Things are going pretty awesome right now. I have lots of stuff that I want to do and none of it is really on a deadline, that’s really nice. I’m starting to chip away at my assignment. I’ve settled into some nice routines as well.
A few days ago I was walking back from my “gym” and a really nice SUV pulls up next to me. It was a man that works at the Switzerland Embassy with his wife from New Zealand and their kid who would be from India I think if you took the average. Basically they say, “You’re white, please help us.” They were looking for a kente store, what a coincidence. The store is off the beaten track, so in my Grand Valley mesh shorts and JCC Jets t-shirt I take this well off couple to the weaving centre and then the store. If I’m not working out I’m in business casual dress to at least look like a businessman, but they didn’t seem to mind. After they bought a considerable amount of kente they gave me a ride back to my house and gave me a bottle of South African wine because they really liked my tour, I think I like the Swiss. That research that I’ve been doing actually pays off. In the last 3 weeks I’ve found or had visitors that have moved 38 kente products. Doesn’t sound like much, and it’s not, but in the last 3 weeks we’ve moved 40 products. Mr. Agba likes having me around.
My dad said I shouldn’t just rely on me walking up and down the streets to get people to the store and I guess he’s probably right. So Monday I made a map of Kpetoe. It’s odd when Ghana doesn’t really do street names, “dumpster” made the map. Bless couldn’t believe that I made Kpetoe on Paint and calls me “the computer wizard.” All that time when I was little drawing baseball stadiums on Paint wasn’t worthless at least. I’m going to make brochures with it in them and put them in a few places that NGO people hang out at in Ho and in the Peace Corps offices in Tamale, Kumasi, and Accra. Small small steps.
I love my neighborhood. The adults are great but the kids are awesome. Michael and I play catch every afternoon now. It gets so hot that people just go under a tree and sit so we’re prime entertainment. Well for being 10 Michael is great at football and pretty good at playing catch. One shouldn’t confuse the 2 however. One time after fetching a baseball that got passed him he threw it up in the air and tried to head it to me like a football, ouch. Bless wanted me to explain all the rules and strategies of baseball to him. I tried to tell him that it’s a little more complicated than football but he insisted. I was like fine don’t trust me and started off with the infield fly rule and then some of the DH before he stopped me.
Only in Africa can an election on Dec 7th not have a result yet, they say final runoff results Friday. Atta Mills of the NDC is winning by .13% with just 1 of 230 contingencies unaccounted for. He will probably win and since like 82% of the people in my region voted for him things were pretty crazy here the last 2 nights. I decided to be crazy myself one night and try some canned beef in my red sauce. There should be laws against selling that crap. If mom wasn’t the primary reader of my blog I would have more beef with that beef.