Countryside Clarity

As I curiously watched the leggy insect seemingly take in the scenery perched atop a small boy’s head, I contemplated swatting it off knowing full well I would have no way to explain to the child in Buli why the hell I just struck him.  I decided to leave the bug and the boy alone and turned to half-listen to the other men around who were discussing the upcoming Ghanaian election, “…education needs to be accessible to all…he really is great at capturing the attention of the people…but his policies are not well structured…”  We were all huddled under a small shelter while the deluge pounded complex rhythms on the aluminum roof.  We shared the idea to wait out the storm before heading back home.  Joe and I had taken a trip to a nearby village, Kadema, where he started a sustainable dry season farming initiative.  We had a meeting with the farmers and discussed the plans for the upcoming season.  The journey out to Kadema was stunningly gorgeous with the whipped cream skies and the dirt roads that led us through beautiful tropical trees, open skip-worthy-song-singing fields, and hoards of roaming animals.  I swore off motorcycles after the accident with my adventurous but at times over-zealous pops in The Dominican Republic, but there’s really no way to avoid them here.  I’m actually thankful for that as there couldn’t have been a more perfect way to enjoy the trip than on the back of a moto-bike alternating between closed eyes and hungry ones, taking it all in.  This is my life for now.  I’m so grateful.

Do you remember the last time you felt truly rested; at peace; and in-tune with your mind, body, and spirit?  I don’t remember either, but I’ve arrived to this state and can’t even trace the steps for getting here.  This past week, I found clarity I was searching for, motivation I had left somewhere, creativity I had suffocated, and weightless bliss I hadn’t seen in some time.  My life here has no work stress, personal money stress, holiday stress, boyfriend stress, and no social calendar with every hour reserved until two weeks from Tuesday.  I make my own schedule, sleep solid hours, live in a house alone with no rent, guiltlessly read books for hours on a Friday night, and only do what I want.  And surprisingly, I’ve wanted to do many things that I avoided at home.  I have been eagerly grant researching and writing (for an organization where I know all the beneficiaries personally), I’ve been able to creatively conceptualize and work on new projects, I’ve been able to think clearly and without anxiety about my future plans, and I’ve even excitedly updated my resume!  The thing is, I didn’t even realize how foggy and heavy I felt at home until those things were lifted.  It’s amazing how we function in The States running at 135 miles per hour, balancing 8 loads on our head, with our tanks on E.  Are we actually as productive as our schedules boast?  Are we present enough in all of our forty obligations to make it worth it?  When I was home, even the thought of tackling grad school research brought stones to my stomach and flashing lights of migraines with aura.  We’re so overloaded that any additional task seems like the last pebble that collapses the stacked pile.  We find ourselves plagued with psycho-somatic aches and can’t locate the source of the quivering anxiety deep within us.  We try yoga, meditation, therapy, prayer, etc. sometimes without results.  I mean, heck, I’ve tried all those things, but it wasn’t until I was ripped out of my comfort zone and into a rural African town with no friends and no solid direction that I have found some peace and clarity.  Weird, huh?  I don’t think it needs to be so drastic, but I wonder what it will take for me to find this when I catch myself stuck again in the hamster wheel of Western society.  I know this feathery floating will eventually be grounded by the heavy gravitational pull of reality when planning for my year back as my time here dwindles, so I say all this not to brag, but for posterity—to remind my future self that life rules when you can see straight.  I don’t have an answer for how to bring this energy home, but I do hope that some of it naturally sticks to me.  I hope I can remind myself that life is as simple or as complicated as we make it, and sometimes all it takes is a beautiful drive through the quiet countryside to reset.

I always think it so neat when you can watch the clouds blanket the sky and tuck the sun in before a downpour.

Farmers we are supporting with the G-Roots project

This is not the post I had planned for this week, but I had to share before the moment shifts even in the slightest.  Wishing all you dears some of the peace I'm floating in.

Love from Sandema,
Tippy

Bankou and Stew for Two: Friendship and Food

Part of any big move is adjusting to losing your community and building yourself a new one.  As I'm blessed to be surrounded by loving friends and family at home, I have been impatient with myself and want the whole friendship-network building thing to happen apace.  Being the only foreigner in my small town right now, it's easy to resign to loneliness at times.  Despite that, I've been trying hard to meet people and build connections with those around me.  The folks in my town are amiable and have a real playfulness about them.  I've been meeting people left and right, but my schedule of working from home during the day and hangin' with my little dudes at night, hasn't allowed me to to organically take the quick introductions to friendship level.

Last week, Joe and I traveled to Bolgatanga, the town where our mailbox is (puts things in perspective, huh ;)), which is about 45 minutes to two hours away depending on how much the bus wants to stop.  On the way we took a trotro, which are vans (usually rickety) that work like a private bus system.  You're usually sitting on half a seat with someone's arm in your face, but they can be a shorter ride than the Metro Mass Transit buses because they stop less, but more importantly because the drivers are reckless and launch off potholes and go much faster than you think any rusty tin can on wheels should.  When we got to Bolga, I got my first glimpse of other foreigners in the area!  THEY EXIST!  I peeped about a handful and vowed that when I start coming to the town alone, I will ardently hunt them down and force friendship upon them.  Though my main focus is to make friends with the people in Sandema, I think it's important to have at least a few ex-pat connections to ease the feeling of "doing this alone".  Only a foreigner truly understands what another foreigner is going through.  After a lovely day of exploring this mini city, we got on the bus to head home.  For the way back, we decided to take the MMT bus so I could experience the different options.  The bus is pretty nice, but there is obviously no AC and it gets packed to the brim.  As folks were piling in, a lot of the men who were sitting, gave up their seats to the women who were standing (chivalry ain't dead in a culture where women stay in the kitchen! ...wait).  Joe gave up his seat to a young lady which ended up being a great move in the my chess game of life.  The woman's name is Veronica and she's a 27 year old nurse at the Sandema hospital but is originally from the mailbox town.  The bus ride ended up taking a solid two hours, which allowed for some quality getting-to-know-you time, albeit sweaty and uncomfortable getting-to-know-you time.  Vero and I really hit it off and decided to meet up soon.  When we got together, she told me a bit about her life and it turns out she's quite the foreigner magnet.  The year before nursing school, she worked at an orphanage with some German volunteers.  She built great friendships and somewhat understands what the volunteer experience is all about and knows how to deal with us non-Ghanaian folk (when to look out for people cheating us, cultural considerations for how not to offend, and the reality that most volunteers (though they are "white"--I'm white here) are actually pretty broke).  She's extremely generous, thoughtful, and has this sassy sense of humor that you can't help but be taken by.

This past Thursday, Vero came over to teach me how to make bankou and okra stew.  Before I get into that, let me tell you a bit about the food here.  Generally, the flavors remind me of Korean food as the stews and soups are robust and quite spicy.  I really enjoy all the stews, but my only complaint is that they are heavily oil-based so can make you feel a bit like a 300-pound pizza-face post-meal (mmmm, pizza...........sushi...bagels...).  Now, what is eaten with the stews and soups is something to get used to.  BB calls this the "globular food group," which is the perfect description.  Bankou, foufou, and tizzet are some of the different types of globs with flavor and texture variations.  Bankou and foufou are similar in texture, a mix between bread dough and mashed potatoes.  Bankou tastes kind of like sourdough bread or Ethiopian injera and foufou is blander and potatoey.  Tizzet is more flavorless like foufou, but it has the texture of firm tofu made of porridge.  The object is to take a small piece of glob (ALWAYS WITH YOUR RIGHT HAND), make a little indent in it, and pick up the stew or soup.  Excuse me, but have you EVER tried to eat soup with your hand?!  I would think it impossible if I didn't see all the boys at the centre plow through their soups using their globs.  Needless to say, I fail at this and the resulting mess is greater than what I actually get into my mouth.  I've been more shameless in asking for a spoon when I eat at the centre so I can actually enjoy Madam Judith's cooking.

So, Vero set out to teach me how to make bankou and stew, and I have to say the result was tasteriffic!  

Vero mixing the flours and water for the bankou

As it heats up, it gets super paste-like and very difficult to stir

So I finally surrender to the notion that there are veggies I don't really like, and okra is on the list.  Though the stew was incredible in taste, I can't get over the slimy phlegminess of okra.

putting the cooked bankou into plastic bags for setting

The stew is finished!

how it's served

sweaty from the hot kitchen and ready to dig in!

Vero and I enjoyed our evening so much that we decided to make meal-making a weekly affair!  I can't wait until she teaches me fish and egg stew with yam (non-glob but used the same way), my favorite thing I've had here so far.  I'm so grateful for this new friendship and I hope to make many more meaningful connections with my fellow town dwellers.

Thank you home friend/family network for supporting me, loving me, and following on my adventure.  You have no idea how much I appreciate all of you that have been a part of sending me here with funds, words, and love.  I miss you all so much!  I wish I could get a good squeeze from home :)

Love from Sandema,
Tippy

Foreign Places, Foreign Feelings

Hello my dears!  As you should already know, I have arrived in Ghana and am safe and sound.  I'm not sure what the format of this blog will be, but I am just going to let it evolve as the time goes.  Right now, I just have a lot of info dumping to do, so I will do just that.  I intended to write many times this past week, but things have been crazy and filled with travel and meeting many many new people.  Ergo, friends, this will be a very long and rambly post.  I also tried to take a few photos to include in this post, but my iphone refuses to play nice with my PC.  So this is my warning for a long and potentially boring post!

A lot has happened this past week and my emotional journey has been up and down already.  I don't want to overwhelm this post with all the details as it feels like this past week was much longer than seven days.  This past month of preparation has been equally a part of the journey as my time here will be.  I said so many goodbyes, quit my first job, moved out of my cozy apartment, and prepared to step out of my comfort zone for a year.  The journey from DC, our nation's capital, to Accra, Ghana's capital, was long and rough.  The time differences made it difficult to adjust and I was a zombie the whole way there.  By the time I arrived I was exhausted and disoriented, but the lovely staff of Horizons Children's Centre hooked me up with a friend Gabby, a wonderful Ghanaian gentleman who is a principal at a local school, who picked me up at the airport and brought me back to my hotel.  Once I settled into my room, everything hit me.  It was as if I could see the wave of anxiety coming towards me without an escape.  I started panicking as I was realizing what I had committed to and where I was.  It was like waking up from sleepwalking and finding yourself somewhere totally unexpected.  I won't lie my friends, it was tough.  All these months of preparation and emotional readying seemed like empty gestures holding little meaning once I was actually away.  Going to sleep-away camp since I was little, I never experienced even the smallest bit of home sickness.  Going to university, I would spend months without speaking to my family and I would be fine.  But on this night, I payed back all the moments of missing I missed.  Tears were streaming down my face, but through them all I knew this commitment was not a mistake.  I knew this journey was mine to take and this was just an important part of it.  I talked a bit with some loved ones, took some sleeping pills, and drifted off.

The next day I was connected with a volunteer who was finished with her time and was heading back home at the end of the week.  She had spent the past five months in Sandema, the town I am living in, and was enthusiastic to tell me about this lovely place she had fallen in love with.  Her name is BB, and she brought me back to life.  We spent the next few days running errands, getting our hurrs did, eating some tasty local food, and sharing many laughs.  This girl is a gem.  She has an amazing spirit with an open heart, and at the end of our time, we were so sad to part ways.  It truly felt like we had known each other for years.  I'm scheming to get her back to Sandema so we can be a dynamic duo force of awesome here :)  We met up with a couple of the boys from the centre who were going to make the trip up with me and we also got along instantly.  Christopher is finishing his last year in senior high, and Jacob is starting his first year in senior high, and both of them are hilarious.  The last day that we were all together before we had to say goodbye to BB, we had so much fun even though BB was battling malaria.  Oh malaria, I'd be cool if we didn't become acquainted anytime soon.  On Friday, we said our goodbyes to BB then hopped on the bus to travel north for the next 15 or so hours.  The bus ride was long, but again, this is where I praised God for sleeping pills.  I definitely "freed myself" in some interesting places on the way...but, T.I.A. (This is Africa). 

Finally, I ARRIVED IN SANDEMA!  At about 4:30 am on Saturday, we pulled into town where Joe, the centre's local director, met us and took us back to my house.  I settled in a bit and slept some more.  I quite like my house!  It's humble and could use a bit of love, but it's cozy and has some wonderful energy (I suspect from amazing past volunteers).  It's got everything I need and is a bit like living in a country cabin/cottage.  Things are breaking down, but it's homey.

On Sunday night, I had my introduction to all the boys at the centre!  They greeted me with open arms and sang me a welcome song and strutted there stuff with some dance moves (they also made me dance...I was not quite ready for that!).  The smiles, the joy, the family vibes made me feel a bit like Wendy and the Lost Boys (from Peter Pan)!  They cheered as they heard I was staying for a year and they all came by to shake my hand one by one.  It was really lovely.

Today Joe and I went to the market and met some other important people in town.  The power's been out for the past 17 hours or so, so it's making it difficult to do too much.  I'm really excited to get started with whatever projects I will be doing this year, but it's hard to imagine what all of that will be like.  Trying to take in a year of many unknowns is hard to digest.  I am feeling pretty good about everything, but I'm still very much adjusting.  I'm getting used to drinking water from bags (rather than bottles), dusting bugs from my bed, and constantly sweating!  The one thing that I am still learning to get used to is the sitting.  What do I mean by that?  I mean just that.  People sit together a lot here and a lot of times without saying a word.  Someone might come over and sit for hours.  Or you might go somewhere and sit some more.  At first I felt really awkward with the dead space, and even antsy, but I am hoping I will be able to let go of my Western tendency to do, distract, entertain, and just sit.

I have a billion more reflections, and I'm sure I will post them as I feel ready to unpack them, but feel free to ask me questions and I'll enjoy answering them!  Thank you for supporting me, loving me, contacting me, and being interested.  I miss so much about home already, and I miss all of you something fierce.  Keep missing me too ;)

Love from Sandema,
Tippy (They all call me that here too!  Tiffany was too difficult and I kept getting Stephanie or Steppadie...so I settled on my family nick name :))