FLASHBACK - The Animals

It is amazing what simple things in life that you notice when you look long and hard enough to see them.  Every morning I wake up early.  A beautiful little rooster and his hen girlfriend have made the bushes outside of my window their little den.  When the sun is up (5:30am - no daylight savings time in Ghana), I am up too!  The rooster welcomes in the day with a big crow and alerts me that it's time to begin my routine.  Most every morning I get myself ready and go sit out on the porch step until it's time to leave for my placement.  As you watch...first a few people might happen by.  Some on their way to their shops, others hauling water, and even still some carrying wood or on their way to the market.  The children begin filing by in their uniforms ready for schools.  All smiling and generally happy to be greeted with Ndi (Good Morning!)!

Then the races begin.  The roosters all find themselves the nicest looking hens and attempt to woo them.  Up and down the road they run one after the other - the hens almost always outsmarting or out running the roosters in any case.  Next come the dogs.  The dogs here are not quite like our dogs at home.  They are markedly more independent - some with homes some just roaming the neighborhood.  Many of them have a bit smaller head and larger stature than the average dog at home.  They are usually a bit thinner, have long legs, slender bodies, and big ears to keep alert.  Truthfully, you are never really sure if they are staring at you wishing they could get closer for attention...or wondering what you might taste like.

Just before the driver pulls in to take me to placement the lizards begin emerging for the day.  They crawl out of little homes - cracks and crevices and make their way into the sun.  They dive into the moist mud created by the night's rain and find a place to hide from the busy feet of the children still passing by.  There is no other place like it.  In Ghana the animals all tend to roam much more freely than at home including the goats, sheep, and cattle that people own.  They appear to have their favorite grazing spots that they travel to almost like going to work in the mornings and then they head back home to their owner's land at night.  It's really quite simple, but simply amazing.  I still think to myself every day...it must be a good life to be a goat in Hohoe.