Happy Easter

Of course my updates have not been what they used to be here and it is not for a lack of time on my hands, it has just been that I have not stopped by the computer lab often lately. The students have departed for another of their vacations and in their place there are adult students who are busily studying various subjects to obtain a degree or certificate which they can take and use to advance their careers. I don't believe that they have an exam this time around, but they will be taking copious notes in classes upwards of 80 or more individuals.

That is one long paragraph to introduce an apology for a lack of updates, but that is the way things have gone lately. There is not so much going on around campus so I have made this time useful by cleaning up the house daily, having a few more shirts made and conducting errands to town and back to keep myself occupied during the day. I went so far as to even buy natural gas to cook with which had its own story.

After hailing a taxi with my empty tank in my manly grip (not quite so, but it sounds nice) I headed to town and a turn off that I had never traveled before lead us to the filling station. Tropical Gas was the name, and there didn't look to be a serious line whatsoever. Just one man, one cylinder, and one attendant doing the filling. I take it that the method is as follows: hoist the empty cylinder onto a large industrial-sized spring scale and take a measurement of the weight, then attach the nozzle to the tank and run the pump to fill the tank up to a heavier weight. Looked straight forward, and after waiting for about three months to do this simple chore I was feeling a bit satisfied to complete the task.

Then the power went out as I stood next in line. The man filling the tank jumped to a wall and flipped a switch off as if it really mattered a lot to do that, and he turned and said, "Lights off," which means that the power was off in town. I looked at the taxi driver to find out if this had a negative consequence on our mission. Yes, it did. We would not be getting gas then and there, but I could leave the tank behind and come back later when the power came back on. Small things like that could be an irritant of course, but given how long I waited to do this in the first place it seemed entirely justified that I wait a bit longer. I went home, paid the fare, and then waited until the power flowed freely again before heading back to the station to pick up my tank. All told, just twenty cedis for the entire affair including the bonus taxi ride to and fro.

But back to Easter. You can have yourself a very good time for Easter if you wanted to travel to places here and there. Most people that I knew felt that the best place to be was in a town in the Eastern region where a great big hill serves as a launch pad for paragliders. I even saw a news clip from the event and sure enough, lots of white people were waiting in line to try the trip. If you were inclined to drop 80 cedis, you could fly, but I opted to stay closer to home.

Here in Hohoe you could choose from any of the dozens of church services held at 7, 9 and who knows when else. Easter as a holiday has a lot more festive feel than it did in America where it was celebratory but not party-esque in nature. There is still music playing this Monday evening as the holiday goes for most of the weekend and then moves on into the first day of the week. As a national holiday most families take a trip somewhere and picnic or visit friends. I spent my Easter not paragliding, not going to church, and not picnicking. Rather, I talked with the family back home via Skype.

It was definitely better than all of the above as I got to see my aunt and uncle, as well as my grandmother who may or may not have understood what Skype was or did, but certainly recognized her aging grandson on the computer monitor. It was great talking about the time spent here, how things were going on back home, and generating ideas for more blog posts in the future. Further, I got a chance to wish a happy Easter to my lady-friend before I closed shop for the evening and tucked myself into bed. To cap off the day I got a text message from my brother that the Philadelphia Flyers prolonged their season by another game with an overtime victory. Sweet!

Not a bad holiday at all.