About Kathryn Taubert

ktaubert

Kathryn's Posts:

TO AFRICA AND BACK AGAIN

August 20th, 2009 by ktaubert

It’s been a little over two weeks days since I returned to the USA, and I’m still marveling. “Did I really go to Africa?  as I step into a real shower, turn on the tap for a glass of pure water, get in my car to go to a grocery store.
I can’t quite believe I’m home. At times, I awaken wondering why the roosters were so quiet, before realizing that I’m back home and the only noise is that of my purring cat.
I promised him I’d never leave him again for so long, although he was well cared for in [...]

Posted in Ghana Community

The Whole Pie

July 30th, 2009 by ktaubert

Hotels in Ho provide a clean towel or two, but bring your own washcloth. The soap may have been used by a previous guest (NOTHING is wasted), and there certainly aren’t any free little shampoos.
If there’s a TV, it will have two, maybe three channels. One will have non-stop commercials and little else, the other music videos, an occasional movie, futbol game or news. Commentators may be dubbed in English, or maybe the voice recording didn’t get synched with the video. Movie subtitles are so small I can’t read them WITH my glasses. Sometimes the “foreign film” is USA action [...]

Posted in Ghana Community

A DEAD CHICKEN, A BASKET OF CORN, AND THOU

July 27th, 2009 by ktaubert

 A DEAD CHICKEN, A BASKET OF CORN, AND THOU
Church in the Village is a three-hour affair, with a minimum of two collections, lots of music, dancing in place, ritual, and more contrasts.
Ghanaians are well-dressed, in spite of poverty. They make most of their clothes. Tommy Hilfiger in the Village is a rarity. Large pieces of cloth artfully wrapped around the body, layered for decoration and shocked with contrasting head scarves (women), are as appealing as anything you’ll see in back home. I don’t know how they mix and match the plethora of colors and prints they do, but they are [...]

Posted in Ghana Community

THE WHOLE TRUTH

July 27th, 2009 by ktaubert

IX. THE WHOLE TRUTH
I know you’re wondering. “What’s she not telling us about that place?”
Well, lest ye think I haven’t cleaned my rose colored glasses lately and have fallen victim to the “Noble Savage” construct, fear not. I may have my head in the clouds, but my feet are always on the ground (well, almost always).
So, what’s the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help me Mawu?
They have bugs here, paralyzing humidity, 24 hour roosters, and teenagers.
The bugs are, frankly, the least of it. Mosquitoes never liked me much anyway. Some say it’s all the B- vitamins I ingest [...]

Posted in Ghana Community

EWE JUSTICE

July 27th, 2009 by ktaubert

The tro-tro was crowded, so my backpack went in the trunk. I didn’t realize there was a youth there also, until he banged on the window to alert the driver to “STOP.”
I was mildly uncomfortable, dismissing it till I reached the hotel in Ho. Sure enough, my TREO was missing. Hoping I’d left it in Kloe, I determined not to jump to conclusions and settle the matter when I returned after the weekend.
On Monday, it was painfully clear that my Treo had been stolen, and as difficult as it was, I notified Samson and Worlanyo, my village Counterparts.
Fortunately, I knew [...]

Posted in Ghana Community

OLD GHOSTS

July 27th, 2009 by ktaubert

She could be my age, ten years older or younger. Routinely passing my perch in early morning, toting at least 25 lbs of cassava root on her head in a large metal pan, a wicked machete in her hand, she’d announce her arrival with a simple “NORDEBRAU.” I soon learned that’s her name, meaning she was born on Tuesday. Many older Ewe were named for the day of their births.
As days passed, I’d see her at the “market”, the space alongside the main road in town under the big Acacia trees, sitting in her plastic lawn chair, selling small, square [...]

Posted in Ghana Community

ANOTHER SLICE OF LIFE IN ABUTIA-KLOE, GHANA

July 18th, 2009 by ktaubert

Funerals are REALLY big here. I’ve been to three: two on the same day. Seems like the entire region turns out. It’s not merely a memorial, it’s a real celebration.
When I die I want a memorial like the Ewe’s.  A prominent Christian denomination hosted one ceremony in the sanctuary. Another denomination hosted theirs outside.
While both had music and dancing, the former was more subdued, with dancing somewhat restrained, if you can call a singing Conga line up the center aisle restrained. Drums played all night and day. If the  drummers don’t play in shifts, they must be just [...]

Posted in Ghana Community

GOING TO SCHOOL

July 18th, 2009 by ktaubert

Tall, well-dressed and skeptical, I could see in his eyes the moment I stepped beneath the thatched canopy of the outdoor classroom, this man was going to challenge me with questions I was hoping someone would ask.
It’s not always good to have unquestioned support from the get-go. People need to ask hard questions too, and when they don’t, I start wondering who’s really thinking. Tough questions always result in better outcomes if one learns from them.
“The first thing I want to know,” he asked, “is why did you come here, and what do you hope to do?” The look [...]

Posted in Ghana Community

BEING NICE

July 18th, 2009 by ktaubert

Why is it so hard for some people to be nice?
I am in Ho this weekend, on a little R&R from the heat and roosters. I decided to stay in a motel with running water and a/c. I also figured my caretakers might need a break too. Sure enough, even though Ruby questioned me closely about my plans, she made plans to visit relatives in an adjacent village, a fact which reinforced my feeling that she also needed a little R&R, although she would never have said so.
They’ve been very good to me if a little overprotective at times. [...]

Posted in Ghana Community

VIII. THE JOB WE’RE DOING

July 15th, 2009 by ktaubert

VII. THE JOB WE’RE DOING
Today was an all-time high: watching two young men discover the world through computers.
Francis and Emmanuel, early twenties, are victims of poverty. Having finished high school but thwarted in continuing educations, they are the youngest members of the CBO, wanting to help their village find ways to increase educational opportunities. They are always polite, dressed neatly in long  pants and shirts, looking as though they stepped off any USA college campus and found themselves caught between yesterday and tomorrow, with no way of transition.
My work with the CBO has been productive.  Within a week, we identified [...]

Posted in Ghana Community

A SLICE OF LIFE IN KLOE, GHANA

July 15th, 2009 by ktaubert

A fat white chicken nesting quietly in a circle of tiny black goats, safely curled under dim light near the house.
Full silvery moon floating in a hazy halo of humid air over encroaching jungle, a few degrees to the left of blinking red lights on microwave towers nearby.
An outhouse standing silently 50 yards away, visible in the high tech headlamp I use to light my path.
Lost in a writer’s paradise, I can’t get enough of these contrasts, metaphors leaping out at me like benign jungle creatures everywhere I look.
Surprisingly, there is little to alert one to [...]

Posted in Ghana Community

OUT OF AFRICA

July 5th, 2009 by ktaubert

IV. OUT OF AFRICA
Twenty-seven 27 hours and almost 8,000 miles later, I met a surprisingly cool breeze, and a boy named Joy.
All I could think of was the loving mother to so name her son, with his geographic smile and youthful confidence, to be my almost constant companion for the next 24 hours.
The spare Kokomleme Guest House had, thankfully, working facilities, a busy ceiling fan and resident rooster. I fell into relieved sleep after a short walk to unwind.
Early the next morning, pretty young Lucy served Joy and I a simple but nourishing breakfast as we discussed plans for the [...]

Posted in Ghana Community

III. IT’S ALL BEEN ACADEMIC, TILL NOW

June 23rd, 2009 by ktaubert

Five days to go to Ghana. My biggest worry is packing all those little “baggies” of bottles for 5 weeks “in the bush.” I’ll have to check my suitcase.  I hope I can sleep on the plane, not arriving comatose after the long trip (Ft. Myers-Miami-Frankfurt-Accra).
I’ll be easy for my B.R.I.D.G.E. escort to spot. At 63, I’m really “Senior” where the life-expectancy is 56. The Ewe (pronounced AYVAY) greatly respect their elders. With less than 4% of Ghanaians over 64, that’s a lot of respect. I doubt I’ll be the first light-haired person in Abutia-Kloe. I may be among [...]

Posted in Ghana Community

II. WHERE I’LL BE, WITH WHOM, DOING WHAT?

June 10th, 2009 by ktaubert

There’s a marauding Lion loose in the neighborhood.
That’s the first thing I saw after “Googling” the name of my African home this summer.
Planning for my trip to West Africa has reminded me to get the facts. A science education imbued me with the mantra: “Where’s the data?” Even I have learned some new lessons in that regard these last few months. The plethora of comments I’ve received since announcing my plans spans the gamut from enthusiastic support to outright horror.
I have been bemused, amused, frustrated, fascinated, humbled, harried, and inspired. I’ve mused a lot about the social, emotional, anthropological, and [...]

Posted in Ghana Community

What Am I Doing Here? And Why Am I Going There? (to Ghana!)

June 9th, 2009 by ktaubert

I thought the shots might be the deal-breaker when I first thought I’d volunteer in West Africa this summer.
Yellow fever, Hepatitis A & B, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio booster: add drugs for typhoid, malaria and “Traveler’s Diarrhea.” The list was daunting.
The thought of living in a place where flush-less, “squat toilets” are the rule, hot showers happen by heating water over an open-pit fire and drizzling it overhead didn’t deter me nearly as much as the thought of all those needles.
I was surprised when the Health Dept. nurse gave me almost all of them at once.
“Are you sure?” I queried [...]

Posted in Ghana Community

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