Power outages, bucket showers and other fun

Hi Everyone,
It's Friday morning and we still don't have proper running water. So it's been bucket showers for a week. They aren't nearly as bad as they sound and you can do a thorough job with just one bucket! Hooray for conservation. Also, people were working on the power lines last night. It was supposed to come back on at 6 last night, but in Ghana time, I think that translates to next week. Oh yeah, the cockroaches here also have wings, or at least some of them do. Hmmm, no power or running water and lots of insects. It's like camp.

But seriously, I'm doing really well. Dr. Addae has me putting together a fundraising proposal for our water project that I could potentially use in Canada. I think that I could do a lot of good fundraising back home, so I might be back sooner than originally planned. We'll see; it's still very early. But the reality is that it is hard for an African NGO to get funds from the West. It will help to have a Westerner (me) advocating for RUCNET.

Anyways, I'm keeping busy. Thanks a lot for all of your emails. A lot of you have asked about pictures and I haven't found a way to get them up. I'll keep trying. I have a few subjects that I'm looking forward to posting on that are more topical, such as corruption and the misuse of aid. It's been really eye-opening thus far. This place is incredible. That's all for now

Tuesday and Wednesday

As promised, today’s post is short. Not much to report, other than that Hotmail doesn’t work very well here. It’s very odd, considering Yahoo addresses work well. I’ll be on tomorrow. Today we went to our office for the first time. It is a pretty modest space above a very busy street, although every street in Ghana is very busy. Dr. Addae, Maxwell, who runs the finances, and I discussed some of the projects and where I’ll fit in. I think that I’m going to focus on establishing the farmers’ co-operative I mentioned last week. Our goal is much bigger than just one truck. We want to pilot this on a district (municipal) level, so we are going to need a few million dollars to start it. We are going to work on the business plan and get everything in place, then approach various organizations, of which there are many, for a grant.

The other projects I’ll be working on will be water, mobile rural clinics and establishing a school (construction is about to begin, so there isn’t much to do but supervise occasionally). Where exactly I’ll fit in remains to be seen, but I’m sure I’ll find something to do. That’s it for now. Oh yeah, today I saw a sign for Chewass Art Works. That’s up there with Gina Pee Pee Communication Centre.

It’s now Wednesday morning, but since I’m going to post this today, I’m just going to write it in yesterday’s news. There are some issues with this place. So far, they’ve been funny more than anything, although 9 months of this might stretch my patience. There is something wrong with the water system. Nothing comes out of the taps but the toilet manages to flood the floor if the water valve is left open. But it is still nearly impossible to flush it. I’ve been using a bucket of water to shower for the past few days. It’s actually not that bad, although I’m glad I’ve had 23 summers at Go Home to get used to bathing with cold water.

Not much else to report today. It's been slow. Things move at a decidely more leisurely pace here. There was a problem with RUCNET's account at the bank that kept us there for almost two hours. Also, today we went to the university printing press. I'm going to go there a couple of times a week and work towards establishing a Twi language paper that could potentially fund RUCNET. It's really exciting, although it's a bit funny that I'll be working on a paper I won't be able to read. That's all.

Monday, September 26

Well, we are finally in our place. It’s very comfortable, although there have been a few unexpected issues that have to be fixed, namely the fact that there is no water coming out of the shower. This is probably because all of the water in the tank seems to have been deposited on the bathroom floor overnight from a leak. Anyways, that will be fixed soon. Also, there was an almost-dead cockroach that was about three times the size of the biggest ones at Go Home Bay. He (or she) enjoyed a watery grave in the toilet.

Yesterday saw my first contact with foreigners. It had been nearly 10 days, since I’d talked to a non-Ghanaian, which might not seem like a lot, but if you really think about it, was a long time, particularly given that it was a first for me. I met three Brits just out of high school who are volunteering here until December, as well as a woman from Vancouver who has been in Ghana with CUSO for about 4 years. I’ve got their numbers and I’m sure I’ll meet up with them soon. It’ll be nice to go out and grab some Western food cause I’ve been craving a good burger and fries. The food here is pretty good, some things better than others, but as my travel guide puts it, “while you wouldn’t want to travel in Ghana without trying fufu or kenkey, you will be unlikely to miss them when you return home.” Fufu and kenkey are basically dough that is eaten with spicy sauce or soup. And to be honest, they’re pretty terrible, unless you actually like eating dough. Maybe I’ll adjust.

It’s morning now so I’ll write more later in the day and, as always, post when I can. We have a meeting with a local chief to introduce our water project. More on that tonight.

It’s now tonight. Today was quite the experience. We arrived in Kumawu, which is north of where I’m staying. It’s in a very hilly area that is incredibly fertile, although most of the land is fallow. Because it is so hilly, there is no water in the elevated communities. We were introduced to the chief and presented him with the customary bottle of schnapps. Then his linguist told him about the project which took about two minutes. After that, we were led down to a room with lots of chairs in it and a throne. His court I suppose. There had been a complaint brought against us that needed to be addressed. It is pretty complicated—Dr. Addae explained it all to me—so I won’t bore you with all the details. It basically stems from a personal dispute involving a man and the sub-chief who is helping us with the project. It seems like this man was using our project as an excuse to make trouble for the sub-chief.

Anyways, the complaint was heard in the assembly, with the chief on his throne, the queen mother (his wife?) next to him, and all the sub-chiefs around him. We had to stand in front of him, along with the complainants. Dr. Addae spoke about what we are trying to do, which is provide water to people at the cost of about 1 cent per gallon (to cover costs). And then the complainant spoke. And then all the sub-chiefs spoke, then the queen mother, then the chief. This all took place in Twi, not English, and we had to stand there the whole time (maybe 45 minutes). By the tone of the elders, I could tell we were on the winning side. This was confirmed to me by Dr. Addae when we left. Apparently, the complainants were seriously admonished. The queen mother, who lives in Canada but is back for a while, even made some comment about me and Canada and how they were embarrassing Ghana. It was quite the experience.

As novel as it was, I think today illustrates some of the problems Africa faces with its bureaucracies. You’d think something as vital as supplying water could be done fairly easily. But there were so many hoops to jump through. And this is only one district. It seemed like a bit of a waste of time. I’m all for traditions, but they have to be adapted to be practical, particularly when you’re dealing with something like water supply. That said, it was pretty neat to be standing in front of a chief on his throne, with a guy behind him holding a huge umbrella (indoors) and another one beside him with a golden rod. He seemed pretty indifferent to the whole thing too.
That’s it for today. Because this is so long, I’ll likely keep Tuesday’s post short to spare you all. I’ll catch you obrunis later.

Sunday, September 25

HIGH-SPEED INTERNET IN AN AIR-CONDITIONED ROOM!!!!

Needless to say, I'm pretty happy. I took a tro-tro into Kumasi all by myself for the first time. The 25 minute trip cost me 30 cents. I found this place, that my travel guide said was open 7 days a week, and it was closed. I wandered for a bit, dejected, and was heading back to pick up a tro-tro home when it opened. I was thrilled. To be in air-conditioning is so nice.

Anyways, I don't have much else to write about now. Except for the fact that Sunday is totally hijacked by God here. Almost everything is closed. The few places that are open have loud gospel music blasting. All the radio stations have the same music on. Thankfully, this place is open and silent.

There are 6 new posts below this one that detail the last week. Unfortunately, I can't post pictures from here, which is disappointing. I'll try to send out a group email in a couple of weeks with a bunch of them, or I'll try and find a way to get them up. Check out the posts below, keep in touch...

Saturday, September 24

How many people have been to a funeral with goats walking through it? I can now say that I have. Today we headed south to the funeral of a colleague’s mother. She was 95 and she died over a month ago. Driving there, we passed several villages in which the favoured style of architecture is wood frames with mud walls. We arrived in the village where the funeral was and were led into this courtyard of sorts, although the term courtyard implies something regal. And then we were led past the body. There was this little old lady lying there, on a bed with all these lights and decorations around her. Many of the women would sob as they passed by, having been completely composed just before. To make it even more surreal for the white boy who had been to all of one funeral before today, there was a little music box next to the body playing Christmas carols. I definitely heard Jingle Bells. After everyone (and there were hundreds of people) filed past the body, there was a service, with lots of singing and dancing and African drumming. It was lively to say the least.

After a pause for lunch, there was more dancing and singing in this area where a lot of chairs had been set up in a rectangle in the middle of the village. This allowed the local goats to wander through the proceedings whenever they felt so inclined. There was a greeting line and that was another entertaining experience. I know that I’ve mentioned this before, but I need to say it again to hammer home how much a part of my life this is right now. Being the only white person in an entire town ensures that you’ll elicit countless stares and a very warm welcome. But it does make you self-conscious when you know that there are dozens of people looking at you. I’ve found that the best thing to do is to wear a huge grin and say thank you a lot.

We hung around for a little bit, then headed back. The return trip took about 5 hours because we took a longer route. On the way there, we took this awful road that led to the van filling with a choking red dust, so we decided to go the other way home. About half way back, the rain hit. It is rainy season right now, but apart from some drizzle, it’s been pretty dry since I’ve been here. Until today. It was torrential. Fortunately we made it back in one piece. All in all, my first Ghanaian funeral was surreal to say the least.

Tomorrow is Sunday and come hell or high water, I am getting this and the several posts that precede it up on the net. We are going to finally move into our place tomorrow as well, and then work starts. What that entails, I’m not sure yet, but I do know that we have a meeting with a local chief on Monday. Til next time, whenever that may be…

Friday, September 23

Another trip into town and more exposure to the realities of Africa. We travelled with the water tanker for a bit and it had a crack that needed to be fixed. I wonder what that meant for people’s water supplies? We bought some kitchen utensils, although I had to stay in the car. Apparently if I’d been there, they would have tried to cheat us.

Tomorrow we are traveling south. Two relatives of someone who works with RUCNET died, so we are going to the funeral(s?). It will be pretty interesting to see the customs involved with this. I know they pour out some libations for the dead, although I don’t think they use Olde English. I’ve been instructed to wear red. We have to leave at 5 am. Which is in about 7 hours. So I’m going to go to bed now. I’ll post this when I can (duh!) and I’ll try and get a description of the funeral up as well. Oh to have high-speed, reliable internet. And air-conditioning—it’s so hot here.

Thursday, September 22

Today we went into town, which was good, and then we went to deliver two 2000 gallon water tanks to an area without running water. And this area was just outside of the road that rings Kumasi. It essentially is part of Kumasi. To put that into perspective, it would be like North York (or North Van) not having running water. Because NGOs tend to focus on rural areas, these urban areas often get overlooked, which is terrible considering how many people live there. We’re talking tens of thousands of people without running water. So RUCNET installs these tanks and a tanker fills them twice a day and people can take what they need. It’s the honour system. And we all know how well that works. But it’s the only viable option. RUCNET is the only NGO who does this, although there are some private companies who do it as well. The government has enough problems, so they don’t address this. Another eye-opener.

Today had its frustrating moments, mostly in a technological sense. I already posted about my internet problems, so I won’t go into it again, except to say that it is a real pain to have eight emails and three days of posting saved to disk and then not being able to send it all. I feel so pent-up. Hopefully I’ll get this up by Sunday.

On a completely unrelated note, I just heard Simon and Garfunkel’s “At the Zoo” for the first time. What a hilarious song. “Elephants are kindly, but they’re dumb…zebras are reactionary.” How do you come up with lyrics like that? That’s all for now.

Wednesday, September 21

Just to reassure, I woke up this morning feeling completely fine. We didn’t make it into Kumasi today. In fact, not much happened at all. We’re still trying to get the house in order. I’ve realized that when someone here says ‘tomorrow,’ they mean ‘next year.’ More when something cool happens. Today I read National Enquirers from late 1999. They had “articles” on Y2K and Monica-gate. That seems a world away. Which I guess makes sense, given where I am right now.

From talking to Dr. Addae, there are a million opportunities here, both non-profit and for-profit. 70% of the people here speak Twi as their first language. But there is no Twi language newspaper. That would be like not having a French paper in Quebec. I don’t think that would be too hard to get going. You’d just need to piggyback onto an existing English paper. And you’d need money, but not an exorbitant amount. But more likely for me, there are some projects that are very simple and need funding. Such as raising money to buy a semi-truck for a rural farmers’ co-op. This would eliminate the middlemen who grossly underpay the farmers for their produce. The margin between what farmers receive and what the produce is sold for is somewhere around 80%.

More generally, in that vein, there are so many business opportunities here. The thing is that they all seem so simple. I’m talking about things people would have jumped on in 2 seconds in North America. It seems unbelievable, but from talking to Dr. Addae, I’ve realized how conservative and inert commerce is here. Most people only want to deliver services. Very few people produce or innovate because risk-taking has not been inculcated here. If from my writing, it sounds like I think I know everything already, most of what I’ve written is coming from Dr. Addae.

Tuesday, September 20

Day 5 dawned with a somewhat unpleasant feeling. I had a bout of traveller’s uhhhh, sickness. Use your imagination. It hasn’t been too bad and I’ve been taking rehydration salts and drinking lots of fluids. Dr. Addae and the nurse who works for RUCNET, Grace, decided that I’ve been introduced to Ghanaian cuisine too quickly and need to adjust more gradually. So tomorrow we are going to the western supermarket in Kumasi to get western food. To be honest, I’m a bit relieved. It will be nice to have some familiar tastes and to have a better idea of how things are being prepared. But I also feel pretty guilty about it. I suppose that’s just part of the culture shock.

Anyways, being (barely) sick has exposed me to an even higher level of hospitality. Which I didn’t believe was possible. It can actually be a bit unsettling. I’ve moved to the guesthouse from the school so I can be closer to Dr. Addae. The girls who work here have been over-the-top hospitable. And to refuse any of it is considered rude (I checked). They came in when I was reading this afternoon to say they were praying for me. Try and imagine that happening in Canada. How many of you have had people you barely know say that they are praying for you when you’re ill? And if it happened, would you believe it? Also, when I got up to get something out of my bag while I was eating, one of them stood over my food to keep the flies off. All this for a fairly mild bout of illness. It can be pretty guilt-inducing. But that’s Ghana for you.

At everyone’s insistence, I relaxed all day and read. So not much else to report. Just to reassure any worriers (aka, Mom), I’m feeling fine and I bet I’ll be 100% by tomorrow (Wednesday) night. I’ve had way worse back home. I’m just getting adjusted. We will be in our place tomorrow and we’ll start working next week. Check out the post below for Monday’s info.

I’ll close with a few more random observations. Toilet paper here isn’t perforated. If there is a switch that controls the lights in two adjoining rooms, the switch on the right will invariably control the lights in the left room. And vice versa. If there are more than 2 rooms, who knows. That’s all for now. Take care…

Monday, September 19

Thanks to those of you who endured my Tolstoy-esque post that went up on Monday. Because the house I’m going to be staying in isn’t ready yet, things have been a bit hectic and we haven’t started working yet. I should be moved in by Wednesday, so then things will settle down. Our office is right downtown so I should be on the internet a lot more frequently.

Just to reiterate (I’m sure I said this in the previous post), this place is so far beyond comprehension for anyone who has never been to the third world. There are so many contradictions here. It’s dirty and green and beautiful and friendly and isolating. Overall, it’s been great so far.

Some people have asked about the work I’m doing, and because I’m not settled in yet, I don’t really know. The organization, Rural Care Network (RUCNET) is involved in lots of projects, so I’d imagine I’ll be doing many things. The guy who runs it is a Ghanaian named Dr. Addae. He grew up here, but went to med school in Germany and lived there for 17 years. The fact that he decided to leave a prosperous life there and return to Ghana says a lot about him.

Here’s what I know about the work so far. I think the first thing we will be working on is a rural water project that, surprisingly, delivers water to rural areas, be it through wells or actual deliveries. Dr. Addae is also involved in the creation of the first national health insurance scheme in Ghana. It was piloted in 2001 and is now nearing opening. There are already billboards all over the place advertising it and a National Health Insurance Levy is in effect. So I’d imagine I’ll do some work with that. I was talking to him two nights ago and he assured me that he thought I had some value to add and that’s why I’m here. That was reassuring, because I was worried that I’d have little to do or be doing a job that a local could be doing.

Not much else to add now. It’s Monday night and this will probably get posted on Wednesday or Thursday. I’m going to try and keep anything else I add to this in the next few days brief. I bought a phone today (my first ever cell). I’ll close with a this: today, these little kids kept yelling “obruni” at me, which is nothing new, but when I waved, they all went crazy and started chanting it in unison. And some 14 year old girl tried to shut them up but they wouldn’t stop. It was pretty funny. I can’t really imagine a bunch of white kids in Vancouver chanting “black man” over and over.

Internet here...

Hi everyone. The internet in Ghana is not tres bon. I've got three very detailed posts saved on disk but the first internet place I went to today didn't have internet and the second one (where I am now) doesn't have working disk drives, so it's been an adventure. I will get the posts up when I can. There is lots in them about what it's like here and what kind of work I'll be doing, which I'm really excited about. I'm having a great time so far, although I haven't really met anyone I have anything in common with. Despite the loneliness of that, I feel surprisingly good. Partly it's because I have a great opportunity here (which you'll hear about), and also, I think it's the friendliness of the people here.

I start work on Monday, but will be traveling to Cape Coast this weekend. Lots of people have asked about work and I've written about it extensively (on disk) and will post it as soon as it's possible. One request. Because internet here is limited, I'd appreciate updates on news in Canada, particularly sports. Especially the Habs. I saw they won their first two preseason games. Time to start planning the parade... Take care, keep the emails coming.

Here...

*** Hey Everyone. I have a cell and the number is 233 24 220 7065. Call me anytime, it’s free for me for incoming calls***

It’s Saturday morning right now, but I’m not sure when I’ll be able to post this. I’ll probably hit an internet café later today. It’s been just over a day here and it feels like I’ve experienced a month. I arrived on Thursday night at about 9 with no hassles, although British Airways was underwhelming. No movies, just lame British TV shows. I cleared customs and headed outside to find a sign saying “TONY FROM CANADA”. I met up with Dr. Addae who greeted me with a big hug. He’s a great guy, 43 years old, with three kids and very jolly. We went to a guest house where I crashed pretty quickly. The hospitality is incredible. They took the TV from the common room and put it in my room, where I enjoyed an election special on the English-language German channel hosted by Shane Fankhauser and a Ghanaian current affairs program where the host laughed at one popular reverend who was blaming all the car crashes on Satanic forces and was calling for the creation of a National Commission of Prophets.
After breakfast, we headed into town in a taxi to catch a bus to Kumasi. The traffic here is incredible. It makes downtown Toronto look like a deserted country road. We went to the bus station, which was a huge, chaotic, open-air market filled with people selling everything imaginable, lots of noise and diesel exhaust fumes. We got on the road with some guy making some speech at the front, leading everyone in a prayer. As soon as the amens came, he launched into sales mode, pimping all sorts of wares. Most were cures to various ailments, but there was one that was jewellery cleaner. Or maybe he was selling the jewellery. As Dr. Addae pointed out, this is a symptom of the fact that 70% of the people have no basic health care. There are about 1000 doctors in Ghana, the majority in Accra. There are over 20 million people in Ghana. You do the math. Anyways, the bus ride was quite long and the road was a bit different than the 401 (or Coquihalla for those out West). We arrived into Kumasi around 8, but because Ghana is so close to the equator, it gets dark very early here. The sun sets just after 6 and it is very dark by 6:45. One more thing I wasn’t prepared for! We had a nice dinner at Fun City, sitting on the patio with loud reggae in Twi (the local language) blaring. Right now I am staying at a school for the forestry industry because our apartment is not ready. The water system was torn up during highway construction, so hopefully we’ll be in on Monday.

It’s now Saturday night and I’m about to head to bed. Today was relatively uneventful because we are waiting to get settled. I walked around Ejisu, which is the suburb I am in. The term suburb in no way describes where I am, because it certainly isn’t Aurora or West Van. I don’t really know how to accurately describe this place because it is totally incomparable to anything back home. I’ll try and post as many pictures as possible. I had my first experience on a tro-tro, which is a hybrid of a bus and a taxi, but 100 times less formal. It is basically a big van with lots of people piled in. Don’t worry, there was a seatbelt. I assume there are schedules, or at least fixed stops, although it didn’t really seem like that. It wasn’t quite like those trains in India with people on the roofs, but it was close. Anyways, I’ll get the hang of it.
The warmth of the people here is incredible. When you look at the geopolitical situation in West Africa, it is easy to wonder how it is possible that Ghana is the only country in the region not to experience war. When you meet the people here, you can see why. Things happen at a relaxed pace here and everyone is so friendly. Sorry to sound like a hippy. They are very interested in me because I am an obruni and the only one around. The funniest is the little kids who try and touch me (to see if I have skin?) or yell out “how are you?” I’m trying to learn some Twi to surprise them.
I’m not sure how often I’ll be on the internet, but I’ll keep writing stuff on my computer and saving it to post later. So you’ll have to endure infrequent, massive posts. Hopefully when I get settled, I’ll be able to be online more and write smaller posts and more personal emails. I miss home a lot and I can’t remember feeling more alone, as I don’t share many common experiences with anyone here. But it passes and I know that this will be an amazing experience, as it has been already. Take care.

It’s now Sunday night. Still no internet. Although I almost certainly will be on tomorrow. Which will be today when you read this. Today was very interesting. Dr. Addae’s cousin was ordained recently so we went to this village north of Kumasi to his first service. It was a Wesley Methodist church. Methodists were the ones who invented hymn-singing. Thank you Euro History 11. It was a nice service, although the tactic with which they collected a parting gift for the outgoing priest was somewhat coercive. But it was a beautiful setting and the kids were very funny, as they would push each other towards me or try and convince each other to say “How are you?” That or they would just stare. Probably the funniest part was when a toad hopped by and about two seconds later, this boy just kicked the crap out of it. It probably went 8 feet in the air. Where are PETA when you need them? I took a few pictures of some people and it was interesting to see how stiff Ghanaians are in pictures. They are the warmest people I have ever met but point a camera at them and they turn into corpses.
To get to this village, we had to go through Kumasi, which was great. Now that I’ve seen it, I can say that I’m really glad I’m here and not in Accra. This place is organized chaos, as opposed to the dirty chaos of Accra. It is much cleaner and greener and the layout is much better and more efficient. Our office is right downtown, near what is probably the largest outdoor market in the universe.
What else? It’s hot here. So hot. It feels like Toronto in the summer, minus the air conditioning. I was in a tro-tro today that had 18 people in it. And it was only slightly bigger than a Vanagon. I saw a shop called Gina’s Pee Pee Communication Centre. And one called Fear Of God’s Kitchen. My African nickname is Kwame because I was born on a Saturday.
I am going to get a phone tomorrow and incoming calls are free. So start saving for a calling card. Alright, I’ll end this epic now. Take care…

In transit

I'm sitting in Heathrow, having just been gouged into paying more than $15 for a cheeseburger. God travel is fun. I'm also exhausted from the approximately 3 hour sleep I had on the floor of Nick's living room. All in all, Ireland was a fantastic start to the trip and Nick and Hunter couldn't have been better hosts. And on I go...
Fortunately, the fact that I'm so tired takes the edge off my nerves. It's hard to feel sorry for yourself when you can barely keep your eyes open. I feel pretty well prepared for this though. I know that it might be rough at first but I'll be loving it in no time.
One thing that I am curious/nervous about is having an identifiable race for the first time. Being in the majority is something that is all too easy to take for granted and it will be really interesting to stick out so blatantly because of my skin colour. I'll write more on this in the future.
To all those of you who wrote me emails, thanks a lot. I'll try to get back to you all individually, but my internet use has been pretty limited thus far. Til next time...

WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

15 hours and counting...

I can honestly say that I've never been this nervous in my life. I leave Dublin on an 8:30 flight tomorrow, which means waking up at before 6. I have a short layover in London, then on to Accra, where I think I'm staying the night.
We're going out to a really nice pub for dinner called O'Neills. Which seems to be the name of 90% of the pubs in this city. Seriously. We went there on Sunday and I had my first Guiness which was stellar. They have a great carvery where you can get all sorts of meats and probably lots of potatoes as well. Then back to Nick's place for one more round of Tiger Woods and most likely four sleeping pills so I can actually have a minute chance of beating my nerves and getting some rest. I'm not sure when I'll be able to post next but whenever it is, it will be from Ghana. I hope everyone is well, take care, til next time...

The Customs House on the super-clean Liffey River

The coast at Howth

A heroic coastal shot

"What the fock kind of name is that?"

It's been almost 4 days since we arrived in Dublin and things have been fantastic. The weather has been the best weather in the history of Ireland and we've been having lots of fun. I guess I should start from the beginning. When we landed, the customs agent looked at my passport, read out my full name and then stated: "what the fock kind of name is that? Your dad must have had a sense of humour!" Not quite "welcome to Ireland", but funny nonetheless. The city is absolutely beautiful. I was here 5 years ago and it didn't seem like a nice place at all, but it actually is. The downtown is really flashy and the countryside is stunning. Hunter and I went up to Howth yesterday, which is just north of the city and did a cliff walk along the coast. It was pretty spectacular. Anyways, this country is definitely worth checking out, even if some of its inhabitants are a tad unfriendly and somewhat prone to religious violence.
I'm leaving for Ghana on Thursday morning and the nerves are starting to kick in big-time. It's a really long time to be alone, so if any of you are in the neighbourhood, please drop in. Or send me stuff. I'll write more in a day or two when I get some time.