A New Housemate In Hohoe

It is finally official, I have a second body staying permanently in the house here at campus. St. Francis College has received a new volunteer by the name of Yoshitaka and he is living in our house fully now. He was here for a short time in Hohoe last month for training purposes, but he was not living with me. He had a homestay family of his own in town that treated him to some Ewe lessons and made him feel right at home in Ghana with plenty of food. After a trip back to Accra he came back this past Friday for good to live on campus.

He is enjoying the new routine I think and has been very gracious in allowing the house here to remain a way-station for other people who are traveling up and down through the Volta region. After he arrived I had two volunteers stay on two consecutive nights and he was all right with the arrangement. That was a small concern of mine: that he might not like a lot of company. He was very clear in saying that he enjoys being social and likes to relax with a beer every so often. I told him my personal preference for socializing and a Malta and we are communicating nicely.

Today was church day (like clockwork, every first Sunday of the month) and Taka, as he prefers to be called, and I went to do our duty. It was a fun service yet again, however they continue to run into the 2 and a half hour zone. The service could really be sped up if they just passed a collection plate between the pews instead of having everyone get up and dance-walk their way to the front of the church to drop in their coins or bills. Maybe I should suggest this efficiency to Father Akpa in the near future. With a few more suggestions, I bet I could get the entire Mass down to 39 minutes! "Communion could be handed out while you pass the donation plates around."

Currently I am sitting in our computer lab. I left the lab yesterday thinking that the power was out in Hohoe as there was no electricity humming in the lab itself. When I got home I saw we had power - what luck! Today I learn that our lab still has no power and that the other buildings on campus do have power. Apparently just the lab and maybe one other building block are out of juice. I didn't know this until today. Our electrician is traveling and tomorrow in Ghana it is a holiday so it looks like we might not have someone available to work on this small hiccup. That would be bad since today is the first day where I have people participating in a working meeting of the ICT Club. Hardware can be a trick to fix when you don't have electricity but we'll manage, "...somehow".