Moving and Gandhi!

Hi everybody!

So I am finishing up my great move (across the house!!!). Andddd its absolutely wonderful!! I dont know why I ever thought it wasnt going to be! The new room is slightly bigger then the other one, which doesnt really matter since I have so few things. My prized possession, the fan, gets its rightful position in the middle of the room, on the swivel setting. Sort of like a trophy or family portrait...whatever it makes me just as happy as any of those things.

Anyway, Emmanuel (new housemate) is supposed to come up to the house today to take a look around (he saw the outside but I wasnt home to let him in). Im not sure when hes supposed to move in but from the little I've spoken to him it seems like hes really not going to be here all that much...which is fine lol. All I really wanted was the illusion to the outside that he here all the time, or you never know when hell pop in. The lone white girl reputation that I have going has got to stop. And to add to the 1000^th reason I'm excited for E to visit. But let me start from the beginning of this so you don't think I'm crazy. Most everyone here believes that all white people are rich and have the ability (if you just try hard enough, or ask enough times) to take you back to America with them. So just walking down the road to the market I get asked to take random children or adults back with me. (Lets not even start on the give mes....) Some of the men (or in this case boys) think that if they propose marriage to me that I will suddenly realize my secret, undying love for them and I will say yes right there on the street and well go back to America the next day. Bullshit. So I've taken to wearing a fake wedding ring and telling everyone I already have a husband in America. This works for some of them but not all. This is because A. men are thick (no other way to say it...sorry :-) ) B. men here are allowed to have more then one wife here....f-that. So even if they themselves are already married it doesn't stop them from trying to add to their collection. And C. if I dont have any children its basically like I'm not even married because a good portion of a mans “worth” here is how many children he has...which is why theirs heards of families....so if I'm married and dont have children its my husbands fault and therefore he is “worth-less. And theys have the ability to steal me away from my husband (since women are not allowed to hve more then one husband)….again...garbage. So it will be nice when E comes and I can finally prove I'm not making up this whole “f off” thing. But if I were really smart and realized what trouble this was going to be I would have made of a fake Johnny, Suzie and Timmy to go along with the fake husband. Luckily Emmanuel (and pretty much I work with at CRC) is not like the typical Ghanaian man I just described. They are well educated, intelligent people who can handle working with not only someone that had white skin but who is...a woman. I gotta give these guys some credit for being so progressive in a society where their way of thinking is most definitely not the norm. Makes me proud to work with them.

The wall outside my house is almost done. I know if said that its been at the 'almost done' stage for weeks now. Apparently I dont know what an almost done wall looks like lol. But there are guys outside “grading” the lawn they dug up. Which really just means hacking with sticks and cutlasses. But the really exciting thing is that even if the big wall isnt done if the “grading is I can start putting up my garden fence!!! I started some of the more delicate seeds inside and they have completely taken off! Making me that much more excited to get going on the big one! It actually works out perfectly since one of my projects is to help people with inter-cropping and food security (family garden inside the compound = more secure food source if you dont have money to buy food...ie food security). Most families dont have food plots (which blows my mind) but it will be nice to show them mine and teach them how to compost out of my “live classroom”.

Well thats all for me for right now. I am going to keep cleaning so Emanuel thinks I'm neat and will be easy to live with (little does he know...) and continue to read Gandhi's autobiography wonderful!...highly recommend it)