Sometimes, the best laid plans of blogging every day do go astray. Oh well, in Ghana, that is fine. As I was drawing water this morning, and thinking of what all needed to be done on my 'day off', thoughts turned of what to write about here. The exciting Sunday at the Durbar where we were at the Kumasi Soccer Field, with thousands of people? Seeing children in the village yesterday? How the land is coming along? Discussions with Nana on how to proceed with the clinic? And then I thought, maybe, just maybe a little writing of the ADL's (for you non medical types there, that is activities of daily living) that go on here, and just why some days blogs don't get written for a few days.
So, this entry will be an informational piece on what goes on in the daily life here, in Kumasi with the Sisters. Just the household living and chores that are done each day. We have only had running water in this neighborhood one day in the week I have been here. Meaning, water that comes from the tap, running out! Now, this is a beautiful house with about 5 bedrooms and an equal number of baths or half baths, a beautiful living room, dining room, two upstairs porches, a porch across the front of the home, beautiful trees in bloom, wall around the property, tile floors, kitchen, washer/dryer, gee, most everything one could ask for. But of late, no running water, except for what comes from the spigot in the back. In the evening the night watchman, Apia, fills our 55 gallon drum in the kitchen with this water. He is proud and happy to do this, and with extra visitors, it is a full time job for him. This water is NOT water to drink, wash dishes in, just for bathing and using in the toilets.
We each have our own bucket in the bathroom for water...bathing, other washing, flushing. So, of course during the day, if we are around like I was today, I go out to the spigot (don't want poor Apia to work too hard and we do all share tasks) and fill some buckets for Kathy and myself. Those get filled, and have to be taken upstairs. This may take 15 minutes, or more depending on the water pressure. And for sure at night, I am compulsive on filling my bucket for that awful, just-in-case time I get the tummy issues. Then in the morning, once again, but generally I use the water from the plastic drum in the kitchen, call me lazy.
Brushing teeth, well, that is water that we have boiled and filtered. Then we fill old wine bottles and store in the fridge. So, another bottle of water in our rooms for any oral consumption. I hope you are beginning to get the picture that getting up and dressed in the morning, can be a very labor intensive process!
In the evening, sometimes Cindy, the house help, fixes dinner, or we trade off fixing dinner. Like last night I offered. Thank goodness I threw in a couple boxes of macaroni and cheese (Kraft) at the last minute. We had that and salad and the best fresh pineapple. But doing dishes involves boiling water for wash and rinse water. Fixing vegetables, well, those are purchased about every other day from the road side, are cleaned, then soaked in a small amount of potassium permanganate to kill any bacteria, and rinsed with clean water. So a salad, is an hour process to fix. And doing dishes, no dishwasher here. We all chip in and wash, dry, clean the table, put things away etc. All in this heat/humidity.
No wonder come evening, we all collapse! But this is a different way of life. And when I get home, well, how appreciative I am of being able to turn on the tap and get fresh clean water to drink, or turn my washer on to do clothes, or load the dishwasher up with a couple days of dishes to do at once, then put away all clean and sparkling!
Enjoy the picture of Nana driving his gold Mercedes from Sunday and I will tell you all about that maybe later tonite or tomorrow. We whizzed thru Kumasi, intersections, lights, dressed in our Kente, parking in front of the stadium....
So, this entry will be an informational piece on what goes on in the daily life here, in Kumasi with the Sisters. Just the household living and chores that are done each day. We have only had running water in this neighborhood one day in the week I have been here. Meaning, water that comes from the tap, running out! Now, this is a beautiful house with about 5 bedrooms and an equal number of baths or half baths, a beautiful living room, dining room, two upstairs porches, a porch across the front of the home, beautiful trees in bloom, wall around the property, tile floors, kitchen, washer/dryer, gee, most everything one could ask for. But of late, no running water, except for what comes from the spigot in the back. In the evening the night watchman, Apia, fills our 55 gallon drum in the kitchen with this water. He is proud and happy to do this, and with extra visitors, it is a full time job for him. This water is NOT water to drink, wash dishes in, just for bathing and using in the toilets.
We each have our own bucket in the bathroom for water...bathing, other washing, flushing. So, of course during the day, if we are around like I was today, I go out to the spigot (don't want poor Apia to work too hard and we do all share tasks) and fill some buckets for Kathy and myself. Those get filled, and have to be taken upstairs. This may take 15 minutes, or more depending on the water pressure. And for sure at night, I am compulsive on filling my bucket for that awful, just-in-case time I get the tummy issues. Then in the morning, once again, but generally I use the water from the plastic drum in the kitchen, call me lazy.
Brushing teeth, well, that is water that we have boiled and filtered. Then we fill old wine bottles and store in the fridge. So, another bottle of water in our rooms for any oral consumption. I hope you are beginning to get the picture that getting up and dressed in the morning, can be a very labor intensive process!
In the evening, sometimes Cindy, the house help, fixes dinner, or we trade off fixing dinner. Like last night I offered. Thank goodness I threw in a couple boxes of macaroni and cheese (Kraft) at the last minute. We had that and salad and the best fresh pineapple. But doing dishes involves boiling water for wash and rinse water. Fixing vegetables, well, those are purchased about every other day from the road side, are cleaned, then soaked in a small amount of potassium permanganate to kill any bacteria, and rinsed with clean water. So a salad, is an hour process to fix. And doing dishes, no dishwasher here. We all chip in and wash, dry, clean the table, put things away etc. All in this heat/humidity.
No wonder come evening, we all collapse! But this is a different way of life. And when I get home, well, how appreciative I am of being able to turn on the tap and get fresh clean water to drink, or turn my washer on to do clothes, or load the dishwasher up with a couple days of dishes to do at once, then put away all clean and sparkling!
Enjoy the picture of Nana driving his gold Mercedes from Sunday and I will tell you all about that maybe later tonite or tomorrow. We whizzed thru Kumasi, intersections, lights, dressed in our Kente, parking in front of the stadium....
