The First Lesson

So much has happened, I’m not quite sure where to begin… I suppose let’s start with the basics. Yes, I’m in Ghana. Yes, I’m taking bucket baths twice a day. No, I don’t have consistent internet access (or barely any at all most days). Yes, poop is a daily conversation – in fact, I almost don’t even feel weird saying the word poop anymore. And a big emphatic yes, I’m loving my experience so far.

There's so much to share that I think the easiest way to manage the blog will be to post separately about specific topics. It’s just too hard to throw everything at a single piece of paper at once and so in this blog entry, I want to focus on the volunteers in my cohort.

For those unfamiliar with what a Peace Corps “cohort” is, let’s use a Fraternity/Sorority structure for an analogy. The Peace Corps is a national entity, just as most Fraternities are, and each country the Peace Corps serves is like a different chapter (or school) of the Fraternity. The volunteers currently serving in a country are the current "undergrads", the RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers) are the "alumni" and the volunteer trainees in PST (Pre-Service Training) – the 10-week period I’m in right now – are “pledging.” And you "pledge" with your cohort.

And just like pledging (although for entirely different reasons), this period is difficult. Many blogs I’ve read in preparation cited this as the most difficult time of their service. And as any Fraternity brother can attest to, you lean on and count on your pledge class to get through it. So without a core group that you can rely on and find comfort it, you don’t have much of a chance of making it. Essentially, this was the long way of telling you that I was extremely anxious about who would be in my cohort.

Fortunately, it took all of 5 minutes upon meeting all 25 of them for that anxiety to vanish completely. They are truly an amazing group. A good mix of age, experience, purpose and backgrounds. Everyone has a great balance between being fun and serious, opinionated and open-minded, focused and flexible. I can not say enough good things about this crew. Plus, my cohort had already taught me something very important just within a few days of knowing them.

Let's back up for a second. The 2nd Peace Corps goal revolves around the idea of sharing American culture with host country communities. And going into this experience I was so excited to teach the people I met in Ghana about American values and customs. I was so anxious to share my knowledge and show them all about how we do things state-side. But what I realized during the first few days of training – as I looked around at the diversity of my fellow cohort, whom all Ghanaians deserved to meet and experience themselves – is that I only represent a very, very small sliver of American life and I could never possibly portray all of these amazing people to every Ghanaian I meet. I know nothing about rodeos or skiing or jazz music or hunting or so many other things that are such an integral part of so many American’s lives. And who’s to say that my love of baseball or Reddit or the Dave Matthews Band is representative of American culture?

What dawned on me shortly after is that I will also never be able to share all, or even most, of Ghanaian culture with you, the reader. The 3rd goal of the Peace Corps is to share the host country’s culture with friends and family back home. And while I will do my best to accurately portray what I see and learn in an entertaining way on this blog, I couldn’t possibly give you a full understanding of Ghanaian culture the same way I couldn’t truly give a Ghanaian a full understanding of the American way of life - because I will only experience a very small piece of it.

The point is that I have to represent myself, the individual, first. Being an American is just one small aspect of who I am and I only know certain aspects of American culture, which I will be so happy to share with them. Conversely, I have to represent my experiences in Ghana to you as exactly that – my experiences in Ghana. Not 'the experience of Ghana’.

I have so much more to share – the language I’m learning, my host mommy and brother, the goats that won’t stop wailing outside my window (although perhaps fortunately, I walked outside this morning to my next door neighbor cutting one up for dinner). But I will leave you with the story of that time I may have accidentally accused the U.S. Ambassador to Ghana of political corruption…

So on the 2nd night in country, the U.S. Ambassador to Ghana invites us to his house in the capital, Accra. It’s a beautiful place and we’re served delicious finger foods, given access to an open bar and have a meet and greet with a number of foreign aid workers who are in town. Everyone I meet has some of the best things to say about the Ambassador so even though much of my adult life has been spent avoiding important conversations for fear of saying something silly, I figure I’m basically a grown up now and I should track down this amazing man everyone keeps talking about to thank him for his hospitality.

I finally corner him and after 5 minutes of friendly conversation, he starts telling me the story of when the President (yes, that President) had been considering him for Ambassador of two different countries and he was hoping to be selected for Ghana. Now in my head, I wanted to convey a message of “Did you make an effort to be placed in Ghana?” and what I apparently decided to say was, "So did you do him a favor to get placed in Ghana?” If you’re sitting there realizing that “favor” is not a word you should use publically in politics, I’m right there with you – trust me. I blacked out the next couple of minutes as I tried to save it but I don’t think it worked.

We left shortly after and I wasn’t fired the next day so I can only assume he had mercy on a lowly Peace Corps Volunteer. I will see him again in 2.5 months at swearing in (when I officially become a volunteer) and I will likely go back to my original strategy of avoiding important conversations entirely.