Hello Again!

I hope you are all doing well. As for me, I am working a lot and trying to keep cool. The weather has turned hot and the rainy season has begun. It rains almost daily and the hours before the rains are hot and humid. This sort of heat is exhausting for me, but I am doing my best to keep cool. On the bright side, for an hour or so after the rains the weather is wonderful!
I also don’t have to spend as much time outside, which helps me take the heat. Because I am living with Victoria, I take a taxi to work or town instead of walking. She lives on the main road and taxis pass by every few seconds. The taxis I take are called shared taxis or line taxis. They run a set route sort of like a public bus and will pick up anyone going the same way and take them to the center of town called the “station”. This trip costs 35 pesewas, which is equivalent to about 30 cents. The university (UMaT) is on the way to town, so I just ask the driver to let me out by the UMaT gate or I can take the taxi all the way into town. This trip takes about 10 minutes. When I want to go home, I just stand by the UMaT gate and flag down a taxi and ask to go to Tebrerebie Junction. I live just across the street from the junction.
The taxi experience is normally fairly dull, but on a couple occasions the driver searched around the car (on the floor or in the glove box) and pulled out a cassette tape and popped it in. What I heard next is some American pop, rap or rock. The drivers then look at me and give me thumbs up, a big smile, or they may ask if I know the song. This morning the driver played “Freaky in the Club”!
One thing I don’t really like about the taxi experience is when they pack lots of kids into the car. It is not uncommon for three or four school kids to get into the front seat along with several kids in the back. This makes me nervous!!
Another thing that has helped with the heat is the window air conditioner that now occupies the main office. My office is connected to the main office, so I reap some of the benefits of this amazing device. When I arrive at the office, I will often sit in the main office and make my coffee and cool off. Unfortunately, the electricity is not very reliable, but for the time that the AC is on my world is wonderful. Currently the electricity is off and has been for about two hours. Everyone just calls this “light off”. When the power is off for more than an hour it is doubtful it will come on again that day. When the power goes off the internet connection also turns off. Maybe I will get a chance to post this blog tomorrow!

The main office with AC. My office is off to the left.

The hot and rainy weather has also impacted my home life. There is no AC at Vic’s, which makes sleeping difficult. The last several days my laundry has also been rained on while it hangs out on the line. This is a bummer since it takes me so long to wash it in the bucket! Vic and Don Juan have a girl that comes over on the weekends to help with the laundry and I have recruited her to do my washing as well. I sort of feel bad having her do all the work, but she is getting paid well for her services and I try to do some laundry myself during the week to ease her load.
My days here in Ghana start early in the morning. As I mentioned earlier, we live along the main road and the traffic noise often keeps me up. The huge trucks from the mines and the honking taxis are the worst! There is also construction occurring on the second floor of our house, which means essentially that the house owner is building the second floor. The workers start at about 6:30 am. The construction on the second floor makes me tense. It often sounds like the ceiling will just come crashing down. This fear is reinforced by the fact that the ceiling has begun to leak in several places when it rains in the afternoon. Vic’s husband spoke to the building owner about this, so I am hoping that the workers will start to cover the roof when it rains. With all these things going on, I usually get up around 7 in the morning!

A view of my house with construction going on the second floor:

Last week I also had a new Ghanaian food called kenkey. This is fermented corn wrapped in corn or banana leaves served with dried fish or shrimp and a spicy tomato paste. It smells just like silage…for those of you who don’t know what silage is, go and ask a farmer. Here is a picture of this meal. Ghanaians eat all the parts of the fish and shrimp (shell, skin, fins, etc.). I wouldn’t eat the shrimp, but I did eat the entire fish…the head was crunchy! The kenkey tasted better than expected and I liked the spicy tomato paste. I guess given the chance I would try it again.

Work is going well and I will write about my meetings with the Chief of Samahoo in the next blog. Now, I have to get into the lab and check on my water samples. Here is a random picture from my house looking out onto the street. You can see three taxis (you can tell by the yellow fenders) and smoke from the constant burning of garbage.