Christmas Wish List

I remember the days when I would create a wish list for Santa. If Santa showed up in Ghana I would like him to bring:

Complete's Blink and Clean contact solution for my roommate
More Craft Books for my Agogo students to get ideas from
Fiction to read (I brought a ton of nonfiction)- something fun like a Chuck Palahniuk book
Old Navy tan tops in small (any color) because my laundry lady has stretched everything out
Vegan goodies (cliff bars, box mixes, etc)
Running Water
World Peace- that would be nice

The Totals

Matriculations attended: 2
Funerals attended: 2
Weddings attended: 0
Text messages from America: 8
Cards received: 11
Bags of fried plantains eaten daily: 2 ½
Bags of groundnuts eaten daily: 1
Sacks of water I drink a day: 4 to 7
Dresses/skirts made by my tailor: 4
Books began: 7
Books completed: 2
Monkeys seen after going to wildlife preserve: 0
Crocodiles seen after going to wildlife preserve: 0
Times I have gotten to use my new rain boots: 3- we are in the dry season now
Marriage proposals: 8
Cliff Bars left: 1

Thanksgiving in Agogo

Yesterday, Thursday, November 28, I celebrated Thanksgiving in Agogo. I woke up at 5:30am to prepare for church and my 7am class. After class I ate breakfast and headed to town to buy a table. We have been eating meals at our coffee table and that is just getting a bit old. So I found a plastic table for 18 Ghana Cedis. It looked great on out back porch. Then I taught two more classes and had after school open hours where we had around 40 girls working on creating posters for their classrooms. It was a great workday, but very busy. At 4:30pm I headed to the house to start our Ghanaian Thanksgiving feast while Betsy set the table with a fancy tablecloth and candles. Around 5:45pm the Canadians came over to our banquet dressed so nicely I felt like a slob. For our feast we served: Betsy’s Famous trail mix, fried plantains, red red, rice, vegetable samoas (I got in Kumasi), olive oil, tea bread, watermelon, fried bread, and lemon Fanta (my new favorite soda). It was nice to sit outside under the stars and candle light with good food and great friends. The weather felt like a cool summer night and the conversation was just what I needed. It was a great evening and I look forward to many more nights under the stars with my new friends.

THANK YOU SCHOOLBOX!!!

I finally got the chance to travel to Kumasi on a week day to visit the post office to-FINALLY- pick up my package from the SCHOOLBOX. The Schoolbox has been my employer for on and off for four years. It is a great teacher supply store with locations around Atlanta (although they also have a store in Tennessee too). You can also check them out at www.schoolbox.com. They were so excited about my trip to teach in Ghana that they told me that would be happy to ship any supplies I would need. I was so excited that I purchased a bunch of really great teacher resource books. The top three books I would highly recommend were:

The First Days of School by Harry K. Wong and Rosemarry T. Wong
-every teacher should have this book!
Look What You Can Make With Dozens of Household Items by
-unfortunately out of print…but worth looking for- my favorite for Arts and Crafts
Alternatives to Worksheets: Motivational Reading and Writing Activities Across the Curriculum by Karen Baur and Rosa Drew- Creative Teaching Press
-fantastic way to get away from worksheets and have the kids make something fun and educational- I use this on a weekly bases throughout the year

I felt like it was my birthday as I opened my package of books, markers, rulers, crayons, and stickers on the post office counter. Also- the employees in the Kumasi general post office are so, friendly! I was astounded by their politeness and helpfulness.

My students at Agogo Presbyterian Training College are very grateful for this donation. I have already logged the new books into my Teacher Resource Center Inventory and have decided to save some of the goodies for a Teacher Learning Materials competition that I am going to hold next semester. I can’t wait!

Also- you should check out www.schoolbox.com because they have a link to a page about my adventure here. There is also a video clip of me before I left the US. Enjoy!

Bomfobiri Wildlife Reserve

On Saturday, November 22, Laura, Rabina, and I chartered a taxi to take us to the Bomfobiri Wildlife Reserve. It is so close to Agogo, but you have to drive around in almost a complete circle because the direct road to it is far to bad. It too a bit over 2 hours to get their.

Above are Rabina, Laura, our guide, and our cab driver before our hike.

The guide told us about the Bomfobiri waterfall, monkeys, crocodiles, and how to get their. Once we arrived at the office to get our guide the pricing was just like Bradt said (a first). It was very beautiful. You could see mountains everywhere, long grassy plains, and the beautiful waterfall. However- no crocs and no monkeys. Our guide, who carried a loaded shotgun for our protection, or maybe his, told us that we should come in January in stead. Oh well- it was nice.

Above we hid in the grass- can you find us?
Below is the picture our cab driver took. I don't think he should quit is day job.


On the way back we stopped in the town of Bonwire, that is home to Kente cloth- seriously- this is real Kente cloth- (History fact: the people of Kpetoe claims they started it and Ashanti added their own style later). We went to a Kente cloth manufacturer and had the chance to see a weaver in action. I didn’t take pictures because I would need to pay extra and I was strapped for cash- so I will come back when I have money to spend.

Then we headed home. Below is Laura with Betsy special recipe trailmix (raisin bran/plantain chips/ground nuts).

But before I forget- when I left the Bomfobiri Wildlife office I say a bunch of turkeys hanging out near a tro-tro. I thought of how happy this turkeys should be they don’t live in America. Although I am sure they will be someone’s dinner soon. It makes me happy to see turkeys just hanging out with their friends waiting to get on the tro-tro.

Rabina's Birthday Party and Funny Story

Betsy and I have made friends with two other Oburni’s in Agogo from Canada- Rabina and Laura. Pictured here.

Wednesday night, the day after Rabina’s really birthday, Betsy and I had them over for DVD watching and snack eating. Betsy brought home ice cream and cake from Konongo. I just watched since the ice cream and cake aren’t vegan- no worries I ate cookies. Here is Rabina at her birthday “party”.

While watching a DVD on my computer in our dark living room I felt a bug land on my mouth. This is not too uncommon here, but as I went to swat it away I realized it was HUGE. It was literally covering my lips. As soon as I brushed this GIANT bug off my lips I began to scream. The bug then hit my leg and next landed on Laura’s, who was sitting next to me. I pulled my feet up into the chair I was sitting on and waited for Betsy to turn on the lights. I didn’t see anything at first, but then from under the seat cushion I saw a long antenna. I jump off the couch only after squealing, and yelling to Laura “Open the Door- Open the Door”. By now Betsy had seen the antenna as well so I grabbed the cushion and ran for the door. I hurled the cushion out on to the porch. This event happened around 9:15pm and all four of us were talking loudly while the rest of our neighbors were quiet for once, seriously. I turn over the cushion to reveal the largest grasshopper I had ever seen. It was about as long as a deck of cards and this just made me scream a bit louder. Finally we all started laughing at my fear of this harmless grasshopper. About this time I heard Nicholas, my neighbor, calling to me to see if everything was alright. He was in the middle of putting on a shirt and running over to my front porch. I said, “I’m fine”, feeling embarrassed to be screaming my head off at a grasshopper. He found it funny as well. He said he heard the screams and thought if must be a snake (which would have been my worst nightmare) so he jumped out of bed, got dressed and ran over. It is amazing that Nicholas got to my house so quick- within seconds. He may need to quit teaching and become a firefighter with that response time. I thanked him for his heroic deed and he sweep the grasshopper into the yard and we went back inside to watch our DVD.


Seriously the grasshopper was on my lips- it was scary at the time.

I Love My Students

Have I told you how much I love my job lately?


Here I am with my students during the afterschool open hours at the TRC.

Weekend in Kumasi- Nov 14-16

Before I left America a friend that works as an Art teacher in Atlanta Public Schools gave the contact information for a friend she knew in Kumasi. I contacted her as soon as I could to see what she was doing in Kumasi. Mariama is a part of the Art Education department at Kwame Nkrumah College of Science and Technology. I told her was here teaching teachers to create TLM with found objects. Then it clicked- her students’ art skills could be used to help teach TLM in Kumasi! We decided right away to meet up in Kumasi (an hour away by car, but 2 hours away by multiple tro tros).

Pool at Ashanti Gold


Pizza from Funkies
So Betsy and I jumped on a tro tro after our last Friday class and headed to Kumasi. We decided to stay at the Ashanti Gold Hotel, which is near the National Cultural Center (“Centre” here). We arrived around 4pm and called our Canadian friends from Agogo (they are here working with an organization that is working to improve literacy in parts of Africa; we have had them over for dinner and a movie a few times) that had also come in town for weekend.

All four of us met up for dinner at a place called Funkies, although no sign said Funkies- they said Queen’s Gate???. I ordered the pizza, which looked great! It had tons and tons of raw veggies on top, but the sauce wasn’t enough to balance the raw veggies dryness. I still ate the rest of my leftovers though. After dinner we all were exhausted and just went back Ashanti Gold for an early night. Once back to our room we found that we had- HOT WATER! (did I mention we didn’t have running water at our place in Agogo again?) We were both just excited about the running water- the HOT was a bonus! I took a nice long shower then went straight to sleep before 9:30pm.

Saturday, Betsy and I slept in- it was fantastic. I slept in to about 7:30am- which is late for me recently. We hung out in the room until we left for our 10:00am appointment to meet Mariama and her Department Head, Nana. The campus was very beautiful and larger like an American college campus. We meet Mariama and Nana and hit if off. We both took time to tell what programs we are currently working on and find a way to collaborate. We decided that Mariama and Nana should pack up their art education graduate students and bring them to Agogo to see our Teacher Resource Center and have us motivate them to create TLM’s of their own. They will then return to their campus and begin create TLM’s of their own, which they will be sharing with Primary and Secondary Schools on their college campus in Kumasi. I am also thinking big- that we can have an “art show” of sorts in Kumasi where we can display the TLM’s our students make with those of the graduate art students. Long term I am hoping this Agogo-Kumasi partnership will stay strong. This meet was most definitely worth traveling to Kumasi for. Thanks Cissy for giving me Mariama’s contact info!


Eggless Omelette

After our wonderful meeting, Betsy and I went to meet Laura and Rabina, the Canadians, for lunch at my favorite place to eat- Vic Baboo’s Cafe. They have the most extensive menu with Indian, Thai, Ghanaian, Chinese, and American food. For lunch I had an eggless omelette made from pea flour and veggies. It was very tasty. After lunch Betsy and I set out to go food and book shopping around downtown Kumasi. It was nice, but I was unable to find Soy Milk and that was on the top of my list. It is funny, because there is a Soy Milk sold in Agogo, but it isn’t vegan- it has milk powder in it- why?

Due to the heat we retreated to our hotel room for a bit and then regrouped for our big trip out. Where were we off to this time- only the largest open market in all of West Africa- the Kejetia Market! This was an amazing and stressful experience. I was very happy that we waited for the heat of the day to pass- and many stands were closing down. This was good, because there is way too much to be seen. This market is much like the market in Accra- that I haven’t yet ventured into- with everything you could possibly want and more. Here people come to sell food, clothes, fabric, electronics, jewelry, furniture, beauty supplies, and much, much more. We were strictly coming to look around, which isn’t easy when everyone wants you to buy something, and find new fabric for more dresses. I found some nice Ghanaian (most fabrics I had been buying were English) tie-dyed fabrics/ printed fabrics. I can’t wait to get my dresses made.


Pictures of the Market

After the market we regrouped and then went back to Vic Baboo’s for dinner- it is just so good! I had the best veggie burger I have had in awhile- so I am going to get the ingredients next time to really make sure it was vegan. I also got a fancy fruit drink with grenadine (I don’t drink alcohol- so grenadine as exciting as I get) and they served it with a candle. The A/C kept blowing out the candle so the server kept relighting it. How funny. We left Vic Baboo’s and headed to Vienna City Pub. It is the chain of the one in Accra, but not as large. I got a lemon lime Fanta, really good, and hung out with my roomie for a while.

My fancy drink

We came back to our hotel by 10:30 and I began a cheesy movie that put me to sleep. I slept in until 8:30opm- I couldn’t believe it either. When I woke up I turned on the TV and found one of my favorite movie- Wallace and Gromit’s Curse of the Wererabbit (my friend Missy would have loved this). Betsy and I got ready and then went on a trek to find an Internet close by, but our map was wrong and we never found it. After that fruitless journey we headed over to the National Cultural Centre, which would assume is closed on Sunday, and the grounds were open.


We wandered around and found out that everything started opening at 10am, which was another great surprise, so we waited happily at the Kentish Restaurant. When things opened we visited the gift shop and were able to have a guided tour of the open-air museum. It was very interesting to learn about the lives of different Ashanti Chiefs. One interesting fact I learned is that the chiefs’ cooks are all men and they have to taste the meal and see its affects before the chief has it make sure it will not make the chief sick. I bought some children’s books and then we headed back to the Ashanti Gold for check out.


This is a picture of what Chiefs use/ used to bathe. Their feet are to rest on the elephant tusks. Also- chiefs are never to be seen without their sandals.


Here is a picture of where the chief's cook cooks.


Staff of the chiefs. Each staff has a different animal for the different tribe.


Me and a stone Chief just hanging.

I had a nice time in Kumasi, but was happy to get home. Once home Rabina and Laura brought over red red and plantains for dinner. It was nice to come home to great home cooked food, friends, and an exciting feeling that APTC (Agogo Presbyterian Training College) may have a new partnership with KNUST (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology).

Ghana’s Finance Minister’s Funeral

For over two weeks I had seen orange and red fabrics with the picture of a man’s face, the Honorable Kwadwo Baah Wiredu-Ghana’s Minister of Finance that was originally from Agogo, printed on them. My tailor had to postpone starting my next dress to fit more time in to complete the shirts and dresses people had ordered for his funeral. I began to realize that this man was very well known all over Ghana and that this funeral would be a larger deal for our small town.

On Friday, September 8, 2008 the funeral preparations began around 8am in the field across from our college campus. Adults and children cleaned and set up stands for food, drinks, and souvenirs (much like the chief’s funeral). By 5pm people were all around town. People were dancing and playing music in the streets.

When Betsy and I ventured out to the downtown around 7pm it was in full swing. It reminded me of Bourbon Street in Louisiana without the loud and obnoxious drunk people. The main street was packed and all of the side streets were full with people coming to town. Aside from Bourbon Street it reminded me of a college town on Homecoming weekend before/after a larger football game. It was amazing. Agogo’s population isn’t very large, (between the population of Macon, GA and Vidalia, GA) but during the funeral celebration it had to be doubled or tripled in size. Betsy and I people watched, found new nightclubs we had never noticed, and visited with friends and students we saw in town. We were back home within the hour, but we could hear the music and crowd from our living room.

The party ended around 4:30am Saturday for only thirty minutes to an hour, so that people could go home and change and then line up to proceed into the funeral. Meanwhile Betsy and I slept until 6:30am, although the music had made sleeping a chore, and then woke up to begin preparing for the funeral. We weren’t sure what time it began, because it seemed to be going on for over 24 hours already. Once we walked down to the field that where the body was set up for viewing we realized that many of our colleagues had already lined up and gone though the procession. So Betsy and I got at the end of a line longer then the queue for Six Flag’s Superman ride on the first day of middle schooler’s spring break. The line winded down to the open casket and a long line tents (I think it was about 40 tents- seriously- or more) with hands you were welcome to shake. Once the line got moved about due to the Head of State’s arrive we gave up and just walked around the out skirts of the circle of tents.

Our first stop was a yellow tent with smoothie machines! They weren’t smoothies though, just different juices, but still very tasty. We also purchased sweet popcorn and fans with the man of the hour (or the weekend)’s face on it. While munching on popcorn and drinking sweet juice I realized this reminded me of a fair without the rides and games. People were everywhere- and vendors selling everything you could want to remember this man and funeral with.

On our walk around the grounds (much like fair grounds) we found a dance party, boys climbing trees to see what was going on beyond the tents, chief’s entering with their entourages, vendors selling things much like vendors at a baseball game- but I never found cotton candy. We bought some more snacks and then brought them home and took a lunch break.


After our lunch break we walked up and down the street of Agogo that was blocked off because of the amount of food traffic- much like Atlanta’s neighborhoods do during their yearly festivals. People seemed happy, especially our students, that we were coming to pay our respects and join in the day, which made us feel good since we didn’t have the chance to meet Kwadwo Baah Wiredu. Around 2pm a larger crowd formed because Ghana’s president was on the way. By this time the body had been taken to its burial place and the crowd was just as large as ever. Many official looking camera men videoed as 7 or more SUV’s arrived escorted by 5 or more police on motorcycles. Betsy, our two friends, Reubina and Laura, and I watched from behind the president’s tent for his arrive. We saw the cars, police officers, cameras clicking, but never got the chance to see his face due the crowd and the fact that I’m too short. But I was less than 50 yards from the Ghanaian president- how cool is that! Also the new patriotic party’s presidential candidate Nana Akufo Addo was also at the ceremony.

The funeral cerebration of life went on until around 9pm Saturday night. Then started up AGAIN on Sunday morning after church. People were dressed in more fabric that had the minister’s profile printed on it, but on Sunday the colors were white and black instead of red and black. The music, vendors, and crowds left around 1am Monday morning.

It was a fantastic experience. I think that people in Ghana have funerals right. Get people together to remember you and enjoy the time instead of moping about. When I past I hope I have a wake with parades, food stands, and people visiting one another. I wish I had the chance to meet the Hon. Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, because he must have been a great man. He died at the age of 56 and that is far too young. I send me condolences to his family and thank you for letting me attend this memorable ceremony.

A Chief's Funeral/ Wake

On Thursday, Nov 6, Betsy and I were invited to attend a chief’s funeral by Papa. It was the most exciting event I have had since I arrived to Africa. The chief’s name is Nana Anarei Kokortoh and he lived in the town right next to our called Hwidiem. He was 75 years old when he passed. I never had the chance to meet him, but I have heard great stories about him. Many students that needed help with tuition received scholarships from him. I was honored to get the chance to attend this ceremony.

Needless to say it wasn’t like the funeral’s back home. On Tuesday he was laid in state for people to come by to see and to give condolences to the family and community. However, the people don’t believe that he is dead- and that is it. They believe he has taken a journey to a new state of life. Much like Christians believe in transcending to heaven after dieing. Hundreds of years ago when a chief died someone was sacrificed to carry the chief’s bags to the next stage. Luckily this tradition hasn’t been practiced for centuries due to further education.

I rode in a large van with many teachers and administrators from my college. As we approached the town we saw signs directing use to the ceremony. We got out and followed the crowd of people dressed in black and red fabrics to the tents filled with community members and visitors. Vendors came by to sell red bandanas with the chief’s name on them, which many people were wearing, and a rope necklace with red and black. Papa told us that this is a traditional accessory that people wear at African funerals. He bought us each one to wear.

After walking down to the area with around 10 tents of people sitting we began our greeting. We walked around to the people sitting in the front row of these ten tents and shook their hands. I must a shook between 120-180 peoples’ hands. At one journey in the hand shaking we came to a group of men that were guarded by boys holding out symbolic staffs and a large group of people to ask who we are. This I believe was the family of the deceased. One of our group members explained who we were and asked for permission to shake hands, another formality, and then we preceded past the guards. Later I saw people bringing gifts to the family, which included a cases of Fanta wrapped in cellophane tied in a brightly color ribbons and a goat.


Chiefs from around the country also came to pay respect. You could tell when a chief arrived, because they would have a large entourage that included people holding large umbrellas, three to four people playing traditional drums, a person to dab their sweat from their brow, someone to hold their hand out to shake others hands, and a few men that held large guns and from time to time shot them into the air.


Once our hands were done being shaken we walked back up the road we came in on, and I thought we were leaving, but then we turned a corner and came into the courtyard of a house. We were in a single filed line with Papa and other tutors from the village leading the way. They led us to a doorway that had a sheet in front so you have no idea what is inside. Guarding the sheet were two men dressed in military wear holding rifles. Our leader asked for permission for us to enter. After permission was granted I walked through the sheet and realized this is the chief’s viewing. I hadn’t seen a dead body since my mother’s funeral- and had wanted to keep it that way, but since he was lying in a large gold post bed with nice attire I was happy I had this experience. Papa also told me that we could take pictures if we wanted, but I just couldn’t at the time. We exited the back door of this house and were greeted with the man at the back door shooting gunshots into the air that sounded like fireworks.

We walked back down to the tents and found seats. This is when the people watching really began. Also countless vendors showed us the multitude of products and memorabilia you could have for this event. It seemed like I was at a popular bands concert. They sold fans, t-shirts, programs (nicely bound like a soft back novel), key chains with a bottle opener, and pins-each item had either the chief’s face and/or his name printed on them. Other vendors sold bracelets, candy, handkerchiefs, and kebabs. It was amazing. I left with a red and black bracelet (thanks Betsy), a bottle opener key chain (thanks to a coworker), and my new funeral rope (thanks Papa).

"Wild Life" of Ghana

So far I have had countless people ask about the animals I have seen. I have yet to get to a national park where there are "wild" animals- so I thought it would be funny to show you the animals I have photos of. Enjoy.

ECHOES/IFESH Visitors to Agogo

This week was a busy week in Agogo for Betsy and I. Monday we started classes, Wednesday we had our country rep and a representative from the World Cocoa Foundation visit, and Thursday we had another visitor from the ECHOES project. Classes were very fun. We had the girls create name tags, introduce themselves, tell us what Region of Ghana they were from, and explained what things we plan to do with them this semester. Below Betsy hole punches our student’s name tags.


Wednesday Kwesi, our IFESH Country Representative, came with Charlie Feezel, the Education Program Director for the World Cocoa Foundation. Together we visited the Agogo Primary School that is a part of the college I work for. We meet to discuss what things we want to accomplish this year. Last year, the IFESH teacher began a pen pal program with a school in Pennsylvania, which was very successful. We are discussing continuation of this program or possibly doing something via the Internet, but currently the Internet isn’t very reliable here. We just want the interchanges between schools to be maximized. We also too a trip to our Teacher Resource Center to show what we had done with the space, although the TFA’s before us made it very easy to look good. Pictured are the students that were apart of the pen pal program last year, the principal of the primary school-Ellen, Kwesi, Agogo Presbyterian Training College Vice Principal- Gertrude, Charlie, Betsy, the primary school’s secretary, and myself.


Thursday Diane Mull from International Initiative to End Child Labor came to visit and discuss our progress so far and review with us our goals for our year here. Her visit was very helpful and it gave us more guidance in our duties. Ma and Papa have done a fantastic job with our job description here, but Diane made sure that we understood IFESH’s objectives for our country for the year. Diane and Charlie are both apart of group working with ECHOES. Their overall objective, as I a have taken it, is to improve the lives of Cocoa Farmers and their families and their communities. Following is a picture of Betsy, Diane, Gertrude, and myself in the Teacher Resource Center.


This week was eventful!