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.