So this is going to be short...

I dont have too much time oday but just wanted to say hi and Merry Christmas to everyone!! ive been at site for 2 weeks now, getting to know everything going on and what not. Came to Hohoe this week to buy a bike and headed back today. So people keep asking me what I want them to send... and really u kind find most everyting in big cites here, im just not close to one... so i would love fun stuff like mac and cheese boxes and chocolate-- like m&ms or oreos would be great!! really anything and letters!! Thanks everyone!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

oh yeah one more

Fuller Waterfall in Kitampo... this is at the top of the waterfall (you can see the whole thing in the other pics below). We climed up the whole thing... barefoot in our bathing suits... fun day!

Moving on...

Training has finished, so has homestay and now swearing in as well so now we are all off on our own to our sites!! Since site visit life has been BUSY!! We had our language and sector exams. Language exam is a big deal, bc everyone has to pass, so our teachers were really stressed over us doing well. So between studying for language, we were busy planning our Thanksgiving feast and outfits for the swearing in ceremony. Some of us also got to go to visit a nearby waterfall to go swimming for the day... we also got to hike up the waterfall, great study break!!
So Thanksgiving was the day after our tests... we got a turkey and did a potluck. Daria and I made tortilla chips... a whole bunch of them! They turned out really good! We had so much food, it was great and I even got a 1/2 bite of turkey to go with it haha! We had some great fruit salads, salsa, stuffing, lost of mashed yams, macaroni and cheese, bread, a pinappleish pie, salad, stuffing and alot of other great stuff. It is crazy how creative our group was with local ingredients!! So it was a great Thanksgiving, got to relax and hang out for the day!
moving on... so my home stay family has been cooking for me for the past 2 months and they were really concerned that i didn't know how to cook and that I would starve when I went to site. So I had to cook a meal for them my last night at home stay. I boiled noodles with some carrots, fried up some garlic, onions and tomatoes and combined it all with tuna and laughing cow cheese. They loved it, well except they had to add some hot pepper! I gave them the presents I had bought for them; my sister a bracelet, my mother a small wall cross, my father a lighthouse calender and the little girl some crayons and bubbles from Becky's wedding! Well the bubbles were a big hit, and about20 min after they got their presents, my father who is still looking through the calender asks, now what are these? talking about the lighthouses. My brother also asks, well u gave my sister a bracelet and she is wearing it like that, now how is my mother supposed to wear this-- talking about the wall cross. hhaha. once they learned what it was for, she was so happy and hung it up in their room!
On Saturday we moved into Dery Hotel in Techiman for our last few nights together. We had a few meetings, but also got to have a day to relax-- on which we piled 15 people onto a bed and huddled around a laptop screen to watch movies! On Tuesday all of out homestay fa miles came to the hotel for the ceremony. Everyone had on their Ghanaian outfits and we had a great time. Our group put on skits and songs in the languages we learning, there was dancing and drumming group and a couple os speeches from Ghanaian officials and out Peace Corps directors. After lunch and lots of pictures later, our families when home and we were able to peel off our super hot, and lined Ghanaian dresses!! We spent our last evening together, had a good time and left early the next morning!
Right now im at the Tamale sub office on my way to site. About 15 of us traveled up here as a group and most will branch off from their. We had to buy a few things here that wont be available where I will be, but will have to buy most things closer since we have a very long day ahead of us tomorrow!

Pictures!!!!

New Peace Corps Volunteers!!! Nov 27

Fuller Waterfall in Kintampo

Thanksgiving

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Terri, me and Egan at Swearing in

WATSAN group at Swearing in ------->

training and site visit

Well this pic is from our "cooking session" Basically they want to make sure we wont starve or something once we get to site, so our assignment one afternoon was to get into groups and use local ingredients to make a meal. Daria, Joe and I made fajitas. We had the salsa, tortillas, chicken and veggies, rice and beans all made over open fire or charcoal burners. It took all afternoon but we had a blast, we were super proud of ourselves!

So right now it is 1:30 in the morning Ghana time and I am sitting in the Tamale Sub office enjoying free Internet yeah! There are a bunch of us here on the way back from visiting out sites for the first time! The nkwanta crew (the 6 Watsan people going to the Nkwanta district of the Volta region traveled with our counterparts (who had come to Techiman for a conference last week) to our sites on Friday of last week. We made it in one day bc we took one vehicle all day bc there were so many of us. I got to my site about 8:30 at night and after some initial awkwardness i got to sleep! Coming back was a little more difficult since i had to take 6 different vehicles and had to wait for up to 3 hours to the bus to leave a town. haha. We finally got to the office tonight! Site is great, I have a dog left for me by the previous volunteer at my site, I live with a family, im really close to Togo, um... yeah my first day I was sitting outside and a boy comes up to my with a pigeon in his hands. He says that the chief has given it to me. So i timidly take the pigeon, not wanting it to fly away, but also not really wanting to hold it. everyone laughed at me and the boy too the pigeon back. I was kinda confused until a few minutes later the boy came back with the pigeon, not dead and with no feathers, ready to be cooked. haha! Basically now we are headed back to Techiman for 2 weeks of training and the swearing in ceremony and then we are off to our site for real! Exacting! More later!

one month til swearing in!

we are more than 1/2 way there! Training is going well, this past week we went on a field trip. I was part of the WATSAN group that went south to the eastern region. We traveled though Kumasi, and went to the site of a current volunteer, Alexis. We thought we would just be crashing on her floor for the week, but it ended up she arranged for us to stay at this super sweet bungalow bed and breakfast the next town over. It was run by an Italian woman and her Ghanaian husband and they let us stay their for the week for free! So our field trip was great. We got to visit the clinic in her town, a hospital that worked on herbal medicines for patients with HIV/AIDS, and played in a football match against the local team. While we lost the football game, even with the help of a few local guys, we did successfully teach a lesson and give a skit about malaria during half time. People were really interested and had alot of questions for us!!
The second morning of out trip we went on a hike to a nearby waterfall. The village is trying to develop it as an ecotourism site, and we got jump off the rocks to go swimming in the river. Each day for lunch we made sandwiches, pb, tuna or egg salad and for dinner Alexis counterparts family cooked for all of us! We also got to teach an HIV lesson to the local JSS or middle school students. Allison and I had JJS2, similar to our 8th grade. We were happy to see that many of our opponents from the football game were in our class haha!
So it was great to get home after our travels. Been back in Forokrum with my family there. We have had time to work on our small community projects, had more language practice, and gone ot techiman to present projects about the culture to our group. Today we have some small meetings to plan for the week and tomarrow is the big football match agianst the trainers.
Thanks so much for all the letters and emails! Its good to hear from you all. Thanks Mom and Robin for awsome packages--- 2 in one day, best day of training so far!!!

picture... this one took 10 min to come up haha!

A picture from the batcaves.

Batcaves...

Life as a PCT is going well. Im enjoying my time with my homestay family and training. Right now we are working on small projects in the community. I am going to do some prenatal nutrition education at the clinic, working with the nurses there. This week we also planned and carried out health education classes in the local primany and middle school. Joe, Mike and I were given the youngest class we worked with- 4th grade. we were hoping to use a translator since their english isnt too good at that level, but there wasnt anyone there to translate so we did our best. We talked about how to stay healthy by washing ur hands and when we sould wash our hands. They all got to practice, we gave them candy and then we learned a fun song... If you wash your hands with soap clap ur hands *to the tune of if ur happy and u know it*. It was fun and they enjoyed it! Next week we are also going back to teach a lesson on HIV/AIDS.



This past weekend we went on a trip to the batcaves in a near by town. It was great but they forgot to mention the 5 hour hike that went along with the excursion. Kinda reminded me of my weekend with adele on the appalation trail! it was super hot and er ended up basically crawling through the bat caves and coming out covered in mud. To get out of the cave we had the scale a 15 foot wall, basically climbing up the vines. When i got home that night, my homestay mother was so concerned with how dirty I was that she called over the family and the neighbors to look at me and sent me to bathe right away! Ghanaians are very clean, they think its stange when we dont like to bathe at least twice a day haha!



On Saturday we are leaving for our fieldtrip. I am giong with a group of 8 trainees to the eastern region. We will be staying with a current volunteer there and working on some projects but havent been told too much yet. Well... thats about it for now... THanks to everyone who has sent me letters, keep them coming its a big deal in training to get mail!!!

yams, bore holes and latrines!

well, life is giong well in Ghana. I have now been living with my host family for abour 2 weeks abd things are going great. Yams are big in ghana and are used at about every meal. They also have casava and garen eggs. We spend most of the week in our village, outside of techiman. The rest of my sector, health and WATSAN water and saniation, also live in the village, the other sectors are at other villages near Techiman. Each day we have sector time and we have language in small groups. I am learning Twi and have three other people in my group. We meet for four hours mon, tue, wed and saturday. During sector time we are learning about how to get invovled in our comunity and how to help them asses their own needs. We are also learning a ton about latirnes and boreholes. I never new there were so many types of latrines!! Today we took a tour around our village and saw many latrines, including the so called public latrines.

Thursdays and fridays we go to Techiman to meet for more general sessions. Its great to see the rest of the group and use the internet! WEe are also a big fan of fan ice, this chocolate milk/ ice ceam thing u can buy in a pouch!!

Thats it for now, ill try to post this bf the computer crashes again!!

1This is my second try at this, the power keeps going off where I am. So I am moved in with my host family. The family consists of my "mother" and "father", their son who is 21, their daughter and her two daughters ages 9 months and 10 years, and another son who has a wife and a 3 year old son. They are really nice, very accommodating. So yesterday morning the 16 volunteers in my village went to visit with the chief. The day was pretty intrense with a lot of people staring at me in my house, but the afternoon the older children in the village took a group of us on a walk to the mountains nearby. We went into a bat cave and climbed up some rocks for a gorgeous view of the town. Today we were back in Techiman for our meeting with our big group, which is now down to 45. I found out that the town I will be living is is called Azura, in the Nkwanta Distrct of the Volta region. It is in one of the most remote parts of the country, less than 5 km from the border of Togo. Im excited about my project, I will be working with women and children a lot with health projects, HIV/AIDS education, guinea worm education and water sanitation. Im pretty excited about it, the village hs about 1000 people in it. I wond have regular access to email and my phone service will be sketchy. The biggest nearby town is about 50 km away, and they have intermittent internet, mainly at the world vision office there. I will be moving in the first week of December.

In Ghana

SO this is going to be short since i dont have too much time. I am now at Techiman, Ghana. We are staying at a hotel for a few days and then moving in with our homestay families on Saturday. We were in the capital city, Accra for a few days of meetins and lots of shots, and them we were sent out ot visit current Peace Corps Voulunteers. I went to the upper volta region where I lived in a rural village for a few days. It took us two days to get there and two days to get back. one day we only travled 40 miles in 13 hours! not very many vehicles and very bad roads! So we are in training for the next 10 weeks, and then we will be sent out around the country. We find out next week were we will be going so we can start learning the language. Right now we are justlearning Twi, a common language spoken by most people. Im doing well, making new friends, adjusting to the heat. Please send me letters! Packages if you want, I would love granola bars and drink mixes like gatorade and crystal light too! Thanks everyone for your support... more later!

Address

Well I'm off! I will be in Philadelphia for staging for a few days, then will be flying with my group to Accra, Ghana.

Here's my address until December:

Becka Dutton, PCT

Peace Corps/ Ghana

P.O. Box 5796

Accra- North, Ghana

West Africa

Summer and a new adventure

So its been awhile... my last month in Kenya was great. I was really sad to leave, but know that i will be back in not too long! So this summer I am at home, working a part time retail job and then during the day at a Soccer and Rugby store. I know nothing about rugby, but am learning and for the most part just do office work. Next week im going to Texas to go visit with friends from Baylor and to go to the wedding of one of my best firends/ former roomate.
Found out that in September I am leaving for Ghana as a health/water sanitation community health worker with the peace corps. I will have staging in Philidelphia, then fly into Accra, the capital of Ghana and then to another city for 10 weeks of training before I start my project. Lost to do before then, but i am excited to finally know what i am doing and where i am going.

One month to go...

Hi to everyone. I am in Nairobi again this week, visiting a friend from home, Emily who is in Nairobi for a couple of weeks. I am also going to get to visit the Baptist Children's Centre, where I was the first time i came to Kenya a few years ago. Nairobi is always a culture shock coming from up country-- there are so many people here! Yesterday i came to town by 5 to get a vehicle to my friends apartment. I stood in line for almost 2 hours in town to get a bus and then sat in traffic until almost 9 getting to her apartment. It was a long day!!

This week was our holiday from school. Everyone went home except for 17 kids (6 of them are borthers). They are used to being left, but its still rough when everyone else is packing and excited about seeing relatives. So usually they get alot of specail things since there are so few. We made chipaties, cake, had meat, potatoes, cooked french fries and ate bread. We also did alot of work this week! They poured concrete, dug in the farm and did alot work in the garden. I was in charge of the kitchen again, which wasnt so bad only cooking for 30, but was still alot of work (teenage boys all over the world are like human garbage disposals!). So we had fun, watched Shrek this week, and then colored by candle light once we ran out of gas at night for the generator. Thursday night we brought the little jiko to stay warm and sat around and talked and laughed for hours! Its sad that these kids have no one who wants them \yet they are so smart, hardworking and have amazing personalities. Some of the best students are in the group. Im sure once they go to university and become someone big their relatives will start to appear!

Praises

- Mwangis cast came off this week, which meant he stayed with us this week but I think he didnt mind too much!
- Hannah, the girl who has had many probems coping since she came month ago has gone through a racical transformation. She has been in the kitchen helping this week and instead of sitting by herself, complaing that she doesnt feel week and loking miserable now has a constant smile on her face and is always laughing.

Prayer Requests:
- All the kids trveling back this weekend for classes on monday
- Rain. The rains hav come, but not quite enough yet!

Greetings from Kenya!

I am actually writing from Neema. Now that we have a generator (is was donated back in January) we can use the computer from here. I have started teaching computer lessons to those in 7th grade an up whenever the generator is on. I stay busy in the evening as they are all eager to try out the computer. Another blessing has been the promise of running water by the end of the year. The current president, Kibaki, has done a lot in the region since he became President only a few years ago, so we are very excited about this. Since we will have water soon, the money that I brought that was meant for water and electricity can now be used to pay for another teacher as well as invest in a second computer so more of the students can learn how to use it.
Next Saturday we are closing school for everyone so most of the remaining students will go home to stay with their relatives for a week. There are about 20 that remain here throughout the year because they don’t have any relatives they can go to, so we will be left for the week. Its fun when there are only a few left, but most of our time will be spent on the farm because the rains have come! While it makes the time rather miserable now that it seems to rain constantly day and night, it is very nice to have a reliable source of clean water and to get the garden planted. I have invested in a pair of gum boots that have come in very handy!!

My prayer request include:

Safe travel for the children as they go home and return to school in these next two weeks
- for Mary, the 9th grade student who is having surgery next week on her shoulder.
- For Mwangi, the 4th grader who broke his arm. He is going back next week to the doctor. We are hoping his cast comes off soon because he is one of the most active boys ever and it is a constant battle to get him to not run and play soccer!
- Our new student, Metho. Metho was one of the first boys at Neema, taken from the streets 12 years ago. He lived here for 6 years, then ran away. He has been back twice since, but has left both times. He has lived on the streets and has been in prison twice. He is now back, wanting to return to school, so he is in my 7th grade class at 21 years old (not that uncommon here). He has a lot of adjustments to make coming back to a life with structure and disciple, but we are hoping that he will stay and complete his education this time. Also pray for his influence on the other kids here.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support!!

Becka

its been awhile...

Well it has been awhile since i have been able to write. I have only been to Naivasha to check mail and for some reason the blog wont work on the computers there. So... life have been going well at Neema. Having the generator is so amazing, not only do we have lights at night, but also we are able to use the computer and tv now!! The director, whom we all call Mum, used to teach at a secondary school, about 12 years ago before she began Neema. She has had the tv and computer in her house but has been unable to use them until now. I am the only one there who knows how to use the computer, so we started lessons for students and teachers this week. Hopefully before i leave they can have a pretty good grasp on the computer!

We took our trip to Nairobi! Thank you to everyone who donated money to help do this. The first week we took the socondary students, and then we took classes 5-8. The trips were very exciting!! Iwoke up the girls at 3 am to get ready, and we left by 4:30 in the morning!! We went to visit the airport, then to a session in Parliment, to the Nairobi Animal orpahange and to Bomas of kenya where the kids say dances and the homestaeds from many of the differnt tribes in Kenya. They had a great time. The younger group also got to ride an elevator up to the 30ths floor of the Kenyan coference center and enjoy the view from the roof. They were absolutly terrified of the elevator. Even the other teachers had never ridden one before. They loved it! Also, we used flushing toilets and saw running water, many of them for the first time!!On top of all that we ate bread (which is a big treat), mangoes, avacadoes, peanuts, chapaties ( the kenyan version of tortiallas), juice and bananas. Also, to their surprise we bought ice cream. Not a single on of them had every eaten ice cream before! Most of them thought it was too cold so they decided to take it home with them to eat later. I tried to explian that it was supposed to be cold, but they all thought I was crazy! So both trips were great, but the younger ones thought everything we so exciting. There is a boy in calss 5, Ngugona, who had never even seen a paved road before, so we had alot of new experiences for the day!

The last week of March we closed school for the term and most of the kids went home for easter. We are having class for the older ones (class 6 and up) during the holiday, so there are still about 100 there. We will close for them the last week of April, but there are about 20 kids or so that dont have any relatives to go to, so they stay at Neema even that last week. its relaxing to only have a few for that week, and the kids enjoy it becasue they get a little spoiled that week, with fruit and special food and treats! For easter we decied to make cake. I was a little unsure of our plans since we have little charcoal stoves, but they turned out great! We put the cakes on the stove and then piled more charcoal on top. not too bad! i think the last week we will have cake decorating lessons. they have all seen my pictues of Lindsay's wedding cake and now they want a cake like that haha!

Thanks so much for all your emails, thoughts and prayers. Mary is having her surgery on April 24th. Also, we have a new girl named Hannah that is having problems adjusting. She is in class six and came from another children's home, but needs alot of attention that is hard to find amunst the 150 other children. Thats about it for now. My time is quickly coming to an end... only 6 more weeks that i am sure will fly by!

Beck in Nairobi...

So I am back in Nairobi for the day, having a great time up country at Neema, but always busy. This weekend we have exams so i got all mine done early so I could come visit some friends in town. I love all my students, they are so much fun, well most of the time!! I am now teaching 6th grade science, and 11th grade english and leterature in addition to my other classes now that another teacher left. Most days I am at the school/ home, so it is nice to get out some days. Last Sunday I got the chance to go on a mission trip with some of our high school kids. We went to the closest large town, Naivasha and spent the afternoon with some of the street kids there. There were about 30 street children, ranging from about7 years old to about 18 or so. Alot of them were there becasue we brought food, but most stuck around to talk and have a little worship service. It was a good day, and a good experience for the kids at Neema to go and serve others.
More to come...

From Kenya...

Habari! I am now settled down into my routine here in Kenya. Today am I back in Nairobi, so i have a chance to check my mail and update everyone on my activities! I am having an awsome time, working hard but enjoying it! I am at Neema children's Home in North Kinangop Kenya, home to about 140 kids ages 2-20. I teach 6th , 7th, 9th and 10th grades and love my students. Some of them are challenges becasue they lack the basics, but most are always ready to learn and always running to me with their books to mark their work! The kids start their studies at 4 am. Classes start about 6. we have bible study at 7:30 and the school day begins at 8. We teach til 4 then the kids go do chores on the farm. I tutor a few kids who are really behind until fewllopship and dinner, then it is back to class until 9:30 when the lighst go out! The kids are wonderful, alot of them come from the streets or really rough backgrounds, but they are settleing in well! Thanks to everyone who has given support for the kids, I am buying text books today and we are planning for a trip next month! There are so many other needs with the buildings and water needs, so the rest of the money will go to things like that.

We have a lot of praises, including lots of rain!!! (which means we dont have to go to the river to collect water
-also, the school/ home recently got a generator donated to them. A electrician came and set up for the secondary school and the dining hall to have lights so we can have classes at night. the fist night the kids were soooo happy. They were running aroung shouting "this is like nairobi", " this is paradise". It was like Christmas morning time 150!!!

Keep the kids in your prayers. When the kids pray, they pray for the kids on the streets. there are so many of them here. The Neema kids know how lucky they are to have a place to live!

- Pray for a 9th grade student names Mary. She is having surgery on her sholder. We are trying to get a referal for her to come to a better hospital. right now she has a bone sticking out at her collar bone.

- Pray for three boys, Francis, John and Abraham who recently got expelled or suspended. There are alot of issues we are trying to sort out, but John's situation that he went home it not good, so trying to convince the director that he needs to be back at school.

-Pray for the new kids, they have a rough time fitting in at first, especailly the young ones!


Thanks so much for all your support!

Im not too sure about this thing...

So this whole blogging thing def. isnt me, but we'll see how this goes. In one week i will be in Nairobi, I leave on wed. and am excited about a long layover in London. Ill have about 7 hours to see all that I can see in the city! Ill get to Nairobi on Friday morning. Im meeting up with some friends for the weekend, and then will head up to North Kinangop where I will be for the next few months. Its a place called Neema Children's home. There are about 125 kids that live there, most of them orphans, from ages 2-20. Im excited about being back there and getting to see the kids again and alot of friends. I guess ill try to keep up with this blog thing while I am gone, whenever I can get to a computer. kwa heri for now!!