This is not my last message from Ghana. It is, however, my last message as a Peace Corps Volunteer.
I moved out of my house on Saturday morning, and said goodbye to Seikwa for who knows how long. I left saddened, but satisfied. I know that in some small way, I left the place better than [...]
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There’s a saying in software development: the first 90% of the work takes 90% of the time, and the remaining 10% of the work takes the other 90%.
Well, that’s where I’m at right now. I have about 4 weeks left before I travel to Accra and go through my Completion of Service process, and I [...]
*sigh*
Well, then.
April was intense. May was even more intense. Let me tell you about it.
The first April crisis was that Caroline and I both got malaria. Well, technically, we already *had* malaria, seeing as the malaria prophylaxis that all Peace Corps Volunteers are required to take just keeps the malaria parasite from reproducing in your bloodstream. [...]
I present to you, for your enjoyment, a random selection of scenes from my life, in no particular order whatsoever.
** My cat is pregnant. *Very* pregnant. I estimate her belly contains somewhere between 30 and 40 kittens. It has had the wonderful side effect of mellowing her out; less meowing, less demanding to be let [...]
The first question I asked was of Caroline. She was taking a nap, and I entered the bedroom with a little ring box. She woke up and saw the box, and after a little nervous fumbling, I got down on one knee and asked the most important question I’ve ever asked anyone:
“Will you marry me?”
Thankfully, [...]
It’s been a busy month. I turned 26 (thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes!), and I feel no different whatsoever. I also got more computers in my computer lab, which involved quite a bit of travel, confabulation, and negotiating. I caught a stomach bug and spent 3 days at home because of it, [...]
It’s Sunday evening. Ghana just got into the semi-finals of the Cup of African Nations, I have successfully prepared my lesson plans and exercises for the week, and now, I’ve got nothing left to do but use the Internet. Or study Esperanto.
Yes, I’m learning Esperanto. I want to learn a bunch of languages, and I [...]
Happy New Year, everybody! I’m back at home after a nice, relaxing, and expensive vacation. I’m spending the day working on a bit of housekeeping and organizing, so you can expect a more complete write-up of my holiday travels soon. For now, I’m going to talk about something that is frozen solid for most of [...]
There is a neighborhood in central Accra called Osu. It’s very popular among expatriates due to a proliferation of Western-style stores — one can get hamburgers, pizza, sushi, Levi’s jean, and home appliances — and high-level businesses. Most of the major mobile phone networks have their headquarters there, and several banks operate major branches in [...]
The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. I know I
haven’t written in a while, and I apologize for that.
So, what happened in the month of November? Lots of things. For starters, the harmattan started in November — a Tuesday, in fact. Quite literally, we had rain and humidity on [...]
The universe has a sense of humor.
There are 49 periods in a week on our school’s timetable. I was teaching 10 of them.
God saw this, said “What? NO! That Dobbe kid isn’t working hard enough! Give him the most out of any teacher on the staff!”
And thus, I went from teaching 10 periods a week [...]
Frisbee’s in heat. I thought she liked to yowl and meow before; man, I had no idea. Next time, I get a boy cat. Like Caroline’s cat, Lovelace. Yes, I know the name is not a boy name. She named him before she was able to correctly identify his gender. I refer to him as [...]
I’ve been in America for almost two weeks now. I’ve seen people I haven’t seen in a year, eaten foods I’ve missed, downloaded a bunch of stuff for my school and my own use, and enjoyed the novelty of hot running water. But it hasn’t been all easy.
Culture shock is something that you expect to [...]
It’s interesting how little it takes to make me happy.
Case in point: I spent 4 hours with about 150 of my colleagues standing on an airport tarmac with nothing to eat or drink, waiting to see Barack Obama for 30 minutes. When he finally arrived, we were nothing short of ecstatic. When he mentioned [...]
The education trainees are back in the schools for practicum, and the omnibus trainees (those who will work in the other program sectors) are out on field trip to see what exactly their jobs will entail. Meanwhile, I sit here, contemplating what it means to be a volunteer while I watch the trainees teach and [...]
I’ve been traveling. A lot. Let’s start from the top:
- On Sunday the 21st of June, I set off for Kumasi with two of my best Form 2 students, William and Linda. They, along with 60 of their peers from all over Ghana, spent a week at the STARS Conference at Kwame Nkrumah University of [...]
I’m having a bad day.
It started this morning at 5:30am, when I woke up feeling achy and exhausted. I laid in bed for 30 minutes hoping that the problem would alleviate itself, but alas, I am still achy even as I write this.
I then headed to school with my Vision Quester. I went to class [...]
Gotta love it when people run over fiber optic cables that supply Internet access to West Africa. It’s been hit-or-miss since the last message, but it appears to be ok now.
I’m in Accra. I’ve been here since last Sunday. I have completed my mid-service medical exam. For those of you who are wondering, I weigh [...]
It’s interesting the degree to which internet access at my site is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it has allowed me to download software for my school, which has helped me get a computer lab up and running where there was nothing before. It also lets me do research for projects and lesson [...]
It’s interesting the degree to which internet access at my site is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it has allowed me to download software for my school, which has helped me get a computer lab up and running where there was nothing before. It also lets me do research for projects and lesson [...]
It’s interesting the degree to which internet access at my site is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it has allowed me to download software for my school, which has helped me get a computer lab up and running where there was nothing before. It also lets me do research for projects and lesson [...]
It’s interesting the degree to which internet access at my site is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it has allowed me to download software for my school, which has helped me get a computer lab up and running where there was nothing before. It also lets me do research for projects and lesson [...]
I apologize for the length of time in between these messages to you,dear reader. I hold my former internet service provider, MTN,responsible for the delay. When they’re not ignoring their failingequipment, MTN is making it even more expensive to get internet accessin Ghana by changing their billing structure. A Saturday Night Liveskit comes to mind…
“We [...]
Ah, Peace Corps. In the span of a week, I’ve gone from a schedule full of tests, grading, traveling, shopping, and cooking to a schedule where working on my bike is the highpoint of my day. My kitchen is clean, my furniture has been rearranged, my house is clean, my laundry is done, and I [...]
There is no better reminder that it’s market day and that you seriously need to buy some food than a cat.
As those of you who have been reading the back issues know, I’ve had a bit of a mouse problem here at La Casa del Whiteman. I tried poison, traps, household repair, all to no [...]
It’s been a long time since I last wrote. I can blame travel, work, and illness for a great deal of it, but there’s also the problem of trying to think of new things to send home every week. Nonetheless, I will endeavor to bring more fascinating facts from my dull and mundane life as [...]
Hey! Friday! That means it should be about time to write another web-o-blog-mail thing.
To nobody’s surprise, it’s hot. In fact, it’s really hot. The kind of hot where decorum goes straight out the window and you wear as little clothing as possible just so you don’t drown in your own sweat. (Lovely image, eh?) And [...]
The rainy season has returned. It’s rained twice in 24 hours. It also means my cell phone/internet provider now has a legitimate excuse for their consistently random service outages. MTN = Most Terrible Network.
Not that I’m, you know, bitter about that or anything. If it weren’t for the fact that so many people already have [...]
In the words of Mark Twain: “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” I apologize for the sizeable gap between the last missive and this one; I’ve had a bit of a cold, and the… creative definition of timeliness in Ghana seems to be growing on me.
Today marks a quarter-century of me. I [...]
It’s becoming more and more difficult to find things to write about. This is not because there are fewer and fewer things happening; it’s because they are becoming more and more commonplace. Hauling water, for instance, has become something to which I barely give a second thought. Laundry is the same way; I fill my [...]
I’m not going to lie to you: I spent the first 10 minutes of trying to write this trying to come up with an alternative to “intrepid hero”. New year, new moniker, right? …Not so much. Anyway.
My little parliamentary district became the focus of a nation this week. As those of you who have been [...]
You know, of all the things I’ve been told to do while receiving a paycheck funded by your tax dollars, the one I’m currently enjoying the most is just screwing around in my house. So far this morning, I’ve swept the floor, hauled out the mattresses for their weekly airing-out, and done a small amount [...]
Greetings from the middle of Ghana’s Brong-Ahafo Region. I have returned home after a long week of conferencing, flip-charting, group discussions, and unexpected productivity. I made some friends, pissed some people off, got some really good ideas, slept too little and danced too much, and enjoyed myself.
This week’s All-Volunteer Conference was organized around the [...]
And we’re back on a Saturday post/email schedule. Go me. Woo.
First, allow me to discuss the Thanksgiving festivities of last month. I went to Kumasi on a Friday, spent the evening having fun and meeting new people, and just enjoyed myself. On Saturday, I got up early, went into the Kumasi Central Market with my [...]
I’m attempting to push my posting/emailing schedule back to Saturday; thus, this week’s missive comes on a Thursday.
I’m not going to lie — I’m a bit frazzled. The end of the term is fast approaching, and I have all of the requisite paperwork, grading, and maintenance that comes with it. Plus, I’ve been trying to [...]
Holy Aunt Jemima, have I been busy. Since the last missive, I’ve been grading midterms, upgrading lab software, planning a computer club and an elective ICT course, creating a student ICT position, writing lesson plans, and trying to be creative in my water conservation techniques. Let’s start at the top and work our way down, [...]
hana is an interesting place. It has been an independent country for a little over 50 years, and in that time there have been several economic crises and several military (albeit bloodless) coups d’etat. Yet in that time, the Ghanaian people have kept an admirable commitment to peace and stability while the countries around them [...]
Greetings and salutations from the middle of the world.
I spent yet another Saturday afternoon riding my bicycle through the back-country of Ghana, with GPS receiver strapped down tightly and these thoughts wandering in and out of my head:
- “I wonder where this road is going to end up…”
- “Oh, look. Another hill. Joy of joys.” [...]
This week was marked by a sad event. BJ (formerly Prince BJ, who had abdicated his title upon leaving Old Tafo) has made the decision to return to the United States due to the serious illness of a family member. At this point, his return to Ghana is possible, but unlikely.
I received a phone [...]
This week has been an interesting progression from illness to wellness. On Monday, I barely wanted to leave the house; yesterday, I went for a 16-mile bike ride and could have kept going if the sun hadn’t gone down. My boil is now completely gone, I’ve finished my course of antibiotics, and I am now [...]
I wanted to document my school’s technology situation, and how I have chosen to tackle the gargantuan task of teaching computer skills to 300 kids with 5 computers. Rather than doing this in an email, which is a waste of bandwidth and would fill the inboxes of those who don’t care/don’t understand, I have decided [...]
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