A campus walkabout part II

 Every day around 5:00pm a gecko appears from behind the curtain at the front of my office and heads toward the window behind me. I suspect an exit point is hidden somewhere around my air conditioner. Sometimes the gecko brings a friend and the two scamper back and forth, emerging and then discovering I am present and hiding, dashing across open spaces, forgetting I'm there and chasing each other, remembering I'm there and hiding again.

I've also had a gecko or two in my Guest Centre room, and now in the mornings I often startle a gecko who's avoiding the morning sun by hanging out between the screen and the shutter of the bathroom window. 

I don't mind the geckos, and have cohabitated with them in Cuba and Cambodia. And so far, they are the only reptiles who have moved in or passed through. But there are lizards about campus. Here is my favourite:

There are other animals on campus beside reptiles and birds. Mostly dogs, although I did see a cat coming out of a gutter the other day. It, not me, was coming out of the gutter. Most of the dogs are small dingo-like things. They are not aggressive, seem shy, and certainly aren't rabid. (At my visit to the public health nurse in Canada she urged me, in the face of the unknown, to take an expensive pre-exposure rabies treatment. I declined, and I think an occupational hazard of public health nurses would be the risk of becoming an alarmist. All day long they just look up destinations in The Big Book Of Horrible Things That Can Happen to You When You Travel. There was never any mention of a prophylactic against falling in gutters.)

The dog on the left is typical of the wild dogs that roam about on campus. The two on the right, best bet feasting on jollop rice and chicken bones, belong to one of the bungalows. My post about bungalows identified one with a pair of dogs in the front yard. That's these two and the owner seems to let them wander about campus. All the dogs are neither friendly nor threatening.

This is the view across the street from the Philosophy Department. You are looking at Legon Hall, one of the campus residences. There are five halls on campus, all laid out around a huge inner quadrangle, though several now have high rises near the original structures. This is the west side of the quad, from the outside. On the left and right, each rectangle in the second story is a terrace for a dorm room and each room houses four students in two bunk beds. Through the arches on the right is a help desk, a very small tuck shop, and an internet cafe. Beyond is the main entrance into the quad.

Housed in the quad is access to the original residence dining hall. At one time the university seems to have fed everyone on a set regimen of meals and times. Those days are over and now the Legon dining hall is a sleepy affair, made smaller with a partition for a study room, but containing the original dais at one end with a long table spanning the room that faculty are still expected to eat at, overlooking the lowly students. I dined once here, on a spicy plate of red red — beans and fish with fried plantain, both cooked in palm oil which gives the dish its name.

This and the other quads now contain independent food vendors. In Legon Hall is Tyme Out, serving Africanized Chinese food, pricey but with vegetarian options. Ralf and I often eat here on Tuesdays, enjoying a bottle of Castle Milk Stout and complaining about the abysmal service. Down the road in Akuafo Hall is Taco Bell (no relation). We can't decide if this ever served Mexican or Latin American food, but at present it offers straight Ghanaian fair, at much better prices than Tyme Out, but the Legon spot provides a respite from Ghanaian food. Another difference is Tyme Out has more of a bad boy, nightlife feel to it. It is open late, has a huge stereo system (rarely put to good use), and a small pool table. Taco Bell closes up as a restaurant on Sundays and becomes a Pentacostal church. A third Hall has a pharmacy in its quad but no restaurant that I noticed and I've not yet ventured into the others. As an aside, Ghana's Castle stout has lactose added "to make it creamy." It doesn't make it worse.

Here are two views of Volta Hall, the only all girls hall. Contrast this with Commonwealth Hall, an all male hall that for decades has proudly referred to its members as the Vandals.

  

I can see the Balme Library clock tower from my office. I haven't spent much time in the library. As a place to hang out and just do reading it lacks in a few key areas. It has no air conditioning, no screens on the windows and it is musty. None of this is good for the patrons, nor is it good for the books. Also, the holdings peter out around 1975. Although, the University has been aggressively buying in the last two years. I've yet to receive my faculty card so can't yet check out books. I'm hoping my card comes before I retire. 

But the building is charming and the mosquito breeding pond in front of it quite lovely. Actually, I don't know that the pond isn't stocked with fish.

To be continued....