Life in general

Before I get to my first lessons I will talk a bit more about life in Ghana. I have noticed that I have barely written anything about life in general over here, only about things that were kinda special. Domi's comment asking me about the weather made it even clearer to me that I had to write about daily occurrences.
First of all the weather is really nice at the moment due to the Harmattan, a wind that blows from the Sahara and makes the air relatively cold down here in southern Ghana. When I get up in the morning I actually feel a bit cold, but it's bearable and during the day it's very pleasant. However, I'm used to colder weather, which the people over here are not. That means that I see many of my pupils running around, wearing jackets and jumpers over their school uniform and telling me that it's really, really cold.



(This video was filmed at the church on my first Sunday in Ghana, only I forgot to upload it so I'm doing it now. You will have to turn your head 90* for this because I don't know hao to turn videos. The more important part is the sound anyway, for which you don't have to turn your ears 90*, hoehoehoe; I know that joke was extremely bad:)
To get from one point to another I usually use trotros, which are converted Mitsubishi vans (or similar) to hold 10-20 people, depending on the vehicle and the "mate", who collects the money and decides how many more people can fit in the trotro. They do regular police checks here, because - from what I've heard so far - the trotros used to be very overcrowded, which I feel they are right now, so I cannot imagine how packed they must have been years ago...
On trotros and off them I get regularly talked to by strangers, mainly because I am an Oburoni. Many of them want to be my friend and ask for my email adress or phone number, to which I usually regretfully reply that I have nothing to write with at hand and they never have either. But generally, the people are really friendly and many would go miles off their way just to help you. However, I still need to find the line that seperates the individual from his culture. By that I mean, I don't know what is the general norm of the people and what do they do because of their individual character. It's really hard to tell.
My hostparents have three TVs in their living room, but so far I have only seen ne of them work. On TV3 they show LIVE PREMIER LEAGUE MATCHES!!! So on Monday evening I watched Liverpool v Everton.
Powercuts occur regularly here, mainly because the whole of Ghana has only one huge source of energy: The Volta dam. It produces enough energy for the whole of Ghana, but especially in villages, like Akroso, the energy network lacks reliability. When I came home from school two days ago there was no electricity until yesterday afternoon, which made Tuesday kind of special, because everybody had their oil lamps outside and the kids weren't glued to the television...
That night I also heard drums. Maybe that was the replacement communication system or maybe that was a group celebrating like the two days before, not being disturbed by the power cut.
Chuck Norris fact:
When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
This fact has a reason to be here: Last week at school some pupils said, I look like 'Walker', by which he meant Walker Texas Ranger, played by the one and only Chuck Norris.

I'll write about the school on Saturday, because I don't have any time left on the clock and I want to get home before dark. Not becuase I'm afraid of muggers or anything; Ghana has an extremely low crime rate, but because it has the third highest road accident rate in the world. Those happen mostly at night, because the trotro drivers tend to fall asleep and the condition of the road is sooooo bad. Streets have as many potholes in the road as there are stars in the sky.