Due Diligence

Having finished our first-time loan class, we were tasked with performing due diligence, which means we would visit each person individually to see if their business and the person are good candidates for the loan. Of course, the class helps us see who is dedicated, but it is pretty easy to speed through the class to get free money. Every day this past week we took the trip to Amonom to visit will our class members. It is monotonous to mention every day, because the days were long and boring anyway, but it was fun to get out and see our students in their environment.

Some children cry when they see white men

We learned about palm oil, fish, bowl floats, togbes, Accra kenkey, another type of kenkey I don’t remember, and provision stores. I picked up a few new but random words in Twi because I heard them so much (“Afe” means one year and “Baku baku” means every day). I learned that the stinkin’ bus to Amonom comes at any time between 12:30 and 2:00, and that the bus from Accra that stops in Abomosu at about the same time only goes to Sankubenase, so don’t take that one. I also leaned that the locals don’t know the difference between the two buses either.

I also learned that just about every person here would ask for and take anything you have, but at the same time will be nice enough to offer you a chair and invite you to their food. Mary is a gal that works at a store near the bus stop, and every day this past week, she asked us for 1 GHC, or a drink, or a biscuit (a cookie that I had just bought). Garrett had a phone scratch card in his hand, and she swiped it from him thinking she could just take the scratch card and use it. Of course, Garrett’s a bright guy and knew our “friend” Mary would do something like that, so it was a used card. I think she really does consider us her friends, even more than just benefactors, but we stay at the bus stop only as long as we have to. The people here are just…weird.

On Friday, our translator did not show up to help us, so we rescheduled with everybody to come back Monday. It puts us in a crunch because we have to have everything pretty much finished by Tuesday, but we can put in some extra hours, no biggie.

Garrett came up with a really cool idea to start an intramural type activity (field day may be a better comparison) with the school he and Zandra teach at. On Wednesdays, Garrett whips out come competition and declares a winner from each class that participates. I was going to take some video at the school last week, but ended up going to Koforidua instead. Last Wednesday, I walked with the two to school and helped organize arm wrestling. Actually, I didn’t do much, but I was armed with my camera taking pictures and video. The kids were really funny, and I taught them a few games on the side. They never took to them, though, probably because they didn’t really understand the rules, but I can’t say I did much better. I made them teach me some of their games, but I don’t understand them fully, either. Anyway, it was fun to hang out with the kids for a day.

We skipped church on Sunday. They just got copies of General Conference translated into Twi, so they watched a session for their worship service, and we all stayed home because it would be pointless to not understand anything for two hours. The same day, we put on five pairs our sunglasses to try and get a glimpse of the eclipse. For us, it was not a full eclipse, just a partial. But you could definitely tell a difference in the sunlight when it was at its peak. It was eerie. But it was still cool. I got an awesome pic with my camera with only one pair of sunglasses on. There is some sort of reflection and you can see the eclipse in the reflection.

We discovered that a certain channel on TV plays movies, and on Sunday we watched a tid-bit of Touched by an Angel. In the past, we have watches LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring, SWAT, Ratatouille, and a couple other American flicks. Be careful, though, because they don’t edit the movies at all. Accidentally caught a boob from a movie that was probably rated R, but we hadn’t the slightest (not that I haven’t gotten my fair share of boobs out here). We understand a little more about Ghanaian perceptions of America, though, watching all these crazy American movies.

We have started to do a lot more cooking and that has helped a ton! We have cooked food that actually tastes like food from home. One night we baked chicken, sliced some cucumbers, prepared the local yams like garlic potatoes, and made gravy, and it was almost like having a nice Sunday dinner! I have to brag about the yams because it took some mad skill to make those turn out. The yams are bitter sometimes, and somehow I had to get the bitter out. I boiled the yams for almost an hour, hoping that over-boiling them would take out the nasty taste. I also threw in an onion, some salt, and some sugar desperately trying anything to make sure they didn’t taste bad. I sautéed garlic, onion, and chives to mix into the mashed yams and, of course, added a whole can of the condensed milk. AND IT TURNED OUT BEAUTIFULLY. Tasted just like garlic potatoes. I was pretty excited.

We work about 30 hours per week, but the free time we are given isn’t really free time. We just stick around the house and do whatevs, which made it a huge blessing that people brought books. I only brought one, To Kill a Mockingbird, and finished it early on. I moved to the books that Allan brought, a Dragonlance Trilogy that I didn’t like so much. Garrett and Zandra brought Catching Fire, and even though I vowed never to read the books, I got sucked in. I never read the first book, but I loved the first movie, so I just jumped right into the second book. I was so mad at the end, though, because it ends on a huge cliffhanger and THEY DIDN’T BRING THE THIRD BOOK. Luckily, I found the text online and finished that book within a couple days. I am now reading Ender’s Game on G and Z’s Nook, so I am getting my fill of books lately! To any future interns who may be reading this blog: bring as many books as you can. They are lifesavers.

I plan on going to Accra this weekend. I am pretty excited! I think I’ll get to go to the temple on Wednesday with the Elders, but that is yet to be determined. We are only a month away from our flight home, so “I’ll be home for Christmas!”