Parenthetical.net

Back in Ho for “TGIF” last night at a spot (bars are “spots”) called the White House. RY got my camera and took many artsy blurry shots of me drunk and dancing. Good times.

A guide to some of the people in my life here:

RY, M, DJ, and RT: My Keepers, the guys at the NGO. They rotate in and out of Tanyigbe, in and out of stewarding me. After a good conversation with RT (”We want to treat you well and take care of you!” “But part of the point of being here is to experience what life is really like!”), he got that I don’t like feeling helpless and want to be able to do things like get some of my own meals, wash my own dishes, etc., and seems to have passed that on to the others. That coincided (not coincidentally, I think) with a shift from Keepers to friends; they horse around with me more now and treat me more like a person and less like the White Queen, and I’m infinitely happier as a result.

B: The electrician/librarian, a very smart man with some odd educational blind spots. Alphabetical order presents a problem, as does the concept of surname coming second. He says that’s because surnames are given first in Ghana, but the Ghanaian books in the library give names in the same order as ours. He’s often unable to tell fiction from non-fiction, or to look at a book and tell what it’s about (though once he does get that, he’s pretty good at classifying it). I’m in no way confident that this library will stay organized after I leave, but I’m doing the best I can. Some days are more optimistic than others.

The paramount chief of Tanyigbe: He likes to invite me to interminable ceremonies, because it “adds value” (according to RY) to have a white person there. I went to one such ceremony last week, the commissioning of a child welfare NGO, which involved my sitting and listening to people talk in Ewe without translation for four hours. Never again. Later that same day, a couple of his representatives showed up at the school headmaster’s office to pay their respects to me and give me gifts. Of fruit. And a live chicken. The students who carried the food back to the house for me were amused that I was so baffled by the chicken. She sat on the floor of the kitchen, her legs tied up, and managed to lay us an egg before two students came to “deliver justice” (in the words of RY) with a knife. So now there’s a bag of chicken parts in the fridge, and I have no better idea what to do with them now that they’re dead.

I: The school typist, who does some cooking for us at the house. She unfortunately hasn’t gotten the message about treating me like a person, and won’t sit at the table to eat with us or let me help her with the dishes. She made an awesomely Chef Andy salad for lunch the other day: chopped lettuce, carrots, spaghetti, sardines, mayonnaise, and vinegar. Apparently that’s what “salad” means in Ghana. Wow.

G: The senior prefect, who was the first kid to reach out to me, and still comes to visit me in the library and takes it upon himself to make sure I see the interesting things going on on campus or in the village (like the first rehearsal for a traditional drumming/dancing club they just started, which I saw on Thursday).

The headmaster: A lovely and intelligent gentleman who clearly cares about his school and wants to do the best he can for it. I have a great deal of respect for him, and for what he’s done with what little he has. RT and the other teachers seem to share this sentiment.

The headmistress: A lovely and intelligent lady who I’m sure is also very good at what she does, and is very interested in and knowledgeable about the library, but our main interaction so far involved her shock that I wasn’t a Christian and her promise to pray that I will come to Jesus.

The bugs: They get their own entry because they are omnipresent and impossible to ignore. I can’t actually see them, but the red welts they leave behind all over my body are certainly visible (and irritating). I feel so very attractive right now.

There is a vast supporting cast (and plenty more to say about this bunch, especially the guys), but those are the main players. And I’ve been here for 2.5 hours already and should maybe go do something else with my day. Hope all is well at home!