Holy crapola shit crap! I'm leaving Lawra. 2 years has come and gone. Etc.

As you may know, my introduction to Lawra wasn't so pleasant. I almost died from malaria. It was quite depressing. I suppose it's only appropriate that I leave Lawra on a morbid note.

There was a rather large commotion in town today. Everyone was going to the forest area right by my house to check something out. "What's going on?" I wondered. As I got closer to the what was going on I saw that people were covering their mouths and noses as they were walking. Then people were vomiting and crying. I came to see the body of a woman who hanged herself in the forest, probably the night before. I asked a boy if he knew her and if he knew why she killed herself. He told me that it was her aunt (which in Ghana just means that he knows her) and that she prepared dinner for him just this Friday, and that he hadn't heard from her since.

In Lawra it isn't considered morbid or in bad taste to want to see the body, or even take pictures. In fact, the Ghanaian newspapers often print extremely graphic pictures of things like car accidents, shootings, etc. I'm sure that if it were in America the police would have the scene blocked from the public. But that wasn't the case. So, in the interest of truly integrating I visited the body and took pictures. But, it has been brought to my attention that Americans will probably think it in bad taste to post them. Maybe for the first time in my life I am exercising restraint, so no pictures.

See you guys soon!

Adam

Hello again. Sorry I have been so lousy at writing.

Well, I'm almost finished. I leave Lawra in less than 2 weeks. It's intense! Here's a couple pictures of Aisha, my market lady. She's been a good friend to me over the past two years.

Here are a couple of pictures of me with a women's group in a village called Kunyukou. The name "Kunyukuo" means "you don't give a stranger ordinary water". Instead you give them a meal and the fancy water. The name sums up their hospitality pretty well. They're amazingly kind and welcoming.

This women's group has 40 members. The members are mostly ground nut (peanut) farmers and sellers.

Me and my wife, as she calls herself. Watch out Megan, she will fight you.

Me with the group. The man on the far left acts as a translator for me, since they mostly speak Hausa, and not Dagaare.

Hi again. Megan and I just got back from a trip to Burkina Faso and Mali. It was really amazing. Check out her flickr page to see some of the pics. I ate a caterpillar sandwich in Burkina Faso. That was actually pretty good. And I had yogurt for desert. Yogurt!!! In-fucking-credible! Who knew that yogurt kicked so much ass? I guess if you're deprived of anything for long enough it seems wonderful.

In other news I a grant that I wrote just got approved. I am going to bring someone from the southern part of Ghana to come to Lawra (my village) and teach a group of people living with HIV/AIDS how to do beekeeping. They will also learn how to collect and process honey, and how to make things like honey soap, and candles. The people should be able to use the newly-acquired knowledge of beekeeping as a means of income generation.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/medindemegan

take care,

adam

Things went from this sucks a little bit to: Holy fuck I can't see out of my left eye!!!My eye swollen shut . . .

Those damn blister beetles!

A blister beetle is a little bastard of a bug that is a stupid bastard! If they get up on your skin they secrete a toxin that causes human skin to blister. And is sucks! The secretion causes a blister that pops if you touch it. But once it is popped it releases the puss that makes your skin burn like hell. And somehow, one of those little bastards got on my face last night. And for some reason it went across my eye. So, it got the blistering agent all over my eyelid and around my eye! And now the skin around my eye is starting to peel and swell up. And my eye is starting to feel like it will be swollen shut in about a day or two.

So, apparently that happens here too. Who knew?

take care,Adam

Hello again. It was pointed out to me that I promised to blog more this year, and I have completely broken that promise. Sorry about that. Things are going well for me here. I'm working a lot at the clinic and I really enjoy that. The people are great.

This is a picture of my friend Cletus and me. This is on my front "porch". We just came back from picking a up some supplies in Accra. (A 12 hour 1-way trip).

So, one day I made banana-peanut butter pancakes. I made too much so I brought them to my neighbors and let them have the extra pancakes. In Ghana, they don't really make pancakes; the closest food to pancakes they have here is something called sensay. It is shea butter (a local butter), flour, and water. They fry it and then you put cooked leaves on it. So, it's kind of like pancakes, but not really.

Well, my neighbors loved the pancakes. They called them "nansala sensay". Nansala means white person in Dagaare, so in the local language they are calling the pancakes "white man's pancakes". So, people started asking me about the nansala sensay that they heard about. So I made another batch for some Ghanaians. Then more people asked. So the other day I taught a Ghanaian woman how to make them. Now she is making them for a lot of people. And then today, a Ghanaian friend of mine said that someone asked her if she knew how to make the nansala sensay, because she was my friend. So, now I am going to teach her how to make them so she can sell them at market.

I introduced pancakes to Lawra. I really am amazing!

Take care,Adam

Two days, two days!

For some reason that's what they say in my village when they haven't seen or heard from you in a while. Kind of like saying, "Long time". So, "Two days, two days!"

Sorry about that.

I just finished a big project that I put together with another volunteer. I wrote a PEPFAR grant to bring representatives from 10 AIDS support groups together so we could teach them how to make soap as a means of Income Generation. The project went really well, and I feel really good about playing a small part in helping to teach AIDS groups a way to improve their lives by having a good marketable skill. So, that was fun.

____________________________________________________________________

The other day, I was walking to town and I heard a noise that was unmistakeable: a motorcycle crashing. My heart dropped. I turned around and saw a boy, maybe 8 years old, squirming around on the pavement. And next to him was a man, trapped under his motorcycle. The man on the motorcycle had hit the boy who was riding his bike. Some Ghanaian friends and I ran over to two. We lifted the motorcycle off of the man and pulled him out from under it. He was pretty badly banged up. But it seemed like he would be ok. Then we looked at the boy. As I was looking at him, blood started to gush out of his ear. Oh shit. That's not good. Upon closer inspection we saw that the blood was pouring down from a big gash on the top of his head. That was actually a bit of a relief. At least he wasn't bleeding directly from his ear. So, we rushed the two to the hospital. I saw them both a few days later and they looked alright. You could tell they had been in an accident, but they were ok for the most part.

The point of that story? I don't know. The roads here suck.

Take care,Adam

This spider was in my house. It was as big as a goddamn shoe. I killed the shit out of it! I hate spiders.

Here is a picture of me and my pal eating some dog.

Is nothing sacred? NO. I suppose I've done worse. Much worse.

To answer your question Steve, I took those pictures in my front and back porch and just kind of got lucky on them lining up so well. So, just dumb luck. That's what I got!

By the way, I rode my bike 30 miles round trip yesterday to get soy milk at my neighbor Elyse's village. (Hi Elyse's mom :-). Soy milk! That's not even real milk! That's what hippies and liberals drink when they want milk. I've reached a new low: soy milk.

Here's us chilling after our delicious meal. We sure do look cool.

Take care,

Adam

Hey again. I just got back to my home in Lawra. It is really great to be back. It's nice to see my friends back here. It's funny that this place feels like home now. I've been gone for a while now. I left during the rainy season and I'm coming back to the dry season. Here are pictures of what it looks like now, and what it looked like when I left. It is amazing how much the landscape can change here. As you can see, it was very green when I left. And now it looks like, well, Africa.

Hello again. Sorry it's been a while . . . again. I'm back in Ghana now and I'm on my way back to my town. It's actually strangely nice to be back in Ghana. I am really excited about starting my second year of service. It feels kind of weird saying that.

I had an amazing time in America. I ate sooo much. I didn't realize how amazing that place is. You can get any kind of food anytime. It's beautiful. And grocery stores! Holy fuck!!! What a magical place! I really appreciate that kind of stuff more now that I have been deprived of it for so long. I think I gained about 15 pounds by the time I was done in America. And I owe it all to bacon. God bless bacon.

In the past I've been accused of not being sensitive enough. So, I thought I would post the most sensitive picture I could find. It is a picture of me making a deaf girl fan me because the electricity was out, and I was hot. I let her stop after about 15 minutes. And just to be clear, I'm not joking at all!

Hello again,

It's been a while since my last post and I have had some people tell me how lame I am for not posting in such a long time. So, sorry about that.

I am in America right now on vacation. I love it here - and you guys should too. This place has cheese, bacon, coffee, chocolate, and a whole lot more awesome stuff. I think I have gained about 15 pounds of weight by being here. I love it. I don't ever want to hear another person talk about how sad it is that America has food that is way too fattening. If you don't like fat foods, then go to a health store. Or better yet, go to Africa. You probably won't get fat there.

So anyways, there's my rant. I haven't blogged in a while because I haven't had any crazy new stories. I have been traveling around a lot and that has been fun. But I only wanted to blog about crazy stories. So, I figured I would dig into my "Stories from Ghana" vault and see what I came up with. I call this story Baby Execution. Enjoy!

A few months ago a girl and her mother came to the Clinic in my village. I actually mentioned them in an earlier post. The girl's name was Isaa and I never really knew her mother's name. Her mother was pretty crazy and didn't really talk at all. Anyways, they had recently been beaten up and kicked out of their country because they weren't ethnic enough. They were found wandering the streets of our town one day. So some people guided them to the clinic.

The clinic gave them a place to stay and we gave them food and helped take care of the girl, who was about 4 or 5 years old. At first she didn't to me talk at all. I wasn't sure if she was mute, or she was scared of me, or if she didn't speak any of the languages I was trying to talk to her with. And she was pretty badly emaciated. But I kept trying to get her to talk. And the clinic did a great job of feeding her. I came by every day I could for a few months. She was tentative at first, but I started excercizing with her. I would make her interlock her fingers and pull up on my arms.

Eventually, she started talking to me a little here and there, which felt huge. She started to look a little better as well. I kept making her excresize and she started getting better. After about 3 months she was really making progress. I couldn't come to the clinic without her jumping on top of me, crawling onto my shoulders, and talking my ears off. It felt really good to see her improve so much.

One day I came to the clinic with a bunch of candy to give to the kids. I gave all the kids candy, but Isaa wasn't around so I saved some for her. I came back the next day and asked Madame Marjorie, who runs the clinic, if Isaa was around because I had brought some candy for her. She told me that Isaa's mom went crazy and stoned her to death the night before. There really wasn't anything to say or do at that point, except turn around and go home.

Oh well, I guess all you can do is try. It's good to be back in America. I hope you're all having a great holiday season. Take care.

Adam Martyn

Sorry this is a long one. Long blogs can be boring, but a lot has happened that I want to share, so I hope you enjoy it!

It finally happened. My big boat trip happened! Truthfully it kind of started out as a big joke between me and my friend Caitlin. "Wouldn't it be cool if we just got on a boat and hung out for a few weeks?" I said. "Yea! But what if we got the US government to pay for it somehow?" she replied. "I know! We'll just go up to people and talk to them about AIDS." "Yeah" she said, "We'll travel around in a boat on the Lake Volta, we'll go to small island communities in Ghana, and we'll talk to them about AIDS. That way the US government will pay for it." That's pretty much how it all started.

But as we realized that this was actually possible, we began taking it more seriously. We could go to the most remote communities in Ghana and educate the people about HIV / AIDS, test them to see if they have HIV / AIDS, and we could refer them to clinics that could provide treatment if people tested positive.

So Caitlin and I wrote a grant to do this. After a few months we got approval and the money came. So, with a team of 5 Peace Corps volunteers (including Caitlin and me), and 4 Ghanaians (1 HIV / AIDS expert, 1 translator, a boat driver, and a navigator) we set off to reach these remote islands. I guess before I continue I should talk a little bit about the team.

Peace Corps Volunteers:

Adam Martyn - that's me!

Caitlin Hardie - This project really was Cait's and my idea. She made it happen. She did most of the hard work to make this a reality. She did an amazing job of rolling with the punches on this.

Maria Karlya - Maria came up with the whole program about AIDS. We taught 1000 people that really didn't even know what AIDS was. And she was able to teach it to people in a way that helped them understand it. She did an amazing job.

Cameron Tuckfield - Cam's a badass. Camping and traveling on a boat for a week is no easy task. He took care of us. He was the papa bear.

Andy Head - Andy was great. This was a pretty ambitious venture. And if I were to have learned just one thing from this it would be that the bigger the idea, the bigger the challenges. And we certainly did face some tough challenges. But at every low point, Andy was there to cheer us up. If it weren't for Andy, we probably would have all gone crazy.

Ghanaians

Maclean - Maclean was our translator. He is an amazingly sweet guy who absolutely loves the people we were able to reach.

Christian - Christian is the HIV / AIDS coordinator for the district that we were working in. He helped us enter the communities. And he did all the testing and counseling.

So, the team set off. We reached 9 villages. We taught HIV / AIDS to people in 9 communities. We reached over 1000 people, we tested 300 people, and we found a 5% positive rate. Which is depressing, but it is important to know, so these people can get treatment, and hopefully protect others by not spreading the disease now that they know they have it.

The response from these island communities was really amazing. The chief's and town elders all expressed told us how grateful they were for us coming and teaching and testing their people. They said that they have heard about HIV before but really had no idea what it was, or how it was spread.

But as rewarding as this project was, we certainly had our share of bullshit to deal with. Just getting the project off the ground was a pain in the ass. Nobody really seemed to want this to happen, and everyone was skeptical. We had gain permission from the Ghana Health departments to even do it. And we had to have them donate their boat. Everyone that we dealt with wanted to be bribed. And the boat broke down before we even left, so we had to get it repaired.

One of the island communities that we went to was actually "warring". The town was literally separated in half. 6 months ago someone tried to steal some fishing supplies from the island. Half the town wanted to kill the thief and the other half didn't want to kill him; they wanted to turn him over to the police. So the town was literally divided in half of capital punishment. Unaware of that fact, we entered the community and spoke with representatives of one of the sides. So, when the other half found out we were there, they assumed that we had taken their side and we only wanted to teach them and to test them. Christian, the HIV / AIDS nurse and Maclean basically told the town to get over their dispute or we would leave and not test anyone. So, we did our program and tested the people in the center of town, with people from both sides attending.

After our 8th village the town's elders gave us a kind thank you speech. Every village thanked us in their own personal way. Some gave us feasts; some expressed how grateful they were that we chose to come to them since no one ever had before. But this village thanked us, and prayed that we have a safe journey. I guess that should have been a warning that something bad was about to happen.

We then loaded the boat and went on the way to the next village which was about 30 minutes away. In the middle of the lake, and while going full speed we hit a tree that is hidden beneath the surface of the water. It felt just like a car accident, but on a boat. The collision was strong enough to knock a bunch of stuff over. It took us a second to realize what happened. Then water started filling the boat. Cameron, the world's biggest badass jumps up, throws his giant cock over his shoulder, grabs a bucket and starts bailing water. He yells at the driver, "go to shore!" We rush to the nearest shore, which is a little island. By the time we get to the island the water is about half way up our shins. We get all of our stuff off the boat and assess the situation. The boat is trashed. It might be repairable but we don’t have the supplies with us. The trip has certainly ended. What do we do? I'm especially depressed because we have been doing so well, we reached a stride, and we have been going to places that have no idea about the dangers of HIV and we have found that they have a 5% positive rate. And our trip has just ended because literally shipwrecked our boat on an island. Eventually a kind soul comes by, and we arrange for another boat to take us back to Caitlin's village, which is a 4 hours away. So, it's getting late, and the waters are extremely hard to navigate at night. We get lost on the way back. So it takes a long time to even get back home. By the time we get back to Caitlin's village it's night time and it’s starting to storm. We have to hike back to her home, which is about 3 miles from the dock, carrying our equipment, in the one of the worst rain storms ever. Our trip has ended! We tried so hard, and I'd like to think we had a meaningful impact, but we could have done more. We should have done more. But I guess God just said, "It's over".

So, the next day, we collect our thought and assess the situation. We decide to do one more event. We'll go to one more community. So, we go to another village, but they're "warring" too. By this point I don't give a shit what about. If their chiefs want to have some silly little tiff, then fuck them. I’m too tired to indulge in some bullshit argument and try to bring people together. But that event ended up getting rained out too, so it didn't really matter. So, the next day we try another village. We take a different boat to a village that is about 2 hours away. And we give it our all. We get about 200 people to attend our event and we test about 80 people. It was a great way to end the program. A huge event, and it felt like we really reached that village.

So, all in all I guess I would say that this project was an amazing success, and a total disaster. But as the Ghanaian's say, "Yen foso" which means "we have tried."

I'll post some pictures in the coming weeks. Take care, friends.

Adam Martyn

Well, let me start by telling you about last night. I realized my house was infested with termites. It was so bad I thought about sleeping outside. Instead I decided to kill them all. I figured out that their nest was somewhere in my closet. So I took all my things out of my closet and sprayed insect killer in there. I thought that would be the end of that. Oh no. The whole damn nest ran out of my closet. They ran everywhere. So, I unloaded three cans of insect killer in my room. After killing the whole nest, I swept all the dead termites up. I can't stress this enough: I am not exaggerating. There was at least a pound of termites, and the pile was big enough to fill a large soup bowl. It sucked. 

This morning I went back to the village to visit Joshua. I was a little nervous for a few reasons. 1. It is a major pain in the ass to get from my village to his. 2. The road is dangerous as hell. 3. I don't really trust his village. Some villages don't really seem to welcoming to nansalas (white people). So, I wasn't really looking forward to the journey, but I wanted to see him again.

I got there this afternoon. I spent about half an hour going up to people and asking if they had seem the man with no face. Seriously. Most people just kind of looked at me like I was crazy. They acted like they didn't know what I was talking about. But finally I asked the right people who helped me out. I met up with Joshua. It turns out that he is actually living with a family that watches out for him.

I spent the day hanging out with him and his family. They are some really nice people. We kind of lounged around and drank beers. I took a bunch of pictures. I also interviewed him and his family on camera. I'm going to make a short little video about him. I offered to take him to the clinic to live. But it seems like he is pretty happy where he is now. And the family also seems happy with him. So, I guess it worked out well.

Here are some pictures. Some people might not like these images. That's your warning! More to come soon hopefully.

Hello again. Next week I'm heading down to the Volta river to go on my boat trip. Along with 4 other Peace Corps volunteers, a boat driver, a translator, and a person living with HIV, I will spend two weeks on the lake going to small island communities to talk to the people about HIV / AIDS. We'll talk about prevention, treatment, etc, but the main focus of this project is to promote acceptance of people living with HIV / AIDS. 

Before I go on this boat trip, I'm going back to the village to see Joshua, the disfigured man I wrote about. I'm actually a little nervous about that. Not quite sure why. I'm going to see if he wants to come to the clinic to live there, where they can better treat his condition, hopefully. 

Well, here's a picture of me and the boat we'll be traveling on. For two weeks . . . in the rainy season! 

adam

I went to the a spot the other day to grab a drink with some friends. I was hungry and all they had to eat was dog. I don't mind eating dog; I've done it before. So, I figured I'd eat a plate. It was fine, but I realized that I was eating the jaw with the teeth still in it. So, I ate around the bone and teeth and just had the meat. Oh Ghana, you so crazy!

Take care,Adam Martyn

This is a picture of the women that work at the Methodist Clinic. The children are all orphans or have parents who are unable to take care of them. All the money from the soap that you guys bought went right to these kids (ok, I took a some of it and got hammered - Just kidding).

Madam Marjorie Nintori is on the far left. She is in charge of the Clinic. The row of women that are standing all work at the clinic and orphanage.

The boy sitting on the bench, 3rd from the left is Kwabena. He has TB of the bones. He's a funny kid. He just kind of sits there while the other kids play and he judges them. Every once in a while he'll make a smart ass comment to the kids. He just seems to think all the other kids are idiots. He's my favorite. To his right is Isaa. She was found wondering the streets with her mother. They were kicked out of their town across the border for some stupid reason. When she came she could barely walk. But now when I come she pretty much climbs on top of my shoulders in a second. She's really coming along well.

The woman sitting and holding a baby had triplets. The two kids in front of her are hers also. She puts that metal thing on her head, and uses a cloth to strap the third kid on her back. That way she can carry the kids wherever she goes. In the local traditional religion triplets are seen as a bad omen that the gods will kill you if you keep them. So, her husband left her and she is raising the kids by herself at the clinic. 

There are two girls sitting next to the woman in front who is kneeling. Those girls are Jennifer and Akwia. They pretty much take care of all the other kids when the grownups aren't around. They're really sweet kids.

The woman who is kneeling is propping up a child, who is unable to sit or stand on his own. He has a spinal problem which is disabling him. In the traditional religion, that too is seen as a bad omen. Since he is so disabled his movements resemble a snake. So, it is thought that he is a serpent. So, his parents want to kill him. So the clinic is taking care of him. Every once in a while the parents come to try to kill the kid. But the staff told the parents that if they kill the child the "nansala" will come for them. Nansala means white person. So, I'm the buggy man! 

In short, these kids suck! Just kidding. They're a lot of fun. And thanks for buying the soap and making things nicer for them. They're very grateful.

Take care,Adam Martyn 

I went to the dentist the other day. Let me say that it is probably best to avoid dentists in Africa. I broke a tooth a while ago, so I went to get a filling put in. But the thing is, they don't give you any Novocain. So, I actually blacked out from the pain of having my tooth drilled and then I woke up because I was choking on a piece of tooth that broke off. It sucked! But hey, at least I have a full face and a wiener. I guess last week taught me that not everyone can say that.

By the way, thanks for the nice words regarding my last post. I really appreciate your support.

Nmenna ka ta bio,

Adam Martyn

So it has been quite a week! I started out the week with a visit with some other Peace Corps volunteers. We hung out and drank, which is pretty much all we do when we meet up. It was fun to see some friends and shoot the shit.

On my way back to my site I met an interesting person. He approached me and my friend from afar. He was wearing only boxers and nothing else. We assumed it was just a run of the mill whack job who wanted to beg us for some money. But as he got closer we realized that was far from the case. He was completely missing his nose, lips, and the pallet of his mouth. So he spoke with a lisp, which made it difficult to understand him. But, what I found the most disturbing thing of all was how coherent and sane he was. I was expecting him to be a total nut job. But he was 100% sane and able to communicate. He said that he didn't know if he was a man or a woman because he had was born with testicles but no penis. And he showed us, which was quite a disturbing site.

The town seemed to just ignore him, as if they didn't really know how to treat him, since he was such a disturbing site. I'm guessing that he was either tortured as a child, or had some weird form of leprosy, or was the child of an incestuous union. But he said that the town ignores him and he really just wanted to talk to us while we waited for our vehicle. We told him to have a seat and we'd be happy to talk to him. It ended up being about almost an hour of talking with this guy. He was nice, interesting, and had a decent sense of humor. He asked us to take pictures of him because he wanted people to see him, since so many people just ignore him. He wanted people to see how much he suffered. But I have never seen someone get so fucked over by life. Basically most of his face was missing, and it looked as though he had been castrated. But he was sane enough to feel all the suffering that it caused. I think it would have been better if he were crazy because I wouldn't want to live like that. And he basically asked us if we knew why God had chosen him to comdem. And needless to saw, we didn't have any answers.

So, I've decided to goback to his village. I'm going to take some pictures, as he asked. I'm going to post them. But then, I'm going to take him to a proper hospital, have the doctors look at him and have him looked at by a leprosy specialist. And then I found a clinic that will give him a place to stay and work and live at with some nice amenities. But don't be surprised if my next post is pretty graphic.

Then about a day later I got a call from Peace Corps. It basically said, "Obama is in town. He is doing a quick invitation only event for US government employees and Peace Corps volunteers. It basically had 2 days to get to Accra and be in front of the US Embassy if I wanted to see him. So, of course I went. I took an all night bus to Accra, which took about 14 hours. I can't sleep on busses, so I missed a night of sleep. But then me and some other Peace Corps volunteers met up at the Embassy and went to the airport for President Obama's departure ceremony. We got the private treatment, right in front. It was a buch of Embassy workers, US military folks, other government workers, and Peace Corps Volunteers. And the Peace Corps got the special treatment. He thanked the Peace Corps volunteers specially for our service. And that was a huge honor, to be thanked by the president for our hard work and sacrifice. And then he flew back to America.

By the way, here's the transcript of the event:

http://www.fosterfollynews.com/news/2009July11PresidentLeavesGhana.php

So, all in all it was a pretty interesting week. Got to see one of the worst off people I've hever seen, tried my best to help him (probably in vein). And then got thanked by the president. It was a trip!

Take care friends,

Adam Martyn

Hello all. Sorry it's been a while.

I'm in a town called Kumasi right now. It's the second biggest city in Ghana, and it sucks. It's a freaking zoo here. It has one of the craziest markets I have ever seen. And it's a really dangerous place.

Yesterday I was at a bus station and two people were about to fight over 5 cents. They were just about to beat each other when a crowd gathered on the other side of the station. I asked someone what was happening and they told me that there were armed robbers and the police had them cornered and were going to kill them. And then shots rang out. We all jumped on the bus and it sped away. 

The Dagate (the tribe with whom I am living) have a saying they use to say goodbye. It goes "Nmenna ka ta bio" which means "May God give us tomorrow". It is pronounced "men-na kah tah bee-oh"

So,  Nmenna ka ta bio

Adam

I've compiled a list of things that are perfectly normal in Ghana and are not normal in America. These are things that you see people doing all the time, and it's totally fine. Here it is:

1. Snot rockets

2. Pissing / shitting in public, also called "free ranging"

3. Asking a stranger their religion

4. Calling a person by their physical description (e.g. short fat woman, old lady, Chinese man, etc) – My favorite!

5. Littering

6. Hissing at people to get their attention

7. Asking someone you just met if they will marry you (the courtship process is very different here)

8. Two straight people of the same sex holding hands - GAY!!!!

Take care,

Adam

Hey guys,

Sorry I haven't written anything lately. And sorry this one isn't too interesting. I have been on the road for the past month. And I'm about to go on the road again. I'm still traveling around. I'll spend the majority of this month traveling around trying to sell the soap. It's all pretty exhausting. I can't tell you how nice it would be to just sit somewhere and eat hot dogs and drink beer. That would be heaven.

Enjoy!

Adam Martyn

Hello again,

I've spent the past few weeks traveling around trying to promote the xylophones and the soap. So far it's been going really well. I'm in Accra this week. And next week I will travel up to Burkina Faso. There I'll be working at a trade fair to learn more about soap production and I'll also be selling the soap for the Clinic. This is pretty exhausting. Imagine hitchhiking, camping, and couch-surfing through two countries. And every town they speak a different language. And when I get to Burkina, the common language is French, which I don't speak at all.

Here's my anecdote for the week. I've been staying in some dirty spots while on the road. I was putting on a shirt the other day. I got the shirt on and felt something moving in it. I shaked the shirt a little and a live cockroach fell out. That sucked. And another time I was going to the bathroom, and all I can say is this: a rat touched me.

Take care,

Adam Martyn

Hello all!

Thanks for your emails regarding my last post. If you want to send any instruments here's the address you can send to. I don't have a site or a contact for the soap purchases yet. So, if you do want some soap, just let me know the quantity and we'll figure out a way for you to get me the money. Right now I think if you that I'll give you my bank account and you can deposit the money into my account. And then I'll mail you the soap. Thanks again, and I promise you'll be making a HUGE difference in these people's lives.

Also, I posted my documentary! It's no masterpiece. I'm working with some limited resources here. But I am happy with it and I hope you guys enjoy it. If you do enjoy it, please tell others to watch it. I want as many people to watch it as possible.

Documentary link:http://vimeo.com/3515667

Mailing address:Adam MartynPeace Corps VolunteerP.O. Box 523Wa, Upper West RegionGhana, West Africa

__________________Just for clarification, Wa is the city and Upper West Region is like the state.

Thanks again, and please let me know what you think of the documentary!

Adam Martyn

After I took this picture I punched each one of these brats!

Hello Friends and Family,

I thought I'd give you guys an update on my projects. I don't know if I have really explained what I am doing, so here it is!

Project #1

I'm working with the group of xylophone artisans. I'm trying to help them with their quality control and their marketing. I just completed a short documentary about xylophones and how they are a part of African culture. I'm trying to post it on youtube.com but it's taking forever! I've been trying to post it for the past two days, but have had no luck. I'll let you know as soon as I get it posted.

Project #2

I'm working at the Methodist AIDS Clinic and Orphanage. The staff is some of the most amazing people I've ever met. They look after and treat 70 people with HIV or full-blown AIDS, and they take care of 20 orphaned children. In order to maintain the costs of running the clinic and orphanage they make and sell soap. I get to play a lot with the kids, and I'm helping the staff to improve their soap sales.

Project #3

I'm running a music club at the high school. Right now I'm teaching some students guitar. We listen to different types of music from around the world. We also sing songs. The kids absolutely love it, and I'm having a blast too. There's a little Aretha Franklin in the class, and there's a couple of really good rappers.

Project #4

I'm working with a women's group that processes peanuts, peanut butter, and rice. I'm trying to help them to get some equipment to make their projects a little more efficient, and a little easier.

If you are able and want to help, here's what you can do. Sorry, I won't solicit from you guys too much. I know that times are tough in America these days.

Project #1

Watch my youtube.com video about the xylophones. And show it to your friends. I want to show it to people that are interested in African culture and especially interested in the music. So if you know anybody that is interested in African music, please show it to them. Hopefully they'll want to buy some xylophones from us.

Project #2

The soap that they make is called Moringa soap, because it comes from the Moringa tree. It is amazing, it's really good for your skin and it smells great. If you have the money, please consider buying some of this soap. Like I said, I know times are tough, but you're probably going to buy soap anyways, right? And when you do, it would probably be overpriced and made by children in sweatshops. And the money would just go to some rich asshole. Buying this soap would directly help orphaned children and people suffering from HIV or AIDS. An order of soap would make a huge difference in their lives.

It cost $1 per bar. I have no idea how much shipping to America would cost. If you were to order about 50 or 100 bars of soap, I'm guessing it would cost about $250 in shipping. That's $350 for an order of 100 bars of soap. That's $3.50 per bar of soap. You're probably paying that much for soap already. If you and a couple of friends go in on an order it would be pretty manageable. $3.50 per bar of soap ain't so bad ,right?

It's win win! I'm not asking you to give up your daily coffee this year so you can sponsor some little kid. I'm not asking you to “donate” at all. I'm just asking you to buy some soap in bulk, if you can.

Project #3

If you have any instrument that you don't use anymore send them. It doesn't matter what it is, I promise the kids will love it. They don't really have an outlet for musical or artistic expression, so they're really into this project. Or, if you just want to donate some money for me to buy some instruments here, let me know.

A little side-note about the schools here. They don't necessarily have toilets, or running water. The school next to my bungalow has a latrine (a public toilet, which is just a hole in the ground - much like the one pictured earlier) but it is full. So, the school has 1,100 students who shit in plastic bags and just throw them away outside. It's pretty horrible. I am looking into what it would take to build another latrine or even a toilet for the students. That's going to be my next project.

Thanks again, and sorry to solicit help from you guys. I promise that there won't be too much of that anymore.

Take care,

Adam Martyn

martynadam@gmail.com

Hey guys,

I just posted a few pics. It's the before and after of malaria. Pretty cool, huh? But, I'm doing much better now. I'm at my site in at Lawra and I'm getting down to work, which is nice. I've learning how to make and play the xylophones, which is incredibly fun. I'm also working on starting an art / music club at the high school, since they don't really offer art classes. I'm giving guitar lessons to a few kids right now, and they seem to love it. So, I'm doing pretty well so far.

Living in Lawra is pretty crazy. It's about as far from the country capital as possible. It's about a 2-day drive, so it's like living in the sticks. It's cool but it's a major adjustment. Training didn't really prepare me for this, since it's such a rural lifestyle. It's hard to explain, but I imagine that it's like what things must have been like in the wild west days. But instead of people riding horses, they ride motorcycles. And if you drive for 2 hours you can use the internet. But other than that, it's like I've traveled back in time.

Well, let me know how you guys are doing. Thanks again for all the good thoughts and prayers.

Take care, Adam Martyn

Well I'm doing a lot better now. I have recovered from the malaria. My hand was pretty messed up for a while. I got phlebitis in my left hand, which is basically a scabbing of the vein where they hooked up the iv. But it has gotten better. So, I'm back to "normal" which is a bit of a relief. I'm taking some comfort in knowing that my experience really is one of the most messed up experiences in all of Peace Corps Ghana. I hope that means it's all better from here on.

I'm en route to my site. We have just completed our training and we have sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers. It was a pretty cool moment. I'm pretty sure that we take the same oath as they do in the military.

Well I hope everything is well for you guys. Take care.

I just recovered from malaria! I had to spend 3 nights in a hospital. It was one of the worst weeks of my life, and I've been to Cleveland, so that's saying a lot.

It hits you all at once. Monday morning at about 1 o'clock I had the worst craps and vomits and I was absolutely freezing. I was fully clothed, had my blankets on, had a pile of clothes, and two rugs covering me, and I was still completely fetal. I called the Peace Corps doctor at 8am and she told me that I probably had malaria and I needed to go to the hospital. I was in the Upper West, about 10 hours from Accra, but fortunately I was very close to a rural hospital. Unfortunately however rural hospitals in Ghana are the worst thing ever!

A few things to note if you go to the hospital in Ghana or Africa for that matter. Bring your own toilet paper, soap, water, and food. It will not be provided. I found that out the HARD way. Fortunately , I had a friend near by that pretty much saved my life.

So I was admitted to the hospital on Monday morning. I was on an iv and medicine for 3 long days. The "doctors" who by the way are Cuban volunteers who speak very poor English, are not very helpful. They don't tell you the side effects of the medicine. The medicine that they give you makes you have the worst hallucinations imaginable. I tripped harder than I have ever tripped in my life (and that's saying quite a bit). The hallucinations are so real, and so horrible. I can't even begin to describe them, but they were pure evil.

The man next me was begging to God all night to be spared his life, and then died that night. I could hear children dying. I had an iv in my hand for the entire time. The iv infultrated which means that it leaked out of my vein and my arm swelled up. I could barely move my arm. My left had was bloody, and my right had was covered in my own shit due to the lack of tp. At one point I brought the iv to the bathroom and realized that I had let it fall, so the iv bag filled with my own blood.

This was the only time in my life that I can think of where I thought that a disease was going to get the better of me. The hallucinations are so bad! But, like I said, my friend came and took care of me. And the Peace Corps doctor also made me feel much better. I am truly grateful to be better now. I wish that on nobody!

Take care and God bless!

Adam Martyn

Well hello again! I had quite an experience the other day. I got to teach about HIV / AIDS at an elementary school. Me! Teaching about AIDS in GHANA!!!

The amount of misinformation in Africa is horrifying. You wouldn't believe the stuff people think about AIDS here. It's really disturbing. They think that you can get it from mesquitos, and that there is a cure but only really rich people can afford it. It's pretty shocking to talk to kids about AIDS. It's hard to say if we got through or not, but I hope so.

Hopefully this picture can be posted. It is of me and Dan, a pal that I taught with. We are standing in front of the school. In all seriousness, this picture is actually one of my proudest moments.

I found out some more info about my assignment. I will be working with xylophone artisans to help them increase their sales and improve quality control. I'm really excited about that because I basically begged to get that assignment. I get to work with people who are making xylophones! It doesn't get cooler than that.

Speaking of music, I bought a guitar. I've been having quite a bit of fun with it. I'll go around town singing and playing guitar. It is one of the funniest things I've ever done in my life. I'm in towns that haven't ever seen a white person before, and I'm going around with a guitar singing like a crazy person. But people seem to love it. Children especially love it. They come up and sing with me and play. The other day I just walked up to some kids and started playing and they started singing. It's pretty amazing. I'll try to post some pictures soon.

I went with my family to church this Sunday and it was quite an experience. It lasted for about 4 hours. It was about 2.5 hours of singing / screaming. Then it was about 45 minutes of getting donations. Then it was about half an hour of preaching. Then it was back to screaming. Since I was the only white person in the church, they had me introduce myself. I had to go in front of the whole group of about 300 people and say hi. It was a little odd. But I introduced myself in the local language and the whole church erupted in applause. It was pretty surreal.

Hello all,

Let me just clarify my last blog. I crapped the bed while sleeping. It sucked. But, it happens to everyone here. At least I wasn't on the bus. They call it Riding Hot when you crap yourself on the public transportation.

I found out where I am going to be posted for my two years in Ghana. I am going to Lawra in the Upper West Region. Very exciting!

Hello all!

I am now living with my host family and they are great. They've taken me in and are being very kind to me. They have given me a family and Ghanain name of Kwamen Ausu. That was pretty exciting. Although as a weird sign of respect and welcoming they won't eat dinner with me. They make me eat in the corner while they all eat together. It's a little weird! It kind of sucks to tell you the truth. But I guess that's how they do things.

And let me just tell you one more thing. Everyone coming from America living in Ghana will get the craps. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE will get it bad enough that they crap themselves. There is no exception to that rule. EVERYONE will crap themselves. Im not kidding or exaggerating. EVERYONE. Man, woman, everyone!

Take care,

Adam Martyn

Hello all! I'm alive and well living in Africa. Right now I am staying in a town called Kpetoe (Pet-away). It's great here. The people are extremely kind and welcoming, the food is great, and I absolutely love it here.

I'm still in training right now. I have about three more months to go before I begin my project. During the training I'll be traveling around quite a bit. Right now I am staying with a volunteer and learning from him.

It's been a lot of fun so far. I'm learning the languages well enough and I'm getting along great with everyone. The Ghanains really are some of the kindest people ever. I've been to a few places where I'm the only white person. The people yell out "Yovu, yovu" or "abruni" which means "white man!". I've ran across a few people who have never even seen a white person before so they pet my arms to feel my skin. It's pretty funny. Ghanians like to laugh a lot. They laugh at each other. It's a way they ease tension. So, I've been laughed at by a lot of people, but it's all in good fun.

Sorry I haven't posted more. I have to trek to the region capitol to get internet access. I'll try to post more often. Take care, and God bless.

Adam Martyn

Tonight is my last night in the lovely U.S. of A. Tomorrow I begin my day in America and I will end it in Africa. I learned something interesting about Ghana: it is illegal to be gay. Go ahead, make your jokes. But it is interesting.

 I flew into Philadelphia last night so I could start my pre-service training. Today we began the orientation process so I got a chance to meet everyone. It felt a little bit like the first day of school but it was fun. Tomorrow is a full day of training. Then Monday we're driving to New York so we can take a red-eye from JFK to Accra, which is the capital city of Ghana. I'm not really looking forward to taking an 11 and 1/2 hour red-eye flight. 

I have a roommate and he seems like a good guy. But then again, I don't know why I was expecting my roommate to be lame?

Well friends and family, this is my blog. I've never done one of these before so I'm probably not going to be very good at it, but I'll do my best. My intention is to use this to keep you all posted on my upcoming Peace Corps adventure. I appreciate all your love and support and I'll do my best to keep in touch. Please do the same. 

Take care and God Bless!