Oh my gosh, where do I start? It has been two whole months since I last
blogged!! Holy crap! Since coming to site, I have not been able to
find readily available internet access, and I haven’t wanted to bring my
computer out into the open just yet. But
now I have some privacy and some time to blog about a few things.
Right now I am staying in a hotel. With air conditioning, a tv, running hot
water, a toilet, and a fridge. It’s
wonderful. But why am I staying here,
you might ask? My house is currently
being overtaken by a swarm of bees. I woke
up this morning and I heard nothing but buzzing outside my windows. I saw a few of them yesterday, but didn’t
really think anything of it. I then
noticed they began getting in through my windows. Crap.
This isn’t going to end well. It
was about 6am, and all I had wanted to do was sleep in. Oh well.
I decided to get up and hurry out of the house. I went into town and met a few people and
told them of my issue. They said they
would get it taken care of. Until then, I
just wandered around town.
The power just went out in the hotel. Hope I didn’t just fry my computer cord. Fingers crossed! I have had the worst luck with technology
since coming to Ghana. But that’s a
whole different story I will get into later.
Anywho, so I was just wandering around town all day. I went and got breakfast (egg sandwich and
coffee…my fav!), and walked around to different stores chatting with people,
making new friends, and seeing what everyone had to sell. It was really fun actually. And everyone is really surprised at my
language/Dagaare skills. So yay! I ran into my friend Aaron who is from the
capital of the Upper West Region. He
comes to Nandom every once in a while, so we sat down and chatted for a
while. He then showed me where he stays
in town. Holy crap. It’s a house with electricity and
carpet. Wowza. We just sat on his couch and watched
amazingly horrible flicks all afternoon.
It was glorious. Anyway, I leave
his place because I wanted to go check to see how my house was coming
along. I call Peter, who is the local
welder and a good friend, to see if he knew anything more. He told me someone would come to my house
around 6 or 7pm to spray. What?! I have to wait that long?! And by that time, will I even be able to stay
in my house?? Clearly, the answer to that is no. But anyway, I see some more people, and
finally make my way to the house with Peter, the Assembly Man (Mayor) Maurice,
and another person with the special spray.
By this time, I’ve been told I will be staying in a Guest House (hotel)
until the bee problem gets fixed. We get
to the house, I go to unlock the door, and lo and behold, the key gets
stuck. The lock won’t budge and the key
is not coming out. Awesome. Now what?
I have a back door, but I also have a back screen door that I always
lock. Maybe this time for some reason I
didn’t lock it. Nope. Securely fastened. Damn.
Peter ended up tearing apart the screen door so we could unlock the back
door. ‘Twas marvelous. We get inside, I pack up a few things, we
spray the house, and leave. Tomorrow
morning, they will spray with a stronger chemical. I have no idea what that chemical is. And now I am sitting comfortably in cool air
and a comfy bed. So that was my night in
a nut shell. Let’s talk about the last 2
months.
I have been keeping a journal to document my time here so
far, but sadly left it in the house. I was
going to type it all up to share with everyone, but maybe I can do that
tomorrow.
School started on September 4th, and we are
almost halfway finished with the term.
The school year is broken up into three different terms. The first term (for my school anyway) is from
September 4th-December 13th. The second term is from January 8th-April
18th. And the third term is
from May 14th-July 25th.
And all the time in between are the holidays. Yahoo! So everyone should plan their visits
accordingly! You can still come visit
during the school year, but I won’t be as free as I’d like during those
times. So the Junior High is split into
3 classes. Form 1, Form 2, and Form
3. The students in Form 1 just came from
the Primary School (Elementary School) and those in Form 3 will (hopefully) be
graduating to a Senior High School.
About the 2nd week of school, 2 students in Form 3 came up to
me and asked if I could help them after school with Maths (yes, Maths…that’s
how they/we say it). Heck yes! So I have organized an after school tutoring
session. We meet on Tuesdays,
Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 3-4:30pm.
I actually really enjoy these sessions, because the students who come
really want to learn and do well. It
makes me happy.
I have a neighbor whose name is Roger. And I just want to start off by saying that
this man is my hero. He is almost 60
years old and speaks amazing English. I
don’t know what I’d do without him. We see
each other every day and spend the nights chatting away about anything and
everything. It’s wonderful. He’s has several kids who like to come around
and sit in/on/around my veranda. I give
them groundnuts (peanuts) all the time, so I think that’s why they like coming
over. The two girls, Theresa and Janet,
always help clean my house and my clothes and my dishes. It’s great.
For many reasons. One being that
I think I may be allergic to the soap I bought.
My hands are kind of breaking out and peeling. I bought the soap in bulk too, so until it’s
gone, I’ve asked the girls if they could clean my things for me. They happily agreed. They’re so wonderful. I can’t wait until I get lights. Because all I want to do is have them come
over and watch movies and eat popcorn all night. That sounds wonderful to me.
My house is slowly coming together. When I first arrived, I had a bed and a
desk. That’s it. Since then, I have been mostly working on my
kitchen. I have a 2-burner tabletop
stove, a gas cylinder, plastic shelves, and dishes. Oh yea, and food. I put the stove on the desk, so now I was one
desk short. I was given 4 plastic
chairs, one of which has since been traded out for a wooden one. One of the chairs was used as a dresser. I put all of my clothes on it. And another one was used to hold all of my
textbooks and lesson notes. So I had 2
chairs. That’s it. I met with a carpenter and he made me a
writing table (that’s a little too small, but oh well) and a giant wardrobe
with doors! I was able to put all my
clothes (easily) on one side of the wardrobe, and the rest of my things on the
other side. And my books now sit on my
wobbly writing desk. It’s nice to
actually have a place to put my things. I
have gotten an estimate for a 3 person couch (which is too expensive as of now,
so I have to wait until I get paid again).
So in the mean time, I am getting a coffee table and a bookshelf
made. Roger’s junior brother is making
them for me, so hopefully they won’t cost me a butt load.
I just got over a cold earlier this week. It had been kicking my butt for about 3
weeks. Everyone told me it was the
change in weather. Which maybe they’re
right, but I think it was from all the sick kids at school. It felt like a sinus infection, and I couldn’t
stop coughing. I drank plenty of
(purified) water and tried to get plenty rest.
By the way, “plenty” is said plenty here. Anywho, I think I have finally beaten this
cold.
I know a ton more has happened since coming to site, and I
know I have written it down in my journal, and I know I should have brought the
journal with me, but alas, I did not.
Oh! I met with the
Assembly Man to see if he knew of a place I could take/use my computer that was
private because I thought it was too risky taking it into town. He said to go to Nandom Secondary School
(abbreviated Nandom Sec) and see if I could use it there. Perfect!
Roger works at Nandom Sec! So we
went and visited the Headmaster (Principal) there and told him of my dilemma. He said it was no problem that I come and use
the electricity. I asked him what days
and times would work best, and he said I could use the staff room during school
hours. Uh, crap. I teach during school hours. So I told him that, and he said if I were to
come and befriend one of the teachers at Nandom Sec, maybe they would let me
use their home to charge my computer.
Okay. I could do that. Luckily, Roger knew someone who would be
willing, so we went and chatted with him.
He said any time I wanted to use my computer, I would just let him know,
and he would let me use his office.
Score!! So hopefully I will now
be able to get online more often. And I apologize
for not finding an alternative sooner. I’ve
just been so busy with school and integration and bees.
Oh, and I have a new address for you to send me packages
and/or letters!
Jessica Keeton, PCV
PO Box 49
Lawra-Lawra District
UW/R
Ghana
West Africa
So for now, I think I shall stop. I plan on going to Nandom Sec tomorrow, so I will
take my journal with me and copy everything down then. So until then, I will enjoy this air
conditioning and maybe watch a tv show or a movie or something! Goodnight world!
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