The bus charged on into the river, driving hard yet somehow sluggishly as it entered the choppy water. I can’t truly speak for any of the other passengers, but I was fairly nervous; more than once as we crossed over the bus would lean or rock to a side and I was thoroughly convinced we wouldn’t make it across. I’ve never wished for a G.I. Joe vehicle more so before in my entire life (including

Hey, suckers. Sorry I haven’t written in awhile, but you may find that the wait, dare I say, was worth it…check this out… Folks, as a Peace Corps Volunteer draws closer to the end of their term of service, he/she must attend what is called a Close of Service (C.O.S.) conference. This, generally, is very boring. Some folks find the information distributed at said conference to be quite

Let’s start this off with an ol’ Ghanaian joke I heard the other day... “So my brother, he has a wife. And one day, he goes to toilet to shit. He leaves the door to the toilet open. A lorry passes by and gets two flat tires. The driver, he is there, has to walk for petrol.” That’s it. As you can see, I live in a very funny spot. The jokes just don’t seem to stop coming around here. But, what

hey kids, daddy’s back..... this month, i’m going to change the format a little - gonna spice things up a tad. now, several of you folks have written yours truly in the past and requested a letter detailing, so to speak, what i - as a peace corps volunteer - do on a day-to-day basis. taking that into consideration, this month i’m giving you - the fans - what you want. fear not, those of you who

morning jerks... starting off, i’d just like to apologize for accidentally naming the last email “chapter 16” when it was really only chapter 15. not like this is really that big of a deal or anything, but evidently some people thought it was; and i received a barrage of emails in response notifying me of this mistake. hooray, to all of you out there who reminded me of how retarded i am - thank

yes, i survived the elections....and once again 'tis time for a tale.... well guys, seems that santa claus ended up getting his fat ass over to third world this year - just in time for christmas.....chief maliguna has power. that's right. power. i have electricity at site now - sankpala has stepped into the 20th century (ghana time, remember...). as luck would have it, this all started because

hey kids, long time.... street-core protesting and political demonstration has, once again, thrown tamale into a constant state of emergency. party rallies and rioting ensue almost daily. the national elections are being held on december 7th, so each day more and more rallying by both major parties (the incumbent, southern-based n.p.p. and the popular-only-in-the-north n.d.c.) are happening in

well, it seems that i've been in this craphole for a full year now.....holy crap. doesn't really seem like that long, but when i think of the states and all you folks it seems more like ten years...who knows. i guess that can be expected. anyway, how 'bout a tale.... so i decided that it was time that chief maligunah needed a vacation. i haven't traveled or had a break since 'prom' back in june,

before you read any further, ladies and gentlemen, i'd like to warn you that this letter isn't going to be all that entertaining to skim through. delete this now if you're seeking edge-of-your-seat, whiz-bang, cherry-pop pin', fresh-out-tha-box action and adventure. i'm completely serious. over the course of the last two and a half months or so, i have not once been in a life-threatening

its been a perilous last two months.... a lot has happened over here in blackland lately (all right, so i seem to say that in every stupid email i send out to you guys, but i'm being serious this time around), and i doubt i could remember everything off the top of my head at the time being. now don't get me wrong, friends, i haven't been all that busy with 'work,' per se - in the last month, i

just in case you were curious, africa is still hot as hell and full of black people.... with that said, let me tell you a little about what's been going on this last month. long story short, brian's been doing lots and lots of traveling. mpaha, nvrango, bolgatanga, tamale, etc. anyway, i'll start off with telling you the latest news in sankpala, my home sweet home and the dagomba village that i

*trumpet fanfare* all right, so march officially sucks. just so you know. i thought that the heat would eventually just plateau off and stay at a consistent 100-110, but i underestimated living just a hair north of the 9th parallel. this close to equator, the fun in the sun never really stops. the heat keeps rising, and these nights one can find me lying outside under a mosquito net in 110 heat

here we go again.... so the weather's a bit on the warm side here, as i may have already mentioned to you kids before, but its been progressively getting warmer - a lot warmer. we're coming out of the 'cold season' and entering the 'sweat your ass off' season. imagine lying in bed at night in 104 degree weather, without a fan, and without a breeze. that's what i do now - it’s not all that cool (

hooray, 2004 - one year closer to dyin'....sweet... if its one thing i don't miss about the whole southern region of ghana, since being up here in the north, its the humidity. its ridiculous. i haven't sweat that bad since our first week here during accra phasing - the temperatures weren't as high, granted, but they didn't have the winds either to blow hot, dry air on you all the time. you can

and we're back.... alright, so as you all know i'm a water sanitation/health education volunteer - specifically (supposedly) working with guinea worm eradication. this is loads of fun, as you can probably tell from my previous emails. well, since i talked with all you lovely folks last, i was still in the process of settling into my wigwam of sorts in sankpala. early this month, some of the

sorry for the delay, guys; been on a bit on the busy side - here's all that's been happening over here in my neck of the woods since my last entry.... so thanksgiving came and went - i hope all you kids at home had a good time with your relations. out here in the bush - mole national game park, as it were - besides actually having ourselves a pretty decent meal (a rarity here, as i'm pretty sure

back with a vengeance, guys - sorry for the long wait, been a bit on the busy side. i'm sure most of you got the forward from my dad about the tamale sub-office phone number (if not, email him) - that's the closest phone to where i'll be stationed for the next two years or so, and i'll be at that office probably twice a week or so. there's a pcvl posted there, so you can always leave messages

alright kids, so here's what's been going on lately up here in the north... i just got back from a week-long stint with the other seven water sanitation/health pcts. we did a tour of several villages and have been building latrines and teaching at schools, etc. i accidently sat in the chief's chair in diare and pissed off a few of the village elders, but the chief didn't seem to mind and as a

hey guys... okay, so i have access to internet more often than i thought i would here in bolga-tanga while i'm training...so feel free to email me back now. i'm not sure yet if things will keep on like this after i go to my site in sankpala, but for now i've got an internet cafe close by... so i'm spending my days here living between the catholic mission centre with the other trainees when

alright, i got lucky again with the internet so here's another email... i found out where i'm gonna be stationed. its a village called sankpala, about thirteen kilometers southwest of tamale in the northern savannah region of ghana. its made of the dagombe tribes, so i'll be learning dagbani and gonja but i think dagbani is the main one. anyways, i have my own house all to myself with a new

what's up guys... so i'm in accra right now. its about 110 degrees or so, pretty hot. its usually pretty hot around here in africa, but i guess that can be expected. full of black people too. good ol' africa. a little bit about where i'm at...first off, i wash my own clothing by hand - which takes an afternoon to do, by far my least favorite thing so far. there's no running water so i have to