Productivity Galore

So I did not sleep very well at all last night, tossing and turning from the heat, from nausea, from cramps, and the thought of having pee in the dark creepy crawly outhouse did not help either. When faced with a tough situation, I can usually adapt. However, when you’re tummy’s not feeling well and you have to visit the outhouse in the middle of the night, the flashlight is sometimes not your friend. As you squat being sure not to touch the seat, your only light is the flashlight, that you so carefully have aimed at a 6 inch lizard, or cockroach, or giant spider (the size of your palm) so you can keep an eye on their whereabouts while you do your business. Inevitably the creepy crawlies will move, and you follow them with your flashlight, obviously pulling all systems to a halt as you have a standoff with the creatures of the night. In the midst of adjusting your weight as your muscles start to ache from staying in the squatting position so long, the creepy crawlies will make their move and disappear momentarily. When you adjust the flashlight, yet another type of creepy crawly has come into vision with startling proximity. Eesh.

Back to the morning though, I cannot sleep if I think someone will be coming to our door anytime soon; I get anxious. Utterly exhausted, I trudged out of bed and waited for Sema or Mama to bring breakfast and shower water. Sema arrived with our ground nut soup and fresh pineapple, which I was pleased about. I was hoping for that as breakfast instead of porridge. I had meant to go back to sleep after our showers, but Samantha’s TIME Magazine caught my eye and I had a sudden urge to jump back into the real world with 2 week old news. Before I knew it, it was 10am—time to go hunt down interviewees again. I rolled my eyes at myself, frustrated that I didn’t plan news reading around my necessary nap.

We walked over to the roadside stand that acts as a general store to interview Peace (#1). It went fairly well, and quickly since her English wasn’t the best. Two of her children translated some for her, but not nearly enough to get in-depth information. Right next door, Peace (#2) the hairdresser sat with no customers, so we decided to spring her for an interview too. Her English was much better but still the interview didn’t take long. Samuel (from the tro-tro) had wandered over to Peace #1’s store and witnessed part of the interview, and while we interviewed Peace #2, he appeared again to tell us he had arranged for us to conduct a focus group of primary school teachers at the compound! I wasn’t expecting his assistance like that, but was very grateful.

The primary school teachers, though educated and spoke English well, were not incredibly forthcoming with details, so again the group went quickly. Afterward, we wanted to visit the JSS headmaster but he wasn’t there. Neither was the English teacher so we unsuccessfully tried to talk about the library with the teachers, but they clearly couldn’t care less about what we had to say. So, we settled for a relatively uninteresting focus group of the JSS teachers. They seem to think that opening the library for evening hours will make teenage pregnancy worse, because when the library closes, the kids might not go home… OK…

We came back home to relax and it only lasted about 10 minutes before Sema brought lunch—boiled cassava with pasta mixed with pavlava sauce. It was good, and just enough that put me over the edge of exhaustion. I curled up to take a nap, and was surprised by Michael and Mawufemor at the food of my bed, squeals and giggles announced their presence and expectation of play time. Samantha was totally out, laying on her bed in complete comfort and satisfaction. With a sigh, I got up to supervise the kids. The kids were dirty, wearing the clothes they wore two nights ago, and flies followed them. Jessica showed up to join us shortly as well, and the coloring session lasted about an hour and a half, during which a man named Vincent came by to be interviewed. Emil had set it up, and Vincent is apparently one of the kids’ teachers. He asked why they hadn’t been in school, which confused me since I thought their teacher was recovering from a stroke.

After the interview Mama appeared, quite angry with the kids and yelled at them in Ewe to go home and bathe. Apparently they had told her they were going to the toilet, and instead ran here. If they had told her the truth, she would have made them bathe before visiting. As they left, we realized it was time to head back to the school compound to conduct the reading session for primary 1-3 kids. I was dragging my feet, and really was not in the right mood or mindset to last an hour with a bunch of kids I didn’t know very well. Jessica, Michael, and Mawufemor are my favorites, and dirty or not, I love them all the time.  Luckily, the children must have forgotten, so we got out of our obligation for the afternoon. We walked back home and closed the door—which is a barrier to all other than Mama and Sema—and settled in for a nap. Not two minutes later we had a knock at the door. It was Believe; she came to show us the skirts she was working on for us. They looked really nice; I’m excited to try them on when they’re done. She also agreed to be interviewed tomorrow evening. After she left, we shut the door again and I napped for a full hour—it was wonderful. When I woke up around 5:30pm, I was hungry, and I noticed the sky was getting dark; another storm was coming through. An ancient woman who reminds me of Rafiki from the Lion King (they have the same gait, the same crazy toothy smile, and the same tall walking stick) came by to borrow another children’s book. She had just finished reading the story of Balto, and was ready for another book. She reads about one book a week. Michael and Kofi arrived to wait out the rain with us—we must be so popular today… As they colored, I sat in the doorway soaking in the breeze that accompanied the night’s rain.

Sema and Mama brought sandwiches for dinner! Samantha and I were just talking about sandwiches yesterday. They were small, like sliders, made with thinly sliced sweet bread, and a single meat patty in the middle, similar to the ones we had last night. After dinner we ate our cocoa plant, and planned to relax the rest of the night. I am hoping that after an incredibly productive day (3 interviews and 2 focus groups), that we might have the night off to watch a movie by ourselves on my laptop, and go to bed early. Tomorrow we will go to Ho, and hopefully talk to Bismark about the money that Anyo should have gotten for each volunteer it hosted. We’ll go to White House for lunch, and visit the internet café. Emil had wanted us to visit the Education Office as well, but I think it would be best if that’s the solution that everyone at the Anyo meeting agrees on, a representative from Anyo should go to the Education Office themselves, possibly armed with a petition. They know the situation better than we do, and they are less likely to be shrugged off. We’ll see.