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I'm no gifted photographer and I'm still getting over my embarrassment of looking like a tourist. I know! As if the camera would give it away. Either way, maybe they'll get better with time. Right now I'm still too busy staring to pause for good photos.
First, the VEG house (my home away from home):
From the road.
From within the garden, in front of the cabana.
The cabana itself. The dogs love relaxing here during the day.
My bedroom/bed. I have a room to myself, but may get roommates as more volunteers show up.
And for my mother, our cats. Both are very charming and love attention. They have Ewe names but I'm not sure how to type either of them. In English the names are Frog and Chair. Chair sounds like zk-pee. Frog is more advanced and I can't even say it yet. And yes, mother, I will post pictures of the dogs soon!
A few from my first weekend:
A performance at the Yam Festival.
Julie's family. From left: Patience, her younger sister, her father and herself. All school children regardless of gender have to shaves their heads while in school. This is why every single young girl in Ho has Patience's haircut.
Ho, in general:
One of the busier streets in Ho. Most of the city has unpaved roads surrounded by small market huts, but two of the roads are far more modern with recognizable buildings. Notice though the unusual traffic behavior all the same- i.e that Toyota randomly driving the wrong lane.
Another picture from the same street. I'm trying to show off the beautiful hills/mountains that surround Ho. Notice also a market hut to the left- this one is actually double the size of the usual shop. I will try to get photos next week during market day when things really get crazy in the dirtier parts of town :)
Kanako, Julie and I went to the Yam Festival on Saturday. The Yam Festival is a big deal in Ho, there were many government officials at the ceremony. I was lucky to arrive the day before the big cultural events. There were some beautiful performances of traditional dances. Kanaku and I got to sit up right front with one of the Ewe community groups with the aid of some of our Yevu luck (read: Ghanaians are so polite to us that even when we're being rude they will accomodate us, so when we're friendly doors fly open). Since it's such a big event there were cameras from Ghana tv stations taping the activity and the audience. Yesterday, one of Kanakos friends called to tell her he'd seen us on TV! The only two Yevu in the whole crowd, impossible to miss.
Travel by taxi is the dominant form of transportation within Ho and to surrounding villages. People do plenty of walking and bike riding but personal car ownership is very rare. It's easy to hail a taxi here though because there are hundreds. I've never waited more than a minute before being able to catch one going the right way.
I navigated my first solo taxi trip today! I used all of the lessons I've learned from riding with Kanako and Julie
over the weekend. First, to hail you stand on the curb, wait for the approach, give a slight wave and point to the ground in front of you. Once you've hailed the taxi you lean into the window and announce your destination. He considers
it and will usually nod you in if he knows where it is and is headed that way. You never get a taxi to yourself in Ho, instead you get in with people already headed in a similar direction and get dropped of on the way or afterwards. Our house is at Alai Rd. which is all you need to say to get to the right place. After getting in you greet the driver. Kanako uses the standard Good Morning, Good Afternoon or Good Evening and I've stolen this from her. Next do everything possible to be friendly and initiate conversation. Nothing major due to the language barrier but "It's going to be hot today!" or "Do you own this taxi?" are pretty solid. It is far less likely that they will overcharge you if you're nice. Just before you reach your location you give them 40p. Don't let them set a price. If they ask for more you remind them that every other taxi takes you to Alai Rd. for only 40p. I gave my driver 60p today but that's because I missed the house and we had to drive around a bit to find it and he was very friendly about it.
I also walked through town by myself for the first time today. Full emersion is an excellent way to get yourself used to
unusual situations. Four days ago I couldn't even talk to Moses in the car because I was so overwhelmed and already I'm learning to deal with life as a Yevu. It just involves much smiling and laughing and saying Hello and Yo.
Every day here I find myself doing something completely new. I'm going to have stories from this experience for the rest of my life. My first weekend turned out to be great. I was a bit nervous when I first arrived because all of the volunteers were out of town except one - Kanako. Kanako's English is very good, but not fluent. Turns out the concern was misplaced. Kanako and I get along very well. I truely admire the way she interacts with the people here and her sense of adventure. I feel like sticking with her will ensure a more authentic experience and she seems to have a very good heart. Unfortunately, she's leaving VEG on Sunday. So I'll learn what I can from her now and wish her well on her next adventure.
Sidetracked.... to the weekend. I stuck with Kanako and Julie, a VEG staff member and local of Ho, for most of the weekend. On Saturday we went to the Yam Festival which is the biggest annual event in Ho and something my neighbor on the flight here told me about. After that we made a quick trip to town- my first. It was hugely overwhelming but easy to adjust to. Shops here consist of small boxed wooden structures with tin roofs. The front side is left open when the shop is doing business so the structure only appears to have three sides. There are hundreds of these throughout town selling everything from cellphones to traditional fabric to fresh produce.
Then we went to see Moses at his apartment and he cooked us a delicious lunch of Banku (sp) and fish stew. Banku is mostly corn flower and water mixed together to create a very thick paste which you eat with your right hand. They bring out a bowl of water before eating and you wash up the hand and then break little pieces of the Banku off and scoop up stew. I hadn't had fish in more than 8 years, it's still not worth eating. I was very happy that Moses cooked for us, but will do my best to avoid fish from here on out. His apartment was nice and well-kept but very small. One room, smaller than my bedroom but only slightly. But, he has an amazing stereo, television and computer as well as a double-bed (luxury in Ghana). We went from Moses' to Julie's place to meet her family and learn to make Fufu (more food).
Julie's apartment was bigger than Moses'. She has at least two rooms, but didn't give us a tour so I'm not sure about the details. She also has her own kitchen/storage area out in the courtyard. Her family was incredibly friendly and Kanako took pictures of all of us together which I will post soon. At Julie's we learned to peel cassava and pound Fufu. Although it easily takes me ten times longer to peel cassava because cutting boards are unheard of in Ghana and you cut things while holding them in your hand. I'm too clumsy for this behavior. Fufu is similar in presentation to Banku, but it's made from pounding yam and cassava (similar to potatoes) until you break the starch bonds and it becomes stretchy, light and tasty. Julie served this with chicken stew and it was very good but hard to finish as we'd just eaten a heavy meal a few hours before. Julie's neighbors all came out to prepare their own dinners and were very friendly with us. They got a kick out of the Yevu trying to pound Fufu. One of the women even instructed us to call her Mama and offered to bring us chilled water. Have I mentioned yet how insanely friendly the residents are?
Sunday was more low-key. I hung around the house while Kanako and Julie went to church and then went with them to a football (soccer) game played by our very own Moses! There are something like 10 teams in Ho, which is crazy given how small the town is. I'm assuming every able-bodied man is on at least one team. The game was at the police depot and against a team of police recruits. when we approached the depot to get to the field a police officer stopped us. He was friendly but he was also waving his bobby stick around. He asked Julie what the Yevu wanted with the police and we said we were going to the game and he brightened significantly and welcomed us in. Julie explained later that the police go out of their way to protect the Yevu in town (i.e the rich tourists) he was probably just anticipating that we had something to report.
The football game was a blast! I don't think I've ever been to one before. Moses was so happy that we'd come to cheer him on. In the end, though, his team lost 3-0, despite the pep talk Kanako and I gave him during halftime. Given the language barrier our pep talk consisted of repeating "Score more points," and "Kick the ball." But on the same day Ghana's national team beat Gambia 2-0. We listened the radio coverage while watching Moses play :)
VEG houses both the volunteers and the office in one house a little bit outside of the main town. Currently there are five volunteers living here. Kanako- a short term volunteer from Japan studying social business and microfinance in university. Harini- an American financial analyst from Arizona. Julie - a Brazilian journalist with a background in female/youth empowerment. Haraku- a member the Japanese equivalent to the Peace Corps.
The house is rather unapologetically luxurious. I'm a little conflicted about living in a such a wonderful home, but also grateful. Admittedly I'm unsure of the standard of living for the typical resident of Ho. I've only been to the apartments of Moses and Julie and they were both very nice, but I can't say if that represents the norm or not. Our house is a huge place: 5 bedrooms, 3+ bathrooms, office space, living room, dining room, kitchen and another central room that we use to mostly store fridges (just like home!). We've got running water (via a polytank as the sewer infrastructure isn't developed here), electricity and unreliable but existent internet. No air conditioning but it's hardly necessary with all the fans around. It's much more bearable in this house, built to breath, than the stuffy non-air conditioned house Luke and I shared last summer.
We have a massive and beautiful garden/yard full of flowers, an absolutely huge mango tree and even a summer thatch-roofed cabana.
We also have 4 pets: 2 dogs and 2 cats. The dogs are Yevu and Mango and the cats Zkpee (sp) and another Ewe word which is I can't yet pronounce.
VEG employees a full staff to take care of the house and the volunteers: a house manager/landscaper, housekeepers, cooks, laundry lady, driver and security guards. It's very literally a step up from my place in Durham. Not at all what I was expecting, but I am grateful to have it. Soon I'll do a homestay in a nearby village where the standard of living is much lower. I've heard stories about the homestays and I'm honestly glad that I landed in such nice accommodations on my first visit to Africa. There are plenty of other things to get used to without learning to bath in a bucket and sleeping on a bedbug infested straw mattress for two months. Maybe next time.
After four days in Ho I've come up with a list of Ho quirks that I find particularly endearing.
People here have a tremendous problem pronouncing and remembering v-eye-ola but I've discovered they can master v-ee-ola on the first try. Ironic given how often I've corrected people in the US on the correct pronunciation of my name.
There are goats and chickens everywhere. Once, I even saw a chicken riding on a goat. No lie.
There is no sense of business hours or business days. Banks are open on Saturdays! Markets are open almost always. Though, I'll admit things are less active on Sundays because church is a very big part of the culture.
You cannot pass through a market or public area without the children trailing you and calling Yevu! Yevu! It essentially means white person, but they tend to use it for all non-African looking folk. It's not an insult. It is almost more of a game. They are laughing and giggling as they do it and so are you. Adults will occasionally call out the same and it's
likewise not an insult but just to get your attention. I've run into two other Yevu since I've been in town and only from a distance so it's not like we don't know they're shouting at us.
People here are soft-spoken. I've not heard many Ho residents shout, even when call across a courtyard. When they speak directly to you it's also done in a soft voice. I've only heard yelling from Moses and taxi drivers while driving- road rage is international.
Despite how soft-spoken the people of Ho are, the city is noisy. You are never without at least singing and drum beats. The taxis blare music, the spots (i.e. bars) blast it into the streets, the churches are always swinging with it. Late into the night even I can always hear it in my bedroom and I don't even live in town. This combined with the roar of the birds life makes it difficult to sleep at first.
I'll add some more certainly. I imagine it will be entertaining looking back at this list once I've been here for a couple of months.
