Ghana – Chapter 4

Accra, February 11, 2005

 

"Hi guys"

 

 

Hi guys,

 

No, I didn’t run out of things to write.  I’ve just been too busy to write.  However, I’ve also now been here long enough that some of the things that seemed funny and worth writing about during the first week, now just seem normal.

 

This Tuesday was a big day for celebrating.  My air freight arrived so I have some clean clothes.  Actually, I’ve got a LOT of clean clothes.  I just emptied my drawers and closet at home and didn’t pay much attention when I was picking stuff to ship.  When it got here (250 pounds worth) and I began to unpack, I realized that I must have shipped 100 pairs of socks (and I only shipped the matching pairs!) and nearly 50 shirts!  I can go months without doing any laundry now.  Who could ever wear so much?  I might set up a used clothing stand on the street in front of my house.  Used American clothes are very popular here (particularly blue jeans and t-shirts).  I have a store near my house that specializes in used sneakers (Nike, etc.) from the States!  Anybody in the market from some re-treaded Nikes?

 

This weekend I’m going to try the “God is our Blessing” Barbershop.  This guy has one chair set up in what looks like a large metal shipping container (a kitchen chair – not a barber chair).  I’ll try to get some pictures for you guys.  A barbershop here is usually some guy with a razor who nails a mirror to the trunk of a shade tree and gives you an old milk crate to sit on.  The GIOBB shop is a little more sophisticated.  He has some clippers, an old bed sheet to wrap around your neck, and a 1997 issue of some soccer magazine for you leaf through while he snips.  How do you think I’ll look with dreadlocks or corn rows?

 

My camera just arrived with my air freight, but I still can’t transfer anything to the office computer yet (security reasons) and I don’t have Internet at home yet.  But I’ll start taking some pictures to illustrate these stories with.  I know Kitty is dying to get a close-up of the hole in Sylvanus’s head.  And Lizzie probably wants a picture of some of the geckos (lizards – like in the Geico insurance co. ad) that hang out on the walls of my house in the evenings. 

 

Actually, the geckos remind me of the time that Ellen and I were sitting in a bar somewhere back in ’70 or ’71.  The lizards on the ceiling kept depositing their “waste” in our beers.  So we came up with the French specialty, “merde de lizard au bout blanc”.  The “bout blanc” has to do with the fact that the tip of the “merde” was white.  Well, with the geckos running up and down my walls, I’m looking for some coasters to keep over my wine glass!  Actually, they’re kind of cute.  And they eat the mosquitoes and flies, so they are a welcome addition.  No, Sasha and David, your parents were not inebriated at the time.

 

Sylvanus has all his vegetables planted and we wait now.  With this heat and sunshine, we should have sprouts by Saturday if the seeds were good.  He’s looking for some papaya trees for the yard too.  We have one growing by the wall, but it’s a male and only produces flowers – no fruit.  He’s looking for a couple of wives for it (polygamy is OK here).

 

>>>>> By the way EVERYBODY – someone just pointed out to me that in my signature below I had listed the wrong country code for Ghana.  It is 233 (not 223 as I had before).  So be sure that you all check your address books and make sure you have it right.  Someone please try my cell phone number again to test it. <<<<<

 

I spent the Thursday and Friday morning preparing a team of West African fish processors that USAID is sending to the Boston Seafood Show in March.  That was pretty interesting.  Anybody need any octopus or red fish fillets?  I can get you a deal on shrimp (the good kind – wild caught, not farm raised, much tastier).  Or canned tuna?  I briefed them on the structure of the US fish market, how to do business in the USA, etc.  It was fun.  They were sharp – most are already exporting to Europe.

 

Then I spent the afternoon talking to a lady from Conservation International (USA) about setting up environmental programs with the mining companies, as well as a wild chimpanzee protection program (Sierra Leone, Guinea, Gambia, Senegal).  We’re going to try to talk the pharmaceutical companies that use chimps in medical research (all bred in captivity now) into coughing up some guilt money to help protect their wild cousins.

 

I forgot to mention my ant invasion.  The other afternoon I noticed a stream of ants coming through a crack by one of the sliding doors.  These were the kind of really tiny ants we used to call “piss ants”.  There were hundreds of them.  An hour or two later, there was a seething patch of thousands of ants on the wall about two feet in circumference.  They were obviously migrating – carrying their eggs.  Then an hour later, they were completely gone – not a trace of them.  I guess they moved into one of my walls somewhere.  These aren’t the big army ants that eat dogs and chickens when they move through.  These are harmless and kind of cute (in an entomological kind of way).  They’re too small to bite you anywhere.

 

Greg

 

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