Ghana – Chapter 10

Accra, March 10, 2005

"Hi Ya’ll"

Hi Ya’ll,

First, an update on the weather – thanks to Yahoo.  For the period March 10-14:

We had two good night time rains (thunder and winds) the past two nights so I guess that the rainy season is about here – This is the “cool” season.

Secondly, if you’re interested in where I work, you can check out the USAID/West Africa Regional Program website at http://www.usaid.gov/missions/warp/index.htm

This hasn’t been updated since I arrived yet.

Now, let me introduce you to Frank, the newest member of my household staff – better known as my “village”.  I haven’t figured out where Frank lives.  He just suddenly appears underfoot or on the wall somewhere.  He let’s me get pretty close, but then scuttles off really fast.  Geckos are famous because their feet stick to things so they can walk across ceilings without falling, etc., but their feet don’t pick up any dirt.  Frank’s about 6” long.  In this picture, he was posing on my dining room wall.  Sometimes I find him on his way into my bedroom closet.

Accra seems like a pretty safe place.  I heard of someone getting their car broken into a few months ago at night, but that’s about it.  Nonetheless, all the houses are surrounded by walls and the walls usually have something on top to discourage intruders.

This is what the top of the wall on the front of my house looks like.  (The wall is at least 8 feet high).

This is the view of the wall in the back of my house taken from my bedroom window.

Here’s a local variant.  The masonry job’s not as good as mine and I could bend these over with my hand, but if you fell on them – look out!

This looks like window glass.  It must have been a lot of work to get it stuck in there.

For you guys in Atlanta, here’s an idea with a local flavor (or “flavour” as we say here).

Greg “Daddy” (as I’m affectionately known to the villagers)

Go to next chapter

Click here to go back to the Table of Contents