Just Another Day

I've been thinking I should do a post on a typical day. Each day, I think "today was an anomaly, XYZ happened and it was so crazy, it wouldn't happen again, so I shouldn't write about it as a typical day". Then I realized that literally every day is an adventure. Here are the highlights of today - a "typical" day in my life in Ghana:

6:00am - woke up early to have a few quiet moments before the kids wake up. No use; Xavier is already up & doing math (he's obsessed with math problems and stays up late at night doing them and likes to wake up early to do more) and I'm greeted with the usual "I'm hungry". As I'm trying to make coffee for myself & breakfast for Xavier, Sophie stumbles out of bed shortly afterwards and the chance of a quiet few moments is gone. She was sick to her stomach again yesterday & is hoping to get through the school day without any "accidents". Hopefully, the results from the doctor will come tomorrow & we can find out what's making her belly so unhappy.

7:45am - Patience, the housekeeper, walks in & I give her the list of stuff I need from the market for the day, Japha, the guy who helps around the house has already washed the car & I explain to him the plants I'd like him to buy for the pots at my front door and the night security guard is being replaced by the day guard. As I'm walking out the door drive the kids to school in my very large Mitsubishi Pajero (size does count when navigating Accra traffic and, mine has a full bar across the front so I can run into stuff without sustaining damage to my vehicle) a man shows up at my front gate. Turns out he's the plumber & here to fix several plumbing issues I'm having in many of my 4 bathrooms.

8:05 - I've dropped the kid off at school and have pulled up to the nearby hotel that has a small, rectangular pool where I swim in the mornings. I can get about 7 strokes in before I have to turn - my flip turns are getting very good! My phone rings & a friend from the States is calling & needs advice (it's 1am for her). I'm happy that she's been able to reach me & we chat. I'm amazed that we can call each other as if we're in the same city. I go for my swim - it's the only time in the day I am alone & can be with my own thoughts. I notice that my hands are sticky. There's some sort of substance on the pool ladder that looks a lot like body oils skimmed off the top of the water that are stuck to the metal ladder. I've been sneezing a lot after swimming and wonder how they maintain the pool. I decide it's my only place to swim nearby and I'm going to take a "don't ask don't tell" stance in regards to what's in the pool. I'm just going to try to swallow as little water as possible.

9:15 - I head home to take a quick shower & find that the plumber has taken the porcelain sink off the wall in my bathroom & dropped it - shattering little shards of glass all over my bathroom. Hmmm, seems I have a new plumbing issue. I shower, trying to dodge glass shards as I'm getting ready for the day.

10:00 - I drive the 2 blocks to the office. My main mission for the day is to get cash. I've been trying to access cash for a couple of weeks. Everything here is cash based. We're setting up a new office, so it requires purchasing paint, air conditioners, furniture and a variety of other things. I need more than the 400 cedi (about $270) I can access at the cash machine in a given day. I won't get into all the details around the what's and whys of it all. I'll just say that the bank is getting to know me. Today is the day. I've opened a personal account at a local bank, wired funds from my US account and I am ready to get my cash. One of our fantastic drivers takes me to the bank. I sit around waiting for a while and then talk with the rep., Evans, who's been helping me for days and, after much phone calling, he is finally able to verify that I have funds in my account. Since I don't have a checkbook, I have to write a letter on a piece of scrap paper explaining that I want funds from my account. Finally, Evans tells me to come back in 30 minutes. I leave and head to a couple nearby stores. I walk into one and it reeks of gasoline & I immediately try to figure out how much damage I'm doing to myself by continuing to look at what they've got (generators, air conditioners). Hmm, not exactly the same effect as the stores in the States that pump in artificial smells to make you buy more stuff. I walk into another store and there's a cute little old man from Damascus who owns it. I chat with him and end up getting his life story about living in Ghana since he was 18. By now, it's time to head back to the bank. I stop at the car & ask the driver to come with me. I'm feeling a bit anxious about walking out with bricks of money.

We head to the bank and Evans asks me to have a seat. I wait a while, he then takes me to a teller (cutting in front of about 15 people) and tells me I'll have my money in 2 minutes. About 20 minutes later, as I've stood at the window, watching the teller dole out bricks of cash to others, handing it to them in black plastic bags, I'm wondering when my cash will come. I see that there's a room marked "Bulk Cash" and I wonder what's the least conspicuous - the white woman walking into the "Bulk Cash" room and walking out with a big bag, or the white woman standing in front of the teller window in plan view of anyone who chooses to watch getting the cash doles out & stuffed into a black plastic bag. I decide I should just stay where I am an hope my driver can double as a bodyguard. Finally, my bricks are counted out, I stuff the money into the bag I've brought just for the occasion, I hand the bag to my driver and saunter out of the bank realizing I have to get used to working with cash and looking confident when carrying large sums of it!

1:30 - We arrive back at the office & I begin doling out money to the various places that need it - the paint store, the gardener, the mobile phone purchases, etc. Between the work expenditures, giving money to the housekeeper for groceries and constantly paying for kids' books, uniforms, activities, I am feeling like I am no longer a woman. I am a cash machine. I spend the rest of the afternoon trying in vain to catch up on email and being on conference calls. Doing business with the West Coast of the US means that as I'm winding down my afternoon, they're ready to get going for the day.

5:30- I get home late, due to a conference call. Patience has made rice & beans for dinner. Xavier is watching The Flintstones and Sophie is working on some of her approx. 2 hours a night of homework. It ranges from "numeracy" to German to French to literature. Since it's all based on the British system, both kids are learning phrases like "a block of flats" and, from an Oliver Twist comprehension piece a "foggle-hunter". Sophie, clad only in pink underwear, demonstrates some techno-hip-hop moves she's learned at dance class at school. Xavier uses his plastic handcuffs to cuff me to my chair. I look around at the scene - Sophie in her underwear, me handcuffed to my chair and my ex-husband sitting across from me laughing at our children (Cedric is staying at my house while he looks for a job) and wonder if all families are like this or is mine just seriously affected by the heat?

7:00- I have a bi-weekly US conference call. I call in via Skype. Have a side conversation with someone else on Skype & then need to call him (he's in New York) after this call to deal with another work issue. The kids come in and out at various times, making faces & parading through my room. Thank God for the mute button.

8:15 - I get off my calls and read a funny chapter from a Roald Dahl book to the kids. Sophie again reviews her dance moves, Xavier rolls around on the floor being a little brother and the day is nearing an end. Sophie has been relentlessly picking at her mosquito bites, so I've been covering them with ointment & small pieces of medical tape. I do the night time check to see if there are any that need attention before she falls asleep. I've made an agreement with her that if she stops picking them & lets them heal, I'll let her get her hair braided - Ghana style. I am exhausted and decide I have to get this day down on the blog before I no longer think it's interesting. I'm writing this blog and all of a sudden a nerf bullet flies through the crack in my door and lands on the floor. I hear a mischievous little laugh and footprints running off. Xavier obviously hasn't yet fallen asleep.

9:08 - I'm signing off. Hoping the rest of the night is uneventful and wondering what tomorrow will bring........