The Accra routine

Note: I wrote this post a couple of nights ago, and it's actually been much less accurate regarding the last few days, which have been almost entirely consumed with the Kalila Project.

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Some of you may be wondering things like why is Taren spending all her time in Accra
blogging instead of seeing the country? Or, has she gotten sick yet? Exactly how smelly is she at this point?

I'm so glad you asked!

Here's how a typical day in the life of Taren in Accra has gone:

6am - Wake up. Sun is already bright. Bathe with refreshingly cool water poured out of a bucket (the water is usually running in the morning, but the pressure upstairs is too low). Get dressed, probably in the same outfit as the day before -- the skirt you see in all the pictures and my brown button-down shirt.

6:45am - Eat a very Western breakfast of Weetabix (kind of like Shredded Wheat), soymilk & yogurt, and either banana or papaya, along with some juice.

7:15am - Apply sunscreen and bug spray. Perform some kind of morning chore like handwashing laundry or hardboiling some eggs.

7:45am - Perhaps head to the nearby internet cafe to spend some time online before things really open (the cafe is open 7am-11pm); otherwise get an early start on the day's adventures

8:30am-5:45pm-ish - see sights/do interesting things. Most days this is in the company of someone from my extended host family, particularly Abbas (the driver referenced in the "Two Ghanas" blog post) or Nasir (Uncle Negro's cousin on one side and uncle on the other side, if I remember correctly.) Nasir is known within the family as the "prof", and for good reason -- he is a font of useful knowledge, and always wants to learn about America too.

9:30ish - take anti-malarial. Can't eat between breakfast and one hour after taking this pill.

11am-2pm -- browse on some combination of bananas, hardboiled egg, nuts, and crackers/cookies for lunch.

5:45pm - sun sets, and my ability to do interesting things comes largely to a close. Often at this point I time it so that I've just arrived at the internet cafe (I can walk there on my own during daylight, but after dark Uncle Negro says it's not safe). Post blogs, write back to Kalila donors, etc.

7:30pm - call someone from my host family; they come to pick me up and I head home for the evening. Play with Kalila for a half hour or so til her mom returns from work to pick her up and take her home. Tell Uncle Negro about my day.

8:30pm - eat a dinner of rice and canned vegetables/beans. My host family has tried hard to persuade me to eat their absolutely delicious-smelling food, but I am too traumatized from prior bad experiences in developing countries and am having too much fun to contemplate wasting two full days sitting on the toilet.

9pm - get out iPhone and fancy bluetooth keyboard, and type up some blog posts to post the next day!

10pm - head towards the mosquito-proof travel tent I call bed. Lament how hot it is inside the tent, wonder if I'm being ridiculously over-cautious since I haven't seen a single mosquito inside the house yet, and eventually fall asleep.*

Repeat!

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* After I wrote this I decided that I was in fact being paranoid, and stopped using the tent. I've had much better nights' sleep since then at the grand cost of a single night-time mosquito bite. Well worth it unless of course I get malaria!