H2O

Christmas and New Years went by without too much fuss in Ghana. My host family didn't do a whole lot so when the AFS year students met up in Accra we had a re-New Years party to make up for it.
Our study tour to the Northern Region is postponed for a while, leaving my trip down to Accra more of just a vacation. It's been really great to see Accra this way though! Sometimes I forget where I am, I'm in Ghana, I'm in Africa! I remember that I'm here at really different times. Dabney, Jolien, and I went to Kokrobite (A reggae beach close to her host family's house) and explored around. We saw huge fishing boats pulled up on the sand with people all around them. The people on the boats would jump into the water, wade past the nets and ropes gathered around their boat to the sand where women with huge metal bowls on their heads carried fish. Tons of little kids played in the sand, ran around the adults, the boats, and the ropes zipping around on the sand. A few of the kids started a game of soccer and didn't mind at all that the clothes they had left on the sand earlier so they could swim were floating away with the tide. Originally we had planned to be dropped off near where it was a bit of a tourist site, where it'd be alright to have just one person watching our bags while the other two swam. The taxi didn't really understand what we were trying to say so dropped us off a bit down the beach. The walk gave us a cool chance to see the fishing up close though, even if we had to rush by a little. We spent the afternoon laying on the beach, playing hand-games with Ghanaian kids and I went on a seashell hunt. I found some really neat ones at Bojo beach earlier that week but I picked up a special one at Kokrobite. Every time I dropped it I would stumble upon it again, so I figured it was meant for me to keep it. At Kokrobite they have a couple of really cool, cheap shops where I grabbed a few things for family back home. I can't believe I'm practically half way through. Coming home will be an experience of it's own though, one I'm really excited for too.
While I was staying with Dabney the water in Weija (her area of Accra) was off for six days! In some places in Ghana they don't ever have flowing water, and are prepared for it but by day six I wasn't sure how anyone was going to even have a light shower along with cooking. It finally came back on and a cold shower has honestly never felt better.

Since this post centers mostly around the beach and water, here are some things about water in Ghana:

-Not every house has running or flowing water.
-If the house doesn't have running water they usually have a 'polytank'. A large plastic tub that holds a lot of water, sometimes suspended to make collecting it easier.
-Sometimes they collect water from a pump or well (manholes) in the area or a stream. (Normally streams are last resort unless they're really clean. In that case they wouldn't drink it, just wash with it.)
-If a house has running water it's not uncommon they drink tap.
-Sachet water, or bag water is the cheapest clean water you can find. Normally 5 pesewa, the recent gas hike has made some places sell it for 10 pesewa. (5 pesewa=about 3 US cents)
-Voltic water, or other bottled water is more expensive. One cedi for a bottle, two cedi for a big bottle. Volta Lake is a huge water supply for Ghana and it's really clean (from what I hear).

I'll post again soon, I'm pretty sure I'll have some big news in not so long. Hope everyone at home is doing great, and thanks everyone for the Christmas wishes and packages I really appreciate it!