To Charlotte

The Peace Corps application process is a long one.  Passing medical can take ages.  My face to face interview was three hours long, granted I asked lots of questions.  But the interviewer asked probably an hour’s worth of questions and I do not recall them ever asking if I had any fears.

Maybe that should be asked.

I do not know that I would have admitted to them then, but my fears have come to surface like I never thought they would and the malaria meds are NOT helping.

Number One:  I am scared of the dark.

When we go to the farm, on Friday or Saturday nights my cousins and I have certain rituals.  We go climb the fire tower, we go cross the covered bridge, we might play basketball, stop at the spring, build a fire at the train tunnel, throw firecrackers into the dam etc. but we usually end up at Hindostan.  Hindostan is a small dam, there used to be settlement there but it was mysteriously deserted.   

When you park beside the port-o-potty at Hindostan, you cross the lawn and it is always wet with dew.  Then you have to carefully maneuver down a mud slope to get down near the water where we probably build another fire.  Up until a couple years ago, I made my cousin Cameron hold my hand when we crossed the grass.  I do not like the dark.  Dad never lets up use flash lights because he wants our “eyes to adjust”.  Whatever.  Night hikes are only fun because they are terrifying.

Number Two:  I really hate spiders.  I’m scared.  I am scared of spiders.

At home spiders, I do not mind much.  You kill them and you go “Ewwwwwuugggggg” and then it is over.  No big, never really thought it counted as a fear.

 I have killed two camel spiders in the last two days, granted they were babies as pictured above.  A couple weeks ago I had one four times this size and four times faster run into my room and run out.  I was on my bed.  I secured the mosquito net around me and stood screaming until help came.

When I stepped in the shower tonight and saw this once chilling on my window I went for the Raid.  Say what you want about chemicals, I want them in my house always and forever.  I saw that the Raid said “For insects” so I had a feeling it would not work on arachnids but I tried anyway.  I sprayed and ran away.   I heard it running up the shower curtain and watched from a distance as it fell and scurried out of the bathroom where I was waiting with my flip flops in hand and I got him!  Why do I think it’s a legit fear and problem?  I shake, I shudder and I shake and say “EEEWWWUUGGGG” sometimes hoping from foot to foot.  I hate it.

 I always feel guilty when I kill anything, spiders included but camel spiders are the exception.   I still feel bad if I kill Daddy Long Legs.  DADDY LONG LEGS DO NOT SCURRY.  Things that scurry get killed and I do not feel bad about it.  I do not kill the geckos, they can do their thing.  Lizards are different, get out.

Anyway, every night before I go to bed I say to myself “Lock it dowwwwnn!”  And I pretend I am on a space ship locking my capsule down as I tuck in and secure my mosquito net.  Yes, I am grateful it keeps out mosquitoes, I am more grateful it keeps everything else out too.  UNLESS something gets in here with me and that’s a big scary thought so I do not think about it.

Sometimes I think the malaria prophylaxis gives me nightmares, like once I thought there was a giant camel spider hanging in front of me.  Of course when I turned on the light there was nothing.  That does not even make sense, I do not think they web but I was still shaking.  I hate it!

This morning I rolled over face first onto a spider, a big Daddy Long Leg type.  I had pulled open the mosquito net so I think it fell off the top and onto my bed where I defiantly squished it with my face.  Awesome.  Awesome way to wake up.  No.

Dear Liza

Dear Li,

    You've asked me before what you could do to help here and I now I have the solution. As you know, I live by the malnutrition clinic. I do not have fast enough internet, otherwise I would send you some of the before and after pics of the babies they treat.

     The Kings Village clinic is different and awesome because women of all tribes are welcome to come live at the clinic while their babies are brought up to weight. All the women live in a compound together, they each have a little mud hut and in the middle is a summer hut (its open, its just a thatch roof) where the women come and cook together.

     A couple weeks ago we had a baby left of the steps of the clinic. They thought the mother was young and has traveled south for work (This is called kayayo and it is a problem in Northern Ghana. Young girls go south to sell goods off their head, often they sleep on the streets and are targets for theft and rape. Then, they cannot afford a ticket home.)

     They found the mother in a near by village, she had gone south and someone found her and put her on a bus home. She has been wandering the bush ever since, not wanting to return to her family. She is young, I saw her today, no more than 13 years old. When they got her back to her village, the family learned where the baby was and came to get it back. The baby is underweight so clinic staff said the mother and child were free to stay at the clinic, but they would not return the child without question.

     I just saw the baby, she is beautiful. Anyway, it made me think of you because I know you now have a soft spot for babies, kids and mothers. I noticed the diapers they are using, and I was wondering what you did with Zoe's old reusable ones? Because the clinic could use them for just such an occasion. I'm sure they spend so much on diapers and I talked to Matron and she said they would be appreciative.

     I am starting work next week with the women, they are taught about nutrition and how to properly care for the babies when they take them home. Peace Corps is putting on a Food Security Camp here and including the women in income generating activities like soap making, moringa powder, food storage and gardening.

Love,
Lys