My first bad day

Yesterday, Saturday, was the first not good day here in Ghana. I do not want to just whine on this post, but it was one of those days where I was hot, hungry, thirsty and needed to pee basically the whole time so any little thing was just irritating me. Leaving Wli after a good breakfast, and then feeling guilty for “cheating” on my taxi driver Godwin, who I told I would call and did not, and then he spotted me in another cab, I went back to Hohoe. It is the closest big town to me, big enough to have an atm and small department store. I met with Scott, a Peace Corps volunteer in his third year, extending to a fourth. He works at a school for the deaf and that school also has a small handicraft market, where he was helping out, to raise funds. Talking with him was great; he really knew the country, has done a huge volume of work here and is still passionate about it. He gave me a good Ewe instructional guide so I can learn just enough basics to show I am trying and look silly. Then, randomly, a Belgian named Luc came by, turns out he works in my little town too! He raises money to renovate existing schools once a year and also helps older students with little microenterprises, like renting table tennis time, and renting bikes. He was in town to buy a few bikes and we talked for close to an hour in Scotts shop. So that was the great middle part of the day. Then we were talking about visas and I told Luc I had a 2 year, and he could only get a 3 month, and when I pulled out my important documents to show him, the bag had leaked and they were wet, my visa stamp and yellow fever stamp both washed away to blue and red smudges. So that made me a bit anxious about when I will have to leave. But I am hoping my photo copy backups and flight stubs will be enough to show when I got to the country and that I am not bringing back yellow fever. Or maybe I will visit the immigration office in Ho to be on the safe side and get a new visa stamp.

Then a hot, frustrating shopping trip to get some home essentials, but not having lived in the house yet I felt like I needed everything, but was not sure really what to prioritize. About 3 in the afternoon, walking a big bag and bucket full of stuff around, have not eaten, drank or any other necessities since I left around 9 that morning. Back in a taxi to Kpandu, switch to another taxi to Torkor, to my house. Get there and there was no water there yet, and just a mattress against the wall. Not that I was mad or anything. The students and folks helping on the house have been great, and are doing a lot for me, but after a really long day I just wanted to sit down, have some water and take care of things. Instead I grabbed my empty buckets and went in search for water on campus. Then all was fine, I got the water, the boys carried it back for me, I sewed some makeshift curtains and tried to settle in. It is hard the first night in any new house, it is empty, every few moments you realize you can't find something or do not have something. Lots of weird noises, not knowing what is normal and what is a herd of feral goats about to break through your window. Maybe being in a new country, not 100% sure what kinds of critters are around make that first night just a little bit worst here. But it is fine; I survived the night unscathed, went to the market this morning and am soon off to a village to meet some future students.

Starting from absolute scratch of this house, getting the basics to just make sure I can eat, sleep, and wash is first priority. I think I have most of the things I need to take a shower, wash dishes (that I need to buy) and prepare a peanut butter sandwich. But I am currently sitting in a broken Childs-size chair in a huge empty room. My hand-me-down mattress (not the best smelling thing in the world) on the floor and a cardboard box as a nightstand is the full inventory of furniture. So I will always be heading to the markets to buy food but also the random next thing to put in the house. A fun project outside of school, but I imagine also will be a source of some frustration. I will hopefully leave a pretty functional house for future volunteers, guests and whatever else this house will be to help Pagus and their work here. Who knows, maybe if I can come back again, the water will be hooked up in the town and this will be a luxury two bedroom overlooking the scenic Lake Volta.

Yum, tastes presidential

But to end on a fun note: