A Day in My Life

I have started to settle into a routine here in Jirapa. To give you an idea of what my life is like, here is a taste of a regular day for me.

6:00am - wake up, go to the washroom, do my Pilates exercises. I bought a small prayer mat at a local store and I have enough space on my bedroom floor that I can do Pilates inside. I find this is a great way to start the morning - calming and energizing to prepare me for the day ahead.

6:45am - sweep the yard. Ghanaians take great pride in all matters of appearance, including the upkeep of their houses. There is a huge nim tree in our front yard that is constantly dropping fruit and leaves, but i sweep the dirt clean.

The yard that I sweep

7:00am - bathe. The water usually runs for about an hour every morning, but the time is unpredictable and sometimes it doesn't come on at all. If it is running, I will take my shampoo, towel and cloth into the washroom for a shower. If the water is not running, I will also take a small bucket of water and bathe with this. Bathing has become one of my favourite parts of the day because it is the only time I am cool!

7:10am - dress, take my malaria pill and multivitamin, and eat breakfast. Breakfast usually consists of white bread and tea. Sometimes I will add a mango (which I've only recently discovered I LOVE here), an orange or some groundnut paste (peanut butter) for an extra treat.

7:40am - pack my things for work - laptop, water bottle, notebook, pens and books. If I am going out in the field I will also bring my raincoat (just in case), some biscuits and a motorcycle helmet.

7:50am - go to work. I get on the moto with Natalia (my host mother and the District Girl-Child Education Officer) and we head off down the dirt path to the main road, then along the road to work. It is not very far, about a 25-minute walk, but it is only 5 minutes on the moto (and much less sweaty).

8:00am - work. This can consist of many things. If I am working at the office it can include designing Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) forms and activities, processing information that has been received, learning about and planning Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) activities, writing emails and reading about development. If I am traveling out of the office, it is usually to visit one of the Sara clubs in the district (more about these girls clubs later). We will meet with the girls and talk with them, both giving and receiving information.

Hard at work

12:00pm - lunchtime. Sometimes I will go back home with Natalia and we will prepare something for lunch, such as jolaf rice or banku with light soup. Other times I will take lunch somewhere in town, finding a place to sit and read my book while I take some kenkey or rice with chicken. It is also a good time to do small errands, such as going to the small local market, buying water or going to the post office.

2:00pm - return to work. After a long lunch and rest, I will return to the office to finish up work for the day. This part of the day is usually a lot more laid-back and you may even find people sleeping at their desks. If I don't have too much work to do, I will use this time to write blog posts or work on my learning plan.

4:00 or 5:00pm - finish work and go home. Depending on whether there is a lot to do, we will leave work earlier or later. After getting home, I will rest for a while (it's still usually very hot at this time). I like to read a book or write in my journal. If Charles and Emmanuel are home, I will play cards with them or talk with them for a while.

7:00pm - cook dinner. We will start cooking as it gets cooler outside - but it's still hot in the kitchen! We will cook TZ, fufu, banku, or rice along with light soup with goat, groundnut soup with fish, or okru soup. There are also several soups with various greens in them but I have yet to figure out all the names. And when I say "we" cook, it usually means that Natalia is in charge and I help with cutting up vegetables and pounding pepe (hot peppers) or tomatoes. I'm starting to learn how to cook though, so hopefully by the time I return I will be able to prepare some Ghanaian dishes!

Stirring the banku (fermented maize that is ground into flour then cooked with water)

8:00pm - eat dinner. Most families eat dinner around 6pm, but for some reason my family eats late. Also, it doesn't seem important that the family eats together - whoever is around gets a bowl when it's ready, and everyone else will help themselves later. The only important thing is to serve my host father with his own dishes on a tray along with a cup of water. Usually we will eat outside, where it is nice and cool (though this means I have to load up on bugspray first). Generally I like the food, though I'm not crazy about the snotty consistency of okru!

8:30pm - bathe again. Ghanaians usually bathe twice a day. It is easy to get sweaty and dirty, so this is a pretty good idea. The water is never running at this time of night, so it is always a bucket shower. I usually just wash my body and don't get my hair wet before bed.

8:40pm - brush my teeth, put my sleeping clothes on and head to bed. I will make sure I write in my journal before going to sleep, and sometimes if I'm not too tired I will read my book. Then I will turn off my light (if the power is on - otherwise I use a flashlight), tuck my mosquito net under my mattress all the way around and go to sleep!

The weekends are a bit different. Sometimes I allow myself the luxury of sleeping in until 7am, at which point Natalia will start banging on my door to see if I'm up yet. This is understandable - the morning is the coolest part of the day and the only time you can really do work. Saturday mornings consist of doing laundry. We will all take turns to wash our clothes in a big basin, rinse them and hang them to dry on the clothesline. Doing laundry by hand has become one of my favourite things - I find it so calming, sitting and scrubbing the week's dirt out of my clothes. The rest of Saturday I will find various things to do, including hanging out with friends, going for walks or other adventures. On Sunday my whole family goes to church. I went with them on my first week (to see what it was like), but I don't go anymore. Instead I stay behind and enjoy the peace and quiet. In the afternoon I will walk to the bustling weekly market, when people from all over the surrounding area come to Jirapa to sell their goods. There are things I can buy there that I can't find during the rest of the week, including pineapple and other such luxuries. I've never tasted pineapple so good as the ones in Ghana! On the way home I will relax, chat with people on the street and maybe stop for a cup of pito. Sundays are very relaxed, a perfect way to prepare for the week ahead.