My compound

I have been in my room in Savelugu for over a week now, and I thought it would be good to show some of the things that I see every day.

First, there's always a tonne of kids that are running around the compound, even though there are only two that live there. They are Dennis and Lydia, aged 12 and 10 (I think), and they keep me laughing and running whenever I'm there. The mother, Alice, has really been taking care of me, and has accepted me as another daughter while I'm there, always making sure that I have eaten enough.

Yesterday I had to wash most of my clothing (I had waited until the last minute), and she watched me for a minute before tut-tutting and grabbing my shirt out of my hands. "Let me show you how." Another girl, Ayisha, is about 14 and is an apprentice for the mother, learning how to make wax print and tie-and-dye fabrics. After Alice seemed satisfied that I had learned how to wash more properly, Ayisha sat down beside me and told me I was taking too long, and started helping me, not even stopping when I said I could do it on my own. She laughed and asked me how I survived in Canada. I told her that I had a machine to do it for me, and her eyes grew wide and her hands slowed for a minute. "You are very lucky." I didn't know what to say to that... because I am.

As you can see from the picture, I also got my first dress made. Colourful fabrics fill the market place just waiting to be tailored however you want them. The girl in the sparkly top is Lydia, and when we went to church today she sat on the back of my bicycle on top of the small rack that I have there. While during all my elementary school days the teachers preached about how unsafe it was, it is common practice here. The father was out of town with his NGO truck, and so if she was going to get to church, that was the only way to do it. I was dressed in my new dress, and instead of hearing the people on the street yell, "Salaminga" over and over again, they were silent in awe of the white girl in African dress with the small African girl on the back of her bicycle.

The front of my compound is a giant advertisement for Soap, something that Alice also makes. She has great plans to make the front of the compound a store where people can buy wax, fabrics, soap, and other miscellaneous goods that she already sells out of her house. She has drive, and I really admire her for it. Her husband makes a good salary working for an NGO, but she is continuing to strive for better, and take care of her children the best she can.

When I look out my window in the morning, I see a lot of green. It's beautiful, until the goats wake up and decide to start making noise right outside my window. It's probably not right outside my window, but that is what I'm deciding to believe. I live close the end of town, but it's a fairly small town that I can bicycle across in about 10 minutes if I don't stop to talk to anyone... which I normally do. So, I still live in the suburbs, despite moving to Africa. Savelugu is actually quite a wealthy little town for Ghana. It's just outside a major urban centre, and it's a major home for NGOs. They pump a lot of money into that town. Sure, there are still mud huts with thatched roof, but I'm starting to think that the thatched roofs are smarter than the tin that I have. Only the main road is paved, but everything is so close to the main road that it really doesn't matter. Many of the people that I work with live in Tamale and commute each day, something that shocked me at first; they are working for the district level government and living in a different district. It makes more sense to me now though... most people are transferred from district to district without their choice. Even when they worked in different districts, many of their families stayed in Tamale. Getting to work in Savelugu is one of the best assignments -- they no longer have commute to visit their families on weekends. They can see them all the time.

I share my compound with the family of four, a man that works for the electrical company, a mother hen and six baby chicks (along with some other random chicken bird type things that I can't figure out if they belong to the family or just steal the food), a puppy named Scooby, and small turtle that lives in the drain that I rarely see. It's loud, noisy, and there are always things happening... and I love it.

This was disorganized, but I hope it gave a small insight into my life thus far. Questions? Send me an email or post a comment. I'll try to tailor these posts to what people would like to hear about to make it the most interesting and educational as possible.