One of the first things that I remember being told upon arriving here in Ghana was that we will have many many frustrating moments, but eventually, we will find humor in these frustrations or just become completely accustomed to them. This weekend/today was definitely one of those moments for me. As I wrote earlier, we had planned to leave for Togo early today. At 5:30 am we were all awake, healthy and ready for the 3-hour bus ride to Lome. We arrived at the bus station in plenty of time, only to find out that the bus that takes that route had broken down. Unfortunately, there is no other bus until tomorrow morning at 6:30 am. So Togo was a no today… my friends and I almost expected this complication considering how every time we try to leave something seems to go wrong. First, we were pretty angry, but be ended up sitting at the station for a while just laughing at how ridiculously hard it has been to get to Togo, and we haven’t even stepped foot on a bus. I have really learned to appreciate what I do have at home more and more, and realize how much I take for granted the conveniences of online booking and punctuality. The pace is nice though, once you realize that there is nothing you can do about the fact that there are no buses leaving Accra for Lome today. Instead we are going to go to the pool, relax and maybe watch a few more movies…
The whole bus situation wasn’t our only frustration this weekend. We were warned when we moved in that running water is not always a certain thing and that when the tanks run out we could be without water for a while, so we should keep a bucket filled in case of this. Well, we have only run out of water a few times, and it has been up and running within hours. This weekend, however, was another story. On Saturday night, we noticed that the tap was dry and the toilets weren’t flushing. This was fine, we assumed it was an easy fix, but we soon learned that the water couldn’t be refilled on weekends. I have been camping before and I can go a few days without a shower or flushing the toilet, but some of my peers had a really big issue with the lack of water and Sunday was a rough day. I don’t buy bottled water here, I boil the tap, so I ran out of water early on and most stores are not open Sunday. That was a really scary moment for me, when I realized that I have never in my life felt like I had to ration my drinking water, and I realized that a large majority of people in Ghana feel like that all the time. Running water is a luxury we have as students in a nice neighborhood, but many of the people in Accra have to go to public water pumps to get water. (Unfortunately, in our neighborhood we don’t have a public water pump so I was out of luck). Sunday night, I did end walk to the other student house, which is about 15 minutes away, to use the bathroom and take a shower because I had enough of the learning experience. This morning the water truck came and filled our tanks, which was one of the most exciting moments of the week, but we learned that there is actually a leak somewhere in the pipes so the water won’t work in the house. Currently, we have to take buckets outside and fill them up directly from the tanks. I have a new appreciation for the amount of water needed to flush the toilet (1/2 of a bucket), take a shower (1 bucket) and wash the pile of dishes in the sink (2 buckets). Such simple tasks have become a chore, but in a weird way I appreciate the experience and I am really thankful that we have water now!! Someone told me during my first week that Ghanaians often say “patience is wisdom,” and I am beginning to think this is true more and more everyday. Here, you kind of just have to roll with the blows and let it go. You can’t have a set plan, because it will probably change, and you have to be ready with a bucket of water for when the tank empties on a Saturday.
Hopefully we’ll leave in the morning. If so… Until Friday/Saturday. -Kalin
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