Transportation in Ghana

Most interesting and funny stories from Peace Corps Ghana volunteers revolve around transportation. Getting used to getting around in a new place always takes some getting used to, but add being in a foreign country to the mix and things get more interesting. Thankfully Ghanaians are incredibly helpful people who are always looking out for others and are willing to give of themselves in order to ensure the safety and well being of others. Unlike in the United States, most Ghanaians do not own a personal vehicle, making for a glorious system of public transportation that all people in the United States should be jealous of. Transportation choices include buying, borrowing, or getting a ride on the back rack of some one's bicycle, getting a ride on the back of some one's motorcycle, small car taxis, tro tros, metro mass buses, STC buses, the occasional boat or canoe, and hitchhiking with "rich folk" who have personal vehicles. Many taxis will not leave the station without less than 6 passengers (we have fit 12 in). Most tro tros seat at least 25 people. Metro Mass buses seat 7 across, and STC is the mansion of transportation with air conditioning and only seating 4 across, of course you have to endure Nigerian soap operas playing on loop the entire ride. The following are fun stories of transportation in Ghana that have happened to me or my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers. These stories are not always funny when they happen but after time they become hilarious.

One evening during training I was trying to get home from a neighboring village where I attended language classes and it began raining. When it rains in Ghana everything stops. Eventually a taxi to my village filled and we were on our way shortly after nightfall. Within two miles the taxi broke down. Magically after an hour of waiting around in the rain, another taxi came and picked us all up. Within another mile, the second taxi broke down. The man sitting next to me asked, "can you walk," and I of course replied yes. So we walked the remaining 5 miles to my village through waist high rivers of rain water. Needless to say the taxi would have never made it and my host mom was petrified that I was out in the rain let alone that I walked.

A friend of my was travelling by tro tro. They had stopped at the side of the road for a bathroom break. For whatever reason, my friend decided to lean against the side of the tro tro while waiting for everyone to finish their business. A goat travelling on top of the tro tro apparently got the message that it was time for a bathroom break. It urinated over the side of the tro tro directly on my friend's head.

I would often beg a ride (hitchhike) to the regional capital from my house because I lived on a main road. I would usually get picked up by personal vehicles or taxis or tro tros that weren't full. One day a small taxi car slowed down and pulled over for me. I was perplexed by the fact that the car was only carrying one passenger on a market day. As I got closer I realized why. In the back seat was a full grown live bull. The only passenger hopped into the back seat allowing me to have the front while he sat on top of the bull. We picked up more people who also sat on the bull on the way to town.

While riding in a taxi one day, smoke started pouring out of the vents. The driver kept driving. As the car filled up I yelled, "Driver! Smoke! Fire! Stop!" The driver replied, "Oh sorry. Oh no," and pulled over. The driver's friend fixed the fuse box by biting off pieces of radio antenna wire and fashioning them into fuses. The rest of the trip went smoothly.

There is nothing like getting vomited/pooped/urinated on by a baby who is sitting on its mom's lap next to you during a long bus ride.

Often you would feel something brush up against your legs and realize there were chickens and goats under your seat.

Seeing 5 people on a motorcycle or bicycle is not uncomon.

Intestinal issues are common. Thankfully plastic bags are plenty so if you happen to have to suprise vomit while in transit you might be lucky enough to get handed one without holes to fill.

Your car/bus/tro tro might break down multiple times on the way to your destination but someone can always fix it, even if they have to pull out the entire engine on the side of the road.

A friend who can only get to their site by boat, got the pleasure of riding in circles for quite some time because something on the boat broke and they could no longer go straight or turn off the engine. They were eventually rescued by another boat.

Life in Ghana is good!

Technical Difficulties

Due to the technical difficulties of my SD card USB pen drive thing, there will be no photos or the lovely home tour video postings until further notice... bummer. I will have to do some more trouble shooting but all hope might be lost. Ohh technology.

The Salah

On Monday the 21^{st of September, I celebrated the Salah, which is the local name for the celebration of the end of Ramadan. As a white woman, I tend to create quite the stir in general but as a white woman in a head scarf praying toward Mecca, I was the talk of the town.}

I attended the Salah with my friend Rukaya and her two sons, Ferica and Meroof (They are 9 and 5 and I claim both as my husbands, which helps me fight off the dirty old men.) Rukaya lent me a small simple white head scarf of her own, we got the boys washed and dressed in their matching orange outfits, and we were off to the celebration with Rukaya's neighbor and unhappy baby girl in a fluffy dress in tow. It was a very hot day and of course there was no shade. The concrete expanse of the Police Training Center was outfitted with rows of prayer mats. The rows closer to Mecca were for the men and behind them by a space of about 20 feet were the rows for the women.

As we waited for the celebration to begin, we sat in what shade we could find and the men and woman began to segregate. But before Ferica could go off with the men, an old woman made sure to question his love for her. He sat smiling and giggling beside me and said, "but can't I love you both?!" in reference to both me and the old lady. And in Ghana it is true, especially in the north, that he can love us both and have as many wives as he wants and can support. We laughed at the boy, who would later that day rewind "Total Recall" to show his friends the woman with three breasts, and sent him off to be with the men.

The segregation of men and women to me fells both degrading and empowering. There is nothing more powerful feeling than a group of women with common goals and interests yet we are a group of women who are 2nd rate citizens. We are further from Mecca, we are further from the Imam, we are behind, not beside, the men. I had the same sort of feeling while wearing my head scarf. I was hidden yet drew extra attention. I felt demeaned yet like I had a special power bestowed on me.

Led by the Imam, who stood in front shaded by a man holding an umbrella, we begain the celebration with prayer. Later when I wipe the dirt from Rukaya's forehead, she says, "It is because we pray with our foreheads." She is proud. Then a talk by the Imam and a collection taken. All the while the young boys run wild playing in the space between the men and women. The young girls are quite behind the women. There are young girls to the side selling homemade "ice creams" and cold pure water sachets.

Then the celebration was over. Photographers walked around snapping photos that they would bring around a week later to those in the photos and sell them 5 for 4 cedies. I am in countless photos undoubtedly hung up on the walls of homes all over my village. Then it was back to Rukaya's for feasting and a movie marathon. The boys prefer any action film. The less talking and more Kung Fu the better.

And so went my first venture into Muslim culture. I don't know much about it yet but learning will help me understand those around me just a little bit better.

Let's Talk Ghanaian Food

After receiving the mother load of a package of Amer8can food goodies from my lovely parental units back in my homeland, I have been inspired to tell the world a little about Ghanaian food.

I live in northern Ghana, which is savannah, but southern Ghana is tropical rain forest. Therefore, the variety of food varies greatly from north to south. But if you are willing to pay (50 or more peswa for a coconut that in the south would cost 5 peswa) you can get anything that is grown in Ghana, at least right now during the rainy season. So in the north our main crops are maize (corn), rice, millet (that's right zoo friends that's what we feed the Budgies), soya beans, bombara beans, red beans, black eyed peas, ground nuts (peanuts), yams, tomatoes, onions, okra, garden eggs (like a small egg plant), alefo (leafy stuff), cabbage, hot peppers,green peppers, and mangoes. Right now I can also get (in the regional capital market and for a price) pineapple, coconut, oranges, bananas, apples, grapes, pears (avocados), green beans, carrots, egg plant, plantains, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, cassava, popcorn, pasta, and probably more. Chicken and guinea fowl eggs are also widely available. Cattle is milked by the Fulani people (a nomadic cattle herding tribe from further north, many of which have seemed to settle in Ghana) but milk and cheese are very rare. Processed foods (boxed or canned) are rare and expensive. Although Ghana is the second largest producer of cocoa, chocolate is hard to find and not very good. Ghanaians don't do candy or desert.

A typical Ghanaian menu looks something like this:

Breakfast – porridge, oats, fried egg sandwich, tea, hot cocoa

Lunch/ Dinner – wakye (beans with oil and ground dried cassava), red red (beans living it up in palm oil served with plantains fried in palm oil), plain rice with a tomato paste stew, jolof rice with meat (jolof is rice cooked in a spicy tomato mixture), rice balls with ground nut soup, tzed with alefo/ground nut or vegetable stew (tzed is traditionally made of millet flour and is a ball of starch), fufu and palm nut or light soup (fufu is a ball of starch made by pounding any combination of boiled yams, cassava, and plantains together, light soup is like tomato soup), banku and okra stew or hot pepe with little fish (banku is a ball of starch made from fermented corn flour), water, mineral (soda)

Basically Ghanaians love balls of starch that you don't have to chew, dipped in things. I don't cook Ghanaian food. Its an all day process and I would rather leave it to the professionals, Ghanaian women. So I basically eat like I would at home in the US only without cheese and more creatively. I also seem to have lost my sweet tooth over the course of the last 4 months. Even soda overwhelms my sweet sensors.

The Peace Corps Volunteers of Ghana have something called "the achievement of the trifecta." Achievement of the trifecta is attempted by many, achieved by few, and mastered by only the most serious. Achievement of the trifecta makes you Ghanaian. To become Ghanaian you must successfully be able to eat two rice balls, two balls of fufu, and two balls of banku. I can rarely eat one ball of any of these.

Talk of food also brings us to intestinal unfortunateness. This is also of course caused by water. Growing up in the United States with our wussy sterilized environment makes us United Statesians as susceptible to intestinal unfortunateness in Ghana as the native peoples of North America were to small pox. Perhaps even more so. What does intestinal unfortunateness entail you may be wondering? Bouts of diarrhea, constipation, explosive diarrhea, vomiting, fever, projectile vomiting, worms, severe stomach cramping, and of course surprise pooping of the pants and surprise vomiting all over. I have yet to get worms.

And with that I will end my lesson for the day.

One Month at Site!

One month at site! How bout that.

I have started what will eventually be my garden. I am currently
clearing land. In about two hours, I cleared a 6' x 8' area. The
current plan is to work a little every day and eventually I will have
enough land cleared for a garden and a few nursing beds. Pictures are
in the future!

I have bought a bike. It is golden yellow, has three speeds, a
basket, a bell, and a rear rack. It is everything I hoped it could be
and more! It takes me everywhere over the beautiful rolling hills of
the Upper East.

I now consider my room finished and sufficiently homey. It is
complete with kitchen area, living/dining/office, and bedroom areas.
Video tour on its way.

My women's groups are uh... groupy. They are great ladies. They have
a massive amount of need and usually just give myself pep talks during
their meetings (besides of course the dancing I do during their
meetings). One step and one day at a time and we will figure out the
best solutions for these lovely ladies.

Anywho life is good. You should send me letters and silly things.
That would make my life!

New Photos Posted

There are new photos posted on my flickr account. To see them click on my photo to the right!

TAKE NOTE OF THE NEW ADDRESS!

I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer. I passed language, security,
medical, and technical knowledge tests to be able to go out "on my
own." These first three months at site on your own are known to be
the hardest. It is in these first three months that I will have to
define my role in my communities, over and over again to each new
person I meet.

My work will be focused in two small neighboring farming communities
located in the Upper East Region of Ghana. I live between these two
communities in a compound with an uncertain number of people. I don't
have electricity, but I do have running water if we pump it into the
holding tanks and pressurize them a little. My room is small but
getting more homey as I settle in. I'm having a wardrobe and
bookshelf made by a local carpenter, which in itself is quite the
feat. Ghanaians don't have furniture to speak of and definitely do not
own books. Imagine me using the little bit of the FraFra language I
know, simple English, and gestures trying to describe and draw
pictures of what I want. Incredibly amusing. A day was spent at the
market first buying materials for the carpenter, then trying to get a
trotro to take the things to my village for a reasonable price.
Another few hours were spent with the carpenter showing him where to
cut the wood so there would be enough for both pieces of furniture.
About half way through this process, the carpenter found complete
understanding and finished on his own. All through my time at the
carpenter's an old man was trying to get me to marry him. It went
something like this: "cut here... you are an old man, I do not want to
marry an old man... yes 4x1... oh well how many cows will you send to
my father in America?... cut there and there... only 3! a man in Bolga
offered 5 cows yesterday and he was not old!... n ka boti doors (I
dont want doors)... I don't even want to marry you and you are talking
about the children you want me to give you! (specifically he wanted
twins)" haha and so on. So maybe tomorrow the polish will be dry and
I will have a more organized room.
My "job" here is to work with two women's groups in partnership
with GHACOE Women's Ministry to help them find new sources of income.
Sometimes I have to stretch to see how this relates to my being an
environment volunteer. But my women are super incredible and loving
and just generally nice. They have named me Iieem Poka, which means
god woman, and gave me a traditional strip woven smock. I've never
seen a woman wear one because they are so expensive, and I am truly
touched that the women came together to purchase me one.

There is lots to do yet nothing to do so I best get to it! TAKE NOTE
OF THE NEW ADDRESS!

Ghana Life

It is hard for me to believe I have been in Ghana for over a month and
a half. There is something we refer to as "Ghana time," and I am
definitely practicing it. In Ghana time moves in mysterious
fluctuations of fast and slow, spontaneously the two intermingling. A
minute creeps by and the week has suddenly past.

So far I have traveled the country south to north and back twice, and
I foresee myself making the journey countless times in the future. I
have been placed in the Upper East Region south of the regional
capital of Bulgatanga. This area is just hours away from the glorious
markets of Burkina Faso, which are filled with the wonder that is
cheese. I will be speaking a language called Gurune and am leaning
fii fii (small small).

I am currently living with a host family in a village of 1,500 people
called Addo Nkwanta until my training ends on August 13th. My host
mother, Grace, has given me the name Olunum, which means 'that who
brings us good'. Mother Grace has also taught me what it means to be
a true Ghanaian. It means that you can ingest a massive amount of
starchy food. The only English Mother Grace knows is the phrase "eat
all," which she says very enthusiastically. She conveys her
disappointment and worry in my inability to "eat all" with key
motherly OOOH sounds. This experience has brought me to the belief in
the common language of mothers. Mother Grace doesn't have to say a
word for me to know she is worried about my bug bites or that I need
to eat more.

Training is keeping me ridiculously busy but soon I will be at site
and have all the time in the world. Write me letters and send me your
love. Ghana rocks my socks off, but I miss you!

Safe and sound and loving life!

I'm in Ghana!  Right now I am on my way to visit another volunteer and gain some more perspective. After that I will be back with my training group for more training and my host family stay.  

The massive amounts of immunizations are going well and my daily malaria meds have had no bad side effects.  So far I have learned to drink water from a plastic bag and get around using tro tros (vans that carry about 20 people) and line taxis (think geo metros).  Everyone is sooo friendly here that you can never get lost because all you have to do is ask around.  Their culture believes in helping others and expects nothing in return.  It is a beautiful thing!

Safe in Philadelphia

I am officially a Peace Corps Trainee. Tomorrow is Yellow Fever
vaccination, first malaria meds, a bus ride to New York, and a flight
to Ghana. Good times ahead.

Upcoming Months’ Itinerary

I will be spending the next 27 months in Ghana, West Africa as an Agroforestry and Alternative Livelihood Peace Corps Volunteer.

 

On June 2^nd at 5:45am I will be flying out of the South Bend Regional Airport to Philadelphia where I will be spending two days for Peace Corps staging.  During this time, I will meet my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers, take care of last minute paperwork, and receive my first round of shots.  On the evening of June 3^rd, I will fly out of the JFK Airport straight to the capital of Ghana, Accra.  Once in Accra, I will spend four days getting to know the city and adjusting to the four-hour time difference.  On June 8^th, I will travel to a current volunteer's site and spend five days with them learning more about what it is like to be a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana.  From there I will travel to Kukurantumi, where I will spend the next ten weeks.  During my ten weeks of training, I will be living with a host family and receive training in language, health, culture, safety, and professional skills.  It is also during this ten weeks that I will receive my specific site placement for where I will be living and working for the next two years as well as visiting that site.  If all goes well, I will be swearing in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer on August 13^th!

Hitch #12 – Painted Rock & Oregon Pipe - The Grand Canyon

My last hitch with SCC was another split hitch full of odd jobs. First, we went northeast to Painted Rock Petroglyph Site where we resurfaced a path around the petroglyphs, cleaned out fire pits, built a fence, and took a tour of the Painted Rock Dam. Painted Rock Dam is an impressive now close to useless dam. Where a mighty river used to flow, now a trickling stream remains due to excess water usage. Next, we headed south to Oregon Pipe National Monument, the only area in the U.S.A. where the Oregon Pipe Cacti grow and the Pup Fish swim. It is also one of the hottest places SCC works. I got my first taste of working in 110 degree heat while laying asphalt. We cooled off one day by spending a day in Quitobaquito Pond sawing out the invasive Bull Rush. Before I knew it the hitch was over, and I was back in Tucson where the two crews spent their last evening in town before many of them went back ‘home’ partying. The next morning I left for the Grand Canyon.
My Dad’s cousin, Ellen, once told me, “Our legs and feet are only given so many steps in a lifetime.” Well, I seem to be trying to use them up quickly.
As a last hurrah in Arizona and a proper goodbye to the beautiful landscape of the United States, I decided to jump on the opportunity to go on a four-day hike in the Grand Canyon with some friends from work. We started the seven-hour drive from Tucson early Saturday morning by dropping our still drunk friend, Dan, off at the Phoenix airport. There is not much more entertaining than a few hour drive in a small car with five people (one of them drunk from the evening before and another who considers herself a psychic healer) and all their gear. We left Dan at the departures gate with a pile of his stuff, some in his pack some not, still reeking of whiskey and smiling and waving.
Arriving at the Grand Canyon in early afternoon, we hurried to get on the trail and start our day’s 12 mile hike. The view from the rim was beyond breathtaking and as I hiked over the next four days down South Kaibab, up Clear Creek and back, up North Kaibab and back, up Ribbon Falls and back, and up Bright Angel the views only became more amazing. I was challenged mentally, physically, and spiritually as I hiked over fifty miles over the four days. It was the perfect peaceful goodbye to Arizona.
Back in Tucson, I had three days of work left. I spent that time working with Technicians for Sustainability on a few water harvesting projects and consultations in order to learn more about landscaping for optimal water usage, which will help me with my work in Ghana. First thing Saturday morning, Heather drove me to the Tucson airport, and I was off to Michigan.

Hitch # 10 & 11 – Vulture Peak & Harquahala Mountains

Hitch #10 was my last with my Technical Trails Crew. It was a fairly uneventful week of trail maintenance on Vulture Peak. The view from the peak was beautiful, the weather mild, and the number of people over the age of 70 hiking the steep trail was impressive. The Technical Trails Crew will be missed.

For hitch #11 I joined a new crew as technical support. This basically means I'm just another crew member, but I get paid more for giving advice once and a while to other crew members. I met the crew in the Harquahala Mountains to help them out with some trail maintenance. It was a hot week, and we had quite the hike to and from the job site, but I really enjoyed the new crew and the area. The Haerquahala Mountains have been one of only two places I've worked here where I could not see civilization from the trail. It was refreshing.

Next I have a two week hitch, then a 4 day 3 night hike in the Grand Canyon before my last three days of office work in Tucson. On May 16th I'm back to Michigan!

Hitch # 8 & 9 – Saguaro National Park & Black Canyon Trail

It is finally starting to hit me that I will be in Ghana in less than two months, therefore I have been preoccupied and not on top of blogging.

For hitch #8 we spent two weeks camping at Colossal Caves and working at Saguaro National Park. Our projects at Saguaro revolved around habitat restoration. We spent a majority of our time spraying herbicide on malta star thistle, pulling horehound, and re vegetating an area where a waterline had been put in. We also spent some time working at Colossal Caves where we cleaned up some horse trails and ran the crafts station at their “Watershed '09” event.

As it gets warmer we have more and more encounters with animals. The rattlesnakes are definitely out and about as well as javalinas (looks like a warthog kind of), gila monsters, and horny toads. The desert is also really blooming and the bees are loving life.

Hitch #9 in Black Canyon City ended a week early with some local target practice in our direction. No one got hurt but we had a very close call so we were brought back into Tucson. This was not the first time an SCC crew had shots fired at them in Black Canyon, but I believe it will be the last as no crews are returning to that location. This is bitter sweet because it is one of the most geologically interesting areas we build trail making it one the few places one can experience all types of trail building in one spot.

Tomorrow is Easter! I'll be spending the day with my lovely neighbors Ana and Heather and their families.

Hitch # 6 & 7 – Santa Rita Mountains & Black Canyon

Once again scheduling and contracting conflicts meant two one week hitches the last two weeks. This means working ten hour days, which kick our butts in the Arizona heat (it has been hitting th 90's) During hitch #6 we worked in the Santa Rita Mountains building the Arizona Trail. The Arizona Trail is a nearly finished 800 mile trail that runs from Mexico to Utah. An SCC leadership development crew from Colorado came down to work with us. It was only their 3rd day building trail and many of them had never even swung a pick mattock before so we spent a lot of time sharing our trail building knowledge from building retaining walls to body mechanics. The crew leaders of the Colorado crew are both male so us TTC gals spent some time with the Colorado gals showing them the tricks of how to do the same work as our male counterparts with less upper body strength. It was a great hitch. We were camped in the middle of the mountains, the weather was beautiful, and the full moon rid us of the need for headlamps.

Hitch #7 was in Black Canyon City building the Black Canyon Trail, which is the most beautiful trail I've worked on thus far. The desert is in bloom adding to the beauty of the mountains, plateaus, and well laid out trail. The soil makeup of the area is constantly changing from foot to foot only adding interest to the trail and to our work. Only a large pipeline scar the plummets across the mountain range and the occasionally in view highway take away from the beauty. We camped in the middle of Black Canyon City across from the family dollar. Not exactly classy accommodations.

Hitch #7 was my boss Daniel's last hitch. He got a job with the Silver City, NM hot shot fire crew. He will be very missed.

On the weekend off between hitches, I became not homeless. I am now living with a friend of my boss who needed some help with his rent. So I moved onto the couch of a vouched for stranger named Matt. It was a good choice. Our neighbors Ana and Heather are wonderful. They've all known each other for years and now I am part of their little duplex family. I spent last night helping Heather and Anna search for Heather's missing 17 year old cat. We never found her. Prospects are not good. I saw a neighborhood dog running around with a dead cat that looked like Murphy in its mouth earlier that day. Heather has come to terms that her cat is dead. Today Heather made us all pancakes for breakfast then we went to see “I Love You, Man,” and we got Indian food for lunch. It was a good day even with the loss of Murphy looming over us.

Hitch # 4 & 5 – Tumacacori and Tonto National Forest

Hitch #4 was destined from the beginning to be different from any of our other hitches. Crew members were shuffled around a bit, we were camping in the middle of a courtyard with access to many amenities, and we were doing a saw project. There was a general feeling of elation on the crew the entire two weeks that led to really good games of kickball and camouflage.

Tumacacori National Historical Park is located in Southern Arizona and contains a mission founded by the famous Father Kino. The Santa Cruz River runs from south to north through the property. Because of its location near the US-Mexico border, Tumacocori deals with a lot issues most other national parks do not. The Santa Cruz brings with it pollution and trash. Undocumented immigrants pass through the property daily trying to make their way to Tucson to make a better life for themselves and their families. Drug trafficking is also an issue. Arizona is a free range state so the park is constantly attempting to remove cattle from their property. We were there to cut down Tamarisk (salt cedar, an invasive species from China) and do some fire mitigation.

When we arrived at Tumacacori the cottonwood forest we were working in was just beginning to leaf out. Two weeks later when we left, the forest was in full bloom. It was hard to realize that only last April, the entire forest had burned. We were quickly reminded daily as we were covered head to toe with soot. Once we had cut down all the Tamarisk on the property, we moved on with our chainsaws to cutting fire breaks in order to reduce the spread of wildfire from private property to park property. On our last day, as we were eating lunch, we heard the loud crackle then saw the smoke of a wildfire. We of course decided to go for a walk and check it out. It was a windy day assisting the fire to leap from tree to tree and b laze through the grass. Needless to say we didn't check it out for long. Once it spread on to park land, we had to quit working and return to the safety of camp.

After the hitch was over, my fellow technical trails crew members had a paid week off while I drove directly to Yuma, AZ, the land of retirees and RVs, to start my 5th hitch with another SCC crew. After a day in Yuma, we headed to Tonto National Forest to build trail in the Superstition Mountains. We spent each day swinging picks carving trail out of the mountain with the beautiful view of southern Phoenix smog. It was a great experience working with a new crew, and I will miss their excellent cooking skills.

Hitch # 3 – Pinnacle Peak Round Two

My forth hitch was back at Pinnacle Peak and McDowell Park to finish up our projects there. It ended up being only a week long because of a combination of President's Day, the rest of the crew's upcoming vacation (I do not get a vacation), and generally low moral. Why low moral you ask? Weather. When camping in tents every night, bad weather can be a real bummer. Monday night a storm blew in. We set up camp in the rain, made dinner in the rain, ate in the van, and went to bed as the storm worsened. A couple hours later we woke up to winds collapsing our tent and blowing in the rain. Everything got soaked. We grabbed what we could and ran to sleep in the van. There, the three of us girls found two of the boys who had run into the same problem. Soaked to the bone and the temperature in the mid thirties I fell asleep in the driver's seat with my head on the steering wheel. The morning sun revealed that our tent suffered a terrible defeat to the storm. The clips that hold the tent to the poles had torn off and the poles were broken into pieces. We would be sleeping in the van for the rest of the hitch.

With no way to dry our clothes we went to work wet. It was a cold windy day. But as the sun emerged further from behind the clouds the surrounding snowcapped mountains were revealed and it was by far the most beautiful day I've witnessed in Arizona.

In hopes of finding a laundromat after work, we had piled our wet things into the back of the van. Bad news, the well to do area of Scottsdale, Arizona didn't have laundromats. The closest one was almost an hour away. Good news, our project partner, John, is in good with the fire chief. While we worked, the firefighters of Scottsdale not only dried, but washed our wet clothes and sleeping bags. A huge thank you goes out to them.

The rest of the chilly week was spent hauling more rock and building more rock retaining walls. I am proud to say that I am the up and coming perhaps best rock worker on our crew. Perhaps someday I will pursue becoming a Master of English Dry Masonry.

Hitch #2 - Pinnacle Peak

I spent the last two weeks camping at McDowell Regional Park and working on Pinnacle Peak Trail located near Scottsdale, AZ. It was a front country hitch, meaning we “car camped” rather than hiking into our site. McDowell Park was beautiful, had a porta potty at our site, and had hot showers a mere three miles away! Every night we fell asleep to the sound of howling coyotes and wind rustling our tent.

Pinnacle Peak is a city park located on a decaying granite mountain in the middle of a community consisting of multi million dollar homes. Our job was to repair a one and a half mile trail that is hiked by over one thousand people everyday. The people who hike Pinnacle Peak range from trophy wives to retired couples who winter in Arizona and everyone in between. On Pinnacle Peak one sees more fake boobies in one day than many people see in a lifetime. Many people went out of their way to ignore us, others went out of their way to make rude comments toward us, and a few were genuinely nice and interested in what we were doing. Despite or maybe because the number of people, lizards and birds were plentiful near the trail.

Because Pinnacle Peak is made of decaying granite, we had to bring in material to repair the structures that keep the trail from eroding off the side of the mountain. This meant we spent most of our time carrying hundreds of thousands of pounds of rock up the trail by using buckets, rock hauling backpacks, canvas bags, rock nets, dollies, and our gloved hands. Individual rocks weighed upwards of 400lbs. Once we had a decent amount of material, we started building the rock walls ad erosion control structures that were needed and soon we were out of rock and hauling once again.

It was a hard and amusing two weeks. I am sun burnt, have some sort of allergic reaction on my face, and decided to shave my head on a whim (sorry Vonnie the beautiful haircut you gave me had just grown out too much). I definitely look the part of a homeless person, which is okay because I am homeless. Life is good.

Don't forget to click on the picture of me on the right to see more pictures of what I'm up to.

Hitch #1 - Sabino Canyon

I spent the last two weeks working in the backcountry of Sabino Canyon building a trail straight up the side of Mt Lemon.

On Monday morning, I met my crew who I will be working with for the next couple months. The crew consists of two other girls and five guys all of which have worked for SCC in previous sessions. All were very welcoming, and we became fast friends and a close knit working group.

We packed in all our supplies, food, and tools three miles up the mountain like sherpas and arrived to our base camp in the dark. After a quick dinner of reconstituted refried beans, we set up our tents and settled in. The three of us girls shack up together in one tent making life a constant sleepover. We camped next to a creek that acted as our water supply and as our bathing area. If you are wondering what I smell like after working in the hot Arizona sun for 12 days without running water, I suggest you visit your local zoo, go to the American Porcupine exhibit, and take a big wiff.

Tuesday morning we went to work in the beautiful Arizona sun building trail. The work consists of grubbing out a variety of cactus and shrubs and installing supportive rock structures in order to create a highway through the wilderness for tourists and adventure seekers. The work kicks my butt, and I love every minute of it. During the two week hitch, everyone got sick but me, we had a few close calls with rock falls and cactus, and I plummeted to my almost death down the side of the mountain. Its a dangerous job but somebody has got to do it!
I was definitely ready for my weekend off, which I spent at the Flamingo Motel with crew mate Arianna. We accomplished a lot of random errands over the weekend that included the purchase of suspenders and the eating of pizza. Good times!

Trains are Romantic

On monday afternoon I was hired by the southwest conservation corps. By wednesday afternoon I had said all the goodbyes to grand rapids I could, had mostly moved out of my house, and had traveled back to my hometown of niles to drop things off and spend a little time with the fam. Thursday morning I hopped on the amtrak train that took me to chicago and then another that took me to tucson. The romantic idea of riding across country in a train still remains only slightly dimmed by the reality of what it is actually like. I made some wonderful three day long friendships, escaped those with severe mental illness, and was reminded of the real reason most people take the train, which is that you can carry anything you want in your luggage. The landscapes were beautiful, the food disgusting and over priced, and the bathrooms along with one drunk man smelled like piss. I arrived in tucson early this morning having never even seen a map of the city. Tomorrow I start work, a twelve day hitch in the back country that begins with a short meet and greet with my crew who has been training together for the last week.

My work schedule is generally twelve days on, three days off. During my twelve days on I will usually be camping in a back country location with my phone and such turned off. During my three days off, I will be staying in tucson in a hotel, hostel, or with friends with my phone and such on. So if want to chat, leave a message or email me and I will get back to you.

Job!

I have been hired by the Southwest Conservation Corps as a Technical Trails Crew Member in Tucson, AZ. My train leaves from Niles, MI on Thursday morning and adventure will ensue!

I will be back in Michigan in mid-May to visit with the fam before I leave for Ghana in June.