Life updates

So I've obviously fallen behind a bit on blogging. I wish I could say that it's because I've somehow gotten incredibly busy and productive, but I'd prefer not to lie. It would be more accurate to say I've fallen into a bit of a groove. Things that used to seem interesting and exciting are now just pieces of my daily life, and don't feel as worthy of a blog post as they might have a year ago. Regardless, here are a few quick updates of what life has been like recently!

Back in May, the group of volunteers that I traveled to Ghana with all met up in Kumasi, Ghana's second city, for a mid-service conference. That's right, I'm now well past the half-way mark on my 27 months in country! It's a little hard to wrap my head around the fact that I only have about nine months left before it will be time to wrap everything up and come home. It was awesome to see everyone again and hear what everyone has been up to. Even though we are in the same country, our experiences have all been extremely different.

A little while after coming back from Kumasi, I had a few reusable menstrual pad workshops with girls in my community. Access to feminine hygiene products can be very limited in rural communities like this one and some girls miss school due to lack of access to pads (tampons are unheard of). We spent the afternoon sewing together absorbent material to create pads the girls can wash and use again and again. It was a lot of fun--we watched Moana, had snacks, and listened to music.

Junior seamstresses.

However, if I am honest, I don't know how effective the workshop really was. A lot of the girls had never held a needle before, which was obvious in the quality of their sewing; I would say that a lot of the pads they made will fall apart the first time they try to scrub them clean. We also only had enough time for the girls to make one pad each, which definitely won't meet their full needs. However, as I've been told many times in Peace Corps, the goal isn't always to make a massive difference on a large number of people. I hope that one or two of the girls will benefit from using the pads, and that others will remember the idea, and that perhaps others will have benefited from an environment in which they could talk about menstruation.

For the last month, my big project has been working on painting a large world map on the walls of the classroom of the local school. It has been, by far, the most fun thing I have worked on since coming to Ghana. I spent most days at the school listening to music and goofing around with the teachers, who were extremely enthusiastic about the project and gave me a ton of help. At least six different staff members helped me out at least a little, but my number one partner was the junior high science teacher, Bright. He contributed as much as I did to the painting and was also my DJ for the month. I have not always found it easy to make friends in the community, mostly because of the language barrier, so I was extremely grateful and happy to make this connection. This might not be the traditional sort of Peace Corps project I was sent here to do, but I really do hope and believe it will have a positive impact on the school. I can say with certainty it's been a positive experience for the teachers. When I first proposed painting a world map, several of the staff members were extremely skeptical that we had the ability to create anything satisfactory. By the end, they were amazed at what we had accomplished as a team, and everyone (including me!) was much more educated about geography!

Me and the finished product.

Those are the big updates from the last few months. Of course, there have been other little things as well. I celebrated my birthday and Fourth of July. I had a blast eating ersatz s'mores with the teachers at the school and my landlady, and several of my Ghanaian friends were interested to learn that the United States had declared its independence from Great Britain, just like Ghana. I still spend a lot of time riding my bike and playing with the local kids. I've been perfecting my versions of a few different Ghanaian foods, which I hope to prepare for my family and friends back in the States. In general, I've found a rhythm to my life here which once would have seemed impossible to find. I'm happy, healthy, and grateful to have had the chance to be here.

Granted, I don't feel like that every day. But right now, I really, really do.

I made red red! And it was delicious!