"Obroni! Obroni! Obroni!"

Greetings from Ghana!
I found an internet cafe fairly close to my town, so here we go! The title of this post reflects the words that I hear about 5,000 times a day, mostly from children. The word "obroni" means stranger or foreigner, and children of ALL ages love to yell it to us white people as we walk down the street. Yesterday I told one of my fellow trainees that every time I walk down the street, I feel like I'm in a one-man parade, like I should have candy to pass out or something. This brings me to my next point, which is the difficulty of walking ANYWHERE without having to stop 20 times to greet everyone I see. This might be one of my favorite parts of Ghana, besides the food. I'm learning a couple of new words in Twi every day, and my greetings are starting to become really natural, which is a good feeling. Ahhh there's so much to say in this blog and such little time to say it....

Okay, I guess I'll start by telling everyone that I got my site announcement for the next two years! Starting in August, I will be living and working in Gushie in the Northern Region, which, if you remember my last post, is where I did my vision quest!!! I am absolutely THRILLED about this position and I can't wait to get there!! This means no electricity, semi-running water (pit latrine, but I get a shower), and a very short ride to Tamale, which has lots of internet, hotels, restaurants, etc... I will explain more about my future job and location later....

Quick, get out your Ghana maps, it's time for a geography lesson! Starting in August, I will be living in Gushie in the Northern Region, so look toward the north of Ghana, locate a large town called "Tamale," and move your finger just slightly further up, and you just might find my small village (it's on about half of the maps I've seen). Right now for training, I am staying in the Eastern Region, in Anyinasin, so look toward the faaaar south and slightly to the east, and you should find it!

A few words about my training so far and my homestay family. From now until I am finished with training in August, I am staying with a family in Anyinasin along with 12 other water/health and sanitation volunteers scattered around in houses in this village. The other 60 volunteers are spread out in nearby communities, and we gather as an entire group once a week. My basic schedule is as follows: I wake up between 4 and 5am thanks to extremely noisy roosters and goats who live right outside my door, literally. I then emerge from my cave (it's really a large room with electricity, a desk, a bed, and a couch! I've got a cushy pad!), and I greet my "father," "sister," and "brothers." I have only a little time, so I cannot tell you everything about them, but they are pretty amazing. My father's name is Nana. He is 67 years old, he is a chief of the village, and he does hard labor in the fields every day. He named me "Ya Kuma" on the first day I met him, and the name has stuck, so I now only answer to that name in my village. "Ya" means Thursday-born, and "Kuma" is our family name, sort of like a last name. My father loves to wear minimal clothing, ie: a large cloth wrapped around his body with his skinny arms poking out... He also loves to speak English with me and he often asks me if I "need to urinate now ." This might be his favorite question, in fact. He's very concerned about my health!! :) My sister, named Obana,  is 24 years old, and she acts as my "mother." She is a widow, but she has a 4 year old daughter who lives with us, whose name is Mikhail. My sister cooks for me, and I'll explain a little more about that in a minute...

I have 6 HOURS of language classes a day, and I am learning a language called DAGBANI, which I will be speaking when I move to the Northern Region to start my service. I cannot believe how intensely we are studying the language, but we basically start from scratch and we have about 2 months to become fluent, so it's a necessary evil! After language, I go to 2 hours of technical training to learn tips and strategies to being a good water/health and sanitation volunteer, then I come home at 5 to eat dinner. After that, I usually watch soccer matches with my brothers and father. We cheer for every African team and I also cheer for the Latin American teams, as long as they're not playing an African team or an American team :) Usually I go to bed around 9:30pm, because the roosters have no mercy on me in the morning and the days are long....

Now I have very little time left to share more things with you, since I have to be back at my house by 8pm (father's orders!), but I thought I'd tell you a few things about Ghanaian food and eating habits while I have the chance, since I feel like it's a great reflection of the culture here and can be very fascinating. First of all, we almost NEVER eat any meals together as a family-I eat every meal by myself on my porch. This is true for every volunteer here, which sounds strange to most people at first, considering that Ghanaians are such communal people and very close to their families. Eating here is a very quick process, in which you eat as soon as the food comes out of the pot (while it's still hot) and you talk very little. Generally we all eat at separate times because you can only cook very small amounts of food at a time, so you eat whatever you can get your hands on! Secondly, the staple of EVERY meal here is CARBS. Seriously, I eat rice at nearly every meal, usually combined with pasta and some sort of stew with yams. I love almost all of the food I've eaten so far-it's generally SUPER spicy and all of the stew has a tomato base, and to me, it's all delicious!! I am never given any utensils, so I'm expected to eat everything with my hands, more specifically, my right hand, since we are FORBIDDEN to ever use our left hands for anything here in Ghana! Mom and dad always told me that I should live in Africa because I always tried to eat with my hands instead of my fork when I was a kid, but surprisingly, I am still perfecting my right hand eating technique! I am always served about 3 times as much food as I could possible eat (this is not an exaggeration), and it is actually rude to finish all of the food on your plate, because it means that your mother has not sufficiently fed you and therefore is doing you an injustice. My sister's favorite line is "you are big now, but I will make you so much bigger! You will be so big when you leave me, and Ghana will know that you eat well in the Kuma house!" :)

There is so much more that I could share with you, but this post is ridiculously long, and my friends have officially given me the one minute warning sign, so I'm done here. One more bit of information though... I have a cell phone that I keep with me at all times, which you can call to talk to me! If you call through Skype, it costs 15 cents a minute. Here's what you dial: 011233547756581. This will literally send you directly to my cell, so give it a try! Remember, I am 4 hours ahead of you, so be kind! Also, my address is the same as the one posted on the side of the blog, and I love letters!!