If you want something done, you have to do it yourself

If there is one thing I have learned while being here, it is that you have to work sooooo hard to get things done. What's sad is that I don't work nearly as hard as most of the people here do. These are just some of the daily/weekly things I do here in Ghana.

I was craving some Mexican food and well that is just a little hard to come by here. I can't imagine why? You can find tortillas if you want to pay $8-10 for them. A friend of mine bought me some tortilla mix and man was I excited, but they don't come as easy as the prepackaged kind at the stores! this is me rolling out small dough balls until they are paper thin and ready for cooking.

I have to clean our fruits and vegetables before we eat them to kill off all bacteria and germs and parasites! I clean them with potassium permangenate. It's this deep purple crystals that you add to water and of course turns it deep purple. You soak for about 20 minutes and then you have to rinse it in filtered water before drying. IF you are doing lettuce or leafy greens you have to clean them in the tap water first to wash off dirt and bugs, then clean it, then rinse it. You can see how purple the water gets. (on my hand) When you put your hands in the water for extended periods of time whether scrubbing the fruit and veggies, then your hands will turn brown.
Cheerful, happy Craig doing his laundry by hand. Oh, did you think that he was always a happy and kind guy? Ooops! This is the true character behind the scenes at home. Just kidding. I told him to pose, so he gave me the look of death!
Me doing laundry or actually posing. This is what I do though. By the time you are done, you have sweat rolling down your back and all over your body. It's really tough and we only do a portion of it. We have a friend you does most of our laundry and I can't even imagine how hard and time consuming all of it would be!!!!
Sometimes the mosquitos come swarming into the house. It's not as often, but when they do, Craig and I have a mosquito killing contest. Craig was able to kill like 5-6 mosquitos in a 10 minute time span. I have nicknamed all mosquitos "shifty" Don't ask why. It's just something I would do. I'm just sick of their shifty behavior.
These are just some of the things in addition to the everyday cleaning and cooking. Some things I've just had to learn how to make do. I wanted to make some desserts with chocolate chips. You can't buy those here, so I just take a chocolate bar and chop it up. We filter our water by dumping buckets into a clay pot filter. If you pour water in a specific type of clay pot, the minerals in the pot will purify the water. I know I heard that once upon a time, but i honestly didn't think that I'd be using it ever in my life! We make our cream of chicken/mushroom soups with packets and water. The cans are just too expensive. You walk a lot. I usually go to a market to find my fruits and veggies. It's kinda nice to have such fresh and organic foods. Although, who knows where they've been or who has handled them at the markets. Man I love that Potassium permangenate! We boil our water to wash our dishes in. Showers are cold, although we can get hot water to shower in too. It's so hot though, who'd want a hot shower? No leaf blowers here, most people use these straw sweepers to brush away the dust. they don't look like brooms. It's just the straw end and your arm is the stick. It's really not that bad. Trust me, it could be sooo sooo soo much worse. I have friends who have to do bucket showers everyday! anyway, I just thought I'd share part of my life with you:)