Fiber One Brings Us Joy

Today is a national holiday to celebrate the end of Ramadan so Alan had the day off from work. We pondered how to spend a random day off and thought about going to the pool and/or beach but since the weather was iffy, we did the next best thing...explore unknown territory in Accra. This is not necessarily as adventuresome or exotic as it may sound however. To us, exploring the unknown means driving aimlessly around town looking for shops and sites we've never seen before that might have something to offer us. And today, the highlight of our wandering led us to the Palace Hypermarket. I guess this is supposed to rival what we in the US know as Walmart. But, of course this is a unique concept in Ghana - a place where you can buy everything from canned goods to milk to treadmills to furniture. In Ghana, you generally find smallish shops that carry just one of the above which of course means lots of stops and lots of traffic.

Most of the large businesses like this are owned by Lebanese who have settled in Ghana. Many people are not aware that there is a huge lebanese population in Ghana, and many of them are business owners of the stores we patronize like our grocery stores, furniture stores, home goods stores, etc. The entrance did feel a bit like entering a grand palace until we made it to the furniture section at the front of the store. The word tacky does not quite do the furniture justice - it's on another level. There was a gold satin living room set that we had our eyes on in particular. But, the canned good and cereal section did not disappoint...in fact, we were overjoyed with hitting the jackpot today! Fiber One cereal!! This was our favorite back home. Not the cardboard twig kind but the honey clusters or the cinnamon squares! Can you say "yum" and how do they get all that fiber to taste so good? We've looked all over for this cereal in Accra and had totally given up so you can imagine that the price of $9 a box would not deter us from buying not just one box but two! And of course we got some Aunt Jemima syrup and a few other random hard-to-find imported things. We did not however pick up a treadmill or any kitchen appliances but we could have. This is the new one-stop-shop that I'm sure we'll be visiting from time to time.

Our wandering took us to a few other bizarre shops like the one called "Yarns and Threads." I thought for sure they must sell yarn but no, they don't sell either yarn or thread but curtain fabric. Sure, that makes sense. We also stopped at the side of the road at a shop advertising products from Sam's Club, BJ's and Costco. They do in fact sell bulk products from these stores - mind you separated when possible into individual regular sized products - so I splurged on Bounty paper towels and soy milk.

You see, living in Ghana means that finding small luxury items like our favorite cereal, paper towels, and plastic wrap can make our day and bring smiles to our faces.

Ode to Rita

Today, I feel like I'm not quite sure how I would manage without Rita, our nanny/housecleaner (but, wow, is she is much more!). Wednesdays and Friday afternoons are my days without her and so maybe it is Thursday (which happens to be today) when I most recognize how incredibly helpful and important she is to me. Yesterday felt like a bit of a disaster between Eli crying non-stop, refusing to take naps, only wanting to be held and then simultaneously the plumbers replacing our broken toilet (which has been leaking for the last 3 weeks and only now has it it come to replacing it...that is another story for another blog) which involved slamming doors, drilling into tile, making a total mess out of our bathroom, and entering/leaving the apartment every 5 minutes which ruined any attempt to get Eli to sleep. And of course I decided it would be a great day to make cookies, go to the grocery store with Eli in the Baby Bjorn (often very stressful), and make tacos for dinner. So, as you can imagine I was a mess at the end of the day and tears were definitely involved. Luckily, Alan came to the rescue when he got home from work so I could rest and get ahold of myself.

But then there was today which was pretty much the opposite of yesterday and was only made possible by Rita. Let me explain Rita...I have never known someone who works so hard. She arrives to the apartment at 8am (leaving her house between 4:30-5am) and works non-stop cleaning every inch of our apartment, doing 3-4 loads of laundry a week, hang drying everything, ironing everything including Eli's cloth diapers, and in between these tasks she plays with Eli all the while exuding loads of energy I could never have.

She's incredible with him and engages him in play, carries him around the room and our compound showing everything to him and observing what he's interested in whether it be the plastic container of orange dish soap or the palm trees blowing outside. If he needs to be rocked to sleep, that's just what she'll do and one time, because Eli cried every time she put him down, she just sat on a chair in his room cradling him while he slept, staying still as a rod. Mind you, she does not break, she does not eat or drink anything while at work unless I force her to (and believe me, I've done all I can do to get the woman to eat and drink during the day and she most often refuses my offerings), and I've never even seen her use the restroom. She's basically superhuman. She does like my baked goods so I try to keep a hefty load around including oatmeal cookies, apple cake, biscuits, and scones. I figure if she doesn't eat these, she might just fall over from shear exhaustion but she never does. In fact at 4:30 she leaves us to go to English literacy classes and doesn't make it home until 10-10:30 because it probably takes her two hours to get there and then to home (which is a small cement block with a tin roof that leaks every time it rains). She makes something to eat and must collapse into bed only to wake up again at 4:30am to make it to our apartment by 8:30. She always arrives with a smile, she has a wonderful laugh that can make you laugh even on your worst day, and she always looks impeccable. Rita doesn't make much for a living and she has told me she never spends her salary on clothes. She has been given many used things from past employers and me of course, which she somehow alters to fit her if they are too big. Even if the shoes are a little too small, she wears them anyway to avoid spending her money on clothes. But that doesn't mean she doesn't take pride in her appearance. She always dresses so beautifully, combining the shirt from one past employer with the pants from another and maybe wears the jewelry that was given to her as a gift from us. So that is Rita in a nutshell.

Today, I feel that because of her I've somehow overcome the very low point of yesterday. This was my day...I went for a tennis lesson at 8:30 and Rita took care of Eli during that and then while I showered afterwards. I ran out to do some food shopping and when I got back, Rita had already cleaned most of the house, put Eli down for a nap and was about to feed him. And this was just before 12pm! Then when I played with Eli, she finished some last minute things and then she took over while I made dinner. And when Eli went down for another nap, she asked if there was something she could do since she was finished. I really had nothing so I told her to go relax in the guest room and have a cookie which she did and then she read the Bible. She could have talked on the phone, closed her eyes, gone out to get fresh air, anything really, but instead she chose to read the Bible. Oh, and I forgot to mention she changed Eli's 5 poopy diapers today, dealt with him peeing all over her and the changing table (AGAIN!) and somehow still had energy to swing him around the room in her arms while I managed to get some work done for the NGO I am working with and to check some emails. She makes it possible for me to get washed and dressed for the day, exercise, take care of errands without bringing Eli along for the stressful trip, and to make a nice dinner for us to eat when Alan arrives home. These are all really important things to me and so by allowing me to do them, I am more-or-less a calm centered person that can be attentive and fun-loving with Eli every minute I'm with him (not the crazed exhausted lunatic of a person I was yesterday!).

So this is my Ode to Rita which hopefully one day I'll get to share in some way with her. But for now, I thank her profusely at the end of the day everyday and shower her with sweets and an occasional outfit or piece of jewelry. I hope that's enough to let her know how appreciative I am.

A Weekend of Getting His Feet Wet

On Saturday we joined our Colombian friends, Carlos and Uxoa, for some fun in the sun at a local hotel swimming pool and beach front. I had not seen them and their two girls since I left Accra in January so it was great to see how much the girls had grown and for them to meet Eli for the first time. Their girls were quite taken with Eli and loved to pat his head and to swing his toys in front of him as he tried to grasp them. We've been determined to take Eli swimming but the last few weeks have been cloudy and cool so finally we got a warm and sunny day weekend. We put him in his floater and cruised him around the pool. He did not seem to mind it but was also not as amused as we thought he'd be. Maybe it is a confusing experience that he was just trying to figure out. I would say he had neutral feelings about his first water excursion but we certainly loved seeing him in the water and just kept our fingers crossed that he wouldn't poop. I brought everything but the kitchen sink and the swim diapers to the pool. Somehow, although it may seem strange to spend the day at a hotel pool, it was a little escape for us and the chaos of life in Accra.









Carlos and Eli showing off their shades...






And what seemed like a near perfect day, of course could only be topped off with a case of food poisoning. Alan unfortunately stayed up most of the night at war with his lunch from the hotel, but it seemed to be finished in the morning luckily. So determined again to hit the water, we spent Sunday at our apartment complex's pool for another sunny day. We soaked up some rays while Eli finished his nap in the shade of his stroller and then after he woke we took him for a cool dip in our pool which he now seems a little more used to.

Conversations

The following are some recent conversations experienced with drivers of ours and of our friends in Ghana. We think that they highlight common beliefs and attitudes of people we've encountered while living here as well as the naivety of many. Stay tuned for volume two, as we're sure to keep collecting these instances for future entries. We find them very telling.

#1
Alan – Frank (our driver), watch out for the other cars!
Frank – I’m ok boss…
Alan – No you are not! The car in the right is driving weird, I think he is drunk, watch out, you are going to crash!
Frank – I’m not going to crash, and if I do, it doesn’t matter, it will not be my fault.
Alan - speechless

#2
Rob (Alan's Boss) – Domenick (Alan's boss' driver) please take us to Livingstons Restaurant
Domenick – Ok boss.
Twenty minutes later we arrive at Livingstons but to our surprise the restaurant is closed…
Rob – Now what do we do, it’s closed?!
Domenick – If you want to eat here they opened a new place 5 mins from here.
Rob – If you knew this one was closed and a new one was open elsewhere, why did you bring us here in the first place?
Rob and Alan – Speechless

#3
Frank – Boss, have you seen the movie Titanic?
Alan – Yes Frank, why do you ask?
Frank – I wish one day I’ll be in a boat like that guy, he was very lucky to find love with rich woman, very few people make it like him.
Alan – Frank, the story is not real.
Frank – What? Everybody in Ghana thinks it was real, are you sure boss?
Alan – Speechless.

#4
Frank – Boss, listen to this CD, it’s a preacher I like a lot.
Preacher – I don’t know how a remote controller works and I don’t have time to understand, I just know I press a button and the channel changes. I don’t know how facebook works and I don’t have time to understand, I just know I type something and my followers can read it. The same goes for Jesus… you just have to do what he says, it doesn’t matter if you understand it, you don’t have time in this lifetime to understand him, you just need to follow him…”
Alan – So if Jesus tells you to give 10% of your salary to this man you give it? Shut this thing off! If you listen to this crook again you are fired! (joking obviously)

#5
Carlos (a friend of ours) - Kojo, why is the driver's side door dented and smashed?
Kojo (Carlos' driver) - Because when I get out of the car, I have to hit the cement wall next to the car in order to get out (he's a big guy).
Carlos - But you have all this space on the other side of the car to park.
Kojo - I should have probably parked further away from the wall, will do so going forward.
Carlos - Speechless

#6
Rita (our nanny/maid) - Madam, I put Eli down for a nap but I thought it was too cold in the room so I made it warmer.
Emily - That's fine Rita, thank you.
(few seconds later Emily goes to check on Eli)
Emily - Rita, the room is freezing!
Rita - It was at 24 so I turned it down to 20 (puzzled).
Emily - The number is the temperature not the fan speed.

More Goodbyes to Friends

I've gotten used to saying goodbye to friends we've made here in Ghana now, as everyone's time here is limited and unfortunately I couldn't have all my friends stick around until Alan and I leave to head somewhere else. It's always hard saying goodbye because it are these friends that make Accra feel like home, a temporary home, but nonetheless a home. Yesterday I had a final day of shopping fun with my friend Alena who I've worked with for the last 1 1/2 years at the NGO I've been involved with. Alena is from Switzerland and has been heavily involved with the NGO, which has it's headquarters in Switzerland. She's returning there to be in charge of fundraising. On her last day in Accra, I took her around with my driver, since she does not have such a luxury, and we hit all the good spots for handicrafts so she could load up on gifts for her friends and family back home. We took Eli along and it was a great day. Eli had the most fun shopping for Kente cloth, which is a traditional woven cloth sewn into placemats, table runners, and other household items. The bright colors kept his attention!





I will miss her, but as one friend leaves, more come along. Just this week I've made a new Scottish friend who I'll start taking morning walks with, and today I just met a Pakastani woman in my building who has a 5-month old boy...a perfect playmate for Eli. And the little chap's name is Ali so I think it was meant to be!

Lazy Sunday

Our Sundays tend to be really lazy slow days, as there is not so much to do in Accra on a Sunday. Normally, when the sun is shining, we can go to our pool and we're so looking forward to taking Eli swimming for the first time. But this is now the rainy season so most days, if not rainy, are overcast and cool...yes, that's right, COOL! Hard to believe given we're on the equator but of course it's all relative. Cool to Ghanaians is 80 degrees and our security guards at our building put on their winter parkas to stay warm!

So, anyway, this past Sunday was a pretty typical one except that the sun did break through for a few minutes and we quickly ran outside hoping to catch a few rays. There is nowhere to walk nearby, or almost anywhere in Accra, that doesn't include risking your life (see previous blog - pedestrians do not have the right of way or any rights when cars and tro tro's are considered into the equation), so our walks with Eli are limited to the parking lot of our compound. We got this new fancy stroller from my parents when they were here and Eli loves to kick back and relax in it. We threw on his new velcro strapped shades and made some rounds through the scenic cement parking lot.



Eli also acquired some new Baby Einstein DVD's from a friend this past weekend so on Sunday we tested them out and he was mesmerized especially by the Vincent Van Gogh color one. We think he might be an artist some day.


And the highlight of our day was capturing this video of Eli. We think the early stages of teething have caused him to have these episodes of spitting. We find them quite funny.

Saying Goodbye to Grandpa and Grandma

My parents left to return to the US on Sunday night after a really wonderful visit with us here in Ghana. I think it was eye opening for them in many ways and they got a little taste of our life here in Accra. It felt so nice to have them as guests in our apartment after they've looked after me for the last 6 months throughout the end of my pregnancy and beginning of motherhood. We took them around Accra, visiting local restaurants where we ate mostly good food (Italian, Lebanese, Thai) and one or two bad meals, and we even managed to cook a few times in the house,







Although my parents quickly realized that grocery shopping and cooking can take all day here by the time you struggle through traffic to reach the 3 different grocery stores and then still have to soak and clean all the veggies. We were able to introduce them to some of our good friends and they got to know Rita, our housecleaner/nanny extraordinaire


and our amazing driver, Frank, both of whom they adore now.


We got to play with some of the new toys and equipment we've acquired since arriving back to Accra including a fancy extra lightweight stroller brought back from South Africa by my parents and a this plastic play gym thing that tries to rival the excersaucer but is a stretch. It's all we could find here in Accra!

My parents got plenty of time to play with Eli and I think really treasured the last few days with him for a while at least.


It was sad for all of us to say goodbye especially because the next time they will see Eli, he will have changed so much. But it's something for all of us to look forward to and we'll be using Skype on a daily basis I think!
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