Ewe culture has a big component of respecting your elders. Ewes also tend to be really bad at judging the age of white people, but once they figure out who is the oldest, the jokes at my expense begin. I should never have invited Jake here. Without him, I’m a Big Man, but when we’re together, I’ve been relegated to the status of a child.
On the other hand, he’s been getting much more attention from the local ladies. They flock to him, asking his phone number, his address, telling him that they were the third runner up in the regional Miss Ewe Competition. To say that he isn’t interested would be an understatement, but sometimes it’s hard to shake someone, especially when there is a nice language barrier. This is the exchange we make: I get clowned on for being the young one, he gets a bunch of unwanted attention.
Well–that’s optimistic. As the one with some grasp of Ewe, I end up responsible for ditching his tagalongs as well. So it goes.
We went down to Dzita because it’s a good walk and there’s a lot of Ghana to see on the way back. Our journey was especially slow because we kept running into people I know. Sometimes we walked uninterrupted, stopping to check out the lagoons, being brutalized by the midday sun. Against the doctor’s recommendation, Jacob has been combining anti-malarial medications with large doses of sun exposure–the dermatological equivalent of chasing a bottle of oxycontin with a fifth of scotch. Actually, he’s been prudent about the sunscreen. I should take a comparison photo of our arms. Months of comparing my skin with that of Africans has caused me to forget how white we honkies can really get.
I finally got a picture of one of the desk-pile rooms. I think they store the desks in here when they’re cleaning the other classrooms. Could be mistaken about that but regardless, they’re a bit surreal.
We also happened upon Antonia on the way back from Dzita. Jacob, a project man, had set himself about fixing our communal bike the night before. Antonia was breaking it back in with an epic ride, heading down to Dzita, meeting a local musician for flute lessons. She looked tired and hot when we saw her, and Jacob gave her some coveted water from his canteen.
Today we’re heading up to Ho. Going to do some hiking, see Felicia, and whatever else tickles our fancy. There are some more cool photos over on my photostream, so check that out if you like.
Our time with Jake is running short, he leaves on Wednesday. That means if we’re going to lasso an elephant or water ski on two cobras, we’ll have to do it this weekend. Wish us luck.