May ended up being out best month to date for tourists with a whopping 33 and we also sold quite a bit. This is great since progress towards our visitors center has basically been halted as we’re still waiting for an NGO’s contractor to install the rubbish bins.
Last week I went to Alan & Marian’s place before going to Accra. They are our oldest couple and are amazing. Between the 2 of them they have like 30 some years of overseas volunteering so they know how to enjoy it. They actually met volunteering together and got married on some Pacific island. It was great to catch up with them, see their site, and hike to a gorgeous waterfall.
Accra is like the most modern place I can imagine right now. Officially I went to refill my malaria meds and visit my supervisor but a few of us met up there to welcome the 67 new PCT’s as they got off the plane. Traffic was so bad that morning that we actually missed them getting off the plane and could just wave to their buses as they pulled off. We did still get to meet a few of them back at the office. The first one said, “I’ve been reading your blog and it’s really great.” I had no idea what to say to that other than he has no taste in literature. After that I was scared to talk to any of them. Even though we didn’t get to know any of them I can’t be unhappy in Accra. Accra means packages from home, AC, good food, and lots of people from all over the world and I also saw sliced bread for the first time since I got here, it was the greatest thing.
Thursday night 9 of us went to the only sports bar in Ghana. They even had satellite that picked up ESPN. I watched Sportscenter and saw highlights of the Bosox beating the Tigers! The best part was it was quiz night. They do current events, music, and such. The questions were intense but the guys who run it are British so we knew they’d get current events off of BBC and studied, we were right. I don’t know how many countries were represented but it was interesting to see what questions were hard to who. For example we may have been the only group to get the Indian princess from Peter Pan right. (Tigerlilly, and I’m still taking crap for knowing that and the 2 catholic questions) We struggled with some French stuff and got killed on identifying songs and artists and ended up in 5th, only 1 point off winning some prize money.
The Blackstars played Mali in Bamako in a huge World Cup Qualifying match. Our captain, Appiah, isn’t on the team anymore but my favorite player, Agogo, is back on the team! As long as we have Essien in midfield we should be fine in qualifying. The TV hut was packed to capacity for the match but it just would not come in. It looked liked an old school Nintendo would if you loaded the cartilage wrong. Apparently they still managed to win 2-0 without like anyone in Ghana being able to watch. I told my dad about the big match and he asked who’s pitching.
Today I am meeting one of the new PCTs and taking him to live with me for a week, poor kid. I had Karley, who is an amazing cook, host me while this guy gets to put up with me and groundnut paste with jelly. During their first 2 days they already had one faint, one seizure, and one person ET (Early Terminate, or go home). Welcome to Ghana.


A Day in the Life of…..

For Daniel (Brother Daniel)
Age: 23 but I just tell my village I am young, cause I would still be a small boy at 23 here.
Occupation: Peace Corps Volunteer, Small Enterprise Development
5:45-Roaster wakes me up
6:00-Run
7:15-Go get rice pourage and greet the women under mango tree. One about 50 years old claims she is my wife. On the way tell Michael what I am doing for the day.
7:30-Read/minesweeper/chess while eating.
8:15-Stop sweating then shower
8:17-Dress and load up backpack for morning
8:30-Take off on bike (hopefully avoiding goats) for town. Usually I check in at the District Assembly with Mukaila, the weaving center with Bright, all stores in town to see what they sold the day before, and if the Paramount Chief is around I might stop by the palace.
9:30-Guiness with Mr. Agba (no joke, probably like 3 times a week)
10:00-Work on whatever projects I have going on.
11:30-Go to stands to pick out lunch of things like noodles, rice, beans, bread, fufu, banku
11:45-Make Lunch
12:00-Eat
12:15-Dishes
12:30-Work/Play with the kids/Read/Write/Computer lessons
2:30-Weave or chill with the weavers
5:30-Get stuff for dinner
5:45-Make Dinner (same choices as lunch)
6:15-Dishes
6:30-shower
7:00-Football match at the TV hut if there’s one on, if not read
9:00-Episode of M*A*S*H or read
10:00-Fall asleep to BBC on my shortwave
Market is every 4 days and I usually go to that. I go to Ho about once a week for internet, mail, and to speak American English with Julie. Sunday is 3 hours of church and phone with Ma and Pops. Hand wash laundry once a week. When tourists come whatever I’m doing stops for them. I lift like every 3 days after it gets dark, it’s the most exciting thing going on in the neighborhood so I always have spectators.