Junie's Online Thoughts
Saturday, May 31, 2003
It rained like mad early this morning. Again, the bathroom flooded. I sopped up a whole pail with a washcloth before I tried to sweep the rest across the floor so it would dry. The ceiling is starting to look a bit smarmy...all moldy and water stained....blech. It was nice and cool until the sun came out. Now its crazy hot. Oh well, at least that means the bathroom floor will be dry by the time we come home.
Saying goodbye to Sheila was so sad. She had made a lot of GHanaian friends when she first arrived, including one gal who she was very close to. They both cried and cried and cried at the airport, and Sheila didnt want to go home. I think she purposely tried to miss her flight...we basically had to drag and shove her through the door at the final boarding call so she wouldnt miss it....not that we wanted her to leave, but its her time to go and get on with the rest of her life, you know? It was freaky to think that Jeremy would be the one leaving in less than a week....scary. I have some really really good news, but I cant post it until Jeremy makes a few emails....I will have to keep you in suspense for a few days. Its awesome good though......life's great.
Shopped for cloth with Heather and Erin today...spent WAY too much money, but some of it is gifts, so I dont feel too bad. Tomorrow we are buying more gifty things....we're going to pack Jeremy down when he leaves so we have less stuff to worry about when we go next year...lord knows we will keep accumulating stuff......ok. Thats it for now. More later....
Friday, May 30, 2003
Dragged my sorry butt to French class today. We learned the past tense. I have to tell him on Monday that I will be missing the next four classes because I will be in the Volta and Togo...wonder how many toffees I will have to bring for that?
Its crazy hot today....going home to do my strength training in our hot house, then shower, snack and find Sheila to see if she needs any help packing.
Oh, just a sad but interesting side note...if you remember a week or so back, Erin and I had been driving home and saw a dead guy in the middle of the road and no one seemed to care. Well, it turns out that the guy was an armed robber. The person he was robbing called out and people nearby beat the living hell out of this guy, literally. He staggered into the middle of the road and died. THATS why no one seemed to care about him...they all thought he was shit because he was a robber. (Despite the growing number of crimes in Accra, most people find stealing an abomination and will gladly beat someone if they are a robber. Police usually shoot them.) Speaking of police, they are sooooo corrupt and wicked here. They seriously do nothing of any service. If you get into an accident or get robbed and call the police, more than likely they wont show up. If you want an investigation of a real crime, you have to bribe the police to actually do their jobs because their pay is so low and they dont really care. If they feel like it, they can randomly try to arrest people for imaginary crimes, or else demand a large bribe to keep them out of jail. If you own a business, you routinely have to grease the palms of the police so they will stay friendly with you. Its terrible. Bridget, this gal we know, used to live by Papaye, this restaurant. The neighbor's son helped her move. One night, not long ago, he was smoking pot and the cops drove by. He started running away and the cops shot him in the back. The cops threw him in a taxi and took him to the police station and let him sit and bleed without any medical attention. His mother found out and had to go to the station, bribe the cops to let her see him and finally could take her son to the hospital (literally 200 yards down the road.) It is soooo absolutely messed up....most times Im more afraid of the cops than I am of any criminal.....at least a crook wont kill me. Of course, a cop probably wouldnt kill me either since Im a white foreigner, but they certainly seem to act as they wish to Ghanaians or other Africans. It all makes me soooo mad and sad......and the system is corrupt from the inside out, I think. Its gonna take something BIG to straighten that mess....
Thursday, May 29, 2003
Rainy day today. Its been a busy day.....ran by myself for a half an hour this morning, then laid in bed for an hour, ate breakfast with Jeremy, emailed, drove to Maxmart to have lunch with steph, sean, erin, sheila and jeremy, drove to Shangrila to interview Sheila about a story and have the most expensive beer ever, then drove back home int he pouring rain. Actually, Erin drove, but it was always an adventure. Jeremy headed to the archives around 2 pm....better to get a few hours in than nothing at all. Tonight is Sheilas last day....we're going out to eat at the Orangery (even though we were there last night), then to a few bars. Then tomorrow she's off. Life will cool out for a while when all these people stop leaving. Argh.
It rained like hell today....bought some cool jewelry at the art show at Shangri-la....having a good day. Tomorrow I have to go to French (skipped on Wednesday) and hope to run again tomorrow morning...then its just hanging out until Sheila leaves that night. This weekend Jeremy is buying gifts for the trip home....hanging out...planning our anniversary night two days early....thats it for now.
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
Happy Memorial Day! Yesterday was also a holiday in Ghana...Africa Unity Day...who knows what its for, but I didnt have to go to French class. The weekend was fabulous. We first travelled to Akosambo, a town right on the southern part of the Volta River, by the bridge and not far from the dam. (The Volta region is a section of Ghana in the southern eastern part. Its surrounded by huge Lake Volta and mountains, so everything is lush and green and hilly. Plus, the area boasts the tallest waterfall in the area, smaller waterfalls and a number of monkey sanctuaries, parks and hiking trails.) We hung out by the water at the hotel, met up with some friends from Accra and ate dinner. The next morning, Jeremy and I hired a canoe and with the help of a small boy, we paddled around the river for an hour. At first I was glad the small boy was there because I didnt think we both could paddle for that long. But he was a lousy steerer and navigator and I wished we would have just gone by ourselves. Oh well...next time. After lunch we caught a trotro on the bridge to Ho, where we wanted to meet up with Heather. We were either going to go to her village or travel together to one of the waterfalls in the area. We had been texting her all morning on our cellphone but never got a reply. We'd asked to meet her at a restaurant called the White House at noon. Transport was a bit funky that day, so we arrived in town an hour late. When we found the White House, low and behold, there she was! What are you guys doing here? she asked. We told you to be here....didnt you get our messages? No, she said, my phone has been broken all day. So it was just dumb luck that she liked the food at this place....in any case, she still had a raging case of thyphoid and had no energy to do more than sit. We originally planned to stay where she and Cheyen were staying, thinking it was only $30, however we soon found out it was actually $50 a night. Too much for us poor folks, so we headed accross town at the moderate hotel, The Freedom. Still nice, with fans and satellite tv and a big bed, we had all the things Heather/Cheyen did except a pool for only $12 a night. We watched music videos for a bit, half of hte Sixth Sense, then headed to Heather's hotel to swim in their pool. Boy, that was great. I felt too leary to swim in the river at Akosambo. It probably would have been fine, but in fresh water you have to worry about this illness spread by tiny snails, as well as worms and other cooties. I couldnt remember the last time I went actual swimming (jumping around in the ocean, trying not to drown, is not considered swimming in my book.) We dried off, watched part of the Paper Chase, then ate dinner at their hotel. Disappointing, but it was still nice to hang out with them since they both are on limited time here in Ghana. Jeremy and I returned to the Freedom, watched more tv and slept.
The next day we just trotroed back to Accra. Met up with friends...had dinner....watched a really bad movie at Champs, on of the few sports bars here in Ghana. It feels sort of perverted to be there...its big and loud and all these white people are spending money like its going out of style, all the food and drinks are three times more expensive than other places. But they were showing Critical Assignment, this Guiness made movie starring their African spokesman, Michael Powers. We shared a veggie fajita (not very good) and a guiness (half price) and an ice cream brownie sundae (not very good) and watched what was essentially a giant Guinness ad. Culturally interesting, but still terrible. On the tv behind us, they still played ESPN and I saw the female winners of the triathalons. Wow. Will I ever be able to do a half marathon? I think my time for the half marathon will be the same as some of these ladies times for a whole triathalon. Yeeks.
Yesterday, like I said, was also a holiday here in GHana. I woke up to run, then went for a walk with Jeremy later in the morning, then emailed, then shopped for groceries. It was then that we discovered a shock....in Ghana Groceries...in the freezer aisle....was a clearance sale....Haagen Daas ice cream for only 10,000 cedis!!!!!! Its normally 96,000 cedis...about $13, but now its only $1.10!!! I pretty much freaked out and we bought three. I called all our friends, Erin bought one....we all ate one together and didnt get sick. It wasnt expired, it didnt taste bad, it didnt seem to be melted and refreezed. I just think that no one buys it since its so expensive, so they are clearancing it out. Whooo whooooo!!!!!! (It takes so little to please me nowadays.)
Today Im running errands like a crazy person.....catching up on emails.....have a good day!
