A fun weekend and a lesson learned!

After a busy week I was able to enjoy a fun weekend.  Saturday was much more like a ‘normal’ Saturday in Wilmington.  Getting up, cleaning the house, running errands and generally finishing out the week and getting ready for the next.  I also purchased some ready-made curtains for my bedroom so finally the tablecloths have moved on to another room and my room is really dark at night so it is much harder to get up in the mornings!

Sunday morning I woke up with very mixed feelings.  I really wanted to go to Church but also knew that it was my last day to have fun with a colleague from the US as she will leave this week.   Knowing that Church would take up the entire morning (as the service doesn’t end until 12.30) I made a difficult decision to miss Church.   So instead I started my day with my own little ‘worship service’ at home.  I cranked up the iPod with my Worship Songs, selecting four favorites and then down the volume down low and started to read in Acts.  As I read Acts, Chapter 3, Verse 15 “You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead.  And we are witness to this fact!”, it hit me that I had been allowing other people’s behavior and actions impact me every day and had forgotten about following my own believes and faith.    That changed my entire outlook and I pray that I will learn from my lesson and continue to get my daily strength from my own faith in God and what I need to do.

Having started my day with such a great revelation, I headed out of the house to collect Lucy so we could start our adventurous day out of Accra!  We decided we would head out on the coast road in the direction of Cote D’Ivoire (don’t worry not getting close) and try to find the Fort of Good Hope.  The only map I have is a tourist map that doesn’t show many roads (of course most of them aren’t really worth putting on a map yet as during the rainy season they get rather washed away!  We drove to several really interesting coastal villages looking  just as one would imagine a small African village; one ‘single lane road’ in and out, passing numerous small homes built of various things – mud, wood, corrugated iron, plastic sheeting, etc.  Lots of small children, goats (more about that later), chicken, fruit and vegetable stalls and of course on the coast fishing boats and people selling fish.  We crawled through the villages at about 5 mph just going with the flow of the villagers as they went about their business. 

Around lunchtime we arrived in Winneba a slightly larger fishing ‘town’ that is supposed to be the “Oxford” of Ghana with its University – I have to admit I would never have considered the resemblance if it wasn’t written in the West Africa Lonely Planet book – and actually still don’t but oh well!  Driving towards the beach, Lucy half-jokingly said it would be great to find a really nice restaurant with air conditioning that had great food including fresh fish.   Well who would have believed it – but that is almost exactly what we did find – after asking an elderly gentleman if there was “somewhere that served good food in town?”  The only thing missing was the air conditioning, however we sat outside under a wooden frame covered in plants (couldn’t quite refer to it as a pagoda) with a nice breeze blowing off the ocean.  After a wonderful lunch of grilled red snapper and french fries we drove back towards the beach.  Having parked close to the beach (on the grass at the edge of the sand) we took a walk along to the beach to check out the fishing boats before finally heading back towards Accra.

Now you may have noticed I haven’t mentioned the Fort of Good Hope yet – well the reason being is that we never actually located it, in spite of asking many, many people.  We have decided that since it was apparently built in 1702 that it is no longer a Fort of Good Hope but quite possibly rather a fancy (for Ghana) beach resort called Whitesands!   That is still to be confirmed though J.

Whitesands Beach

So back to the goats!   Through all these villages we kept coming across these really rather cute goats – they are pygmy goats, originating from Cameroon but now found through many of the West African countries.  They are smaller (hence the name pygmy) than the usual breed of goat and are really fun – the website I looked at calls them precocious!!  So I told Lucy that since I don’t have my dogs here with me in Ghana that maybe I would have a couple of pygmy goats (they don’t like to live alone apparently).  I have room in my garden to fence off an area big enough for them and can get them a few logs to play on – they like to jump on and off things and they can be my pets until I leave Ghana.  Since goats have a value here, particularly if they are females I would easily be able to find someone (possibly even my guards) to leave them with and would know that they would be taken care of (since they are valuable) until it was time for them to be eaten.  

I have already spoke to Solomon about helping me find some pygmy goats – although I have told him that I only want ones that are pretty colors (the dark ones are prettiest especially if they have white speckles on them) and after giving me his ‘smile – meaning oh no what now’ he started seriously discussing how we could find some for me.  So who knows in July I might have a couple of pygmy goats to keep me company here in Accra!  Stay tuned to find out……….

A busy week!

Isn't it amazing how one week can change one’s perspective on things!!  I just read my last blog and it was pretty bad – things were not good for me here in Accra.   However, thankfully not much in life stays the same for too long.  This past week has been a busy, fun and productive one – I could get used to this!  The improvement started last Friday when after waiting for ‘long enough’ I decided to see what I could do about tracking down my International Drivers Permit.  Using the very helpful www.whitepages.com I was able to find a number for the AAA office in Heathrow, Florida where I had sent my application two weeks earlier.  A very helpful lady was able to confirm that they had actually issued the Permit within 24 hours of receiving the request and that it should be back with me in Accra by now.  She also gave me the USPS Express Mail tracking number.  After a few false starts with that and a couple more calls to Florida, I was able to find out that my Express Mail envelope had actually been received by the Post Office in Accra last Tuesday (before I even wrote the last blog entry!).  So I began the tracking down of the envelope, which turned out to be a real mystery and I am not sure if it ever would have actually been delivered.  It wasn’t at the Post Office it was addressed too (that we use for work), and it turned out it wasn’t at the main Post Office either – after a trip to both of those on Saturday morning, I finally received a phone number for ‘Frank’ who could help me.   He had just arrived at work when I called him (it was about 10.00 am on Saturday and they closed at Noon) but promised to call me back once he had turned on his computer and could look up the tracking number – the big question at that time was would he ever call back!  Frank did – it was wonderful.  He quickly told me that he had the envelope in front of him as he called at it was at Accra Central Post Office, so off Patrick drove me as quick as he could in order to be there before 12.00

I walked into the Central Post Office and Frank obviously immediately identified me as the ‘white woman desperate for her mail’ as he quickly asked me if I was Charlotte and beckoned me right over to his window to collect it – my smile was so big at that point.  It has to have been the second best day in Accra so far!!!

Within about 90 minutes, I was back home and driving my car out of the garage to head out on the roads – I really didn’t know where, I just wanted to drive at that point.  Having thought about it for a minute or two I decided that I would first head to the dressmaker to see if she had my dress ready and then to the mall to get my grocery shopping done.  I was proud of myself – I didn’t get lost and even was quite brave at those four way junctions that seem to be a game of chicken when he comes to who goes and who doesn’t!!!  Those old days driving in London paid off!

So having mastered the roads, I decided I would then head to the airport to pick up a colleague/friend of mine from South Africa who is here this week at a regional finance meeting, along with a number of other colleagues from the USA and other countries that I know.  It was great to meet her at the airport and a surprise for her to be met by someone she knew – from personal experience that is always a brilliant surprise to see a familiar face at the airport on arrival, especially after a long journey.

The remainder of the weekend was then spent with friends and colleagues as a tour guide for Accra – quite funny since it was also my first two days of driving.  But we had a great time and I didn’t get lost and managed to find most of the ‘tourist’ spots in Accra, including Jamestown and the Kwame Nkrumah mausoleum and museum.   I have to say though that as a tour guide I am equally as challenged here as I am in the UK, USA or any other country I have been too.  When asked why the figures carved on the outside of the museum for Kwame Nkrumah looked Egyptian, I said “it is because it is old”, never mind we went inside and found out he had an arranged marriage with an Egyptian – who knew J  - I do now!  My next visitors will have a much better tour guide!!  I will expect tips…..

This week has also been busy at work.  I have attended parts of the regional finance meeting and also been busy trying to sort out travel for 5 individuals in 5 different countries in Africa to get to a meeting in Lusaka, Zambia – no easy task let me tell you!  But hopefully they are all set now and will make it to the meeting.

I have also enjoyed a couple of evenings out with the visitors and taken them to the handful of restaurants I know which has been fun and now as I sit here typing this up, I am just two weeks away from a short trip back home to Wilmington, NC to see my friends and my dogs and attend a very important high school graduation!

It has certainly been a different week here in Accra and I have still had to deal with ‘changing’ my night guard – the last one just slept one too many times and then I caught him asleep with the gate unlocked – that was the final straw, but it really has been so much more fun.  Being independent makes a big difference, especially after so many years being that way.

More news soon……

Always look on the bright side of life..........

This week has been a really tough one here in Accra.  I just can’t seem to get into any sort of rhythm at work which is very frustrating for me as most of you know I am someone who likes to get things done!  It is now Wednesday evening and I can’t wait for the week to end and would really prefer to avoid going to work for the next three weeks until I go home to Wilmington for a short but desperately needed visit with friends to avoid the $&%^ (no offense mean!) that seems to be happening.

The week was not helped by the fact that my electricity has been faulty since sometime yesterday resulting in my fridge/freezer being off for almost 20 hours (so losing most things as it is too warm here for it to retain any of its coolness once off!).   I also didn’t have air conditioning last night which resulted in a very hot night and little sleep…… all in all a pretty lousy 24 hours.

Even those small things I was looking forward to – some of my colleagues from the finance group and in particular one friend from South Africa being here next week, is being somewhat spoilt by the fact that I still don’t have a driving license so am not able to drive around and have as much fun with them.  Taxis just aren’t as convenient and can end up being quite costly!

I really do hope something changes for the better soon to make things seem a little easier here.  I have to admit I am really struggling with the thought of going to Wilmington and seeing my friends and then having to leave knowing that life here is far from satisfactory at the moment.  I told someone at work today that life is far too short to be miserable, especially at my age!

So tonight, while trying to get myself into a better frame of mind, I remembered that great song ‘always look on the bright side of life’ and just had to share it with you.

Some good British Comedy always makes things seem a lot brighter!  I hope each of you reading this is able to enjoy the bright side of life at the moment!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrdEMERq8MA

Feeling a little more like home!

This week has gone quite quickly due to the additional evening activity of unpacking!!  Monday was spent almost entirely at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Center trying to register my car and obtain a license.  The experience easily out surpasses any negative visits to the DMV in the USA or the DVLA in the UK, however following a second visit on Tuesday afternoon (well technically two visits, one in the morning and one in the afternoon), my car is now registered.  Albeit in the wrong name – but it is registered and legal to drive!!  The driving license so that I can actually drive the car (neither my UK or USA licenses are acceptable here) – well that didn’t go so smoothly.  The short version is that I can’t obtain a Ghanaian license until either I have been here 12 months or I have my residence permit and a support letter.  The support letter is easy, the residence permit not so easy!  I also cannot obtain an International Driving Permit here as it would then only be valid for use internationally outside of Ghana, so after a great deal of research and some help from our amazing head of travel in the US - Jill, I have now couriered an application for an IDP to AAA in Florida and am waiting desperately for its’ return.  It is so great to have my car, but for now I can only look at it!

Tuesday entailed a visit to PG’s to obtain curtain rods which are to be fitted tomorrow, again a simple task you would think since they were already selected and the ‘order’ confirmed via phone so that we could just pay, collect and leave.  Well we did manage to do that without any problems, it was just time consuming as usual.  Now I just have to hope that Bridget has finished making the curtains, but I can’t reach her as her phone is switched off and has been for two days now…………

Most of this week, we have had very limited internet or email due to various issues, such as ‘it’s the rainy season’, ‘someone in the vicinity is using a radio that is interfering with our signal’ and ‘they are installing the fiber optic cable’ – all interesting reasons, particularly the use of a radio!   And; all equally frustrating when trying to actually achieve some work.  

On that front, things seem to be settling down in Ouaga which is good news; we may be able to make some progress in Burkina Faso soon.  In all likelihood it appears as though Lome, in Togo may be my first work trip from Accra, thankfully it is also the easiest with direct flights of only about an hour duration – just French speaking, but………. I’ll address that when I get there possibly before my trip back to Wilmington in less than a month J

The unpacking status as of this evening is that the bedrooms are pretty much finished, the kitchen and dining room are done, the living room still needs some work and has boxes to be emptied and the office/scrapbook/workout room hasn’t been started.  I also have some major sorting of clothes to be done as I definitely have too many!

Thankfully I made it through unpacking the box that had inadvertently included several of the dogs things – new leashes, dingo chew bones and their ‘coats’ all of which shouldn’t have been packed but instead gone with the ‘girls’ to their foster home with Chip and Anna.   That could have been rough if it happened on a tough day………

My fun moment of the day was when Solomon arrived back in the office having kindly cashed two reimbursement checks for me so that I could have money for the weekend.  I have 500 GHC in 1 GHC notes – just to put than in perspective that is about 500 x 75 cents/50 pence notes – he was being considerate as he thought it would be helpful for me to have some small change.  The remaining 1,000 GHC is in 5 GHC notes!!   I think I have enough small change for the next two years!  Bless his heart!

This time in four weeks, I should be just finished having my manicure and pedicure, which I might add has been booked since before I left for Accra in February!  I can’t wait……..

A Dilemma?

After weeks of waiting; it has been 11 weeks since my household belongings (officially known as HHE) were driven away in a 40 foot container from Bar Harbor, 10 weeks since I arrived in Accra and 5 weeks since I moved into my house, I finally received my container of HHE yesterday afternoon.

Even up until one hour before they arrived, I wasn’t sure if they would be delivered on Friday afternoon or the following Monday morning.  Thankfully it was at about 3.20 pm on Friday afternoon that the Maersk shipping container arrived outside my house – well nearly J.  The crew had arrived about 10 minutes earlier and were patiently awaiting the arrival when a large truck and ‘my container’ went flying past my house heading who knows where.  Solomon, my ‘star’ here in Accra, quickly jumped into the car and drove off in hot pursuit after the truck.  Thankfully, about 10 minutes later they both showed up at the house again.

The first thing to come off the container, which still had it customs’ seal intact was my car.  Unfortunately, we had to wait for about another 20 minutes until the truck carrying the ramp showed up and they were finally able to reverse my car out of the container – it was definitely a little hair-razing but also exciting to see my car!

That done, they had to drive the truck back up to the crossroads up the street, where the railroad crossing is and proceeded to do a U turn in the middle of the crossroads J.   For some reason they had to reverse into the driveway from the opposite direction?????  My driveway has a slope to it and it was only just possible to get it into the drive, and that was including gouging out a few lines about 1” deep in my concrete driveway!

Thankfully, although there were about 8 of them unloading the truck, which meant things were coming out of it fast and furious, they were kind enough to wait and the entry door and let me tell them which room I wanted it in.  Believe me not everything ended up in the right place (from my incorrect direction), but the majority seems to have done so!  Within about 90 minutes they were done – everything was inside the house somewhere.  I knew that they had until about 5.30 pm before they left for the weekend so I asked them to unwrap some of the larger items, I knew couldn’t be damaged by some hasty unwrapping and then they were gone!   It really was that quick – but of course, virtually none of the unpacking was done, however based on seeing how the unwrapped my air shipment I had asked it they would allow me to unpack myself and then report any damage – which thankfully they agreed to.  So far there is only one broken vase L - if that is all there is at the end it will be good J.

Of course, being me, I started in on the unpacking immediately, although was sensible enough to call it a night by about 7.30 pm so I could get something to eat before my last night sleeping on the blow-up mattress.  I was so tempted to try to put my bed together, but since I have the ‘sleep number’ which I knew would take some time, decided that I could handle one more night with the holy sheets!

This morning, at about 4.45 am the dog I am watching for my colleague that moved here at the same time started to bark, so of course with that I was up and knowing how much I had to do, there was no going back to sleep.  I showered and started slowing beginning to assess what needed to be accomplished today, knowing that I had Solomon and Daniel (another work colleague) coming to help in the morning with the heavy/awkward things.  I decided that the beds and furniture where the most important; the boxes would come later and then ‘arranging’ the living room – at least a first attempt at it.

The two of them arrived at 8.00 am, by which time I had started to make good progress and had at least moved all the packing materials from inside the house to the ‘boys quarters’ out back so that there was more room to move about.  They worked really well together (as I think they often help out others together) and within about 3 hours, the spare bedrooms were set up with the furniture in about the right places and my living room and dining room were in pretty good shape (at least the furniture) and the boxes and packing materials were all put into the ‘boys quarters’ out next to the garage, so at least it won’t get wet now that it seems to have started raining a little more often.

My next chore was to head to the shops to buy some groceries to last me a few more days before I will be able to drive my car.  That of course, will be another adventure; first it has to be cleared by customs (just a stamp!), then inspected, then it can be licensed and then insured.  At the same time I have to either have an international license (neither my British or American licenses are accepted here) or a Ghanaian driving license – once all that is done I can actually drive it on the roads – of course I to get someone else to drive it to get the registration, etc. done first J.   Praise the Lord for Solomon who I am hoping will be able to help me at the beginning of the week.

So with all this excitement and I can’t tell you how much joy and big smiles from me J, my dilemma now is:  why are my possessions so important to me – why couldn’t I be that happy without them.  We often talk about the importance of putting God first, not idolizing other things including material possessions, and while I thought I did that most of the time, now I am not so sure??

When I think about the reason that led me to Ghana, the END Neglected Tropical Diseases program in a number of West African countries, I of course think about the people that it will benefit.  When I do, I also know that 99.9% of them don’t have a car and all the other things I am blessed to have, I am sure none of them have ‘sleep number’ beds!  Can I say I deserve my “HHE” because I have worked hard and earned each one of them by some means or other?    Possibly, but have the beneficiaries of the program worked hard, worshipped our God, taken care of those less needy than themselves, cared for the sick? I am sure I can safely say the large majority have done that and so much more.   

Are they happy?  I don't know the answer to that question........ but shouldn’t I be able to be just as happy with having less rather than more?  In the developed world it is so easy to get caught up with the importance of material possessions so what happens when for whatever reasons they are no longer available to us?  We should think about that before becoming dependent on them! 

Hmmm………  I have to dwell on that one a while? 

Roma Dialogue - Part III Easter Sunday and leaving.....

Easter Sunday morning J in St. Peter’s Square…….. Following an earlier breakfast, I headed over to St. Peter’s Square along with the thousands of other people.  The Mass started at 10.30 and it was about 9.00 am when I arrived, already most people that had tickets for the seats were in there places and the square was filling up quickly – the side that the sun would shine on first was already packed.  Yes after the rain on Saturday night, Sunday was a glorious morning with bright blue skies and the sun shining – I guess if you have almost an entire city praying for a beautiful day, including the Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, etc. there was a pretty good chance those prayers would be answered J.  As I first walked into the square the choir was singing Jesus Lives – it was great!

I made my way to the steps over to the left of the center of the square and found myself quite a good spot to be able to see the big screen really well and the alter (although it was obviously easier to watch the big screen) and sat down to ‘save my spot’, because let me tell you if you moved your feet someone would sit in front of you so there was nowhere to place your feet – it was really busy, but I was really pleased that I had been able to get into the square as I had thought you needed a ticket even for that!

The arrival of the Pope at 10.30 am in his ‘Pope-mobile’ was announced by huge cheers from the crowd and many bells.  The Mass itself was very good; they had someone read in about 10 different languages (a native speaker) and actually included some women in the service – the Catholics are finally moving with the times a little I guess (sorry any of you reading this).  The Pope then served communion to a select few obviously representing different groups of people, nuns, monks, a family with two young children, a teenage boy and girl, etc., while many priests served communion to those in the reserved seating.   The music throughout the entire Mass was wonderful.  It was about 2 hours long in total before the service ended and the Pope went inside St Peter’s to go to the balcony to provide his Easter address to the crowd.  

I managed to worm my way through the crowds to get a pretty decent spot on which to get a couple of pictures of the Pope as he appeared on the balcony, but then have to say after spending about 3 ½ hours sitting and standing on the stone steps headed away from St Peter’s before the main exodus would happen following the Pope’s speech.  

I had decided that I would go to the Traverstere area of Rome as it was supposed to be a much quieter area of the city with nice little places to eat and cobbled roads with very little or no traffic is some areas.  The bus route was a little more difficult as it involved three changes and waiting for buses for a while, but I arrived in the area and it was well worth the effort.  Finding myself another gelato for my late lunch, I walked around the little Piazza’s and found one little Osteria that looked to be serving delicious seafood so decided I would come back here later in the day for an early dinner.  I walked across to the island in the middle of the Tiber and saw the oldest remaining part of the bridge crossing Ponte Rotto (214 BC) – it is pretty amazing it is still there after all these years!

From there I hopped on a bus to take me to the other side of town, back near the Spanish Steps as there was a doorway that was surrounded by stone carvings that looked like a face, having ‘hiked’ my way up a long street I found the house, covered in scaffolding – can you believe it!!  But I took the photo anyway, hopefully you can get an idea through the screen J.  From their it was only a short walk to the top of the Spanish Steps so I went on up and then headed down the steps for the Metro back to the area of the B&B.  Again thinking that a short nap would be good, before heading out to the little Osteria I had located for dinner.

I won’t dwell on the dinner as it was so disappointing – I clearly ordered badly!   I had the set menu for the fish and it really was awful – the pasta with salmon was almost made with a salmon paste, the grilled calamari was just a big slab of calamari that had a little butter on it before being grilled – the only thing that was good was the crème caramel – what a disappointment.  The plate I had seen at lunch time had beautiful looking calamari, shrimp, etc. L  So to make up for it I went in search of another gelato J but it was still a shame especially after the previous nights’ dinner.

The remainder of my last evening in Rome was spent wandering through the streets back towards the hotel just enjoying the freedom of walking in the evening with no worries.  It was back to Accra in the morning.

Monday morning in Rome (in all of Italy) was their equivalent of Independence Day so there were big parade’s planned and I knew that it would impact the bus routes I needed to travel on, so after a leisurely breakfast, I packed up and headed out for the Terminal Station where I wanted to pick up a couple of things before heading out.  I was glad I left early as the bus was diverted and was considerably slower than usual.  I arrived with about 40 minutes before my train, so headed for a supermarket to pick up some diced pancetta that I could use with my cheese and the pasta I can get in Accra.  It lasts for ages so that was a good find, then it was time to find my platform for the Leonardo Express again, which is at the far end of the station.

My last little ‘excitement’ in Rome was at the airport; at the Gate waiting for the flight to Accra (which went via Lagos, Nigeria).  As is typical for Africans’ in general they travel with a great deal of hand luggage, usually a minimum of two bags, and most at least three if not four.  Well the poor gate agents were trying to tell (what turned out to be nearly all Nigerians) that they couldn’t hand carry all that luggage and then starting tagging things and said that they would have to pay 200 Euro per checked bag.  It got crazy, they were all so mad, they had to call security to calm them down!  Then when it came to boarding that was another whole stampede to get on the plane (so that they could find spaces for all their luggage!).  Thankfully the gate agent had been kind enough to find me a window seat further back on the plane with the aisle seat next to it open – she actually blocked it for me to make sure that I would have the two seats to myself – I was so grateful J as I was tired and wanted to be able to sleep, which I did.

There ends my Roma Dialogue!