I am writing from the computer lab at the Univ. of Cape Coast on the eve of being sworn in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer here in Ghana! Tomorrow, at a grand affair attended by the Ghanaian Minister of Education and the US Ambassador, 34 fellow trainees and I are to become full-fledged volunteers. Saturday I head out to my site in Western Ghana to begin my two years of service. Training has been quite intense, filled with language and technical instruction, but I am feeling quite ready to get going with the real experience.

Let me tell you about my site. I will become the chemistry teacher at Asankrangwa Secondary School in the middle of the western region. ... The town is in semi-isolated rain forest, surrounded by rolling hills of jungle and misty vegetation. There are around 350 boarding students at the school, and as it is a so called Science Resource Center (110 in Ghana, part of an IMF grant) I will have access to abundant lab materials (burets, balances, pipettes, chemicals, etc). The education system in Ghana is quite problem-plagued, and the need for science teachers is severe. I visited the site six weeks ago and am quite excited to be heading out there. The village has maybe 5000 people and is small for being a district capital. The is intermittent electricity, but currently no telephone. Water comes from boreholes, rain, and for about an hour a day through town pipes. ...

Ghana as a whole is dynamic and fascinating, with a healthy dose of difficulty thrown in to make it challenging. The people are incredibly friendly and the white person (oburoni in the south) is relatively uncommon, hence why all the kids stare, chant "Obruni, How are you? I am fine. Thank you.", or if they are really young, cower and run away in fear of the Obruni. Even the smallest tyke, however, who can probably speak two words, can squawk out "Bruni" at me as I pass by, especially when I am out jogging. The food is quite zesty! The diet is high on carbs, lots of fish, lots of oil, and abundant red pepper. Let's just say regularity has been in abundance so far! When it rains, it is very humid. When it does not rain it is divinely pleasant (blue, sunny skies). Training has been done in the town of Saltpond right on the beach (which happens to be the public restroom).

Of course I have so much more to expound to you all about my nascent world and home of Ghana. I will have much more time to write now that training is done and I head out to site. I promise to do so. Please write me as well. Mail is wondrous! There is email access in the big cities (Accra, Kumasi, Cape Coast) and I will try to email again in a few months.

Know that I am well, well-fed, content, stimulated, intrigued, peaceful, and happy, and thinking of you all. A hearty hug, warm thoughts, and I promise more details and information will be coming... Ekyere Yebishia! (We will see each other again!) Be well...

P.S. To update his news three weeks hence, Paul arrived safely and is getting settled in his new home in Asankrangwa where the new school term has just begun.