Change is Slow, except with weather

It seems like life here is slow moving. Things just happen in their own time. Buses rarely leave on time. Traveling takes a long time. There are benches everywhere, since it's assumed that there's always something that you'll be waiting for. The one thing that isn't slow is change in weather.

The sky was sunny yesterday, the sun was hot, and rain seemed to be no where to be seen. I could hear the distant thunder and it sounded pretty big. Those long drawn out thunders, none of this thunder clap business. This is more of a stone echoing in a well type of thunder. And it sounded big, but the sky was clear and there were no clouds on the horizon. So we judged that it was safe to walk to town to get supplies.

Now, I like to think that I'm well adjusted to the heat here. But maybe during this rainy season I've gone soft, because I was dying in the heat yesterday. I must have forgotten what the hot season is going to feel like or maybe I've just gotten used to not sweating constantly. The sun yesterday was brutal, the type where I wish I could try and actually fry an egg on the ground. So we did our rounds in the market, greeting our friends, talking with the ladies, buying our few supplies to last us 2-3 days until we make the trek back to town again.

We were feeling like a good meal, so we went to the cold store to see if there was any chicken available. Of course, Mohammed wasn't at his store. Seems like he rarely is, he just likes to keep the door open to tempt us to walk over there. A new cold store opened in town that was pass by if we walk the longer way home, so we figured we'd give that store a chance. All the while, the sun is still brutal and I'm debating if walking in the sun is worth getting chicken....it was.

By the time we make it junction that holds the cold store and the turn off to our house (about 10 mins) the sky has become a giant yin-yang sign. On our right side are massive thunder clouds and on our left a clear sunny day. The clouds had yet to block the sun, so even though there was an imminent threat of a downpour, I could probably still fry an egg on the ground.

Half way down the turn off to our house, the down pour starts, just 5 mins into the walk. How does it go from over 100 to pouring cold rain? By the time we knew it was going to rain, we also knew that we wouldn't make the walk back to our house dry. It was still an enjoyable walk (and maybe even more so) home in the rain.

First day of school....kind of

Remember when you had your first day of school. That whole week in preparation, buying new supplies, getting new clothes and then debated what would be the best thing to wear for the first day of school, getting excited to meet up with all your friends again, and just that excitement for one more year of friends and fun. Well here it's a bit different.

School was suppose to start last Wed. This is the date that the Ghana Gov't decides and then tells all the high schools, so everyone knows that this is when school starts. However, since we're a boarding school (and this might be true with non-boarding schools), no one wants to travel all the way here for 3 days of school just to go back home for the weekend. So the remedy for this unfortunate timing? No one comes! No students, no teachers...no one. And really who can blame them I guess. It's like a predetermined agreement. In fact there was so little school preparation that I totally forgot that school was suppose to start until Friday when I realized that no one was here and our school bell rang, so in truth there were a few students that actually came, but they all live in town and aren't boarders.

Well, I was expecting a bunch of teachers and students to be arriving this weekend, since I figured school would start today...I mean it's Monday! I got about a 30% turn out rate for teachers and I haven't even bothered to count the students. Although JB and I got a few students that came to our door this weekend to greet us and let us know they were back. Which was very nice of them. :) So today's the day when school starts...right?

Well....not really. Today's the day when students clean the campus. So no one really wants to come for this and most students (if not all) know that this is going to happen, so many don't show up for the first week either, cause what's the point. And since the teachers know that this first week (but in truth should be the second) is pretty much a bust, they don't want to show up either. So our compound will be quiet for another week. Most students don't want to clean the campus (and who can blame them), so an activity that should take a day since we have about 1000 students and the campus really isn't that big, truly takes the whole week to complete. Sigh...I guess school starts next week?

In truth it's really quite effective in it's strange kind of way. Everyone (besides us) understands all these unsaid, unwritten agreements. So these first few weeks of school function pretty smoothly. It's like slowly easing into the new year of school, as if jumping right in might be too much of a shock to the system. For me it's pretty relaxing, since I don't worry if school doesn't start. I figure that someone will come tell me when classes actually start and then I'll start going to class. I can't really prepare notes until I talk to the classes and see how far their previous year took them. So I'm just calmly waiting, reading some good books, and enjoying the rains. There's none of that anxiety of a new school year that you get in the States. This is a very calming way to start. Interesting how that is.

50th celebration

So I'm truly and utterly bad about updating. Ugh, sorry-o.

Peace Corps has just had it's 50th birthday and we celebrated here in it's birthplace! So it was very fun. The new PCV's swore in on Aug 30 and most of the current PCV's went down to Accra for the event. It was great to see all the people who live far away and meet all the newbies. I think there was a CBS special that showed some of my friends in their villages. I haven't seen it, but Emily's site (in the Northern Region) is similar to ours to if you watched it, maybe you can now picture some of how we live. :)

When we first came to Ghana, we were nervous about all the new changes, the new environment, the new people, the new everything. Ghana was a place far from home and it was hard to imagine that Ghana could become a home. Now, when I travel I can't wait to come 'home' to Zabzugu; where our stuff is, where people know us, where I know people and the language, and where I finally get to sleep with my pillow. It's always good to come home here now, although traveling to get here is a major pain.

Two pieces of advice were given to us when we got here by other PCVs. First give yourself 12 days to go back to the US if you're really unhappy, but you'll probably only need 12 hours. That was definitely true. I don't think I've ever needed more than a night's sleep before I realize how much I love it here. Things that make me mad or upset are short lived and not worth quitting. Secondly I was told that the second year flies by and you'll be super busy. I didn't believe that one since my first year here seemed to go by crazy fast, but here we are just beginning our second year and I already have a bunch of projects lined up to do and things that need to get done. I think this year is going to fly by and then we'll be back in the states. Crazy to think about!

Well I'm not feeling particularly poetic or linguistic at the moment, so I'll keep this post short. I just wanted to put a post before one month passed me by. :) I'm trying.