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).Friday, May 22, 2009
Lizard
We saw brightly-colored lizards like this one when we were in Accra. I haven't seen any animals as bright as this in Tamale. We will be going to their animal preserve where elephants and other cool animals live sometime next month I think, so I'm sure we'll see more of the cool northern animals then.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
May 20 & 21
May 20, 2009
Today was basically the worst day of my life. It started off great. I went into town with Jason and Frederick, our other boss. We were running errands, and talking to people, and it was much nicer than staying home doing nothing. Just as we were about to go home, I got heat exhaustion (or something) and nearly fainted. Upon arriving home, we discovered the power was out. Our house was cool when we first got there, but it got hotter and hotter throughout the day. It would have been miserable if I wasn’t trying to recover from heat exhaustion, but having that added to it made it awful. In the evening, they got a generator going so at least there was a fan. When the power finally came back, it decided only to make enough power to run the fans really slowly and a few of the lights.
About 10PM when we were going to bed, the power came back on with enough strength to run the AC. I have never been so grateful for an AC. I will make sure not to take it for granted ever again. And no need to worry about me—this morning I barely drank anything, and from now on I will make sure I always have water with me.
May 21, 2009
Today has been a fantastic day. We woke up early (7-ish) and went out for breakfast on our way to some villages where we were going to meet our sales agents and remind them about our training meeting. It was really fun to go to all the villages and see all the people in their homes. The poor people live in mud huts with thatched roofs, and the rich people live in concrete houses with tin roofs. If you have read any literature or seen any photographs of how houses are arranged in sub-saharan Africa, it’s probably the same as what we saw (I remember in particular a model village at the Seattle zoo). Each wife has her own hut if they are polygamist, and if they are not then each son and his wife has his own hut. I was surprised to find that the circle of mud huts had concrete floors in the middle area.
Some interesting things that I learned today:
Never wave with your left hand, because your left hand is your bathroom hand.
A Muslim man may never shake hands with a woman, and a non-Muslim man may never shake hands with a Muslim woman.
How to say good morning, good afternoon, and thank you in Dagbani, the local language, but I have since forgotten.
It is possible to ride a motorcycle with a dead cow on your lap, or with two dead goats on your lap. This one I wish I had a photo of, but the guys moved too quickly.
This evening we had a CRAZY storm. There was very strong wind, thunder and lightning, and pouring rain. I was shocked at how much rain fell. Of course, the power was knocked out. Fortunately, it’s cooler because of the rain.
Today was basically the worst day of my life. It started off great. I went into town with Jason and Frederick, our other boss. We were running errands, and talking to people, and it was much nicer than staying home doing nothing. Just as we were about to go home, I got heat exhaustion (or something) and nearly fainted. Upon arriving home, we discovered the power was out. Our house was cool when we first got there, but it got hotter and hotter throughout the day. It would have been miserable if I wasn’t trying to recover from heat exhaustion, but having that added to it made it awful. In the evening, they got a generator going so at least there was a fan. When the power finally came back, it decided only to make enough power to run the fans really slowly and a few of the lights.
About 10PM when we were going to bed, the power came back on with enough strength to run the AC. I have never been so grateful for an AC. I will make sure not to take it for granted ever again. And no need to worry about me—this morning I barely drank anything, and from now on I will make sure I always have water with me.
May 21, 2009
Today has been a fantastic day. We woke up early (7-ish) and went out for breakfast on our way to some villages where we were going to meet our sales agents and remind them about our training meeting. It was really fun to go to all the villages and see all the people in their homes. The poor people live in mud huts with thatched roofs, and the rich people live in concrete houses with tin roofs. If you have read any literature or seen any photographs of how houses are arranged in sub-saharan Africa, it’s probably the same as what we saw (I remember in particular a model village at the Seattle zoo). Each wife has her own hut if they are polygamist, and if they are not then each son and his wife has his own hut. I was surprised to find that the circle of mud huts had concrete floors in the middle area.
Some interesting things that I learned today:
Never wave with your left hand, because your left hand is your bathroom hand.
A Muslim man may never shake hands with a woman, and a non-Muslim man may never shake hands with a Muslim woman.
How to say good morning, good afternoon, and thank you in Dagbani, the local language, but I have since forgotten.
It is possible to ride a motorcycle with a dead cow on your lap, or with two dead goats on your lap. This one I wish I had a photo of, but the guys moved too quickly.
This evening we had a CRAZY storm. There was very strong wind, thunder and lightning, and pouring rain. I was shocked at how much rain fell. Of course, the power was knocked out. Fortunately, it’s cooler because of the rain.
Photo of the Day
I have decided that one photo per day is probably the limit. This is some of the scenery in Tamale.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
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