Okay, I'm going to try and make this post brief but I'll pick up from where I left off. On Friday morning I went back out to the school to say a quick hello and to let everyone know I was okay. I was still exhausted however (antibiotics always kick my butt) so I spent the rest of the morning in bed. That afternoon I headed to Ho to have my visa renewed. As of that day it would expire and I would be considered an illegal immigrant in Ghana. I arrived at the immigration office around 2:30 and handed over all my identification to the immigration officers. I had only been in the office for 2 minutes when I was informed that I was being fined for overstaying my visa by two months. My jaw hit the floor. What the heck were they talking about?! They pointed out that I had been given a 60 day stamp on my passport but that the customs official at the airport had written a 12 over top of the 60 and circled it. That meant he had only approved me to stay in the country for 12 days. They had never seen anything like it before, especially with a CCS volunteer, but apparently it is legal to scribble over official documents in Ghana. They were going to fine me $80 GH for each month I had overstayed and $40 GH to have my visa extended. A whopping total of $200 GH that I didn't have to spend. I was livid. I have spent a small fortune on this trip, spent years saving to provide people with my help for free, and this was the way the country's officials said thank you. I quickly got on the phone with my program director, who was just as shocked as I was. Luckily he was friends with each of the immigrations officials and talked them down to a $100 GH charge. I am still pretty upset about the whole thing. Now CCS has to double check everyone's passports to make sure they have at least 30 days granted to be in country. The funniest part is I have been through multiple immigration checkpoints where I needed to present my passport and nobody ever said anything about it. I'm lucky--I could have been arrested on the spot for traveling illegally within the country. Anyway, I'm now allowed to be here until August 16th, although I will be leaving on August 2nd and not a day later if I can help it.
My weekend was pretty dull. I caught up on errands, did laundry, and worked on internship stuff. A new group of volunteers arrived, 17 in total. I was much better prepared for this group than the last. I have listened to their questions and concerns patiently and try my best to empathize with the emotions they are experiencing. I have three new volunteers with me at the Gbi Special School. I wish I could say it is going well, but they are all overwhelmed. I don't think they should have been sent out to the school at this point. School ends next Friday and the teachers are "busy" writing progress reports for parents so classes have been suspended until next term. As such, the school environment has deteriorated back into chaos. My classroom is the only one running lessons because I'm teaching. The new volunteers don't even know where to begin. I've been giving them suggestions and one of the girls is going to join me in my class where things are more tame and will take over once I leave. I'm also hoping that this group will be able to finish up a couple of projects that I started working on but didn't have time to complete thanks to my hospital vacation.
For the rest of the week my placement will be pretty low key. Tomorrow I will be teaching as usual and having a meeting with one of the staff who I am trying to assist with his vocational training program. On Thursday I'm going to get the kids to paint these clay pinch pot bowls I had them make in creative art two weeks ago. On Friday I am just going to play games with the kids, take pictures, hand out treats, and say goodbyes. I can't believe I only have three more days here. It is so surreal.
Yesterday I started kente cloth weaving lessons with a group of local weavers. Weaving on a real loom is much more complex than the frame I got used to weaving on in high school. Yesterday I just got used to the feel of the foot pedals, pulls, and shuttles while working out a simple checker pattern. I finished about 3/4 of a yard in 3 hours. Today I got started on learning kente designs. These are pretty difficult because you have to grab specific threads with your fingers while shooting the shuttle through and switching pedals. My short fingers and small hands don't help the process much. Wilson, my teacher, says I'm a quick learner though and apparently thinks I am a "natural kente master". I hope I don't disappoint. I have had neighbourhood kids watching me too--apparently they have never seen a white person weave OR a woman weave. It reminded me of when I originally went to request a quote for lessons and one weaver asked "Is it for a black man or a white man?" When I said "No, it's for me" he started laughing. When he realized I was serious his eyes just got really big and he looked as if he might pass out. I guess I am shaking things up in Hohoe.
Well, that's about it for excitement so far. My next three days will be super busy so I probably won't post again until after I reach Tamale. Wish me luck!
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