Adventures in Living

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Frustrations, Life

Today has been an exercise in patience, more so than most days here, which I think is saying a lot. This morning I went to the Anglican mission school – an upper basic (middle school) – where I am trying to get their computer lab up and going. I arrived expecting to have a chance to check out their machines and get things ready to start lessons next week, but found some Nigerians working there. I had met these guys before, when they came to the high school computer lab and charged D60,000 – maybe $2400 – for maintenance and “cleaning”, which more or less entailed blowing through the machines with a dust buster. I am not their biggest fan.

This morning I not only had to watch them work on a machine that I had just been checking out the day before, but then the headmaster was rude, ordering me around and being condescending, I think just because they were there. He’s usually a very cool fellow, and I don’t have problems with him, so it was a shock. I nearly told him that I wasn’t getting paid and walked out, but got it together and focused on what I was there to do. After I was well into my work, the headmaster came to say that they had to shut down the generator because it was out of fuel. The Nigerians had seemed to fix what they were working on, so I just bailed on my stuff and said I would finish tomorrow. Then he asked them if they had suggestions, which I disagreed with, out loud, and basically let them know that I didn’t want them trying to take advantage of this school for their pocketbooks. I admit I was a little bit frustrated by the fact that they fixed something that I had started on, and probably felt a little upstaged by them, but in doing it they just sacrificed another computer that we had been planning to fix, and also lost all the data that had been in the original machine.

After that, I was probably just in the wrong mood, but I seemed to get ordered around all day, and not appreciated at all. Clearly, most of it was in my attitude. And it’s getting humid to go along with the baking temperatures, so I’m starting to have the constant sweat that makes everything chafe just a little bit more. Not to bitch to excess, but then I loaned my mobile phone (actually, a friend’s mobile, as mine abandoned me when I was in Kombo last) to a girl in my compound so that she could put her simcard in and make a call, as her battery was flat. While all that was going on, I read a bit and fell asleep, only to wake up and find her gone, along with my phone. Since the phone needed charging, I didn’t want to leave it behind for the night, while I’m here and then teaching at the hospital. So, I waited to run my errands until after she got back. Which was unfortunately two hours later, pretty well blowing up my plans. I was actually on my way into town when I saw her to get the thing back, so frustrated and angry that I couldn’t really be myself. It’s gotta be the heat, or the sweating, or something, but it’s just been like that today.

The good news is that the solar project is coming right along. It’s been a lot of details, and some very informative emails from Craig Colburn, but I think I have the whole thing in my head, and I’m close to having all the parts in my hands. I had a bracket mounted on a metal pole for the panel, with a hinge and lock so that it doesn’t walk off in some “needy” person’s hands. I have a new table for the batteries and inverter so that they are off the ground and will be easy to keep clean. And I have the whole project planned out, so that I just need to get the pole up, mount some things, and do the wiring. I will also have to put in a ground, as that sort of thing doesn’t really exist here, but I think that will be a follow-on, after-launch piece. I still think of projects as “launching” even though those web building days seem a lifetime ago.

Well, this has been a downer of a post, but I guess that’s a part of the whole game. There are some days when Africa just gets the best of me. It’s happened many times before, will happen many times again, and I hope I’m getting better at writing it off, learning something, and bouncing back. That, and acclimatizing to the humidity. I was dealing with the heat fairly well, and it doesn’t seem to be much hotter, but the humidity is no fun. It actually sprinkled rain the other morning, a surprise and foreshadowing of things to come. We may get a real rain sometime next month, and then by late June the rainy season could be upon us. I’m anticipating it with mixed emotions – May will probably be hot and sweaty enough to make me long for the cool rainy days, but the air will be soup until late October, and there are plenty of downsides to that. But, first, the present! April is in its last days, and I’m still here, doing what I do and having my adventures.

I want to promise pictures from Ghana and of the solar for next time, but my laptop may have breathed its last, so I may be at the mercy of other systems. We’ll see. Perhaps another trip to Kombo is in my near future, as little as I want to go.

Love to everyone, Zac

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Ghana recap

Busua was gorgeous, great food, beer, and company. I’m not sure if I got a picture of it, but there was an island out in the middle of the cove that provided a perfect focal point when sitting on the beachside, drinking a beer. It was pretty much the tropical paradise I dreamt about on too many frozen Western New York nights.

The eclipse was magical, the type of thing that forces me to recognize how small I am, how lucky I am, and how important it is to have my eyes open to the wonders of life. There’s another one in Canada somewhere in 2008, perhaps the focus of another adventure.

After that we accompanied our guide (Abby! She is a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana, we lucked into meeting her at the house of another wonderful volunteer, Erica, who hosted us one night. Abby was responsible for many of the good bits and free of blame for any struggles we had. Except maybe Elubo, but that’s getting ahead of myself…) to Axim for a party with a great crowd of volunteers – I mention some but I’ll fail to mention others who were every bit as important – Robert was the host and John brought a yearling goat for dinner, fantastic.

Then we peeled ourselves off the floor (a bit too literally in my case), readied and dragged back on the road, headed for Ankasa National Park. We made it to Elubo, the cab driver told us to get out, we were next door to Cote d’Ivoire, and I was a little bit of a blinking turtle emerging slowly from his shell, without knowing quite where the world was. We wandered over to a hotel we had seen on the way into town, but it was a little … disappointing, to be kind. I’m not sure if it was the arms and ammunition shop on the way over, the faded “elegance”, or just our general attitude, but we had a little pity party / lunch meeting and decided that, as the national park was 20 plus km away, and not the six that we had thought, and since we were on vacation and not too thrilled about our location, we’d just chalk it up as a learning experience and high tail it back to Busua. Intrepid travelers might have stuck it out, we were just a few tired volunteers.

So, back to Busua, more sun, surf, beer, great food, and quality time with Dave, a PCV working there. I moved very little from my chair that first day back, just to the water a few times to play in the very fun waves – the tides were big, the ocean doing just enough to remind me of fun times in Hawaii, I was in heaven – and back to my chair, book, and happiness. Vacation is a great thing.

We ended up spending three more days in Busua, not all as inert as the first, but not too strenuous either. Lots of swimming, reading, talking, fruit juice and joy. I read three books in the twelve days we were gone. Our last night in town we celebrated with a lobster dinner at a local spot called Nana’s, a one-table shack, where we ate with some Italians and had a great time. It was just about perfect.

On our way back to Accra, we spent two nights in Cape Coast, toured the castle there (it was centrally involved in the slave trade, a sobering tour of the dungeons and apparatus included) and took a hike through rain forest canopy on a 30m-high suspended walkway. In Accra we ate cheeseburgers at Frankie’s and spent a day in Aburi (in the mountains nearby), visiting botanical gardens and walking around a woodworking crafts area, seeing the men carve some great pieces and hearing a lot of sales pitches.

After one more night of great sandwiches and beer, we were off to the airport, back home via Monrovia and Freetown to our still cool Kombo region. There are quite a few volunteers around at the moment, and while I won’t say we are all hiding out from the heat, it does make one appreciate chilly nights when I know I’m going back to real heat very soon.

Thanks so much to all we met in Ghana, we’d love the chance to repay you here (or anywhere else) one day.

Back in The Gambia, doing my thing

I am going to write about my trip, life and all, but this got my attention: Right Trial, Wrong Defendant

Going political again, I recognize, but I think the view of our country from abroad is colored more strongly by something like this than many Americans realize.