Last night was clear and wonderfully breezy and cool. The insects were singing, and I could hear a bird. The dogs were active. Henry jumped off the couch a few times and ran to the door. Nala followed. I don’t think she knew why, but she was willing to back Henry. Both of them barked for a bit then went back to the couch.

Today is sunny and warm, already 79°. It is a quiet day. Thursday seems to be an insignificant day. It just blends into the rest of the week. I do have a dentist appointment later, just a cleaning, but I don’t think it gives Thursday any prominence.

When I was a kid, I never went to the dentist unless I had a tooth ache. The visit always started with me biting on the red tab which then covered the spots on my teeth where I wasn’t brushing well. A brushing demonstration from the dentist usually followed. I liked my dentist as he always used gas. I remember the mask on my face. I remember the weird smell. I could hear muted voices, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. When I was brought back from oblivion, I was glad I had missed it all.

Before I went to Ghana, I had to have a dental exam and have any teeth needing attention fixed. I found a dentist in Lawrence. My father said he’d pay the whole bill because I had rotted my teeth on his time, but forever after, it was on me. It took a few visits. The only thing we didn’t have time for was a tooth cleaning. He didn’t use gas, but I survived.

School started this week. I followed a bus which seemed to stop at every street. Little kids got off. Their parents were sitting in cars or standing on corners waiting. I remember my first day of school. My mother walked me to school. She had my two sisters in tow and pushed a carriage. The walk to school was easy. Most of it was a straightaway. After that first day, I walked with some neighborhood friends. I never got lost.

On my first day of school in Ghana, I was nervous. The walk to the school compound took maybe 3 minutes. My house was right by the back gate. Each class had 35 students. They sat at tables for two. The windows and doors were free of glass or screens. Occasionally a goat dropped by to visit. The bathroom was across the compound. A student would raise her hand and tell me she needed to urinate. Outside my classroom were bushes. One time my students were throwing rocks at the bushes. I wondered why. Come to find out, they were trying to kill a snake. I got through my first day, but at the end of the first lesson, a student raised her hand and said, “We didn’t hear you, madam.” They didn’t understand my English. Theirs was a sort of British English. Mine was pure American. I needed to learn to speak Ghanaian English. It took a while.

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