Cereal sans electricity...
I am sure I have mentioned this in a prior email, but we are on a schedule for power cuts. I am told this is because we (actually the Ghanaian government) is exporting electricity to Togo... go figure. Essentially this leaves us with no power every three days, and it rotates between evening and daytime outages. This is not a huge deal, especially because we know when we'll be without (generally speaking), so we don't buy milk, or make sure we have batteries in our flashlights, and we plan to be out during the evening, because sitting/standing at home in the dark is less than appealing. Last night though, was one of those occasions when the power goes out randomly, not following the aforementioned schedule... the visual is: me and Lindsay eating cereal (yes for dinner) in the pitch dark. This complimented with a loud series of yells and groans from outside on the street (and rightly so... when the power goes out, it is DARK). After scrounging around for a few minutes to locate something to light up the room, the power came back on, which was met with resounding cheers and more yelling... quite the event. It did go off again, which made us give up and leave, hoping that it was just our street and not affecting the rest of Osu.
In other news, it looks like I will be having a bit of a vacation (understatement of the year)...
I found out my cousin is getting married in December, but early December, so I wasn't entirely sure if I would make it (to the UK), seeing as I wanted to spend my break there, but asking for 4 weeks off on your second week of work is less than ideal. In any case, it seems to have worked out... I am just waiting on my parents to wake up and confirm with me what day I have to be in the UK. I'll be kicking around for a month between London and Northampton. I am definitely looking forward to it, as I will see loads of family, and honestly, the 2 and a half days at home before coming here didn't really cut it.
This weekend we stayed in Accra, which was nice and relaxing... the plan is to travel every second weekend, but based on the Cape Coast adventure, we'll need recovery time after each trip. On Saturday we went to Makola Market for the second time... almost felt like a pro, ALMOST. It was definitely less daunting than the first time, and I am pretty sure less people were grabbing at us and commenting, which always makes things that much easier. I bought a few things: a thermos for my disgusting Nescafe (1.50 USD), some nice tweed-esque fabric for some pants (5USD), some batteries (0.50 USD). All in all, very productive. On Sunday we spent the day lounging in the sun at an ever popular ex-pat hang out, the Golden Tulip Hotel. I am now about 15 shades darker, gaining slowly on my lovely friend Shanika :)
Okay, so they woke up, ticket is booked. I have to share the odd way in which booking a ticket works in Ghana though. I booked through KLM (Dutch), and requested an e-ticket, but they don't take your credit card over the net, you have 48 hours to go to the airport and pay for it. Originally we weren't sure if you needed to bring cash (no other options are indicated), which is a hell of a lot of cedis, if 1USD = 10,000 cedis... yeah you can imagine the mother of a bag I'd have to tote to the airport. Luckily though, Trish and Lindsay found out you can in fact pay by credit AT the airport... this is a relief. And think of all the free coffees I will get for using my VISA... okay, realistically maybe 3 if I redeem the points in London, now that is sad.
Tonight I am headed to the Baha'i Center for the feast. [Baha'is meet once every 19 days, on the beginning of the month (calendar is 19 days of 19 months with a few extra supposed to be devoted to charity, etc.) and have a meeting called a feast. Although there is food, it is more like a 'spiritual feast,' with an administrative, a devotional and a social portion.]
After that looks like another relaxed night, probably checking out Naureen's new place, which is hopefully now cockroach-free, and likely indulging in yams from across the street... definitely enjoyable!
In other news, it looks like I will be having a bit of a vacation (understatement of the year)...
I found out my cousin is getting married in December, but early December, so I wasn't entirely sure if I would make it (to the UK), seeing as I wanted to spend my break there, but asking for 4 weeks off on your second week of work is less than ideal. In any case, it seems to have worked out... I am just waiting on my parents to wake up and confirm with me what day I have to be in the UK. I'll be kicking around for a month between London and Northampton. I am definitely looking forward to it, as I will see loads of family, and honestly, the 2 and a half days at home before coming here didn't really cut it.
This weekend we stayed in Accra, which was nice and relaxing... the plan is to travel every second weekend, but based on the Cape Coast adventure, we'll need recovery time after each trip. On Saturday we went to Makola Market for the second time... almost felt like a pro, ALMOST. It was definitely less daunting than the first time, and I am pretty sure less people were grabbing at us and commenting, which always makes things that much easier. I bought a few things: a thermos for my disgusting Nescafe (1.50 USD), some nice tweed-esque fabric for some pants (5USD), some batteries (0.50 USD). All in all, very productive. On Sunday we spent the day lounging in the sun at an ever popular ex-pat hang out, the Golden Tulip Hotel. I am now about 15 shades darker, gaining slowly on my lovely friend Shanika :)
Okay, so they woke up, ticket is booked. I have to share the odd way in which booking a ticket works in Ghana though. I booked through KLM (Dutch), and requested an e-ticket, but they don't take your credit card over the net, you have 48 hours to go to the airport and pay for it. Originally we weren't sure if you needed to bring cash (no other options are indicated), which is a hell of a lot of cedis, if 1USD = 10,000 cedis... yeah you can imagine the mother of a bag I'd have to tote to the airport. Luckily though, Trish and Lindsay found out you can in fact pay by credit AT the airport... this is a relief. And think of all the free coffees I will get for using my VISA... okay, realistically maybe 3 if I redeem the points in London, now that is sad.
Tonight I am headed to the Baha'i Center for the feast. [Baha'is meet once every 19 days, on the beginning of the month (calendar is 19 days of 19 months with a few extra supposed to be devoted to charity, etc.) and have a meeting called a feast. Although there is food, it is more like a 'spiritual feast,' with an administrative, a devotional and a social portion.]
After that looks like another relaxed night, probably checking out Naureen's new place, which is hopefully now cockroach-free, and likely indulging in yams from across the street... definitely enjoyable!
posted by Laura at 12:42 PM
3 Comments:
Laur,
Just wanted to pop in and say I love these stories. Also the power outage, I can just PICTURE you eating that cereal. So funny.
Miss ya lots. Hopefully you'll swing by Ottawa months from now and we can meet up and fall in love all over again ;) haha
Oh my God, I miss you.
hi!
my uncle prakash happens to know your family or something like that. had sent me your post.have been reading ur posts like eversince youve been there. Interesting and v entertaining i should say.keep up ur good work in ghana! n do keep the blogs coming!
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