28 August 2010

Jamestown, 14 Aug 2010

Good news.  The bats are back!  We noticed them yesterday afternoon as we were coming up Independence Ave.  They were flying around the trees at 37 Military Hospital. There were hundreds of them. They were circling the trees, darting in and out of the branches, as if they had just arrived home from a long trip and were checking out the place to make sure nothing had changed.  As it started getting dark that evening they made their way north for a night of feeding.  It is nice to have them back.  Eat those mosquitoes!

I need to correct an error that I have made twice in previous blogs.  I have mistakenly labeled the turkey vultures that are common here in Accra as buzzards.  Sorry.  They are not buzzards.  According to my research there are no buzzards in West Africa.  They are in Africa but more to the south and east of us. Until recently I’ve not been able to get a close up photo of these birds to see the turkey vulture’s distinctive head and neck.  This is a picture of a turkey vulture from Google photos.  

These are the birds that we see sitting on the tops of buildings and on lamp posts (the ones I have mistakenly called buzzards.)  They are also the birds that I have described as always circling overhead (the ones I have appropriately identified as turkey vultures.) 

In my last blog I described the sounds of three of our morning birds.  Subsequent to writing that blog I’ve been able to finally visualize the Wolf Whistle Bird.  It is a very indistinct appearing bird slightly smaller than a robin with the neutral colors of a sparrow.  I was able to see one in the morning light well enough to identify it with the wake up sound we hear daily.  John Thueson sent an audio of this bird he had recorded when he and his wife lived in this apartment three years ago.  I will see if I can figure out how to attach an audio file to a blog. 

Marsha and I identified another morning bird this week.  We heard it and saw it as we were leaving the apartment.  It has a staccato type sound, like a machine gun with a lisp – cha/cha/cha/cha/cha/cha/ in a descending musical scale.  The total sound is less than two seconds.  It looks like a woodpecker with a similar beak but a slightly smaller body.  Marsha and I have decided to call it the Machine Gun Bird.  Our favorite bird, the Bubble Up Bird, must be gone.  We have not heard it since I described it two weeks ago.

For four days the Orange Blossom shrub outside our front steps has been blooming.  It does this about every six to eight weeks.  When it blossoms it is an aromatic festival.  The Queen of Fragrance has arrived.  Unfortunately it only blossoms for four or five days and then fades.  It is very fragrant today.  When one steps outside of the apartment into the warm, moist heat of the morning, and the Orange Blossom shrub is in bloom, it is easy to imagine stepping up to the front desk at a spa/sauna and asking “may I just sit here for a while and enjoy the warmth and the smell?”  The scent of the shrub reminds me of the syringa at home.  Marsha thinks it smells like a lilac bush.

This is a photo of a large tree growing in the adjacent compound that hangs over the fence onto our apartment parking lot.  It is visible off our back patio. On Tuesday this week we pulled into the apartment complex entry.  While waiting for the guards to open the gate, a wind came up and blew a shower of leaves from this tree onto the parking lot.  It instantaneously covered the parking lot.  Not a big deal, one would say, but it seems unusual that this tree is actually dropping leaves while it is hot.   Does this tree think that fall is on its way?  Some of the other deciduous trees are losing a few leaves but none are turning New England yellow and dropping all their leaves like this one. 

    I’ve been meaning to include this photo in a blog for several months but keep forgetting.  This is a close up of the fan palm outside our living room window after a rain storm.  Notice the cup formation of the bottom branch as it attaches to the trunk and the water contained in the cup.  This branch filled in one rainstorm.  The water remained in the branch until the next day.  Nice thing to remember if you are ever stranded in a jungle, all the water is bad, you are thirsty, and it has just rained.  Look for the bottom branches of a fan palm. 

Most of the time the sky is pretty homogenous here in Accra.  For the past two weeks the mornings have been misty with an overall gray appearance.  By afternoon the gray lifts and the sun shines through.  The sky becomes completely blue.  When we arrived last winter I noticed the brown haze appearance of the sky due to the harmattan (the sand that blows from the Sahara for several months winter). It was the same every day for three months.  When the rainy season started in June the sky became a darker gray, but still it had a monotonous appearance.  I am sure that the lack of mountains promotes this uniform and unchanging weather pattern.  Marsha took a photograph of this cloud pattern a week ago.  For an hour or so the dark clouds rolled by, large and tumbling, just like what we see in the spring and fall seasons at home.  

I have been asked about the progress of the Ghana Tomato Project.  Let me provide an update.  As you recall in May I planted two pots of tomatoes from seeds packaged in the USA.  I named the plants Justice and Mercy.  Both struggled in June due to the intense raining.  I had to work hard just to keep them from being washed away.  Justice died in early July.  At the time I recognized that Justice was not going to survive I planted a third tomato, one from the seeds obtained from a tomato we had purchased here.  I figured an Africa tomato might genetically be more suited for this climate.  I named this third tomato Charity, because everyone knows, “charity never faileth.” (1 Cor 13:8.)  Into the end of July and the first part of August Mercy showed great promise producing 30 – 40 blossoms.  But of that large number of blossoms only one has matured into a tomato fruit.  Can I say something profound about Mercy making a big show but producing minimal fruit?  No.  I can simply say, based upon field results,  that American tomato seeds should stay in America. 

Charity, the plant started from the seeds of an African tomato has already produced six blossoms and one tomato fruit.  It looks quite promising.

It is probably just the seeds but we have also discovered something else that might be important to a tomato harvest here in Ghana.  (I wish I had known this when Mercy was covered with blossoms.)  Despite tomatoes supposedly being self pollinators we have learned that they sometimes need help to produce fruit.  They need a tomato midwife.  Internet research has outlined options on pollination assistance when there are no pollinating insects around (like bees, of which there are none in Ghana).   These are the suggestions: gently shake the blossoms, buzz the base of the blossoms with an electric toothbrush or shaver, place a fan on the blossoms, or paint the blossoms with a soft paintbrush.  Because Marsha is an artist we are following the paintbrush method.    We feel kind of silly sneaking up on the plants and surreptitiously painting the pointy thing in the center of the blossom to get the pollen from the tip of the pointy thing to its base.  We’ve been hoping that no one has been watching us. 

In the pot from which I took Justice I have planted a fourth tomato, another one from dried African tomato seeds.  I am calling this fourth plant Hope.  

If the African seeds and paintbrush midwifery don’t produce a bumper crop I’m going to give up hope and plant some kind of prolific shrub that grows like a weed, maybe an Orange Blossom shrub. 

Our garden hasn’t been a total failure.  I planted peas in May.  We have had one crop.    This is a photograph of the three spoonfuls of peas we each had from our first crop.

The peas are a lot easier to grow.  We haven’t had to get down on our knees to paintbrush their blossoms. 

Marsha has hinted that I spend too much blog time describing what we see when we are driving the streets in Accra.  (i.e. the photo in my last blog of the motorcyclist with a tire around his waist.)  She thinks it is probably boring to readers.  She’s probably right.  From now on I will limit each blog to only one road item.  This is my Road Item for the week.

As we approached this vehicle I could see that its brake lights were not coming on as it slowed for an intersection. That’s not surprising as most vehicles on the road have at least one tail light not working.  When we pulled up behind the vehicle and stopped I easily discovered the reason that the tail lights did not work: the car DID NOT HAVE TAIL LIGHTS.  The entire light mechanism was missing on each side.  And the lights had not been simply disconnected and removed.  The wiring to the lights had been cut.  I suspect someone wanted those lights more than the owner of the vehicle.   Let me interject that one of the senior missionary couples here in Accra was stopped because their new car did not have two strips of reflective tape on the rear bumper.  These strips are not put on by the manufacturer.  They are added here.  (The photo above distinctly shows the two strips of reflective tape right below the missing tail lights.)  This missionary couple had to call one of the church employees to bring reflective tape and apply it to the bumper before the police would allow the car to move on.  The police officer obviously thought the missionary’s car was dangerous without its reflective tape on the rear bumper.  Ironic, isn’t it, that the Enforcers of Traffic Safety will allow a vehicle without tail lights to be on the streets of Accra but a car without reflective tape is considered unsafe. It almost makes the List of Ghana Unexplainables.  

Last Monday I took a missionary for an x-ray film.  I had arranged for the film on the Friday before.  When scheduling the film I asked for the cost.  I was told Ghc 55.  On Monday we arrived at the imaging facility one half an hour ahead of the scheduled time.  As we were standing at the desk to check in I noticed an electronic display behind the desk indicating “Now serving number 27.”  I looked around but didn’t see a number dispensing system.  When it was my turn to check in with the receptionist I was informed that I needed to first pay for the x-ray film examination before I could check in.  (One would think that a simple sign above the check in desk indicating that one had to pay for the examination before checking in would improve the efficiency of the system. Why has no one thought of that?)  I confirmed that the price was Ghc 55.  We walked over to the finance office and informed the clerk that we needed to pay for the x-ray film examination.  We specified the type of examination.  He indicated that the cost would be Ghc 80.  I told him that we were quoted a price of Ghc 55.  He didn’t look concerned at all.  He stood up, looked over his counter toward the receptionist and talked to her in local dialect.  The receptionist came over and informed us that the charge would be Ghc 80.  I asked why instead of the Ghc 55 she had told us five minutes earlier.  She said it was because we were “foreigners.”  Amazing.  How did she know that we were foreigners?  I wished she would have asked for my driver’s license.  I could have produced my Ghanaian driver’s license but I suspect that a license to drive a car in Ghana will never prevent a white person from being a “foreigner.”  We paid for the film at the new price, checked in with the receptionist, and sat down.  We waited about an hour to get the film taken (less time than I had expected to wait.)  As we were leaving the waiting room I noticed the electronic display still said “Now serving number 27.”

Let me end with another endearing Ghanaian saying.  Several blogs ago I commented upon the Ghanaian phrase “yes, please.”  I need to describe another phrase, equally satisfying to hear.  It is “you are welcome” (not “you’re welcome,” “you are welcome” emphasize each syllable.)  When being introduced to someone for the first time a Ghanaian will usually say “you are welcome” instead of “nice to meet you.” When walking into a store you will be greeted with “you are welcome.”   At her fruit stand Ruth will greet us with “you are welcome” and say good-by with the same.  Ghanaians do not understand very well the giving and receiving of compliments.  In either situation they usually say “you are welcome.”  This last picture is one of Marsha and Florence.  Florence has become our good friend.  She spends two hours a week cleaning our apartment and an equal number of hours, or more, sharing our lives.  This picture was taken in our apartment at a birthday dinner for Florence.  We fixed her pizza (at her request.)  A conversation with Florence will usually produce a number of “you are welcomes.”   When I described “yes, please” in my recent blog I indicated that we would be better people if we were quick to use “yes, please.”  Add to that suggestion “you are welcome.” 

14 August 2010

I have to start with this photograph.  This is the third time I’ve seen goats on the top of a tro tro.  It is the first time that I have had a camera available to take a picture of them.  I followed this tro tro for about five kilometers.  The goats were very good at balancing with the starting and stopping of the tro tro.  I wanted to see how they did with corners but I had to turn before the tro tro had to turn.

I wrote about Kapok trees last time.  Here is another photo.  It is hard to describe how big these trees are.  I hope you can get an appreciation for the size of the tree from this photo.  These are HUGE trees.  They truly are the giants of the forest.  As I think about them I am puzzled by the fact that I cannot recall seeing any small Kapok trees.  Where are the young ones?  The large ones dominate the countryside.  There must be small ones somewhere.  I’ll have to keep looking. 

I discovered something last week.  If you click on a blog photograph it becomes a separate screen of its own and increases in size.   I’m probably the only one that didn't know this.  I discovered it after posting my last blog, reading it, looking at the photo of the alligator and thinking the alligator really isn’t very impressive.  I clicked on the photograph and voila!  The picture grew to a size that allowed me to see more detail of the alligator including its protruding tongue.  The alligator is a lot more impressive when enlarged.  You might want to go back to the last blog and check out the alligator again.

This photo that is an example of some of the unusual things we see each day as we drive the streets of Accra.

What do you think I should use as a caption for this photo?  I’ve got a few ideas.  Maybe it could be an advertisement for a government motorcycle safety campaign:  Never leave home without your safety tire, or, When a helmet just isn't enough protection.   Maybe it could be an advertisement for a tire company:  Kwaku’s Tire, the fastest tire repair service in town.  Maybe it could be a model for the latest in fashion wear:  The mid riff tire look is going to be hot this year.  From a medical perspective it could be an explanation of why many Ghanaians complain of “waist pains.”  (Dr. Stubbs and Dr. Thueson, the two doctors who preceded me will understand.)  Any other suggestions?

Let me share a humorous story.  Last Sunday we were looking at pictures of home (we probably shouldn’t be doing this) and found a picture of our German Shepherd dog named Sabrina.  If you didn’t know her she was a large dog with perfect Shepherd markings.  She was beautiful.  Because of her size she could stand at the kitchen work island and eat any food left unprotected.  Several times she did this while we stepped out of the kitchen.   We would return, notice the food missing, and look at her in an accusing way.   She couldn’t look at us.  She would divert her eyes and put her head to her side a little, as if to say, “Why are you accusing me, you left the food out in front of me.”   We both remembered those incidents as we looked at the picture of her lying on the rug in the kitchen.

Wednesday morning we were a little rushed as we left for work.   Marsha had taken several plastic sacks of garbage to the guard station and left them with the guards.  We got in the car and pulled out of the apartment complex.  As we started down Independence Avenue Marsha realized that she had left her lunch, in a plastic sack, with the sacks of garbage.  We quickly turned around and headed back to the apartment.  We pulled into the gate and explained to the guards that we had left Marsha’s lunch with the garbage sacks.  Did they know where the lunch was?  They looked at each other for a moment.  One of the guards then went into the guard house and came out with the sack.  He had a Sabrina look on his face.  He didn’t say anything as he handed the sack to Marsha, looking down with his head turned to the side a little.  As we left the apartment complex and again started down Independence Avenue Marsha opened the sack and found, to her dismay, that her lunch had been eaten.  We looked at each other, remembered our Sabrina discussion, and laughed all the way to work.    (Please don’t take this story wrong.  We are not demeaning the guards at all.  We love them. We have become good friends with all of them and probably created this encounter by occasionally taking meals out to them.  It was the coincidence of looking at the picture of Sabrina, remembering the kitchen experiences, and then seeing it in real life three days later.)

It is hard for me to say for sure, this being my first year here, but I think that the rainy season is ending.  We have not had a downpour for two weeks now.  Things are starting to turn brown.  I think it would be more appropriate to describe the current weather as being the official Mist Season.  On Wednesday morning (the morning of the mistakenly eaten lunch) Marsha and I noted that there seemed to be a lot more “smog” on our way to work.  It turned out that the “smog” was actually fog.  It wasn’t a heavy fog, but definitely moisture in the air instead of air pollution.  On Thursday I drove out to Korle Bu and couldn’t see the road along the coast line because of the fog.  The mornings have been very moist and hazy, reminiscent of mornings in Tacoma, WA.   By afternoon the sun breaks through and burns off the haze. 

I regret seeing the rainy season end.  I want to post some pictures of the flowers/shrubs/trees that have blossomed since the rain began.  These pictures were taken in our apartment complex. 

For months I’ve been trying to think of ways to describe the morning birds and their sounds.  It’s much more difficult to do than to describe the sites of Ghana.  I’m going to try.

I have noticed three different morning birds with distinct sounds.  I do not know their names.  I welcome comments from anyone reading this who could give me names for the birds.  The first one begins each morning at 5:00 a.m. (about an hour before sunrise.)  I call this one the Wolf Whistle Bird.  Think of the whistle one makes when calling attention to someone beautiful.  It is two sounds, short, monosyllabic, the first one increasing in pitch followed by the second one that decreases in pitch.  Take these two whistle sounds and reverse them, the first one becoming a decreasing pitch and the second one an increasing pitch.  This is the sound of the Wolf Whistle Bird.  This bird is a rooster equivalent.  It starts exactly at five and goes until six.  Sometimes it seems near enough to our bedroom window that I have got up to see if it is on the window ledge.  Sometimes the bird seems more distant.    I’ve stepped outside and tried to locate this bird but have not been able to positively identify it, because it stops making sounds as the sun comes up and it becomes light enough to see.  I think it is a medium sized bird, about the size of a blackbird but more the color of a starling.  It sits on a radio tower about twenty yards from my window.

The second bird I call the Bubble Up bird.  We heard these same morning sounds in the jungles of Peru.  Visualize a series of pop bottles, filled with increasing amounts of water, and someone blowing across them successively, making a sound that starts at a medium pitch and goes up the scale about five or six notes.   The sound has an echoing hollowness about it, is distinct, and very melodious.  It is a sound somewhat like five or six successive keys played on a xylophone.  It is quite loud and sounds as if it is coming from a close distance but the bird is in a tall tree about 30 km away.  It appears to be a medium sized bird, dark gray to black, with a long set of tail feathers that are perpendicular to its body when it is perched and flat with its body when it is in the air.  When the bird flies it has an hourglass appearance with the roundness of the body narrowing to an isthmus then a wide set of tail feathers rounded on the ends, not straight across.  The undersides of the wings are white.  This bird is not heard each day.  We will sometimes go days without hearing it and then it will be audible each morning for days on end.

The third bird is one I call a Duck Imitator.  This one is the hardest to hear and to localize.  It emits a short quack like sound, one syllable.  It is not repetitive. It is not loud.  It’s like someone interjecting a comment into a conversation without breaking into the conversation. When one first hears it one thinks it is a mechanically produced sound, like the squeal of the brakes on a passing car.  It does not stand out from the other sounds.  Once you recognize it, however, it is easy to hear.  I have no idea which bird makes this sound. 

There is another bird we have recently noticed.  It is the size of a robin.  I don’t think it makes any sounds.  It is a beautiful metallic teal green.  But the teal green is only seen when it is flying, and it is best seen if the bird is visualized from above.  When it is standing it displays none of its metallic color.  We didn’t realize the colorful bird in flight was the same lackluster bird on the ground until we observed one of the birds taking off.  We both commented on the color, amazed to see the difference in appearance between the bird on the ground and the bird in flight. 

I was determined to find the Wolf Whistle Bird this morning and went out on the front porch with the sunrise.  I could hear the characteristic sounds but could not see any distinct bird.  The sounds were coming from the direction of the radio tower.  I went inside.  About a half an hour later I went back out on the porch.  To my surprise I noted four African Gray Parrots on the radio tower.  They are a distinct gray color with  red tail feathers.  I watched them for a while and two of them flew away.  The two that remained made noises, not the Wolf Whistle noises, for about 10 minutes and then flew away. 

Let me describe African Gray Parrots.  I don’t have a personal picture of an African Gray Parrot so I’m posting a Google picture here. 

I was surprised to see these parrots so close to civilization.  I have been under the impression that they lived in the rural/jungle areas of Africa.  We occasionally see them for sale along the roadsides.  About a month ago there was a man with two of them for sale at an intersection near our apartment.

African Gray Parrots are very smart.  They are supposedly the best in acquiring vocalization capability.  They are quick to pick up conversation and repeat it.  Byron Smith, the president of the Ghana Accra Mission has an African Gray Parrot in his office.  It is in a large cage in the corner.  President Smith purchased it on the outskirts of Accra, I believe, about a year or so ago.  We have been to President Smith’s home/office many times and find the bird very entertaining.  I’m pretty sure his name is Petey.  He can imitate telephone rings, car warning sounds, sirens on the street, etc.  No problem.  He will hear these sounds once and immediately imitate them.  It takes a little more repetition for him to acquire conversation.  He imitates President Smith’s voice perfectly.  It is very unnerving to be talking to President Smith in his living room, hear the phone ring, and then the voice “This is President Smith, may I help you?” come from his office while President Smith is standing in front of you.  Petey is a young bird and is just learning.   He is not very good at speaking on command.  He will turn his head and look  at you sideways as you stand there saying things to him hoping he will repeat what you are saying.  It’s as if he’s trying to figure out who you are and why you don't sound like President Smith.  When you get tired of talking to him and start to walk away he’ll utter something totally unpredictable.  President Smith, being the good ecclesiastical leader that he is, is teaching Petey to ask the Important Questions every mortal asks:  “Where did I come from?” “Why am I here?”  “Where am I going?”  Because he’s young he sometimes gets his phrases mixed up.  So, when you least expect it you’ll hear the Important Questions coming to you in President Smith’s voice, with a few minor changes. “Why did I come from?” or “Where am I here?”  or “Why am I going?”  It just cracks you up.    

Speaking of birds I’m going to put a picture here of a row of buzzards.  These were sitting on top of a building near a market in downtown Accra.  When I came back by the building an hour later they were gone. If you click on the photo you can enlarge it enough to see the buzzards well.

As I try to think of things to share about life in Ghana it is easy to recall the experiences we have each day while driving in traffic.  A day doesn’t pass that we don’t experience something unusual, such as motorcyclists with tires around their waists.  Most of the times these incidents are humorous.  Occasionally the experiences are disturbing.  Last week we were on our way to the office and we pulled up to an intersection to stop.  There was a narrow island to our left separating our lane from a left hand turn lane.  There were cars in both lanes waiting for the lights to change.  When we stopped we had the usual onslaught of people selling things and the beggars.  A blind woman led by a little girl about seven years old worked her way toward our car.  As she came to our window the light turned green so I smiled at the seven year old girl and started to pull forward.  We immediately saw off our front left fender a little two year old boy sitting on the narrow island between our lane and the turn lane playing in the dirt.   He was oblivious to the traffic that was within three feet of him on either side.  Marsha gasped, looked at the unprotected little boy, glimpsed back at him as I drove away, and then broke out sobbing.  It is such a cruel site to see these children living in these circumstances.  This little boy was probably the brother of the girl who was probably the granddaughter of the blind woman.  The two children were going to spend the day helping the grandmother with her begging.   Disregarding the danger of the situation it is heart wrenching to know that these two children do not have a childhood.  They are part of the daily money making responsibilities of a family. 

In my last blog I expressed gratitude for the packages, letters, and e-mails from family and friends at home.  We appreciate these acts of kindness.  It lessens the distance we perceive between our lives at the present and our former lives.  Some days that distance is oppressive.  Thank you all.  

 This boy was playing some kind of Cat's Cradle with a string on his toe.