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.