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Published: February 3rd 2009
WOW! What a place,... There is no way that I am going to be able to put into words what I have experienced in the last couple of days... but I'll try in my usual style, so settle down, this may take some time!...
Friday 30th January 2009
Woke ridiculously early today... first the bloody cockerel started up, then the mechanics next door, then the dogs, and the cars and the lorries and their horns... and the heat! Lay in bed til about 8am, then couldn't take it any longer!
Got up and saw Sheila (family's daughter who is about 20 years old). She explained that there was bread in the microwave (!) keeping fresh and jam and peanut butter, yummy! Made a cup of tea, in the 35 degree heart, added way too much sugar cos it was evaporated milk - already v. sweet! I should have remembered that they don't have any dairy products - no milk, no cheese etc :o( So had some bread with lovely cherry jam and very dry-stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth peanut butter!
Spent most of the morning sorting out my clothes and room etc. Found a place for everything, even my shirts, on the coathangers I had brought, they fitted quite nicely over the nails hanging out of the wall for such things...
Met the other 2 volunteers who are staying in the house. Jess is from Canada, doing an Aids education project, the other, Fibi, is a medic from Germany. Very sweet and helpful, especially when it comes to knowing the etiquette in the house...
So, a little bit of info about where I'm living...
It's a house effectively split into 3 between 2 brothers and a sister. I am living with Mrs Wulff (the sister) and her husband and daughter Shelia, there's also Mary who is related in some way, she is only 17, but kinda used as the house maid... I feel very sorry for her and hope that she does well on her journalist course so that she can earn a little bit more respect from her next employers :o(
We're up on the first floor, its quite a big place, with a verandah room to both the East and the West, one kitchen, one bathroom, and lots of bedrooms and living space?! (Here's the estate agent in me shining thru... sorry) It's … nice... but I just have this urge to take out all the crap that has been lying there for years and years... and take a good duster and mop to every surface... now I know it must be difficult to clean a house which gets blasted by the Sahara winds every January... I suppose, I'll just have to get used to it!
The biggest shock that is going to take some getting used to, there is no running water in the house... so, imagine everytime you go to the loo, or want to wash your hands cos they're hot and sweaty, or you would like a shower and to wash your hair,... oh well, you can't unless you've been to collect a bucket of water from the big drum outside... interesting...
Another thing, no toilet paper down the loo... nice...
Oh yeah... and water to drink... now this had me completely flumoxed and I had to wait until I met the other girls before I could have a drink... 12 hours after landing. So, there are some small plastic bags, of 500ml, in the fridge... you take one out the fridge (at least they're cool) and then you bite the corner of the bag off and squeeze the water in your mouth... right... kinda like a freezer pop, but not frozen... or juicy,... just really like liquid from a bag that cuts the side of your mouth if you're not careful, or spills all down your front if you squeeze too hard, or gives you the hicupps if you just squeeze and suck air in... or sloshes all over the table if you don't drink it at once and attempt to stand it down... makes drinking water a novelty.
The volunteers effectively have their own living area which is nice, but I do feel a bit detached and like I'm in a guest house because I don't really get to mix with the family... but give it time I guess.
So, just before 2pm Nooshin, a Projects Abroad co-ordinator, came over to come and show me around Accra. We wandered down the road past the smelly sewers and the sandy football pitch, onto the main road between Labadi beach and the centre of town, where we jumped in a 'tro-tro'. Now, these tro-tro things; like mini-buses with about 15 seats, for 25 people... pack em' in... well, I was OK cos I was sweating like a white person in West Africa so no-one wanted to sit too close to me :o) They have a driver who, if you're lucky, may even look old enough to drive, let alone actually be old enough (in his flip flops...) and a 'mate', yes, he is actually called a mate, who takes your pennies (and I mean pennies, it's dirt cheap) and hangs off the door making sure it doesn't fall off and makes gestures with his hand (not those kind of gestures - he'd never get any business!) but like, the only one I've managed to pick up so far is if you want to go to 'Circle' - a part of town - then he hangs his hand out and with a limp wrist, it's-too-hot, circling motion, he means he's going to that part of town... just have to work out all the other gestures now!
We got our 1st tro-tro to 'Danqua 1st ' which is the name of the stop - so called because it is the 1st stop before the Danqua roundabout. Hopped off there and got a 2nd tro-tro to '37' god knows where this gets its name from, it could be in relation to the 37 tro-tros that are constantly parked up there, or the 37 (and some more...) street sellers there, or the number of crashes per minute as one tro-tro tries to get out of the parking lot past another! From there we went to 'pig-farm'... yes, your guess is probably well off, cos there is not a pig in sight, nor a farm where there may once have been a pig!?!? smelt a bit tho... Then we had a short walk to the office where I filled out some necessary paperwork and met a couple of the other projects abroad staff and team members.
Got back on a tro-tro going to 'Circle', again, I can see you're thinking 'ah ha, the main roundabout'?! Well, you'd be wrong... it's actually a t-junction... jesus christ, there is no hope for me and my brilliant orienteering skills here! It's one of THE busiest t-junctions I have ever had the pleasure in trying to cross... there is traffic coming from ALL directions, there are no lanes, but they would make you believe that there are 6 in each direction, side by side, and then there are street sellers EVEYWHERE - you can buy everything from an orange, to shoes, to a phone, sunglasses and sweets and chocolate biscuits (yeah, right... like they're still going to be a biscuit shape?!) from one little man or many...
Next, got a 'line taxi' - A kind of taxi that takes no more than 4 people all in the same general direction. More expensive than a tro-tro, but not as expensive as getting a normal taxi. Went to Osu to change some money and get some food.
FOOD... now we're talking... had some traditional food called Banku - a mixture of corn dough and cassava, with some tomato salsa spicy type sauce and some fish. The Banku comes in a little plastic bag that you open and kinda roll off into a lump that you stuff in the sauce and swallow whole... you can try to chew, but there's not much to chew and it's v.gooey!
Got the tro tro back home about 5pm. Mrs Wulff was back in from work and we had a long chat about her, her family - she has a daughter in London and her son is in the USA working as a doctor - and how she came to live in Accra.
Then time for tea. I had a spring roll to start, then boiled potatoes, more of the tomato salsa type thing, with some meatballs (Yum yum yum!) and lots and lots of juicy fresh pineapple for dessert. I was well stuffed!
Later that night, after i'd been saying all day how hot it was and how it felt like there needed to be a good downpour to clear the air... it poured down! First came the reeeeeeeeeally strong winds, blowing the dust everywhere! Then the thunder and lightning and lots and lots of lovely rain!!! My little dance earlier must have worked!
In celebration, I had a shower and attempted to wash my hair, all in one bucket,... before going to bed!
Ok, I'm going to stop there and post another one tomorrow... Hope you're all enjoying the snow... I could do with some of it here... I'm melting in the heat and humidity!
Let me know your thoughts, it's nice to hear from you.
Clare x
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Kate
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Welcome to Africa
You gotta bucket! lucky lady - I do not belive that a Johnson would let any liquid miss their mouth ! Love kate