Today is the day that you will now offend me greatly if you should call me a PCT. Why? Because as of 3 hours ago I am an official Peace Corps Volunteer. Yes, I am officially someone who works his ass off and makes no money – a Volunteer.
But it’s all good.
This past week was a little different than the other weeks we have had here, mainly for one big reason – we spent most of it at the Hatampa Hotel instead of homestay. And the days we did spend at homestay were the last ones.
So here’s how it went:
I can’t remember exactly when I wrote last, so I’ll start from this past weekend. Hopefully it won’t overlap, but if it does, I’m sure you will be excited and eager to read it all again anyway.
On Saturday, myself and Rob went to the Greenland Hotel to hang out at the pool all day. Our mission was simple – spend a day there when no other PCTs would be going so that we could study for our Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) which was coming up on Tuesday morning. Yup, our last official activity at homestay was a test.
So we had class in the communities until 10am, during which we did a practice OPI, and then I met Rob at the tro-tro station in his community (Akroso) to head into Swedru. Well, things started out as planned. We got to the Greenland and Rob headed over to the Peace Corps office to take care of some stuff and I went into the pool. There were two Obrunis there who I didn’t know, so I sat down to study stuff a bit. As it turned out, that little bit was all the studying I got done. The two Obrunis turned out to be a PCV from the teacher group that just swore in in August, and another German volunteer working for the Salvation Army. We ended up talking for the entire day. No studying done there.
The next day was a day off. Since I basically wasted my Saturday, I intended to study all day Sunday. Again, plans change. The other two German volunteers I had met came unexpectedly over and we all went to see the Big Tree. The Big Tree is, well, a tree. That’s big. Supposedly the biggest in West Africa. I think it’s actually maybe the biggest in the surrounding 5 mile area. Not that big. Then they made me spaghetti with a Western style sauce. First non-Ghanaian-y dish I had had in a while. Definitely worth it.
Unfortunately, Monday came and we had class again. Another practice OPI. It went ok. I wasn’t too impressed with myself. Maybe something to do with the lack of studying the weekend previous. So, that night I actually studied. I also ended up saying goodbye to my host father as he works in Cape Coast during the week. It was pretty cool. He bought me some Cokes and we just chatted for a while. I’m going to miss them more than I realized previously. But I’m ready to move on, definitely.
Actually, I lied there – the saying goodbye part happened after dinner on Sunday, not Monday. Oops.
Oh – another thing. It seems that our neighbors had a small dispute. The sister pissed off another sister. Nothing major, but it needed to be resolved. In Ghana, it seems, settling sibling rivalries involves about 100 people all screaming at the top of their lungs. And being the chief’s house, we were involved. So 100+ people jammed into the Chief’s “palace” and discussed the situation. It seemed they resolved it just fine. It took a little something that I didn’t expect to seal the deal though. Just as it requires Schnapps to be buried, it requires that flour be thrown on all arguing parties and adjudicators for a sibling disagreement to be settled. Vey odd. I have no idea where else to go with that…
Anyway. Tuesday comes. The last day of homestay. The day of the dreaded OPI. So, the OPI. The OPI is what the Peace Corps (and I guess the whole government) uses to assess language skills. There are 10 ratings – Novice Low, Novice Medium, Novice High, Intermediate Low, Intermediate Mid, Intermediate High, Advanced Low, Advanced Mid, Advanced High, and Superior. Novice Low means you can basically grunt in the target language. Superior means you can present your doctoral dissertation. In order to Peace Corps service we were required to score Novice High or better. Basically we had to be able to tell someone how to cook a meal, get to our sites from Swedru, introduce ourselves and our families, and tell what we do on an average day. We also had to have a small conversation where we both answered and asked questions of the examiners. Lastly, we had to pick a card and proceed to do whatever it states. The one I picked said, “Pretend you want to visit another volunteer. Go buy a ticket.” We had to have the whole conversation in the target language (Twi for me). The teacher groups only have to score Novice Mid.
We have two examiners. One is a US Government certified examiner, the other one of the Language Facilitators that we have been working with (though not the one that is our teacher). Mine was the homestay coordinator as well. Somehow I scored Intermediate Mid. Not too shabby considering I spent all my study hours talking to German girls…!
So after the exam, we all went into Swedru to Hatampa. It was kind of sad. I’ll actually miss the homestay family. I do intend to come back to visit at some point. Maybe in a few months.
At Hatampa we really didn’t do much of anything. Except get ready for the swearing-in ceremony. Two main things – a play in Twi, and a drumming and dancing performance. For the first, I played the Chief. It was a pretty bad play overall, but I think we did a good job. My friend Rob was my Okyeame (linguist), so we got to carry around these silver staffs and I got to wear a silver crown. Very weird.
For the second thing, I managed to get myself a drumming spot. We actually had to try out for the drummer positions as there were only 5 of them, but I was lucky. It actually went really well. Easy to say now that it’s over…
Today was the swear-in ceremony itself. It was about 2 hours long. We had the performances/skits by the language groups, the drumming/dancing performance, speeches by various Peace Corps people, a certification and speech by the Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy, and some traditional performances. Not too bad. All of our families came and we had a big lunch and it was overall a good experience. We also took our oath to the US. That whole “we swear to protect and uphold the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic” spiel.
Then, it was over. I had many Cokes. And it was good.
Tonight the Peace Corps is taking us out to some restaurant. Not quite sure what to expect of that, but should be ok. Tomorrow we are all heading into Accra for the weekend. Tomorrow night myself, Rob, and another friend Andi are going to stay at the La Palm Hotel. Really expensive, but so what. They have a Western buffet breakfast that has BACON on it. French toast too. Cheese too even. Definitely worth the money. Then Sunday and Monday night we are staying at some place in town that’s “Peace Corps recommended” for PCVs on travel. Thanks to the lawyer inherited in me, I was able to finagle the Peace Corps med unit to pay for both those nights. Nothing wrong with that…thanks, Dad! Last time I was in the med unit I also managed to get them to pay for a shopping spree at the local Supermarket. Don’t think I’ll be able to get that this time, though…
Ok, I just heard a siren and looked outside. An ambulance (looking like one from the 1960s) just passed by with a dead body hanging out the back…
Ok, not really hanging, but laying. Must be funeral day.
Speaking of funerals, funerals here are an EVENT. People love em. I think they kill people just so they can have funerals. It’s indescribable. A “cool thing to do” on weekends is to go out and try to find funerals to go to. In fact, they even have people who make their living being professional criers. They wail and wail and lament over the loss of someone they never met. And they get paid WELL. You can always tell a professional wailer. When one of us white people show up and there’s a professional wailer it goes something like this:
“AAAAAHHHH!!! She’s dead. Oh, no. What will we do! She is dead. AAAAHHHH!!!!”
“The woman, she is gone, she had died. It is horrible. God will help us. AAAHHHHH!!!”
“Obruni, how are you?!?!?”
“AAHHH she is dead!!!”
Ok, funnier when you are there…
Anyway. So, that’s about it. My life for the last week. This weekend I am going to spend lots of money in Accra eating Gilled Cheese and Ice Cream. REAL ice cream. Off to do that.
Doing It Twice 