Keep the Coffee Comimg

The morning is dark. Sometime earlier it rained, and more rain is expected. The breeze is strong, maybe even a wind at times. The AC is on, my attempt to beat the humidity. I started my day cleaning up after Henry. He got spooked and knocked over a full water dish in the kitchen. My pant legs got wet as did some jars and cutting boards, but the floor does look good, as if I washed it. The paws prints are gone.

I have no plans for today. Outside does not look inviting. Besides, the roads will be filled with bored vacationers looking for amusement.

This is the rainy season in Ghana. It rains just about every day. Everything is green. The fields are filled with corn and millet plants so high you can’t see over them. Nothing stops in the rain. It is just a regular part of the day. The bugs return. In my living room, I had a naked light bulb hanging on a wire from the ceiling. It was ugly so I bought a basket in the market and made a sort of lampshade for the bulb, relying, of course, on my extensive interior decorating skills. On the floor below the basket was a circle of light, the circumference of the basket. At the end of every night, the circle was black, filled with bugs attracted to the light, to their own demise. I started taking my anti-malarial pills again. I had stopped taking them in the bug-less dry season, but I didn’t want to court malaria so I choked down the gross tasting Aralen, an antimalarial pill.

Most of the rainy season was during the school holiday, sort of Ghana’s version of summer vacation. l traveled. First I’d take the bus to Kumasi, visit friends then take the train to Accra. I always stayed at the Peace Corps hostel in Accra, a whole 50 pesewas (think cents) for bed and breakfast. I also got to catch up with friends, some I hadn’t seen since training. Usually I went to Togo where I binged on French pastry, sorbet, lobster and biftecks with frites, steak and potatoes in English. I shopped at the grand marché, the huge market in Lomé, the capital of Togo. I always thought that made me a world traveler.

Every time I have returned to Ghana it has been during the rainy season. The fields are filled. The rain is heavy at times with thunder and lightning adding a bit of drama. I’d sit outside at the hotel restaurant at a table under a thatched roof, have dinner and watch the rain. Nothing stops in the rain.

Last night’s activities were ugly. Nala, of course, was at the heart of them. It was late, around 12:30. The dogs were out for a jaunt. Suddenly, I could smell skunk, and the odor was close enough that my eyes burned. Fearing the worst, I called the dogs. Henry came back inside. Nala didn’t. Right away I was suspicious. I yelled and offered a treat. Usually the word treat has her running at breakneck speed into the house, but no Nala. I went outside to check. She was playing with something white. I could smell skunk even worse. I came inside and hunted down my Nature’s Miracle Skunk Smell Remover. Nala came in, and I checked her, the old sniff method. I wasn’t sure if I was smelling the dog or the house, but I doused her in Nature’s Miracle anyway. She ran out the door before I could grab her. When she came back inside, I doused her again. This morning I checked the yard before I let out the dogs. I saw nothing skunk-like. The dogs went out. Nala appeared a bit later through the dog door with fur in her mouth, white fur with black tips. It smelled of skunk. I shooed her outside. She came back in without the fur. I doused her again. She is now napping. There is a faint odor of skunk coming from outside so I shut the windows and turned on the AC. Later I will dispose of the fur. I do wonder where the rest of the skunk is.

I am hunkered down in the house and am cool and comfortable. The larder is filled. I shopped a bit yesterday for the cat and me. I bought groceries and a Snickers. The Snickers is gone.

When I was a kid, I loved penny candy. Granted the price was right, but even better was the variety. I had favorites. The fireball was among them. It was a challenge to eat the whole ball without taking it out of your mouth when it got really hot. Root beer barrels tasted great and lasted a while if you didn’t crunch. Mary Jane’s were chewy. They tasted of peanut butter and molasses. Bonomo Turkish Taffy came in several flavors. Chocolate and banana were my favorites. We used to buy candy cigarettes and pretend to smoke them. I liked spearmint and orange jelly candies. That they were coated in sugar was a plus. You could buy straws with flavored powder inside, wax bottles with colored liquid, Banana Splits, a yellow hard candy, colored buttons on paper and not eating the paper was key and Squirrel Nut Zippers, another favorite of mine. I remember jars and jars filled with penny candy. There were so many more choices it took a while to spend a penny let alone the wealth of a nickel.