My Home in Ghana
2nd June 2006
Inevitable comparisons are always going to be made between my home
in the Philippines and my home here in Ghana. I'm sure people
are getting sick of me using the phrase: "When I was in the
Philippines..."
Volunteer House Number One
Let's start with Volunteer House Number One, the house I now call
home. It has a corrugated iron roof - which leaks during torrential
downpours - and the walls are rough cast concrete. Patchwork lino covers the
concrete floors.
There is no running water or telephones and the electricity is
sporadic at best.
The Toilet
The house has a western style toilet, that is flushed by tipping a
bucket of water down the bowl. You almost always have company
when you go to the toilet. Five centimeter cockroaches are the
most common bathroom buddies. Centipedes have also been spotted
and I am sure a mouse will turn up one of these days.
I don't like bugs. They freak me out. I even wrote
about them as being one of my concerns before heading to the
Philippines. Since then I have posed
for photographs with them and even managed to have a rather large
beetle crawl across my face - much to the disgust of a Filipino kid
who took great joy in tormenting me.
The trend has continued in Ghana. I have evicted cockroaches
from the toilet and hunted centipedes in the shower for those whose
bug phobia is somewhat greater than mine.
Heck, I even ate a bug the other day. I was having tea
a local restaurant and a Liberian guy caught a fkying bug and said
that adults usually cook them into a stew, and the kids sometimes eat
them raw. I said to Carrie
that if she ate one, then so would I. So we did!
The Shower
The heat here is just oppressive. I tried to take a nap
recently in my room when the power was out (and hence no fan). I
sweated just lying there. It was hot in the Philippines, it is
hotter here.
So the need for showering is quite high as you inevitably
get soaked with sweat.
The shower is located outside the main house. It is of the
tip-a-bucket-of-water-over-the-head variety. You get wet, lather
up and rinse. Pretty easy *shrugs*. Like most things here
you get used to it pretty quickly. The oppressive heat here can
even make the experience a pleasant one.
Cockroaches and millipedes scuttle their way over from the bathroom
just so that you don't get lonely.
You leave the bucket shower feeling cleaner but never really
clean. The bucket showers are just not as good as their
free flowing relatives. And it never takes long for the sweat to
start accumulating again...
Bedroom
There are four bedrooms in the house with two volunteers per
room.
I share a room with Nicholas, an American guy who is leaving the
same day I am. The bedroom is quiet place where I can
be by myself. Nicholas treats it in the same way.
The worst thing about the house are the beds. They are just
crap. The beds consists of a foam mattress on top of a wooden
slat bed. The planks frequently fall off in the night and you
are left with the decision of either getting up and putting them back, or sleeping in an awkward
position.
Nicholas has had the worst bed experience. We awoke one
morning to a particularly unpleasant smell. Nicholas discovered
that a mouse had decided to die between his bed and mattress.
The mouse was crawling with maggots and had begun to excrete copious
amounts of mouse juice all over the bed. Some of the juice was
sucked up by the foam mattress.
Yummy.
Social Room
The house also has a common social room. This is where we have
all our meals and hang out. There is no television and no radio
so we usually have to resort to something tragic like
conversation. *shudders*
Electricity
In the Philippines it was interesting when the power
went out. Here, it is the other way
around. It is interesting
when the power is on. I reckon we have had the power on for
about one day out of the seven I've been here for.
The most useful thing I bought with me to Ghana was my
headlamp. It's a little geeky looking,
but is very useful when you're wandering around in the dark and need
to have both hands free.
The only thing that really bugs me about the electricity is that I
can't use my laptop as often as I want. I love writing up stuff
like this for my website and fret a little when I can't.
I don't miss the other things that electricity usually
brings. Candles and headlamps are fine for seeing in the dark
with and television can go hang.
Keeping it hygienic
Hygiene is a concern when you are living in such basic conditions
and are surrounded by mice and cockroaches.
We have a dedicated hand washing area which is religiously used
before eating and after using the toilet. Dirty kids frequently
clamber all over us outside so it is a good to wash your hands after
that as well.
Teeth are brushed outside in a drain.
Bug spray and mosquito nets are also used to keep the mozzies
away.
Malaria is quite common here. I thought you were pretty much
a goner if you ever got malaria. Not true. Erin - the
local volunteer coordinator - has had it three times over a nine month
period. Malaria wipes you out for about a week. You do
need to take some medication which costs about $US 1.
A few unlucky volunteers have been clogged up with constipation and
a couple of them have gotten scabies, probably from one of the cute
kids that hangout outside our house.
The Help
We have many Liberian people helping us out.
Eric comes in every morning and refills the the toilet and shower
buckets as well as giving the place a general tidy up.
The lovely Victoria cooks all our meals and does all our dishes.
The meals are left at the food station.
We all have a washing lady who will do a load of washing for about
40,000 cedis ($NZ 6.89).
Living in a dormitory
I lived in a home-stay
environment in the Philippines. I had initially wanted a
dormitory style environment, but was pleasantly surprised how much I
enjoyed living with Reza Nicole
and Jen-Jen.
Looking back at my life, I've found that I've most
enjoyed the dormitory lifestyle. Rochester
and Rutherford Hall was a lot of fun and - while a difficult place
to live - I still enjoyed the social aspect of Ashburn
Clinic. A snapshot of a typical day in Ashburn can be
found here.
And here I am now, back inside a dormitory
environment.
So far, it has been pretty good. I can retreat to
my room if I want to and there is always something happening in the
social room.
Sharing a room with someone is a new experience.
I'd prefer to have my own room, but Nicholas is a pretty cool guy and is easy
enough to live with.
Questions? Comments? Try contacting
me.
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(c)
2005 and 2006 Malcolm Trevena.
All the stuff on this site is written by me, Malcolm Trevena. Feel free to
link to this page. Heck, you can even copy stuff from here if you
want. Just make sure you sight me as a reference.
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