How indiscreet!

Well hello there, gentle reader.

I don't really have anything terribly exciting to report, except that I've moved to Bolgatanga in the Upper East region of Ghana.

It doesn't feel incredibly strange or new, although I think that perhaps it should.

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I rode in a (crowded) car with my (heroic) boss, our (fearless) driver, and a (motley) crew of metal shop owners and an engineer, making over 800 kilometres of rough, potholed, checkpointed roads in two days. We drew straws to figure out the order of who got to sit in the back seat.

We watched the scenery change from this

(which isn't even as green as it gets) to this

(which isn't even as brown as it gets)

Up here, I've settled into a delightful little compound which contains a delightful little office in front where I work and delightful little house in the back where I stay. The walls are a simply delightful shade of pink, matching the red, dusty earth.

Sam (pictured) heads up the program here in the north, and he's awesome. We get along great, and see eye to eye on how we should work, and what we can do to improve systems and solve problems.

We also share a profound interest in turning our yard into a vegetable garden, routing greywater to feed our banana trees, and other gimmickry. Furnishing an empty house is something I'm completely unfamiliar with, and every bed and broom and bucket I put in it feels like a small victory.

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So although this is all quite lovely, it doesn't seem substantial enough to me to build a blog out of. I don't feel very agent in this whole process...yet, but rather that life is stringing me along for a ride.

Rest assured, you'll read about all the juiciest news right here when the Real Work starts, when I start keeping chickens, when I get my hands on a bicycle and run crazy around this desert.

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Here's an interesting fact to chew on: where I am looks and feels like a desert, but actually gets more rain than Iowa (one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world).

The Upper East gets no rain for most of the year, and then gets over a metre of it in just three months, around june to august.