T.I.A. - This is Africa

"T.I.A." is an acronym that was introduced to us by the CCS staff and is used a lot by the volunteers to refer to things that might be unusual, bizarre, or shocking back home, but are commonplace here. For instance, when the power goes out, our supply of running water is cut off (as it has been since last weekend--we've been taking "bucket showers" for a week), or someone arrives 30 minutes late for an appointment without apology because we're on "Africa time", we might shrug our shoulders and say, "T.I.A.". Well, I have a pretty good TIA story to share about myself.

A couple of weeks ago I was outside the home base talking on my cell phone (which I purchased here) with my Mom. I was standing on a large concrete block only a few feet from the house, filling her in on everything that I'd been doing, when I suddenly felt the ground break apart under my feet and felt myself falling down. Fortunately, for some reason my instinctual reaction was to stick my elbows out, so I caught myself on two concrete blocks, each beside the one that had just shattered under my weight. After a moment to collect myself, and figure out what had just happened, I realized that not only was I immersed in some liquid up to my knees, but I was also still holding the phone to my ear. I told Mom to hold on a second (I can't imagine what she was thinking at this point) and struggled to pull myself out of what I soon began to realize was a tank filled with not-so-clean water. I eventually put the pieces together--I'd fallen into the septic tank. One of the staff members hurried over to check on me and asked if I was okay. My response--"Alpha, that water is very dirty isn't it?" He responded, "Yes, Patrick, it is very, very dirty." I walked off in a daze to the shower, thinking about all the diseases I might catch.

As it turns out, something did come of the incident. Last weekend, the bottom of foot started itching very intensely. On a quick examination of it, I thought it must be a series of bug bites arranged in a line. By Sunday, it looked as if more bug bites were developing, and it was changing shapes. Last Monday, I had one of the staff members look at it. "Oh, that looks like a worm," he said. I said okay, and asked what we should do about it. He had someone take me to the pharmacist, who diagnosed it as "larvae migrans"--a migrating worm. As I discovered online, apparently it is a parasitic worm that burrows into the skin and then moves around as it grows, but it is not seriously harmful unless left untreated. She gave me 3 doses of pills to be taken once a day for the next three days. No prescription necessary. Two days later the itching was gone (meaning the medicine had worked and the worm was dead), and by this weekend so was the raised red mark in the shape of a haphazardly moving worm. For me, having a living worm under the skin of my foot is not something I'm used to. For everyone here, it was typical. I guess all I can say is TIA.

What else is going on here? I decided to stay in Hohoe this weekend instead of traveling. It was still eventful, and I'm really glad I did. Yesterday I was invited by a friend I met here to have lunch. We went to the market together and bought all of the fresh ingredients for Banku and Okra Soup. I wish I could say what all was in the soup, but I'm really not sure other than okra, smoked salmon (purchased already cooked and just sitting out at the market--I have no idea how I didn't get sick), garden eggs, some kind of greens, and various spices. As for the banku, it's hard to explain but it has the consistency of dough and tastes pretty plain. We went back to one of their one-room apartments and all of us prepared the meal together. All that was necessary was a stove and a small table for chopping. When the food was ready, we put it in two dishes on a table, and we all ate with our hands out of communal bowls, by gathering some banku in the right hand and dipping it in the soup. They all treated it like a feast, and I felt like the honorary guest. It was an incredible experience, even though I could hardly stomach the food because of the taste of the fish. One of them kept egging me on to eat more. He wanted to see my belly get very fat. The others were more compassionate--"It's his first time" they said to the other guy. One of the coolest things I've done here yet.

Last night we went out to watch the Ghana vs. USA game. It was a win-win for me, but I'm glad Ghana won. We walked back through the massive, city-wide celebration. It was hard to make our way through the crowds of people dancing, singing, drumming, parading. I've never seen anything like it. They play again on Friday--we'll hope for another good outcome.

I had so much more to write about last week, but unfortunately I have to go now. I'll catch up next time--until then, take care!