This week has been an interesting progression from illness to wellness. On Monday, I barely wanted to leave the house; yesterday, I went for a 16-mile bike ride and could have kept going if the sun hadn’t gone down. My boil is now completely gone, I’ve finished my course of antibiotics, and I am now clean-shaven.
That’s right. I shaved my goatee. Initially, it was purely functional — it’s too hard to bandage a giant oozing boil on your face when the tape won’t stick. Now, though, I’ve become rather fond of how I look being clean-shaven, and it feels considerably cooler.
I shaved on Sunday morning. I returned to teaching class on Monday, and went into Sunyani on Tuesday to resupply on rare stuff, pay my internet bill, and get out of town for a bit. While there, I discovered something that made me very happy — cheddar cheese. Words cannot describe how happy I was to pay GHC6 for 1/2 pound of cheddar cheese. Expensive: yes. Worth it: absolutely. There is nothing that will improve your spirits or take an 8/10 day to a 10 like good food.
Yesterday and today have been nothing short of fantastic — yesterday, I held my two classes, came home, and went for a nice, long, happy 26km bike ride. I came home, took a bath, and made some pasta for dinner. Today, I went to market, bought everything I needed and still had money left over in my pocket, and went to school to supervise the computer lab. I’m nothing short of pleased; my kids are learning incredibly fast, considering that 95% of them have never used a computer before and they get about 20 minutes a week total computer time. I’ve got a stack of homework papers to grade and a test to write, so we’ll see how they do when it comes to the terminology.
Another interesting development comes in the clothing department. Before I left for Ghana, I was wearing a size 38 waistline. I now wear a 34, and even that is beginning to get a little loose. It would seem that biking like a mad man, handwashing all of my clothes, and hauling my drinking water is beginning to have an effect. Needless to say, I’m pleased, and I’ve taken advantage of this by having a lot of clothing tailor-made. I just took the tailor two yards of fabric to make a shirt, and I need to take a couple pair of pants to be altered. Next week’s email will be about Ghanaian clothing, so that’s all I’m going to say for now.
And that’s about all I’ve got. I’m going to go to bed early so I can ride the wheels off my bike tomorrow. Until next week…
