Everyday Life

This post is just about things that I think are normal now but you might think are some strange things. 

First off is running water. Running water exists in some places but not all. At home I have running water in the bathroom which is really nice. Sometimes if there is not water in the tank I have to poor buckets of water into the toilet tank before going to the bathroom so I can flush. Let me tell you I will take that over having to use an outhouse type bathroom any day. Also I have a shower in my house which is really nice. Because it is the dry season sometimes we do not have running water so I use a bucket of water and then use a smaller bucket to poor the water. It works pretty well and doesn't really add any time to the length of my shower. I also wash my clothes by hand. Padiki helps me a lot, but I am getting a little faster, or at least I think so. There are two soap buckets and a rinse bucket, so you scrub the clothes twice and then rinse the clothes before hanging them on the line.

I drink bottled or bagged water always. They call bagged water, pure water. This is what I drink when I am out traveling and at lunch in the school.

People here always eat with their hands. I eat with my hands sometimes, but I look like a little kid eating because I always manage to make a mess. Even soups they eat with their hands. They usually have some type of food like banku or rice balls that they eat with the soup and then they will drink the soup kind of like I drink the extra milk out of my cereal bowl in the morning. Breakfast is about the only meal that I always eat American food, cereal. Well almost always, my cooperating teacher has brought me coco, which is like a porridge. Also on Saturday mornings I usually have an omelet of sorts and oatmeal. 

I hardly ever take a taxi. I always walk to school, and whenever I travel on the weekends I usually take the trotro (bus). Every time I am walking somewhere or waiting for the trotro I will have a lot of taxis honk at me and try to take me to the place I am headed to. Even as Padiki and I were walking home from the supermarket which is not far from the house we had a man stop and try to convince us that for only a small price he would take us home. We were less than two blocks from the house, so we said no, kindly of course. I think it’s fun to take the trotro because I get to be more of a true Ghanaian.

The children have chores that they have to complete every morning before going to school. These include sweeping indoors and outdoors as well as bringing water into the house from the barrels outside. Michael also has to put Tiger back in his kennel and unlock the gate so I can get to school on time. I leave for school around 7 and sometimes I can hear them as early as 5 am around the house doing there chores.