Jim in Ghana (Day 6)

Day 6

When you say, “jumbo shrimp,” or “a little pregnant,” those are oxymorons. Maybe I could coin the term, “Take a dirty shower.” It feels that when when I have to shower each day. I feel slimy from sweating all day long, but then I have to take a shower with cold and likely contaminated water. The saying in the south is, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” Since it is so humid, just be prepared to sweat a lot.

For all of you Biggest Loser fans, if they just sent the teams here and fed them fried fish bodies (with all the trimmings like eyeballs and bones) and let them sweat all day, everyone would be a winner

I am starting to name the ants in the room, but there are becoming too many to count now so I am just starting to mush them. They crossed the line once they started crawling on my bed.

After church I went back to the room for a bit. For some reason I cannot get adjusted to the time differences. For me, I just sleep when I am tired and try to wear myself out by evening time here so I can sleep when it is dark. When it is night, it is really dark

I can say that the bottled waters (Voltic and Dasani brands) seem to have caused no sickness problems. I am still alive from the pizza too. I am glad that I brought a hot pot and the power converters. That comes in handy for the rice and pasta packets. They are a little al dente (slightly hard for all the unrefined people out there). I also brought Propel single serving powder packs. The water tastes fine, but it is nice to drink it with a little taste since there is no refrigeration and everything is warm.

The bottom line is that if I can do this trip, anyone can. It really has been automated in that the necessary rides were provided for upon arrival at the airport. The room arrangements were made within one block of the orphanage. Starbucks is a block away for the communications. They are open from about 9 am to 9 pm each day, and are closed on Sunday (The speed is close to dial up though).

I will do the best I can to update each kid here. You will have to wait for pictures, but I was mandated to take a lot of them. I probably have about 400-500 so far.

Anita and Linda are nice little girls. I think they have had colds over the last few days so they are not quite as playful since they haven’t been feeling that good. They seemed pretty good today. Linda is more quiet, and her older sister Anita is more outgoing. Joel is more playful than Ebenezer. They both can goof off at times, which is a little surprising since they are both somewhat shy. Eben is really shy, but unexpectedly opens up at times too. Eben is going to be crushed when he finds out that he does not have charge of the remote control at home. I have all of the power there. In fact, it the only thing I have in my life where I can control something and it actually listens to me. Rita and Rachel are also nice twin girls. They are outgoing and they like to play a lot. They are both smart too. I have been watching them at school and church and they really take charge of their learning. Gifty. I am going to put her in my suitcase and bring her back. That girl is so funny. She is very fun and a bundle of energy. She likes to make funny faces and dance all of the time. She is also really smart too. She is very into her surroundings. Mary is another sweet little girl. Mary is also very tough. She can scrap with the best of them. She can dish it out and she can take it. Enoch and Theo are definitely all boy. They are tough, yet they are still playful and a lot of fun. Isaac and Sampson are tough little guys. They are typical boys and they like to play around a lot. Francis fits right in there too. He is just like the other boys his age, sweet and a lot of fun… and all things considered, all of the kids are really doing well.

Again, I am impressed that there are always so many workers coming and going on a regular basis so there is never any shortage for help. Martha and Mary are just learning to walk. They are also funny little twin girls. They get a lot of attention from the workers as well as the kids. The older kids look out for the little ones. They always seem to be happy and they hardly ever cry.

Again, in case you were wondering, all of the kids speak some English. It just sounds like a person with an island accent. There are sometimes that I have to have someone repeat what they say, but if you listen carefully, it is pretty easy to communicate here. I have had just as hard of a time understanding someone with a real heavy accent from places like Georgia J

Now that there is a DVD player there, more DVD’s are needed. The surprise hit, of all things, is Dora the Explorer. They all sing along with it each time. Well, they may speak English with an accent, but they will at least know Spanish too. If they pave any roads in the area they will probably know Chinese too. I say we torture the workers with our family favorite the Wiggles. I think everyone should be exposed to the Wiggles for a time in their life. If it doesn’t drive them mad, then they will have passed another critical test.

Things start shutting down early today since everyone makes a really big deal about New Year’s Eve. There are parties around town and churches have services later in the evenings. Different people are sometimes superstitious. There are a lot of traditions that have been passed down over the centuries and to me there are a lot of strange things. That is the reason for the coffin making business. If you have heard about it before, they literally carve those fancy coffins because they believe that you will be protected when you die. There are way too many different beliefs to name because I have already been explained a lot of them and there are a few that really stick out It doesn’t seem like I will get a lot of rest tonight because of the parties. That means loud reggae music going on all night long. I am sure that everywhere there are parties there will be people talking loudly and roaming the streets throughout the night. Happy New Year’s!