Tradeoffs

We returned from the weekend in the village and I promptly went to bed. Not much happened during that week that is worth noting. I went to class, slept, ate Ghanaian food, and would come home to hang out in my hall or at the girls' dorm talking or watching a movie before bed. On one night, though, a few of the girls came over and we played a game of monopoly starting with the intention of taking a break to go to our open air night market to get food in the middle of the game. Jessica and I played on a team and promptly lost, (convincing ourselves that winning monopoly means you must be a ruthless and evil human being, so in the end we were the real winners), but in the middle of the game it started to rain outside. It quickly transitioned from light pitter-patter to a thousand-jackhammers-striking-the-ground-at-once sounding rain. Then on came the lightning. It struck twice in a row with such a dazzling flash, and the third strike was perfectly timed to coincide with a power outage- our first one of the semester. We lit candles and continued playing. Instead of actual dinner, we survived on pastries and ice cream sold at a small stand right by the door of our building instead of going out. It was such a seamless transition. And the flip side of the rain: we got running water all week (well, for about an hour each morning, but that's enough to fill up the toilet tank, the real drain on our water supply. Ooo, that might have been an overshare). I never thought that I would be weighing the pros and cons of water and electricity, two of the most stable utilities in the US (think about how pissed we get when the electricity blacks out for an hour or two, and I don't think I've ever in my life turned the tap and had no water come out until now). It was nice to realize a lower level of dependence, to continue playing monopoly and eating ice cream until bed time.

Also, to go back to the weather metaphor, the haze that has been so far omnipresent has began to fade away. We can start actually seeing the sun rise and set and there are discernible large puffy clouds and occasional bright blue skies. This is matching my transition from feeling completely boxed into a confusing new place to an up and down state of mind thinking in a single day how great it is to be in a new place experiencing black outs and water shortages and later cursing the world for the lack of the advanced infrastructure I'm used to in the US. Mood swings are just part of the process, but it's good to have glimmers of loving the place that you are.