Grand opening...grand catastrophe!

Life is quiet and uneventful here in the village. My cell phone is slowly dying on me so most days are passing without communicating with any other white people. Its strange and a bit lonely. Well, rainy season is now in full swing. Life is very quiet, drenched, and cold…well as cold as it can be in Ghana. It has rained everyday for over 2 weeks now. The past 4 days it has rained straight. During the rainy season the power is off much more frequently, lately it’s been off more than it’s been on. I spend a lot of time reading books, writing letters, and cleaning. I clean my room several times a week just out of boredom. Most Ghanaians don’t work when it rains…there isn’t much to do when it rains. We sit under the huts and cook or just wait and watch. When there is a break in the rain I used it to burn my trash or run and buy anything that I’m in need of…phone credits or food mostly. Doing my wash has become quite difficult, I find it best to do a little bit every few days and when ever the sun comes out I put my clothes out to dry for a few hours. It takes days to dry them. I even hang them on lines insides.
The western region is experiencing the worst rainy season it’s had in the past ten years this year. Everything is beginning to flood! This picture is a picture of my landlord, Ataku’s, farm it has flooded and the plants are all dying. Many people are beginning to loose their farms. Nzulezo, the village build on stilts above the lake has flooded. All it’s residents are still living there, fortunately the water has not become unbearable there yet. Many homes are starting to flood slowly as the water rises a few inches every day. The only road to my market town has washed out and can't be passed by cars now. The only other way out of my village the water has risen to the cars bumper. I hope I will be able to make it back to my village. It’s hard to see natural disaster happen in areas that already struggle just to get by.
My landlord is doing well. 2 weeks ago his pig had 10 babies so he was very excited after trying to have them for over a year. He was very disappointed when all 10 babies died within 3 days of their birth. Ataku says it was because of the rain, I guess he was right because 2 days after they died their pens were flooded. The water is now 20 feet off my back porch.
Enough of the sad news! The village is starting to fish again! The first of the boats are starting to go out and the fish that have been pulled in are amazing. They are the largest catches I’ve seen since I came here. It’s so exciting! When the nets are pulled in the whole village goes to see what the catch is like this year.
The kittens are doing fine, getting big and becoming trouble makers. They should both have new homes by now but the Ghanaian who promised to take Lucky is still in Cote D’Ivory. The kittens recently moved outside after a life in my room. My room is about 12X12 and its just too small for 3 cats and me. The liter box became too much to keep up with and my rooms was starting to smell. The kitten are able to climb on my bed now so I would wake up to liter box sand in my bed and cats attacking my feet. The mother cat got in the habit of brings rats into my room in the middle of the night. After 5 nights straight of waking up to throw the dead rat outside and her dragging it back in several times I had had enough. One of the final straws that broke the camels back was when I came home from work to little white paw prints all over my room. The kittens found their way on to my desk and got into the ashes from the mosquito coil I burn every night and had a ball. So they are now outside and they come to my window and cry for hours for me to bring them in. Its heart breaking but they are getting used to being outside. They are still adorable and come in every now and again for a few hours.
Yesterday was the grand opening of our visitor center in Ebonloa. We had been planning it for months and finally it is over and every second of it was difficult. We spent weeks preparing for the opening, painting, weeding, and preparing the gift shop. The visitor center looked amazing, we even spent the day before the opening decorating with ribbons and balloons. We spent the whole night before the opening praying the rain would take a day off but I guess we didn’t pray hard enough. It rained all day! The roads were covered in mud and even rivers of water. The opening ceremony started 2 hours late. We had chiefs from all over, representatives from the French embassy, the Ghana tourist board, Ghana TV, COSPE and Italian NGO, and many other VIPs. The show did go on… with wires to the loud speakers running through puddles and a generator running on high the opening prayers started. The poured a bottle of gin on the ground during the prayer to bless the opening…what a waste, I know. The drummers and dancers still preformed even out in the mud. During the middle of the ceremony chickens started walking around in the middle of all the tents. There was even a cock fight that interrupted one of the key speakers. 9 cars got stuck in the mud one of which needed to be moved during the presentation so there was a huge commotion during the presentation to push a car out of mud. The power went out during the ceremony also before we switched to the generator so the microphone and speakers were out in the middle of someone’s speech. Little kids ran in front of the VIP table during the whole ceremony covered in mud and in there underwear unaware that it was in appropriate. Every time something would go wrong…or something would be in appropriate according to the Western World’s etiquette the reps from the French embassy and I would look at each other and smiles. It was fun having someone there who also thought so of this was outrageous and someone who could laugh at some of the crazy cultural differences with me. At the end of the day when the ceremony was over and everyone’s best clothing and beautiful cloth has been splattered in mud the center was open. It was great to get home and shower off layers of mud and dirt after pushing several car out of huge mud puddles.
I'm sorry I wasn't able to post pictures, the internet is just too slow. I will update soon with stories and pictures of President Obama's visit to Ghana. It was amazing. I will also come back and add some cool pictures I have. I love you and miss you all!