Adiebeba Neighborhood – It’s not just a home, it’s an adventure!
AHODWO ROUNDABOUT AND MARKET
How fitting that we moved just south of the Ahodwo roundabout which sports a statue of a rearing horse. This is the market where we buy most of our produce. We can count on onions, peppers, mangoes, melons, chayote, carrots, cabbage, garlic and potatoes and depending on the day have also seen oyster mushrooms, chard, purple eggplant and cauliflower.
WATER SECURITY
Most homes have a water tank on the roof which fills up when the city water is flowing and provides water for when it is not. And most homes also are surrounded by concrete topped with razor wire. Our house is no exception.
LIFE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OUR WALLS
An agama lizard hangs out on the concrete pad inside our compound while a goat on the street outside pauses to watch the activities of two young children.
BIRD TREE
These two trees next door are serious bird habitat. Here’s a picture of a pair of Woodland Kingfishers perched on a bare branch.
NEIGHBORS
Our home is flanked with the crumbled structures of previous homes. Our neighbors are industrious and happy, doing what people do – raising children, animals and food, cooking, eating, making home improvements and socializing. Although both neighbors are growing bananas, we’ve dubbed the home to the North the Banana Ruins and the home to the South, the Shanty Ruins. The folks at the Shanty Ruins are from Burkina, repair bicycles and speak French but not English. The Banana people have recently moved in with a small child who has a toy which plays Jingle Bells.
VIEWS TO THE EAST
Shipping containers and a new mosque. We’re a little apprehensive about the mosque because we expect their Iman will soon be joining the other spiritual leaders within earshot in broadcasting prayers at 3am. Not only does this wake us from sound sleep but it also wakes the Shanty rooster who, confused, crows for another five minutes after the loudspeakers grow silent.
OOPSY!
When Jeremy and Lauren arrived home on July 7th they saw this wreck where a taxi (notice the yellow quarter panels) had smashed into the wall of the house on the corner of Dr. J. G. Wood Lane and F. F. Antoh after jumping the open drainage ditch. We speculated about what actually happened. There were no skid marks leading us to speculate that this was either a steering linkage failure or a cell phone accident. There was minimal damage to the taxi which showed us how fragile our compound walls actually are. The wall was rebuilt within two days using cinder blocks and concrete mixed on the street. No rebar was involved in the reconstruction of this home’s security system.
____________________________________________________________