Its strange to think that I've been out of my village for just over a month now and I find myself thinking about it and my family there on a daily basis.

I've mentioned my host family very briefly before, but would like to share more. My family in Tiawiah is warm, open, welcoming and hilarious. I immediately felt like a part of the amily and like I fite in. My mother, Georgina, continues to teach me about what it means to be generous, loving and giving.

Even though they don't have much, she never hesitated to do whatever she could for whomever needed it. Ma Georgie owns a provision store, which was up at the main road in Tiawiah, and to keep thiefs away, Ma Georgie and my 2 sisters had rooms that were attached to the store. My room, was about a 2-3 min walk away from the store and main road down into the compound my family would normally live in.
Because I slept, and lived here, I sometimes felt like I had more than one family because when I came home, I had the people who shared my compound, which consisted of 3 other families!

My village doesn't have power, so we used flashlights and gasoline lanterns at night. That being said, the stars and moon were so bright that I often wouldn't even need my flashlight. In our compound, we had a building that from the outside looked like an outhouse, but when the door was opened, it was a hole dug in the ground with boards laying across the hole. To use it, you put one foot on a board and the other foot and the second board and then squat.

For the shower, it was an enclosure that had 3 walls and a stick that bridges the gap that you put a sarong or piece of cloth over when you go to bathe. I would bathe mostly at nights and often the light from the stars was enough.

I awoke each morning to the sound of brooms sweeping the compound around 5:30 am. I would then get up and join them in sweeping my little area. You should know that when I say sweeping, I mean I'm sweeping the ground, as in the actual dirt. This is done because there is no formal way to get rid of garbage and people will just throw their garbage on the round. One also needs to seep up the goat, sheep and chicken poo that is littered on the groun. I often couldn't help thinking if people just used garbage bins, we could save a lot of time...

Only 3 members of my family live in Tiawiah on a daily basis, my host father lives and works in Accra, as he drives for one of the banks here. The two eldest sisters also live outside of Tiawiah. The eldest, Florence, who is my age, is working as a nurse and Becky, the next is in school in Tamale.

So, day to day, Iwas with Ma Georgie, Belinda and Bernice. Because of the location of the store, the fact that I am white and Ma Georgie being who she is, I met a lot of people and felt very accepted and integrated into the community.

I would pass the days greeting people, helping Ma Georgie prepare food, going to farm then hanging out/playing with my sisters and the other village kids at night.

Life in Tiawiah is certainly quite, quite different than it is in Accra, but life in Accra will need to be saved for another post. My sister Belinda, is 16 and Bernice 12. Each day after school, Bernice would come home and need to fetch water, so off we'd go. After fetching water, she would help Ma Georgie in the store and do any household chores until Belinda came home and then they would both help in the store. Bernice is Ma Georgie's niece, but she was adopted by Ma G last year when Ma Georgie went to visit her brother and saw that Bernice wasn't attending school, so she took her in as her own daughter.
Belinda and Bernice are full of life and we had a lot of fun playing cards at night before going to bed.
Belinda dreams of becoming a doctor and works very hard at school so she does well on her exams.

Living in Accra with sometimes roaming power, and having the running water work about half the time, I find myself yearning for the days of the village toilet and bathing under the stars.