February 14, 2001
Here's Tomas Krag, birthday boy, in the middle, with a personalized woven kente birthday banner. I'm not sure who the person on the left is, but the one on the right is Ally, a very nice American who is in Ghana doing an independent project involving women's organizations. She knew Ethan back in the States, which is how she came to our doorstep. She's been a kind of honorary geek since then, which is nice for me; she helps even out the gender imbalance of the group to 7-2!

The party was a great success. There was some worry whether we would be able to get enough beer. It's actually trickier than you might think. Beer (and other drinks) come in deposit bottles. Normally, in order to get a case of beer, you have to bring a case of empty bottles. The snag is getting the empty bottles to begin with, if you haven't bought beer before. But some local friends, including our Geekcorps receptionist, Gladys, managed to pull a few strings and procure bottles for us. We actually had beer leftover!

Beer is usually served in these enormous .6 liter bottles. Ghanaian society seems to break down into two camps: Star and Club, the two most popular beers. I think they both taste like Old Milwaukee, so I don't drink much.

Our most surprising guest was a guy named Hans, who turned out to be Danish (like our Tomas). He read about Geekcorps on a self-proclaimed web site for nerds, SlashDot, and clicked through to our Geekhalla site, where Tomas had posted an invitation and directions. A Danish guy, who happens to be living in Accra, sees an American site that links to another site based in Accra, which has an invitation to a party from another Danish guy. The world seemed very small at that moment....

The next day was Sunday. We mostly hung around and recuperated, though some hardier souls went to church. Babak and Jason actually visited a Christian/Moslem church/mosque, which they reported to be quite an experience. Babak has many, many photos posted on his site. (He is the best photographer among us, so I recommend it.) Tim spent four hours with Rose, our incomparable housekeeper. Here she is in her Sunday clothes.

Rose is what makes Geekhalla tick. She feeds us breakfast, she keeps our rooms clean, she washes and irons our laundry, and generally keeps an eye on us. Those who know me well will not be surprised when I say that I have clothes that have *never* been ironed until I came to Ghana. (Actually, I think the ironing is important for killing any parasites that might invade our clothes while they hang outside. Until I found that out, I was tempted to tell Rose not to bother ironing my T-shirts.) Some of the guys say their favorite thing about Ghana is having someone else do your laundry. Apparently geeks scam as many t-shirts at as many trade shows as they can get to in order to avoid having to do wash. As for me, doing my own laundry myself is one of the things I will appreciate a lot better when I get back home.

If it weren't for Rose (and her helper, Richard), Geekhalla would have a much less homey ambience. It would also probably look like it was struck by a tornado...
In addition to all the interesting and fun things I've done, I also had a very disturbing experience this week. While walking home about 8 p.m. on Monday, some guys in a car managed to surprise me and grab my purse while driving away. I had heard about this routine, and I never kept anything valuable in my purse. But this took place right near Geekhalla on a street that's blocked off by the American Embassy building. These guys had been following me, turned down my street as I headed that way, and then made a three-point turn. I just assumed that they were lost, and hadn't realized that our street was not a throughstreet. Anyway, they managed to get my purse, which was slung across my chest, without dragging me along with them, something that has happened to other women who have been badly injured.

There were some people in an outdoor bar who didn't realized what happened until the guys got away. They were very angry, nearly running off to see if they could catch the guys. I have heard that the proscription against theft is so strong here, that a pickpocket or other thief could be seriously injured by a crowd of people if caught. While I would have liked to see those guys be caught, I would not have wanted to see them attacked, so it's probably just as well that they got away. Nigerians are commonly blamed for this kind of crime; Nigeria is in a lot of turmoil, and the enterprising young criminals depart for a place like Ghana, which is relatively unpoliced.

I feel lucky that I wasn't hurt at all, that I didn't have any credit cards or passport with me, and that I only had about $10 in cash. The saddest thing was my family snapshots, which I had in there, but those can be replaced, of course. I have never been mugged before, so that in itself was a bit traumatic.

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