We left for the office at 8:30. There was a lot of traffic getting there, apparently even more than usual. It turned out there were two cars broken down and no breakdown lane. There were also no stop lights or stop signs so junctions are just a free-for-all. Motorcycles are allowed to pass on the right or the left and go between lines of cars which I find disconcerting. Motorcycles are much less common than in Tamale and many drivers have helmets attached to the bike but not to their head. That's even more disconcerting.
When I got to the office I didn't realize I would get to see Ernest and Sylvester. I thought they would be in Tamale. It was quite a treat!
At one point I made fun of Sylvester for the funny sound coming out of his phone. It sounded like the "Chipmunks." He looked at me with a confused look before he realized that I was hearing a bird outside. It was very funny, but I never did get to see the Chipmunk bird.
In time we got a call that there were people arriving at the airport. Ernest and I took a cab to collect them. The cab driver's window was so covered Ernest couldn't see out.
The driver had the radio blaring. I couldn't understand most of it but every once in a while there would be something I could recognize... Honorable MP...airport ... lawful assembly...electricity...national disaster organization management. I think most of it was about the incident last week where nearly 200 people were killed when a gas station blew up.
We were surprised to find none of our colleagues were at the airport. After waiting for a while and a half a dozen calls we found out they were already at the hotel and had been picked up in the hotel's van.
We met up with the Abt driver and headed back to the office. I had a bit of a white knuckle moment when we went the wrong direction on the road -- what we would consider driving in the breakdown lane to avoid traffic at one particularly nasty junction...come to think of it... maybe I shouldn't let my mother read that.
Back at the office Samuel had gotten me lunch already. He got a great dish of chicken and pepper rice with salad. I managed to eat half and saved the rest for the next day.
After working through the afternoon -- in a much more relaxed environment than I am accustomed to, we left the office with Ernest in the car.
The roads were so different at night with all of the shops open and people about. We passed shops with names like, "All things Come from Jesus Beauty Shop", "His Faithfulness Electrical Supplies", "Jehovah has the Final Say Market", "The Lord is Great Photography" and "He is King Food Shop."
While Samila was making dinner and I was reading, I realized that Jeanne had just let herself out of their house. She was walking around the courtyard entertaining the neighbors. Eventually someone
brought her back to her house, laughed and said, "Bye, bye"
The power came back on around 5:45 so we turned on the news. The images of the explosion at the gas station last week were so tragic. The erosion from the flooding was amazing. There were train bridges wiped out and erosion under the tracks was so bad that they had to shut down the train service in the area.
Another story on the news talked about the fact that Ghana was participating in studies for human trials of the Ebola Vaccine. Volunteers would receive 200 cedis (a little under $50), a cell phone and a free Hepatitis B vaccine. I know it made me uncomfortable.
I find that the news broadcasts are so very different from ours. At the end the credits roll and the announcers look so uncomfortable. I don't quite know how to explain the differences, but David could if he were here.
While relaxing I realized that somewhere in the neighborhood someone was playing music so loud that it was distorting. No one seemed at all fazed by it and I suspect its quite normal.
I took another shower and went to bed really early. That night I finished the book that my cousin recommended, and now I can recommend Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival by Velma Wallis. I decided to start doing some light reading with Twelve Years a Slave (oy)
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