Tomorrow (or Two Weeks In A Rural Ashanti Village)

For the last two weeks our group was split between three rural villages. Five were in Benim. An hour and a half's walk away, five were in Asaam. Twenty minutes' walk away from Asaam, five were in Naama. I was happy to be in the middle village, Asaam. It was great to actually live close to the other students, finally, even if it was a little bit frustrating to be so far from Benim.

It rained alllll the time. Great rivers of mud would form throughout the village and then just as quick as they came, they'd dry up and the sun would beat down harder than ever (no clouds blocking it anymore). We spent most of our time at SIT headquarters, aka the Assemblyman's house. He's the government representative for the village to the district capitol. He's this super sweet 71-year-old man who sang us a song saying how much he would miss our smiling faces when we said good bye last night. He said to remember that we always have a home in Asaam.

My room was a little concrete thing with a dim blue light and a thin little mattress, but it wasn't so bad. The toilets were concrete blocks that each had a hole cut in them with a little toilet seat stuck on top.. All showers were taken by bucket. Water was fetched from a watering hole 15 minutes away, each way (usually the school kids fetched it for us, thankfully). And every time you walked anywhere you would have to greet and talk to five or six different people... there and back. In Twi. Oh, and at night all the little children in the village crowded around our window and stared at us, calling, "Obruni! How are you? Lydia! Lydia! Jessie! Grace! Abena (Ismatu)! Claaa-gurgle-phlegm (Claire...whose name is particularly tricky for the Ghanaian tongue)! Lydia!" My name was a favorite... it is apparently a common name in Ghana, so whenever visitors from the neighboring villages came to Asaam they were usually greeted with "Lydia! Lydia!" They always got my name right :)

Rather than taking classes, we worked on a miniature version of our future independent study projects. We learned a lot more Twi (informal classes in the evenings and talking to people all the time every day in it) and learned a lot about village life from talking to the Assemblyman and the villagers. Also, since everybody did different mini-ISPs we got to learn from each other, too. I did mine on plant identification (hah, Dr. Perez Perez, I finally got to take that class you never would let me take!) so I got to go out to the bush almost every day and film herbalists/farmers tell me in Twi about the plants and their uses. I now can cure impotency, menstrual cramps, headaches, fevers, and all sorts of other things. And I know five or six different ways to increase breast milk production. I'm a bit skeptical of the impotency cure since it involves drinking akpeteshie, which is an extremely hard alcohol made from distilled palm wine, but they say it works for sure. The Ghanaians also seem to really believe in enemas. About half the plants we found could be used for an enema, on top of whatever else they cured. Oh, I also know which trees are good for furniture, which sap can be used to make a ball, which leaves can be used for sandpaper/silver polish, and a ton of different and exciting fruits and other edible things (including the Asua berry, after which our village is named [plural of Asua is Asaam, I think], which makes sour things like lemons and sour oranges taste sweet after you eat it).

Here's a brief look at what the last 14 days were like, but first, the characters.

Auntie Afresh: Our SIT Queen Mother (has an adorable baby, Percy, and takes care of us)
Simón: Our SIT "buddy-buddy" (he translates for us and helps us with lots of other things. He's our age)
Auntie Cynthia: Our cook
Papa Attah: SIT staffmember (occasionally visited us in the village)
Jessie, Ismatu, Claire, Grace, and me: SIT students in our village

Day 1
We arrive at village. Village meeting is called. Villagers are asked to share fruits and vegetables with us (which they did!), not to propose marriage to us, and to call us by name rather than obruni. We meet everyone and say our names over and over. "Lydia' and "Jessie" stick. The meeting ends and all the village children follow us home shouting, "Lydia! Jessie!" and occasionally the others' names, and grab onto our hands.

Day 2
We visit a waterfall near Naama. It's beautiful. I spot a salamander.

I ask to try fufu. Am told, "Oh my sweet daughter. You shall try it tomorrow."

We are told that our resource persons for our mini-ISPs are all out to farm. Tomorrow we will meet them.
We go to the farm with a man named Addyboateng, or Addyboat (edge-a-boat) for short. I get to chop down a plantain tree with a machete to harvest the plantains (new ones will grow back in six months), help pull crabs out of a woven/basket-like crab trap, pull palm nuts from a palm tree, pull cassava out of the ground, and carry palm fronds back home to make baskets and a broom. Ismatu and I spend the rest of the afternoon preparing the leaves for the broom. Our three armfuls of fronds turn into a pitiful broom 1/4 the size of a normal broom. We are proud of it anyway.


Day 3
I ask to try fufu. Am told, "Yes. Tomorrow you shall try."
Three of us trek off with our SIT staffmembers to "tre-tre" (three-three), who is an expert on plant uses.We meet him and he is boozed and ornery. Tomorrow we will find someone sober. Instead of working with him, we trek off into the bush to find cocoa to try. We harvest four and return to Assemblyman's house.
Afternoon: I ask to try fufu. Am told, "Tomorrow."


Day 4
I ask to try fufu. Am told, "This afternoon you shall try."
They have found us someone new to be our resource person! However, he is busy today. We will meet him tomorrow. We return to the farm with Addyeboat to get basket-making materials for Claire. Simón comes along to translate, and I record more information about plants from Addyeboat. Simón tells us, "A day without Addyeboat is like a day without sunshine." And then, "A day when Addyeboat does not take a drink is like Africa without Madagascar." Later we learn the truth of this.
We ask when we can eat the cocoa we got. "Oh, you will eat it. Maybe tomorrow."

Day 5
We trek off to the bush to visit the akpeteshie distillery with one of our Aunties from the village, several SIT staff members, and Papa Attah, who has come to visit. We go the wrong way at first and decide to pick some fresh oranges instead. Simón climbs the tree and uses a palm frond split at one end with a twig stuck between the two splits to hold it open to twist the oranges from the branch. We enjoy fresh oranges as we continue our journey to the real location of the distillery.
We make it to the distillery, which is a group of drunk men who are happy to see us and demonstrate how palm wine is harvested by felling a palm tree. I ask if I can help, and they (being drunk and thinking anything is a good idea) let me try my hand at it. They seem to approve, and let me help chop off the branches, too. The oldest man begins referring to me affectionately as his wife. After he makes a comment about ants in his pants (literally, there were ants crawling everywhere because we accidentally stepped on their trail and they got angry) and how he is protecting "my property" I get a little annoyed and tell him (in line with Ghanaian humr) that he can only call me his wife if he's okay with being my third husband. I tell him that my first husband works hard and brings me money, my third husband is a hunter and brings me antelope, he can bring me palm wine (which should really just be called palm juice when it first comes out of the tree). He laughs and agrees. He later decides that Claire is also his wife (not sure if he just mistook her for me, since we both have shaved heads). He gives us some supua bark, which cures malaria/fever supposedly, and we return home.
Papa Attah stays with us for a while at the house. We ask again when we can try the cocoa. He grabs one, asks for my machete, splits it open, and gives it to us. Thank you, Papa Attah!
Cocoa pods are full of many little cocoa beans which are covered in slimy white fluff that is sweet/sour. The beans themselves are purple, bitter and taste nothing like chocolate. We wonder where chocolate really comes from...
I ask once more to try fufu. Simón is eating fufu and offers some to me, but it has two big pieces of meat floating in it. I gracefully decline.

Day 6
We finally meet Akwasi Antwi, our new resource person! He shows us a chameleon, then takes us to his house, where he has a chameleon he has already prepared for us by tying it to a stick and burning it into a powder. This mixed with shea butter can be rubbed on a baby who has a big head and miniature limbs to remove the evil spirits that have cursed her/him. We then go off into the bush to look at plants.
When we return, Addyeboat is at the house, drunk, asking for Claire (whose name he can't say), because he is teaching her basketmaking. He is a funny drunk, at least, but kind of annoying. Our Aunties chase him out with a boot.
In the evening, we have "drumming and dancing night." This turns out to be "drumming and large-crowd-of-Ghanaians (mostly children)-standing-around-watching-the-obrunis-dance night." At least the old women playing drums let me play for a little while. They even have a large metal pan filled with water, in which they put a half a calabash (large gourd-like thing that grows on a tree) and turn it while beating it to change the tone. So cool. They don't let me play that one.
I ask to try fufu again. Am told, "I will tell Auntie Cynthia (our cook). She will prepare you some, with no meat."

Day 7
We visit Mampong to get gifts for our homestay families. There are internet places! But the internet is down through the city. "It is really really unfortunate," Simón would say.
At the market, I walk around with Ismatu, whose father is from Sierra Leone, and everyone is surprised that I speak Twi. Ismatu stays quiet and they assume she taught me. I buy a coconut and a "duku" which is a headscarf type thing to protect my head from the scorching sun. It has hedgehogs (maybe?) on it. I approve.
Addyeboat returns. We learn how to say, "You are trouble!" in Twi. We also tell him, "You are an alcoholic." To which he responds, "I do not like alcohol! Will you buy me a drink?" Later he admits that he drinks Guinness, but still claims he doesn't drink alcohol. Jessie informs him that Guinness has alcohol. He's a character.
I temporarily give up on asking to try fufu.

Day 8
We return to the bush to look at some plants that Mr. Antwi had told us about that were too far to get to before. I ask Mr. Antwi to show me the Asua tree. He takes me to the Asua bush (whoops..) and then shows me two completely different trees that are both called "apple." The first has  large fruit that is covered in spikes. The second has a medium-sized fruit that looks like an artichoke. I smile and nod. He then takes me to a baby "moringa" tree. I have no idea what it is. I return home and ask about it (no interpreter was able to come with me on this little excursion, and Mr. Antwi only speaks a little bit of English and I only speak a little bit of Twi). I am told, "Oh! It cures many things. It clears your vision, it heals you. Yes it cures many sicknesses." Auntie Cynthia then brings a small bag of it out to show me. It's a bag of sesame seeds. They cure rheumatism, arthritis, poor vision, weake(?) and several other things. They also increase sperm production, sexual feeling in both sexes, and improve your memory!
In the evening we  have storytelling night and the old ladies of the village come and tell us stories with morals (and about why spiders hang on the wall). When it is our turn, Claire begins to tell her version of the Tortoise and the Hare. In the middle of her story, they start to admire her baskets that she and Addyboat worked on. Claire asks Auntie Afresh (who has been interpreting for us) if they actually want to hear her story. She says, "Yes. They are interested. But they like talking." Claire continues. The old ladies declare in Twi, "It will rain. (Literally: Water will fall)" and get up and walk out, wishing us good night as they leave. Claire tells us the rest of her story.
Day 9
We work on our ISPs. I have over forty plants recorded, so I compare notes with Jessie (who is studying herbs, specifically - my project includes all plant uses, and no chameleons) and we type up our findings.
Early afternoon: I start to feel a bit feverish. I tell Simón, since Auntie Afresh is gone. He suggests I rest. I spend the rest of the afternoon napping and shivering.
Auntie Afresh returns. We go to the clinic. They declare, "You are just tired. Go and sleep." I go and sleep.

Day 10
Still feeling feverish. Claire takes my temperature: 102. I go to the Mampong hospital where they declare, "You have malaria." The doctor says, "You have not been taking preventative malaria medication." I say, "Yes I have. I've been taking doxycycline." The doctor laughs in my face, "Then you have not been taking preventative malaria medication," and goes into a lengthy description of how doxycycline is an antibiotic and you cannot prevent malaria with an antibiotic, but you can treat chlamydia with it, and this and that are exactly what he would prescribe to somebody who came to him with an STI, but malaria... NO. He prescribes me with two different pills to take, some liver extract to drink (Jessie makes me feel better  by saying that it surely comes from the liver tree), and two shots in the glutes (aka my bottom). The first shot makes me stop shivering quite so violently. The second shot makes it difficult for me to walk for the next three days.
I go home and sleep. I have given up on asking for fufu.


Day 11
Fever still there. I'm very weak and can hardly walk, but I manage to get up and eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I spend the day sleeping. Naama students all come to visit me and everyone takes good care of me.
In the evening, my fever finally breaks and I feel much better.

Day 12
No more fever! But I can't get up. Ismatu had invited me to stay with her the night before so I wouldn't be alone and sick. She climbs over me and goes to breakfast. Auntie Afresh comes and says, "My sweet daughter, I am sorry you are not well. Please come eat smallsmall for me." I get up and stumble over to the house for breakfast. Mom texts me and says, "My friend told me that sucking on hard candy helps. Malaria uses up our glucose stores." No wonder I have no energy. Ismatu buys me some cookies that say, "GLUCOSE" on them. They taste stale (like everything in Ghana) but I hope that they will help. I go back to bed until lunch, which I nibble at, then back to bed again. I am bored out of my mind being unable to go out to the bush to work on my project. Lying in bed is dull. Naama students come to visit me again, which cheers me up quite a bit. I rest some more until dinner, which I eat, and then go back to bed until the next day.  

Day 13
I'm a little confused about what happened on what day... to be honest most of this is a little bit fudged, but I probably spent most of this day resting, too, but I at least was able to spend time at the house with people. We say goodbye to the village and Assemblyman sings us a song which almost makes us cry. We give our gift to the village (bags of cement to finish their school building that fell down) and to our homestay families. My headache has returned so I give up on packing.

Day 14       
Ismatu helps me pack. We eat and pack and say our final goodbyes (and have one last entertaining encounter with boozed Addyboat), then hop aboard the bus to Kumasi with all the others from their villages. Now we're here. Tomorrow we leave for Tamale. I never did try fufu.