We're getting used to the electricity turning off at any moment, sometimes for the whole day. Luck was with Jim getting a haircut when the barber using his electric rasor had finished about 90% before the electricity shut down. Good old scissors finished the job. Can truly learn the virtue of patience from the Ghanaians. Just wait, and things will eventually happen (hopefully!). Phone contact is a bit sporadic too but we purchased a cell which seems to do fairly well. Have been enjoying nice rice with tomato sauce & delicious fried plantains. May still need some time to acquire a taste for the traditional "TZ" (pronounced tee/zede) made of maize/corn or millet and "fu-fu" made with yams. Both are served with either a ground-nut sauce or stew-like mixture. Dessert is always a wonderful bowl of fruit, usually sweet watermelon and scrumptious mango.
We're in the rainy season. Generally a quick downpour but sometimes quite heavy. The rain is good & much appreciated, - one negative being the mosquitoes it encourages so it's comforting to crawl under our trusty sleeping net at night.
Using the internet -Ghanaian style- is just like it was at home for us before Jim, John, Beth & Steve threatened to stop visiting Kearny NJ until we switched from dial-up to broadband. See? We were simply preparing ourselves for our new lifestyle. Please don't send us any pictures as they take forever to download. Actually, broadband has come to Tamale and we've found a good internet cafe using it when we can get there.
As Ghana was formerly a British colony, English is the official language. However, Jim & I are hard at work trying to learn the local dialect of dagbani. It's a slow but fun process as we try to master the tone and pronunciation. Jim's dagbani rivals his previous attempts to speak French so we often give the Ghanaians a good laugh.