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…
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…
posted by Tony at 1:55 p.m.
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