Lake Bosumtwi

I realize that I didn't update with the lake trip that we went on a few weeks ago (more like a month, but oh well).

View of the lake from Green Ranch

Pat, Rachel, Kaia, Kwama, and I all went to the Lake Bosumtwi. It is large lake that was formed by a meteor a long time ago. It is one of the few fresh water lakes that is in a contained area. There are what I guess are mountains or rather large hills around it.

For the people who I haven't told, Kwama is a friend of ours who is originally from Kumasi but now lives in Accra. He is the manager of the Salvation Army hostel and was one of the first Ghanians I met when coming in.

Anyways, we decided all to go to the lake and check it out. Rachel had been before, and of course Kwama, but the rest of us never went before. Rachel met a french woman in Kumasi at a french group meet up and she mentioned she owns a ranch/bed and breakfast at the lake and people should visit. So we did!

After not being sure where we catch a tro tro from Ejisu, getting on one, then getting off, waiting at a taxi ring, and then getting picked up by Eloise (the French woman), we embarked up the long whinding hills towards the lake. When we descended down you can see the lake. It is huge. There are villages that are all around the lake a few miles or less apart. Eloise took us down a dirt road that was super bumby for 30 minutes, until we got to her place, the Green Ranch. She married a Ghanian man and she has a son with him. They live there and co run the ranch. They have horses that they rent by the hour and she will take you around to all the villages. As well, you can go down the hill to the lake and swim.

The lake is a sacred place though. The locals do not believe in putting in engines in the water. Because of this, the fisherman pattle with their hands on long, almost flat boats. While we were swimming I saw a guy pattling along and singing with his bucket of fish between his legs.

It really is a beautiful place and Green Ranch is super nice. She serves all vegetarian food (A GOD SENT I TELL YOU) and I ate some delicious baked yams with groundnut soup. The facilities are very nice and her outdoor showers were heavenly.

It was just a really nice day. I enjoyed Kwama, Rachel, and Pat falling off the boat trying to balance multiple times. Don't worry, I also tried and fell off...It was an experience. But it was nice to finally explore Ghana. I feel like I get stuck in Kumasi and in Antoa sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I love it so far, but I would just like to explore more areas and check it out. It was my first real “day trip” and it was nice to get out.

Can't wait to do it again!

The owner has a monkey....

Monkey?

MONKEY

Kwama and Rachel trying to get the boat out 

Swim time fun with Kaia (left) and Pat (right)

KAIA

Kaia Chillin

Side view, the village over

Lake

Rachel determined to ride the boat

And Failing...

Attempt 2!

And falling....but a nice picture!

Close up of the tree we lounged on. 

Now with my awesome foot. 

Lake

Side view. If you can see, there are small plastic bottles in the lake that are fish traps. 

Such a nice and relaxing day. 

Season of Love

Wow.

It is crazy what happens within a month. Within a month I had a friend move back to America from Ghana, I went traveling, came back, ran my programs, and then had that same friend pass away within a month time frame.

Life is weird.

I want to talk about this friend, Ryan Newton. Or rather, I want to share the email I sent to his sister on who I knew Ryan as: 

Hello,

My name is Taylor Chustz. I  am sorry for your loss and grieve with you. I was friends with Ryan while he was in Ghana and I lived with him at the house in Antoa. I only knew Ryan for a short period of time, but I know I will remember him for the rest of my time on earth.

I came to ghana in January, and it was my first time being in another country so far for a long period of time. I met Ryan quickly after arriving and I knew he was my kind of people. He was hilarious, border line inappropriate most times, but still one of the best people I have ever met. He really had a talent, to just ease you into a conversation and act like you had been there from the start.
At our staff meetings he was always bringing an extra spark with his humor and sass.

But Ryan wasn't only funny. He was a caring human being. When any of us were feeling sick he would cook for us and help us out. He was designing an entrepreneurial program to help students in Ghana start and run a business by connecting them with business owners in Ghana. He would say he didn't like the neighborhood kids, but he would be the first to go play in the dirt for a match of soccer or throw a football.

I think that is just one of the things I loved about him. He loved fully and lived his life fully. Ryan was never one to be, as he said, "turned down." I remember one night we went out and in the night we had: a dance off in a club full of Ghanians, a sing a long in a jeep to "I will survive", and multiple selfies in the same jeep with four people.

He lived his life fully and measured it in the love and friendships he acquired along the way. Sitting here in antoa, I can still hear his laughter and his songs. I swear, I woke up to him singing almost every morning. But it was never a bad thing, it just made the start of my day that much better.

I will miss Ryan till my last day. Before he left, I invited him to be my plus one for my friend's wedding. He and I were excited to have him meet my friends and family and explore Louisiana because I knew they would love him instantly. I was devastated when I heard he was sick, and I am still sad to see him pass on.

Your family is in my thoughts and prayers. I know it will forever be hard when you lose someone as magical as Ryan. But I hope you know that he has touched the hearts and souls of so many people and that he was truly loved.

From left to right: ME, Patrick, Ryan, and Spencer in the back of a Jeep taking a selfie.

Update for Late March

Hello,

I guess I should update! Things have been good in Ghana. I am approaching the end of March soon and the end of the second term here for the JHS students will arrive soon. It is crazy that I will have less than a month with the JHS students in the program. However, I think Laura and Rachel are going to let me work in Antoa for the third summer term. So I hopefully will get to keep all of my tutors.

Tutoring:

Things have been well though. There was an issue with scheduling that I resolved. The SHS tutors will end on March 26^th, but the JHS term goes till April 24^th. This means my tutors will no longer be living at the boarding school and will return home. Luckily the majority of my tutors agreed that they can still come on Tuesday and Thursday. Only one tutor can't, because his family is originally from Accra, and that is too far. Hopefully there are no issues with that...I gave them my number so they can call me if they are late.

My tutors left to right: Fatima, Agnes, John (in the back), Enock, and Isaac

John's JHS students

Agnes' JHS students

Fatima with her JHS students

Isaac with his JHS students

Girl's Leadership Program (GLP)

GLP is also doing well. This week we did a leadership/team building activity that was very fun and the girls enjoyed it a lot. I was frustrated though because we had our meeting and only ten girls showed up. I was understanding after I found out why though. The school kicks out all students that haven't fully paid their term fees before exams. If they don't pay up, they can't take their exams and have to repeat the form year they are in. So that means of my 23 students, 13 of them still owe school fees and were dropped. It is upsetting, especially when you have students who truly value education and want to be in school.

But GLP will be out of commission for a while until the break ends. The students, again, get out at the end of March and start back up on April 20^th. JHS ends the next week and won't be back till May 11^th. Since this is happening, I will not start the program up again till May 4^th. It will be a long time period, but I think scheduling wise it will be the best.

Break Time/Thoughts

So I will be also going on break soon. In that time, I intend to go traveling an bit with my roommate Kaia. She will be flying back to America on May 3^rd, and my other roommate, Rachel, will fly out April 12^th. The weekend of April 12^th I will go to Accra to see a TEDxAccra talk. With Kaia, I will probably bum around Ghana and go hiking with her, and travel to Togo and Benin with her. I think it will be fun, and it will be a chance to go around and see things.

Cause that is one thing I realize I need to do more. Just go out and explore. There are things around Kumasi and just in Ghana that I need to tell myself, “Yes, I will go there and see it.” I sometimes get caught up in the daily search for wifi or the laziness of not wanting to leave Antoa that I forget sometimes. I look forward to the travel though.

MALARIA

In other news. Hey guys I got malaria! It was horrible, and I was stupid because I did not take my medicine or have a mosquito net (not my fault...). So yea, I got sick and had to take the anti-malaria meds. I was fortunate though because the other woman who lives with us, Fad, is a nurse and would check on me and also gave me my malaria test. I've learned my lesson definitely...

I'll try to post more pictures again in time....when I have full internet and not the amount of data I have to pay for on my modem....

Taylor Out

Me and Abide

Late Program Update from Feb. 25th....

Hello!

I wanted to update everyone on my job and the programs I run. I work in Antoa at the Antoa SHS and JHS schools running two. The one at the SHS is a girl's leadership program that meets once a week on Monday and then the tutoring peer to peer program that meets on Tuesdays and Thursday.

Girl's Leadership Program (GLP):

The program has been good. We have had 3 sessions all focusing on self esteem and goal setting. The girls are great, but they have been having some serious issues with showing up on time. Which has been frustrating because we start at 3:30, and the longer it takes them to get to the classroom, the longer I stay and prolong my eating dinner...food problems.

But it is all around good. I work with a local Ghana woman named Grace and Ann (Expo staff) running the program and all the girls seem like they are enjoying it. We voted on a club name and we are now called, "Girl's Generation: Leadership is Power." Our second session was a little crazy because about 10 minutes on a huge rain storm came through and I had to push the girl's close together and scream so they could hear me over the rain crashing through the open window. Eventually it passed, but it was crazy for a few.

All in all though, the girl's are a great group and I want to do good by them. I am trying to connect with Mount Holyoke people in the Ghana area and see maybe if they would talk to my girl's. Or even trying to connect them with St. Joseph's Academy so they can see a different side of the world and life.

Tutoring

I feel like I have good days and bad days with tutoring. For the most part, the students do well in their small groups with the tutors. It is the large time that they are with me that I find annoying. I pass out snack to the students while they do a writing prompt. Sometimes it is great, other times it is annoying because students take the snack and then leave. I have talked to them multiple times, and then yesterday I was getting so annoyed because almost a whole group wanted to walk out and I stopped handing out snack and just bitched to them that when they do that, they are stealing from me and are essentially a thief. Of course I said that I know that they are good students and are not thieves, but they needed to act that way and not goof off and think they can just leave. It makes me distrustful and it angers me because the majority of the group does well. But is is enough students in the program that it can cause an issue with things.

There are a few things that I am looking to tweek to help with some of the issues that I have been experiencing. I am going to try and incentive good behavior all the time by having "Ms. Taylor" time. As well, I am going to have midterm awards for attendance and such. Hopefully that will place things in a more positive direction. .

The tutors are great though. There are 1 or 2 students that I am going to have to talk to about making sure that they just don't do lecture style teaching, but all around they are good kids.

But yea, that is my program in a nutshell. I will post some picture next time I remember to upload them :/

Paz,

Chustz

Me and Ora on the stoop in front of Fad's place