Good Vibrations
It’s been raining off and on since about three this morning. My day began with thunderclaps and rain so heavy it sounded like hail on the tin roof. My water buckets were filled, though, so I’ve got at least a week before I need to travel to the borehole to restock. As much as I enjoy fetching water, it’s also nice to not have to do that.
I dozed through the morning, which added unnecessary fodder to the joking flame my landlord’s wife, Abibata, has with me. She accused me of being lazy because I hadn’t done anything all day, but I just said “What can I do, with the rain? And besides - you’ve been sleeping all day, too!” She got a kick out of that, mostly because it was true.
She has an excuse though. I came home from Accra to find that her belly had expanded quite a bit. She’s due in about five or six months. Fusina said she’s excited to get a new brother or sister, but I’m not sure she quite understands what she’s saying. Her world is about to change drastically as she’ll no longer be the baby of the house. At least she’ll have me, though. I’m not much for infants - they sort of scare me with all of their fragility.
My landlord, Sadi, has been working all morning to get Abibata’s room wired for electricity. The power’s been on the blink lately, though. Someone in town told me that a line near Kumasi or Accra was cut and it knocked out power to the whole country. I’m not a fan of countrywide blackouts. They put a damper on my style.
That being said, I’m kind of enjoying the return to darkness. I can’t see the stars so well at night anymore with the 1,000-Watt bulb blaring and popping with bugs on the veranda. I also can’t charge my computer, which, I’d gotten used to, but I got a bunch of movies when I went south and the kids have really been enjoying them. They’ve been a test to my Dagbani vocabulary, though.
Try explaining a series like Planet Earth to kids who don’t know a world outside the village, who haven’t seen a body of water larger than their pond-sized dam, who’s knowledge of birds are relegated to crows, a few hawks and chickens - it’s no small feat. But it’s been amazing to watch them watching it. Seeing animals like whales and sharks and gorillas and cheetahs - their faces light up.
But even through their amazement, my landlady always asked where “barabo” (“the cripple”) is. I have to laugh. I turned them all into Lord of the Rings fans and their love for Gollum will never die.
I’ve been in an amazing mood lately and I have to think it coincides with my return to site after being away for quite a while. I’ve been relatively productive in the tasks I’ve set out for myself and am making some headway on upcoming projects. It feels good. I’m glad to be back home and working on what I came here to work on.
I’ve also decided to give things second chances - like the cocoa/porridge I had when I first got to site that made me want to vomit. It still tastes the same, but my buds have adjusted to this country’s penchant for sour and fermented food. It’s still not something I enjoy, but my gag reflex doesn’t kick in immediately, especially if sugar’s been added.
Goat fat with fur, however? Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’m never going to enjoy that.