak Ewe, but the older ones speak enough English from being in school to act as a translators. In Ewe a white person is "yah-voo" so little kids, adults, teachers, they will all yell "yah-voo, yah-voo" and wave.

  It’s amazing how happy and entertained the kids are by playing with sticks, rocks and tires. But I quickly became very popular the day I brought out a deck of UNO cards and a LeapFrog toy my niece's daycare teacher insisted I borrow while I'm in Ghana. It took the kids all of 3 minutes to figure out how to use the handheld gaming device, which is impressive considering they've probably never saw one before. Here's a few pictures, including a couple of my favorites, Joshua and his brother Mawsi (above).

After almost two weeks I've finally settled into my new life. I'm living in a town called Frankadua (2 hours northeast from Accra) in the Volta region. When I got here there were already three volunteers (Tom from Walpole, MA, Inka from Finland and Christian from Australia) and I arrived from Acrra on the same day with two more (Drew from Nebraska and Tamar from South Africa). Here's a picture of the volunteer house where were staying. The door on the left is the kitchen and a small room with two bunk beds and a small eating area. Then to the left the boys have a small room with two bunk beds and on the porch is where our cook, Judith prepares meals and we have a large barrel that she fills with water everyday from the well across the field next to our house. It's not in this picture but there are baby goats and chickens all over too.

These are the showers taken from our front door. It's just a cement structure that is shaped like a maze so it's not completely closed but you can't see in unless you walk in. So to shower you have to fetch a bucket of water from the boy's porch and bring it in the shower. There's a small hole in the corner to drain the water behind the shower and into the ground. We also brush our teeth behind the shower too. Except we use pure water for that (pure water is free for us because it was included in our program fees, but it's also sold in small plastic bags for 10 peswes, which is about 4 or 5 cents.

  Finally, these are some of my neighbors sitting under the mango tree staying cool and chatting in Ewe. Did I mention how hot it is? So hot. You don't get used to the heat, but you get used to being sweaty constantly and I've learned to really enjoy the two minutes I'm not sweating during my bucket shower. They use this area for socializing, cooking, bathing their children and washing clothes. It's a very communal area as you can tell. Hopefully this gives a sense of where I'm living. Oh yeah, for anyone that's curious about the bathroom situation, I'll sum it up by saying we have two options: the hole or the woods. And that goes for a lot of Ghana.

Well, we're in the midst of hurricane Sandy here in Connecticut. So far, my parents' house still has power but my brother's is already out (across town). As for my flight tomorrow, it's been delayed until Wednesday afternoon. 

I've already been in touch with the program coordinator in Accra and they said if I arrived late then I would just have orientation one-on-one, which is fine. I knew this experience meant giving up the luxury of having control over most of the events that will occur over the next six months, so why not start now.

I think Lao Tzu says it best with his quote below. 

T-minus 2 weeks until I leave! It's finally starting to feel real. The move from San Francisco to Connecticut went smoothly and all my luggage arrived safely (as you can see).

This week I'm finishing my four year stint at Access Communications in our New York office. I don't think I've had to say goodbye to so many people in such a short amount of time in my life. Even though it's been overwhelming, it's a good reminder of how many wonderful people I have in my life, which makes me feel very fortunate.

It's been interesting talking to people about what I'm going to do. Reactions have ranged from people saying they think it's incredible and inspiring to admitting it's something they would never do - which I totally expected. But the one question that everyone asks, despite their reaction, has been:

"How many shots do you need?"

Yesterday was my third and last appointment at the travel clinic so I thought I'd share the outcome and a few lessons learned in case anyone is planning on traveling soon.

Vaccines Received:

Yellow Fever

Hepatitis A

Polio Booster

Rabies (3 shots)

Flu Shot

Meningitis 

Typhoid (pills)

Tetanus Booster 

Rx for Trip:

Doxycycline - (for Malaria, take 1 pill everyday for the next 7 months)

Cipro (Just in case)

Insect Repellent

The clinic said the BEST insect repellent is Ulthrathon, which I ordered from Amazon because it was a lot cheaper than getting it from the clinic or REI. It has 34% DEET which should be plenty. In fact, the clinic said there's no reason anyone should ever use 100% DEET, because it's unnecessary. I'm also planning to bring some natural insect repellent in case that's all I need. It would be great to avoid having that much DEET on my skin for 6 months, but I'll be sure to stick with whatever keeps the mosquitoes away.

Volunteering abroad is something I've always wanted to do. Three years ago, I was living in New York and looking for the right opportunity to volunteer. At the time there seemed to only be two options 1) pay a small fortune to volunteer for a couple weeks or 2) sacrifice nearly 3 years (from application process to completing your placement) and any control over where you go or what you work on.

Long story short, I got half way through my Peace Corps application when I decided to transfer within my company and give west coast living a shot. Living in San Francisco gave me the laid-back vibe and endless access to the outdoors I had been missing when I was in New York. Before I knew it - one year turned into to two and now, almost three years later, the thoughts of "what else could I be doing?" and "if I don't do this now, when will I?" started popping in my head more and more.

The truth is, I love San Francisco, I have a good job and I couldn't imagine my life without the experiences I've had and the friends I've made here. But I don't want to wake up in five years and say, "What if?" So instead I'm saying, "Why not?"

When I stumbled upon the International Volunteer HQ site, I realized it offered just the right mix of flexibility and affordability that I was looking for. So after a couple weeks of research and a lot of thought I've decided to quit my job, leave San Francisco and volunteer in Ghana for 6 months to teach elementary school kids.