Ammon:
We started driving to Buduburam, and stayed at a chuch for a little bit, and I made a little chair fort bed thing, which was nice and comfy. Then we had to go to a FMF place which was just down the road. Came back and read my book and played on dads phone.
LaReita:
Dave and I trained our Buduburam managers and volunteer on the new FMFed.org administration site to track and provide metrics. The literacy students at our nearby location really wanted us to come visit. Dave stayed at the church with one of our managers, while Ammon and I went to visit our Literacy and Vocational Center (in a rented, unfinished house.) I brought a few more books to add to the library shelves, and read out loud “The Little Red Hen.” We visited the baking class, and sewing class to hear them speak their thanks and concerns. Back at the church I heard out 2 more people who needed someone to hear them. Our literacy volunteer then arrived and I learned more about her story escaping out of modern-day slavery from Saudi Arabia. It is astounding this is still happening in the world.
Dave was on call all day to fix and do tweaks to the website as we beta-tested it with everyone who was accessing it with different permissions.
At 5:30 pm I could see it was starting to get dark, and we needed to get heading back to Becky’s house (1+ hour away). The sun near the equator sets really fast. Generally it’s a good idea for obroni (white person) to be in their safe house by dark. Ghana is generally safe, but there are nefarious people wherever you go. I tried calling an Uber, but due to massive construction on the main road, no driver was ‘picking’ my ride.
We asked our assistant manager, Anthony, to walk with us to the taxi station because by now it was completely dark. To get a sense of what the taxi station looked like, imagine NYC Time Square, but in dirt and no lanes, and the mass of humanity pushing against each other with all their shapes and sizes of vehicles.
We stood in this chaos for about 15 minutes trying to hail a taxi. A young Ghanaian watched our plight and got a taxi to stop for us. I gave him a 20ghc finder’s fee (about $2). I encouraged the driver to drive us to the house which an hour away, by tripling the normal fare. Drivers loathe this particular road’s construction condition (if you saw, you’d understand). It would be an hour away from his usual routes, and another hour back. I gave him 300ghc ($23) to take us.
We finally got back to the house at 7:45pm. Having had only trail mix all day and limited water, we were so hungry. Before we had left in the morning, I had asked Donne (the house caretaker) to make us ‘Red-Red’ for dinner tonight (black-eyes peas/beans in red palm oil with fried plantain). We were so hungry, and it tasted so good!
Oh, and the water pipes to the house were busted again. So, no water tonight. I did take a bucket-bath before bed because I sleep so much better after the days dust, grime and sweat is off my body.
Before going to bed I ensured we had enough electricity on the meter to get us through the night with A/C. All of us collapsed into bed and were out like a Ghana light before 9:30pm.