Trip to Site Visit (7/22)

4AM. My alarm went off and with a long sigh I put my things together and re-packed. Today I'm heading to visit my site.

I hate packing.

And the only relieving aspect of the 13+ hour trip to come is that I'll be one step closer to finally leaving this perpetually transient state.

Many of us were heading through Kumasi so someone chartered a bus to pick us up directly at the college. As we walked out of breakfast at about 5AM we saw it had arrived, but were yelled at to stay back. The bus had knocked over a power line and it was being moved.

Around 5:45AM we left, and arrived at Kumasi sometime after 9AM. We unloaded, bought our tickets to Tamale and waited. A vendor tried to sell me some sunglasses, pointing at the huge 80's style ones he had on, showing me how fashionable they were. He walked up with only one set in his hand, almost appearing like a stranger trying to give me a gift. I told him no, and he left. We loaded my bags onto the bus, I bought a fan-choco and waited some more.

Fan Ice is a company in Ghana which makes 3 flavors of "ice cream". It is more of a frozen yogurt concoction which is literally frozen to a brick at times, in Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry. They are called FanIce FanChoco and FanYogo respectively. Fan Ice tastes like butter frosting, Fan Choco tastes like chocolate milk, and Fan Yogo tastes like strawberry yogurt.

So I bought my fan choco and just waited. Suddenly I saw a huge piece of plywood about a full human wing-span wide (extending both arms, from fingertip to fingertip) and shoulder height floating towards me. The bottom had a single wooden 2"x2" leg in the center so it could be placed on the ground to display. On the plywood? Hundreds of sunglasses. The display plopped down right in front of me and Craig. Mr. 80's leaned on it and inconspicuously looked off to the side. Kind of like a "...ya so I'm just chillin here with my glasses a-- oh shit! what's up!? I totally did not even see you there!" Only he was about 10 inches in front of us and awkwardly close. It was funny. We explained we didnt need glasses and he left.

The FanChoco salesman approached us again, he'd seen Patty and Kathryn on the Bolga bus and said "Maybe your sistahs need some? Buy some for them." I explained to him that we were PC volunteers with no money and to ask them himself. He then told us about how poor all of Ghana is and how rich America is. I replied that most people I see in Ghana are very happy. He agreed. I then added that many people in the US although they have alot of money are still very frustrated and angry. He seemed incredulous. "Whaat? Nooooo. This is not true! With money you can buy anything! You can fix all of your problems. Money should make it easy to be happy."

To which I replied

"This is not necessarily true. We have a great American poet, Sean Combs. He wrote in one of his poems 'More money, more problems' "
He looked on and said
"Ahh... yes... ok..."

For those of you playing at home, who dont know who he is, I'll let you take a moment to look up Sean Combs on Wikipedia. It's worth it.


Dahahahaha.... I'm laughing as I write this in my journal at the thought of him quoting Puff Daddy to his friends as a great American scholar... I mean after all he did tell us that he "cant stop, wont stop"

Soo our bus finally left and we drove for about 3 hours till we got to Kintampo where they have a rest stop.

THEY HAVE A REST STOP!

You dont understand how incredible that is. I honestly did not think one existed in Ghana. I'm being 100% serious. One of the things I learned how to say in Dagbani, literally in Suf's lesson plans is "Driver, please stop, I need to urinate" (With the expectation you would do so on the side of the road).

But that mind-blow aside, the scenery driving up here has changed drastically. There is no more dense forest like in the South. It's more of a grassy expanse with a lot of trees. But it's much more open, you could actually go for a walk through it. I think I like it more. Almost like the scene you picture when you think of a stereotypical African savannah, but everything is green.

When we stopped at the rest stop I saw near the urinals an area with mats on the ground. All the Muslims on our bus rushed straight there. It was 2:30 and getting close to the time for the 3rd prayer of the day. Ghana has a strong Muslim influence which is great because I knew absolutely nothing about it before I came here. It very much interests me and I cant wait to learn more in the North. (The Islam influence is even stronger there). All the Muslims got little buckets of water and I saw some washing their faces, their hands, feet etc. Then at the urinal I saw a few men squatted down almost to the floor, pants at their ankles. I was completely confused and when I saw one guy with a white bucket in his hand it clicked. Suf had mentioned to me when I asked him about the prayers and the cleaning, he said in a very shy way
"You start with --excuse me-- you start with washing your private parts."
I didnt investigate further, but I'm pretty positive that's what they were doing.

With only a 20 minute break to take advantage of, all the Islam followers cleaned themselves and prayed to Allah.

We took off again after a quick meal and about 1 hour from Tamale we passed Hannah on the side of the road. Her site is right by a toll stop on the Kumasi-Tamale highway. We chatted as the driver paid and off again we went. By the time we got to Tamale it was almost dusk. Craig got off in front of me and when I followed I heard
"Taxi? Where are you going?"
I ignored him and to my amusement I heard his friend say to him
"Let them get their bags first! Once they have their bags they will travel together."

He was wrong in this instance, I said goodbye to Super-Craig but it's funny to have my patterns studied like I'm some kind of foreign wildlife.

We caught a cab to my town and as we arrived the sun had set. I heard the evening call to prayer from a small mosk and we passed a row of 30 men all with their heads touching the ground facing East in reverence.

And then came the bugs. When we got to my site I was greeted by a few of the other teachers and they helped me take my bags inside. Let me explain my windows real quick because they're an important part of my house. On the inside (room side) I have glass shutter style windows, the ones with a lever which turns them all at an angle, or closes them completely. They are horizontal pieces of glass, probably 6-8 in the whole window. On the outside my windows are screened, but the screen is the wider kind so between the mesh and the window shutters on the inside of the house was a collection of bugs at every window.

Also, unlike every other house I've been to so far, my exterior doors don't have screen doors. When we got to my house the electricity was out. All things independently would be fine, but combined: I had a crowd of people in and out of my house trying to fix the light, the electrician was called and everyone tried to help. All the doors were left wide open as they came in and out and shortly I had a parade of bugs in all my rooms.

One Bug
Two Bug
Green Bug
Gargantuanly Massive Bug

I'm pretty sure that's how the Seuss book goes. Everyone had great intentions but I just wanted them to leave so I could try to sleep and have the least amount of King-Kong sized insects in my house as possible. Jerry, my counterpart teachers, had a good idea. He told me to leave the light in my room off until bedtime so I wouldn't get bugs in there. He brought me a to-go container of rice and chicken he'd bought for me at a local chop bar. I thanked him and they all finally left. As I sat to eat I could hear the bugs mindlessly headbutting the fluorescent light above me. With single purpose and zero thought they kept full-speed flying into it. Smaller bugs, larvae looking worm type crawlies were falling from the ceiling on to my arms, the table and just around my food. I was too grossed out to eat more than a few bites.

On my way to the bathroom I opened the dining room door which led outside. The inside part of this door, which faces my room door, had a huge praying mantis on it. I was hoping he'd fly outside when I opened the door, but no such luck. At least 2nd best, I'll settle for him not flying anywhere at all and just staying put on the door.

Sit Praying Mantis.
OK. Good boy. Now, Stay!

I came back from the bathroom, mantis still on the door, closed the exterior door and opened the door to my room. I walked in, turned on the light and just as I was closing my door -- aww give me a freakin break!--

Bad Praying Mantis! I said stay!

Like he was the main character in an action movie, he Indiana Jones-style flew through the last remaining gap in my door as it closed and he entered into my room where the blessed new light was.

Shoot me.

It was now about 8:30PM, I haven't stopped since 4 o'clock this morning. You know what? I could wake up with this mantis eating my face and I really wouldn't care anymore. As I went to turn off my light I realized there didnt appear to be many other bugs around it. Maybe Jerry's plan worked. I turned off my light and laid down.

About 60 seconds later I heard a zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzPlink! noise from the far end of my room. I looked and mantis had flown headlong into my far window facing the courtyard. My light was still on outside. ...oooh!... Maybe all the retarded bugs will fly that way as well? I'll do this every night! Sleep could not come fast enough...