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.
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.
posted by Tony at 12:50 p.m.
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