Counterpart Workshop (7/20)

Last night we got to the Bunso Cocoa College. We'll be here for the next few days. The point of these sessions is to meet your counterpart and headmaster and get ready for site visit.

My counterpart and headmaster are both young and extremely friendly. I'll be the first volunteer to go to their site and it's cute to note their excitement. During the sessions that all the Americans are fed up with, they were furiously writing notes not wanting to miss anything. I think everyone is getting about maxed-out on sessions. We all understand the point of them, but it doesn't make it any more desirable. The Peace Corps Trainers are trying as hard as they can, but the grumbling from the peanut gallery is consistently getting louder.

I'm trying to stay positive but it's hard when everyone around you is complaining. I think it's just that we're almost done and with the end in sight people are getting anxious.

I miss Edison a lot today.

I miss grabbing him by his middle, feeling his ribs and his muscles under my hand as I tackle him and force him to lay with me. A half growl/complaint falling from his lungs as he hits the bed. It's crazy to think that it'll be 2 years before I can see him again. It's not like flop can buy a ticket to see me, now is it.

It's great to get letters and packages from home. It's a great surprise and everyone please keep sending them. I got a letter from Humie today, who asked a ton of cute but good questions. (I'll answer them later during this set of posts.)

Can't wait to get to site and have some time alone and get situated.

(I realize looking back on this entry that it's not quite clear but I was having a miserable day when I wrote this. I couldn't stand everyone's bad mood, which was adding to mine, and I really felt like I needed to be alone or I might lose it. But back to my story...)

As a symbolic gesture to add to my day I failed at flushing the toilet.

Let me set the scene. On top of the upper-bin of the toilet was a roll of toilet paper and a toilet bowl brush.

Do you ever have one of those moments where everything happens so fast your mind tries to work at super-hero speed to stop the event from happening, but in reality all you do is fidget in place with a stupid look on your face? Yea, read on.

When I pulled the handle, in one swift move, the handle knocked the lid up off of the upper bin, launching the toilet paper roll forward into the toilet, and lifted the upper bin lid just high enough for the toilet brush to fall inside. The upper bin lid closed on top of the brush, hiding it in the basin, and I just sat there and watched an entire bowl of water run over the full roll of toilet paper in complete disbelief. I couldn't have done that if I tried. FML.

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God what a great transition. Tonight we had scheduled a "Traditional Night" where we would try foods and see dances from all over the country. The dances from the south we had seen before; I was very excited to see my local dances from the North. I cant wait to buy some smocks. (A woven, usually 2 tone large shirt... hard to explain, I'll post pictures soon). The Northern drums had the tension strings, which tighten the head of the drum, running down the side so the drummer could pull on them and actually change the pitch as he drummed.

Tonight was a great culmination of many of the relationships I've made. Jonesie (Jones, the money man) told me I had to call him if I'm ever in Kumasi, and he even called his girlfriend so she could be introduced to me over the phone. Martin my math trainer said I had to give him my # before I left, and Richard and Uncle Sam both forced me onto the dance floor at different times to dance. (If you remember from my fever story, they both came to visit me at my house.) The "dance floor" consisted of a clearing of grass and when the sun set a single street light lit our area. For 2 different songs I danced a dance from the south that looks like the "chicken dance"... i cant remember the name...

When the drummers took a break to eat me and Richard broke it down on the drums. When the night was over I said hello again to the friends I made at the Drumming and Dancing session a few days earlier. We sat down and jumped into the Cirque du Soleil beat again, the boys on the drums joined in and added their own beats, and the girls who were doing the local dances all started improv'ing a dance as well.

So relaxing.

My heart is in the beat, my mind is on the rhythm and my body sweats it out. My muscles burn and my hands hurt as I hit the drum. It cleans every level of me... I really need to buy a drum.