Journey to the Center of the Earth: My New Home

Mus and I have moved to the mountains. I'm sure many of you are aware that this would happen, since I talked about it nonstop before I left, but I wanted update you guys now that I"m here.

It's great to be here. At first, it took a little time to adjust my expectations, since Mus exaggerated the condition of our accomodations a little bit. (I was thinking of something well-maintained by American standards. Really, the apartment was more or less abandoned and really needed some cleaning.)

Still, we gave it a good cleaning, and we're a bit more settled now. It's actually the nicest accomodations I've had here for any extended period of time, and it's also the most settled I've felt here- I even decorated our room!

I'm happy to be here for many reasons:
a) The scenery is amazing. Our village of Obo is about 1 and a half times the popoulation of Montello, and it's settled in this little bowl up in the mountains. We're surrounded by low ridges on all sides and these ridges are covered in rainforest full of butterflies, birds, and monekys. Every night I fall asleep to the loudest hum of frogs and crickets I've ever heard. We've done some hikes- hopefully we'll do more soon. Em, I don't know how you ever climbed the Andes- these tiny little hills by comparision) are kicking my butt!

b) The weather is great. Temeperatures vary from high 60s to low 80s. The humidity is a little high right now, but will go down once the Harmattan arrives. The typical weather here: Sunrise- you don't actually see the sun rise. Instead, you watch the clouds roll down the mountains. by 9AM, the clouds clear and it's bright an sunny. Mid afternoon, it starts to cloud up again, and often you can hear thunder or get rain showers. Today is the first substantial rainfall since we arrived last Wednesday, and everyone's calling it "a drought" because it's been 6 days without much rain!

c) The lady we live with, Mus's cousin, is amazing. She reminds me of Loly Thiele. She's 60 and she's bubbly and energetic and kind and fun. She and I don't talk much due to the language barrier, but she makes me feel very welcome and we manage to joke arounda bit anyway. Oddly enough, she raises giant snails, but as they're quieter than chickens, I don't really mind.

This is actually a snail egg! It's like the size of a bird's egg.

This isn't even the biggest they get!

These are smaller ones eating leftover fruit.

d) The community has totally welcomed us. This is Mus's hometown- his great great great great grandfather founded the town, and his paternal grandfather was the former chief here. Mus's Dad is on the council of Elders still. He's literally related to almost everyone in the town.

e) The food is fresh and cheap *think pineapple and papaya or banana and peanut butter smoothies- YUM!* Transportation is readily available. We're saving so much money up here.
f) Our lifestyle is very relaxed up here. We spend our time reading, walking, cooking, cleaning, and watching TV.

g) We almost always have electricity (sometimes it goes out during the thunderstorms) and so far we always have running water. These are things I'm a big fan of.

h) Adam would love it here. It's full of old, abandoned houses (like the one across the street from us in the picture below). Many of these houses are rumoured to be haunted. WARNING: There is no way in Ghana to break into a house without the whole village knowing- even an old abandoned one. However, if you bring someone along who speaks Twi, the chances of you talking your way out of troubel are excellent, as most Ghanaians have the broad assumptions that "Obrunis" are good, honest people.

Still, there's a few things I'm not a fan of. I think the biggest one is the carpeting. Ghanaians rarely own vaccuum cleaners. Therefore, carpeting is a really, really bad idea. Our hallway skeezes me out a lot- it's carpeted and filthy, and I have no way to clean it. So I wear flip flops everywhere. (Why am I getting so prissy in my old age?)

Also, the whole neighborhood is full of roosters. Aaaaa!!! There has to be some way to humanely remove a rooster's larynx. Ideas, anyone?

This is the front of our house.

Here's our courtyard, complete with my drying underwear...

And lazing dog. This dog was terrified of me for along time. I would go to pet her, and she'd clamp hertail between her legs and crouch like she was certain that I was a savage abomination of nature and surely would eat her.

Now she's warmed up to me and we'refriends. Her name is Yennka, which means literally "We Don't Speak." The name is supposed to reference a proveb, I don't really get the proverb though...

This is what our apartment looks like right as you come up the stairs. The open door is our bedroom. There arelots of locked doors in the house that I don't know where they go. I think I counted 7 mystery doors the other day.

This is a nearby kiln that has been turned into a garbage incinerator.

Our Kitchen.

Here's our living room. We hardly use it... Mus and I are usedto sharing one small room, and so we get nervous if we spend too much time in seperate rooms, as if we've somehow misplaced the other person.