10-40 Bucket

April (All of it)
The poultry coop is underway. Do you remember a while back when I mentioned writing a grant proposal for it...you know way back then. The last week of March I got the word that it had been approved and that money was on the way (thank you taxpayers, we appreciate you).
Progress has been speeding along. The structure has been built, cemented, floored (also cement), roofed, and fenced in. The fenced in area is pretty big, we hope to plant a vegetable garden there. The laying boxes have been built and the feeding/watering troughs have been bought. I even went away for a weekend and Karim out of his determination for success and excitement wired the structure for electricity and placed low hanging light bulbs to keep our new day old chick warm. The only thing missing now is the day old chicks.
On the 26th Karim and I will travel to Techiman to pick up our guinea fowl chicks....all 200 of them. We will travel using cramped public transportation (bus, tro, lorry....) and probably get cheated on the transportation of the birds. Either way it will be an adventure. I promise to let you know how it goes.
I am really excited about this project. I am even more excited that Karim is excited. As is the problem with some projects here...as soon as the volunteer leaves the project crumbles. There are many 16 seater latrines, buildings, labs, clinics, etc. that are now defunct, falling apart and testaments to NGO intervention and failure to either train the people or make sure they were invested in the project. The good thing about the Peace Corps approach is that we don't flat out give anything, the community has to invest a certain percent of the total cost of the project. Karim has gone above and beyond. I truly believe that these birds will survive and will be taken care of well after I am gone. We hope that through the sale of eggs and birds we will be able to pay our teachers and keep the nutrition center open. We also hope to no longer have to ask mothers to donate money or food to the center for payment for care provided. We believe that without the “requested donation” more people will come to the nutrition center and more children will have the care they need.


April 5th
Question of the day: Where is my bucket???

Yup, my bucket is gone. It will eventually return, but that does not change the fact that I could have used it when I first went looking.
I remember those days when things were mine. If a sibling was playing with my toy, used my soap, or took my bucket I could say “Hey, that is mine! Give it back!” or “You owe me soap” or “MOM!” However, here in Ghana sharing is inevitable whether you want to or not. My buckets go on frequent journeys to do the laundry of other people, I have watched my neighbor take laundry detergent from my already non-existent supply without asking, coal has gone missing from my bag, and I have returned on occasion to find my coal pot (aka mini mini bbq) on someone other veranda coking another's meal.
I have learned a couple things from this. The first being patience and an amount of grace. The bucket always comes back and it does not hurt me (only an occasional inconvenience) if a neighbor borrows it. The second thing that I have learned is that I am white. Big revelation right?! Unfortunately, me being a foreigner (does not matter if I were to be Asian, Native American, or Black) I am considered white and thus rich. On a volunteer salary the word “rich” is way off base, heck it was even off base back home. The perception of me however has lead to the pilfering of some of my stuff. Small things really, but things that cost me money and that my neighbors would never take from each other. Bars of soap accidentally forgotten and left on MY veranda have gone missing, lumps of coal have vanished into oblivion, and laundry detergent taken before my very eyes. I have learned to lock these things up. If its small, portable, and consumable (meaning no evidence left behind) it gets locked up inside. The coal, soap and detergent now share an unbreakable friendship with my kerosene tank (which is inside because the children like to turn the knob and waste the gas).
I definitely will be more lax about the borrowing/taking of my stuff when my service is over. However, I think I am at the same time developing an unhealthy need to protect my soap from kidnappers.

***April 24, I take it all back. My bucket did not come back until 8pm and I am pretty sure it only did because my neighbors could see me searching their veradas mumbling "someone stole my bucket." Needless to say....I did not get my bath today. Bath bucket now lives inside with the coal and soap.


April 17th
What no leftovers? You have got to be kidding?! The term “leftover” is obviously a foreign concept in Ghana. I bought food and had a moment of my eyes being bigger than my stomach. I was not too worried about this, I could always take it to go....right? Not in Ghana. Someone is always waiting in the wings to pounce on what you can not eat. Today, an older woman snatched my leftovers from me as I was about to ask for a take-away bag. She did thank me for the food (as she was now getting s delicious free meal). I smiled and silently said goodbye to my future dinner.
This has happened before. Children and adults usually take what I can not eat. However, they tend to be people I know, people that it would not feel out of place if they asked “hey, you gonna eat that?” in Dagbani. This was the first time that a stranger took my food! At least nothing goes to waste, but damn that woman is lucky it was not fried plantains or else I would have snatched those suckers back and would have run for the hills.

April 24th
Happy Easter! Last night the power went out due to an impending storm. It didn't rain until 12 hours later at 5 in the morning. It rained pretty hard this morning and has been kind of cloudy all day. I also confess that I chickened out of going to Easter Mass. I did make it last week to Palm Sunday, but it was not rainy with chance of death by lightening last week...so I stayed home. I did get caught,, however. Karim came by this afternoon to ask questions about the remaining funds for the poultry coop and how mass was. He is Christian....not Catholic, but he knows today is a religious holiday. I was caught and honestly told him that I took one look outside and said “nope!”
On a non heathen note. I am hoping the the general stormy-ness of today is an indicator of the coming rainy season. If not, at least when I get back from the Volta Region from the All Volunteer Conference there will be water in my barrel!! But, I have faith the rainy season is coming....why else would my neighbor be assembling his stick fence for the farming season??

April 26th
Today is fowl retrieval day. I will travel to Kumasi at the butt crack of dawn to pick up 200 day old guinea fowl chicks. And to top it all off, I will travel back to Tamale in the same day. I think on Wednesday I will be justified in sleepy crankiness. Pictures on facebook to come soon.