Life With Daniel
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Krobo-Odumase,
Ghana
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Turns out there are no mosquitos. We can only have one or two lights on in the house at a time. Someone sits and controls the water flow to the house so sometimes you have water and sometimes you don't. They shut it off for the night. A big plastic container is kept full of water in the bathroom to flush the toilet with - at least it is a flush toilet. Another bucket of water is kept in the shower room beside the bathroom, and there is a coffee cup to dip into the water bucket to pour over yourself to take a shower. There is a shower head on the wall but no water goes to it. The sink is in the living room.
Daniel is very interesting to listen to and you do have to listen closely and we still don't catch all the words. He does not agree with most things the people in his country do. He says they are ignorant and stupid. I find out he is originally from Cape Coast area and he thinks these people here in Krobo-Odumase are beneath him. Again with the class thing I think. They are not educated. He tells us stories of his four children - one son is an engineer that had been working in Japan but is now living in Accra with his wife and son. Daniel says he is very bright. The other son started doing drugs "smokin the weed you know" was how he put it and although he did manage to graduate from university in statistics, Daniel doesn't know where he is now. One daughter just got married in January and lives in Britian. We asked if he has gone to visit her, and he has not and doesn't seem interested in doing so. Obviously his pride and joy is his other daughter Esther who is a teacher. She came to clean up his house for him for our visit and left us a wonderful welcome note and some beaded necklaces. She left out pictures of herself (she is very beautiful) and her ti-kwan-do class she teaches. I gather she majored in phys-ed with a minor in art.
Daniel gave a little speech about smoking and how against it he is and Shawn doesn't know what to do now. Every time Shawn wanted to sneak outside to have one, Daniel was jumping up to head out with him.
Daniel offers us fried yams - the kids don't like them. He eats sardines and hot peppers - we opt to make some KD. We all eat the pineapple Daniel offers for dessert and he has two whole stocks of banana for us to eat.
It is very, very hot and hard to sleep. Daniel has a fan in Kailey and our rooms but they are on 1 hour timers and they keep shutting off on you. You wake up in a complete sweat and have to get up out of bed and turn them on again. I checked the thermometer on my bag and at 2:00 AM it was 34 C in the bedroom. I am just exhausted but we have to go to visit the hydro plant tomorrow.
