"There's so much ahead"

-Jimmy Eat World "Kill"

12 more days…. Here’s a little more info.
I fly to Philly and meet up with the rest of my group on the 7th. Once I get there I’ll get some shots, typhoid, rabies, tetanus, hepatitis A and B, meningitis, MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella), yellow fever, polio, and my first dose of anti-malaria medicine. (If we don’t take our malaria medicine we could get sent home). I’ll also go to some meetings while in Philly. I fly to Accra, the capital city on the coast, with the rest of my group on the 9th. We have a layover in Amsterdam but only for a couple hours. After a few days in Accra we go on a “vision quest” and visit the site of a current volunteer. We will finally get a real idea on how we’ll be living for the next couple years, and it will help us figure out what exactly we want to acccomplish. When we get back we go to Techiman to train for the next nine weeks. That’s when I will be living with a host family and hopefully learning enough to prepare me for the next two years.

A lot of people have asked about where I’ll be living/conditions, and the only info I have are the requirements that the house I live in has to meet. There has to be at least two rooms, or one room with a porch. It has to have solid floors and walls, secure windows and doors, a leak free roof, ventilation, access to a water supply, a latrine, and a place to bathe (usually a bucket bath). I don’t know what part of the country yet; I’ll find out a couple weeks after I get there. Some sites are remote and some are in towns and cities (there is email access in all major cities and some towns), but once I get there I’ll be interviewed and they’ll decide what’s best for me.

I’m expected to live modestly and I'm given a quarterly living allowance that will cover the basic costs of living. I am not allowed to use my personal money to supplement my income; I’m only allowed to use that for traveling, sending gifts home, etc. I also get a vacation allowance and a settling in allowance to buy furniture and other things I wouldn’t normally buy.

There’s an in country clinic with a full-time medical officer, and I’ll get a physical after a year and at the end of my service. I have to take malaria medicine every week, and a couple months after I get back. Almost every tropical disease is endemic to Ghana, and if there is a serious problem they’ll send me to South Africa or the US. I’ll be receiving a lot of safety training so there shouldn’t be any problems. There are beaches but the coastal areas are very dangerous and have strong riptides and undertows.

People have been asking about food too so I’ll just throw out the list of foods I was given (if anyone has good recipes using this stuff feel free to send them to me). This is from a welcome packet the Peace Corps sent me.
“Common meats and other protein include: chicken and eggs, fish (smoked and dried), beef, pork, goat, grass cutter (small wild animal), beans (bambara, red, and white), and ground nuts (peanuts). Common vegetables include: tomatoes (fresh and canned paste), okra, garden eggs (like small eggplant), onions, kontomire (like spinach), hot peppers, red peppers (very hot), and cabbage. Fruits (in season) include: mango, banana, orange, avocado , pawpaw (papaya), coconut, pineapple, and watermelon. Staple foods include: Bread, coco yam, rice, plantain, pasta, sweet potato, yams, cassava, and oatmeal. Spices include: red pepper (not black), curry pepper, salt, cloves, bay leaves, sugar, fresh ginger, and fresh garlic. Also readily available are: white flour, popcorn, oils, corn flour, dry whole milk, soft drinks, coffee, tea, baking powder, vinegar, crackers, cookies, canned whole milk, and maggie cubes (like beef bouillon). Lettuce, potatoes, apples, cucumbers, cheese, and green peppers, are sometimes available but expensive.”

Ghana is right above the equator so it’s hot. Some parts are dry, some are humid, but either way it’s hot. There are three Peace Corps offices; one in Accra the capital, one in Kumasi, and one in Tamale. I’ll be relatively close to one of the three. If anyone is thinking about visiting you can call the Peace Corps Ghana desk at 202.692.2326/7 so they can help in getting a tourist visa.

Letters will take between two and three weeks to get to me, and make sure they include “airmail” on the envelope. It’s also a good idea to number them in case one of them gets lost. All packages are opened and inspected at the Peace Corps office, and it’s costs 20,000 cedis (or $2) for me to get them. Letters are pretty cheap to send, under $1 I think, but packages could get pretty pricey. I would much rather get lots of letters than a couple packages.

That's pretty much all I know so far. Once I get over there I'll update as soon as I can.