Grant Dobbe

And we’re back on a Saturday post/email schedule. Go me. Woo.

First, allow me to discuss the Thanksgiving festivities of last month. I went to Kumasi on a Friday, spent the evening having fun and meeting new people, and just enjoyed myself. On Saturday, I got up early, went into the Kumasi Central Market with my friend Lenore to buy vegetables and other last-minute foodstuffs, and then headed back to the KSO.

The Kumasi Central Market is an interesting place. It’s situated as an off-shoot of the Kejetia station/market/commerce extravaganza, and occupies a space that was formerly used by the British as a railway station. In fact, the tracks are still in place, and serve as a natural sort of divider; vegetable and fruit sellers occupy one side, and clothing/household ware-sellers occupy the other side. The tracks haven’t been used by trains in a long time, and serve mostly as footpaths now, even though the tracks and the ties are still in place.

After purchasing food, we cooked. And we cooked. And we cooked some more. We had about 30 people who partook in the cooking and festivities, which means we cooked enough food to feed a football team. Mike, in his benevolent wisdom and foresight, decided to outsource the cooking of our 50lbs of chicken to a local Ghanaian woman. She did a marvelous job. The rest of the cooking we did ourselves; I helped in making stuffing and potato salad, which I did in a large 10-gallon basin.  A good time was had by all. It was good to share a meal in the company of new friends.

Now, we move on to All-Volunteer Conference and the Ghanaian elections. After Thanksgiving, I headed back to site for about 4 days before setting off again for Eastern Region and the warm, inviting ambience of Bunso Cocoa College (which is where I am now). We’ve holed up here to talk about HIV/AIDS education, project ideas, teaching techniques, and to wait for the results of the Ghanaian Presidential Election. Voting takes place tomorrow, and while we’re not expecting any problems, Peace Corps would rather be safe than sorry. So, all of the Peace Corps Volunteers in the country are here — all 150 of us — and we’re taking the time to make new friends and cook up new hare-brained schemes for saving the world.

And that brings us to the end of this week’s message. Thanks for reading, and keep on keepin’ on.