After three weeks, the time has come to share with you our home away from home. This town has been such a great place for us to settle, and we're going to have a really hard time leaving.
Donkorkrom has one main street and through part of the town, it's paved. There is a junction at the lorry (bus) station in the centre of town, where there is a T intersection with a dirt road. So as you can imagine, it's not a big place. Goats and chickens roam the streets, and leave lovely little surprises, so you have to watch your step.
I guess the most notable thing to mention is the fact that we are the only white people in the town. As we walk up and down the streets, between the hospital/orphanage and our hotel, we constantly hear "Obruni, Obruni!" Most of the calls come from the children, but once in a while, their mothers will get the kids excited by yelling it, or someone will call us over to ask a question. Obruni means "white person" but it often is used as if to describe anyone who is foreign.
The kids are the cutest, because they get so excited and their faces just light up when you turn and wave at them. After three weeks, some of them have learned our names and call out to us. Speaking of names, we both have been given Ghanaian names. Every day of the week is assigned a name for boys and girls, so since I'm Monday-born, I'm Adjua, while Jon is Tuesday-born and Kwabena.
Every day, we wake up to the calls of the roosters. I head to the orphanage just before 7 am to give the kids their bucket bath. As I arrive, they see me coming down the road (they have great eyes for Obrunis) and run toward me, yelling, Sepina, Sepina! (Emphasis on the first syllable). If they stop and think about it, they make an effort and say Sister Sabrina. There are 18 kids in total, from toddlers to 7 years old, under the care of three wonderful women. The three oldest ones go to primary school in the town, while about 10 others go to a preschool on the grounds of the orphanage. Some other kids from the town join them there, and that's how my name has spread around town.
The wonderful family at St Michael's Hotel has been cooking breakfast and dinner for us on most days. Once in a while we go into town and have street food, which is really hit or miss. The food in Ghana is.... okay. Luckily there is usually a possibility to have rice, chicken and a red sauce. There are also a few less eatable meals that we've tried and stay away from, such as fufu and maize porridge. It's easy to find yams (similar to our potatoes) and plantains that are either boiled or fried, as well as maize and bread. Everything on the street is dirt cheap. We've also tasted goat. I won't really miss that when we leave.
Recently we discoverd bo-froot, which is fried bread, kind of like a donut, and ice cream, so we're covering all the food groups.
Overall, it's been a great place to be. The people are so friendly, helpful and welcoming, and we've gotten a good sense of what it means to live in a rural part of Ghana. We'll leave Jon's experience at the hospital for another post, but this will likely be one of the last ones for a while, as I head into the bush on Tuesday. I'm going way up north to the hippo sanctuary, so it's over and out, for now.
