This is the phrase that is constantly shouted at us. It means "white person." Obruni usually is meant in a welcoming, friendly manner, but today we feel like it shouldn't be such a good title. See, we culturally are missing a lot of the basics. We take a lot of things for granted that sometimes make us look like fools. For example, the water frequently is not on- this means, you can turn the knob to the faucet and no water will come out. Our first instinct is "Shoot! No water!" which means we have to find a different way to wash hands, wash dishes, wash our bodies, etc. Well, apparently today we left the faucet on...so when the water finally came back on, the kitchen sink was beginning to fill. The problem: everyone living at the house was at work and the compound was locked. Thankfully, the issue was noticed and resolved, but it could have resulted in a flooded house. The next, embarrassing circumstance had to do with the electricity. The electricity is not billed in Ghana like it is in the States. Instead, you prepay for electricity and when it runs out it runs out. The electricity, like the water, also goes off from time to time. Sometimes when it comes back on it surges and can cause fires. Or...if you leave the fan on (like we did) it will just run out the prepaid electricity until you don't have any more. In this case, if you get home and the prepaid electricity is finished you will have to sleep in a deathly hot bedroom until someone can go the next day to pay for more electricity. *This didn't happen to us yet, but if we continue to make these mistakes the chances of it occuring are high.
Usually the inconvenience of the water/electricity outages are really not that challenging to deal with...until the fans don't work at night and we laid in bed all night saying our seperate prayers that we would either fall asleep or the fan would come back on. Not sure if either of those prayers were answered :)
The jump drive we usually use to load pictures on to the blog is currently missing, but hopefully we will be able to locate it soon- we know that pictures are much more interesting than reading the boring banter written here.
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hey beautiful!Im back here in pittsburgh reading about your adventures wondering if my time here is well spent doing social work for people that not only dont appreciate what we have here in the united states but often resent me and the whole system we have in america. im working 2 jobs now, the other at a high end restaurant. its a strange way of peering into 2 different worlds. all of them take what we have here for granted. im you are out there helping the next generation grow up with a little more information, and maybe a little more hope than they had before you got there. in a place like that, where they have all the resources to become an economic powerhouse in the region, and their infrastructure is decades ahead of some of their neighbors maybe its just a generation away from securing their prosperity.
ReplyDeleteme, i love it here, as miserable as it can be grinding the time clock and slinging paperwork and $23/bottle beer i atleast have all the tools available to do or be whatever i want in the US, and they will be available to my kids, as long as we dont squander the precious gifts we inherited. i love you kid. stay safe. see you soon.
... Justice