So much to say...so little time

Since my last post I've done some traveling! Last Thursday I and Audrey's friend Maame Ama took a bus to Wa, way up in the Upper West Region of Ghana. It is quite a bit different up there. The bus ride was about 7 hours long, a mix of paved roads and extremely bumpy dirt roads which are being paved. The terrain become very flat and drier as we traveled north. It reminded me of Texas around San Antonio. Wa is a small city and the regional capital of Upper West. The area is sparcely populated and Wa is definitely poorer than the cities I had traveled to in the south. For instance, no one has walls around their homes like they do in the south, but Wa has most of the conviences needed - hotel, a few restaurants, internet cafe (which was closed), shops (with some western food), etc. We stayed with Maame Ama's friend Paul's house. He works for Ghana Telecom and has been stationed in Wa for 2 years. His home is fairly nice. He has a bedroom, living room, small kitchen, bathroom, and porch.

On Friday we took another 2 hour bus ride to Lawra (pronounced Laura) on the Burkina Faso border. The ride was paved half way. The terrain continued to get drier and sandier. On either side of the road you see maize fields. They have to create small heaps of dirt and plant the maize in the heap to maximize yield and prevent the crops from washing away. Lawra is the poorest place I have ever been in any of my travels. Pigs, goats, chickens, ducks, sheep, dogs, cats all run wild (which isn't unusual for Ghana except most places don't have pigs). There are a lot of pigs and the place smells a mix of pig and human poop. The ground is littered with animal poop. Almost all the homes are made of mud. I saw a few children with swollen stomachs, skinny arms, and large heads - signs of malnutrition. Some of the children were running around in nothing but a pair of underwear, playing in the muddy, poopy, areas between houses. Everytime I would pass the children would say in rhythm "Nasado (White man) how are you? I am fine. Thank you and you?" and would continue repeating that until I had passed. They were very cute. Life is much slower in Lawra as their isn't much to do. Unemployment seemed to be very high. We stayed with Maame Ama's boyfriend Chief while we were in Lawra. He works for Ghana Commercial Bank and has been stationed in Lawra for the past three years. He should be moving soon. The three friends complained that the people spend much of their time drinking a local brewed drink made from Millet called Pito. There didn't seem to be much else to do. There were only a few small shops. Only one shop sold Coke and biscuits (semi-sweet cookies). Chiefs house is actually a compound with several apartments. His apartment is a bedroom, small kitchen and a porch. He shares a toilet and shower with the other apartments and there is one water tap for the whole house. The house is built in a square with a courtyard in the middle where the water tap is and a basketball hoop. Life is Lawra is very tough. There are virtually no cars. Most people commute on bicycles and motorbikes throughout the Upper West Region. Most of the cars I saw belonged to NGOs in the area.

In between Lawra and Wa we drove through Jirapa which is where Maame Ama has been teaching at a girls high school. Two of her volunteer friends from Japan and Germany came to wave to us on the road as we drove by.

Saturday we returned to Wa with Chief. Paul took us to a funeral for a young man who had died at 34 leaving a wife and two small children. People suspected he died as a result of a curse as he was healthy and all of a sudden started complaining of being cold and died. The funeral was held of the grounds of a school and there were hundreds of people there...maybe a thousand. When we arrived people were processing to view the body and throw coins at it. We got in the line and were surrounded by people wailing and crying. We were too late to get near the body as the Catholic Mass was about to begin. We left shortly after. Saturday the sun was very hot!

Sunday Maame Ama and I returned to Kumasi. Where I went to the stadium to see the Black Stars (Ghana's national football/soccer team) defeat the Libyan Greens 3-0. It was fun and quite cheap - only $6 for mid-field seats. The place was packed. Apparently they don't stop selling tickets so the stairs and any empty space had someone sitting in it. Thank God there were no emergencies, I don't know how we would have got out!

Monday I took a bus to Accra and found out the people I was supposed to stay with opted out at the last minute. So I ended up spending the night with a family in Aburi (quite a ways from where I'm volunteering) in their uncompleted house with no electricity! They had a generator running from 6-10pm. Well, I'm now at the West Africa Aids Foundation (WAAF), where I'll be volunteering. They have a computer for volunteers to use. I've met two other volunteers from Missouri and Norway. WAAF is going to help me find a place to stay and in the mean time I am going to stay at the Lutheran Media Ministry's compound - again quite a ways from WAAF. But everything is fine. I'm feeling great...but I'm ready to unpack my suitcase! I'll have more soon. Now I'm off to my first meeting here at WAAF to learn about Income Generating Activities. I miss you all! Please write me!

James