Identity Crisis

Reflections on who I am as a writer, fundraising/development professional, returned Peace Corps Volunteer, student, athlete, friend, sister, daughter, and human.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Another Day at the Office

So, as I'm sitting here at the sub-office in Tamale frantically trying to do all the work that I need to get done on the computer while I have access, something suddenly flew maybe a foot away from my head. I looked over in the direction the object went and saw a bat that had just flown from the ceiling and landed on the printer. I have bats in my ceiling at site, but I'm not accustomed to sharing a room with one. I quickly decided that this was not something I could handle, so I went out to get the guard. Luckily it was one of my two favorite guards. I told him that there was a bat in the office, and it would be great if he could help me get rid of it. His response was "Again? We had to chase one out maybe three days ago."

Posted by Kim at 1:09 PM

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Blog Archive

About Identity Crisis

This blog was originally about my Peace Corps experiences in the Northern Region of Ghana. I finished my service in July, and have noticed that I really miss writing about what's happening in my life, so I decided to change the focus a bit, and to reflect on my various roles in life (returned peace corps volunteer, writer, fundraising/development professional, community volunteer, student, athlete, woman, human) and how these roles change and grow with my experiences. I hope, like most writers, to be relevant and interesting. Please send me any feedback!

About Me

Kim: My name is Kim Brokling. I am inquisitive and enthusiastic about life. I love trying new things and meeting new people. I prefer to be outside walking, hiking, or gardening. If I'm inside I like reading, writing, and baking bread.

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nutrition program women

This shows me and the women in Tindan who did my nutrtion program. So far, I've trained over 30 women and 18 men!

New Hair Style top front

New Hair Top

New Hair Style 1

This took a long time, and I had 12 little kids watching me like I was a tv the whole time

More Canopy Walk

Cape Coast Castle

This is the view of the Cape Coast castle from where we were staying. Castle was depressing but still worth going to

Kakoum Canopy Walk

Brian was fearless on the canopy walk, which meant he walked quickly and made the bridge sway a lot for the rest of us

Pounding floor

Women all come together and pound the floor smooth using special clubs.

Floor ingredients

The ingredients for the floor are mixed together before they are pounded in.

Dawadawa

These women are removing the dawadawa from the pods. It is used as a spice in cooking as well as for flooring

Shara and Abdul

Achiri's first wife, Shara, recently gave birth to this healthy little boy they named Abdul Wuntiti. Normally he won't sleep, but she couldn't wake him for the picture.

Passing it on

Lansa and Rahi were two mothers in the hearth program. Here they are passing on what they learned during our closing ceremony.

Serving Food

Here Azara is ladling some porridge into a bowl. Every day that the hearth mothers met, we would prepare weaning porridge with some growth foods (legumes, meats, eggs, milk, etc.) and give a health lesson.

Overboiled oil

It is important not to let the oil overboil, or it catches on fire like this. The facilitators all seemed to know what to do though, and quickly put out the fire without spoiling the oil.

Cutting soap

To cut the soap, you push it through the wires on the box. If you look closely, you can see the wires in front of the soap in the picture.

Alex and the Girls

Alex facilitated most of the soap making workshop, except on the day when the supervisor was in. All the girls wanted their picture with him. These women all came from the Volta Region

Soap Making Group shot

Here is everyone who was in the soap making workshop, displaying the bars of soap that we made

Me and the Hearth Mom's

All these women participated in my hearth program. They worked really hard and learned a lot. So did I. See my project list to learn more about hearth.

xylophone ceremony

We closed the soap making workshop with a xylophone ceremony. The group here also makes and sells xylophones. It was a really good performance.

Hippo heads

You can't get too close to hippos because they are mean.

Making a Foundation

A sting or piece of rope is used to measure the foundation. Here Achiri and Hardu are digging a small trench. They will fill this with mud and then allow the mud to dry, and that will be the foundation of the room.

Donkey Cart

That big barrel is full of water, which is poured into the pit to make the mud for the houses. People pay the donkey cart drivers to fetch the water for them. Donkey carts are also excellent for hitchiking.

Hauling the Mud

Even little kids help bring the mud from the pit to the house.

Roofing the house

Neem tree branches are used to make the roof. The roof is made watertight by adding woven grass.

Kids with toys

These kids are holding little handmade toys. When they run, the papers spin (so like a pinwheel)

Hanging Out in a Tree

Guillermo, Julie, Lizzy and Beth. Some people who make my life better hanging out in a tree.

ants in same tree

All those red spots are ants hanging out in the same tree. Oops.

Random creature hanging out on my front porch

Aisha

This is my neighbor's little girl, Aisha. She is the happiest baby I've ever met in my life. Her mom is always smiling and laughing too. She likes to say my given name (the mom that is, Aisha can't talk yet) and it sounds like she's singing. This photo was at a drama and singing competition to raise awareness about malaria.

Fighting for the Front

These boys play football (soccer) near the lorry station every night. Here they are wrestling to be in the front of the picture.

Fetching water

These girls were returning from fetching water. Women put branches inside of the water bucket (you can see it on the left) because it keeps the water from sloshing around while they are carrying it. A lot of times the loads that they carry are so heavy that they cannot lift them- it requires two people to lift the water or merchandise or whatever onto your head. Once it's up though, they can carry huge amounts.

Kids by Football Field

These boys ask me to take their picture every time I walk by the football field at the JSS (middle school). They were delighted when I climbed a tree for with them after taking their picture.

Sunset

More cute kids

Cute kid from Market

This little girl's mom sells kola nut at my market. We became friends because I bought a rubber prayer mat and asked her if I could leave it in her stall until I was finished shopping. When I came back, this little girl was sprawled out on the mat, and burst into tears when I tried to take it back from her.

Christmas

Enjoying the Christmas festivities

Christmas

The thing that he's holding traditionally is associated with juju, but a lot of people just use it because it looks cool while their dancing now

Christmas

Here's a picture of me dancing

Christmas

If people like a dancer or drummer, they will place money on their forehead. This drummer has one cedi (about a dollar) on his forewhead.

Christmas

The catholic church sponsored some traditional dancing for christmas.

Fire Festival

This shows some people dancing with torches at the fire festival. There was fire and dust everywhere

Loading cow on lorry

A crowd gathers to push the cow to the top of the lorry.

Making shea butter

Mixing shea butter

These bowls all have shea butter in them. The women use their arms to mix the boiled shea plant with water, which causes the oil to separate

Finished

This is what the almost finished product looks like. Before it goes to market, it goes to a cream color and is heaped inside a calabash shell.

Guinea Fowl Babies

Apparently guinea fowl are not good mothers, so people take the eggs and give them to chickens to hatch, so it's common to see a hen with a bunch of guinea fowl chicks following it. The chicken eggs are sold. A lot of them are sold to me- I am so glad that I can get eggs in my village. A lot of volunteers can't, even though there are chickens and guinea fowl all over the place.

What is a Guinea Fowl?

I get asked this a lot, so here is a picture. Guinea Fowl are camara shy creatures, but I think this is an OK shot.

Harmattan

This is what the sky looks like during Harmattan.

Applying the dye

Sanatu is putting the zabelo on my foot. I think at least 5 people helped with this process because they thought it was so entertaining that I was doing it.

My feet

We did my feet with the zabbela (by the way, I have no idea how that's actually spelled) The left foot has the paste on it still, and the right foot is what it looks like when you rub off the paste. I'm not sure why they dot the ankles.

Hair

Women put their hair into tiny braids that are wrapped in a plastic string.

Pedicure

The green stuff in the bowl is not food. That is what gets coated on feet to decorate them, kind of like how we use nail polish. This is commonly done at weddings, but grown women do it just because too.

Front yard

These trees grow in front of the house. The teachers and I hang out under them during the afternoons.

Outside of house

My house from the outside

View from house

latrine

Freshly scrubbed and complete with toilet paper! How exciting is that?

Living room 2

Living room 1

my living room

Coal Pot

This is a coal pot, which I use every now and then to bake or if my gas stove is out of gas. The coals go in the top part, and then you balance the pan on top of the coals. Ghanaians then pick the hot pans up with their bare hands- pot holders are not part of the kitchen equipment here.

kitchen sink

This is where I do my dishes- on my back porch in this basin. That green thing is the scrub brush- they sell them all over the place and they are awesome. I use the same thing for washing myself

Washing Machine

First you fill the first bucket with water. You scrub the clothes with the soap, and rub them together for friction. Then you put them into the other basin. When you're finished, you dump out the water, refill it, and repeat without the soap to rinse. Then you line dry the clothes, after turning them inside out so that the sun doesn't bleach them.

Bedroom

This is where I sleep

Finished product

This is what it looks like when it's finished. Ghanaians will take a small amount of the fufu (that'st the white part) with their fingers and use it to scoop up the food. It's really tasty.

The experts Pounding

Apparently, I wasn't that great at pounding it, because the experts took over in short order.

Me pounding Fufu

After the yams are boiled, you have to pound them. The pounding stick is called toliga. Usually this is a two person job.

Making Fufu- Boiling yams

This shows yams being boiled. This is not a coal pot, but kind of like a campfire with 3 big rocks to hold up the pot.

The hole

This is the hole. The body is placed in the cavity off to the side, so dirt doesn't actually onto the body when the hole is refilled with dirt.

Removing Insides

This picture shows them removing the insides. They will eat all of it, including the intestines, which are considered a delicacy

finished product

This is what it looks like when it's done. Next it will be hacked into pieces and sold

Burial crowd

Men crowded around while the hole for the body was being dug. As one person gets tired, another one will jump in. The women do not help dig the hole, but they perform songs and prepare food.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Another Day at the Office

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