“Comings and Goings” by Tammi; 21 February 2010

ECG-That’s supposed to stand for Electricity Company of Ghana. But many say it more accurately stands for “Electric Comes and Goes”.  Lately it’s been doing a lot more going. It doesn’t help that people set bush fires this time of year and those fires don’t discriminate between burning down the bush and burning down the power poles.

 Chris looks on as flames from a recent bush fire lap against the walls of my ICT lab at school

The flow of running water seems to be taking its cue from ECG. It has been gone a lot lately as well. Plus it’s been miserably hot (even the locals are complaining) and it doesn’t do the best things for my motivation or general psyche. I get particularly cranky I wake in the night bathed in sweat because the power has gone again and taken our ceiling fan with it. It’s at times like these that I try to remind myself to be thankful for these luxuries in the first place. But it’s a challenge to be chipper all the time. Having our phone and internet services crash this week has added another interesting dimension. Although friends and family may be grateful that they have not heard from me, since my primary thoughts have been; I hate ants, I hate this heat, Stupid ants, Those %*#@ goats!, It’s so stinking hot…I’m melting! I hate F-ing ants! (You get the idea).

Anyway, a change in scenery might help. So it could be fortunate that later this week Chris and I will be chaperoning an overnight excursion. The visual art students who have been working on the water sachet project (Chris has a blog spot coming about this) are being rewarded with a field trip. The original plan included a visit to the most successful Ghanaian textile factory but that part of the trip had to be cancelled since the factory is temporarily shutting down (after unexpectedly running out of one of its primary production supplies). With any luck, however, the students will still get to visit a bead making village and bead market, a kente weaving village, a store that specializes in Ghanaian handicrafts, and the Akosombo dam which is where our electricity comes from – at least sometimes.