Life

“It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.” -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

While here in Ghana, I am going to have the opportunity to explore African villages and markets, climb above rain forests, ride an overland truck through a safari, and feed bananas to monkeys. Those are the intriguing and invigorating parts of this whole gig. However, in the meantime, I have to live, and day-to-day life is composed of far fewer thrills, but nonetheless, interesting tidbits.

· Each day, I fill my kettle using the faucet in my bathtub, and I boil water so it is safe to drink. There is also a well right outside of my house that students pump for their drinking water if they do not have the tools to boil with.·

If I want milk, I have to pour Cowbell powder into a glass with water and shake it up. It’s not quite as delicious as a cool gallon of milk from Whole Foods, but when mixed with cereal, you can hardly tell the difference.

For a little energy kick, Milo does the trick. This chocolate powdery stuff isn’t the sweetest, so I add three sugar cubes and it’s set. Interestingly, most nutritional labels here do not list “calories.” Rather, they list “energy.” Often, when people are concerned about my eating enough, they refer to whether or not the amount of food I am eating will sustain me. Energy is of the utmost importance here.

· Students come to the house to clean each Saturday, but in the meantime, I sweep my floors with my Ghanaian broom. It cost 15 cents!

· Each morning around 4:45am, I lie in bed listening to the swishing of brooms dusting the cement area surrounding my house. The students here work harder than anyone I have ever known in America. In my crazy teacher opinion, I believe that they really should be reading more books instead.

· My roommate scolds and questions me often regarding cooking. Yesterday, my rice inside of my nice little rice cooker was done. It was soft and fluffy people, ready to go. She yelled at me saying “let it warm for a while, it’s not done Amy!” I told her I’ve been eating rice like that my whole life and I haven’t died yet. Doubt she appreciated the rebuttal, but the rice was cooked! Clearly, she likes to tell me what to do. Generally after cooking, I sit in the kitchen with my roommate and her slaves, errr, students, and listen to the singsong language of Twi and have no idea what is being said. I’m sure it’s something to do with my cooking.

Any trash goes to a small hill near my house, and occasionally gets burned. However, the burning doesn’t happen very frequently, so cats and goats peruse the goods, and today I even saw the librarian digging for treasure! Disposing of trash is very problematic here because there are no landfills or garbage trucks, so people are left to deal with it on their own.

My aunt Carol gave me some thought-provoking words of wisdom. She said, well, actually typed, “Faith in positive outcome. It really also has nothing to do with what is around you, only with what you want to happen.” So far, a large part of this experience for me has had to do with adjusting my expectations. At this point, things are the way they are going to be, whether I like it or not. The problem with having any sort of expectations is that they generally don’t work out exactly how you want. There is always some level of disappointment, and I guess that’s just life. Considering America is a nation filled with workaholics, and I am one of them, I should be enjoying this little break from life. Soon enough I will be back to working twelve hours a day and complaining about having no time for myself. So, now, I have plenty of time to enjoy my hobbies and explore the terrain of an African nation. Life could be worse.