Christmas card from Mpaha

Last monday i needed to go to a neighboring village about 100km away to
meet with other guinea worm volunteers about their upcoming plans for
eradication.... Because it was a monday, i needed to be up at 5:30am and in
town by 6am to secure a seat on the only tro-tro leaving town that day.
When i arrived in Yapei for the meeting, i emerged from the tro and began
beating the dust out of my clothes with the bandannas i had been wearing on
my head and face. now that i was presentable for the meeting, i need
breakfast. i scanned the roadside for a local diner or coffeeshop, but being
in the wrong country for that i called to the women balancing a huge tray of
hard boiled eggs with peppe sauce on her head. i also stopped to buy an
orange, or rather fresh squeezed orange juice.
eating an orange roadside in ghana: your hands are dirty so you don't want
to touch what you eat, so oranges are lightly skinned with a hole cut in the
top. you squeeze and suck every last ounce of juice out of it.
i went to the designated tree for our meeting and sat under it waiting for
everyone else to arrive. there is no actual meeting time as transportation
is not in our control, so people get there when they can.
the meeting was long, unorganized, and inefficient... but we actually met,
so it was a success! i told everyone of mpaha's plan to have a soccer match
for kids and do education at half time.... the grand prize: brightly painted
pipe filters to wear around their necks. as if paying attention wasn't hard
enough, during the meeting i found myself watching strange lizards walk by,
then my attention was unavoidably turned to the large bushfire started 20ft
away from me. the boys here, who remind me of the lost boys of neverland
in their worn clothing and lack of supervision, start bush fires and
stand at the edge with large sticks and sling shots looking for anything
that could be a serving of protein (ie. bush rats).
so there we are sitting under a tree trying to have a meeting with smoke and
ash all around us, small boys with rudimentary weapons, and various
creatures fleeing from the fire (including many bats relocating to our
tree).
when the meeting finally finished (no breaks) at 2pm, i went to sit on the
side of the road to wait for a ride back. then i had to sit again at the
edge of the 52km dirt road into the bush with my fingers crossed that at 4pm
there might still be a car going to mpaha...... a cattle car with no less
than 50 people pulled around the corner. the driver, who usually saves a
spot for me in front, so he can ask me all sorts of questions about the
outside world, stopped when he saw me waiting there and made some room for
me on the cattle car. just as i was thinking, " Yes!! i don't have to find
a ride to the next volunteers house (about 120km back the way i came
from)!" our cattle car overheated and broke down exactly half way between
mpaha and the road. the driver went off to find some water for the radiator
as i battled through broken gonja conversation with the women and children
in the truck bed. after waiting about an hour, just when i started planning
out the rationing of my water to get me through the night, the driver
returned and with 20 of us pushing and 3 tries, we got the truck started.
wooohooo!!!
the drive home was one of the most beautiful sunsets i've seen yet. the
light, cool, dry fog of dust and smoke that settles in at dusk made the sun
glow red as it set into the bush... i made it through another day.
i see the sun set and rise everyday here. it has happened everyday of my
life, but rarely did i actually see both. these and the amazing stars so
far from electricity at night our my christmas lights this year and they are
beautiful!!!

i hope everyone has a wonderful christmas.
jenell

Editor's note: if you don't know who Jenell is and if you care you can go to the top of the page and do a search on her name to find other letters from her. You can find a link to the blog her Mother keeps for her in the right column under blogs. Too lazy to go there? Click here.