Fun Stories from Site (11/20)

So a few random stories and comments that I've been meaning to write for a while but never got around to:

Raheem
Raheem Finally started going to school! For a while I've been bothered by the fact that this bright minded, teeth missing child has just been wasting his days away making trouble near the Mosque. When I'd see him at the station he'd always be touching things, investigating how stuff works and asking questions. An inquisitive, intelligent young mind looking for information. But he didn't want to go to school and his parents weren't making him.

Well a few weeks ago he started going, and it's amazing how much he's already picked up. Remember in Ghana toddlers speak their native language at home. It's not till they start school that they see English. In this small time he's been going he already knows his ABC's (well most of them, some of them come out as muffled noises) and recently he's started quoting random things he's learned just to show off that he knows it. It's really cute. The other day me and Bubu were sitting at the stand and Raheem was laying down on the bench. It was late afternoon and he had just finished his most recent singing of the ABC's. He paused, looked up at me and Bubu and said "Good morning madame"

Haha... at least he's trying...




GuillermGyver
About a month ago I was standing by the roadside to go to Tamale and a Tro pulled up coming south from WaleWale. It was empty so they offered me the front seat. This is what Beth calls "The Siliminga (white man) seat of honor, AKA the death chair." Because they offer it out of genuine hospitality and concern, but the truth is if the driver's reckless driving causes a crash, the front seat passengers (seat belts? haha...ya...) are the first to fly out of the car...

Anyways they offered me the seat of honor and we continued south towards Tamale. The tro stopped at my town's main station to fill with more passengers and I lazily rested my arm on the open window. The window was open but not quite all the way down. It was still raised just enough to make it uncomfortable to put your arm on, but low enough to coax you into trying. I looked for a handle; there wasn't one. Then I looked for an electric window switch. In the spot where it should have been were 4 wires that stuck up in awkward angles like a dead spider's legs. Well we were just sitting there at the station. While people were loading and chatting, I was bored, my arm was uncomfortable, and my nerdy engineer mind couldn't just leave the wires alone.. "Hmm...Black. White. Yellow. Green"

At the end of these 4 colored wire coverings were exposed copper insides...
(My thoughts in bold)

Quick look around...noone's looking... Touch the black to the yellow?

Hmm. Nothing...... Black to white? Oh shit, sparks and smoke. Ok. So that's the (+) and (-) ends with the power. Remember to keep those apart. So let's try again.

Black to Yellow.
Black to Green.
White to Yellow.
White to Green.

Nothing. Crap.

Ooh! What if I need to make a circuit with all four?

I rested the white and yellow together and as soon as I tapped the black to the green the window popped up a bit.

Sweet!!!

I quickly switched the setup: black and yellow, and when I touched and held the white to the green, the window went all the way down. Proud of my little victory I sat back with my arm comfortably on the window sill and waited with a smile on my face for the Tro to leave.

A few moments later I saw one of our local beggars approaching. I'm pretty sure she has some kind of mental handicap and she always hassles me because white = $. Sure enough she came right up to my window at the front seat.

Weak...(..oooooh!...)

A light bulb went off in my head. I put on my best Bugs Bunny inconspicuous face as he hides behind trees and poles....nothing to see here... I faced straight ahead only glancing slightly at my hands which had now made their way to the wires again...

(Ok... switch back.... white and yellow... black and green... Daha!)

The window steadily rose up and I kept looking forward like nothing was going on. She moved on to the people in the back of the Tro and I was quite happy with my MacGyver skills. Finally we finished loading, and the driver and mate got back in. They saw the window up and cried in surprise something I didnt understand in Dagbani. I assume it meant something along the lines of "WTF??"

I waved my hands at them to calm down, switched the setup again and brought the window down. I rested my arm on the sill and they all cheered. I did a happy little snoopy head bob as we drove off to town.




Balance:
The sense of balance in this country is amazing. Women on the side of the road sell oranges, but not just in bushels, in a pyramid that seems to defy the laws of physics with how it stays together without toppling. Women carry things on their heads to sell and: stop, go, turn, bend down, chat, and do pretty much anything as if they never realized the load was there. It's not uncommon to see a girl running full speed after a Tro with a large bowl on her head filled with bags of plantain chips. She runs, takes and makes change, and passes the chips from her head, all at full speed and drops nothing.

One time I saw a woman selling charcoal. She had a metal bowl with about a 3 foot diameter filled with charcoal. Then 2 more bowls, slightly smaller each row, on top of that. All filled. All on her head. Immediately after, as if the following act in a circus, a woman starting with the 3 foot bowl and FIVE total bowls stacked on her head. Each smaller than the one before making a kind of ziggarat pyramid of charcoal.

Another time I saw a woman with a stack of buckets, bowls and containers tied together and inside a huge bowl. A netting held it all together and it towered 6-7 feet high, easily taller than the woman carrying it. But my personal favorite was just yesterday.

I was in class hosting one of my afternoon classes and some of my students started to laugh. I looked outside. On the highway going north was a man. He was carrying a COUCH. A full sized, 3 person couch. On his head.

I'm not done.

All this while riding his bicycle. One hand on the couch. One hand on the handle bars. We all laughed but for different reasons. I was amazing and blown away at what I was seeing. My students just said "Oh, his neck will be tired!"