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.”