Being easily entertained is very important to staying sane here. We probably didn’t fool too many people with our April Fool’s engagement but the few that we did made us so happy. Thanks, especially to Kelsey Arnold, I haven’t laughed that hard in a long while. We each got a few calls, including Maria’s dad, and lots of messages. I was laughing and really touched.
I got my payback the next day though. I was on my way to a meeting at the paramount chiefs to present our new constitution to the NGO that is hoping to build our visitors centre for us. The NGO representative also happens to be very good looking and is my supervisor. I was in one of my best shirts and took off on my bike. Back home I’ve ridden 100s of miles on my road bike which is much harder to ride than a mountain bike. Back home however there are not the same obstacles. A goat was in my path as I turned around a corner and the side of the bike hit a palm tree when I tried to avoid the goat, over the handle bars I went. Whatever you’re picturing I looked funnier.
I was laughing really hard as I walked my bike back to my house to clean up my cut face and change shirts. The bleeding had stopped by the time the meeting started and it ended up going very well. My supervisor even said she crashed her bike lots when she was a PCV. We made a few changes and we’ll sign it this week hopefully. Then we’re moving onto the next step which is placement of rubbish bins throughout the community and how to empty them to keep the community clean. My nose is a little crooked and I have 4 cuts on my face but we made a lot of progress that day, stupid goats.
My closest neighbor, Julie, and I are hosting around 20 PCV’s for Easter this coming weekend and we’re pretty excited about that. PC wrecked Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years for us, we won’t let them get Easter too. I’ve been saving some off brand Jello (it says “jelly” but I think they meant gelatin) that I found in Accra for the occasion.
Things here have been going awesome. My house is a home (thanks to packages from home mostly), I have some real friends here, and I love my assignment.