Sunday, October 30th

Tony is going on safari! I’m going north to Mole (Moh-lay) National Park on Saturday. I’m going to meet a friend up there who is going to Burkina Faso on Wednesday and then coming back on Saturday. I was cheap and didn’t buy a multiple entry visa for Ghana, so I can’t go to Burkina. But considering the bus ride is 20 hours, I’m not too dejected! Mole is apparently a great place to see all sorts of wildlife and, unlike East African safaris, it is very cheap. On Sunday, we’ll probably just sit by the viewing platforms and relax in the swimming pool from which you can see elephants and other cool things and then on Monday, we’ll go for a guided safari walk in the park. I’m pumped. Dr. Addae’s friend Nana Aba was here for the weekend and she’s great. They had a hilarious argument about marriage and Ghanaian traditional customs versus the Western system of registration etc. It continued on the tro-tro into town and what was most interesting was that the people sitting around us chimed in so naturally. It was really funny, people going back and forth about various issues, even though we had no idea who they were. If you want to find someone to talk to, you’ll never have a problem in Ghana! I went for a run this morning. Bad idea. I left the house around 9:30 and almost died because of the sun. I have never had a better cold shower, although I wished the water was colder! The tropical sun is lethal and I am not going to be running any time between 8 and 5 from now on. I wanted to exercise because the food here is so heavy. Rice, yams, plantains and lots of all of them. I’m going to cut back on my portions at each meal cause the food is so starchy and heavy and I’d prefer not to get fat. It’s all pretty good though. I’ve definitely adjusted to the food and am enjoying it (mostly). Today in my soup, there was some beef. One piece was stomach, which I’d already had and is no big deal. This other piece seemed a bit weird, so I asked what it was. Liver. I wish I hadn’t asked, because it didn’t taste very good after that! Alright, I’m going to end here. I’m not taking my computer on safari (duh), so I’ll keep a written diary. Happy Halloween everyone! I’m going to dress as a 22 year old white man. I think I’ll get lots of attention for my costume.

Saturday, October 29th

We ran out of gas today in the van as we were pulling into a gas station. We literally rolled to a stop in front of the pump. That was pretty much the most exciting thing that happened today. I spent close to an hour trying (unsuccessfully) to upload a fundraising proposal. After a short spell at the office going over finances, we went to visit Dr. Addae’s children. They live with their grandmother. The family structure here is different than at home and I’m not really sure how it all works. All explanations so far have been a bit vague! His son Kwaku, who is 13, was seriously injured a few weeks ago at his boarding school. He was on the top bunk and was hit in the face by a ceiling fan. He has a pretty nasty scar on his forehead that stops about 1 cm from his eye, so he’s pretty lucky. Dr. Addae has pulled him out of that school and is looking at legal action. It sounds like a pretty sketchy place, although it has a very good (and apparently underserved) reputation among Ghanaians. We didn’t get french fries today. We did have fried yam chips, which are similar, but not as good. I have decided that I am not going to write what is GOING to happen because if I do, it never happens. Making predictions here is impossible! I’m just going to report the news, not forecast it. The president passed by us on the road today. It was a pretty impressive convoy, although it wasn’t huge. The old president had a jet but this one has decided not to do that to set an example. Dr. Addae was less than impressed at the convoy, but when I said that our government (ab)uses a Challenger jet, he admitted that auto is probably the least extravagant way for the president to travel! Ed. note: I just found out that usually, his convoy is way bigger.

Friday, October 28

Like so many jobs, most of what I’m doing is pretty unglamorous. Today was full of writing reports and proposals. It’s not like I have a cruel boss—I left work for an hour to go to the internet cafe—so it doesn’t feel like a typical job. But running an NGO is almost all thinking, planning, and especially, fundraising. And running an NGO in Kumasi also involves a lot of sitting in traffic! We were at the office til well after six tonight going over finances. Our water system needs closer monitoring because the amount of money we are getting back from sales varies pretty substantially from tank to tank. Just in case anyone is wondering, we charge approximately 4 cents a gallon. This has to be done for the project to be sustainable. Our biggest expenses are fuel for the tanker and the water itself.

When we were in traffic on the way home, I saw two New Hampshire license plates. That was odd. You don’t expect to see too many “Live Free or Die” license plates here. What a great slogan.

Friday means that you are supposed to put on “Friday Wear”. The government instituted this policy whereby people are supposed to wear clothes made in Ghana on Friday. I was given this black and red tie-dye shirt by a friend and I wore it for the first time today. To be honest, I felt a bit goofy, but when in Rome. I’ll try and get a picture of me in it so you all can have a laugh.

That’s all for today. We are going back to Atimatim tomorrow to check on the distribution of our water project there. Also, Dr. Addae has promised that we’ll have potato chips (aka freedom fries). I can’t wait.

Thursday

I don’t have too much else to say about today. I just worked on reports. I bought Hotel Rwanda for what seems to be the going rate for VCDs: $2.50. I also saw a first fender-bender for the first time here. Which was very funny, because while we were stuck in traffic earlier this morning, I was certain we were about to be in one and thought to myself “isn’t it weird that I haven’t seen any accidents happen yet considering how people drive here?” Ask and ye shall receive.

On the way home in the tro-tro, “Barbie Girl” by Aqua came on the radio. Unfortunately, the driver changed the station after a minute or so. It was pretty surprising to hear that. Takes me back (grade 9, I think).

Last week, Transparency International released its annual report on perceptions of corruption worldwide. Out of a possible score of 10, Ghana scored 3.5, indicating serious (but not severe) levels of corruption. I guess the good news is that only six African countries scored higher. The whole continent has a long way to go though, considering only one country scored above 5 (Botswana). Canada was ranked 14th but: “In the case of higher-income countries such as Canada and Ireland, however, there has been a marked increase in the perception of corruption over the past ten years.” Corruption in Canada?

Dr. Addae and I watched Hotel Rwanda last night. It’s a great movie on several levels. It does a good job of shaming the West for their inaction, without removing the blame from the perpetrators. One thing that struck me given what’s been in the news lately is how important the RTLM radio station was in inciting the genocide. The power of speech should not be underestimated. That brings us to that great citizen of the world, the Iranian President. While most people (including myself) are probably inclined to shrug off what he said when first hearing it, think about it a little further. He called for the complete annihilation of another country. This is not just empty rhetoric—there is no way they should ever be allowed to have nuclear weapons.

Altimatim, a suburb of Kumasi. The road is the bane of my existence here 

A woman taking water away from one of our tanks 

I had to take this picture to keep them from running behind the van 

Our tanker in action 

The real nature of our water project 

Wednesday and Thursday

I feel like I’ve been in the van for a year. We drove all over the place today, putting in place a system to distribute our water. Because we have to deliver it by tanker to most of the places, we need to sell it (for a couple of cents a gallon) to cover fuel costs. Most of the discussions took place in Twi, so I sat around a lot. But today needed to happen and it was productive, if boring.

When we were in Kumawu, all these little kids kept crowding around me which is nothing too new. But one kept inching closer and closer until he was literally under my legs. I also saw a scene out of a Save the Children infomercial, which was pretty sad. One kid had cuts on his legs and flies kept swarming around them. There are flies everywhere here, but the open sores on this boy clearly attracted them. The education system here really needs to do a better job at instilling good hygiene in people. From my conversations with Dr. Addae and others, as well as my general observations, the education system here needs serious reform. It doesn’t turn out development-minded or patriotic people and the result is that people either want to leave Ghana or they look for the easiest way to get rich, contributing nothing to society.

We have no power at home right now, so we are at the Dr. Addae’s brother’s guest house. Carly texted me to say that the Habs beat Philly in OT, which I’m thrilled about. 7 and 2 is a fantastic start to the season.

I’m watching a program called MP Agenda right now, where they have an MP on each week and the host asks them questions. The host is incredible. She is grilling the Deputy Minister of Health with some really tough questions. She puts the lazy, softball-question-asking, suck-up chattering class of journalists in Canada to serious shame.

Ok, it’s now Thursday afternoon and I’m going to post this soon. This morning we went to the office really early, although traffic was absolutely brutal. It happens a lot here that trucks break down and then just sit there for days. The police often fine the companies, but they don’t seem to use the money to move the friggin trucks! Before we went to the office, we stopped quickly at an internet cafe where I actually managed to watch the highlights of the Habs/Flyers game!

Today has been very productive so far, so I figured I have to break it up by going to the internet again. I’ve been working on a final report for a foundation that gave us a grant.

Tuesday, October 25

We had a meeting with the regional director of World Vision this morning. They are a top-notch organization. RUCNET established several ‘satellite’ clinics in rural areas that are visited by doctors and staffed by trained locals, but they were unsustainable because people didn’t have money to pay for the services. Now, with the establishment of the national health insurance scheme, we are hoping to get them going again, with World Vision’s help. Unfortunately, they are in the middle of an audit right now so the project is on hold til at least December. Life in Ghana!

The office was stifling, so I don’t feel like I got too much done today, even though we actually did. I put together a monitoring system for our water delivery program and we started a report/fundraising proposal. Because of the heat, things seem to move slowly during the afternoon, so I guess that’s why it seems like not much got done.

When we got home, the tanker had delivered water to our tank so we’d have running water. The only problem was that we didn’t know he was coming and a tap had been left open. So the tank emptied onto our floor. Fortunately, the floor is slanted away from my room and most important parts of the house. We spent a good hour mopping up and running water will have to wait another while!

Finally, I managed to check this site. I usually go to the same internet cafe and for some reason it doesn’t show the updates I put up, but I was at a different one this afternoon. I saw that the formatting is screwed up for some posts. Those ones were emailed to the website from Hotmail, while the normal ones were posted directly. I’m going to avoid emailing them from now on, even though it takes longer to post them directly. Hotmail and Ghana don’t seem to mix very well. I am going to look into a GMail account over Christmas.

Finally, speaking of emails, I’ve gotten so many in the past few days and I’m behind on replies. So if you’ve sent me something and I have responded yet, I’m backed up! I’ll try to finish responding by the end of the week.

Monday, October 24 (is this working?)

Happy Birthday Dad! The big 5-5.

I have posted most of what happened today so I don�t have much to say
tonight. We didn�t have power until about 8:30. Being in the dark sucks. But
even worse is being in the dark without the fan on! I do stand by what I
said about generally loving the weather, especially when I got an email from
my brother saying how the sun set one day and didn�t come back for a week.
Enjoy the cold suckers!

A few days ago, I wrote about how funny the kids were. Now I have one about
how bratty they can be. We travelled to Bonwire, about 30 km from Kumasi. It
is a big tourist attraction because it is the home of Kente weaving, so the
kids there are used to seeing foreigners frequently. When our van stopped,
it was surrounded by kids and almost all of them said �Please give me��
followed by either �money� or �a pen�. It�s not that these kids are
particularly needy; it�s just that they know that foreigners find it hard to
say no to children. I smiled and then asked them for money or a pen. I was
tempted to close the window though!

We then went to a place called Atimatim today, essentially a neighbourhood
in Kumasi, travelling on probably the bumpiest road in existence.
Fortunately we were only on it for about a kilometre. Our tanker filled two
huge reservoirs and it was great to see how happy it made the women there.
One told us how happy she was not to have to walk a long distance to collect
water from an unprotected well and everyone else seemed thrilled as well.
It�s pretty strange to think that was about a 15 minute drive from our
office downtown.

On the road, we passed a food stall that was advertising �Spaghetti
bologhice�. Bolognese? Misspellings are pretty common here, so I�ll try and
remember the best ones.

Back to the water project. If anyone is interested in fundraising or knows
anyone who might be, let me know. With as little as $1000 US we can put up a
2000 gallon reservoir that will serve about 500 people a day. There�s no
pressure; I just want to get our work known. It�s a good way to donate (at
least it is to me!) because you know exactly where the money�s going. If you
give $1000, I can give you a picture of the reservoir we put up with that
money and the people who use it. So if you�re ever in Kumasi, you can stop
by and say �hey, I paid for that!�

For dinner we had kenkey and some stew and vegetable salad. Vegetable salad
here comes in a can and from what I can tell, it is little bits of
vegetables smothered in mayonnaise. Okay, that�s all for today.

Saturday, Sunday, un peu de Monday for good measure

Joe and I went to Spice nightclub last night, which was a huge patio with music blaring, which was great fun. They were running a Guinness promotion and the girl with the microphone came up to me on and made me speak to everyone, although she didn’t say anything in English, so I used up all two of the Twi phrases that I know. We were going to go to this other club, but there was a funeral for a former MP who was hit by a tro-tro right beside it, so it was closed.

We’re going to the lake soon, so I’ll finish this post tonight.

The lake was nice, although I am sunburned and tired. It rained for part of the afternoon and for the first time ever, I was actually cold in Ghana. I’m too tired to write a lot, so I’ll just recount what I saw on the way there. A little boy was playing with a toy car, pulling it on a string. Except the car was made of a Raid can and pencils and some wood discs for wheels. There is a lot of that here. I’ve seen many kids pushing metal wheels with a stick, like you see in old-fashioned movies. Children here don’t exactly have Playstation or flashy toys, but they improvise!

It’s Monday afternoon. We went around with the water tanker today for a bit. I’ll write more about today tonight. I just wanted to add one story from yesterday. When we were coming back, in a shared taxi, there were five passengers and the limit is four. Overloading is common and is only a problem if the police catch you. We saw a checkpoint ahead, so we stopped and one passenger got out. It was dark so the police didn’t see this. We went through and waited and she walked through and got in about 100 metres past the checkpoint! So even when police do try to enforce traffic laws, people find ways around them!

On an unrelated matter, I am not sure if all my posts are going up. Sometimes I can get into the site to post, but often I just email them to an address that posts them for me. I’m not sure if it’s working. I have been posting no less than once every three days. Are they going up?

Friday (and a bit of Saturday)

We had intended on visiting some of our water projects today, but the fates
conspired against us. It took Dr. Addae 59 minutes to upload an attachment
at the worst internet caf� in the world. It took me ages to book my ticket
home for Christmas. It took forever to get some money to pay for the water
to fill our tanker so it can fill the reservoirs. Tomorrow we�ll be on the
road with the tanker.

Christmas. I hadn�t intended on coming home, but things change. A year away
from Carly and my family is a bit too long, so I�m going to be back for a
couple of weeks. I am hoping to do some work as well. We are trying to get
affiliation with a university in Seattle for the school of natural medicine,
so I will probably head down there. I might try a bit of small-scale
fundraising as well. I�m sorry if it seems like I�m chickening out a bit.
Coming home has nothing to do with wanting the comforts of Canada, such as
more than two channels and a hot shower. It�ll be nice to break up the
distance for a bit.

I tried fufu for the first time tonight. I don�t really know how to describe
it, other than a big ball of dough in soup. Unlike banku (bad) or kenkey
(much better), fufu is swallowed, not chewed. Every foreigner I�ve talked to
hasn�t liked it, but I found it really good. Maybe they chewed it.
Swallowing (semi-)solid food is a bit counter-intuitive, but overall, fufu
was way better than I expected.

As we were walking back to the van, I was ambushed by about 10 kids chanting
obruni. They were a lot bolder than before, coming up to me and basically
tackling me. I took a couple of pictures. They smiled (kids are the only
Ghanaians who smile for photos) and then went absolutely bonkers after the
flash went off. I wish I could have gotten a picture of that.

I�m going to end today with a bit more about the Habs. I miss watching them,
especially since it�s been so long. And even more especially when I hear
that my cousin sat beside Jean Beliveau on Tuesday when they beat Boston. I
somehow doubt he was in the nosebleeds.

It�s now Saturday. The tanker driver had a funeral to go to so we didn�t go
around with him. Instead, I met up with Martin, this Welsh guy I met who
lives near me and we went out for pizza. To a gas station. It was really
good, although slightly more expensive than a meal elsewhere. About 6 bucks
for an 8 inch pizza. Tonight Joe and I are going out to the big nightclub in
Kumasi, so that should be fun.

Wednesday and Thursday

The horror! And just like that, my hair was gone. Tonight (Thursday) I got a haircut. I wasn’t planning on it. We were at an internet café and we walked next door into a salon and Dr. Addae suggested I get it cut. I’d been talking about it for a bit, but still… I was nervous, given that 99.99% of people here are essentially bald. I’m serious—apart from people with dreadlocks, everyone has no hair. I told the guy to keep it long, but long by Ghanaian standards is the number 2 guard. My hair hasn’t been this short since grade 10. I’m devastated.

I’ll live. On the non-hair front, not much has happened of note the past two days. I’ve been working on more schedules for the school and proposals for the water project. Today we met with some people about the newspaper, so things are starting to come together. Tomorrow we’re going back to the printing press to get the cost estimates and set up a meeting for next week with all of the people we want to involve. It’s still early days, but things are starting to crystallize. We’re thinking the paper will be published once a week and will be 12 pages long.

I’ve been reading a lot of Goldhagen’s “Hitler’s Willing Executioners.” He makes a very strong case and has some damning evidence. Today I read a part where he quoted a German memo that instructed men not to pack cattle too tightly into rail cars because it might hurt the food supply. Apparently no one at the time found that disturbingly ironic.

Nothing much else. I’ll try to send Dylan some pictures to post next week. We might be going to Accra on Sunday, but that’s looking doubtful because we haven’t heard anything about it for a week. Have a great weekend…

Tuesday, October 18

*** Habs beat the Bruins�again. Great. There are three new posts beneath
this one, going back to Saturday ***

Research. I went back to Kumawu today. For those of you that are paying
attention, Kumawu was where we had the meeting with the chief a few weeks
ago. I went to take some photos that we can use essentially as marketing
tools. I�m going to be putting together some multimedia in the next few
weeks that we are going to send to our donors in the US. It was pretty
interesting to see. We distributed water from one of our reservoirs and
women came in droves with buckets to get some. It started to pour so our
work was cut short, but it was interesting to see how people reacted to the
rain. Buckets came out of everywhere, placed under spouts to collect the
rainwater. Considering how torrential the rain was, I�m sure a lot was
collected. The problem is that the rainy season is at most five months out
of the year. And the area has no groundwater because it is solid rock a few
metres below the surface. The lower areas have groundwater, so people make
good money selling their water to people in the higher communities. That�s
why we are putting in reservoirs that can be filled by our tanker. We don�t
give the water away (we need to cover fuel and maintenance costs), but we do
charge about 50% less than the private companies.

On the way back, we bought some bananas for lunch. The skins got chucked out
the window. Hopefully they don�t cause an accident. I couldn�t help but
think about Chris Farley in Billy Madison. �O�Doyle Rules!� Because it was
pouring, we stopped to pick up some school-children who were waiting by the
side of the road for a tro-tro or a bus. And by some, I mean about 30. I�m
not exaggerating. I counted them as they got out. We had at least 26 kids
crammed into the middle of the van in a space that is no more than 6 feet by
6 feet. It was amazing. That�s it for today. It�s been 2 days out of 3
without internet. Weird.

Monday, October 17

Happy 15th Birthday Hugh!!

Today seemed very busy and it highlighted the varied nature of the work that
we do. We went to the printing press in the morning to discuss the newspaper
(and put some pressure on the manager to give us some cost figures), then
spent the afternoon at the office working on the natural medicine school and
the water project. I think my next major project will be putting together a
video/slide-show to be used essentially as a marketing tool to fundraise.

After leaving the office, we stopped to pick up a battery for Dr. Addae�s
car. We have a driver, but he had to come with us and we left the car
sitting, within view, in a no parking zone, although it wasn�t really
marked. About one minute later, the traffic cops put a wheel clamp on the
van. Dr. Addae sent me to plead with them, knowing that if he went, they�d
ask for a bribe. The driver, Appiah, and I made our case and after what
seemed like forever, they took the boot off and left. Another interesting
experience!

We stopped by the hospital to see if we could find a friend of Dr. Addae�s.
We didn�t but we did talk to someone he knows who was recovering from a
gunshot wound. He�d been mistaken for a thief by one of other guards at the
place he worked. Fortunately, it was only his arm.

Being in the hospital was another real eye-opener. Canadian hospitals are
over-crowded, but not to the extent that they are here. There is also no
real ambulance service, and even if there were, the roads are terrible. The
lack of infrastructure here is unbelievable. It is overwhelming to think how
much work needs to be done and it can make you feel somewhat useless. I
think that the key is to simply do what you can with the resources that are
available. It can be frustrating to realize that Ghana is decades away from
having things that other parts of the world take for granted, but you have
to start somewhere. The developed world didn�t develop overnight and neither
will Ghana. Bonsoir. Let�s hope the Habs can get back on track against
Boston Tuesday night.

Sunday, October 16

The day was slow and hot. But at night Joe and I went to a �spot� in Kumasi.
A �spot� is essentially a bar. And apparently, Sunday night is a big night
to go out here, instead of a day to recover from Saturday night, watch
football and feel guilty about all the work you didn�t do. We got there just
after six and had a few frosties and danced until about 9, then headed back,
stopping at a little food stand to get some corn porridge and what I�m
pretty sure was the Ghanaian grilled cheese sandwich. It had an omelette
with fish in it, as well as cheese. Omelettes here all seem to have fish in
them, which is actually pretty good. All in all, it was a good
post-night-out meal, although I would have sold my soul for a large poutine
or a McChicken and fries. It�s funny how needing food after the bar is
universal.

Being out was lots of fun, but also pretty surreal. Imagine having a normal
night out at a club and then looking up and realizing that you are the only
non-local there. I don�t know why, but it really hit me that I am in Africa
and completely removed from what I used to consider normal. Simply going out
clubbing on Sunday night from 6 to 9 is weird enough!

On a completely unrelated note, Ken wanted to know which way the toilets
flush here. So I looked at ours (which has to be filled using a bucket from
the well) and it didn�t seem to spin at all. It just went. So I filled the
sink and when it drained, it appeared to spin counter-clockwise. But I can�t
even remember which way they go at home.

Saturday, October 15

This one is long. Very long.

Coming home in the tro-tro today, I realized that it is so great to never
feel cold. In fact, I�ve even come to enjoy the cold bucket showers,
especially because the water can�t get too cold.

I decided to be a tourist today. First I went to the National Cultural
Center, which has a small museum about Asante (Ashanti) culture. It was
really interesting. Here are a few random details. The Asante fought the
British repeatedly. The last war was in 1896 and was led by Yaa Asantewaa, a
60 year old woman (who in the picture looks about 100). The Queen Mother is
a female relative of the Chief, not his wife. There was a fertility doll on
display. Women are supposed to take care of it as if it were a child (cradle
it, feed it, etc). According to the guide: �it works!� There were also some
war tunics on display. They are covered with little amulets that apparently
stop bullets. I was tempted to ask what would happen if the bullet went
between two amulets, but decided not to be a smartass. There were various
artefacts from other tribes that the Asante conquered, like a huge brass
bowl that the king of another tribe demanded the Asante fill with gold dust
each year as tribute. They killed him and took the bowl. There was also a
war drum. It was covered in leopard skin and was used to frighten enemies.
The guide demonstrated. Instead of beating it, she scratched it with a stick
and it did sound a lot like a lion roaring.

There was also a setup of the chief�s kitchen. Women were forbidden from
cooking for him because he was allowed to take as many wives as he wanted.
They couldn�t cook for him because they might try and poison him or put a
love potion in his food. The guide also said something about menstruating
women being unclean. The chief had a food tester to see if his food was
poisoned.

The most interesting thing there was this little satchel. It was made of
elephant hide (which looked like black leather) and looked to be stuffed
with rags and stitched up. It is over 300 years old and its contents are
unknown. It is said that if it is ever opened, the Asante will fall. It�s
pretty interesting that something so humble could be so important. It looked
like something you�d put out with the trash, which makes it all the more
amazing.

After that, I went to the zoo. And after being there, I think I might start
PETA here�it was pretty depressing. All the monkeys are kept in solitary
confinement. The place smells awful. The �river� flowing through it is grey.
There were a couple of lions and some types of deer, as well as thousands of
giant bats in the trees. I suppose it�s good that some protected species
have a home, but it was pretty bleak. I also felt like I was on display,
given how many kids kept coming up to me and following me. Some even kept
touching me and going �you�re smooth�. I guess I was quite novel for them,
but the novelty of them to me wore off quite quickly!

Finally, on my way to catch a tro-tro home, I saw a shirt for sale. On it
was the slogan �Peace not War�. But most prominent on it were several
pictures of the noted pacifist Saddam Hussein.

I'm an idiot...

Ok, so I had a very long post that I wrote on Saturday but I somehow forgot
to bring the disk I saved it on to the internet cafe. I'll get it posted
tomorrow.

I saw the Habs lost to the damn Leafs on Saturday. I haven't read anything
about the game yet, but I'll say this. I don't know why everyone was
crapping on the Leafs before this season. Yes they are a little older, but
they signed three very good, if injury-prone, players in Lindros, Oneill and
Allison. If they stay healthy, the Leafs have a good team. Although all it
would take is one collision in practice and two careers would end!
Fortunately, not seeing the game meant I wasn't in a terrible mood, but
finding out did make me unhappy for a little bit!

More tomorrow about my exciting weekend of the zoo, a museum and clubbing on
Sunday evening...

Friday

Two more mice this morning, both caught in the same trap and still alive when I found them.

Also, thanks a lot to Dylan for getting my pictures posted.

Today I woke up feeling pretty poor. I took some antacids and had a shower (bucket, of course) and felt a little better. It's amazing how being sick so far away from home makes you more homesick than anything else. When you feel like crap, all you want is the comforts of home. Forunately, I'm feeling a lot better now. I had the energy to come into town, which is good considering the power is out all day at home (it's scheduled to come back on at 6 but we all know what that means!).

I'm going to head to the office now. Keep the emails coming. I'll try and get pictures up once every two weeks or so. Enjoy the weekend and here's hoping the Habs beat the Leafs again on Saturday. Speaking of that, is the CBC thing solved? If not, what is happening with Hockey Night in Canada?

Thursday

I brought my laptop to the internet café but I still couldn’t get pictures posted. I’ve emailed them to a couple of people back home who hopefully can get them posted. Other than that, today was fairly productive, although the internet was sooooooooo sloooooooooow. Painfully slow. Applying to business school from here is going to be hell.

What else? Since today was my four-week anniversary of being in Ghana (I can’t believe it’s already been that long), Joe went out and bought me a beer. And the guy who lives in the house behind us, Ernest, composed a ring-tone to a Nelly song for my cellphone. He also put on a ring-tone of the Kumasi soccer team’s song.

Joe and I watched a VCD of the movie Thicker Than Water. It wasn’t the best ambassador for our culture. It was a gangster rap movie full of guns and drugs but without any of the intelligence of Boyz in the Hood. While that would be relatively harmless back home, people over here see it and think that this is what (North) America is really like. It’s depressing that our culture is represented as being like that.

I don’t have much else to tell you about. I bought some toilet paper. Oh yeah, I watched the mouse get stuck in the trap we set. It crawled onto it and naturally got stuck. If we (and by we, I mean Joe) didn’t finish it off with a stick, it would have starved to death stuck to this thing. Coupled with my story about the toad from a few weeks back, PETA really needs to get its act together in Ghana. One last thing. I’ve added a new thing to an old axiom. Nothing is certain in life except death, taxes, and hearing the word obruni at least one hundred times a day here.

A hut and a goat

Lake Bosumtwi

My friends and I

Guess which one is me

tony is so innovative 

Photos delayed...

So I can't upload photos from here. I am going to try yet another avenue.
I'm going to email them to my brother and get him to upload them. So
hopefully that will work, cause I've got some good ones that will give you a
better sense of what this place is really like. Fortunately for you, I can't
post sounds. Right now, a Celine Dion marathon just finished on the radio in
the internet cafe. Before that, it was Bible Hour. And now I was just
subjected to the aural trauma that is "Wind Beneath My Wings".

Wednesday part deux

On my way home, I bought what I thought was a meat pie from a street vendor. Unfortunately there was no meat in it—it was just pastry. Something lost in translation I guess!

Dr. Addae has gone to Accra til Sunday to attend to a few things so I’m here unsupervised. He gave me a list of things to do and Grace (a friend of his) comes to look after me. This place can be a bit guilt-inducing at times. I don’t really do any housework and when I do try to, I get pushed away. Not that I mind…

Tonight we set a few mousetraps because there is definitely one around. The traps here are these sticky pieces of cardboard with some bait in the middle. The mice get stuck and die. They use these ones because the mice have figured out the mechanical ones that snap on them.

One of the guys who lives in the house behind us was over tonight and he showed me how to work the infrared connection on my laptop. I’ve had this thing for almost four years and never used it, but it’s pretty cool. I sent some music to his phone. People here seem to love the Canadian women, particularly Shania Twain and Celine Dion.

As for work, I am working on different schedules for the school, which is more time-consuming than anything else. Tomorrow I have to do some research on books which means I’ll be at the internet café for most of the day. The other projects are more in the planning or reporting stages right now. Next week, I hope to spend a day riding around with the water tanker for deliveries.

I found out that BBC World News is on in the morning here and they do have sports. Yesterday, they showed highlights from the Leafs-Philly game, but that was it. You think if they were going to show some hockey, they’d at least give all the scores, but apparently not. That’s all.

Wednesday (sort of)

Tuesday�s post is beneath this one (go figure). This one will be short
because I�m actually posting it on the day that I write it and I�m in a
rush! Tomorrow, I�ll be working out of the internet caf� so I�ll have lots
of time to take care of this and maybe even get some photos up.

Here�s something for all the feminists. In Ghana, women are now not allowed
to ride in the front seat of tro-tros. The motivation for this is:
a) they are prone to hugging the driver or screaming if some sort of danger
presents itself on the road and are therefore the cause of accidents
b) drivers are likely to be distracted by young women with short skirts
sitting in the front and they are therefore the cause of accidents.

Tuesday, October 11

I was at the office til after 5 this evening working on the schedule for the
natural medicine school. At first I thought it would be pretty
straightforward, but getting everything slotted properly into the timetable
is actually a bit tricky.

On the way home, I passed a pharmacy that had a sign in the window that said
�It is better to buy medicine from a shop than from a moving vehicle�. I
suppose that is pretty good advice.

I got back home and lo and behold, we have electricity! And I�ve been here
over an hour and we still have it! Unfortunately, it�s all prepaid so we
will probably run out of units in the next week or so. Then it�s back to the
power company to buy more.

A lot of things here are prepaid. It�s actually fairly ingenious and a good
example of how commerce will find a way to thrive. Because almost no one has
credit history, it would be impossible to have accounts on credit for things
like cellphones and electricity. So everything is prepaid. You even prepay
at the gas station. You give the attendant however much you want to pay and
he programs that into the machine and then it stops automatically. There are
two reasons for this. One is that people wouldn�t pay if it wasn�t like this
(according to Dr. Addae). The other is that it would be pretty difficult to
make change when gas costs 7111 cedis a litre. Imagine trying to pay for
10.45 litres.

Today I saw a sign for a doctor (I think). On it was a cartoon of a pregnant
woman with a plumber�s butt and a doctor standing behind her. Except her
belly was so big it was touching the floor. And the doctor was wielding a
hammer like he was about to hit her in the head. I am going to try and get a
picture of it.

Speaking of pictures, I think I have a way to get them up on this site. I�m
going to take my computer to the internet caf� and then I�ll probably be
able to. That should be Friday or Saturday at the latest. Keep checking.

I�ll end with a story about the laundry situation here. It�s all done by
hand. This means that my whites are turning blue. And for some strange
reason, my towel smells way worse today than it did before it was washed! Oh
well, I didn�t exactly bring my finest evening wear over here.

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away

*** There are three new posts below this one, so it might make sense for you
all if you'd scroll down and read Saturday's first ***

The power was out when I woke up this morning. This is now Day 4 without
power. We had to use all the food in our freezer last night and throw out
some (we don�t have a fridge). And now it is outside being cleaned out and
the floor is being scrubbed. Frustrating to say the least. I�ve learned my
lesson and I am not going to make any prediction as to when this will get
sorted out. I guess a good rule of thumb is that it will come back on about
three days beyond when is reasonable!

Just in case I am sounding a little bitter, it�s not too big of a deal. We
go into the office in the day so we can get work done and last night we went
to the guest house in Ejisu where they had power. The freezer thing is the
only serious inconvenience. That's all for today...

Monday, October 10

Still no power this morning. I woke up at 6:45 to someone I met at the lake
calling me. I even have to get used to phone culture here! We went to the
office, and worked on a monitoring system for our water delivery program, as
well as some of the scheduling for the natural medicine school.

I found a copy of Daniel Goldhagen�s �Hitler�s Willing Executioners� from a
stall on the street for less than 4 bucks. When I realized that it would
cost me ten times that much at home, I knew I couldn�t afford not to buy it.
As I was walking to the office, someone asked me if I was carrying the Holy
Bible. Not quite! I used part of it for an essay in second year, but didn�t
read the whole thing, so I�m looking forward to it. Not exactly light
reading, but interesting nonetheless.

Speaking of books, I�m in the middle of �Cry thy Beloved Country� by Alan
Paton. He was a white South African who wrote this book in 1946, before
apartheid. It is an incredible story, made all the more so by the fact that
the reader knows what the writer does not-that in two years, things will get
a whole lot worse for South Africa. It is strange to read, because hope
emanates so strongly from the pages, but in your head, you know that it will
be a half century before justice prevails in South Africa. It is a
compelling call for justice and forgiveness and I recommend it to everyone.
Paton died n 1992, a few years before the end of apartheid. It was great to
read after �Tuesday�s With Morrie�. While �Cry� was more about justice and
dignity, they both stress the importance of doing what is good and just,
something that transcends political and religious ideologies and dogmas. So
go read them!

It�s now Monday night and we still don�t have power. I�m not going to
sugarcoat it. It sucks. A lot. Hopefully it will come back tomorrow, or we
get a generator.

That�s all for now. Hope all of you in Canada enjoyed the long weekend. Habs
versus Sens tomorrow night. That should be a tough one, cause Ottawa is
looking like a real contender. We�ll see. They�ll probably lose to Toronto
again in the playoffs after beating them all season. And then Toronto will
lose to Philly. Plus ca change�

*** It�s a Thanksgiving miracle!!! The power finally came back about 10:20
tonight. I wonder how long we�ll have it for. ***

Another great victory and a day at the lake

Last night, because we had no power and my laptop battery was dead, I went
to sleep at 9:30. On a Saturday. Ugh. Going to bed that early really messes
with your body clock-I was up a lot throughout the night.

Dr. Addae and I live in a house owned by a friend of his who lives in
Germany. His son Joe, who is 18, also lives with us. He�s been after me for
a while to come with him to Lake Bosumtwi, about an hour southeast of
Kumasi, and so we went today. We took a couple of tro-tros and just before
we got to the lake, we hit a roadblock. I think it was official, but no one
was in uniform. Everyone had to pay a toll of 1000 cedis that went towards
the development and maintenance of the lake or so they said. Except for me.
I had to pay 5000. Ghana wants to promote internal tourism so it is cheaper
for locals. But to have to pay five times more is crap. It isn�t very much
money, but the principle behind it really bothers me, especially considering
they would have no real way of telling if someone was a tourist from, say,
Nigeria. It doesn�t really make you feel too welcome-you just feel
exploited. Plus the people collecting it just yelled a lot in Twi and made a
big scene. I was less than impressed, although Joe did a good job of calming
them down. I still had to pay the 5000.

Fortunately, the lake was completely worth the hassle. It was amazing. It is
a 25 square-km meteorite impact crater surrounded by rainforested mountains.
There was a beach and hundreds of people, with loud music blaring. The water
was very warm and by the late afternoon, it was actually hot. It was a bit
unsettling because swimming through a hot spot in a Canadian lake can only
mean one thing! Most people here can�t swim very well, so they stay in the
shallows. But I went out deeper and swam with some fishermen. They aren�t
allowed to have canoes on the lake due to custom, so they sit on big logs
and use small squares of wood as hand paddles to get to their nets. The lake
is full of tilapia, a kind that is unique to that lake. I�d imagine that has
to do with the meteorite.

We stayed there for the whole afternoon, swimming and enjoying a couple of
75 cent beers. It was very relaxing and I met so many different people. I
think I�ll go there a lot on the weekends. I�ve got some good pictures and
I�m going to try posting them on a different website. If that works, I�ll
put up the address. I also saw some turkeys there. If not for them, I would
have forgot about Thanksgiving, cause it certainly doesn�t feel like autumn
here.

We journeyed back, stopping briefly at Joe�s friend�s place. American Idol
was on. It was the season with Fantasia which I�m pretty sure was ages ago.
When we got back, the power was out (still). And then it started to pour.
The rainy season is in full effect right now and it is torrential when it
comes. Since we also don�t have running water back, I stood under a spout
and had my first shower without a bucket in a few days. I also had a nice
chat with my sister and parents and got the play-by-play on the Habs
glorious victory on Saturday. It sounds like the new rules really benefit
the faster teams. Tsn.ca described the tying and winning goals as Koivu and
Ribeiro �tormenting� the Leafs defence. What a great day today was!

Saturday, October 8

Today was fairly relaxed. I headed into town to get use the internet and
busted a tro-tro driver trying to rip me off. After that, Dr. Addae and I
went to Ejisu (where we used to stay) to watch the match between Ghana and
Cape Verde. All Ghana needed was one point to qualify for the World Cup for
the first time and they easily got that, winning 4-0. People here are
thrilled, although the power was out in Kumasi, so they didn�t get to see
it! Also, Togo and Cote D�Ivoire qualified. Look at a map. Those three
countries are in a row and all very small. It�s a huge accomplishment for
West Africa and signifies a changing of the guard in Africa, as the
traditional powerhouses Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Cameroon all
didn�t make it.

After the match, Dr. Addae and I had dinner and talked. I asked him if
things had changed for the better since independence. While there were some
initial improvements, the constant instability really hurt Ghana and it is
only beginning to rebound. Infrastructure, education, health, and housing
all deteriorated until the current government took power in late 2000.

An example of this is inflation and the devaluation of the cedi that
occurred from the late �70s til very recently. In 1969, one cedi was worth
two US dollars. School fees for a year cost 130 cedis-Dr. Addae paid less
than 2000 cedis for his entire school career until university. Now, a coke
costs 2500 cedis and one US dollar is worth almost 9000 cedis. And I
remember back in the good old days when it cost 75 cents for a bag of chips
and 6 bucks for a movie! But seriously, the value of the cedi decreased by a
factor of 18,000. The current government has reduced inflation
substantially, to about 13% and is targeting single-digit inflation.

Depending on who you ask, there are different causes for Ghana�s problems.
But it seems that if you ask any Akan (the dominant ethno-linguistic group
in Ghana of which the Asante tribe is the majority), it�s mainly Jerry
Rawlings� fault. He was the dictator-turned-president, from 1982 to 2000.
I�ve quickly learned that everyone here really dislikes him but I am living
in the heart of the Ashanti region, so maybe elsewhere, people feel
differently. Maybe it�s like Trudeau in the West. Rawlings ruled with the
support of the military, which is dominated by minorities and he is loathed
by the Akan, who make up about 70 percent of the country. His policies do
seem to have wreaked havoc on the economy, but the leaders before him don�t
seem to have done any better.

Things here are looking up economically. The NPP (New Patriotic Party)
government has got the economy growing rapidly. But due to limited funds,
they have been focussing largely on infrastructure, to the detriment of
other areas, particularly the farmers who make up about 65% of the
workforce. It is impossible for the government here to tackle all the
problems at once, but the plight of the farmers and the rural poor does need
to be addressed. A more efficient distribution and marketing system for
their produce would do wonders.

Alright, that�s it for today. The power is out (again). We�re going to get a
generator so hopefully Greg Smith won�t steal it. Sorry to those of you not
from Go Home who won�t understand that last line.

Internet and electricity---not always reliable

I can't get into the blog website, so I'm going to try it through email. I
hope it works.

The power has been out at our house since Saturday, so I haven't been able
to write much. I'll charge my battery today at the office and write a whole
lot, cause I've got a lot to say!

Yesterday I went to this lake that was formed by a meteorite impact. It was
incredible. I'll write more about it tonight.

Finally, I couldn't let the glorious spectacle that was Hockey Night in
Canada go unremarked. What a great start. And to all of you
hopefully-somewhat-bitter Leafs fans, I made a promise that even if we lost
to you, I'd still comment on it. Fortunately, that wasn't the case! Way to
go les boys!

More later, sorry about this...

Friday, October 7

Not too much to write about tonight. I’m thrilled about beating the Rangers. I hate them even more than the Bruins, so beating both of them is a great way to start the season. But I doubt that any of you want to read too much about the NHL so I’ll move on…

I checked out the local tourist restaurant, Vic Baboo’s. The atmosphere was pretty friendly and the menu was huge. A cheeseburger with fries and a coke ran me about $7. Paying a premium for Western food is to be expected, and when I compare that to paying close to $30 for a similar meal in Paris two years ago, it wasn’t too bad. But I won’t be eating there daily, when I can get a plate of decent food and a drink for about a dollar almost anywhere else.

That brings us to money. Being Africa, things here are usually cheap. Except Mach 3 Turbo blades. Two of them run close to ten bucks. I’m glad that I stocked up in Canada. And that I’m not overly concerned with shaving every day. Now back to the subject at hand. The largest bill here is 20,000 cedis (seedy), which is about $3 CDN. Internet costs 100 cedis a minute, a tro-tro ride to town is about 2000, a coke is 2500. Because the numbers are so high, I find myself agonizing (maybe that’s too harsh a term) over what are actually fairly insignificant amounts of money. Like asking for 300 cedis back from the tro-tro operator. Would I ask for a nickel back from a taxi driver? When in Rome, I guess. Or Kumasi. I do have to catch myself a lot of the time. Spending 20,000 in a day seems like a lot, until I realize that with that, I couldn’t even buy a pint at home. But don’t worry Mom, I am keeping my spending in check.

That seemed like a pretty poorly-written paragraph. Sorry about that—I was trying to paint a picture of my dealings with the currency here. I hope it wasn’t too bad.

Tomorrow, Ghana is playing Cape Verde. All they need is a draw to advance to the World Cup for the first time, which should be very easy. So it will be an exciting day!

Finally, if anyone has any questions or requests, email me with them and I’ll try and post about them. Au revoir, enjoy your turkey

Thursday, October 6

Three weeks! Pretty soon I’m going to have to stop marking weeks and move to months. It’s flown by. It’s funny to look back at some of the stuff I’ve written, both on this and on paper. It is hard to believe now that I was once surprised to see “I have God” on the back of a taxi (they all have something like that).

Today was predictable. I didn’t get to the printing press and the drilling rig wasn’t working, so I didn’t go see that either. But that was somewhat expected. I’m adjusting to the Ghanaian schedule. Before Europeans came, their calendar had 72 weeks in a year. So they say it takes them about 40% longer to do things. I don’t know how I’m going to handle it when I get back home and people expect you to show up on time. It’s pretty nice here!

So instead of what was planned, Dr. Addae and I finished some proposals and worked on some cost projections for a couple of projects. One other thing he is doing is establishing a traditional medicine school here. And like some of you surely are, I was sceptical. But traditional African herbal medicine is used by many people here and it does have some benefits. It is also here to stay, so by institutionalizing it, we will be making it more effective and safe. Just for an example, Dr. Addae was talking to a herbalist recently. He asked him how he could tell if a certain cure worked. The herbalist told his patients to make a certain mix to eat. They were then told to monitor their ‘output’. If it had black spots, that meant that the bacteria causing the illness was ‘pooping’. Not being a doctor, I had to ask, and no, bacteria can’t do that. So that’s what we’re dealing with!

The power is out right now, which isn’t so bad, except for the lack of fan. Also, our water tank is empty and the tanker that fills it is broken. It’s supposed to be fixed tomorrow (aka next year!) but until then, we’re drawing buckets from the well. We got a great picture of me doing that today. I’m going to try and get them posted somehow.

Finally, I mis-reported the Habs score yesterday. My source, who shall remain nameless (Carly) texted me the wrong score. Nevertheless, it was very nice of her and it made my day. It’s funny how the Habs can still affect my mood, even from this distance. Have a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Bali

Wednesday's regular post is below this one.

Apart from my earlier post, I want to avoid politics whenever possible. But I saw today that there was another bombing in Bali. I’d like to point out that Bali is about as far as you can get from the heart of the evil Zionist neo-con empire. What possible strategic objective does hitting Bali and killing a bunch of backpackers and tourists achieve? The people there are not Bush voters. And that’s the point. These fascists will kill anyone they can—Aussies, Canadians, Americans, French. It doesn’t matter to them. It is another painful reminder that we are targeted for who we are, not what we do. I wonder when a lot of people will wake up to that. Like I said, I want to avoid politics because I don’t want to alienate people I care about, but I felt the need to say something about this murderous act.

Wednesday, October 5

Today was productive in some ways and unproductive in others. I went to the university printing press, after a brief meeting with people at World Vision. When I got there, the man I was supposed to meet wasn’t there. I was told to come back in two hours. So I went into town and used the internet, which was really productive. I got some good information about applying to business school for next fall and signed up for a Wharton (UPenn’s business school) information session in Accra next month. I’ve missed Harvard’s but hopefully there will be some other ones. The schools I’m most interested in are Stanford, Northwestern, Harvard and Wharton.

I then went back to the printing press. And the guy wasn’t there. He’d been called into Kumasi. I spoke with him over the phone and we’ll try again tomorrow, but I am also supposed to go see the drilling rig in action. But like I said yesterday, tomorrow could easily mean next week! All was not lost however. I did buy Anchorman on DVD for about two bucks.

I’ll close with these two things. The first is that tonight is opening night in the NHL. Predictions are risky, and writing them down is even moreso, but I’ll say that the Habs will make the playoffs. This is the best team they’ve had (on paper) in a long time. And Kovalev is probably the most talented player they’ve had since Guy Lafleur. Their top line on opening night last season was Yanic Perreault, Donald Audette and Jan Bulis. Kovalev, Koivu and Zednik is a slight improvement. The second this is this—Bob Seger is awesome.


*** Update *** Habs 3, Bruins 2. Great start! I hate Boston.

Tuesday, October 4

Today’s post is slightly lighter than yesterday’s. Today was quite a productive day. We had two meetings this morning. The first was with the general manager of the University Printing Press in Kumasi. We talked about the different things that would go into establishing a Twi newspaper. I am going to spend tomorrow (Wednesday) at the press to learn the basics. Needless to say, it’s pretty exciting to have something like that in the works.

Our second meeting was with the man who runs the company that drills the wells for our water project. We wanted to talk about buying a drilling rig because that would greatly reduce our drilling costs. He was a really nice guy, especially considering we were trying to get information from him in order to not have to use his services in the future! So on Thursday, I am going to tag along to one of their projects to see the rig in action. There are two kinds to buy. The first is American. Hydraulic and very high-tech. The other option is one made in India that is more mechanized. The American ones are technically better, but if they break, they are almost impossible to fix here, so the Indian ones are more suitable. I’m looking forward to Thursday, so I can get some good pictures for fundraising purposes. But I also have to take into account the pace here. Thursday might turn into next week!

Not much else. I’ll end with a few more random observations. Firstly, everyone here is very skilled at carrying huge loads on their head. I am not. These can be massive too. The most comical is the guys who have bundles of wood shavings balanced atop their heads. These can be a lot bigger than a large man. Secondly, the people who sell things to cars in traffic are committed. Today we were in a tro-tro and got two ice creams from a guy. But the light turned green. He sprinted after us to give us our ice creams and change, all the while balancing his case of ice creams on his head. It was impressive.

That’s it. I have been on the internet pretty regularly and have been keeping up with sports pretty well. Sports, email and this site take priority, so I have been blissfully ignorant about what is going on news-wise back home. And to tell you the truth, it’s great.

Clothing and Corruption

Monday, October 3

Today I saw a guy wearing a Habs jersey. I was thrilled. I’d been waiting to see something with the CH on it since I got here. I saw some poor misguided soul in a Leafs shirt last week, so I knew it was just a matter of time before I saw someone with better taste. And that links nicely into a topic that I’ve been planning on writing on for a while—clothing and corruption.

As soon as I landed at the airport I saw someone in a CN Tower t-shirt. I’ve since seen countless t-shirts from North America, including one from the Royal Ontario Museum summer camp, as well as various local sports leagues. Needless to say, they look a little out of place. I don’t think the kid I saw actually went to the ROM’s summer camp. So I asked Dr. Addae about this and he told me about how importing t-shirts is a huge business here that is killing the local textile industry.

How it works is that unsuspecting North Americans donate clothes to be distributed to the poor. These make their way to Africa, where they are then sold. Since the cost of getting them is essentially zero, it is a cash cow. And a few government officials probably skim a little off the top. So everyone makes money by defrauding charities. Except local cotton farmers and textile producers. A country like Ghana should not be importing t-shirts. It should be exporting them.

And this leads into the larger issue of corruption. Corruption here takes a much more human toll than it does back home, for the most part. And Ghana has only a very small corruption problem, relative to some of its neighbours. But corruption here has such disastrous effects. When the Liberals “misplace” hundreds of millions of our dollars, nobody dies. That is not always the case here. It really puts things into perspective. As anyone who has ever had the misfortune of listening to one of my many political diatribes can attest, I have serious issues with the somewhat casual attitude towards ethics that our current government possesses. But we are lucky that their corruption only takes a financial toll on the country. That cannot be an excuse for it—corruption should never be tolerated, at any level, anywhere.

I don’t really know what lesson to draw. I certainly don’t think we shouldn’t donate due to corruption. I guess what I’ve recognized is the importance of perspective. Our problems, which do need to be addressed, generally pale when compared to those here. We’re pretty fortunate.

That being said, you would never know about Ghana’s problems by meeting the people here. They are friendlier and often happier than people in any first-world country. It’s incredible.

Larium-induced dreams and incredible friendliness

There are two new posts beneath this one.

I’m not going to write much today. All I have to say is that my malaria pills are giving me the strangest dreams. There were two bizarre ones this morning. The first involved me waiting in Heathrow, Tara Reid and Mayfair in Toronto. The second was even weirder. I was back at Shawnigan and it was number one inspection. And Glen Healy inspected my room. But I didn’t have the right clothes. In fact, I couldn’t even find my uniform, so when Glen Healy walked in, I was in my boxers. I’m slightly embarrassed by what I’ve written above, but I don’t think I have much choice in the matter. Before any of you read too heavily into those, I have to say that I’m certain they are related to the Larium. Some of the listed side effects are much worse than strange dreams so I’m happy that this is all I get. I thought I’d share them to give you some idea of what these pills do, besides protect me (hopefully) from malaria.

It’s been over two weeks and I can say that this place has been wonderful. The people here are so friendly and the relaxed pace makes it a lot easier to adjust. There are still some things that I am getting used to, but this place is starting to feel like home. When people ask me where I’m from, I’ve started saying Kwamo, which always catches them off guard. That’s all for now. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Hockey starts for real soon. Time for number 25!

Saturday, October 1

Wow, October already.

Today I went to the market for the first time. There are two markets in Kumasi, one of which is enormous. We went to the other one. It was still quite the experience. There were hundreds of stalls, arranged by theme. Shoe sellers/makers in one part, food in others etc. We also went into this warehouse that held a bunch of guys with machetes selling different types of meat.

When you are stuck in traffic (which is pretty much all the time), there are dozens of people walking between cars selling all sorts of things. These range from the expected (snacks and ice water) to the not-so-much. Here’s a sample: screwdrivers, toilet paper, fresh fish and sponges. Also, despite the fact that it is about 30 degrees every day, you still see people in hoodies.

It is interesting to see how our pop culture translates overseas. People here love Celine Dion, including guys my age. It is pretty funny to hear an 18 year old guy singing along “The Power of Love.” Here’s a lyric sample, in case anyone forgets: “cause I’m you’re lady. And you are my man.” But come to think of it, when I was 18, I was listening to Shania Twain. Uhhhh…

Today I read the book “Tuesday’s With Morrie.” It took all of about two hours and was one of the best books I’ve ever read. I can’t recommend it enough. Everyone should read it. I have never seen so many good lessons crammed into such a short and readable book. I can honestly say that it was inspirational. So go read it. It hammers home that what is important above all else is the personal relationships you have. Given what I wrote at the end of Friday’s post, reading the book today made me really appreciate what I have and I sincerely mean what I wrote. Thank you all.

Friday, September 30

Today was very productive. The power came back and we got our water running. There was a piece of plastic wrapper that was blocking the pipe. There are still a few small things that need to be addressed, but by and large, we are finally in what will be home for the next while.

I also finished the first draft of the fundraising proposal for the water project. It is still very rough, but I’m happy to have something down. It was just an exercise, but with some polish, it could be put to use back home. Anyone have seven grand they can spare for a well? No? How about one thousand for a tank and platform?

Today I saw the side door fall off of a tro-tro as it was pulling into a stop. Fortunately, no one fell out or was hit by it. Also, the tro-tro I was in broke down. It had to be pushed so it was rolling down a hill to get it started again. I also had my most uncomfortable ride yet, sitting on what was basically a wheel well facing backwards. But for 25 cents for 15 km, I’m not going to complain too hard.

Tonight, we watched a bit of TV. And TV here is somewhat different. The first show was a Ghanaian one called Sun City. The plot of this particular episode seemed to have been taken from an Archie comic. It involved a husband sneaking around behind his wife’s back with a younger woman, leading to speculation of cheating, but—get this—he was actually planning a surprise party for his wife! Quelle surprise! I actually wish I wasn’t so jaded by years of trashy North American TV. This was followed by what appeared to be a Filipino show dubbed (appallingly) into English. Sadly, we left before Ernesto was able to organize a protest on the university campus, so I’ll never know if he lost his position as a student advisor. I feel like a bit of a TV snob and I’m sorry for sounding like one.

On a personal note, I’m so happy with the emails I’ve gotten from so many of you. It’s nice to know that I have so many great people in my life. Alright, I’ll stop before it gets too sappy. One last thing: if I repeat myself throughout the posts, I’m sorry. I don’t really read them after I put them up due to time constraints so I tend to forget what I’ve written. That’s all for now. This is Tony Cape reminding you to help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered.