Glowsticks and italian spaghetti...

I don't have too many important updates since my last blog post, besides the fact that I passed my LPI (Language Proficiency Interview) and will finally become a volunteer in a few short days! The language exam went much more smoothly than I thought it would, and I got somewhere in the Intermediate range (we get our official scores tomorrow), so I was very happy about that!

The past week has been crammed with last minute training sessions, tests, and rehearsals for our swearing-in ceremony. At the swearing-in ceremony, we as volunteers do some drumming and dancing, as well as perform short skits in the languages we have been learning. All of our home-stay families, many current Peace Corps volunteers, our trainers, and some local dignitaries will be there, so it should be a fun, celebratory day! My family, along with most of the other home-stay families, bought me fabric and is paying to have a traditional dress sewn for me. The tailor is finishing it tomorrow, so I'm excited to see it! (pictures to come, I'm sure...)

Besides wrapping up training, I have been enjoying my past few weeks with my home-stay and sharing as much as I can with them before I leave. A few nights ago, I opened up a package of glowsticks that I brought from the states because there were several young children playing in my compound and I thought they would enjoy them. Needless to say, the children absolutely LOVED the glowsticks! (though I think my home-stay father might have loved them more...) They ran around with them, absolutely mesmerized by the whole idea of a stick that glows simply by snapping it. My father was giggling and waving one around too, and he said to me, "Oh, Ya, there is no electicity in these. They are fine! I think these sticks will glow forever!" After I explained to him that they would only last a few hours, he stared at his glowstick for a while, and declared, "Then when they go out, we will turn them back on!" All I could do was laugh and revel in the moment. These misunderstandings and innocent comments comprise one of my favorite elements of being here with Peace Corps. Two of the three goals are Peace Corps are cultural education, which means both educating Americans about Ghana and educating Ghanaians about America. These moments of discovery and cultural exchange are not only amusing, but they are also the foundation of the work that we do and what makes us somewhat unique in the world of development. One great example of cultural exchange happened last night and spilled into today. I had asked my home-stay family if I could cook some food for them that I enjoy in the states. They agreed, so last night I prepared Italian Spaghetti with garlic bread. I warned them that they might not like the flavors and the sweetness of the sauce, but they were adamant that they would love whatever I cooked. They did indeed love the garlic bread, and they heartily ate most of the spaghetti with a tiny bit of marinara on the side, saying that they liked the flavors (I believed some of them, but I think they were mostly just trying not to hurt my feelings... ) We had a great time throughout the process, as I taught my sister how to make the sauce and told her about the different flavors that we use in the United States compared to Ghana. I ended up leaving before the spaghetti and sauce was finished, so I told my sister that she could do whatever she wanted with it and I wouldn't feel bad (I figured she would dump the sauce out to the goats). I walked away feeling pleased with the way I had shared a little bit of American culture by teaching them what we eat and having us all sit down together to eat a meal the way we would in the states (this is rarely done in households in Ghana). However, the cultural exchange came full circle when I sat down for my lunch today and discovered that my sister had transformed my marinara sauce into a Ghanaian stew by adding tons of spices and a few pieces of fish. She then served the marinara remix with boiled yams (called ampesi) and proudly presented it to me. "Here," she said, "It has become a dish of Ghana!"

I share these anecdotes with you because I think they perfectly depict the beauty of my experience here in Ghana. Every day I make cultural mistakes: I say the wrong greeting to my neighbor, I accidently grab something with my left hand, or I forget to wrap fabric around my waist and walk outside in my shorts. But it's all part of the experience: making mistakes, teaching each other, and laughing at ourselves until we better understand one another's culture and therefore change, grow, and develop TOGETHER.

Much love to you all!