Tuesday I came to my new home town Koforidua. When George, Paula and I arrived in town we went first of all to Paulas guestfamily and stayed there for a few hours, because it had started to rain heavily! But staying there was actually a lot of fun. The son (Percy, 24) was very funny and we started to make some music. He played the drums on a keyboard, I played ukulele, George guitar, Paula sang and another volunteer who was already living with the family since a few days filmed us with my camera. We were shit, but it was a loooot of fun :-D I'm not sure if I upload the video because we were so bad but maybe just for fun I'll do it.
When the rain was over, George and I left. But I got invited to come back as often as I want. And I'll probably do, because my school I'll teach at is very close to their house.
My guestfamily isn't really a family yet. It's a young woman who's husband went travelling for 6 months. She is in her early twenties, so she doesn't have kids yet. Her flat is one of others in a compound with many families. The flat has one little sitting room and a little bedroom with a big bed we're both sleeping in. The kitchen is on the other side of the compound (maybe 10-20 meters) as well as the washrooms and toilet holes. To wash yourself you use a bucket and if you wanna pee, you do it while washing yourself or in another bucket. The holes are for something else... if you know what I mean.
(I'm not gonna say any names or too much details about herself because everyone can read this. If you wanna know more, ask me in a private message.)
I like my guestmum a lot, I'm getting along with her very well. She showed me everything. How to wash yourself with a bucket, how she cooks, how to wash your clothes and anything else you need. Even though the conditions seem not that luxury, I'm happier where I am than some other volunteers are, because some families don't show the volunteers anything and let them alone, so they don't really have anything to do until the project on monday starts. A lot of other volunteers are also together in two, three or even more in one family. I'm actually happy that I'm the only volunteer at the compound. There are enough opportunities to meet other volunteers. For example three others are also in my city (Koforidua) and some others in a city very close (Begoro).
My mum has a good job and good technical devices at home. Often she tries to teach me Twi (the most common language besides english and loots of others), but whenever I try or learn how to wash clothes or learn anything, everyone laughes at me. One time they even talked across the whole compound in Twi, laughing a lot (my mother translated afterwards) if I already made it to use the toilet holes. haha! But it's ok, you just can't be too proud and when you keep learning, everyone really appreciates it. So just don't take everything too serious and don't feel ashamed, that's really what I learn here the most.
A lot of families with children live in the compound. For the kids especially I'm a real attraction. They wanted to know my name, always come to me and when I once touched one of them on the shoulder, all of them got excited and wanted to touch me as well. Does an Ubruni (White person) feel like a normal human, too? It's so funny and the kids are so sweet! When I came home on my own yesterday they all ran to me and "attacked" me (I mean surrounded me, called my name and didn't want to let me go).
On tuesday, when I arrived, a friend of my hostmother was there and we all ate together and watched America's got Talent. :D
On wednesday I washed clothes with her (or better I watched and learned and she did almost everything), ate [Grießbrei] for breakfast (hadn't eaten that in a long while!) and then went with my mentor and 3 other volunteers around Koforidua to get to know the city. (I noticed I have the perfect location - very close to the center. Koforidua is beautiful and you can also go hiking at one of the hills surrounding the city.)
I ate for the first time Fufu (very famous ghanaian food, I'll tell later more about it) and David (volunteer) showed me the little shop of his host family.
Today (thursday) I had to go back to Accra with some other volunteers because one volunteer had told his German organization that he didn't have an orientation seminar and we had to confirm/varify that we actually got one. That trip was pretty annoying and stole the whole day, but well.. it happens, I'm not here on my own, so I can't just do what I want. Therefore/On the good side I have mentors and people who are there for me, if I need something.
That's for now, my internet time is over (I'm in a cafe right now), so I'll talk to y'all soon!
When the rain was over, George and I left. But I got invited to come back as often as I want. And I'll probably do, because my school I'll teach at is very close to their house.
My guestfamily isn't really a family yet. It's a young woman who's husband went travelling for 6 months. She is in her early twenties, so she doesn't have kids yet. Her flat is one of others in a compound with many families. The flat has one little sitting room and a little bedroom with a big bed we're both sleeping in. The kitchen is on the other side of the compound (maybe 10-20 meters) as well as the washrooms and toilet holes. To wash yourself you use a bucket and if you wanna pee, you do it while washing yourself or in another bucket. The holes are for something else... if you know what I mean.
(I'm not gonna say any names or too much details about herself because everyone can read this. If you wanna know more, ask me in a private message.)
I like my guestmum a lot, I'm getting along with her very well. She showed me everything. How to wash yourself with a bucket, how she cooks, how to wash your clothes and anything else you need. Even though the conditions seem not that luxury, I'm happier where I am than some other volunteers are, because some families don't show the volunteers anything and let them alone, so they don't really have anything to do until the project on monday starts. A lot of other volunteers are also together in two, three or even more in one family. I'm actually happy that I'm the only volunteer at the compound. There are enough opportunities to meet other volunteers. For example three others are also in my city (Koforidua) and some others in a city very close (Begoro).
My mum has a good job and good technical devices at home. Often she tries to teach me Twi (the most common language besides english and loots of others), but whenever I try or learn how to wash clothes or learn anything, everyone laughes at me. One time they even talked across the whole compound in Twi, laughing a lot (my mother translated afterwards) if I already made it to use the toilet holes. haha! But it's ok, you just can't be too proud and when you keep learning, everyone really appreciates it. So just don't take everything too serious and don't feel ashamed, that's really what I learn here the most.
A lot of families with children live in the compound. For the kids especially I'm a real attraction. They wanted to know my name, always come to me and when I once touched one of them on the shoulder, all of them got excited and wanted to touch me as well. Does an Ubruni (White person) feel like a normal human, too? It's so funny and the kids are so sweet! When I came home on my own yesterday they all ran to me and "attacked" me (I mean surrounded me, called my name and didn't want to let me go).
On tuesday, when I arrived, a friend of my hostmother was there and we all ate together and watched America's got Talent. :D
On wednesday I washed clothes with her (or better I watched and learned and she did almost everything), ate [Grießbrei] for breakfast (hadn't eaten that in a long while!) and then went with my mentor and 3 other volunteers around Koforidua to get to know the city. (I noticed I have the perfect location - very close to the center. Koforidua is beautiful and you can also go hiking at one of the hills surrounding the city.)
I ate for the first time Fufu (very famous ghanaian food, I'll tell later more about it) and David (volunteer) showed me the little shop of his host family.
Today (thursday) I had to go back to Accra with some other volunteers because one volunteer had told his German organization that he didn't have an orientation seminar and we had to confirm/varify that we actually got one. That trip was pretty annoying and stole the whole day, but well.. it happens, I'm not here on my own, so I can't just do what I want. Therefore/On the good side I have mentors and people who are there for me, if I need something.
That's for now, my internet time is over (I'm in a cafe right now), so I'll talk to y'all soon!
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