Saturday, 12 June 2010

2 months left

Today, I only have two months left in Ghana. Wow.

Today, the sky is a really bright blue like a crayon colour or something, and it is unbelievably hot. Alright, it is always hot, even when the sun is absent. For some reason, the top I am wearing today doesn't allow my skin to breathe as well as it should!

I am sitting in the internet cafe and the football is on, on very loud of course. The one thing I don't understand about the Ghanains is their love of noise. Everywhere, people are just generally loud, and I have no idea why, or even how. For example, to get off at the right stop on a tro tro a voice requires a certain tone and loudness that I lack. Sometimes, I have to say 'Mate, bus stop' at least three times with the guy saying 'bus stop?' and me repeating 'bus stop' several times. Or 'yes, jokers' (my stop) with the mate repeating 'jokers? you want to get off at jokers?' Um, yes, hence the
bus stop...! I think I have in the past explained the noise of my neighbour, Hetty, sweeping at 6am, or the other neighbour's radio that comes on around the same time, but recently the morning melody is the rubbish truck that plays a horrific tune over and over very similar to an icecream van. Don't ask me why a rubbish truck needs such an awful jaunty tune. It runs through my head over and over as I lie in my bed trying to tune it out. For hours after I get up both Anna and I find ourselves humming it involuntarily.

My internet cafe neighbour is clapping in my ear. Some team has scored. Alright, it is the world cup, but still! Ghanaians love football. As soon as I say I am from England the standard response is "oh... red or blue?" and no one seems to understand how it is possible to not find football all that fascinating! Normally, I have to say red for Manchester United. I do live close to Manchester, anyway, and I know Emma and Sara would be happy with my response!

After we have finished in the internet cafe Anna and I are going to tro tro to Tema station in Accra to buy mangoes. Obviously this may seem strange to you folk, especially as I can get mangoes close to the children's home, but, as we discovered last week, it is possible to buy lots and lots of large mangoes for very little cedi. I do love my fruit, after all! This morning for breakfast I had a whole, huge, watermelon. Yum!

(photo: Tema station)


Mum comes on wednesday, and I look forward to showing her some Ghana and seeing her response to some things - things that now are normal to me but every now and then I look at and think "woah, okay that's weird!" Today, walking along I saw a man running with what appeared to be a small dog on a rope. As he got closer it transpired that it was, in fact, a small monkey...

Hum!

(alright, so I've never seen that one before, either!)

Love to all, Sal xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

1 comment:

  1. !!!!! WHAT ABOUT CHELSEA???!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??

    GHANA WON THOUGH - AMAZING!

    IZZY IS SUPPORTING GHANA ABOVE ENGLAND IN THE WORLD CUP.

    ReplyDelete