Crazy Day in Ho - How I got a fridge

Khadija - My helper on campus, carrying fridges and sneaking onto trotros.

 I went to Ho Saturday with Khadija, an older student that lives in a village near there, to accomplish 3 things, send Ellen a bunch of video, buy a fridge and a bunch of their things I cannot get at home, and visit her village. I thought she would help plan/organize the day but like many girls, she seems unable to give an opinion and hard to tell what she thinks is best. It is always, “whatever you think” but I want her to tell me what she thinks. She is a very sweet, older girl that lives in a more distant village outside of Ho. She gets me my lunch and I am helping her read. She is super touchy, like when talking she will just put her hand on your knee or shoulder the whole time. Got to Ho at 10:30, a little later than I wanted but Vodaphone was closed till 11. 

The fridge "store"

Even on Saturdays people have limited hours and closed Sundays which is hard for a 9-5 type person but I guess most people are not 9-5-ers, or if they are they have family that can so their shopping. The one good thing during the wait, across the street there were two places with tons of used fridges out front. I tried to buy a used one at home but they had no small ones. So we got the process, better than home, and they plugged them in to show they worked. In the end this was where we got a fridge, 210 cedis, so about 100 bucks, plus the extra 20 or so it took for the extra to put it in a taxi and get it home.

Just another weird use of Obama's image

When it opened I spent a frustrating 2.5 hours at Vodaphone and still did not get everything done but she was just sitting and waiting and the day was getting on so I felt like I could not stay longer. I was not sure why she did not want to go do something else but I guess just wandering around her city is less appealing. People here seem to have no problem just waiting, silently, no books no nothing. After internet outage there, I just called it a day without finishing sending all the video which sucks because I spent a lot of time on it and I felt bad for Ellen but we had other things to do. Then went to Melcoms, like a department store, to get lots of things but it was closed for an “Internal exercise”. Grrr. I totally forgot we could have gone to the grocery around the corner to get all the things other than a fridge but probably a good thing because the day ran out of time quickly.

Me and Khadija's family.

Lunch was pretty good where I mostly successfully ate a whole fish with banku with my fingers then off to the village. It took a long time to get there, just hanging out and meeting people although taking the family picture was cool and amazing seeing her grandfather, blind, weaving these mats that have like 20 different reeds at a time. I see where Khadija gets her touchy-ness, her mom would not let go of my hands at all. Then storms were rolling in so the whole time I just wanted to book it but felt like we had to visit, and then see a new baby, then visit another student Eric's house.

I think this is one of my favorite photos I have taken.

It was interesting seeing where she lived, and I think she liked showing me, but probably too much to do on a single day trip. For all the things I really needed to do in Ho, maybe it would have been better for me to just have come alone and had more time doing the things I really needed to do in Ho.

The chaos around the tro tro

Back to Ho on a terrifying ride on the luggage rack of a motor bike with my hip angle would not allow me to sit with my weight right so like straining my hands and arms to stay on. We did get a small fridge and into a taxi no problem but when we got to the tro tro station there was a super long line and Khadija said we may not get a ride back, What! So that was a stressful 2 hours, waiting, with a fridge, maybe we would get home, maybe not, the whole time raining off and on. When a van would roll up people ran and jumped in, pushing people out of the way. Not the normal, organized trips I have taken in the past where the driver sells 12 tickets and those people get on the bus. So then a trotro pulls up, tons of people jump on, Khadija is talking to the station master and he goes up, starts yelling at all these young men on the bus making them get off, yelling, yelling, grabbing, pulling them off because they did not have a ticket. But neither did we. He then put us on the bus with some other women, older guys, people who had been waiting patiently in line and not those that just jumped on. In the end turns out Khadija kinda knew him, and I gave him some money and paid the driver a big “tip” to carry the fridge and in the rain, two hours later, we were on the road. It was slightly chilly, which felt great to me, so Khadija was freezing so she laid on my lap and slept while be bounced and rattled along, the whole time I was wondering if this used fridge would make it make in working condition since it was in the back, halfway out of the trunk, tied down, no pads or anything to cushions the startling jolts that we hit along the way.

Needless to say I was starving, dehydrated, had not peed in 10 hours, and just frazzled when I got home, 13 hours after we left that morning. But I plugged in the fridge this morning and it sounds like it is working, so after a super lazy morning I am excited to buy some things and keep them cold and ant/mold/lizard free.

UPDATE! back at Ho for another 3 hours of video uploading.  I am sure there is a better way to do this. 

NEW UPDATE! after two hours a guy here showed me a way better faster way to transfer big files. Doh! Oh well, at least i will still get to buy some foods I can not get at home, like chocolate.