latest fashion trend: Designer Diamond Babies!

the hottest trend in hollywood is spreading like the virus! men and women alike have all been seen sporting the latest african baby trend from the red carpet to the streets of l.a.! i found a site that only deals in designer african babies. according to the latest trend reports, malawian babies are now a fashion faux pas. what is the new trend in african baby, you ask? enter the Sierra Leonean Diamond Baby!

obviously that was a joke

but on a serious note, today (dec. 1st) is

World AIDS Day: Respect & Protect

By respecting and protecting ourselves and others we can stop the spread of HIV and end HIV prejudice.

check yourself before you wreck yourself

learn more about World AIDS Day at www.worldaidsday.org

i'm off to go empower the youth with education :)

you know you love it!

FML

texting w/ dan:

j: there’s a goat competing with me for leg room on the tro. the goat’s winning.

dan: that happened to me going to rachel’s! they tickle

j: lol…so true. fyi, this convo is making the blog.

dan: gail would be so proud!

scene: in a tro early morning waiting to go to accra (3 hr trip) for a u.s. embassy holiday bazaar. the tro is taking forever to fill (so i’ll probably be late to set up), it’s hot (so i’ll probably be sweaty and dirty looking in front of clean, fancy embassy people), and then i feel something brush against my leg. i ignore it. it happens again. i look down and, of course, it’s a goat….there was a goat under my seat for 45 minutes before i even noticed it. it makes its way out from under the seat and just roams about freely in my personal floor space. i spend the duration of the trip with my legs elevated on the rear wheel well trying to avoid dirty goat wind flying in my face. FML

conversations w/ my mom:

mom: i saw the pictures of you from fr. john. your hair has grown a lot! do you wear those flip flops every day? there was that picture of you in the black dress and you had them on, then that picture of you in jeans and you were wearing the same ones.

j: i was at an hiv/aids conference like 8 hours away from my site for a week. i had to leave straight from there to fr. john’s village so i was already traveling with a big, heavy bag.

mom: oh okay, i see. well, it doesn’t look like you’ve lost much weight.

[a separate convo]

j: hi! how are you? i’m so excited to come home!

mom: yes, we are all excited!

j: *sees someone she knows* hi, martin! how’s it going? okay, i’ll see you later!

mom: who were you talking to? someone that lives there?

j: yea, one of the peace corps trainers that lives here.

mom: oh, they speak english?

j: they were colonized by the british.

mom: so have you lost any weight?

in summary: i’ve been here for a year and my mother knows nothing about where i live or what i do. her only concern is how i look. at least now i know that my superficiality is hereditary. FML

buy jewelry = empower women. it's that simple.

i just finished the new Lady Volta 2010 Catalog (the project i'm working with)!! i am now working on the online store (www.villageexchangeghana.org), but the Swank Collection can be purchased online at www.swankjewellery.co.uk or through etsy.com. give a gift that keeps on giving!! by supporting me, you are supporting the women i work with, so that they can support their families. that much support would make victoria's secret jealous!

"This authentic Ghanaian jewelry is produced by young women in Ghana, West Africa.

With restricted access to gainful employment, young women often find themselves in difficult situations, with limited access to income.

Village Exchange Ghana strives to offer skills training in innovative income generating activities and access to new markets so as to provide fair & decent wages to young women.

By purchasing Lady Volta Beads, you are ensuring that these young women are able to access basic necessities for themselves and their families."

click to view the pdf catalog online: Lady Volta 2010 Catalog

click to view the pdf catalog online: Lady Volta 2010 Catalog

check us out. tell your friends. buy a necklace. change a life.

purchase lady volta products on: swankjewellery.co.uk or etsy.com

we shall lose the war after we have won it

“The U.S. can destroy Iraq’s highways, but not build its own; create the conditions for epidemic in Iraq, but not offer health care to millions of Americans. It can excoriate Iraqi treatment of the Kurdish minority, but not deal with domestic race relations; create homelessness abroad but not solve it here; keep a half million troops drug free as part of a war, but refuse to fund the treatment of millions of drug addicts at home….We shall lose the war after we have won it.”

-Marilyn Young, Historian

in reference to the war on iraq under the FIRST bush. looks like things are just as they were over a decade ago. is this what we call "progress"?...

a must read!!!: A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

when animals attack: west africa edition

my posts as of late have been less than insightful. upon this realization, i began to write down all of my thoughts on society, class division, government, etc. but then it happened: kevin, a fellow ghana pcv, got bit in the derriere by a hippopotamus. tragic. we are now referring to him as "hippobottomus." FACT: despite being a vegetarian, the hippo is responsible for more human fatalities in africa than any other animal, making it africa's most dangerous beast. i would be pretty freaked if it were me. can you imagine a giant hippo coming after you?! amazingly, someone had a camera and we were able to capture this incident on film. this photo will serve as a warning to future travelers: beware the hippo.

pcv kevin (pictured right) before the heinous attack

Jesus, Mary and Joseph, that's creepy!!

i've been stressed lately...work, weather, and life in general has been less than spectacular. dry season means that water and/or electricity goes out often...sometimes for hours, sometimes for days. no water for days means that i have to bathe in a big ol' bucket and use that water to flush the toilet with. gross & cumbersome, i know. however, not nearly as disgusting as not flushing the toilet. so i decided to skip work yesterday & take a field trip to kpando w/ damber to visit the creepy Jesus/Mary grotto i've heard so much about. it was a much needed mini-break. God and nature mixed with a little weirdness...just the way i like it! but seriously, i'm almost certain that if Jesus and Mary saw this, they'd be just as creeped out as i was!

a shot of the giant Mary statue from the road

damber skipping off into the woods towards God's divine light

a statue of the archangel Michael kicking some lucifer tail...creepy!

dan & i looking saintly next to a really big tree

the GIGANTIC statue of the Virgin Mary

the statue i'm standing next to is of a woman kneeling & praying to Mary

seriously...that was the biggest, creepiest statue i've ever seen

Veronica wipes the face of Jesus, creepy version:

here, it looks as if she wiped his face completely off

and there's just a person's head on the cloth

the resurrection of our Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ

check out those graceful hand gestures!

part divine, part ballerina! seriously...what CAN'T he do?!

pretty much amazing!

"today was a good day" -ice cube

what comes before part b?! partaaaayyyyy!! well...kind of. andrea & dan are celebrating the turn of the century (a.k.a. my bday). other notable people that share this day of birth: Barbara Murnan, Thuy Le, Hannah F., Megan L. and most importantly...Snoop Dog!

this day has been amazing for so many reasons. however...perhaps one of the best things that has happened today is finding proof of the amazing work and cultural understanding i have been able to promote in my time here in ghana. the following is a VACANCY flyer i found this morning that my counterpart typed up. this is how she views her job:

if the pic is too small, read below:

VACANCY, VACANCY, VACANCY

are you a qualified seamstress or a batiker?

can you sew quality items for export?

can you produce quality batik for export?

can you speak good english?

are you comfortable working with whites?

can you work under pressure?

are you ready to work for long hours?

are you ready to work under someone?

are you between the ages of 18-26?

then this is an opportunity for you to get a permanent job to make a good living.

testimonial of my good work:

"If not for her hard work there would be nothing crossed off, though she does need to work on their speaking good English" -Dan Vainner, PCV