Celebrity, Animals & Azonto

Friday afternoon I borrowed a bicycle and rode the 15 minutes to nearby Jiningsa to watch the students play a match. Along the way I passed village houses where I greeted people on the go. I live in what’s called Gbedema Central but once you get past the dam in the direction I was going the houses are more spread out so the landscape becomes more noticeable. The path I follow is red dirt and since it’s dry season I look out and see mostly brown. Every so often a nice green shade tree is seen and there are many baobab trees with their hanging seeds. I also blazed past many of my students wearing my floppy hat as they were walking their in the hot sun. People who live near my house and the school are accustomed to seeing me by now and though every once in a while someone makes a big deal over me and the kids still love to gawk for the most part i don’t feel so out of place any more. It’s normal. But here it was different even though I’d been once before I am still an attraction. A celebrity of sorts. I was cracking up because many of the kids were staring at me instead of watching the game. I don’t think I’m all that interesting to watch but I guess my gleaming skin is enough of a draw. After the students played some of the teachers played a match for fun which was pretty hilarious. Too bad I quit soccer way back in middle school...

After the match I was biking away when a local man called to me to see if I wanted to buy a rabbit they’d hunted. I’d seen some people hunting rabbits recently and told myself next time I’d get one. So I took the opportunity and placed it in the basket for the trip back home. The girls skinned and smoked the meat and we enjoyed it in okra soup one night and groundnut soup one night the next. Speaking of animals, I’ve had a mouse friend living in my room for a little while and just recently got some rat poison to kill it with. Saturday morning I found more droppings and was thinking I needed to buy dry fish to put out with the poison on it. I was doing a bit of cleaning and organizing in my room and opened a shoebox that I use to store dvds in- out popped the mouse! I started of screaming of course and ran into the kitchen where the girls were while it first ran under my bed and then ran into the kitchen. I wasn’t much use besides making noise but I did manage to close both bedroom doors while the girls chased the mouse out through the wash room. There’s a hole in their for the water to drain outside which I am thinking is how the mouse got inside in the first place. Also I’ve been storing a big bag of groundnuts for my friend Chris to sow during rainy season so the mouse found an easy food supply once it chewed through the burlap bag. We moved the bag out of my room into the living room. I thought we’d seen the end of the mouse but Monday morning while Felicity was sweeping in the living room she discovered it (or one) again. I was screaming again but she remained cool and this time smashed him. Poor dead mouse.

The heat has started climbing enough here that people have started sleeping outside. I haven’t yet had to resort to that since my stand fan keeps me relatively cool but I almost got that desperate one night when the lights went off. I took my bath just before getting in bed then kept a cool rag on my pillow but was having a really hard time sleeping. Thankfully the power came back on right around 11 so I didn’t lose too much sleep. During the day I sweat so much (especially when I sit- yuck) even though the wind is blowing still. After school I’ll come home and if I rub my skin I can make small balls of dust. It’s pretty gross. As I mentioned a few posts ago, it’s the season for CSM now. I went to greet the nurses last week and they told me that there have been deaths reported in our district capital Sandema from CSM, targeting children. I did some research and found out that since January 1 in the Upper East region there have been 81 reported cases and 16 deaths. Our district’s numbers are some of the highest with 24 cases and 4 deaths. They’re calling it an epidemic and are urging people to wait and have funerals in the rainy season to avoid overcrowding and prevent further spreading. I decided to talk to my students again about the signs and prevention. Hopefully all my students have been vaccinated now but I want them to know what to look for in their family members, especially children.

On a fun ending note, my students have been crazy for a song and dance that’s currently popular in Ghana called Azonto. I have a couple of dance videos on my laptop that I shared with the students and we even tried to do some of the dances. It’s a good way to cut loose with them and also exercise. But the song is definitely overplayed- I hear it all the time on people’s speakers or phones and I am starting to tire of it. The girls asked a few nights ago to watch the video and though I allowed them I told them I think I am getting sick of Azonto!