Long post 2, the resolution (10/20-10/29)

Like the previous post, this one was written over several days, dates indicated below:

(10/20)
I went off on a tangent to explain the lead-up to the fridge trip to Tamale, so I'll pick up again there. My most depressed moment was walking to find this guy in Tamale. Take everything I said in my previous entry and multiply it by the constant replay in my head of "This guy is gonna tell me to fuck off. Oh you were sooooo slick getting a fridge for 90 cedis...idiot."

I kept trudging down the road and eventually found the place. When I got there the guy wasn't there (It's actually his friend's shop.) But the shop owner called him for me and we sat together and watched a futbol match on TV. While we waited I chatted it up with the group of guys and told them where I was from and what I was doing in Ghana. By the time the fridge guy arrived me and his friends were getting along very well and the shop owner served as my interpreter (who at this point I think genuinely converted to my side).

"Good morning. Do you remember me? I bought a fridge from you some 3 weeks ago."
"Yes, how are you?"
"Not good. The fridge is finished, it does not work. The motor is spoiled, what will you do to help?"
(Back and forth chatting in Dagbani between him and my impromptu interpreter)
"He says that it is a street shop, they don't have a guarantee."
"It's true (and I looked back and forth between them as I spoke) but there's a difference between not having a guarantee and not being an honest vendor. I paid 90Ghc; I expect a fridge that works more than one month. I don't expect a new fridge or a fix completely free, but I expect you to help."
"Ahhh... yes, it's true"
(He then conveyed the message with what seemed to be genuine agreement and attempt to convince his friend.)
"Ok. So what do we do? Maybe I give you 15 cedis so you can fix it?"
"Oh. But the motor is finished. A man in my town said it was 35ghc just for the part itself."
"Yes, or maybe 28."
"So I would still have to pay maybe 30 more if you gave me 15."

We negotiated, on very good terms, for some time. Some times talking directly to each other with his basic English and my basic Dagbani. Other times, for more complex ideas his friend translated for us. In the end he agreed that if I brought it to him in Tamale and gave him 15cedis he'd fix it. An amazing alternative to paying 50ghc in my village. This totally unexpected helpfulness was the first of a set of much more positive events over the past few weeks.

(In truth the fridge still did not work right for a while and I had to bring it back to Tamale to get it working, but the point is from this point on he'd already agreed to help and get it working again. The to-and-fro trips were just annoying, but his help was already secured.)

(10/27)
Around this time I received my first Gators game. (Thanks Mom!) She has been recording them and sending them to me. I'm purposefully cutting myself off from the scores online to be surprised each time when they arrive. It's such a great release to be able to watch these games. It's like everything else here is different, but Gator football is still the same. And it's still amazing.

Even though I'm watching the games on a computer, 3 weeks late, I still cheer and get into it (and don't forget I'm wearing my orange and blue Africa shirt every Saturday.)

(10/29)
It's hard to explain why it's so exciting, I guess step one is you have to understand SEC (SouthEastern Conference) Football. At Florida it's just part of living in Gainesville; every home game you wake up early to tailgate, you put on your orange and blue battle gear, and you celebrate all day before, during, and after the game. I'm usually talking full American speed (not slowing down or choosing Ghanaian words) only to the insects in my house, it's amazing to cheer and see my team and hear an American sportscaster. Every game I just get lost in it. It's great.

Things in town are also getting much more homey. As I explained a while back, I'm building my integration one-by-one with individuals since my town isn't the typical Peace Corps town. I'm getting to build some solid relationships and things are getting a lot more comfortable.

A significant thing happened the other night. I returned from Tamale and sat at the stand with Bubu. We chatted for a bit and I greeted some people. After buying a small dinner I started walking back to my house at about 8PM. It was a dark night since the moon was not out. After about 5 minutes 2 of the guys who hang out near the butcher's stand pull up on their bikes, on their way home. "Oh! But you're walking!" I said it was OK, but they insisted I sit on the back of one of the bikes. They took me all the way home and as I thanked them and walked to my quarters I saw them turn and start towards the station again. Turns out they weren't heading home at all, they noticed I was walking and came especially to take me home. I was really touched by the gesture. It seems silly but it was completely unnecessary and like I said when I first got to my town (Nearly 3 months ago) the sentiment seemed like "Oh, hi white man... well I'm busy... later.."

It was a great feeling and a huge win to have a quasi-stranger leave his shop and catch me on the road to take me home. Looking at it on paper it seems stupid,k but for my town it meant a lot. It really did.

I saw the guy the next day and said "hi" this time paying closer attention to where he actually sits. I make a habit of walking from Bubu's stand into the main station and greeting everyone. So sometimes groups of people are hard to split into individual faces or tradeskills. It turns out the guy wasn't one of the butchers, but a tailor with a small shop just next to them. (Both the butchers and the tailor are about 100ft south of Bubu's stand.)

I greeted him and thanked him again. A few days later he took my messenger bag and fixed a big hole in it for me. It's a nice feeling seeing my, sometimes painful, daily efforts start to give a positive result.

(10/30)
Even classes are showing an improvement. I started the material over again with the Form 1s and went back over the Scientific Method. It took a full hour but we made 2 hypothetical situations together start to finish. One of the situations, about staying home at night to study better, was all their idea from Problem to Conclusion.
Here's what the form 1's came up with:

Problem: When I go home I don't learn

Hypothesis: If I stay home at night, and don't go to jams(outdoor dance party) or TV, my marks will improve.

Experiment: I will stay home for one week, and not go out, to see if my marks improve.

Analysis: I look closely at my marks. Did my scores go up?

Conclusion: If my marks went up my hypothesis was good. If my marks did not go up, my hypothesis was bad.

I heard from many people but didn't really understand it until I felt it: teaching, especially here, is an emotional rollercoaster. Bad days you're really down, considering why you even waste your time, but the days when the kids get it and it clicks, man it's euphoric. It's funny because when the kids start their answer you never know if it's going to be mind-blowingly wrong, or surprisingly spot-on. Therefore whenever I ask an even semi-open ended question I mentally cringe in anticipation of the replies I might get. I think sometimes this cringe shows in my face.

When you say something like "Ok good. So our Problem is 'When I go home I don't learn.' What is our Hypothesis? What can we do to solve the problem?"
And you mostly get answers like
"Sah, clearly state the problem, or what you want to learn."
"Sah, Matter."
"Water!"
I get blindsighted when I get "Sah, if we do not go to jams or to TV maybe it will get better."

There is a silence that falls over the room and I can hardly hide my amazement. I blink my eyes and shake my head like in the cartoons before I snap back into the moment.
"Yes!.....Y..Yes! That's perfect!"

Another thing is Bubu and his wife. The more time I spend with them the more I appreciate how great they are. He's truly a great friend to have. Small considerate things that on bad days go so far, like if we're both coming back from the station at night, he'll ride extra slow on his motobike so he doesn't pass me on my bike and we arrive at the same time. Or he'll invite me to eat with him, but only on days that he knows Felicia made a dish that I like. He actually keeps track of the foods I like, and with what soups they go with, and invites me if they're having one of those that day. One time I was low on cash and he heard me make a totally passing comment about it and shortly after offered, and insisted, that he spot me some money till I make a trip to the ATM in Tamale. It sounds silly but these little things well timed make or break days.

(10/30)
So it's finally Friday and tomorrow is Halloween. We're all meeting at the TSO to dress in costume, eat candy, and watch a Gator game (I have a package waiting from Mom! Yay!) I'm really excited to eat chocolate (we don't really have it here).

But all-in-all, on all fronts it's been a great couple of weeks.