Ghana – Chapter 2
Accra, February 3, 2005
"So I get up at 0600..."
So I get up at 0600 – though I wake up at 0500 when that blasted *!@#%*$ bird starts cackling outside my window. Even though I have the air conditioner on, she manages to pierce that veil of white sound with no problem. My bedroom is nice and cool, the kitchen is extremely warm (no a/c, gas pilot lights on all the time, and a huge refrigerator and a huge freezer), the rest of the house is fine. There are a/c’s in all rooms, but the kitchen and bathrooms. I was told in my health briefing to keep them on to keep mold and fungus off my body.
First thing when I get up, I take the butter out of the fridge and put a slice on a plate. It’s really cold and hard. By the time I have showered, the butter has resolved itself into a spreadable pool on the plate thanks to the warmth of the kitchen and I can put it on some bread. Otherwise it’s yogurt and some of the frozen fruit I managed to find.
Lunch has been at the USAID canteen everyday. It serves mostly Ghanaian food (fufu or banku, some kind of sauce, some kind of meat). Today it was fried plantains, beans and a fried fish head.
Wednesday evening I walked across the street to the Lonhine Chinese restaurant which people here all said was “great” – anyway, it’s a landmark that all the drivers know. It wasn’t too bad. They have the large bottles of beer – like the Schlitz malt liquor that some of you Southern boys may remember. I had the “chicken salad” (sliced chicken on a bed of cabbage covered by runny peanut butter), lobster in black bean sauce (good!) and bok choy (they call it Chinese cabbage) steamed with garlic and mushrooms (also good). Anyway, it’s convenient.
I know you guys aren’t dying to know what I eat every day – but I wanted to show you some sense of normalcy in my life over here.
Yes, you can rest easy. I can stream NPR all day on my office computer so I am staying up on Howard Dean’s chances to chair the Dem Party and Double-Ya’s State of the Union – “look out there’s an Al Qaeda mushroom cloud in that social security program” – speech.
I sent Sylvanus (my gardener) off to buy some vegetable seeds on Thursday. I’m going to have him rip out some of the tropical flowers and put some okra and eggplant in. I told him to leave some room for the cilantro in case someone can find me some seeds somewhere. He’s pretty cool. I think the large machete scar he has across his forehead may have something to do with the fact that he always stares off into the distance when he talks to you, but he really does seem to know something about agriculture. Tomorrow he’s going to take me to a local nursery to pick out some climbing flowery things to have grow up the decorative brick wall of my nascent night club/patio. (I haven’t asked him where the scar came from – about 8 inches long. He may be a demobilized rebel soldier from Liberia or somewhere.)
By the way, if any of you are planning to visit, you’ll only need about 7 shots and some mefloquin (malaria prophylaxis tablets). According to Foreign Service lore, the mefloquin is supposed to give you nightmares, but the dragons and little green men in my bedroom at night tell me that they’re sleeping just fine. As for the seven shots, they don’t hurt much. If you’ve been in Sub-Saharan Africa in the past 3 months, you’ll only need seven of them. You guys in Greeneville may have to drive a ways to find an internist that can handle the various parasite varieties, but the big city kids shouldn’t have any problems. Anyway the SFO types among you probably get these shots on a weekly basis anyway – just to go to the supermarket. For you disease groupies, the shots include: yellow fever (popular with the Martha Stewart types), hepatitis A, hepatitis B (if you might be exposed to blood – for you rare meat eaters – this leaves “charbroil those ribs Gregg” out), meningococcal meningitis, rabies, typhoid, tetanus-diphtheria booster, measles booster and polio (hey the wheelchair worked for FDR)
Anyway, I’ll be happy to fax all 127 pages of the health briefing booklet to anyone who’s interested. [You guys may not yet be able to tell when I’m typing with my tongue in cheek – maybe I need a special emoticon like ;} or L?] I get to soak anything fresh in bleach until it’s no longer fresh. That kills the bacteria, worms, and a good deal of the flavor (just joking – the concentration is so low that you can’t taste it). I’ve been told to look for a product called “Milton” (sp?) that can be used to sterilize baby bottles, etc. Ever hear of this product, Lizzie?
When I had my security briefing at the Embassy the other day, the RSO (Regional Security Officer – everyone here has an acronym - mine is RAB) told me to look for the master alarm switch in my house and the panic button above my bed. So I looked. No switch, no button. Just some loose wires sticking out of the wall. Today the Admin office (EXO) told me that mine had been removed and given to someone else who “needed it”. So it’s up to Daniel and Amos (my two guards) to sound the alarm if anything goes wrong. I do have a shortwave radio that is tied into the Marine Security Guard at the Embassy (MSG – aka Post One), but no one has shown me how to use it. Daniel and Amos have real looking billy clubs and some handcuffs if anything really gets out of control – so behave yourselves when you’re visiting! Unfortunately, Daniel and Amos probably only weigh about 80 pounds a piece, fully dressed and armed and sopping wet.
All, now that you’ve all had a chance to absorb some of this, Sasha will be taking reservations for the Third Occasional Crazy Coconut Tour Africa Expedition, and Safari (TOCCTAES). My taxi driver yesterday told me that he has a cousin in London who has a van we can rent. So all you’ll need is airfare to London, and he’ll take care of the overland portion from there – oh and pack some crackers and sardines for the trans-Saharan part.
Love to all,
G the RAB (not a green leafy Italian vegetable)
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