Our 6-week adventure in Africa is just over half-way finished. Weird. I find myself reminiscing a little on my journey as an Obruni in this Western African Nation and our African abode.

It was nighttime when I first disembarked from the plane in Accra. Eric, our bus driver, took a group of our freshly landed students back to our green-roofed African abode. The limited city lighting provided us with only glimpses of our surroundings, so I had to wait until morning to gain my bearings. We arrived home, unloaded the bus with our cumbersome suitcases packed full of preserved food, and I comfortably slept on my top bunk. I woke the next morning with hardly any jet lag! Eagerly, I walked outside to see where the heck I was. Upon unlatching the heavy gate and letting it drift back to the side, I grounded myself on the seashell flecked sidewalk. I stared left up a red-dirt road that was surrounded by lush and tall green grass; the contrast between the reds and greens makes for picturesque backgrounds in any situation. Slanted rooftops lined one side while nicer gated houses lined the other. Several African children found extreme joy in each other’s company as they played street games and chased after one another. Some of the Kofis who are always at Adasa Royal, the hotel across the street with wi-fi (score), continued to work on an endless construction project to fix the road in front of our house. My emotions at the time: excited, nervous, scared, comfortable, uncomfortable, etc. You get the point — I didn’t know what I was feeling. My surroundings were new and unfamiliar and were heightened knowing I was literally on the other side of the world, separated from my family by two continents and an ocean. But after being here for almost a month, a time in which I was faced with getting horribly lost around town and finding my way back home, hailing taxi’s, and mastering (sort of) the art of tro tro riding, I feel as though I know the neighborhood and nearby area as if they were my own.

Our Obruni house is funky. The perimeter is lined with barbed wire, of which I’ve used as a drying rack when the clothes lines are fully occupied, and it has a security man on guard 24/7. It inhabits 15 different personalities which always provides a friend to relate to whatever mood you’re in. White-capped orange pharmacy prescribed Malaria pills fill our communal space aside weirdly flavored hand sanitizers and countless 1.5 ml Voltic water bottles. The kitchen table’s ceiling light turns from a dim glow to upbeat rave lighting when the ceiling fan is on. We have two smaller than average refrigerators that are both full of various leftovers, unfamiliar, and often questionable, brands of food. Mangoes and pineapples find refuge away from the army of fruit-flies on the fridge shelves. Half-eaten fluffy and freshly baked loaves of bread are dispersed around the kitchen and eating area. The kitchen capacity is four on a good day: one at the sink, two at the stove, and one in the pantry. We light the stove with matches and wash our dishes with a water pressure of zero. A cabinet door broke within the first week so we duct-taped it back together though it continues to struggle to not fall on our heads when we forget and open it.  Bug spray cans and fifteen pairs of muddy shoes line the edges of our walk way — we spray ourselves inside and out of the house. We keep the traffic limited in and out of the house to avoid letting any mosquito intruders inside. Five or six blue buckets are dispersed near our hundred(s) gallon tank of rain water out back. We take bucket showers with each other in the late evenings to cool off from the day. You pour my bucket and I’ll pour yours. Thao, Joe, and Garth: thanks for the pours these past couple of weeks.

I look forward to hearing about my Obruni family’s days; there is ALWAYS a story to be told. One could argue this group is becoming pretty hard core as we master the tro tro system, cut mangoes like professional chefs, and shower in record time with bucket water like nobody’s business. Life is good in the Obruni house and it has gotten especially better now that I’ve trained my body to sleep through the incessant chirping bird whose home is conveniently two feet outside my bedroom window.

ELORA, HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!

Here are some pictures of our group just having fun!