Life in Accra

I am certainly enjoying my time here in Accra. It seems very familiar to me. It is hot and humid, but my guest house has air conditioning, so 3/4 of the time, I am comfortable. There is a problem with electricity here, so in a forty-eight hour period, the power is off for twelve hours, alternating day and night (one day on, next day off during daytime, next day on, next day off during nighttime). Most places have a generator, but not all appliances can run with the generator. To be honest, I hardly notice the outages because I am always going some place or another, but yesterday I was sending e-mails and the power went out before I was finished.

There has been some discussion about my service here, but nothing is set it stone. There is talk of my doing some teaching about AIDS/HIV to school children and pretty much whatever I can get involved with. The pastor of the church up in Tumu and some SIM missionaries will see what they can do with me. I hear reports that the north (eg, Tumu) of Ghana is different from the south (eg, Accra). I am nervous about going up there, but certainly ready for the vacation to end and the work to begin (not that I mind the vacation). I have been well looked after here. Sherri and the other SIMmers are wonderful.

One thing I doubt I will ever get used to is how guys relate to me (and other foreigners). I have had multiple proposals of marriage and one guy even offered his friends sexual services to me! Also, everyone wants to know my phone number. I tried to lie and give a fake number, but when he dialed and didn't get through, he suggested that I call him so he could get my number. I wasn't quick enough to think my way out of the situation, so now he has my number. Fortunately I have call display on my phone. The actual problem with the guys more has to do with saying "no". Ghanaians never say no directly; you have to say it indirectly and people know that "well, try later", etc really means "no". That to me sounds like an invitation to come back to me, so I never really want to say that when someone, say, offers to take me to the beach (which happened yesterday). I try to say something like, "I don't like that" or "My father does not allow me to do that" which makes me feel better than "not now, come back later". I must say though, nothing outrageous (beyond words) has happened and please pray that it remains that way.

When I am not running about with Sherri, I am usually just sitting on the curb outside the guest house chatting it up with the guard and the neighbours. This seems like the essence of Ghanaian culture: sitting and talking with people. It is always a nice time to talk about dumb stuff, or cerebral matters. Everywhere I go, I see people sitting and talking. It is actually a nice change from the busyness of Canadian life. I try to retire to me room by 2100h because I need time by myself to think and do my introverted things.

God has been very good to me so far; except for a few hours of "traveller's discomfort" everything this week has been great. Even the sermon in church today was beneficial. The speaker (in more words) reminded us that God is capable of more than we can ask or imagine with reference to the story of Lazarus. I felt that that was great way to head into this week since I'm starting to think about the work I have come here to do. I am looking forward to my time up in the north.

I will be living alone up in Tumu near a missionary. Please pray that I don't starve to death (I have to cook for myself, but I am thinking about hiring house help. I'll see how it goes).

My time is up. I will write again later.

Thanks for reading ~*