'Change, life-altering change rarely comes through the front door... Change occurs when you're trying to decide if this week is garbage and recycling, or just garbage. Change is a sneak.'
This is paraphrased from, in my opinion (and probably a lot of peoples), Canada's best story-teller, Stuart McLean from one of his Vinyl Cafe Story's on CBC. I write this today, because I was reading some previous blogs of mine from the beginning of this trip (which seems like ages ago!). I guess what I'm saying is, I think I've changed (or at least my views and thinking have) more than I know.
As a sidenote, I brought along a copy of Stuart McLeans Vinyl Cafe Stories in which we took turns reading to eachother out loud... for those of you who don't know the Vinyl Cafe, its a series of short stories about Dave and Morley and their familiy and friends. Now we've finished the book, which is sad because I looked so much forward to these stories at night before bed. (It has come to be a comfort thing for me so I'm rereading it on my own...)
Anyway, the point of this blog when I sat down was to write about interesting things I've found (mainly just an incoherent ramble of things I've been meaning to write about).
-This morning I saw a goat tied to the back of a motorcycle (on the seat, not dragging behind, but still wailing, at first I thought it was child form the sound)...
-The other day while I was walking to work, I got tangled up in a sheep stampede... it was pretty cool.
-It is amazing to see bulls being herded down the street (50 or 60 of them at a time). Now this is still a soft spot for me and I must admit it does scare me ever since the charging of the bull last month! They've got big horns! So I walk on the other side of the road.
-Three days ago, I was out to get my dinner (Banku!) and a kid hollered at me and said 'Obruni, look up'... didn't quite understand what it meant... but I looked anyway. There was a plane. Now this seems insignificant, but then I noticed on my way home that litterally everyone was looking up to the sky... then I realized, I hadn't seen a plane since I was in Accra in October. So yeah, it was kinda a big deal.
-It's amazing and baffles me how many people can fit inside (outside and on top of) a trotro.
-Speaking of driving, I could never drive here. People are very aggressive, and it seems to work, though I have seen my fair share of accidents.
-Two weeks ago I was awoken by a fight in my apartment building at midnight... turns out it was a man refusing to pay a woman money owed to her... nervewracking at the time.
-My Grandma Saide always says, 'you make friends everywhere you go'. And how true. I've realized you just gotta put yourself out there... and it helps that Ghanaians are very outgoing. I met a lot of friends here in Cape Coast, especially from Germany where a lot of volunteers of volunteers come from. I miss my group, but its nice travelling on my own because I'm forced to make these new connections.
-Yesterday I went to the bank to cash some travellers cheques, and they wouldn't beleive that I was me. It was very frustrating trying to explain that just becuase my signature is slightly different than it was 4 years ago in my passport, it still is clearly me. Then they had me sign what my signature used to be (the one in my passport which is very similar to my signature now!) and I was so nervous I messed it up... Anyway, after all the trouble and an hour later, they finally gave me the money.
-Also yesterday it rained. May not seem like a big deal, but I haven't seen rain since November (Maybe early December). I was hoping it would bring the temperature down a little, but alas no, still sweating through my shirt on the walk to work at 7 am. (Mind you it's an hour and half walk)... and I guess I shouldn't complain... it beats shovelling :)
-I've been able to listen to alot of Canadian Music lately which is nice, but I am also listening to a lot of ghanaian music. A friend of a friend named Lord made me my very own Hi-Life CD, with some of my favourites on it!
I guess that's it for my rambles now, I thought I had more to say, but apparently not! This weekend I'm heading to Kakum National Park which I'm super excited for. It'll be interesting seeing how the Park System differs from Canada's (as this is what I studied) and they have this sweet 20 metre rope bridge Canopy hike in the jungle.
Work is going great! We just hired a new office adminsitrator and work together closely and he's really nice! We also had our first outreach program on Saturday and it was a complete success!!! Over 60 people came, along with doctors who checked out all the people who showed up for free.
Time is flying by, I can't beleive it's almost February, and we all know how fast that month goes by. I have a lot I still wanna do here, so I'm trying not to think about home too much, though I do find it hard not to. I am so excited to see everyone! And to eat alot of Cheese, which as you may know is my favourite, and I haven't had any here (except for this pseudo cheese thing 3 months ago.)
Peace and Love, I'll see ya sooner than ya know it.
Matty
PS My office is attached to a school classroom (I came in early today to write this blog) and the kids are very cute. The thing is, they are watching BARNEY right now... who woulda known barney was popular in Ghana?
Cheers!
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