Birthday Thanks

I really thought that sometime last week somebody would look at a calendar and say, Hey, Deedub has a birthday coming up. But I went to the big city with a friend, whose 62nd birthday was the same week, and we checked into a 3-star hotel. Then went to PC office to check on mail, and had to take a cab to get everything back to the hotel! Cards, letters, all kinds of food treats. And some of it was actually mailed in August..I have the best friends and family in the world.

And the hotel. What can I say. I had been in Ghana four months and two days, but that was the first temperature controlled shower in all that time. When we first arrived we were taken to a school dormitory, two to a room, with an adjoining bucket-flush toilet and a shower. But the water didn\t work, and there is never hot water in a shower anywhere here...or at least not where we have been staying. So I took several a day, actually got all the shampoo out of my hair, pooped in a flush toilet, and swam three times in a real pool, which was absolutely grand. And drank a G^T w/real ice. What a great two days. I kept crying when I opened mail, so I finally took it all back to my site, and opened a few each day.

Sidebar story: Before we first got to the dormitory we had a formal ceremony at PC HQ, with libations, speeches, coconut water, etc. By that time we had been up for more than 37 hours, and it just kept droning on. We were given first aid kits, containing condoms, and a lecture about how you can\t be too careful. And our medical officer made a point of telling me that the last PCV she treated for HIV was 72 years old. So get that smug look off your face and keep this kit with you at all times. We finally got to the dorms and had food, and crashed. Our rooms surrounded a rectangular compound with a big cement porch all around. So in the night I wake up to the sounds of a huge party going on outside my door. At least seven of the kids were playing poker, using the condoms as chips. I have no idea how it all worked out, because I went back to sleep, but I still love the image.

ALERT JERRY SPRINGER: I finally have the news on the boys who were turned into snakes. A fetish priest has confessed that he staged the whole thing, hoping to enhance his reputation. He stole the snakes from the zoo, paid the kids some pettypetty money, and I think had some help with the photos. Anyhow, the kids are in the hands of the juvenile authorities, the voo-doo man has been arrested, and the snakes have been returned to the zoo. Whew! what a relief.

On the science front, I have learned that if you leave two to three inches of steaming water in a bucket on the porch, at least a thousand mosquitos will immediately commit suicide by diving in. You won\t notice this until you have added the cold water and carried it up to the bath house, and are starting to pour the water over your body. Still, I think the mosquito vector people should be interested in this bit of info.

Good news on the job front. We are hosting a conference for 24 people at my guesthouse on October 21 and 22. Coming right up. They are bringing in their own cook and food, but apparently no generators. I think it\s candle time, because although there are kerosene lanterns at the site there is no kerosene to be found anywhere around! I am gathering up "product" from my fellow PCVs, hoping to have baskets, jewelry, shea butter soap, etc., on display in the visitor center as an idea of what we can use to make money for the center.

This is my first crack at on-line since my birthday, but still have to go because I am meeting someone with beads for me. You should not worry that on-line time costs me money...it's about 60 pesua an hour. The ghana cedi, composed of 100 pesuas, is currently trading at about1.46, so it\s no big deal. It's getting here that is hard. Although at the obruni hotel there was a functioning business center, but they wanted 60 pesua per MINUTE.

We are paid six cedis a day, and I am really struggling to live on it. *But I do have some other resources, so it\s more the challenge than the reality. Anyhow, when I was making $27 US an hour I would never consider paying that much for a bottle of wine. Here I have found a very nice Argentinian sauvignon blanc for 3.75 cedis, which is more than half a days pay, but it doesn\t even make me blink! It's all relative. More later.

Miss youall more than I can say. And Hotmail still doesn\t work here, so I can\t reply to anyone with that e-mail. I can download Facebook at this site, and plan to spent a lot of time next week doing that. XXooXX Cheers, dw