GonetoGhanaNews

Merry Christmas!!
I have been at my site for a few weeks and am adjusting to life in Mpaha. I have so much to share with you but for now I will just share one story.

Monday----
Last Monday I needed to go to a neighboring village about 100km away to meet with other guinea worm volunteers about their upcoming plans for eradication.... Because it was a Monday, I needed to be up at 5:30am and in town by 6am to secure a seat on the only tro-tro leaving town that day. When I arrived in Yapei for the meeting, I emerged from the tro and began beating the dust out of my clothes with the bandannas I had been wearing on my head and face.

Now that I was presentable for the meeting, I need breakfast. I scanned the roadside for a local diner or coffeeshop, but being in the wrong country for that I called to the women balancing a huge tray of hard boiled eggs with peppe sauce on her head. I also stopped to buy an orange, or rather fresh squeezed orange juice.
eating an orange roadside in Ghana: your hands are dirty so you don't want to touch what you eat, so oranges are lightly skinned with a hole cut in the top. You squeeze and suck every last ounce of juice out of it.

I went to the designated tree for our meeting and sat under it waiting for everyone else to arrive. there is no actual meeting time as transportation is not in our control, so people get there when they can. The meeting was long, unorganized, and inefficient... but we actually met, so it was a success! I told everyone of Mpaha's plan to have a soccer match for kids and do education at half time.... the grand prize: brightly painted pipe filters to wear around their necks.

As if paying attention wasn't hard enough, during the meeting I found myself watching strange lizards walk by, then my attention was unavoidably turned to the large bushfire started 20ft away from me. The boys here, who remind me of the lost boys of neverland in their worn clothing and lack of supervision, start bush fires and stand at the edge with large sticks and sling shots looking for anything that could be a serving of protein (ie. bush rats). So there we are sitting under a tree trying to have a meeting with smoke and ash all around us, small boys with rudimentary weapons, and various creatures fleeing from the fire (including many bats relocating to our tree).

When the meeting finally finished (no breaks) at 2pm, I went to sit on the side of the road to wait for a ride back. Then I had to sit again at the edge of the 52km dirt road into the bush with my fingers crossed that at 4pm there might still be a car going to Mpaha...... a cattle car with no less than 50 people pulled around the corner. The driver, who usually saves a spot for me in front, so he can ask me all sorts of questions about the outside world, stopped when he saw me waiting there and made some room for me on the cattle car.

Just as I was thinking, " Yes!! I don't have to find a ride to the next volunteers house (about 120km back the way I came from)!" our cattle car overheated and broke down exactly half way between Mpaha and the road. The driver went off to find some water for the radiator as I battled through broken gonja conversation with the women and children in the truck bed. After waiting about an hour, just when I started planning out the rationing of my water to get me through the night, the driver returned and with 20 of us pushing and 3 tries, we got the truck started. wooohooo!!!

The drive home was one of the most beautiful sunsets I've seen yet. The light, cool, dry fog of dust and smoke that settles in at dusk made the sun glow red as it set into the bush... I made it through another day.

I see the sun set and rise everyday here. It has happened everyday of my life, but rarely did I actually see both. These and the amazing stars so far from electricity at night are my christmas lights this year and they are beautiful!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful christmas.
jenell