Kamikaze Crows, Power Cuts and Malaria

So, we've got these lovely crows over here… They remind me of Japanese Kamikaze because they seem to purposely crash-land on the roof (and somehow survive). Next thing you hear is this scratchy noise of a fat bird (or person?) hopping and sometimes sliding along the roof. Also, the common Kamikaze crow preferably crash-lands in the early morning hours around 5/6 am. It is incredibly loud! The first time I experienced one of their landing attempts I nearly jumped up from the bed with a heart attack. I thought we were being attacked and the roof is coming down. 

   We have had a lot of power problems in the camp these last few days. I'm lucky to have access to the internet at the moment. I'm not a big friend of air-conditioning but when you have a boiling hot malaria patient right next to you at an already tropical climate you do wish the air-conditioning was working *shweatin* 

   Rory came down with Malaria last week Tuesday. He was suffering from severe migraine-like headaches, fever and waves of shivers and shakes. It was caught early though which is crucial and also meant it didn't get any worse than that. He was much better by Saturday and is back to work this week *sigh* 
   I've been asked what the food is like over here. As I am not employed with Lycopodium I can't join the staff for meals in the canteen. The head of one of the subcontractors of Lycopodium agreed however that I can have meals in their canteen whenever I feel like it - at our own expense. To keep costs low I do try to feed myself though. In the villages you will always see women cooking and selling food at either side of the road. I have not been overly brave yet when it comes to trying it - I don't fancy hugging the 'porcelain throne' as Verena would call it. You really have to be careful with the food. It could have been sitting in the sun for ours or there is a problem with hygiene and so on.

   Most dishes are prepared with palm oil and quite greasy. I have tried a few 'safe' things such as yam chips which is very similar to potato but not as soft, quite nice actually. I have also tried fried plantain, a type of banana. It is very similar in consistency but different in taste. Apart from that I bought grilled cobs of corn at the market *yum* and regularly buy white loafs of bread, buttery and sweet in taste. We bought a toaster for the room so that I can make myself sandwiches or toasted bread for breakfast. Some shops sell tinned meats such as tuna steak. A few days ago I bought a can of corned beef. I didn't go further than opening the can… A familiar scent and look although not necessarily reminding me of corned beef. Let's just say Ruby (Rory's 4-legged pet) would have probably liked it. Maybe they confused the labels on the tin? 

   One thing to know about the food: Ghanaians love their spices. I tried a fish (don't remember what kind) in a spicy red sauce with garlicky fried rice. It was delicious but it took me half the meal to get over how spicy it was. I've seen a few other nice dishes I am curious to try. I will keep you posted.

   The library is making progress. We've completed marking all the books as property of the library and sorting them in a few general categories. A lot of work ahead of us yet. We will have to classify them into further subcategories, catalogue them, and also get rid of outdated, damaged books. Termites only love a good book :) Myself and Sammy sat down yesterday and went through a list of things that need to be done and estimated the costs. In total I was able to fundraise EUR 714 of which EUR 169 were already spent on PC equipment. We have EUR 545 left which equals roughly about 1200 Ghana Cedi - a good sum of money over here. With that money we hope to be able to afford to paint the bookshelves, build a browser box for children books, decorate a 'kids corner', buy a photocopier so that people won't rip out pages from books and other bits and pieces that are required to get the library going. Sammy is delighted as funding otherwise isn't great at the moment. 

   Sammy and Seth (my library assistant) will start painting the shelves today. They insisted that I do not join them as they are worried the fumes in combination with the heat will be bad for me. There was no arguing with them so I will have a few days off until Friday. In the meantime I'm doing some research on free or affordable software for a medium sized library. As power and internet comes and goes all the time, I'll probably need these days off anyways before I'll get some results. If anyone knows of suitable PC software for library use please let me know. 

   Suzi is in Ghana since last week Monday. We've not been able to get her out of customs yet, probably due to a mistake made by the Irish gang with the paperwork but nothing major. Hopefully I will be able to collect her this coming weekend if I get registration and insurance sorted. CAN'T WAIT!! 

 

Purple Rocks - Our patio also referred to as the 'birdcage' and camp/neighbours