Two snails(its just nature. haha) in relation to my foot.
Jessica, Innocent(the most uninnocent person youll ever meet, even though hes my coolest classmate) and another form 3 student in the Friday uniform.
The gutters in my house. The spicket you see at the right is from the sink in the kitchen. Everything other than the toilet water comes out of this.
Kwasi and I
A Sachet of water with 30 bags of 500 ml. Another AFS student , Wesley, his family in Baakoniaba owns a water filtering process called Life and Living, even though this is Ebenezer water.
Me and Kwasi killing a delicious chicken
The Main Taxi Hub in Sunyani.
Me and Kwasi pounding fufu.My School:
Maache Everyone!
Ive been doing well lately, and am very excited to be almost done with my first trimester of school!Im really surprised at how quickly this year has been moving along! Im just trying to take everything one day at a time, and its been working so far!
Someone had emailed me and asked what Sunyani is really like. I thought that would be a cool topic to cover, so here it is:
Sunyani is about 300 Kilometers nw of Accra and has a population of about 100,000 people. The natural surroundings are very beautiful after you look past the trash, as i said before! Its very lush and green! There is alot of dirt though, but i expected that. The main source of income is probably agriculture. I think at one point in Ghanas independence it was the largest exporter of coco beans. And there is also a huge American gold company called Newmont in the Brong-Ahafo region. There is also an abundance of casava,plantain, and yam. There are countless( when i say countless i mean it) provisional stores. They sell everyday items, from coca cola to hair products and sandals to razor blades. Within probably a square mile of my house, there are about 10-15 of these stands. Which is pretty convenient. There are also a couple of hotels, a hospitol, a Ghanaian Premier league football stadium, banks, and numerous "take out" food stands. The coolest part of Sunyani is the Cocoa House. Its an apartment complex and also a radio station. Its only about 7 stories high, but its placed right on top of Sunyani so you can see it from everywhere you go. Transportation( ill get to the driving later) makes it easy to get from one point to another. From the main taxi hub in the city center to Baakoniaba is 3,000 cedis or approx. 30 cents. And buses leave daily to big cities like Kumasi, Accra, cape Coast, Tamale,etc. A bus ride from Sunyani to Accra is 130,000 cedis of 13$. There is also a small airport on the outskirts of town. On Wednsdays there is the main market when most people do their shopping and also most of the prices of goods go down. Its quite an adventure to go, lots of commotion and yelling make it pretty fun. And Churches and Mosques, well there are more of them than provisional stores. haha. Pretty much every denomination too. SDA, Baptist, Jehovahs Witness, Methodist, Catholic,Anglican,etc. The most annoying part of the churches is the all night prayer sessions. They start at 7pm and end at 5am. Theyre not quite about it either, the make american screamo music sound like a whisper. haha. and the church that is about 200 yards away from my house speak in tongues while screaming at 2 am, so it makes it even more annoying. haha. But Sunyani is a pretty sleepy town, with not much to do. But i dont mind because i like hanging out with my host family.
Driving is a whole nother story. Believe me when i say its drivers, not pedestrians, first! For as slow as people like to walk here, they make it up by the speed they drive. Drivers are just ruthless to pedestrians and cyclists. When i run in the morning or am just walking about in town, drivers seem to try and get as close to you as they can. There has been plenty of times where if i hadnt moved, i wouldve been run over! They wont slow down for you either! But of course theyll slow down for a goat, chicken or dog crossing the road. I try and find the logic in that, but i think im to stupid. But ive asked my brothers if they care about the driving, they said no. I guess its because they dont know any other driving styles. I wont say all drivers suck at driving, but alot of them do. But of course there arent any belts in the taxis, and they pack as many people as they can into cars and buses. its pretty nerver racking when you see a bus full of school kids, unbuckled, passing a car going about 50 mph going downhill. Thats why there are so many vehicle fatalities. And i thought Americans sucked at driving. haha.
Heres a very aggrivating/funny/hypocritical story. On Mondays,Wednsdays and Fridays we have this thing at school called assembly. its when all announcements are announced and its is also used as a worship service, where a student or teacher will preach about a certain topic. This specific day was about respect for teachers and was given by my ICT teacher. Yet, i felt as though i should have given him a speach on being a hypocrite. Mr. ICT ( I dont actually know his or any of my other teachers names, everyone just calls teachers Madam or Sir) stated his belief that teachers were chosen by God to shepherd the sheep(the students). And that the students should obey everything that the teacher says. I agreed with the whole "chosen by God" statement. Because essentially God chooses everyone for something. I mean, I was chosen to be Rich Pon. But then i didnt agree with the "obey your teachers" statement because extremist terrorists listen to every word that comes out of their teachers mouths, and well, you know the rest. But the funny/aggrivating/hypocritical part of the story is that the same ICT teacher that said all that hasnt come to teach in over a month! And its not because hes sick, its because hes lazy. Yet he will give us a test on things that hes never taught(ive passes all with flying colors though). And hes told the class to come on saturday so he could teach, BUT HE DIDNT COME! His excuse; "I knew you guys wouldnt come". hahaha. I just felt bad for the students because if they dont pass this class, they cant attent college! I just have to scratch my head and aks myself if what hes doing is a bit hypocritical. I should worry about my own faults before i look at his, but he is screwing around with 50 students education! Hopefully he'll get his act together. Everyone makes mistakes, even if they are repetitive and annoying. haha.
Thats all for now, I hope all is well!
-Rich
2 comments:
Hey Rich, I can remember when you couldn't slaughter a bug let alone a chicken. You've come a long way baby. We might be getting some chickens this spring but just for the eggs so don't get any ideas!
Love you, Mom
Yeah, don't kill our chickens. And I only eat oatmeal that's mashed with a 12 foot pole.
How's it goin, bud? I've been meaning to write for so long so I apologize for not doing so. All of these stories bring back memories about my time. It's strange how things can be similar, although they shouldn't be.
I'll comment on some of the things you mentioned because it's easier to remember.
Little shops of horrors:
No, they weren't that bad, but I remember the smell of meat, as if it weren't refrigerated very well. I think it's great that you're actually seeing the food you're eating. When was the last time I ate chicken and thought, "This is a little chicken." In France they have a photo of the cow where they got the meat to show how healthy it is. Anyway, back to Chile.
2 shops stand out in my mind. The first was when I was in Santiago and found myself right in the middle of a protest when a long line of riot police started charging us. I didn't even know what was happening but followed the crowd as we all ran into little shops. The shop owner came out and slammed the steel gate down to deter everyone from destroying the place. I ducked under right in time and when I looked back people were getting clubbed left and right. People were screaming from tear gas, etc. but 10 minutes later we went outside and it was over.
Shop story #2:
When I was traveling alone by train out in the middle of nowhere they told me the train was going to stop for 4 minutes...in the town of Chillan. So the train stops and I jump out and run into a small shop there to buy snacks. This oooooooooold lady starts counting back my change with a speed that could only be described as "glacial"--and as I turn I see the train moving...and moving pretty fast already. I ran out and began running beside it as the porters are screaming at me not to jump on. Well, I wasn't going to be stuck out on the pampa with that fossil of a lady selling chicle for the rest of my days so I took the leap and made it. Actually, the guy who was telling me not to jump grabbed me by the back of my belt and kind of threw me into the train once he realized I was going to go for it --so there's a chance your uncle might be armless right now after falling under the wheels. The porters screamed at me, then laughed at me, then high fived me. I said, "You said it was going to stop for 4 minutes!!!" He said, "In CHILLAN! That wasn't Chillan!!"
I'll never mistake a small shop in a field for an entire town again. Lesson learned.
Teachers:
I was lucky that we didn't have teachers pulling a no show for a month at a time. The school system was so hard to get used to though. They use a French licee system, meaning the students all stay in one room (like you guys, right?) and the teachers move around. We had 13 classes and this bizarre schedule. Thank God we weren't walking around or it would have been mayhem. I just sat back and when a teacher walked in I thought, "Oh, there's the scientist lady" or "Is that the French teacher who explains French to me in Spanish?"
We actually had a philosophy teacher in high school. I felt so sorry for this guy because he was a rookie and for whatever reason had a big target on his chest for ridicule and ill will. He eventually guided every class into a discussion about why we hated him so, which, ironically, was increasingly philosophical. Anyway, a Chilean AFS student came back from the U.S. and the class convinced the teacher that he was American. So the kid grew up in that town and for 1/2 hour they had me up in the front of the room pretending to translate their questions into English for him.
"Oye gringo, preguntele si tenia polola!"
"Did you have a girlfriend?"
"Oh...JESS...I have many American polola!"
Sad sad sad.
I thought the students were really immature. It's easy to knock American kids but people forget how many high school kids actually have a job in the U.S. The percentage is high. My friends were talking about joining the military, etc. That's serious stuff. The kids in Chile were always goofing off, probably because their main concern was studying to get into college. Now, having said all that, I learned to appreciate their ability to actually enjoy the last days of their childhood. In Chile the kids get to be...kids. Just last week we went to a ski park near Lake Tahoe and it turned out that all the workers were Chilean and Peruvian college students. I talked to them and listened to them interact and it really made me homesick for Chile because they were very playful with each other. Nobody seemed too serious or full of themselves. So I'm glad that American kids tend to be mature, but I regret that we don't always let them enjoy their childhood.
Believe me, there will be plenty of time to take life too seriously! Lesson learned.
Well, it's getting late so I'll sign off.
Thanks for keeping us in the loop, buddy!
Love ya,
Uncle JP
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