Dance Marathon in Ghana

I think most of you know the hellish experience of Dance Marathon. Either you did it with me (lucky you Whit, Bro Paul, Luke, Blake, Angela) or you've heard about it. But I think you know the gist - on your feet for 24 hours with the same people. There are moments of fun, agony, exhaustion, and delerium. I am writing this entry at the Tamale sub-office, at the end of what I would consider my Ghanaian version of Dance Marathon.

These past five days were spent on what Peace Corps calls "field trip." It is an opportunity for volunteers to travel to different parts of Ghana with their sector to learn more about other volunteer's day to day lives. Since we are the largest sector, WatSan was split into two groups - one gong to northern Volta region and one going to Northern region. Please refer to your nearest map of Ghana to try to understand Peace Corps' brilliant idea: in an effort to save money we were all taken in one vehicle from Koforidua up through Volta region to drop people and then up to Tamale in Northern region. This is not the most efficient way. Especially with road conditions taken into account. Our vehicle is a 22 passenger yellow minibus. Some of these are not even real seats, but ones that fold out to fit extra passengers. There are also lots of cockroaches living in the bus. Most of the roads are not paved and all are riddled with potholes.

We leave Old Tafo at 5:30am. We arrive in northern Volta at 3:30pm. Thinking that the bulk of our journey is behind us, most of us are excited. Little do we know that we have another EIGHT HOURS TO GO. On the worst roads so far. And since we are trying to arrive before dark (ha), there is no time to stop for dinner! By the time we get to site at 11:30pm we are absolutely FILTHY. Literally. The dust is so bad that our skin is a nice orangeish-brown color. The guy in the back left corner of the bus changed color so much that we nicknamed him Sandy Andy. We are all in very foul moods.

So here we are on field trip. The first night we sleep outside, which was nice, until we woke up and there was so much dew we thought someone had played a joke on us and poured water everywhere. All day we do WatSan activities, including inspecting boreholes, visiting chiefs, discussing sanitation, and playing cards. We also participate in a football (soccer) match with Ghanaians, who were taking it WAY more seriously than we did. I don't play (of course) but most of the rest of the group does. Our team sustained minor injuries.

I think the highlight of this field trip was the random fit of hysterical laughter that plagued me and my friend J.J. We are teaching children about HIV/AIDS, hand-washing, malaria, etc. but most of these kids don't speak English very well. We are trying to encourage them to create a song, dance, or drama. After receiving only blank stares for a good three minutes, one boy softly (and robotically) sings, "Wash, wash, wash your hands..." After an awkward pause, J.J. and I realize that this is the entire song. For whatever reason, this combined with the vacant stares sent both of us into a fit of hysterical laughter right in front of the children!! We both had to turn away, had tears streaming down our faces, and had to get someone to replace us. The rest of the day we could hardly look at each other without the rumblings of hysteria.

It is now 2:18am and I am STILL AWAKE!! This is another reason why this field trip is like Dance Marathon. I haven't stayed awake this long in ages! I am waiting for election results and also have to be up at 4:00am to drive back to Old Tafo, so I figured I would try staying awake. I feel delirious.