Moving "Home"

We’re beginning to get settled here in Jumbo. Kris is rapidly placing putty in the cracks between the walls and ceiling (as I type in fact). We’re hoping this will reduce the amount of bat guano and lord knows that else that falls to the concrete floors each minute of the day and night. Once the ceiling is sealed we plan to paint it white and the walls some soft colors… this may be tricky as I’m not sure how well the paint will stick to the concrete walls. Next will be adding carpet (not what you think) to cover the floors. Carpet in Ghana is more like thick plastic reminiscent of linoleum in the states. With the carpet in place hopefully there will be even less dirt that just happens on a day to day basis due to the concrete floor being chipped in numerous locations of high traffic. We also hope to put similar “carpet” on all of our cooking and eating surfaces to enhance cleaning ability. We’re also planning on adding some shelves in the kitchen and some sort of closets in the bedroom. Kris is pretty handy, and Kwame (a 15-year-old boy from the village) seems eager to help, hopefully I can stay out of the way :).

A storm has just started to roll its way through our village, I took some video and pictures, click the link to see. This afternoon we’ll plant some of the seeds that we brought/were sent in the garden. It’s a perfect time to plant after some rain. I’ll let you know if sweet corn grows here, I sure hope so. My quick trip to the latrine just now was a smart one, as the skies began to darken. I could hear distant thunder as I was squatting, I’d bet it’s been awhile since you’ve thought to yourself while peeing, “I wonder how much tin this latrine needs to have to be attractive to a bolt of lightning.” I just pondered that very thought. I’ve concluded that my latrine, though small, does have enough tin on it’s roof to encourage a lightning strike, I’ll keep out of there during a storm. Our bathing area is open to the skies, and it gets dark here around 1900 (7pm), so my last few baths have been in mostly darkness accompanied by candlelight and stars. It’s pretty surreal, last night I was privileged to listen to Shania Twain’s “You’re Still The One” while poring cups full of borehole water over my head. Most Ghanaians like Shania Twain; all Ghanaians love Celine Dion. Any taxi driver is sure to have a tape full of Celine Deion to blare in your ears while astutely navigating craters in the road. The thunderstorm has ended; our barrel of water, 2 large buckets and our dishwashing bowel are full of water, thanks rain! So much for my 3 trips to the borehole yesterday to fetch water. A band of children just ran by, energized by the refreshing rain. The last child in line had a naked 2-year-old (all but 3 strands of light blue waist beads) balanced carefully on her shoulders :).

I’m getting better at killing spiders, but they still scare me into near hyperventilation. Yesterday as I was sweeping (with my new BROOM complete with handle) I thought I saw a large white marble roll across the uneven floor. It kept “rolling” until it hit my dirt pile, where it re-righted itself and started walking on it’s 8 legs to the corner of the room. The new broom handle received a pretty decent dent as it fell from my firm grasp to the floor. I ran (already lacking sufficient oxygen) to get my Ghanaian broom (a bunch of shredded palm leaves dried to a thin blade brush consistency then tied together), I closed my eyes and swung, the fat-white-bodied spider was spattered on my Birkenstocks. That spider didn’t realize it had met an arachnophobic spider killer.

Yesterday while Kris worked on the house, I went to Jumbo’s monthly baby weighing. The community health nurse (a 2 year degree) was administering scheduled vaccinations. 2 of Jumbo’s residents are “community health volunteers” they were writing down the weights I was able to gather while the squirming and sometimes screaming 4-day-old infant to 2.5 year-old toddler waited as patiently as possible to be let out of the sling. 233 babies are on the register, 121 passed through my hands yesterday. It’s hard to believe that I saw only half of Jumbo’s registered babies. Every Wednesday in Kpasa (the district capital just 3km from Jumbo, or two hills – down, up, down, and up into town) there is a baby weighing, I plan to attend as much as I am able.

The first 3 months at site we’re not supposed to start any projects or really do too much. We’re supposed instead take time to live in and get comfortable with the community. However, as I weighed and later plotted out some of the weights of the babies, it was hard for me not to act. Instead of plotting out a weight on a graph, the community volunteers just list the date and weight of the child. Unfortunately the graph plotting system is less than intuitive. Even I struggle to fill it in correctly. But when it is done you are left with a very accurate description of how well the baby is growing based on age and weight. The graph has 5 curves mapped out; if a dot (baby’s weight based upon it’s age) is below “0” they should be watched, -1 they’re malnourished, -2 they’re severely malnourished and should be referred to the hospital or nutrition clinic. You can also watch the dots for a trend, upwards or downwards. Many of the children had a full year of monthly weighings not recorded on the graph. When I plotted them out, some fell below -2. According to the community health nurse and community volunteers there is not even a nutrition clinic in the area… I hope to find out this is untrue. If it is true, I have my work cut out for me. I will start small, helping those who document the weights understand how to use and the importance of the graph. There is also a lot that can be done with educating the mothers in Jumbo about nutrition, the previous volunteer worked in this area and I hope to further it.

Kris and Kwame are just finishing up planting in the garden. The power is out from the storm and the fridge is leaking water, there’s nothing in it yet to spoil. The sun is already back out and drying the dishes I have washed and laid out. Tomorrow is market day in Kpasa, I’m really excited to get more food (yes it is the simple things). I have re-named Bunny; she will now be called Luna (Harry Potter reference for those of you HP nerds like me), and am sad to report that Kitty is no longer with us. She passed while Kris and I were away for the past month, she managed to get into our water barrel (which normally has a lid securely in place), but wasn’t able to get out. I will likely find a new kitten to bring home tomorrow. RIP Kitty. I plan to name the new one Sanja; it’s a Konkomba name given to a male child born on the road; aren’t all cats born on the road?

Here are some pictures of swearing in, the house, storm, and garden:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029276&id=185900425&l=1b415bf762