Girl Goes Ghana

Some of my friends and neighbors making gari, an extremely popular food made from cassava. It is difficult, sometimes, for me to share my experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer knowing that for many people, I'm their main source of information for what life in Ghana as like. I know that many of my friends and family extrapolate and assume that what is true for me is likely true for all Peace Corps Volunteers, or all Ghanaians, or all Africans. Here are some of my friends and neighbors hard at work making garri, one of the most popular foods in my town. I would like to take a brief moment to correct that and let you know that Ghana isn't poor. Neither am I, and neither are Peace Corps Volunteers in general. Let's start with me, since that's the easiest assumption to correct. In USD, our "salary" is a pittance. I could make more in a week at a minimum wage job in the United States than I live off in Ghana in a month. But that doesn't mean I&

A few weeks ago, there was an explosion in Accra, the capital of Ghana. It was pretty bad, and I thought my family might see it on the news and worry about me. I texted them to let them know I was alright, that the explosion was miles and miles away from me, and that there was nothing to worry about. The response? "We didn't hear about the explosion, but we've been worried about you every minute since you got on that plane to Ghana." I don't think this is uncommon for the families of people who join the Peace Corps. You're sending your loved one off for more than two years to a foreign country, and it ain't no Paris, France. Rightly or wrongly, I think many people have the perception that the countries that Peace Corps operates in are fundamentally dangerous in some way that the United States is not. Is there any truth to this? Not too much to be afraid of when this is the main road out of town. I can't speak for every Peace Corps country