Monday, July 22, 2013
Saturday, July 13, 2013
A vacation, a funeral and a wedding.
We recently had a funeral in my village – which really isn’t an uncommon thing since funerals happen here all the time. Generally I tend to avoid giant social gathering such as these because if there is anything I love more than getting my wisdom teeth remove is being the local attractions for drunken men and women from out of town. The man who passed away was apparently someone I knew, and by descriptions I thought of a particular old man, so I thought I really did know the deceased until I saw that old man still alive and well hanging out under the mango tree and realized that I didn’t know who died after all. Regardless, I made the decision of leaving my living lair and venture into the funeral grown to pay my respect – and to find out who died.
Peter, my counterpart, met me at the funeral ground and guided me near the open coffin viewing. I circled the deceased, stared at his face and his picture, racked my brain to find the slightest recognition in this person who had already crossed into the other world – and nothing came up. I learned that he was the brother of the first old man whom I thought had died, but even then, I still didn’t recognize his face. Sometime, it’s incredulous how well my counterpart reads me, because after we walked away, he turned to me and said, “you still don’t know the man, do you?” and there was no point for me to lie.
Later, I followed the crowd to the burial ground; a perfect rectangular cement box was made inside a hand dug pit that holds the coffin. Men gathered around to help the family lower the coffin into the pit and the three cements slaps to cover it. Witnessing all this gave me hope that the latrines that we are building can also be just as secure.
Two months ago, went to home to America for a vacation from Peace Corps. On one of my flights between Barcelona and Philly, this old hipster dude laughed at me couldn’t believe that I chose to have vacation in America. I just smiled and shut up because I didn’t want to tell him that all you can eat buffet, flushing toilet and cold cold beers are definitely a vacation from my regular eat-poop-drink options. There were certain things that I didn’t miss in America: the DMV (my license expired, and SoCal traffic, but seeing friends and family and late night drunk burritos really made up for them. Things were a bit strange in the beginning, I forgot how to deposit a check and every time I saw a white person I blatantly stared, so it was awkward to be in a public place. But about two weeks in, I missed Ghana, and I guess it was a good thing because if I didn’t miss it, the next 9 would be terrible. My latrine grant was filled while I was in the states too so that was a great motivation to go back and do work.
This time last year, things were starting to get a little rough in Peace Corps for me, but today couldn't have been any more different. I took a bath and combed my hair to attend one of my Peace Corps friends’ wedding. He had been here for about 2 years and made the decision to married his Ghanaian girlfriend, so we gathered together and helped him put up a wedding. Some vows and beers later, we are now waiting for it to get dark to have a bond fire celebration. This and next month, a lot of my friends here are going to finish their service and go home to continue their lives somewhere else, and it’s kind of a bitter sweet feeling being the person who stays behind watching them leave, (even thought I will be doing the same thing in 9 months). So the wedding has also been a good time for me to see some of these friends one last time.
Work wise, my latrines work is slowly starting after a long hibernation of waiting for fund. My community is excited for the supplies even though each of them is only receiving some portions and will have to cover the rest themselves. Nothing makes my day better than sweet small Ghanaian elders telling me in broken English that they appreciate me – an ego booster, even.
As usual, these have been the more exciting moments in my Peace Corps life, unless you count those great goat moments. I’ll try to be more interesting next time. Until then, feel free to send me post cards, small packages of candy or love letters.
Tess May.
Peter, my counterpart, met me at the funeral ground and guided me near the open coffin viewing. I circled the deceased, stared at his face and his picture, racked my brain to find the slightest recognition in this person who had already crossed into the other world – and nothing came up. I learned that he was the brother of the first old man whom I thought had died, but even then, I still didn’t recognize his face. Sometime, it’s incredulous how well my counterpart reads me, because after we walked away, he turned to me and said, “you still don’t know the man, do you?” and there was no point for me to lie.
Later, I followed the crowd to the burial ground; a perfect rectangular cement box was made inside a hand dug pit that holds the coffin. Men gathered around to help the family lower the coffin into the pit and the three cements slaps to cover it. Witnessing all this gave me hope that the latrines that we are building can also be just as secure.
Two months ago, went to home to America for a vacation from Peace Corps. On one of my flights between Barcelona and Philly, this old hipster dude laughed at me couldn’t believe that I chose to have vacation in America. I just smiled and shut up because I didn’t want to tell him that all you can eat buffet, flushing toilet and cold cold beers are definitely a vacation from my regular eat-poop-drink options. There were certain things that I didn’t miss in America: the DMV (my license expired, and SoCal traffic, but seeing friends and family and late night drunk burritos really made up for them. Things were a bit strange in the beginning, I forgot how to deposit a check and every time I saw a white person I blatantly stared, so it was awkward to be in a public place. But about two weeks in, I missed Ghana, and I guess it was a good thing because if I didn’t miss it, the next 9 would be terrible. My latrine grant was filled while I was in the states too so that was a great motivation to go back and do work.
This time last year, things were starting to get a little rough in Peace Corps for me, but today couldn't have been any more different. I took a bath and combed my hair to attend one of my Peace Corps friends’ wedding. He had been here for about 2 years and made the decision to married his Ghanaian girlfriend, so we gathered together and helped him put up a wedding. Some vows and beers later, we are now waiting for it to get dark to have a bond fire celebration. This and next month, a lot of my friends here are going to finish their service and go home to continue their lives somewhere else, and it’s kind of a bitter sweet feeling being the person who stays behind watching them leave, (even thought I will be doing the same thing in 9 months). So the wedding has also been a good time for me to see some of these friends one last time.
Work wise, my latrines work is slowly starting after a long hibernation of waiting for fund. My community is excited for the supplies even though each of them is only receiving some portions and will have to cover the rest themselves. Nothing makes my day better than sweet small Ghanaian elders telling me in broken English that they appreciate me – an ego booster, even.
As usual, these have been the more exciting moments in my Peace Corps life, unless you count those great goat moments. I’ll try to be more interesting next time. Until then, feel free to send me post cards, small packages of candy or love letters.
Tess May.
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