Can't Do Nuthin' Right

January 31, 2011

I’ve heard it’s been super cold at home, but here it’s been hella hot.  A little over a week ago the dust that has been making the sky foggy-looking started to clear, which means the beating sun is now shining through much more directly.  Eeek.  I completely ditched the village the other day and just laid under my ceiling fan in my underwear reading a book.  But tonight…just now… IT RAINED!!!!! It hasn’t rained in months…not since October or November.  Oh, the wind picked up and you could smell the rain coming and then…it was here!!!  It rained hard for about 40 minutes…it smells so good now!  I love rain.

Yesterday, I met with the batik group and we weeded and swept the Palm Oil Shed…which will now be our shed…well at least one of the rooms.  Termites have completely eaten through the 2 main doors and are well on their way to eating through the other 2…freaking bugs!  So, now we’ll have to do something about that.  As we were cleaning out the rooms, I hear Confidence screaming about something.  “What’s going on?”  “Oh, there is a very big lizard in there!”  I was thinking like a Monitor lizard or something…it was one of our common lizards (about 15 inches or so with it’s tail).  So I went and chased it out with my broom…as soon as it ran out the door one of the women started chasing it with her cutlass.  I’m screaming, “no, don’t kill it, nooooo” and all the women are laughing at me.  And Rita kept whackin’ him with her cutlass and finally chopped his head off.  “Oh!  Lizards eat bugs…they do not harm us.  Why did you kill it?”  Confidence, “I do not like them.”  Well then.  I can’t really argue…I kill spiders and I know they eat bugs…I can tell you that I have been killing a lot less since I’ve moved to Africa…

Last week I had a meeting with my chief and I’ve been approved to reshuffle the TMT; so now we have to announce it at the next community gathering.  We also talked about going and meeting with the Municipal Assembly to figure out why we are still waiting to use our tourism reception center.  So, hopefully these things get rolling.

So here’s your funny for today:  Today I was sitting at the roadside talking with Esther as she was filling the little bags with sugar to sell at her store.  So I said, “Oh, Esther, let me help.  I’ll tie the bags.”  “Can you?”  “Well, sure.”  I’m not stupid…geeze.  Well, apparently I am.  “Is this ok?”  “No, there is too much air.  Do it like this.” So after 2 more attempts my bag of sugar was approved.  Dang it, I thought I had this one!  “Esther, I am going to have to call my mother and tell her that I cannot even tie a bag a sugar correctly in Ghana!  She will be sad.”  She started laughing at me…but still didn’t hand my any more bags.

Happy Monday!
j