My Ghanaian Top Ten

As incredible as it seems the time has almost come for me to leave Ghana.  My bags are of course not packed, but nonetheless I will be leaving Mother Africa on Saturday.  For my last full length blog I figured I would share with you, my loyal readers, the top ten things I will miss about Ghana.  So here we go:

10)  Transportation:  The most common type of transportation in Ghana is tro tros.  Imagine a 70's VW van cramped with 20 people in it and you may have a rough image of the hellish fun a tro tro provides.  I typically take them a few times a week and have come to enjoy all of the fun they bring.  When I don't take a tro tro I can normally be found on Dela's motorcycle.  I have kept that information off of the blog in an attempt to keep my mother happy, but with no more motorcycle rides to go I can safely report that I have ridden on the back of the bike with Dela many times.  That being said I will not report on our one fall together...

9) Bucket Showers:  It took me awhile to become accustomed to showering in a concrete cube but I  must say I will miss the feeling of showering outdoors.  Bucket showers provide me the only chance of my day to feel cold and I have come to love them because of it.  I think I will like showering indoors again, but they just don't have the same character as a bucket shower.

8)  Soccer:  Over the past few weeks there has been a loyal group of around 20 men, not boys, who have been playing football daily.  I have been playing fairly regularly and I have come to really enjoy it.  Not surprisingly they tend to be more athletic than me but in a lot of ways it feels a lot like a carefree high school practice and I certainly enjoyed being back in that atmosphere.

7)  Adastech:  Adastech is the name of the local high school, which is only three years old.  While it is still going through several growing pains I have come to really enjoy the students.  I have been teaching English twice a week to the second year students and I will definitely miss them.  In addition the third years, the schools first class, provide a real mix of students because several are older than your typical high school students as they only returned to school because Adastech was built.  I have found the to be very interesting and consider many of them friends and will certainly miss them.

6)  Traveling:  I can now say I have seen much of the Southern part of Ghana and have tremendously enjoyed my weekends exploring.  From the people I have gotten the chance to talk with to the sites that I have seen it is definitely sad to know I won't have any more Ghanaian adventures.

5)  Scholarship winners:  Over the course of my six months I have gotten to spend a few days with all five of AYEC's five scholarship winners.  Perhaps I am happiest to report the tremendous growth I have seen in them even in the few short months they have been in school.  I accompanied one of them, Precious, to her first day of school and she hardly said a word to me.  When I saw her a few weeks ago she was happy to tell me all about school and her post high school plans.  It was really a great change and I truly hope nothing but the best for them in their remaining two years in school!

4)  My locals:  Several of the older people in Helekpe do not speak English but the ones that do have given me terrific insight into what it is like to live in the village and of their hopes and dreams.  They have served as my daily entertainment and I will miss my conversations with them.

3)  White House lunches:  The White House is a nice restaurant located close to the office in Ho and has served as my regular lunch spot on my twice a week office days.  It has also served as the official lunch place for all of the other volunteers who have worked here.  That means it has seen as many of ten of us gather to talk about our shared frustrations, triumphs, and funny stories.  Another volunteer, Iain, nicknamed these occasions Beer with Brad days and I must say I was honored.  I will miss having the time to sit with interesting people and hear about their experiences.

2)  Mary and Eunice:  My two caretakers.  These women have done everything for me over the past six months. They have cooked three meals a day for me and have washed my clothes a countless number of times.  In a country where being late is the norm Mary and Eunice have served every meal to me on time and have never once missed a meal.  I can't tell you how much their hard work has impressed me and how much I appreciate it.    Not to mention the fact I will miss having all of my meals cooked for me!

1)  Dela:  The easiest spot on the list.  Dela has served as my Ghanaian guide and has easily become my best friend here.  There are a countless number of things I will miss about Dela.  I have come to love his expressions such as, "Being a man is not a day job," and, " The Bible says a man's name is worth more than riches."  But I will also miss watching how hard he works to put himself and his kids through school in addition to doing anything anyone in the town asks of him.  He is truly a special guy and I will miss getting to talk with him everyday.

There ya have it folks my top ten.  Check back on Thursday for one last mini blog then I am off.

Helekpe Wins!

I apologize if the title of the blog spoils the exciting interschool soccer tournament from the Adaklu District in Ghana this past Friday, but I trust not too many of you were anxiously awaiting the results.  Anyway, let me fill in some of the details for you.

Last Friday was a big day for middle schoolers at four local schools.  The four schools, all very close to me, met for interschool sports.  The day featured volleyball and soccer and included tournaments for the girls and boys.  Obviously most importantly for me was boys soccer not only for obvious reasons, but also because I have come to like many of the boys on the team.  I had been told the team would be leaving Helekpe at 6:30am in order to rest before its first game.

I arrived at 8:30 am and found the festivities just beginning.  The beginning of the day featured a weigh in, yes that's right folks, every boy and girl who wished to play soccer for the day had to meet weight restrictions, which were surprisingly tight.  I assume this is because there are a few twenty something year old kids in middle school and perhaps it would be unfair to let them play.  The weigh in itself did not surprise me, as I had been warned that some boys were very nervous, but what did surprise me were the actions of the teachers/coaches.  At one point one kid was surrounded by teachers all screaming and the boy himself had to weighed in three times!  Eventually the district coordinator ruled the boy could play which led to much rejoicing from his teammates.

Helekpe would not play its first match for a few hours, much to my disappointment, so I made myself familiar with some of the local vendors buying popcorn from a nice girl for 10 pesawas (roughly 6 cents) and a half liter bag of water from another vendor as its standard 5 pesawas price.  The Helekpe girls were playing at this point and I made my way over to see an action packed match.  I will spare you the details except to say the game came down to penalty kicks.  Again I will spare you the details except to say the came ended not with one team winning but rather an incredibly heated argument featuring both coaches, many spectators, and towards the end seemingly every male in attendance over the age of 25.  Indeed the ended up calling the match a draw.  I thought the result sucked but was happy when both teams ran off and formed, what I would learn over the day, the traditional circle of singing and dancing to celebrate their perceived triumph.

The boys got under way two matches later and in a rain shortened came managed to come away with a 1-0 victory.  Not to much to report here except to say that the celebration by the Helekpe faithful was not dampered by the rain and went on for about 30 minutes after the match ended.  Interestingly enough some of the players took part but none lasted more than ten minutes and the celebration only intensified with them not in attendance.

The boys played the winners of the other match two hours later in a rather exciting game.  Helekpe got out to a 1-0 lead courtesy of a penalty kick by one of my best friends but were matched late by a determined Abouda side.  The game went to penalty kicks as well.  Again the penalty kicks were interrupted by a ten minute adult male argument but this time the district director of athletics would not call the game and when a young "Short D" made a PK for Helekpe-the title was ours!  The singing and dancing circled was formed and a few Helekpe teachers were hoisted in the air.

I had to leave at this point to get home for dinner.  But was pleasantly surprised about an hour later when the entire middle school paraded through town celebrating the win.  Apparently they all walked the half an hour back singing and dancing the whole way!  The win may have been impressive but to me the celebrating was definitely the highlight of the day.