can't think of a title but it's obliged to pick on

Hi everyone,

I’ve got so much to tell that I have no idea were to start. Let’s just start with my host family. It took me a while to get to know everyone because people mainly live outside on the veranda en in front of the house. If at least these two places were only been used by the family it wouldn’t be that difficult. But there live about three families in two houses next to eachother and everybody has friends and distant relatives coming by everyday. Then the house is next to a short cut so everybody passes the house. To make it just a little bit more complicated nephews and nieces are cald brothers and sisthers…so it took me a while to get to know the people. I think I got the majority now though. First of all there’s Alex, my host dad and employer as well. I was quiet important to get along with this man because else I would have trouble at school and at home. Thank god he’s a real nice man and not the dictator I had feared. Then there is Patrick about whom I’ve already told you last week. He’s really nice and sometimes a bit nuts (which I like, better nuts then boring I always say). The first few days he thought I was very rich (which I might be to Ghanaian standards, but if I don’t watch what I do with my money I’m broke pretty soon) so he took me to some expensive places and let me pay. I’ve explained him that I wasn’t going to be able to stay for six months if I would keep spending money like this and I think he understood it. It wasn’t so much that he took advantage of me, he was just showing me around and took the opportunity to have a nice meal. Well now I’ve got that sorted out with him I’m getting to like him more and more. That is quiet important by the way, cause he is my host brother and my housemate in the Shower Powered Batchelor Palace (but more about that later on). Well then there is Edward, one of the teachers at Young Souls and Patrick’s brother (same father, same mother as you should always ask/add in Ghana). He’s really nice as well and I’ve played volleyball with him Frank (another teacher at Young Souls) and some other guys around here. They play every day at 4 o clock Ghanaian time. So when I arrived at 4 as Edward insisted of me (several times, else I would have come later) I found myself alone on the volleyball field. So I went to the market, met another volleyballer who introduced me to his parents and waited till the others came from 4.30 to 5.00. But I was telling about the family. I met the older sister last Saturday, but she lives in Tema (a port city maybe 1 ore 2 hours away) so she was only here for one evening. Oh, Edward lives with his aunts by the way, Patrick used to live there too until I came and he moved with me to the Shower Powered Batchelor Palace. Well then there is one smaller sister Jennifer (I’d forgotten here name, but Stephen, who lived at Alex’s for the last three months is sitting next to me). She’s about 10 years old and really quiet. I guess she’s still a bit shy, but I’ll get to know here better in the next months. And then there’s troublesome Rita. She is the youngest (6 years old) and therefore probably a bit spoiled. She’s always laughing, running around and making trouble, but she’s incredibly quit. Well then there are the neighbors. There are two older people (around fifty or sixty, sorry mum and dad) who’s names I don’t know. I just say hello to them and have a few words, but not a real conversation. Then there are the other neighbors, Nana his brother and his 4 sisters. Hannah, one of them is really nice and Nana too. I haven’t spoken the others very much. Although I’ve met the youngest sister (who’s 18) today. We had a good laugh together. She and Hannah won’t be around long anymore (not that there going to die, they’re both going to school, Hannah to teach and the other to learn) which is a pity. Two of Hannah here siblings have already offered me Hannah as a bride, but one has taking that back after she found out I was younger then here sister (she claims marrying a younger woman is a crime in Ghana but Hannah denies this). But Nana will still be there and all the other people who come to the house as well. I often sit with them in the evening or afternoon to have a small talk. Most of the time the talks are about Ghana or the Netherlands, so it’s a good thing I meet the volunteers regularly (a bit to often maybe) so I can have a proper conversation and enjoy the great sense of humor many English have (the Ghanaian sense of humor is quit different and I miss the way I could always laugh with my friends). So talking about the volunteers. First there’s Joanne. She’s been here for about 3 weeks now and was the most experienced volunteer around since all the others had gone traveling (they got back Saturday and almost all of them will leave this week). She’s really sweet, exactly what you expect from someone who’s studying to become a primary school teacher (although the sweet approach doesn’t work very well in Ghana, but more about that later on). She will leave in one week time. Then there is Jamie, an American girl who lives close to me. She’s nice (don’t really know what more to tell). Alex a Swiss girl is a bit quiet but nice. And the English Amie nice and quiet too. Jamie is here for 3 months, Alex for 6 and Amie for 2. That are all the people in Mamfe. In the neighbouring village there’s Lian, an American girl. I still have to get used to her way of acting a bit. It is exactly how I imagine Americans to be. She’s just always a bit to nice and friendly to everybody so I start wondering how she really is, and if she is acting all the time or if she really is like that. I guess she’s just friendly and I’m just not used to here way of acting. I wonder though if she likes me or if she hates my guts. I just can’t tell. She’s here for 3 months by the way. Well then there live 5 people in Kwamoso. Two will leave pretty soon and the other three will stay for 3 to six months. They’re all English. Two girls and one guy (he will be the only male volunteer besides me, so I guess we’ll have to stick together). The guy (Ed) is building here and is really funny (the English humor I love). The girls both worked at the day care but they were really shocked about the way the people treat the children. They cane them without a proper reason. For instance one boy was very excited about the toys the volunteers brought and stood up while playing with them. Then the daycare person hit him on the head with the toys which fell. When he got picked up the toys the woman gave him a kick because he was getting up again and when the other woman laught she kicked him again. I rarely see the people from Kwamoso because it’s quit difficult to get a taxi back to there from Mamfe in the evening. Ok now I’ve told you about all the people (well at least a lot of them) around here, let’s talk about my housing. Because they are renovating the building next to Alex’s where he rented a room for the volunteers, Alex has rented another house about 300 meters away from his. I’m not sure if he’s planning on moving there or if any of the other members of the family besides Patrick will move the house. I don’t think they have decided yet. Well my house is really nice. All the other volunteers envy me and Patrick. The house is surrounded by a concrete wall and the man who watches over the house lives in a house like building (some concrete blocks with a roof but without doors, paint or windows) next to my palace. In the palace we have electricity (although we don’t have light bowls everywhere), tap water, a proper shower (which is a shower head in a small room and a hole in the floor were the water can leave, it’s actually better then a shower like at home) and a real toilet. The water though isn’t working all the time because of some road constructions (which will last for another year) so I’ve used taking a shower the African way (what means poring water from a bucket upon you) more often than I’ve taking a real shower. Besides that, my house has 6 bedrooms and a living room (al empty though) and even more important: no screaming children at 5.30, no mosque that starts yelling at 4 and no chicken farm next to my window. So as you can imagine. To sum it up: The house is way better then I’d expected and all the other volunteers envy me (especially those from Kwamoso who don’t have tap water and only one hour of electricity a day).

Well about work, I’ll keep it short because this internet thing is costing me 10.000 a hour (and I’ve spent already 1,5 hours here now and I’m getting sick of writing) which you are not supposed to calculate into Euro’s because then it sounds ridiculous. Let’s just say that I’ve traveled to lake Volta for the same amount of money I’ve spent now. Well school. If you think children here are more disciplined then in Europe you might be right. But not with the volunteer teachers. Since we don’t cane them ore hit them (the African teachers hardly do it either, and if they hit the children it’s never really painful but more symbolic), the children have no respect at all for us. The older classes are a bit better because you can say they’re responsible for things and they can really understand you. But class 1 and 2 (they were in one class because it there weren’t enough children) is terrible. You start with writing simple words on the blackboard and having them read it. But after fifteen minutes you’re just really happy if they don’t scream that loud that it will disrupt the other classes to much, if not more then two of them are running through the classroom and if they don’t break anything. Then suddenly they see Edward or Frank approaching and all rush to their benches to sit quietly. Then you have to start teaching them something again, which is pretty difficult because they don’t understand everything you say and you have no idea what they know and what they are supposed to learn. The first day at school I was said I could go into one of the classes and teach whatever I like. That afternoon we made a schedule with the other volunteers so we at least knew which classes we would teach. Now I could prepare a lesson, but still I had no idea how good the children were. On top of that some children new very very much, and others didn’t understand a single thing. After a week of some terrible and some ok classes (I might have actually learned something to some of them, although that could be me day dreaming) we were of for three days (Monday/today the teachers are preparing school but we didn’t have to come since there are no classes). On Saturday we went to the boti fall, which apparently is a great waterfall…if there would be any water falling besides our sweat. I wasn’t that disappointed because the walk we had over there was really nice. The people from Kwamoso, who had hoped to swim and wash in the river and underneath the waterfall were quiet disappointed. After that we went back to Koforidua (the regional capital) and went to a restaurant with western food. I didn’t eat anything because I’m on a diet in the weekends so I don’t forget what hunger is like. They just keep on feeding me here, even after I’ve said they should give me less. Two hot meals a day and a big omelet with paprika and unions is just to much for me. We were traveling with all the volunteers in the region (that means the new ones, because the veterans were still traveling) which were 12 people. That meant we filled an entire tro which must have been a great side. Only whites in a little bus. Sunday we went to lake Volta with a smaller group. We saw the dam (from a distance because we weren’t going to buy a permit for 25000 and hire a car on top) and went canoeing on the Volta river. I also lost my glasses jumping in the water (I’m not used to wearing glasses, but my lenses are irritating) but we found them again. After that I almost hit a hole in my head by swinging in the water with a rope which didn’t go according to plan. Then we went back to Mamfe slowly. We walked through some towns which was really nice. In one place we got invited for a funeral but we told them we were in a hurry and that a funeral was a private thing in the west and went away. We got followed though by some very drunk people, and on the street even more drunk came to talk to us. Somehow though it were only they elderly people who were under influence (I’m not sure if it was alcohol though). We fled away in a taxi and Jamie told us that she was offered cocaine for teaching a man’s children.

Well on this happy note I leave you all alone. Thank you very much for all the comments on the site. It’s really nice hearing from you. And Sonja, I’m sorry, I don’t have a girlfriend yet, but I have gotten a proposal…that’s not bad either is it.

Greatings,

The king from the Shower Powered Palace and the only who has an entire house for him self and one housemate.

Ps. Just one reminder. Don’t send e-mail to mgubbe@hotmail.com, use my other address. I don’t check my hotmail account.