In Maase

It has been a crazy first few weeks in Ghana! Right now, I am staying with a host family in a town called Maase in the Eastern Region. I have only been with the family for a couple of days, so it’s still a new experience, and us obronis, or white people, are still a bit of a novelty in the town.

Okay, since I last wrote, I went on an expedition to the Northern region to a town called Fulfuso. It took about twelve hours on a bus to get there, but it was well worth the travel, because I got to see most of the country. There, I visited another PCV named Hannah, who was not a bearded fella, Theresa, but very, very nice. She works as a WATSAN, or water and sanitation, trying to reduce the number of guinea worm cases in the area. If you want to be thoroughly grossed out, google guinea worm in images.

And now for the big news… A couple of days ago I got my assignment!

I’ll be working in a town called Liati Wote in the Volta Region. It is right near Hoehoe and the border of Togo and Ghana. I’ll be working in Ecotourism there, because it is a very beautiful part of the country, with the highest mountain nearby and waterfalls. I’ll write more details when I find some out. I do know my living conditions, and in typical business fashion, us SED volunteers have the hookup. One guy actually has two houses and one woman has air conditioning in her office. I’m not as high maintenance as those two, though. I’ll be living in a compound that a local politician owns. He and his wife actually live in Accra and only come home for funerals. It has electricity and flush toilets.

As of now, all of the PCTs are in the surrounding area, divided up by sector. All of us business people are in Maase for training and language classes. I am learning a language called Ewe, which is interesting. The only frustrating thing is that Maase is a Twi speaking community, so I have to try not to confuse Ewe and Twi.

I don’t have much time here at the internet café, but I’ll post a few facts for y’all. I just heard the song What if God Was One of Us, which I found amusing for some reason.

Fun Facts Edition 3:


Ghanaians love Celine Dion.

It is common to bathe at least twice a day, if you don’t Ghanaians will be very confused by you. How do you bathe in Ghana? With a bucket. My host mom insists that I use hot water, though.

Food is consumed in mass quantities here. This morning for breakfast I was served six slices of bread, six cracker/cookies, and a heaping bowl of oatmeal. It was enough to feed four people, but luckily Ghanaians don’t waste anything, so I know some kids eat my leftovers.

Ghanaians find it hilarious when we scare the little kids who aren’t used to white people. Some little kids love white people and will yell “OBRONI,” and I have to say “Yenfreme obroni, Yefreme KATIE.” Now the kids yell “KATIE.” So either way, we always get attention.

I’ve been proposed to about seven times as of now. They love to joke about marriage here, too.

Well, I love and miss you guys! I'll be able to post more often now, because we are settled in this community for the next two months. Feel free to Email me if you have any questions/concerns! Love, Katie