Ghana Recap - Day Three

Got a good night's sleep and awoke for our first full day in Ghana. Breakfast consisted of toast with spreadable individually wrapped cheese, and some excellent omelettes that would have passed muster in any American restaurant. 

After breakfast we got back on our bus to head out to our work site. I quickly noticed that many businesses had Christian names. For example "Jesus is Lord Drinking and Chop Bar" or "God is Good Block Makers". It wasn't just a few businesses, it was almost all of them. There was one area we went through that almost felt like a Christian theme park. Very strange. We quickly got off the paved road onto the dirt road and through some fairly primitive villages. Chickens and goats roamed free, children waved to us.

Our worksite is to be a school and church for a small village. The children currently walk about 6 miles to school, so there is a great need. Upon our arrival the site consisted of the foundation for much of the building, with most rooms having at least a few layers of bricks. One room had a small big-top like tent over it and we were shepherded in there for a little ceremony with the pastors of the Kaneshie Presbyterian Church (who is sponsoring our visit here), as well as the village chief and religious leader. They had agendas printed up and everything. I ashamedly dozed a bit, though it wasn't too long. 

After the little ceremony, we headed out to work, which started slowly. There were already a large number of locals on the job, and it was pretty clear that we were inessential to the whole operation. Lest we really insert ourselves into the work, we are not called upon to do much. It is mostly mixing cement and laying blocks, and there are only a few shovels and a few trowels, so our scope is limited. The building work is exactly what I spent the summer doing in Tanzania in 1991 with Teen Missions, so this trip is really taking me back. Last night I dreamt of people from that summer.

We were also swarmed by adorable children at the worksite. Kids were held, games were played, balloons were passed out, songs were sung. 

Upon the urgings of the church leaders, we took a short day and headed back to the hotel for lunch and rest. I napped. We had a short Vespers service before dinner, then I read a bit and went to bed. I've been pretty tired.

Some general observations - most people here speak excellent English, and most of the signs around are in English. It is very easy to be a tourist here. The weather is gorgeous. Humid, but breezy, a bit rainy now and then, but not often. The church people have been wonderful, taking great care of us and attending to our every need.

At the end of day three, Katie still has no luggage but has not complained. I loaned her a shirt which I'm not sure she wanted, but she wore anyway.

Ghana Recap - Days One & Two

To label this post Ghana recap is a bit misleading, as day one found us nowhere near Ghana. Monday morning began with me checking our flight status online shortly before I was set to leave the house, and discovering that our flight out of Chicago was cancelled, and eventually discovering that we were rebooked to depart at 4:20pm (rather than 11:30am) and go through Cincinnati then Amsterdam (rather than NYC to Ghana). We phoned Delta and got nowhere, but under considerable pressure from the rest of the group that we were supposed to meet in NYC, we headed to the airport anyway.

We got through ticketing and security okay and were booked standby on an earlier Cincinnati flight. When we walked up to our gate we did a double take as there was the rest of the group who were supposed to already be on their way to NYC. They had been put the plane, sat for 2 hours, then got taken off. We didn't get to talk long though before we were called for standby on an even earlier Cincinnati flight than the one we thought we were standby on. Unsure of what the future held as far as meeting up again with the rest of the group, we got on the Cincinnati flight. The flight was brief and full of anxious people afraid of missing their connections because apparently that flight was getting out late. Upon arrival, a fight almost broke out getting off the plane when someone was blocking the exit, talking to the pilot or flight attendant.

We had a long time in Cincinnati and lingered over a late lunch, looked through shops, had a Chick-Fil-A sandwich. I called Linnea to say goodbye, she just went on an on about some coupon they had for pizza they were getting that night. Often on the phone all she does is describe what she is doing at that exact moment. She did ask if we could walk to Africa.

The flight to Amsterdam was long, but relatively comfortable and uneventful. Twice I tried watching Iron Man on the personal video system, but became too tired and turned it off. I did manage to watch an episode of 30 Rock I'd never seen.

Day Two:

We arrived in mid-morning in rainy Amsterdam. We had to visit the ticketing desk where we were attended to by the most stereotypical looking gorgeous Nordic blondes, who told us we weren't actually booked on the flight to Ghana. They got us on no problem, but this was a bit of a letdown as Delta had told us we were booked in business class. A few moments later the rest of the group arrived, having ended up flying directly from Chicago.

After a few hours in Amsterdam, pretty much sitting doing nothing, we had to go through a long security line to get on the flight. AC and I were seated next to each other in the last row of the plane. I had the aisle seat which had a large metal box attached to the floor in my legroom under the seat in front of me. I was miserable. I don't even understand how they can sell that seat. I asked the flight attendant if there was anywhere I could move to and she thought not. Sometime later she came back and told me there was one aisle seat farther up in the plane. I sat next to a Ghanian woman who sang quietly for much of the trip. I managed to watch all of Dan in Real Life which was okay, and dozed on and off, listening to some music. I had a headache most of the trip due to dehydration and too much air conditioning.

We arrived in Accra, Ghana and exited the plane onto the tarmac, which was a little humid, but not too hot. Katie's luggage did not arrive, so we were there quite some time trying to work that out. Next was a fairly long bus ride to our hotel, on which I quietly took in the sights for awhile before falling asleep. We didn't get a very good sense of the city in the dark that night.

Our hotel is amazing and completely unexpected. It's kind of a closed in compound. There are a variety of rooms with most of us having 2 people in a room with 2 beds and a private bath. Some have air conditioning, but ours does not and is plenty cool with a ceiling fan. We pretty much have the place taken over and the "restaurant" is more or less our personal chefs. We ate dinner that first night before heading off to bed. Dinner consisted of some Uncle Ben's type long grain rice with some onions and seasonings, fried chicken, some kind of beef with onions and gravy, salad, and delicious fried plantains. Other lunches and dinners here have been slight variations on those dishes. It's all fairly good.

Makes My Brain Hurt

I never keep water on my nightstand because I'm afraid of spilling it. Last night, for some reason, I put a big full glass of water on my nightstand for no good reason. I wasn't particularly thirsty, it wasn't a thought-out reasoned exception to the rule, I just did it. Every night I climb into bed, remove my glasses, and with reckless abandon place them on my nightstand. I can afford to do it recklessly because I don't keep water on my nightstand. Well, you can see where this is going.

What hurts my brain though is that I don't keep water on my nightstand because I'm afraid I'll spill it, but the only reason I spilled it is because I don't usually keep water on my nightstand. A catch-22 I suppose (which reminds me I've been meaning to place that book on my "to read" list).

Skeletons in My Musical Closet - Billy Joel

It's hard to keep a critical distance from anything we once loved unabashedly, particularly if it was something we loved in our childhood or adolescence. Thus the presence of all three seasons of "Land of the Lost" at the top of my Netflix queue, and the mostly unapologetic appearance of a few Billy Joel albums on my IPod. In the past week I've troubled over two reviews of the 30th anniversary deluxe reissue of Billy Joel's "The Stranger" (from The Onion's AV Club, and from Pop Matters). They trouble me because I have a strong childhood connection to that album, and to Billy Joel in general, and I'm not sure what to do with it. Until recently I've mostly avoided thinking much about Billy Joel, and have never paid much attention to his critical & popular position in the pop/rock canon.

There's a key scene in Cameron Crowe's musical love letter "Almost Famous" in which the protagonist discovers his older sister's LP collection. It's clearly his moment of musical revelation, and it changes his life. [Note: The link is to a stupid montage, but look around 1:53]. While I have a few moments of musical revelation in my past, one of my earliest involves my brother's vinyl copy of "The Stranger". I won't go so far as to say it changed my life, but it at least cemented my devotion for many years to a critically dubious musical icon.

As for my moment of musical revelation? I don't remember how old I was - my best guess would be jr. high, approx. 10 years after "The Stranger" was released. I was in our faux wood paneled den, where the only real stereo in the house was, and I guess I must have been digging through my brother's record collection, and for whatever reason pulled out "The Stranger". While I'm pretty sure I listened to the whole album that night, it was "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" that I listened to over and over again. As a piano playing lover of musical theater on the cusp of his teenage years, I was probably doomed to love this song. A story of lost teenage innocence, in four acts, with heavy piano underneath it all (and I'm sorry, but the piano intro to act 3 is still a blast to play), this song had all the hooks I needed.

In subsequent years I would become a complete Billy Joel devotee. I had every album, all the piano music, the videos, saw him on the Storm Front tour, and made my best friend J try and play the saxophone part on "Scenes..." (as well as other songs) while I accompanied on piano (and maybe vocals?). Then sometime between "Storm Front" and what would be Joel's last pop album, "River of Dreams", I put him away. I don't know that I ever even owned "River of Dreams", and I'm not sure when or where my collection of Joel CDs went (though I do still have the piano music, but no piano). I wish I could say it was because my musical tastes improved, but my more honest guess is I lost touch with him during my "Christian Music" fanaticism years (see future, even more embarrassing, "Skeletons in My Musical Closet" blog post). I guess I've been surprised to only recently discover that Billy Joel wasn't critically respected during his heyday, and certainly isn't now; that he's even kind of a joke. In some ways he seems to have even less cred than his sometime tour partner Elton John, though Joel never did anything as egregious as The Lion King ("Innocent Man" may come close). So thanks reviewers for making me confront a large piece of my musical past. I'm more confused than ever, but it's comforting to know there are writers working for reputable music outfits that struggle with some of the same demons.

What's On Your IPod

I usually avoid internet surveys like the plague, but my friend J posted this one on her blog and I'm a sucker for anything music related, so here goes.

This would probably be more interesting if I hadn't had to replace my IPod some months ago. I'm still in the process of getting my library onto the new one and am about 3000 songs shy of where the old one was at.

Total Library Length: 8043 Songs, 21 Days, 34.41 GB

First and Last Songs (by title):

• Abbatoir Blues by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (ABC by the Jackson 5 comes in second J)
• 911 to Orson Wells (sp?) by Robert Deeble
  

Shortest & Longest Songs:

• The Sky is a Harpsichord Canvas by Olivia Tremor Control :04
• A Long Day by The Polyphonic Spree 36:31

First and Last Albums (by title):

• A.M by Wilco
• 80th Birthday EP by Charlie Louvin
  (I think these make nice bookends. J - I guess my copy of Achutung Baby hasn't made it on yet, but if it did, it would be 6th)

First and Last Artist (by name):

• A.C. Newman
• The 1900's (J - 10,000 Maniacs is second to last for me)

Top 5 Most Played Songs (actually 6 because of a tie):

• Don't Tell Me To Do The Math by Los Campesinos! (18)
• I Want You Back by Jackson 5 (17)
• Death to Los Campesinos! by Los Campesinos! (15)
• We Both Go Down Together by The Decemberists (14 Tie)
• Run Myself Out of Town by The Holmes Brothers (14 Tie)
• Hey Baby by The Holmes Brothers (14 Tie)
  This is where having the new IPod is a bit of a bummer. I'd be much more interested to see the top 5 over the last 3 years. I listen to my IPod on shuffle about 90% of the time, so there is some aspect of randomness here, but all 6 six of these songs are definitely favorites. I'm not at all surprised by the Los Campesinos! appearances as I've beat that one to death the last few months. I'm also not surprised by the Jackson 5 as they're constant favorites, though I am a bit surprised by "I Want You Back" as I've made no special effort to listen to that song (and I swear it has nothing to do with my recent divorce!). Ditto the Decemberists and Holmes Brothers...both favorites, and a few of my favorite songs by them, but I don't believe I've been purposefully calling them up or hitting repeat.
  

Search for the following words. how many songs show up?

• sex: 5, though one qualifies because it has the word "sexton" in the title (after eliminating songs by Ron Sexsmith, Charlie Sexton, and Martin Sexton)
• death: 24 though one album has "death" in the title and accounts for 12 entries
• love: 525
• you: 868
• home: 108
• boy: 129
• girl: 168

First Five Songs That Come Up On Party Shuffle:
As best I can tell party shuffle actually uses my computer library, not my IPod library and the computer library is much smaller than my IPods, but here goes:

• Daylight Savings Time By Josh Rouse
• A New Family by Colour Revolt (This is from a sampler CD and I'm not sure I've even heard it)
• One Last "woo-hoo" for the Pullman by Sufjan Stevens
• Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You by Sally Timms
• Welcome to the Occupation by R.E.M.

...would be a strange party.

Sleep-Dialing

Yesterday morning I awoke to find the cordless phone next to my pillow. I'm about 95% sure it wasn't there when I went to bed, and I have no recollection of doing anything with it during the night. The caller ID didn't show that I received any calls. Contemplating whether I might have made any calls, I realized I know exactly four phone numbers - my home (though sometimes I'm fuzzy on that one!), my cell, my work, and my grandma (because it's been the same number all my life). So if I made any calls, it would have had to be one of those. I rely very heavily on my cell phone contacts list, which is why I'm always screwed when I lose or break a phone. I wouldn't even have a home phone if it wasn't saving me money on my cable/internet for 12 months. After the 12 months is up I plan on getting rid of it.

Some Observations From Tonight's Bedtime Stories

1) If you're going to run around town with a monkey, you should probably be committed to keeping better tabs on him. Letting him get into the kitchen at the pizza place and start making pizzas is just plain lazy monkey-wrangling.

2) It's pretty rude to just leave your monkey at the ice cream shop while you go run errands, unless you've made arrangements with the proprietor.

3) It's okay to be curious and make trouble - as long as something good comes out of it in the end, everyone you've injured and offended will forgive you.