Update from Connie

This was sent to Connie from Dorothy. Slightly edited by Ken.
Lots of great detailed information about where my Mom is.
Kelley

Today I can actually access my e-mail AND blog. Last time I couldn’t post either, today I can respond to e-mail but not the blog. Thank gawd the kids are posting for me occasionally. I cant tell you how much I miss the humor, the conversation, and just the easiness of random conversation. Ghanaian English is a combination of Brit and local terms, and has a very different cadence. So I speak very slowly, and repeat a lot, and they must do the same for me. It’s easy to adapt to; we don’t bathe here, we bath, and there’s a flask and a torch, but some of the other stuff is more arcane. I have been so desperate for communication, and now I don’t know anything to say.
There are trees in Ghana that would be the perfect solution for outside Franks unit, but nobody knows what the name is! Straight trunk with branches that grown down so it looks like an upside down cone. I will keep asking, and somebody will know.

I have been at my site for a week today, and this is my third time in this big town that takes 2.5 hours by bus. But this time the internet is working! or almost working. The site is beautiful, in a small bowl kind of surrounded by mountains and low hills so it is cooler there. Surrounded by cocoa farms, which breed a really vicious little invisible bug. There is absolutely no ambient light, so when it is not overcast the night sky is astonishing. I don't recognize anything, but its stunning. That’s also when the bugs come out, so I don’t spend a lot of time out there after dark.

The guesthouse was built to house researchers working on cocoa agriculture, so when their project was finished they gave the buildings and the keys to the village chief and suggested it should be a tourism spot. Unfortunately they don't have any monkeys, or hippos, or crocodiles, and there isn't that much interest in watching trees grow. Except for people like you and me. I am the first peace corps volunteer there, so I have two empty rooms and a settling in allowance. Hard to know where to start, but right now I am sleeping on a cot and cooking on a butane tank with a burner on the top. Hard to do anything with more than one ingredient, especially since there is no refrigeration. If you don't eat it now, it won't keep, so I am doing pretty basic stuff for now. One of the other PCVs is living in a four-bedroom house with full kitchen, plumbing, etc., and says she doesn't feel like she’s even in the peace corps!

I don’t think I would trade, because she is in a big loud city, but sure wish there was some medium ground. The village elders had the local carpenter build a gorgeous wardrobe, with drawers, sealed doors, etc. Of course, you don’t want to put anything in there and close it all up because of the moisture, but it serves as a place for some stuff...and i leave the doors open. It has beautiful brass fittings. On the other hand, you cant lock the door to the latrines or the bath house, so life is full of tradeoffs.

I also have access to a room in the chiefs palace in the village, where there is electricity. The palace, like all other buildings in the village, is made of mud bricks covered with a stucco like paint that washes away over time. And the room is usually full of young guys watching soccer, or futbal and it is properly called. I don’t have a computer yet anyhow, and I can keep my phone charged there. Besides, my space is at the top of a long steep hill, and if I walk that a couple of times a day I will be in great shape when I get home. I have been going down every morning, buying two eggs, or fruit, or whatever, and coming home to breakfast. I was afraid that if I ever had anything but Nescafe it would just make me more homesick and miss my morning paper. However, Kel packed the coffee with copies of the Bee, so mornings are great!

Hope you will tell the Woodside ladies that the iPod has kept me grounded a couple of times. All Ghanaian sound equipment has two speeds, off and top volume. The guy in the room next to mine during my homestay used to turn on a religious program at 5AM, with some guy shouting how we are all doomed, real fire and Brimstone, but he always finished up by shouting what people could do to save themselves before it was too late. I couldn’t understand much beyond the shouting, which lasted a full 45 minutes. This morning somebody had that same station on an amplifier up the hill from my site, so I am again in danger of being doomed. But Neil Young and Richard Thompson will remind me of life’s truths.
I have to get an e-mail off my the non-profit that is supposed to be funding my site, because I want a bed and a proper stove, for starters, so will close now.
It feels so rich to have mail from you AND access to reply. Keep those cards and letters coming. There is a new internet site that is only 45 minutes from my home, should be up and running by next week, so I hope access will be much easier. Just in case this stops on me any moment, you might want to forward it to Bry and Colleen and see if they want to post part of it on the blog.
Miss you lots.
Cheers, DW