So, we have finally moved into our long-term house in Accra, although things are still far from smooth. Since this is a brand-new home, there are obviously some issues that need to be dealt with from time to time, as any new homeowner knows. However, things get even more complicated over here in Ghana. To start with: the water. Water is a precious resource here in Africa and the way it is sourced into homes here works a little differently than in the US. The US system for water works in one of two ways, or at least this is my understanding on this subject: 1. There is an underground well that supplies the home with water or 2. The home is connected to the municipal water system that provides the house with water. Over here, at least in our compound, there are individual water tanks for each unit that run water into the house. Mind you, the water from the tank is just run into the piping of the home as is, the water heating system is a bit different. There is not a water heating system set up for the whole house: each individual bathroom is equipped with an individual, somewhat small, water heater. When working properly it actually provides very hot water for a good 10-15 mins before it runs out and needs to refill and heat the water again.
I don’t mean to bore you all with these details, but they are all central to one of the main stories this week: our water, or sometimes lack thereof. Basically, we woke up several days without any hot water in our bathroom. They would repair it one day, but the repair wouldn’t stick and they’d have to come back a day or so later to fix the same issue. This happened several times with our water heater, to the point where they just took a heater from one of the empty units and replaced ours. This finally did the trick and now we have consistent hot water in our bathroom, although I’m not sure what they’ll do when the vacant unit they put our old water heater in gets filled.
These repair issues happened with our microwave as well, which was really frustrating because we have both ourselves and our girls to feed day and night. The repairman would come in, be here for several hours and fix the microwave, then right after he left it would stop working. A few nights of cold dinners after this fiasco of repairing the microwave only to have it break as soon as the repairman left was unbelievable aggravating. We also had issues with some flooding in our kitchen. We couldn’t tell where it was coming from ourselves, either the refrigerator or the sink. And when the repairman would come in, he would just look under the sink and fridge and when he didn’t find a leak he left.
These malfunctions and eventual [partial] repairs aside, we are settling in nicely into a new normal routine. My new routine includes sweeping and mopping the floors almost daily. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that it’s dirtier over here or that we have only tile floors, but without this regular cleaning a lot of dirt accumulates after just one day. While a lot of expats here will hire a maid to come do this daily cleaning, I wanted to take it upon myself to do it. I had a lot of training cleaning the park [and bathrooms] at Story Land all those years ago, and it has started to pay off. It is a lot of hard work, but since I haven’t been able to squeeze in any workouts recently it serves as great exercise! Combined with this heat and fresh food I’m starting to lose more of the baby fat I gained with Abigail!
The house is starting to shape up as well as we manage with the minimal furniture we bought to hold us over until our sea shipment arrives. It took most of the week to get our dining room table and chairs delivered but it did finally get here and we are loving it! And Sara Gail is thrilled that we have all this space and a nice yard out back for her to play in with her Daddy and baby sister.
In addition to my new cleaning routine I am getting some more translation work in, which is always nice. It is all part of getting into a new rhythm in a new place. While it’s easy to get work done with Sara Gail at school and Abigail napping, it’ll be a whole different story once school ends and Sara Gail is at home, because Sara Gail hasn’t taken regular naps for months now. But as of now it’s just Abigail and I at home during the day and she is loving all the attention! [And having all the toys to herself!]
Speaking of Sara Gail’s school, she and I are absolutely loving it! Sara Gail is having a great time making new friends and learning new things. And I love the things she is learning! Not only are they teaching her in the traditional sense, but she is learning basic life skills as well, such as washing her own dishes! The school regularly updates me on her progress, including pictures, and I try my best to implement that at home. So, every night Sara Gail is washing her own dishes now! It’s great!
Abigail is always my little kitchen helper as well.
As usual I ended the week with my typical market day – which is always a treat for me. This week I asked the woman who carries my food if she’d be willing to take a picture with me. She was, although she seemed very shy about it at first. This way you can all see how much work she actually does and why I am so impressed by her. She is also wearing a baby on her back like I am – and keep in mind that I am not her only customer.
I hope you come back next week to read more about managing our lives in our new home and other daily adventures here in Accra!