Some stuff happened.

I'm well. Things are normal. Some stuff happened.

I was hanging out outside my house with some little kids, goofing around and playing guitar when one of them pointed up into the sky and said excitedly, "air-o-plan!" (kid didn't know how to spell). I was actually more excited than the kids. It is pretty rare to see a vapor trail from a jet crossing the sky here. It is such a common thing to see in the sky in the states. I guess that where i live is not on the way to anywhere where people want to go too often. One little girl asked me if there were people inside the plane, and i explained that it was like a lorry(car) with people traveling inside, but it had wings and went really fast. I demonstrated the wings and fast for them. They took some guesses as to where the plane was going. I was happy that they were able to name a few of the larger cities in Ghana, it might have been going to Accra, but maybe not, I don't know.

I am very attuned to the lunar cycle here. I know that it will be a full moon in a little more than a week, about 10 days. I don't have a calender or anything, i just look at the moon a lot. with no lights in my house, it is a significant factor in planning evening activities. "If I stay til dark in the market today, will I be able to see to walk home? when will the moon rise?" It's a waxing crescent now, it'll be at about 60 degrees above the western horizon at sunset.

I have a cat at my house. Two actually. I don't really consider them my cats, they just happen to live at or near my house and i feed them sometimes. They are actually pretty annoying. The baby is crazy wild, I named him Tyson. The mother, which i named Evander (she's missing part of her ear), is nicer. The other day, i was watching her stalk a lizard by a tree by my house. The lizard came down off the tree and moved along the ground. Evander took off running and got between the lizard and the tree. Before the lizard could escape, she pounced and pinned it, then picked it up and brought it back near me. Evander is a little cat, and this lizard wasn't the biggest i'd ever seen, but it was quite a catch for her. I was a good 6 inches long, like a mini iguana. the lizard was definately still alive when she brought it back, but she held it down and crunched it's head a bunch until it stopped struggling. Then, she ate it all. yum.

One time Evander also caught a morning dove in the field by my house. I didn't see it, but one of my students who was reading near the house did. He went out and collected the bird, still alive again, and brought it back to the house. He was very excited while he held the injured dove, and asked if i had any rubbish that he could burn. I advised him that cooking over a trash fire would make his meat taste bad and showed him some sticks he could use to make a fire. David definately killed, plucked and roasted that little dove over a tiny camp fire. He made sure to give some to the cat as a thank you. I tried some too, the meat was sweet! Ghanaian lesson: every animal is etible.

Other stuff happened, too. It's been raining so the green things started to grow. It's nice, and the farmers (that's everyone around here) are tilling and planting their fields.

love,
-Toby

It rained!

And just like that things started to grow. Brown earth has become green again. grass is there, trees have leaves again and the sky has clouds. It is still very hot and not always comfortable, but the water makes a huge difference. Now food will mold instead of stale in a matter of hours! Actually it's great. It's the lean season now, since people are begining to plant crops, but there is nothing to harvest yet, and food stores from last year get low. I can only buy tomatoes sometimes in the market now, and they aren't very good. Grafted mangoes are back, though, and awesome.

One unfortunate thing is that the bugs have come back with the water. Not too many mosquitoes yet, but there are definitely more flys around. I'm well and the third term is underway. I'll be taking two of my students to the STARS conference in Kumasi in June, which will be exciting for them and for me. (more info in previous post). I also had some nice visitors the last weeks. Some other ghana pcvs came up and visited me. I also bought a bootleg dvd with all 6 starwars movies on it.

other than that, it's life as usual for me.
Love, Toby