On our first night (remember we got to bed about 3.30 am) we switched on the light and discovered we had room mates. A couple of geckos!! They're totally adorable and as promised I named them Chantal and Rut.
The next one I saw was to be called Mary (Espina) so here she is, she lives behind the sofa in the living room.
There are lots of different lizards here, I love the blue ones with yellow heads.We have HUGE ants in the house. They're not pests like the European ones and they are food for the geckos so they're allowed to stay.
I've been trying to get pictures of the birds but they don't come that close so I'll keep trying and hopefully post some next time.
Food
The food is different here too, especially the vegetables. These are some of the ingredients for Domoda which contains peanut butter (the brown stuff in the little plastic bag, funny, I thought it only came in jars). Yes, that's a green tomato.
The restaurants here are wonderful and very cheap if you want to eat African food, which we do of course. The only problem is it can get a bit messy so they sometimes give water bowls to wash your hands. Ben reminded me of Donkey in Shrek 2.This is Lily enjoying the local beer, Julbrew. It's good.
Workers
We employ a wonderful cleaner called Madeline, she does in 4 hours what would take me 2 days. She's tiny and beautiful and wears gorgeous African clothes, the type I'd wear for a REALLY special occasion. We had a horrid old mop when I came so I bought her two new ones but I actually watched her today cleaning the floor with a cloth. She stands with her legs straight and bends over double to reach the floor. I'd die of backache!! That reminds me of a van we saw. It was just a dirty old van with a sign on it claiming to be a clinic. I wanted to take a photo of the sign but I was laughing so much I thought they would realize what I was doing and I didn't want to be that rude. Anyway, their services include cures for waist pain (whatever that is), high blood (presumably they missed off the word pressure) and even stroke!! I just can't imagine ANYONE going there to be cured of a stroke.
Another wonderful sign read "GYM, build muscle and loose fat" No thanks, I've got plenty of that already.
Our landlord had painters in when we first arrived. One morning Lily and I told him we were going out but he told us he was going home too. What was the problem? Was he ill or something? No, Ghana were playing Botswana!
Our odd job man is called Alkali. We asked him to go for a tin of paint (white gloss, nothing complicated) because the painter couldn't finish without it. SIX hours later he returned with the paint saying he couldn't find it. It's hard to know what he was just being lazy and had gone home, or stupid and was looking in the wrong places or if there was genuinely a shortage.
I was offered a job in a school. I went in for a morning to see how it was and really enjoyed it. Sadly they were only offering 30 pounds a MONTH for full time work so it really wasn't worth it. I was hoping it would stretch our savings a bit but I won't make that much of a difference and I would prefer to pioneer.
Terry has been doing bits of work but he too has encountered problems. One of my favorites was when he tried to get a piston (these are normally measured in thousandths of an inch) and was offered size "Big, bigger or biggest".
Ben was asked to look at a printing machine that had been donated by the American Embassy to a newspaper. They hunted all over the country for someone who could operate it but without success. Ben took one look and told them that this was the very machine he had learned on in college. All they had to do was get hold of the chemicals needed to run it. It seems this is a big problem for them so he's still waiting to start.
Children
The children here are totally adorable. They shout out "toubab" whenever we pass. Occasionally they will ask for "minty" (sweets) but mostly they just want a wave. I feel like the queen. Sometimes when we're walking near them they want to touch us. Ben was getting on a bus one day and FIVE children stood in line to shake his hand. Sooo cute!!
This photo was taken from the bus of the children
in our street collecting water from the public tap. Sometimes I wonder about the difference in our lives. They have nothing, barely even clothes, yet they go to collect water from the tap and play together until their cannister is full. They always seem happy, fooling around in sun. I think of the children in Europe who can't play out in the street anymore for fear of being kidnapped so they're locked in their houses with computers as playmates. At first I was shocked and felt sorry for these children but they're HAPPY!!Ministry
Needless to say it's great. I have two studies that Lily passed on to me but I'm sure I'll have more soon. I'll tell you about those next time. On the door to door ministry we enter each compound and greet the people in Wollof then ask if they speak English and if the head of the family is home. They bring out chairs and we just sit in the sun and talk. They are usually Muslim so have great respect for religion and the Scriptures and it's very easy to chat with them.
I haven't started any studies of my own yet but apparently I'll soon have more then I can handle, looking forward to that.
Tiger making friends with Toye, our Nigerian vet and pioneer partner.
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