Peace Corps Ghana anecdotes
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[edit] The First Peace Corps Ghana Babies
We entered PC after UNH in 1969, and spent a week in Philadelphia filling out forms and seeing the PC shrink. Upon arrival in Accra, we went to Winneba for 2 weeks language training, etc. After that we went to Tamale for 6 weeks practice teaching and home stay with a Muslim family. Following Tamale we went to Koforidua for final training before leaving for our posts.
In Koforidua we learned of my wife's (unplanned) pregnancy. The PC doctor gave us 2 options: go home (out of the question in our minds), or have the baby in Ghana, and gave us the info on available medical facilities in Ghana. We were then re-posted to Tafo Training College (our original posting was in Tamale Secondary School), so as to be nearer to adequate medical facilities in Accra, if necessary. In early January 1970 my wife went into mild labor in Accra, where we were on holidays. We went by taxi to the PC doctor's house, where he advised us to go to the Valco clinic in Tema, where Kevin Sandow (Dagomba name) was born on Jan. 5th. My wife Margaret was the first PC volunteer to have a baby in country.
After our return to Tafo, we finished the school year, and re-posted to Bolgatanga Teacher Training College (now a secondary school), where they had openings for an English teacher and maths teacher (my wife). After our second year, we decided to extend for one year, and also to have another child. Lisa Sampaga (also Dagomba) was born in Bolga Hospital on Dec. 23, 1971.
[edit] A Close Call
Although Ghana always felt like home to us and we felt very comfortable and safe there, our most disturbing experience came during the death and funeral of the Asante-hene in 1970: we were travelling from Tafo to Bolgatanga through Kumasi, arriving by train in Kumasi station. We managed to get a taxi that night to a resthouse, and the streets were deserted. The next morning we read that a nurse returning from a night shift had lost her head, apparently because no one should be on the streets during this time. It had something to do with secrecy surrounding the burial of gold with the Asante-hene.
[edit] Long Lost Love
I was a PCV in Ghana from 1973-1976. While I was in Kumasi buying gifts to take home on my leave prior to my third year I met a handsome engineering student. When I returned to Ghana our romance blossomed into love and a plan to be married. He would finish his final year at the University and then come to the U.S.
Alas, politics intervened. The university was closed and his final year of education was delayed. He wasn't granted a passport until 1983. We both married other spouses and had children.
Last week I found him again. We are both soooo excited! We started with email. Within hours we were on the telephone and he was even texting me from his mobile phone. Thirty years is a long time. He told me the road to the town where I served is now paved and that he was involved in the project bringing electricty there 10 years after I left. We plan to travel in both directions in the next 6 months.
The relationships formed through the Peace Corps experience are forever. To those of you just beginning your journeys, I wish you a memorable stay. You may not find romantic love, but you will form lasting personal relationships.
Nancy
[edit] The First In-Country Training
In 1969, we were the first group to train completely in Ghana. We met for staging in Philadelphia where we had interviews with psychiatrists, lined up for shots, had dental exams, and watched films about Ghana. (I think we were the first group allowed to self-de-select but don't hold me to that.)
We left from Philly on a chartered flight to Accra. We started training in Winneba for two weeks then went on a three week live-in with a Ghanaian family in Bawku. During that live-in we also taught at the middle school level. We had been shepherded to Bawku but were on our own after those three weeks. We made our way to our schools for a week then had to find our way to Koforidua where the whole training group was all together for a week. Next, we split for three weeks of student teaching, divided into secondary school and training college levels. Our last week was at Legon for the language test and swearing in ceremony.
I was posted to Bolga where "ba-toria" (phonetic spelling), white woman, was what I heard. I'd be in town and kids would surround me hoping to touch my white skin. Bolga was short on whites back then so I was a novelty. I never did mind, and it wasn't long before I was just "madam" when I went to town. The lone taxi would bring any white person to my house and tell me my brother or sister had come to town.
The two years I spent in Ghana were remarkable. I wish for all of you just starting the same joys and wonder I found.
Kat
