"Tru Souldjahs Don Die"

“Tru Souldjahs don die” – (True soldiers don’t die) This is the graffiti painted in green on one of the walls here on my way into work. I see this sign every morning and every evening on my way home from the office. I have decided to make this my family’s motto! We will be soldiers in Ghana for a year and we will fight to the bitter end. A strange saying to have on a wall here, considering that the Ghanaian's are real peace-loving people and have never been to war.

We visited the refugee camp on the weekend, where the refugees fled during the war from Liberia. Really heart breaking. In Ghana you see a lot of people who are maimed, disabled and many amputees begging on the side of the road. This is the result of this war and these are the refugees left behind.

The heat has yet to subside, even though we are entering the rainy season, which I might add is bad news for us. The rainy season is when the dreaded malaria mosquitoes breed. This in itself can cause mass panic in our home. One of my daily routines is to carry out the extermination of this evil insect. The kids get home from school and are duly sprayed from head to toe. From 5 o’clock in the evening they are covered up and it is like prison lock down in the house. No one is allowed to venture outside and every time the kids so much as look in my direction, I spray them! They are then bathed with citronella soap and their hair is washed with citronella shampoo. (I would not be the slightest bit amazed if my kids suddenly turned into lemon and orange trees overnight. In fact, I think the kids at their school are convinced we own a citrus farm) they are then dressed and sprayed yet again. Their rooms have mosquito repellent on the walls, the air cons are set at 16 degrees, (that is when we are lucky enough to have electricity) they sleep under mosquito nets and then just before I turn the lights out I spray the room with Raid – just in case. Then we wake up in the morning and start all over again! The kids think I am a wild woman possessed. Whenever I see a mosquito they look at me in alarm and wait for the reaction they know will come from their mother, the expressions on their faces are similar to the expression you would expect on a 7 and 5 year old faces if I announced that Christmas had been removed from the calendar forever. They are consumed by fear. Needless to say, this is what probably adds to my utter exhaustion by the end of the day – the war against the deadly mosquito and mom is the colonel.

On Sunday we took a trip to the beach. OK – whoever had this bright idea deserved to be dragged out into the driveway and stoned! Picture the scene – a two-hour drive to get there just for starters. Deckchairs, cooler boxes, food, hats, umbrella’s, dog, mother-in-law, two demanding excited kids (who are still convinced that Ghana will soon turn into Mauritius).We might as well have taken a one way trip to the core of the sun! As soon as we arrived and unpacked, we all wanted to go home, and the kids have finally come to the realization that Mauritius is extremely far away from Ghana indeed!

Victer and I have started gym. Yup, there is a gym here, although do not expect much. Most of the machinery is broken or comes from the dark ages, but at least it is an escape from the house. I think this could turn out to be one of the advantages of our stay in Ghana. It is so hot that most of the time you hardly have an appetite, and you drink loads of water for fear of dehydrating or just plain melting away to nothing, skinny Cal here we come!

Christianity is very much alive in Ghana. There is a small community of Muslims, but most Ghanaian's are Christian, and they take it very seriously. It is quite delightful to see how they make their strong belief heard. Every enterprise, from the street side vendor to the supermarket has names such as “In God We Trust Barber”, “In His Steps We Walk Pharmacy”. Their lives are so simple; if you ask a Ghanaian what the future holds or where they see themselves and their children in years to come, they are quick to reply,

“We wait for God – He is coming”.

Besides working himself to death (which I might add he loves), Victer spends quite a lot of time running from the giant lizards! He is convinced that they are out to get him and their sole purpose in life is to find Victer Kerslake and attack him, and all the lizards in Ghana have notified all other lizard’s country wide that he is here. They have bright orange heads and are actually terrified of anything that moves, however I must admit that they do tend to look in his direction quite often and move their ugly heads up and down in an attacking manner whenever he is around. Just as my enemy is the mosquito, Victer’s is the lizard.

Morgs and Chris continue to fight the school battle. Some days they win the battle, other days they just surrender. Being the feisty little people that they are, they bounce back to face another day, forever a shining example to their mother.

Thinking of you all at home. Missing you and loving you everyday.