here I go again...

Hello all. I find myself once again typing away at the school computer. There are about 7 kids crowded around me, pretending to type as fast as I do. It is Thursday April 24^th and I am deciding what to do with my day. I think I will once again head into Kumasi and check my post box for any mail. I should have something from my parents but will the over seas mail I am never sure when I will actually get it. Yesterday was the “coldest” day I have seen in Ghana. I believe it was maybe 78 degrees! I wore jeans and a t-shirt. I believe this was due to the unusually early rain storm that began around 6 am and carried on for a good 3 hours. I was able to put my thin blanket over me and sleep relatively normal, it was nice. While there have been many rain/ thunder and lighting storms since I arrived in Ghana, they have always began in the late afternoon or evening. Today however is already quite warm and it is just 11 am.

I have nothing really new to say other than the random thoughts I write on paper to later explain in my blog. One thing I have wanted to mention for a while is the strong presence of God and Jesus everywhere I look. Well I think I need to better define what I am saying. Religion, mostly denominations of Christianity, is everywhere, literally. No matter where I go I see “God’s time is the best fast food,” “Glory of God enterprise wood shop,” or “All power belongs to Jesus fashion center,” and my favorites “God hates all sinners plumbing” and “in him is peace nail salon.” Many schools also are religious affiliated as well such as, “Jesus Power International School.” Everyday I see different signs just like these, even for “spots” (this is another word for bar). I’m not sure why this started but even up north, though not nearly as prevalent, in Muslim country there are signs about Jesus. Quite interesting really.

Another thing I wanted to address is using the toilet here. Don’t worry I am simply talking about public toilet’s, which you must pay for, and how many times I have paid the 20 pesewa, collected my toilet paper, went inside and came right back out deciding I would just have to wait. People are so forward with their need to go to the bathroom too. First off, now one says ‘bathroom’ or ‘restroom,’ though I have seen a few ‘washrooms.’ Several times a day a child will excuse themselves and say “Please Madame, I need to urinate.” It is hard not to smile when asked this since we have mostly been taught modesty. Then I tell myself, clearly it is natural and something all humans must do so why not just say it like it is? Because there are few public toilets and even some of the locals would prefer to go outside anyway, there are hand written signs all over the towns that state “don’t urinate” or “no urinating by law,” although sometimes urinate is spelled “uninate.” This hasn’t stopped me from casually glancing out the tro-tro window at any given time and accidentally seeing someone, usually a man relieving himself by the side of the road. I really am in a different culture aren’t I?

This leads me into another thing that is quite different from how I was brought up, something I am trying to understand and learn. This morning, as I was watching one of my copyrighted dvd’s of various romantic American movies bought off the street, I heard a shrill scream followed by sobbing. Usually I ignore this sound because it hardly lasts longer than 5 seconds but this time it continued and sounded pretty bad. I ran to the window to see what happened and I saw young Abigail, probably 9 years old, face down on the ground cried hysterically and no one made any move to go near her. I raced outside and ran to her. Clearly she and fallen and scraped herself. I angrily yelled at Joyce, a friend of Naomi’s and occasionally spends the night here, who sat nearby, doing nothing. She simply laughed at me. While I have realized before now that comforting a crying child is not too important to adults around here, I did not realize how far this “rule” went. I had been babysitting since I was 13 and I can tell when a child is in simple need of attention and when they are actually hurt. I picked Abigail up and helped her brush off. I told her to go wash herself with a bucket of water I grabbed for her while I found some band aids. No, her injury was not serious but how was I or anyone else supposed to know that? The rocky dirt in which the children play on has sharp edges and bits of rusty metal everywhere so who is to say she didn’t fall and crack her head on a sharp rock or slice open her leg? After she cleaned she was smiling again but I could tell she was surprised by my reaction. I was still frustrated after tending to her, mostly because not one adult seemed to have the slightest idea what I was doing. I guess I need to get over it though, the kids can’t be pampered here or they will simply not survive. Still…I like to think that my hugs and my wiping away the tears does more good than hurt.

Alright I am off to take a shower, oh how spoiled I am, and head to town. The kids have been asking if they can join me for a movie again tonight and because I will be gone again this weekend (in Accra) and just may say yes. I’ll write more soon.

Now it is Friday, just one day later and I am going to finish up the blog for the week. I am heading to Accra tomorrow morning so I wanted to post something before I left. Remember what I said about the Tuesday morning rain storm? Well this morning I woke up to rain once again and even though the wind wasn’t blowing as hard, I actually had to put on a sweatshirt for about an hour AND turn off my ceiling fan. That was a first. I am back in a tank top now of course but still, it felt refreshing to actually wear long sleeves. Yesterday I did make it into Kumasi and I dragged my host sister Naomi along for company. We did quite a bit of walking because I refuse to take taxi’s here until absolutely necessary, or if it is late of course. We walked through the training hospital and it was quite lovely. Naomi told me this is very difficult to get into and most people transfer in after a year or two somewhere else. It took a while to get home last night so I did not have time to let the kids watch a movie in my room, I will just have to make it up to them when I return.

Tomorrow I go to Accra in another STC bus, apparently it is actually quite dangerous to take tro tro’s to Accra because drivers are careless and numerous crashes happen, and will find a hotel. Emily, Christina and I will look around the capital for the weekend and possibly meet up with some girls we met in Mole National Park who are doing study abroad at the University of Ghana. On Monday Christina leaves for India to go volunteer there for another two months and Emily and I meet Monica and Ross in Kokobite, a little town right on the beach. I’m looking forward to it.

I wish you all a great weekend.

-Erin

Picture update: Today I actually tried to upload pictures from my camera to the school computer and then put some pictures on a cd to bring to the internet with me. The computer gave me the message that it is low on virtual memory and therefore cannot complete the task. I am too nervous to upload my pictures directly to one of the computer’s in the internet café because those computers are fairly full of viruses. A friend has his laptop here so I will do my best to upload pictures that way. Sorry. If anyone who has traveled as a better suggestion, let me know.