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Published: February 11th 2006
Junior
This is our adopted kid here. His name is Junior and everytime he sees Ryan he comes running. Other kids cry when they see a white boy! He is a part of the gang that hangs out daily in the library courtyard.I can hear the first few drops of rain on the tin roofs as I write this. In Ghana the rain does not come often, but it makes a grand show when it does. The rain now comes in full drenching quantities. You can here the music of the downpour as it beats down on the rusted roofs. While nearly deafening in decibels, it is the sound that sooths the thirsty ground and cools my sweaty skin. The tropical deluge continues to increase as the palm trees sway heavily in the winds. A crouding group below never takes there eyes off the soccer match on the TV someone has brought out to the porch. This show of rain and wind is just another part of the daily life, and only exotic to someone not born here. As quickly as it began the rain dries up and the winds calm. But I am reveling in the cool, moist air that is left behind with every rain!
The Life of Traveling…For Better or For Worse
Not All of Traveling is so Romantic One of the inevitable side effects of
Getting Put to Work
Finally they got tired of us taking pictures and put Katelyn to work. The corn will be ground and made into Kenkay and Banku for dinner tonight. traveling is getting sick. Traveler’s diarrhea, that wondrous ever-familiar bowl cleansing sensation, has gone by many names such as Delhi Belly and Montezuma’s Revenge. Katelyn and I have both had our chance to experience it now! But in the end you come through it well enough and stop taking chances with that salad that looks so good, just a little won’t hurt….
However it was enough to keep us from our first trip to set up a library. Six hours of traveling can be rough when “gotta go” means “gotta go
RIGHT NOW! ” .
All the Festivities On the flipside of the traveling lifestyle is the seeing of new people, places, and events that change your life forever. And we have had a lot of them in just a month’s time! A Traditional wedding followed by a Catholic Wedding (Catholics really know how to draw it out), a baptism, a traditional baby naming ceremony, and two traditional funerals. The wedding reception though takes the cake. The reception was held at the library compound in Kukurantumi. It is similar to American style in that they will serve a meal, hire a DJ, and cut the cake
Pounding the Fufu
Fufu is the national dish. You haven't eaten dinner until you have had your Fufu. It is boiled casava root (like a huge yam)and boiled plantain pounded in a large morter. Typically one works the dough and another pounds. Its served with a soup and eaten with the hands. This is done everyday. and feed it to each other. However, they do it all African style. The DJ’s stereo is a literal building of speakers and stereo components. There seems to be a correlation to the more important you want you’re event to seem the more speakers you hire. The guest list is the entire town (offer free food and they will come), however once the food runs out there is a noticeable decline in people, and the dancing (very non-traditional) begins.
Change of Plans Since we are not heading out to Sefwi-Wiawso this week to set up the library we have some time to fill. While we are disappointed to miss the first library set-up, we are capitalizing on the time we have now. Having time to our selves to be on our own schedule has been very nice. We lived pretty independently back home, so it is nice to be able to choose when to eat, what to eat, where to go and when, on our own.
Our first adventure is going out to get some groceries. We struck out to get a shared taxi to Tafo and before we knew it the adventure had begun. In
Traditional Baby Naming
This is Hilda's grandchild recieving a traditional naming ceremony. Water and Alchol will the placed on the babies lips to symbolize something...but it was in Twi so well get back to you on what it means. the developed countries we have an activity like this, we call it a “roller coaster”. The narrow town streets that are full of pedestrians, children, vendors, bicycles, and various live stock seem to only liven the challenge for the driver as we accelerate. Somehow we are deposited safely in the “lorry park” (this is the place you pick up a lorry, or transport) at Tafo. Now it’s off to the market.
Lets go Kroger-ing The markets of Africa are at first glance a labyrinth of stalls, colors, and smells. Quickly order appears out of the seeming chaos and you can see that, not unlike a department store, the various things for sale are arranged in a very orderly fashion. The best part of shopping here is that there is so much more interaction. We went from stall to stall seeing who had the best items, what the going rate was (as white people we are not often quoted the proper price right away), and of course just to greet everyone. You can get anything from soap, to dried fish, to Heinz ketchup. We easily found everything we are looking for. Our bags were filled with tomatoes, green
Life of the Party
This is a shot of the chaos that was the wedding reception. Try cramming an entire town into your court yard! peppers, cucumber, egg plant, onions, rice, a loaf of wheat bread, baked beans, Milo (like Oval tine) and even a water melon all for under $8 USD.
V.I.P. Status There is only so long one should have to put up staying within quick striking distance of a toilet. So we struck out for the hospital in Effiduase near Koforidua. This entailed climbing into what appeared to be a, …well we will call it a “minibus” for lack of a better word. Locally they call it a lorry, which is a convenient term as it refers to anything that is not a large bus that is capable of cramming a lot of people inside (or out) and moving them from one place to another. The “minibus” seems to be someone’s high school metal shop project that never quite got finished. Yet these things are capable of rather high speeds non-the less!!
At the hospital we immediately ran into the director, George. Books for Africa Library Project had just given the hospital a gurney, many boxes of hand sanitizer and gloves, convalescent aids, and many top quality college medical books for their library. George recognized us and whisked
Its Not Delivery
This is our home made pizza, even in Africa we still get the craving! us through to the doctors. All in all it took only 15 min from arriving, to seeing the doc, to getting the necessary meds. He even paid for the consulting fees! We just had to endure the looks of those who had been waiting a long time, but I guess volunteering does have its perks at times! Try getting some prescription meds in the US at under 20 min!!!
Daily Life Goes On We’ve suffered through these last few days by fending for ourselves. We had to do with making the basics: pizza, apple crisp, banana bread, burritos, and stir-fry. I don’t think Feed the Children Fund will be knocking on our door anytime soon. Honestly, I do miss having a local Ghanain meal for dinner; I guess it has grown on me. I don’t think Katelyn is missing it too much, though!
We are also at no loss for music here, just variety. Our neighbor Yaw got a new CD (his first and, as we have found out, only). It’s a mix 80’ and 90’s drama music including such timeless hits as “Right Here Waiting For You”, “Your Still the One” (Lee Ann Rhymes), and
Market Day
A sampling of what you can get at the local market. Notice that the peppers and eggplant are a lot smaller than US, but they are a lot tastier here. “Everything I do, I do it for you”. That is the entirety of the CD. It is played at high volume throughout the day…everyday. This is sometimes broken by another neighbor playing the Whitney Houston soundtrack from the Bodyguard. As you can see there is still much suffering still happening in Ghana.
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paul greear
non-member comment
aural suffering, eh?
what are ya talkin about, whitney huston rocks! its gettin to be spring here in Idaho, the sun is out the rivers are high and green creeps in steadily. Mesa, my son, grows like a weed, we blew up firecrackers last night... prayin and thinking about you two keep on trucking and take care of each other! Paul Greear\ 17959 Can-Ada Rd. Nampa, ID 83687 208-250-2993 pdgreear@gmail.com