This One Goes To Eleven

Of late…

1. It’s Harmattan season again. Meaning that it’s cold and night and windy all day. Meaning that I bath seldom (its too cold) and have perpetually dry skin. And by too cold I mean it’s 69 degrees.

2. A few days ago, I bought a goat liver and fed it to the everrapacious cats. They went crazy. I just think it’s funny that I bought a goat liver. I got it from my kebab-selling friend in Tongo. He keeps trying to sell he the smoked goat head but I haven’t been persuaded yet…

3. I got my bike back into shape and have had a great time with it. I painted stripes on it and got a new, notcrappy plastic basket for it. I go into Tongo almost every day on it to either study for the GRE at the spot, hang out with two-year-old Joselyn (who wraps her arms around my legs, closes her eyes and smiles) or to buy watermelon. I can also ride to and from Bolga again, which is fantastic. It’s such good exercise and not having to wait on capricious public transportation is freeing. Yay my bike.

4. Watermelon. Watermelon season lasts from late October to about the beginning of January. I’ve been celebrating it by stuffing myself with watermelon almost every day. I eat it with a spoon. I probably eat about 4 to 5 (small) watermelons a week. That would probably be gross if it wasn’t so AWESOME.

5. One of the most frequently heard songs on the radio here in Ghana these days is called ‘Sex Machine.’  This is funny because Ghanaian culture is about as lascivious as baby hugging a teddy bear. Little kids sing a long and I laugh at them. You too can sing along here!

6. The kids went home last Thursday. This past term was just strange, somehow. No headmaster, starting late, and Harmattan always makes things a little off. We had a meeting at the end of the term with the district director of education. I really really liked him; he was very down to earth, practical and obviously frustrated at how my school tends to do things in ways that aren’t really the best. Like how we didn’t have money to buy detergent to clean the boys’ dorms which allowed things to get really dirty and make some students sick. Outrageous things like that. He said he’s interviewing people for the position of headmaster and hopefully we’ll have a new one soon. He said that he would prefer for someone within the school/area to get the job, but I disagree. What the school really needs is a serious headmaster who will crack the whip and make things happen. Someone scary and business-like. It would be great if we got a headmistress! The deaf schools in Wa and Savelugu both have headmistresses, and they’re doing a good job.

7. I’ve hung out a lot with Fataiya and Jamilu last week. Jamilu was at school for the last several weeks of school as a volunteer teacher and he was staying in the boys’ dorm. Everynight I would go over to Fataiya’s room and watch the news with them (Ghana’s national news channel has a Sign Language interpreter in the corner!) and just talk about things. Sometimes they were serious things like the situation in Ivory Coast and sometimes it was silly stuff like how you’re supposed to drink water upside down to get rid of the hiccups. I’m really really lucky to have them around. One thing that is funny about Jamilu is that he isn’t totally unadventurous when it comes to food. A lot of times he is too wary to even eat food that I cook. Usually what happens, though, is that Fataiya and I pressure him into it and then he likes it. One day we were in the market and I asked them if they like yellowmelons (small yellow melons that kind of taste like cantaloupe) and they said they didn’t know, that they’d never tried them. I thought this was funny and ridiculous so I bought us one. They tried it and like it. Ghanaians are so funny about food.

8. In the land of feline love, things are looking up. In the past week Cheerio has decided to spot being a jerkosaurus to Oswald and they’ve started playing together. I know this comes as good news to you.

9. Happily, the bead project (the biggest thing I want to get done) is moving along even during break! Donatus, the school carpenter and Basic Design Technology teacher, is maing the oven! I gave him money and he’s going to have it done by the time next term starts! I love love love when things actually get done here somehow on time! More on this later.

10. So now I’m in Tamale, working on stuff for work and the cookbook revision. I’ll take the exciting 14 hour busride to Accra on Christmas Eve and go from there.

11. I got a ridiculous text today from this guy I met on the street in Bolga. I only met him once and he’s called me a couple times, once to talk to his mother (??). He called today but the network help stalling so we didn’t get to talk really. This is the text he sent me after a few tries calling: ” It’s not my fault. I would have loved to speak to u till JESUS comes. but its my phone. Your voice has been de sweetest melody i ever heard. my heart is always gonna be with u, till life leaves my body. infact You are such a wonderful gift from god. You carry de mark of pure beauty. U appear to be created different from all ladies. please find a place in your heard to forgive me. it’s not my fault.” Again, I’ve met this guy one time. Ridiculous.