Week #2, goats on the bus

[It is Monday morning, the internet is finally working.  Ghana lost the Africa cup final yesterday, 0 to 1, to Egypt. Boo, hoo.]

It is Saturday and the internet is not working in the apartment. Two Saturdays in a row. Saturday must be the internet “day of rest.” I’m less concerned about it, however, than I was last weekend. In fact, I’m less concerned about a lot of things compared to last Saturday.

We’ve had an uneventful week. We’ve navigated to and from the area office, and have even ventured a little outside of our surroundings. It’s getting easier. We’ve had some rewarding interactions with a number of people, in the area office and in the local community. We continue to be amazed with the vendors/hawkers that greet us at every intersection. This woman wasn’t very happy about us photographing her.

We’ve had a couple of humorous experiences.  Before I describe them let me ask, “Are the winter Olympics going on this month in Vancouver?” I think they are but I couldn’t tell you for sure. We finally got the TV going in the apartment but haven’t heard a word about the Olympics on the few stations we can pick up. We see the local newspapers occasionally and there is nothing indicating how the Ghanaian team might be doing in Vancouver. (I’m just kidding, I know that Ghana doesn’t have a winter Olympic team, not even a bobsled team.) All of the news that we’ve heard and seen focuses on the Africa Cup (soccer), which has been going on at least as long as we’ve been here. Ghana has made it through all the preliminary competition to the finals which will be played tomorrow. The tournament is a warm up for the World Cup which will be held in South Africa in the summer.

Here’s the first funny experience. On Thursday afternoon Marsha and I stopped at a grocery store on the way home from work. As we were checking out we noticed that all of the employees (except for a couple of checkers) were gathered around a small TV near the exit doors. As we navigated our way through the crowd of employees I glanced at the TV. They were watching a soccer match. I didn’t think much of it. We then proceeded to drive the remaining 2 km north on Independence Ave to our apartment. Visualize within your mind me driving this little Honda on a demolition derby course trying to get home without a physical encounter with another car. There is always a lot of honking going on during such driving. As we approached the intersection where we turn left the honking became overwhelming. Every car behind me, every car at the intersection, and every car coming toward us through the intersection was honking. And it wasn’t a little tap of the horn. It was sustained noise. I knew for certain that I had broken some unknown Ghanaian rule of the road and was being singled out for punishment – the honking torture. Marsha and I looked at each other in fear, paralyzed as to what to do, knowing that the next punishment might be worse. We then noticed that all of the street vendors were jumping up and down and screaming as well. It was obvious to see that they weren’t screaming at us. So I motioned one of them to come to the car and asked him what was happening. Ghana had just scored a goal in their match against Nigeria. The noise was a spontaneous celebration of a soccer goal. We made it home, laughing at our unfound fear but resolute to pay more attention to the national sport. Ghana went on to win the game 1 – 0. I imagine that this Sunday (tomorrow) will be equally noisy as they play Egypt for the championship.

The second humous experience.  I described the tro-tros last week. They drive the right hand lane carrying passengers and goods to and from work/home/business/vacation, whatever. They can be 6-7 passenger minivans or 20 passenger buses. The driver has his window down and is always making hand signals – jabbing up in the air with one finger, pointing laterally with four fingers, making a circle, etc. I understand it is a language for those waiting on the side of the road as to where the tro-tro is headed. A “navigator” sits in the passenger seat doing similar hand motions. These tro-tros are always pulling out of the right lane and into the main traffic. And they do so with little hesitation because they are a bigger than I am. I am giving them their space, at the moment, trying to be a polite driver. (Dr. Stubbs said that in a few months I’ll be just as hardened as they are.) The back doors of the tro-tros are usually bulging with goods stuck inside and the doors tied over the goods. And the tops are often loaded with goods covered with spider net type ropes. (See pictures for illustration.)

On Wednesday morning I had been out with President Smith of the Accra mission inspecting some of the apartments where the missionaries live. I was coming down Independence Ave late in the morning and was following a tro-tro loaded down on the top with all sorts of items. At a stop I was looking at the top of the tro-tro and noticed that something was moving under the spider netting. I watched as a goat finished eating his way through the netting and poked his head up and looked around. His body was still under the netting but his head was out. He seemed to say “OK, now I know where I am.” I wished I’d had a camera to catch this one on film.

A couple of  Africa "animal encounters.” There are rats here. I was walking to the adjacent building last night to do laundry and saw one along the fence line. He was about 6 inches long with an equally long tail. He didn’t seem to mind me. He was a small one. We’ve seen the rural rats sold by the roadside called “grass cutters” that are as big as badgers. We’re told that the locals like to eat them. They are sold “fresh killed.” I’ve also encountered my first cockroach. On Thursday morning I stepped into the bathroom and noted this bug that I thought was a beetle in the shower. He was about 2 1/2 inches long, and dark brown. After deciding I didn’t want to get in the shower with him I disposed of him, promptly, with the toilet plunger. He actually crunched as I whacked him. He was wriggling as I scooped him into the toilet and flushed him. (I did this all discretely, trying to muffle my impulse to scream, not wanting to get Marsha involved, who would have really screamed had she seen him.) I saw President Smith’s wife later that morning and described the bug to her and she casually said that it was a cockroach. She has had to deal with them at her place. She assured me that they are harmless. Harmless? That’s the biggest cockroach I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen lots of cockroaches but none big enough to put a saddle on. Only today did I mention it to Marsha. Surprisingly she didn’t seem too concerned. I can’t imagine the same response if I were to casually mention I’d seen a snake.

One more thing. It rained on Wednesday afternoon. It was refreshing. The sky to the north got darker and darker for about thirty minutes and then the rain came down. Big drops, lots of rain for twenty minutes, and then it stopped. Ten minutes later it did it again. And then it stopped. It rained off and on for two hours. We looked out on our balcony and watched it pour off the roof. We watched the locals wind their way home in the intermittent rain unconcerned about getting wet. We didn’t see one umbrella. When it rained hard the locals would stand under the trees. When it let up they would move on. The next morning the air was heavy with life. The smell of new blossoms was very distinct. Outside of our front door we could smell a sweet fragrance similar to the syringa at home when it blossoms. It was an olfactory delight, a pleasant change from some of the disturbing odors we have previously noted. The sweet odor lasted the entire day. We also saw blue sky for the first time! Not the dark blue we are used to at home but more of a pale blue. But, definitely blue. We’ll take what blue we can get.

We are going to walk to Ruth’s to get fruit. She has a little fruit stand about a quarter mile away. This will be our first walk outside of the compound. Next week I’ll describe our living and work facilities.

P.S. I got to do some “doctoring” this week. One of the elderly guards at our compound, Edward, came to me while I was doing laundry (in the next door building.) He described his legs as having “bad hurt” and pointed to his calves. I examined both of them and didn’t note anything worrisome. So I went back to the apartment and partially filled a paper cup with about 30 aspirin tablets and took it back to Edward with instructions to take two with each meal for a day. (I think he was a little confused when I instructed him to take the medication three times a day with meals. I suspect he doesn’t eat three times a day.) I saw him again about 36 hours later and he was all smiles, pointing to his legs, saying “no hurt.” Amazing what a little aspirin can do for musculoskeletal pain. Perhaps he has never taken a pain reliever before.