Sorry I can't come to work today, I got typhoid.

It has been a very eventful couple of weeks. My work with AfriLEAD in Tamale kept me very busy as we worked to select 16 fellows from a group of 70 talented young professionals for the Young Managers Program. I was then informed that I had been evicted from my house in Accra because my roommate came home late. The next week I worked hard to put together a monitoring and evaluation strategy for YMP before I had to return to Accra this week. Everything was going according to plan (minus the eviction-but more on that later) until I got typhoid.

Despite what people may tell you, the typhoid vaccine is not very effective (only about 50%), and typhoid is not fun. Fever, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and in my case malnutrition and severe dehydration. Nevertheless, the clinics I have gone to so far are professional, clean, and well run. At one point, I wasn't sure if the antibiotic (cipro) that they gave me was any better than the typhoid, but here I am, slowly returning to life.

Tamale!

It's a very different city, one that feels almost rural. The people are very friendly, and less intrusive than in Accra (where everyone wants to be your good friend). I had a great place for egg and bread (a fancy name for an omelette on butter bread) in the mornings and a nice hotel room near the city center. The hotel fan had one speed: hurricane. The background wind storm complimented the late rains that have come to Tamale. When I say rain, I mean torrential downpour. 

AfriLEAD volunteer Mariette showing her skills as a Ghanaian electrician (or in this case using a plastic spoon to by-pass a plug's safeguard so she could plug a kettle in for coffee. She has her priorities straight if you ask me.)

Returning to Accra
Halfway through my stay in Tamale, I was notified by my roommate, Amanda, that both of us had been forced to leave the house we were renting in Accra. The reason: she had come home late on a Saturday night. Now in Ghana, you pay your rent upfront (by law this is capped at 6 months of prepayment, but that is not often followed). As a result, the land lady who had thrown Amanda out and packed up the things I had left when traveling in Tamale had 2.5 months worth of rent for the two of us. I spoke with her briefly about the incident and was informed that she would likely not return any of the money. Any further attempts to contact her were unsuccessful.

The chase
After being entirely ignored by Denise for weeks, Amanda and I went to the police. The service, professionalism, welcome and understanding of the officers we spoke with was impressive. We went to visit our land lady with police officers in tow and found the place empty. We were then told to return to the police station the following week.

This time when we returned, the police had had word of where our land lady was hiding (she had been staying at her other house in the same community). When we arrived we were shown the way, and the police crept quietly through the small community, slowly pushing open the gate and opening the front door of the house. "Excuse me Madam," said the inspector, "we would like you to come with us to the station." The whole ordeal would have made a boring episode of Cops!, but I was never much for crime dramas anyway.

The following few hours were spent in front of a Crime Officer, in which both sides told their story and our land lady was charged with two counts of "Inducing a Tenant to Quit," and informed that she had one month to return to each of us 1.5 months of the rent. Case closed.

A work trip to the town of Somenya. We visited a Mango Growers Association to speak with them about Mobile Business Clinic's upcoming training in the Eastern Region. The countryside is beautiful and Mango farmers were interested in the training; however, they were hoping we might hold it in their facility and not in a different town.

My first Ghanaian wedding: Mobile Business Clinic was invited to a wedding by the landlord of our office building. It was an interesting ceremony, very traditional. Nevertheless, about half of the ceremony occurred before the bride and groom arrived. Are you allowed to be late to your own wedding?

I now live in a different community in more central Accra. It is nice, busy and centrally located. The morning this picture was taken, Nelly Furtado was blaring from my neighbour's home on the left. In addition, there is a garbage truck that drive around the community playing the same music as an ice cream truck. When I figured that it wasn't ice cream, I was sorely disappointed.  

In addition to garbage instead of ice cream, the apartment was also devoid of electricity for many days. A substation was undergoing major maintenance in the region. This meant romantic candlelight dinners! Also, very warm, very stale air to sleep in. At least it's not snowing!