Paper or plastic?

Sometimes Ghanaians and Canadians don't understand each other. Sometimes it's frustrating. Sometimes it's just plain hilarious.

Ethel planned to cook supper for our host family one night. When we mentioned it to Alison she suggested that we walk to Sobey's to get any ingredients we needed that evening, since we were expecting a hurricane the next day and would likely have to walk through some pretty nasty rain and wind to get our chicken and veggies if we waited until the next day. So Ethel and I walked to Sobey's, picking up LJ, who was waiting outside for her host and counterpart to get home, on the way. I realized too late that I had forgotten to bring a cloth grocery bag, but all we had to get was some chicken, tomatoes and a green pepper... easy enough to carry home. The cashier had loaded our goods into a plastic bag before the little enviro-switch in my brain flicked on, so I started to take the food back out. The way Ethel reacted to my attempt to pass her a styrofoam flat of chicken, you would have thought I was handing her a lit stick of dynamite. "Oooh!" she squealed as she stepped back and waved her hands. I was flummoxed (honestly that is just the most accurate word I could think of to describe it)... she had picked the chicken out of the cooler earlier, so it wasn't that she was afraid to touch it. So what was the problem?   I asked. "It's so transparent! It's so transparent!" What? What does that mean?? Well, let me tell you. Apparently, in Ghana, you look like a total psycho if you carry your groceries down the street  without a bag or "a nice wrapper".  The best reason why this is that I could get out of Ethel and LJ was, "It just seems strange."
"But why??" I asked in vain. I just had to laugh and laugh, more at Ethel and LJ's horror than the actual faux pas. After assurances that we would not be judged for it and that I would carry the groceries to save them the disgrace of carrying some produce and poultry down the street, we managed to leave without a plastic bag!

Note to self: bring a reusable shopping bag along in Ghana, or be labelled a freak by local townspeople.

flum·mox

   /ˈflʌməks/ Show Spelled[fluhm-uhks]

verb (used with object) Informal .

to bewilder; confound; confuse, startle.

COW

- realizing that most of the houses really do look like this; AWESOME! -

Our first week in St.John's has come and gone in a whirl of colourful clapboard siding and rollercoaster emotions.

My counterpart I live downtown in a purple, three-story house with Alison and Geoff, their six-year-old son, Angus and their massive cat, Big Fella Chief King. Alison is an occupational therapist and Geoff is a film and theatre technician who works on the TV show Republic of Doyle. Our host family has been the highlight of St.John's for me so far; not only are they welcoming and fun, we seem to have avoided that "I'm-living-in-your-house-and-eating-your-food-and-we-don't-even-know-each-other" awkwardness that I was afraid of. The house itself is just as cool as it's inhabitants; it is colourful and quirky, with unexpected artwork, friendly clutter, crooked staircases and giant collections of CDs, magazines, books and records. We mostly hang out in the kitchen... listening to CBC radio, playing music like Mother Mother's Eureka, cooking together, drawing, eating and talking. Tonight Angus had us all play "Telephone". We make a cute little unit if I do say so myself!


I have done two little excursions out of town with Alison, Geoff and Angus. Ethel has somehow missed out on both since she has been out with other people at the opportune moments for us to do these things. Today Beth (a fellow CWY volunteer who lives nearby) and I went with them to Alison's familys farm just outside the city. It was such a gorgeous spot! Slightly overgrown fields of vegetables, herbs and flowers, greenhouses with fruit trees, tomatoes and roses, rows of nursery planters and a lovely pond scattered throughout a wooded area and explored by golf cart on grassy paths. Angus had a great time steering the cart and always insisted that "Dad goes faster than that!" as Alison operated the pedals. Alison showed us some berries that looked (and tasted somewhat) like white Tic-Tacs growing close to the ground in a mossy patch of woods. A short hike away we picked wild blueberries, scarce from previous picking, but all the more satisfying to eat because of it. Back at the house we snacked on something rare... a Newfoundland-grown peach from Alison's brothers greenhouse!


Last Sunday we were sitting out on the sidewalk having lunch and enjoying the sun when Alison proclaimed it a perfect day for "beach swimming". I was not totally convinced about swimming in the Atlantic Ocean on a day when I was wearing jeans with leggings underneath and an alpaca-wool sweater, but was eager to go along and see a bit more of the coast. I brought my bathing suit in case of a suddden lapse in sanity later. It ended up coming in handy. Not because I was feeling particularly insane, but because submersing myself in toe-numbing water turned out to be the logical thing to do. I realized that it would only get colder from here on in, so I took the chance I had to check this thing called "swimming in the Atlantic" of my "list". The list that is neither planned nor recorded. You know that list? Stuff you didn't even know you wanted to do until you had a chance to do it... The water was not as bad as I expected, but I expected it to be hella bad, so that's not saying much. Still, it was a happy moment; A small kind of accomplishment. Once out of the water, I combed through some of the pretty, wave-smoothed, colourful stones, picking out a small green stripey one to keep. Then I put my llama sweater back on.


The time spent with the rest of our group this week was in different sessions for our Community Orientation (the CO in COW). We would meet in the community room of Sobey's to prepare our group contracts on Respect, Health and Safety and Participation, discuss our highlights and low points of the program so far, form committees for different responsibility areas... and so on and so forth.  This is where the whirlwind emotions I mentioned really came into play. Group dynamics, especially in an all-female group, can get screwy pretty quickly. It's... interesting. And by "interesting"  I mean "hugely frustrating". The best way I have been able to sum up what irks me about this group is a lack of maturity and independence... to be frank... actually, no, I'd better not be frank. I had better be diplomatic. We have communication issues. Some are cultural, some are personal, some have to do with the fact that we are just plain sick of each other after almost two weeks of living and classes and discussions together. In one session (on communication, with an awesome facilitator named Chip) we learned about the Tuckman model of group development.

1.Forming
2.Storming
3.Norming
4.Performing.

We are Storming like that hurricane that passed through on Friday.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In other news: It has been a jam-packed week!

Sunday: Doctors Without Borders "Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City" tour.
Monday: group meeting and get to know St.John's scavenger hunt.
Tuesday: workshops, discussions and work placement presentations.
Wednesday: work placement interviews and Signal Hill hike.
Thursday: de-briefing Signal Hill, focus team meetings, more planning and work placement reveals
Friday: morning errands, Welcome Party postponed due to hurricane
Saturday: first aid course

Today is our first full day off yet and it has done me a world of good. Tomorrow is another free day before the craziness resumes.
Tuesday morning at 8:30 I start my volunteer work at... *drumroll* the Red Cross!
I am excited to start, though I am not sure exactly what I will be doing there yet. Please pray for the Red Cross and that my work counterpart, Gloria, and I will be useful to them and will work well together!

I honestly have been quite overwhelmed this week and didn't even know where to begin to write a post in some way that wouldn't be absolute gibberish to those not around to experience this firsthand. It is much more challenging than I expected. Having my confidence shaken like this is actually rather thrilling; I am now looking forward to the next few months with much excitement and very little idea of what to expect.

With love,
Julia

Ete sen!?

-a peaceful evening at Tatamagouche Centre-

-me and my counterpart, Ethel!-

Ete sen?! What's up?
So, much has happened since I last wrote... I don't know where to begin. Let's start with one of the bigger and newer pieces of news then; counterpart selection!

I realize this might not mean much to you at home; but to us volunteers it is probably the biggest news we will receive in the whole course of the program. This is the person we will live with for 6 months. We will be each others teacher, co-worker, partner, cheerleader and hopefully, friend. Hopefully like sisters, even! My counterparts name is Ethel and I will tell you more about her as I get to know her better. :)

 I was so nervous to find out who my counterpart would be, for no particular reason but talking to Ethel has really calmed my nerves and I think we have similar hopes for the program and will get along just fine, if not really well! To find out who our counterparts were, our project supervisors had us put on masks and find the person wearing the matching one... let's just say there was a lot of squealing in the dining hall in those first moments.

The squealing. Is just one of the reasons I am starting to worry more about this being an all-female exchange group. Being here at Orientation Camp with the Moncton-Otuam exchange group, which does include men, has reminded me that I actually do hang out with guys quite frequently... because I get along well with them! I will miss the different strengths that guys bring to working in a group situation like this... and I will miss their generally more calm behaviour at times. I just have to remember that St.John's is not completely populated by women! I will have my work placement and my host family too...

Volunteer Orientation Camp, by the way, is taking place in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia. The landscape doesn't do much to inspire me... just trees and insignificant hills; but I do love the smell of salt water wafting from Tatamagouche Bay. Not much of an ocean either; just tide washing gently over and off a shallow sandy inlet. I've heard that St.John's is very different and much more rugged.

We leave the Tatamagouche Centre Friday at 2:30 to fly to St. John's and meet our host families.

With love,
Julia

p.s. Computer time is about as common as a sunny day in Vancouver here, so more about Ghanaian culture to come when I get a chance!

Is it Raining Outside?

Oh My Goodness. This must be the most speedily I have ever updated the blog.

This morning I was none too excited to begin this adventure, but I guess it's hard to be optimistic after a practically all-nighter of packing and worrying. I am not much of a good-bye crier, but this morning I made an exception... The security officer at the Kelowna airport made a joke of asking if it was raining outside. With cherry season and the short notice of this trip I just didn't have time to mentally prepare for a six month absence. And at first it felt like I was being ripped away, rather than bounding off into the horizon.

The plane ride was pretty long, stopping in Edmonton and Ottawa before arriving in Halifax at 3:45 BC time/7:45 local. After each stop the flight attendants would say stuff like, "Oh, you still on here?". Yes, it was a long day of zooming through the clouds: catching up on some much-needed sleep, listening to music and letting my thoughts wander around, with only Bits and Bites and bottled water for sustenance. In an emergency exit seat with lots of legroom and no one beside me, thanks to Rhonda. :)

My outlook has changed almost completely since this morning. I feel ready to face everything new and interact with the group, something I dreaded this earlier today. Lesson learned, sleep=important.

Thanks to everyone who came over to my house last night, it was a perfect good-bye for me and I am really glad I got to see you all!

So. I got to Halifax no problem, I am not ridiculously over-packed (as I expected), I saw the Parliament buildings from the plane, I am in a province I have never visited before, I saw Shaun Majumder at the Halifax airport, I have had a swim in the hotel pool with some of the other girls, and I even get to update the blog! Life is good! And the time change is to my advantage... waking up at 9:00 tomorrow will be a breeze. :)

ALSO, let me just tell you a cool story. As I was packing my backpack for this trip I went to rip off the baggage tag from my return flight from Peru... only to notice that on it was an announcement for new non-stop fligths to Accra, Ghana! The Prophetic Luggage Tag escaped the trash can in favour of my future CWY scrapbook!

Yes, life is good and I suppose that's all I have to say to you for now. I hope you find ways to realize how good life is when you are in a terrible mood too, because it rocks!

Con amor,
Julia on the other side of Canada!