Fairuza got our dresses back to us the same day we went to take the measurement. I am definitely impressed. The dress is super comfortable, and I like it a lot! Here I am with Beth.
Friday, June 5, 2009
African Dress #1
Fairuza got our dresses back to us the same day we went to take the measurement. I am definitely impressed. The dress is super comfortable, and I like it a lot! Here I am with Beth.
June 1-5
June 1, 2009
Today was a pretty slow day. I just worked in the warehouse all day long. My job is kind of frustrating because the cost of the products going out and the amount of money and product coming back at the end of the day never quite add up—either too much or not enough. It’s stressful.
This evening I went on a walk with the other woman who is working on the project. It was really nice. It was actually the first time I went on a walk just to walk since I’ve been here. The evening was really nice. There weren’t a lot of stars because it was a little cloudy.
We also watched Top Gun this evening. What a stupid movie. Sorry if it’s your favorite. I thought it was gross that the love interest was so much older than Tom Cruise, and she was really ugly.
2 June.
This morning, we had crazy power surges that fried three computer charge cords, including ours. It’s kind of a big problem to not have your computer when all of the work you need to do involves the computer, but we made do with the 2 computers we had that still worked. So we actually didn’t have power to our computer for the last several days, and I made notes for what to write about for each day. With the power surges (and then, of course, the power outages), something happened to our water pump so we had no water to the house. I washed my hands with water from a pink bucket, which was an interesting experience. Nothing like Africa to make you appreciate everything you have.
We went out to lunch today, and a little girl at the restaurant came over and sat at one of the chairs at our table. She was too little to talk for real, so she just babbled in baby talk. Beth, the other woman who is here, taught her how to play peek-a-boo and she thought it was a lot of fun. She would walk back and forth from her table to our table during the time we were there, and she cried when we left. So adorable. : -)
3 June
Today we went to a sales campaign in a village called Napaili. It is the poorest village that we work in—they don’t have electricity, but most others do for at least some of the houses at some times of the day. It was actually the village that was the most fun to visit. Before we started the campaign, some of the women started singing to entertain themselves. It was a call-and-response style song, with the caller walking around the group. Some of the women shrieked loudly during parts of the song. I couldn’t really figure out why. It was so fun to listen to. I also heard a Muslim prayer for the first time in this village. One man led the prayer, and after he would say a few words everybody would say a one syllable word, and then after several of those everybody said a sentence together. Also really interesting and really cool.
This village also had some very sad things. There were many children who had belly button hernias. I’m not sure why. Peter said he has seen it in other villages also, but I never noticed it before. I’m not sure if it is a health problem or just a result of odd bellybutton-tying practices. I also saw two children who I am pretty sure were starving to death. Literally. Their skin was all stretched across their faces, and their heads looked too big for their bodies. Their bellies were not round like most of the other children’s (this is also from malnourishment), but they were thin. Maybe that means they were further along the starvation path? One of them (a boy) was losing patches of hair from his head. When I first saw them, all I could do was feel sad and kind of horrified that I was seeing a person who was really and truly starving. As I thought about it later that evening, I realized that I could probably do something to help, and maybe I should have tried while I was there. I also felt kind of discouraged as I realized that even if I gave them food, there was no sustainable, long-term way for me to help them and make sure that they never would die from starvation. I talked to Peter about it and we decided that the best way for us to help these children and others like them is to do our work here as best as we can, to give people in these communities opportunities to work and access to products that will improve their lives. I still don’t really feel resolution on the issue, but it’s nice to know that I am doing something that is helping people right now, and hopefully will help them in the future.
4 June
This evening I watched a little boy about 10 years old leave the other children he was praying with and go, all alone, to his prayer mat to do his prayers. He actually did them before the call to prayer. I was touched by his faith, even though he was so young and even though his (probably) siblings were not participating.
5 June
This morning, we went fabric shopping with a woman who is the wife of our store manager. Her name is Fairuza. Afterwards we went to two different tailors. One tailor already made Peter a couple of shirts and now he will make my dress, and the other tailor is making matching dresses for me and for Beth, compliments of Fairuza. I will take pictures of myself in my new clothes when I get them back.
We met some of Fairuza’s sisters. One of them has a strange rash on her skin that she has been unable to get rid of, despite going to the doctor in Accra (probably the best doctor around). The doctors prescribed her medicine for everything from allergies to itching to acne, and it’s helping a little bit but not a lot. Peter is giving her some Miracell this evening so we’ll see if that helps it at all.
Speaking of acne, three different people here have commented on the acne I have on my forehead (probably from the sunscreen) and diagnosed it as a mosquito bite. I didn’t bother to correct them, but I think it’s kind of funny.
In the afternoon, we went to the bank. I was talking to a man who helped us at the bank yesterday, and when Peter came into the bank I mentioned that he was my husband. The man told me to tell Peter that he was going to steal me away. I thought it was funny. Here, divorce is common and it actually would not be bad or uncommon for a man to steal another man’s wife away. For example, Peter the security guard lost one of his wives to a taxi driver. (Interesting side note—Peter is a Christian man with four wives. Well, only two now because one died and one ran off with the taxi driver.) According to an anthropology book I read before I came out here, in the Dagbani culture your relationship with your siblings is stronger than your relationship with your spouse. Interesting stuff.
Today was a pretty slow day. I just worked in the warehouse all day long. My job is kind of frustrating because the cost of the products going out and the amount of money and product coming back at the end of the day never quite add up—either too much or not enough. It’s stressful.
This evening I went on a walk with the other woman who is working on the project. It was really nice. It was actually the first time I went on a walk just to walk since I’ve been here. The evening was really nice. There weren’t a lot of stars because it was a little cloudy.
We also watched Top Gun this evening. What a stupid movie. Sorry if it’s your favorite. I thought it was gross that the love interest was so much older than Tom Cruise, and she was really ugly.
2 June.
This morning, we had crazy power surges that fried three computer charge cords, including ours. It’s kind of a big problem to not have your computer when all of the work you need to do involves the computer, but we made do with the 2 computers we had that still worked. So we actually didn’t have power to our computer for the last several days, and I made notes for what to write about for each day. With the power surges (and then, of course, the power outages), something happened to our water pump so we had no water to the house. I washed my hands with water from a pink bucket, which was an interesting experience. Nothing like Africa to make you appreciate everything you have.
We went out to lunch today, and a little girl at the restaurant came over and sat at one of the chairs at our table. She was too little to talk for real, so she just babbled in baby talk. Beth, the other woman who is here, taught her how to play peek-a-boo and she thought it was a lot of fun. She would walk back and forth from her table to our table during the time we were there, and she cried when we left. So adorable. : -)
3 June
Today we went to a sales campaign in a village called Napaili. It is the poorest village that we work in—they don’t have electricity, but most others do for at least some of the houses at some times of the day. It was actually the village that was the most fun to visit. Before we started the campaign, some of the women started singing to entertain themselves. It was a call-and-response style song, with the caller walking around the group. Some of the women shrieked loudly during parts of the song. I couldn’t really figure out why. It was so fun to listen to. I also heard a Muslim prayer for the first time in this village. One man led the prayer, and after he would say a few words everybody would say a one syllable word, and then after several of those everybody said a sentence together. Also really interesting and really cool.
This village also had some very sad things. There were many children who had belly button hernias. I’m not sure why. Peter said he has seen it in other villages also, but I never noticed it before. I’m not sure if it is a health problem or just a result of odd bellybutton-tying practices. I also saw two children who I am pretty sure were starving to death. Literally. Their skin was all stretched across their faces, and their heads looked too big for their bodies. Their bellies were not round like most of the other children’s (this is also from malnourishment), but they were thin. Maybe that means they were further along the starvation path? One of them (a boy) was losing patches of hair from his head. When I first saw them, all I could do was feel sad and kind of horrified that I was seeing a person who was really and truly starving. As I thought about it later that evening, I realized that I could probably do something to help, and maybe I should have tried while I was there. I also felt kind of discouraged as I realized that even if I gave them food, there was no sustainable, long-term way for me to help them and make sure that they never would die from starvation. I talked to Peter about it and we decided that the best way for us to help these children and others like them is to do our work here as best as we can, to give people in these communities opportunities to work and access to products that will improve their lives. I still don’t really feel resolution on the issue, but it’s nice to know that I am doing something that is helping people right now, and hopefully will help them in the future.
4 June
This evening I watched a little boy about 10 years old leave the other children he was praying with and go, all alone, to his prayer mat to do his prayers. He actually did them before the call to prayer. I was touched by his faith, even though he was so young and even though his (probably) siblings were not participating.
5 June
This morning, we went fabric shopping with a woman who is the wife of our store manager. Her name is Fairuza. Afterwards we went to two different tailors. One tailor already made Peter a couple of shirts and now he will make my dress, and the other tailor is making matching dresses for me and for Beth, compliments of Fairuza. I will take pictures of myself in my new clothes when I get them back.
We met some of Fairuza’s sisters. One of them has a strange rash on her skin that she has been unable to get rid of, despite going to the doctor in Accra (probably the best doctor around). The doctors prescribed her medicine for everything from allergies to itching to acne, and it’s helping a little bit but not a lot. Peter is giving her some Miracell this evening so we’ll see if that helps it at all.
Speaking of acne, three different people here have commented on the acne I have on my forehead (probably from the sunscreen) and diagnosed it as a mosquito bite. I didn’t bother to correct them, but I think it’s kind of funny.
In the afternoon, we went to the bank. I was talking to a man who helped us at the bank yesterday, and when Peter came into the bank I mentioned that he was my husband. The man told me to tell Peter that he was going to steal me away. I thought it was funny. Here, divorce is common and it actually would not be bad or uncommon for a man to steal another man’s wife away. For example, Peter the security guard lost one of his wives to a taxi driver. (Interesting side note—Peter is a Christian man with four wives. Well, only two now because one died and one ran off with the taxi driver.) According to an anthropology book I read before I came out here, in the Dagbani culture your relationship with your siblings is stronger than your relationship with your spouse. Interesting stuff.
The rest of May
May 24, 2009
Today was the second day of training. I was actually able to participate and do some of the training, which was interesting. I really wish I could speak the language so I wouldn’t have to rely on an interpreter so much. We are planning to take a class, so we will be better able to communicate with the people who live here.
This afternoon, we went to the home of Felicia, one of the Ghanaian women who is working with us on the project. She lives in a concrete duplex with a tin roof (a wealthy home, if you will recall). We went inside her home and met her two little girls: Lucky, who is 4, and Melchizia, who is 9 months. They are beautiful girls. The inside of her home was interesting. The house was pretty small. There was a kitchen as you walked in, and then a hallway to the main room. There were couches along the wall and then some very nice satiny curtains dividing the sitting room from a sleeping room, where we saw the baby. Peter noticed a very nice TV in the sitting room, but I didn’t see it so I cannot describe it. We sat outside under a tree and chatted after our little tour of the house. We sampled Guinea Fowl eggs, which taste exactly like chicken eggs except they are smaller. (Actually, we have been eating Guinea Fowl eggs for a while now, but since she wanted us to try them we did.) Guinea Fowl meat also tastes just like chicken, except there is not so much meat on the animal. I will post a picture of a Guinea Fowl on here sometime; they are pretty funny looking. While we were sitting, Felicia called over various vendors who were passing by and did her grocery shopping. She bought some enormous yams and a couple of bags of small, spicy red peppers. She also stopped the corn flour vendor so we could see what it looks like (just like wheat flour, only perhaps a little brighter white). It was fun to pass the time there and see what a typical Ghanaian family would do on a Sunday afternoon.
We had our own sacrament meeting here this evening. Although there is a temple in Accra and a fairly large LDS population in the country, there is no LDS church or LDS mission here, probably because the region is about 70 percent Muslim (which would make proselyting difficult). It was fun to do it just the two of us.
It was a very nice Sunday.
May 25, 2009
Today we went out to visit the sales agents again. It was very nice to see them all again. The children in the villages were a lot more interested in us today. The children we have met so far either wave to us or look terrified when they see us. One of the little girls at the first village we visited actually held my arm when we were walking around. I also noticed that one of the girls in that village had Down’s syndrome. I thought that was interesting just because I know that people with Down’s syndrome often have other health problems, and so she must be pretty strong to have survived so well with no (western) medical attention at all. In another village, all the children wanted to shake my hand and they giggled and laughed. All the kids here are just adorable, and they are fun to be around. I just wish I could talk to them.
This afternoon I was tired out from the morning trips to the villages, so I stayed home while Peter went to the art market. He bought his djembe drum, and he is really excited about it. He also bought me a necklace as a late birthday present, which was very sweet.
We spent the evening putting labels on containers for the women to sell their products. It’s not very exciting, but it needs to be done.
May 26, 2009
It’s kind of funny to look at the clock on this computer and realize that it’s 3AM at home. Here, it’s 9AM. I haven’t really had a hard time adjusting to the time here. I haven’t had a hard time falling asleep, or woken up at strange hours and been unable to get back to sleep. Basically I just sleep a lot and then feel tired a lot. Peter has not been quite so lucky. He has a hard time sleeping at night here. I’m not really sure why.
I also want to tell you about the mosquitoes here. I have seen a couple of them, and they are large by US standards. Last night there was a dead one on my pillow, and it scared me a little. Mosquitoes are not supposed to be in air conditioned rooms, and our AC was on all day long yesterday. Maybe it got in when the AC was dead and then it died because it is now too cold. That’s what I’ll hope, at least. I get one or two new mosquito bites every day. So far, I don’t have malaria or any other bad diseases that mosquitoes carry. I don’t think Peter has gotten any mosquito bites, lucky for him.
Peter wanted me to write about how we make phone calls here. The system is very different from how we do it in the US. Although they do offer prepaid plans, most people are on a pay-as-you-go system. When you want to add new minutes to your phone, you stop at one of the millions of vendors that sell little scratch-cards with codes for more minutes. You scratch off the little film, type the code into your phone, send it, and the phone gets reloaded with money. The largest denomination of phone money that I have seen is a 7.5 cedi card (about $6 US). You only get charged for outgoing calls from your phone (or for outgoing texts, I would assume), and there are different rates depending on if you call somebody in your network or outside of it. It is very cheap to call the US, about 15 cents per minute. I’m not sure if that is Ghana or US currency. So if you are dying for a phone call from Ghana, let us know. Or if you are dying to call us and you can get a better rate than 15 cents per minute, we can give you our phone number and it won’t cost us a thing! We have a phone card that my grandmother gave us that doesn’t actually work from Ghana, so we could give you the code to that. It has been fun to talk to people from Ghana, especially because we thought we wouldn’t be able to because our internet has been very temperamental.
May 30, 2009
Today was the grand opening of the BonVi store in Tamale. (BonVi is the company we are working with in Ghana). I think it was a success. There were many people who came by, and the chief of Tamale even honored us with his presence. It was cool to see him. He had a man follow him around carrying an umbrella, even though it wasn’t raining at the time of his visit. The chief cannot be rained upon, apparently.
While we were there at the store opening, we had a visit from a street entertainer dressed up as “the juju man” according to Fredrik. I am going to post his picture along with this for you. He had a couple of men with him playing drums, and somebody made a very distinct whistle for him. He was followed by a very large crowd. When he first came around the corner to our store, I was afraid of him. I wasn’t sure if he was part of the visitations planned for the day, but it turned out he was not. When he arrived, he took out a pretty large knife and made some cuts into a post we had in front of the store so nobody would park there, and into a piece of cardboard. After showing us that the knife would cut, he sawed it into his stomach, and his lip, and gouged it into his eye, and somehow “miraculously” he wasn’t cut. After collecting money from the viewers, he went on his way. He left behind a bunch of children that thought it was fun to shake my hand. The rest of the day was uneventful. We went out for lunch, went back to the palace, and then went out for dinner.
I haven’t written about my jobs yet. I am the accountant/banker for the trip, and the warehouse director. The banker/accountant means that anybody who takes money has to come to me and ask for what they need, give me receipts, and anyone who earns it during the day selling products comes to me to turn in their money and an account of what they have sold. For the warehouse director job, I am in charge of making sure that we always have enough inventory on hand and sending a weekly report of what has been sold and used up during the week. They hired a local man as the warehouse manager (that’s why my “title” is director) to do this job, but he wasn’t really working during the initial part of the project (as in, he would sit around and do nothing while the people “under” him were working, and one time he fell asleep) so they asked me to be in charge of making sure that the work got done. We don’t have any “underlings” anymore, and the project directors from the US were worried that the local man wouldn’t be proactive enough to keep the warehouse up and going. We worked together for one day so far (yesterday), and it actually went very well. I think there were two problems: first, managers here probably just do nothing so he thought he was doing his job, and second, he has never had a job before so he really doesn’t know how to do an inventory or how to tell how much stock to prepare for sale, etc. I am hoping that if I can provide good direction at the beginning he will learn how to do the job and be comfortable doing it so when I leave he can take over. We’ll see how it goes.
I have to admit that I don’t love either job. I don’t like having everybody come and ask me for money because I don’t always know if what they are asking for is a legitimate request, or if the price they are giving me is a legitimate price, etc. So I decided I will just be the banker and give them what they ask for, and then if the bosses have a problem with it they can talk to the person who asked for the money.
May 31, 2009
Today was a long and busy day. We had two village campaigns for BonVi that we had to go to. At the first one, the village children started playing with me. I taught them how to do high fives, and then we played a game I knew as “down by the banks” where you sit in a circle and slap the hand of the person next to you and it goes around the circle. I’m not sure how well the kids understood. At first they played really well, and then some of them started trying to hit each other as hard as they could, and the boy next to me imitated slicing my hand or gouging it with a knife a couple of times, and I decided we had enough of that game. Then we played London Bridge is Falling Down. They thought that was fun. I had fun except for when the kids would fight with each other over who would slap my hand next or for different parts of the game. One little boy fell down and started crying, and I didn’t know what to do, and his mother came over and asked what we were doing. I told her we were playing a game, but I worried that she thought I was a bad influence or something. Oh well. She can just chalk it up to “white people are ignorant,” which is what a village chief told Fredrik when he apologized in advance for any offenses we might cause.
This evening, we went to another football match. (In case you don’t know, this means “soccer game” in American.) This time it was the Ghana national team playing the Uganda national team. It was insanely crowded, and I was afraid for my safety a couple of times. People would just push and push, and then there were cars trying to get through the crowd and I thought I would either be trampled or hit. We survived. I don’t think I’ll go to another match, or if I do, I will go very very early. Some funny things from this match:
1. At the beginning of the game, a group of people marched around the field with a very large advertisement on a piece of material like the parachutes you play with in elementary school. You couldn’t really read what it said, but you knew somebody was sponsoring the game.
2. The power went out at the stadium at half time. I was terrified at first, thinking that people would go crazy and freak out (as they would in the US). However, people here didn’t seem to mind too much. There was an elevated amount of talking as people wondered what was going on, but nobody seemed upset about it. Eventually the power came back and they resumed the game.
3. There were two groups of people with different versions of the name “Ghana National Football Team Supporters” who provided band music and dancing in the stands for the ENTIRE game. They stopped when the power went out; otherwise, I think they would have played straight through half time. They were on opposite sides of the field and the music they played kind of clashed. There was no clear melody. However, it was fun to have the African drums as background to the match. It definitely upped the enthusiasm of the crowd.
Today was the second day of training. I was actually able to participate and do some of the training, which was interesting. I really wish I could speak the language so I wouldn’t have to rely on an interpreter so much. We are planning to take a class, so we will be better able to communicate with the people who live here.
This afternoon, we went to the home of Felicia, one of the Ghanaian women who is working with us on the project. She lives in a concrete duplex with a tin roof (a wealthy home, if you will recall). We went inside her home and met her two little girls: Lucky, who is 4, and Melchizia, who is 9 months. They are beautiful girls. The inside of her home was interesting. The house was pretty small. There was a kitchen as you walked in, and then a hallway to the main room. There were couches along the wall and then some very nice satiny curtains dividing the sitting room from a sleeping room, where we saw the baby. Peter noticed a very nice TV in the sitting room, but I didn’t see it so I cannot describe it. We sat outside under a tree and chatted after our little tour of the house. We sampled Guinea Fowl eggs, which taste exactly like chicken eggs except they are smaller. (Actually, we have been eating Guinea Fowl eggs for a while now, but since she wanted us to try them we did.) Guinea Fowl meat also tastes just like chicken, except there is not so much meat on the animal. I will post a picture of a Guinea Fowl on here sometime; they are pretty funny looking. While we were sitting, Felicia called over various vendors who were passing by and did her grocery shopping. She bought some enormous yams and a couple of bags of small, spicy red peppers. She also stopped the corn flour vendor so we could see what it looks like (just like wheat flour, only perhaps a little brighter white). It was fun to pass the time there and see what a typical Ghanaian family would do on a Sunday afternoon.
We had our own sacrament meeting here this evening. Although there is a temple in Accra and a fairly large LDS population in the country, there is no LDS church or LDS mission here, probably because the region is about 70 percent Muslim (which would make proselyting difficult). It was fun to do it just the two of us.
It was a very nice Sunday.
May 25, 2009
Today we went out to visit the sales agents again. It was very nice to see them all again. The children in the villages were a lot more interested in us today. The children we have met so far either wave to us or look terrified when they see us. One of the little girls at the first village we visited actually held my arm when we were walking around. I also noticed that one of the girls in that village had Down’s syndrome. I thought that was interesting just because I know that people with Down’s syndrome often have other health problems, and so she must be pretty strong to have survived so well with no (western) medical attention at all. In another village, all the children wanted to shake my hand and they giggled and laughed. All the kids here are just adorable, and they are fun to be around. I just wish I could talk to them.
This afternoon I was tired out from the morning trips to the villages, so I stayed home while Peter went to the art market. He bought his djembe drum, and he is really excited about it. He also bought me a necklace as a late birthday present, which was very sweet.
We spent the evening putting labels on containers for the women to sell their products. It’s not very exciting, but it needs to be done.
May 26, 2009
It’s kind of funny to look at the clock on this computer and realize that it’s 3AM at home. Here, it’s 9AM. I haven’t really had a hard time adjusting to the time here. I haven’t had a hard time falling asleep, or woken up at strange hours and been unable to get back to sleep. Basically I just sleep a lot and then feel tired a lot. Peter has not been quite so lucky. He has a hard time sleeping at night here. I’m not really sure why.
I also want to tell you about the mosquitoes here. I have seen a couple of them, and they are large by US standards. Last night there was a dead one on my pillow, and it scared me a little. Mosquitoes are not supposed to be in air conditioned rooms, and our AC was on all day long yesterday. Maybe it got in when the AC was dead and then it died because it is now too cold. That’s what I’ll hope, at least. I get one or two new mosquito bites every day. So far, I don’t have malaria or any other bad diseases that mosquitoes carry. I don’t think Peter has gotten any mosquito bites, lucky for him.
Peter wanted me to write about how we make phone calls here. The system is very different from how we do it in the US. Although they do offer prepaid plans, most people are on a pay-as-you-go system. When you want to add new minutes to your phone, you stop at one of the millions of vendors that sell little scratch-cards with codes for more minutes. You scratch off the little film, type the code into your phone, send it, and the phone gets reloaded with money. The largest denomination of phone money that I have seen is a 7.5 cedi card (about $6 US). You only get charged for outgoing calls from your phone (or for outgoing texts, I would assume), and there are different rates depending on if you call somebody in your network or outside of it. It is very cheap to call the US, about 15 cents per minute. I’m not sure if that is Ghana or US currency. So if you are dying for a phone call from Ghana, let us know. Or if you are dying to call us and you can get a better rate than 15 cents per minute, we can give you our phone number and it won’t cost us a thing! We have a phone card that my grandmother gave us that doesn’t actually work from Ghana, so we could give you the code to that. It has been fun to talk to people from Ghana, especially because we thought we wouldn’t be able to because our internet has been very temperamental.
May 30, 2009
Today was the grand opening of the BonVi store in Tamale. (BonVi is the company we are working with in Ghana). I think it was a success. There were many people who came by, and the chief of Tamale even honored us with his presence. It was cool to see him. He had a man follow him around carrying an umbrella, even though it wasn’t raining at the time of his visit. The chief cannot be rained upon, apparently.
While we were there at the store opening, we had a visit from a street entertainer dressed up as “the juju man” according to Fredrik. I am going to post his picture along with this for you. He had a couple of men with him playing drums, and somebody made a very distinct whistle for him. He was followed by a very large crowd. When he first came around the corner to our store, I was afraid of him. I wasn’t sure if he was part of the visitations planned for the day, but it turned out he was not. When he arrived, he took out a pretty large knife and made some cuts into a post we had in front of the store so nobody would park there, and into a piece of cardboard. After showing us that the knife would cut, he sawed it into his stomach, and his lip, and gouged it into his eye, and somehow “miraculously” he wasn’t cut. After collecting money from the viewers, he went on his way. He left behind a bunch of children that thought it was fun to shake my hand. The rest of the day was uneventful. We went out for lunch, went back to the palace, and then went out for dinner.
I haven’t written about my jobs yet. I am the accountant/banker for the trip, and the warehouse director. The banker/accountant means that anybody who takes money has to come to me and ask for what they need, give me receipts, and anyone who earns it during the day selling products comes to me to turn in their money and an account of what they have sold. For the warehouse director job, I am in charge of making sure that we always have enough inventory on hand and sending a weekly report of what has been sold and used up during the week. They hired a local man as the warehouse manager (that’s why my “title” is director) to do this job, but he wasn’t really working during the initial part of the project (as in, he would sit around and do nothing while the people “under” him were working, and one time he fell asleep) so they asked me to be in charge of making sure that the work got done. We don’t have any “underlings” anymore, and the project directors from the US were worried that the local man wouldn’t be proactive enough to keep the warehouse up and going. We worked together for one day so far (yesterday), and it actually went very well. I think there were two problems: first, managers here probably just do nothing so he thought he was doing his job, and second, he has never had a job before so he really doesn’t know how to do an inventory or how to tell how much stock to prepare for sale, etc. I am hoping that if I can provide good direction at the beginning he will learn how to do the job and be comfortable doing it so when I leave he can take over. We’ll see how it goes.
I have to admit that I don’t love either job. I don’t like having everybody come and ask me for money because I don’t always know if what they are asking for is a legitimate request, or if the price they are giving me is a legitimate price, etc. So I decided I will just be the banker and give them what they ask for, and then if the bosses have a problem with it they can talk to the person who asked for the money.
May 31, 2009
Today was a long and busy day. We had two village campaigns for BonVi that we had to go to. At the first one, the village children started playing with me. I taught them how to do high fives, and then we played a game I knew as “down by the banks” where you sit in a circle and slap the hand of the person next to you and it goes around the circle. I’m not sure how well the kids understood. At first they played really well, and then some of them started trying to hit each other as hard as they could, and the boy next to me imitated slicing my hand or gouging it with a knife a couple of times, and I decided we had enough of that game. Then we played London Bridge is Falling Down. They thought that was fun. I had fun except for when the kids would fight with each other over who would slap my hand next or for different parts of the game. One little boy fell down and started crying, and I didn’t know what to do, and his mother came over and asked what we were doing. I told her we were playing a game, but I worried that she thought I was a bad influence or something. Oh well. She can just chalk it up to “white people are ignorant,” which is what a village chief told Fredrik when he apologized in advance for any offenses we might cause.
This evening, we went to another football match. (In case you don’t know, this means “soccer game” in American.) This time it was the Ghana national team playing the Uganda national team. It was insanely crowded, and I was afraid for my safety a couple of times. People would just push and push, and then there were cars trying to get through the crowd and I thought I would either be trampled or hit. We survived. I don’t think I’ll go to another match, or if I do, I will go very very early. Some funny things from this match:
1. At the beginning of the game, a group of people marched around the field with a very large advertisement on a piece of material like the parachutes you play with in elementary school. You couldn’t really read what it said, but you knew somebody was sponsoring the game.
2. The power went out at the stadium at half time. I was terrified at first, thinking that people would go crazy and freak out (as they would in the US). However, people here didn’t seem to mind too much. There was an elevated amount of talking as people wondered what was going on, but nobody seemed upset about it. Eventually the power came back and they resumed the game.
3. There were two groups of people with different versions of the name “Ghana National Football Team Supporters” who provided band music and dancing in the stands for the ENTIRE game. They stopped when the power went out; otherwise, I think they would have played straight through half time. They were on opposite sides of the field and the music they played kind of clashed. There was no clear melody. However, it was fun to have the African drums as background to the match. It definitely upped the enthusiasm of the crowd.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
May 22 and 23
I have got to think of better titles for these posts. :-)
May 22, 2009
This morning the power is still out. We woke up at 7:30 and it seemed too dark, so we went back to sleep. Because the power doesn’t work, the water heater doesn’t work either. I have only showered twice in the week we’ve been here (including today) and both times the water has been cold. I actually decided that I don’t mind cold showers so much. When it’s so hot, it feels nice. So maybe I will shower more often in the future.
We have a woman who works for us here, cleaning the house, washing our clothes, and cooking our breakfast and dinner. Every morning we have what compares to an omelet with onions and peppers (no cheese) on a piece of French bread for breakfast, with hot chocolate to drink. For dinner we nearly always have rice, and then either vegetable stew to pour over it, kebabs, or fried chicken. It all tastes pretty good, and neither of us have been sick yet. Her name is Zet.
Today Jason told Zet that I would like to show her how to cook some American food, and that I would like to go with her to the market sometimes. She interpreted that to mean “Rachel will cook dinner tonight.” So when we discovered there were no dinner plans, I went out to the kitchen (it’s a separate building, and very hot) and threw some spaghetti sauce together. Our refrigerator is broken, so she had someone bring us a frozen block of meat, and we sautéed it with onions and garlic and threw in some tomato paste and a French Provencal spice mix. It wasn’t the best sauce ever, but it worked.
While I am talking about Zet, I should mention that something about the way they do laundry here is amazing. Old stains that I couldn’t get out are gone, and our whites are much, much brighter. I have been very pleased. I don’t love to have my clothes dried on a line because they are kind of stiff, but it’s fine.
May 23, 2009
Today we spent the day doing training for the sales agents. I can’t really talk about what they’re doing or how, because this is a test for the company and it is proprietary information. It’s too bad, because I just wrote all about it and then Peter told me I had to delete it. Sorry.
This afternoon, we went to the Tamale art market. It was very small and not very busy. They don’t get a lot of tourists here. I thought it was funny that the art market surrounds a building called the North Ghana Volunteer Center. They are definitely trying to cater more to tourists than to locals. I also thought it was interesting that they had art products that are not local, such as Ashanti fertility dolls. I really wanted to buy art in the style of the local people here, but the Ashanti are a people further to the south. The dolls are pretty iconic for Ghana, though.
I called my family this evening as well. It’s not too expensive to make calls to the US from Ghana. I realized that they had a lot of questions about our life here that I should write about on the blog. If YOU have any questions, please leave them in a comment. I am happy to tell you whatever you want to know about our experience here.
Now I am going to tell you about the trash, if you are interested to know. There are plastic bags EVERYWHERE here. Littering is perfectly acceptable behavior, despite the fact that many packages say things like “Keep Ghana Clean.” I don’t know how they expect people to dispose of things besides throwing them on the ground. I’m pretty sure that Zet just empties our trash cans outside the Palace somewhere (but I’m not sure on that. If I find out differently, I will let you know.) The plastic bag problem is accentuated by the fact that many products are sold in plastic bags as packaging, such as water and ice cream. They are little plastic packages known as sachets that you bite a corner off of, and then squeeze into your mouth. And then you throw it on the ground if you are Ghanaian, or if you are me, put it in the trash can and let somebody else put it on the ground.
I don’t know if any of my archaeology friends read this blog, but this next part is for you. When I went to a village and saw the trash everywhere, I understood archaeological sites better. I didn’t comprehend before how there were little broken pieces of pots everywhere in the villages. I guess I thought they just got scattered after breaking. Now I realize that there very likely was trash everywhere in the village when people lived there, and the people probably just didn’t care too much about stepping on sherds as they walked down the village path. It seems strange to me to live in a place that is so dirty. I wonder who first had the idea to bury all the trash in the ground so nobody would have to look at it.
May 22, 2009
This morning the power is still out. We woke up at 7:30 and it seemed too dark, so we went back to sleep. Because the power doesn’t work, the water heater doesn’t work either. I have only showered twice in the week we’ve been here (including today) and both times the water has been cold. I actually decided that I don’t mind cold showers so much. When it’s so hot, it feels nice. So maybe I will shower more often in the future.
We have a woman who works for us here, cleaning the house, washing our clothes, and cooking our breakfast and dinner. Every morning we have what compares to an omelet with onions and peppers (no cheese) on a piece of French bread for breakfast, with hot chocolate to drink. For dinner we nearly always have rice, and then either vegetable stew to pour over it, kebabs, or fried chicken. It all tastes pretty good, and neither of us have been sick yet. Her name is Zet.
Today Jason told Zet that I would like to show her how to cook some American food, and that I would like to go with her to the market sometimes. She interpreted that to mean “Rachel will cook dinner tonight.” So when we discovered there were no dinner plans, I went out to the kitchen (it’s a separate building, and very hot) and threw some spaghetti sauce together. Our refrigerator is broken, so she had someone bring us a frozen block of meat, and we sautéed it with onions and garlic and threw in some tomato paste and a French Provencal spice mix. It wasn’t the best sauce ever, but it worked.
While I am talking about Zet, I should mention that something about the way they do laundry here is amazing. Old stains that I couldn’t get out are gone, and our whites are much, much brighter. I have been very pleased. I don’t love to have my clothes dried on a line because they are kind of stiff, but it’s fine.
May 23, 2009
Today we spent the day doing training for the sales agents. I can’t really talk about what they’re doing or how, because this is a test for the company and it is proprietary information. It’s too bad, because I just wrote all about it and then Peter told me I had to delete it. Sorry.
This afternoon, we went to the Tamale art market. It was very small and not very busy. They don’t get a lot of tourists here. I thought it was funny that the art market surrounds a building called the North Ghana Volunteer Center. They are definitely trying to cater more to tourists than to locals. I also thought it was interesting that they had art products that are not local, such as Ashanti fertility dolls. I really wanted to buy art in the style of the local people here, but the Ashanti are a people further to the south. The dolls are pretty iconic for Ghana, though.
I called my family this evening as well. It’s not too expensive to make calls to the US from Ghana. I realized that they had a lot of questions about our life here that I should write about on the blog. If YOU have any questions, please leave them in a comment. I am happy to tell you whatever you want to know about our experience here.
Now I am going to tell you about the trash, if you are interested to know. There are plastic bags EVERYWHERE here. Littering is perfectly acceptable behavior, despite the fact that many packages say things like “Keep Ghana Clean.” I don’t know how they expect people to dispose of things besides throwing them on the ground. I’m pretty sure that Zet just empties our trash cans outside the Palace somewhere (but I’m not sure on that. If I find out differently, I will let you know.) The plastic bag problem is accentuated by the fact that many products are sold in plastic bags as packaging, such as water and ice cream. They are little plastic packages known as sachets that you bite a corner off of, and then squeeze into your mouth. And then you throw it on the ground if you are Ghanaian, or if you are me, put it in the trash can and let somebody else put it on the ground.
I don’t know if any of my archaeology friends read this blog, but this next part is for you. When I went to a village and saw the trash everywhere, I understood archaeological sites better. I didn’t comprehend before how there were little broken pieces of pots everywhere in the villages. I guess I thought they just got scattered after breaking. Now I realize that there very likely was trash everywhere in the village when people lived there, and the people probably just didn’t care too much about stepping on sherds as they walked down the village path. It seems strange to me to live in a place that is so dirty. I wonder who first had the idea to bury all the trash in the ground so nobody would have to look at it.
A Few Sweet Pics...
So, I (Peter) know a lot of you want to see more pictures, so I put this post together for you all. I know there aren't a ton of pictures, but each one took 5-10 minutes to load, so be patient with us. Enjoy!
Home Sweet Home. If you look closely, you the red arrow points to our house. I took this picture when we flew into Tamale knowing only that the house was near the new soccer stadium. We live in School Ridge, a road filled with different schools and colleges. Despite all the buildings in the photo, it is so lush and green here that it doesn't really feel like its crowded.
This is "Babs Palace", where we live. Our guard, Peter is out front showing off his muscles. He is really cool and helpful. Not too bad for a guys thats almost 60.
Here is the VVIP entrance that Rachel mentioned in an earlier post. The guy in the red shirt is named Boat. He has been helping us to get everything ready, driving, etc.
These are the VVIP seats. Not too bad of a view. Pretty much centered and hig enough up to see the whole field. Across from us on the field level, they are setting up a boxing ring AND several hotel rooms. How sweet would that be to have your hotel room right on the soccer field?
A few days ago we went around and visited a bunch of the woman that I will be interviewing throughout the summer. We met these two girls at one house. Both were super shy, the girl in the white dress kept giggling and hiding her face in her dress while the other just looked at us like she had never seen a white person before (which might have been the case).
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