No need for a schedule

In a given week, I know that I will attend the Sekesua market on Wednesday, the Koforidua market on Thursday and possibly a church service on Sunday. Aside from that, I normally wake up with no definite plan.

Saturday and Sunday of this past week fit my "see what happens," approach quite well.

On Saturday morning, I had tea and a groundnut paste (peanut butter) and honey sandwich for breakfast. I collected eggs at 7 and again at 8. At perhaps 8:30, Emmanuel asked me if I would like to walk to greet the chief. When I moved to Bormase, I was told that my neighbor Patrick was the "acting chief," so I didn't expect to make any formal greetings.

Emmanuel and I meandered through the back yards of our neighbors, greeting along the way. Our circuitous route took us past a newborn baby (a few hours old at most), across a bridge (I wasn't comfortable wandering there on my own) and into the homes of 3 chiefs. One chief was not home but the other two were friendly and very unofficial. Emmanuel spoke to each chief at length about my "mission," while in Ghana. It's customary to announce your mission whenever visiting a chief. My Dangme skills are good enough to follow the path of a conversation while listening but I was only able to share a few words.

These chiefs were not in official garb and sitting on sacred stools atop sacred platforms as are many other chiefs throughout Ghana. One chief was wearing a black sweatshirt with pink puffy Christmas gifts all over it. The other chief was nearly completely toothless and sitting around the house in shorts and a t-shirt. Both were extremely friendly and excited to hear that I was willing to help out! When there is no phone or internet in a community, it takes some motivation to get the word around town. Many people in my community are not especially motivated so it was great to get this initial meeting taken care of.

On the walk back home, Emmanuel introduced me to a member of the District Assembly. The man was standing on the roadside waiting for a taxi. Had I been by myself, I would have walked past and greeted him but instead, I have planned a meeting for early next month.

I arrived home around noon, helped the "small girls," prepare lunch. We traded math lessons for Dangme lessons and laughed throughout the process. I ate lunch and rode my bike to Sekesua to give Daniel his second typing lesson. We missed each other on Wednesday so I showed up unannounced. He's come a long way in three weeks!! We spent maybe an hour going through some tutorials. My main suggestion was to keep his hands on the "home keys" so he doesn't lose his place every time he types a Q or a B. It seems like a small suggestion but he was very happy and his words per minute jumped from 2 to 4. I'm excited to see where he is in a year!

The bikeride back to Bormase was very nice. Listening to my ipod while taking in the scenery and waving to children as they run to the roadside makes me smile every time!!

As I arrived at home (2:30pm?) I saw Emmanuel sitting out front with two men. It turns out that he was anjoying an impromptu meeting with the local Agricultural Extension Officers. Another contact was made and my day was coming to a close.

I made/burned some popcorn for the family, went to fetch water and on the way to the borehole, I ran into Ransford as he was walking from Sekesua. Ransford and I sat down and looked over his first assignment. It's so odd to be teaching a man who's a only a few years my junior. We looked over his essay for a while, I gave him some vocabulary words to study and we looked through a prep book so he could practice the "composition summary," section. This part was tough!! We'll have our work cut our for us.

As Ransford and I studied, Stephen sidled up and listened for a while. He has recently taken interest in the study sessions and turned in his first assignment the next day.

For having no plans, this was a successful day. Sunday was very different and I'll write about that soon.