*disclaimer*
The first section of this blog was written before leaving for our village, the second section comes 2 weeks after living in my village and returning to Nkawkaw for a retreat!
When the day came to leave Accra, we boarded a trotro (a big van which serves as a bus) to make the three hour trek to Nkawkaw. Driving out of Accra, one starts to see the distinct plastic texture of the leaves of the plaintain trees become much more plentiful. The road between Accra and Nkawkaw is a bit precarious at the moment due to construction and just general Ghanaian highway maintenance. That being said, we still made it in about 3 hours where we were greeted by our host Monsignor Paul and another parishoner, Ansong. The 6 of us piled uinto Msgr Paul's pick up and off we went to the parish where we will stay for two weeks before heading to our villages.
Our days in Nkawkaw have been spent attempting to learn Twi, the language that is spoken widely throughout Ghana and especially in our villages. We had about 4 hours of Twi lessons each day, which I'm enjoying. Our instructor Father Andy, is a priest here at the parish. He is a great teacher who is patient, understanding and funny. We have gone out on a couple of little 'excursions' to practise our vocabulary. We have visited the hospital, been to school and went to the market.
The fathers and others at the parish are really great! I feel very welcomed and have had some wonderful times with them (who knew I'd say that about a group of priests?!). As it turns out, many people I've encountered love Celine Dion (hence the title of this blog), so some of my time at the Mission House has been spent singing along with Celine Dion and various other easy-listening and pop songs that have certainly passed their prime in North America.
The more time that I spend in Nkawkaw, the more excited I get for the village stay. It is so lush and beautiful that I feel especially lucky to be able to spend the next 2 months in a place as gorgeous as this. We don't yet know where our villages will be, but we do know that they are out of town leading further into the bush, a fact that really excites me!
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Our villages were decided completely randomly. Msgr Paul wrote the village names on small pieces of paper, crumpled them up and threw them on the ground and we each picked different villages. From there, we got into the truck and got dropped off at our different villages.
I feel especially lucky to be in my village because I have really loved my time there so far! My village is called Teawiah (basically it sounds exactly as it is written!). Its basically in the foothills of a mountain outside of Nkawkaw. My family is great! My mother owns a store, my father works in Accra as a driver and I have two younger sisters who live with me in Teawiah and two other sisters who are away at school and working. In addition to owning the store, my mother also farms cocoa, plaintain, yam, banana and orange. She only sells the cocoa, the rest is used to feed the family.
As it stands now, my mornings are spent going to farm cocoa, where my job is to break the cocoa pods. I didn't know very much about cocoa before arriving in Ghana, so will assume that you have the same level of knowledge as me!
Cocoa grows on trees, in pods. My mother, Georgina, hires a person to go around and pluck the cocoa pod, one person to go and gather all of the pods and one person to break the pod and take out the beans.
Its really hard work! I went out, armed with a cutlass and was busting open cocoa pods, it definitely took a while to feel comfortable hacking away at the cocoa pod which is only a fraction bigger than my hand! After 6 hours the first day, I feel like I've got a grasp on how to do it and keep the man-eating ants away. The part-time labourers that Georgina employs act as my bug bodyguards, as every now and then I'll hear them yell something in Twi (my Twi is not quite as good as theirs....) and then one will be over picking a bunch of ants off of me :).
I spend the afternoons with my mother at the store, just sitting and talking with her and any others who may come in. People are generally always pleased when they greet me in Twi and I respond, its kind of a big deal! When my sisters come home from school we will go fetch water, which I now carry (almost without spilling!) on my head and then will start to make dinner.
We arrived in Nkawkaw on Monday, where we've come on retreat to learn about African Traditional Religion and how that impacts many Ghanaian's lives. Its interesting to be here and have Msgr talking about various aspects of Ghanaian culture that have roots in traditional religion despite the influence of Christianity and Islam. The lessons with Msgr Paul have been really helpful in gaining a more in depth understanding of somethings that I have seen in the village.
We head back to our village on Monday, where I will stay for the next 5 weeks before leaving for 2 weeks of travel time.
To keep your interest, I will return to write about funerals, which are 3 day long events, more in-depth stories of village life and more general updates!
I'll talk to you in a month!
Also, I left my address book in Canada, so send me your address if you want some snail mail!
