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Published: September 6th 2008
9/5/08
Hey everybody, how’s it going? There is nothing real groundbreaking to report so this post shouldn’t be too long. Since my last post I’ve spent the majority of my time getting stuff for my house and settling in. To my surprise, most things happened much faster and easier than I expected. The major improvements I’ve done to my house in the past couple weeks include screening my veranda, buying a fridge, buying a propane burner, getting curtains made, and hanging up pictures. I also got an ATM card for my bank account at Barclays, where the Peace Corps deposits my allowance. I’ve heard that it has taken a number of PCVs anywhere from 6 months to a year to get an ATM card, so I didn’t expect to get one in the first week. The only downside is that every other time I have gone to withdraw money the ATM machine has been out of service. My best guess is that it is just out of money. It takes at least half an hour of standing in line in the bank to take money out when the ATM machine is down.
I have really only ran into a couple snags along the way, but nothing major. The first was waiting on the carpenter to finish the door to my veranda. He screened the veranda faster than I expected, but it took a few days to get plywood from Obuasi. The other snag came when I was buying my fridge. After looking around, I decided what I wanted and started bartering for a nice Whirlpool. The asking price was $150, but I got the guy down to $120. I grabbed a taxi to get the fridge to my house and went to pay for it. The dealer had a receipt written up and it had the price of $120 written on it 3 times and I signed at the bottom. Then I handed the guy the money and when he counted it he had a confused look on his face. He said that I was $20 short. I counted out the $120 and pointed to the receipt. Out of no where, he said that the price was $140 and the receipt was a writing mistake. This is about the time the rain started. The fridge was already in the taxi and I think the dealer just expected the “rich American” to just fork over the extra $20. I argued with the dealer for a while stating that we had a verbal agreement as well as a receipt that he wrote up with the price of $120 written on it 3 times. His only defense was that it was a writing mistake. I was stuck in his store waiting out the rain and somewhat frustrated at this time. I went around looking for another fridge from another dealer. I ended up getting a slightly bigger but older fridge for $130. The Whirlpool was nicer and I probably should have paid the extra $20, but we had an agreement and I couldn’t do business with a dishonest businessman on principle.
Now I’m waiting on the carpenter to build me a table so I have room to prepare and cook food and some shelves to put all my pots and pans. After that I’ll be done with my home improvements. My place looks completely different than it did 2 weeks ago. I may be living in Ghana, but I have a real comfortable little bungalow. Granted, I don’t have running water or a kitchen and I have to wash my clothes and dishes in a bucket as well as take bucket baths and fill my toilet by hand, but it is starting to feel like home. The school is having another borehole dug right outside my house so they have been drilling for the past 2 days. Now I’ll have 2 options of where I want to haul my water from.
I’m trying to expand my cooking horizon, so if anyone has any EASY recipes, I would love it if you e-mailed me some. Remember, I’m in Ghana so I can’t run to the supermarket to buy a bunch of ingredients. I’m just looking for some really basic dishes to mix things up a little bit. Happy Birthday Joey and Brent. Don’t expect me to remember everyone’s birthdays but I’ll try. I miss everyone. School starts on the 15th so wish me luck.
9/6/08
I came into Kumasi for the day and by pure dumb luck, I happened to come on a day when a few PCVs were making burgers, sausages, and carrot cake for lunch. I am currently in a food coma. So I have an update on palm wine since I’ve had it a couple times now. I have discovered that not all palm wine is equal. The first batch of palm wine I had was by far the best I’ve had. The next batch I had was practically vinegar. Apparently palm wine ferments quickly so the earlier you get it the better. There is no way to tell how good the palm wine is going to be until you try it. The good thing is that palm wine is really cheap so getting a calabash isn’t a big financial risk. I’ve concluded that palm wine is not as good as I originally claimed, so don’t get your hopes up for when you come to visit. That’s all for now. Talk to you soon.
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Keith and Jody Snyder
non-member comment
Good decisions
Andrew, It does my heart good to hear of the great decisions you are making. I am glad you didn't give in to the dishonest sales person. He will eventually be known to the community as such. I know how much you will appreciate the things we take for granted in the USA now. Love you, Keith and Jody