Lizards and Frogs and Mice Oh My!

So I’ve been asked about where I am living so here’s a little bit about my apartment. I’m sharing a room with a German girl (Mona) who is also here volunteering; she’s been here for 4 months already and plans on staying on until August. Why, you might ask, are there so many Germans in Ghana? There’s an organization in Germany that sets these types of projects up for them. Along with our room there are 2 other rooms (one where Phyllis is staying and one where the other lady at the office sometimes stays, I have yet to meet her) that are connected via an open air square (~7’ x 7’). On the other side of the square is a room for the shower, a separate room for the bathroom, and a kitchen. The rooms have ceiling fans which are amazing and we each have a full size bed :) . However, since we are living close to the “bush” as Phyllis says there are some things that I am still getting used to. First of all, there are no lights in either the shower or the bathroom or the kitchen for that matter so, lucky for me, I brought my headlight (probably one of the best investments I’ve ever made next to the sleep sheet); it’s kind of like camping ALL the time. As for the kitchen, I have learned to buy only food I can eat that night, I walked into the kitchen one morning and found a gigantic lizard eating my bread, asshole! Then to make matters worse there are also two mice (Mickey and Minnie) living in the kitchen, as some of you are aware I’m a bit frightened by small creatures so these are all things I need to get used to. I’ve gotten in the habit now of knocking on the door of the kitchen before entering so the little creatures can run away. Yesterday I was in the room with Mona sitting around and chatting when I heard a rustle by my suitcase. I looked to see what it was and of course it turned out to be a giant frog (slightly bigger than a fist), yes there’s a frog that’s living in my room. I think I’ll name him Kermit. Mona doesn’t seem to be phased by any of this; apparently I’m just a giant wimp, haha. She saw Kermit and was like yeah from time to time he likes to come out. Um, a little heads up would have been nice. She also told me a story about a Spanish girl who was staying at one of the hotels where she felt something under her mattress. She thought she was just imagining things so tried to go back to sleep. Again she felt something move under her mattress. She finally gets up and tells the manager. The manager came into the room lifted the mattress and found a gigantic rat. I think if that happened to me I would’ve shat myself and probably died from a heart attack.

Now onto more interesting things. We’ve visited 3 villages, met their chiefs, the women beneficiaries, and the Queen Mother. It was interesting to learn about their reasons for why the project has failed so far. The common complaint from all the beneficiaries has been the fact that the organization hasn’t provided them the raw materials to make the products that they can sell. There seems to be a general lack of empowerment as they look to the organization to provide the raw materials and the vehicles to transport their goods. And to be frank, it’s not all their fault. Apparently there were promises made of a vehicle and other such things. If I were the women I would wait around too, why would I expend my own energy to get the supplies when it’s going to be delivered soon? Through the meetings Phyllis made it clear to them that the organization has no money to give them, instead she told them about the loans that are available to them and explained how they can control their own businesses instead of waiting and relying on others. All the women seemed very excited about the idea. We’ve set up a time for the people from the bank to come speak to the villages and again they were all very receptive. I get the perception that expectations weren’t set out clearly at the beginning of the project so that’s why there’s been a lot of waiting and wondering.

Oh and I’ve been given a Ghanaian name “Esi” which means Sunday, the day I was born. All Ghanaians have that as part of their names, so you can imagine there are a lot of Esi’s running around.