The heat (and humidity) is unavoidable in the Volta Region. There are times of brief respite that usually come in the early morning. Now is another one of those times: right after a thunder storm. It's still not quite clear to me how close we are to the rainy season (depending on who I talk to it's either the beginning of the rainy season which starts in earnest in April or it's the beginning of the short rainy season, but the real rainy season doesn't begin until June -- like most things here (and probably everywhere) the truth probably lies somewhere in between) but it's rained about half the days we've been here. This cools things down for a bit before the humidity sets back in. we have no control over the rain, so we're forced to find other ways to cool down.
The homebase has a water cooler and a fridge, both of which make things here much easier. The water provided is guaranteed clean (I guess that's part of what our fees pay for) and we can leave our water bottles in the fridge overnight to cool down (while I was diligent about this at first, I've realized that most of the time the water has warmed up considerably by the time I want to drink it). No matter the temperature, a regular supply of clean water goes a long way to cooling us down and keeping us hydrated. If we need to buy water in town, we're told to be vigilant about buying bottled water that we can guarantee the seal has not been broken. Most Ghanians drink water out of little plastic bags (the size of beanbags). While it's clean, it's not guaranteed purified so short term tourists like us are advised to avoid them and we do. (As a side note, it is interesting to see the variety of things that people here will drink out of bagies. This morning at breakfast, those people who got their egg sandwhiches to go also got their tea to go -- the hot liquid diligently poured into a thin platic bag and tied at the top.)
When we want something a bit more exiting than water, we have a number of options open to us -- most of which Sylvie has embraced whole-heartedly. Some of the CCS staff intoduced her to Fan Ice on the first Monday we were here. This is ice cream in a plastic pouch that the seller puts in aother plastic bag (plastic will be a constant refrain in almost all of these postings because it is used for EVERYTHING in Ghana). You then bite off the corner and suck the ice cream through the hole. Because it's so hot (did I mention that?) it turns into a bit of a milkshake as you eat it/suck it. They are sold by guys on bikes with coolers on the front. Sylvie's favourite is strawberry, while I've partial to chocolate. At 80 peswas (40 Canadian cents...) they are a good deal! The taxis cost 70 peswas so yesterday on our way back from town I told Sylvie that we could walk and buy a Fan Ice to eat along the way or take the car ride. She chose the ice cream.
Pop is also another safe beverage. Eleven years ago, you could only get it in reusuable glass bottles that you had to drink at the store (or else pay a crazy deposit). Now you see plastic bottle and cans in most stores, but those glass bottle are still around. There is a little store right next to the house we're in and he will sell us 300 ml bottle of Coke and Sprite without the deposit and we can enjoy them at the house. We've been to a couple of different places, but so far we haven't found any sufficiently cold enough (I'm going to sound like I'm shilling for Coke here, but an ice cold coke is great on a hot day; a mildly cold or warm one is not so great -- the syrup coats your teeth and it does nothing to quench your thirst). The nice thing about having it next door is that we can bring it home and put it in the freezer and get it to the right temperature. Doing this doesn't get us out into the community and experiencing the culture, however.
Drinking beer does, though. CCS has strict rules about alcohol. I suspect the rules are aimed more at the 20-something volunteers rather than the almost 40 parents here with their kids, but we have to abide by them nonetheless. We can't drink in the house and we can only drink on the weekends. Today we went for a walk in the afternoon (in seach of the river that runs nearby). We did not find the river, but we worked up a thirst in the futile quest. We stopped by a little place on the way back for a Star -- Ghana's national beer. The beer was nice and cold and we enjoyed it in the courtyard amongst the chickens and goats that wandered in and out (but not amonst any locals because they all got up to move and make room for us when we entered -- so much for culture and community!). The bottles of beer are very big (about twice what they are in Canada) but we managed to finish it. Although I'm told that there is no drinking age, we decided that Sylvie should have a pop and can wait until our next visit to Ghana to try the beer...
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