Back in the Swing Again

Jordan here:  Well, we arrived at our site again, welcomed by many smiling faces, excited children, and the interior of our house covered with a thin film of harmatan dust.  The mammoth trip from Accra to the boonies of the Upper West Region was and will always be exhausting.  It wasn’t helped by the 3 huge bags of stuff we were dragging along with us.  Don’t get us wrong, it was worth it, since inside was enough food from home to outfit a bona fide Cold War bomb shelter.  Unpacking that is always one of my favourite parts of coming back.  We also printed out over 100 4X6 pictures to hand out to a number of people .  To see their faces light up was priceless.  They seldom get to see pictures of themselves.  Interestingly, they didn’t like the ones where they were actually smiling genuinely.  Of course those are our favourites, but they like the stone-faced, expressionless faces.  Oh well.  And of course as we walked around seeing people for the first time in over a month, we used our scripted-sounding responses to all the same questions: How is your mother, how is your father, the chief (assuming our home town has a chief of course),your family, your travel, etc.  By the way, they greet everyone who is reading this.  

We spent a couple days of good thorough harmattan season cleaning and got our language chops back in shape.  Now its Monday and we’re back to the grindstone.  Sarah went back to some of the same frustrations that come with a new school term.  I had planned a big trip with Issah to buy some large materials we need for the dry season garden.  That means we had to go on a market day to Wa, where some specific materials could be purchased.  Well since  the village we go to to board a bus or car travelling to Wa is along the road, and tons of students were heading back to Wa from Tumu (where the cars start), they filled every single chance of Issah and me getting to Wa.  So we sat for 6 hours watching overloaded cars pass by before biking home.  By now Sarah and I have adopted the “well, that’s Ghana” mindset and just moved on from it.  We’ve learned that whining about run-of-the-mill troubles is pointless.  People here don’t let it bother them too much, so why should we?  

Anyway, I guess this isn’t the most interesting update, but we’ll try to post some pictures as well.  We hope all is well with you and your life is being lived and you think it should be.  Until next time!