On the road again

Well, that was short.

I've moved back to the Guest Centre. And left behind my roommate from hell.

When the U asked if I would share accommodations with another new faculty member I agreed. When I told Anna-Marie she asked if I had even met him. My reply, the words I now eat: "How bad can he be?" And this I said in full knowledge that academics can be an odd lot.

But I was unprepared for the level of how bad they can be. The trail of filth I was prepared to suffer through for a few months. Even the odd behaviour. But cruelty (in part through a solopsistic insensitivity) had me begging to leave.

Things in Ghana can move very slowly, but this happened very fast.

I cried uncle on Friday and was moving on Tuesday, which was pretty amazing when you consider the person in charge was at a retreat on the Friday and in meetings all day Monday.

Ralf and I gathered a couple of the department's National Service students and loaded up his truck. I still don't have a lot, but I have acquired a fridge. Since they put me back in my old room in the Guest Centre (second floor, rear and has a small fridge), and I'm only here for six more weeks, I opted to put the fridge in my office. So my office now has, in addition to my small beer fridge, a giant beer fridge.

The first morning, waking in my old bed at the Centre, was like awakening from a bad dream.

By the way, it's a lovely fridge. 

Ralf insisted I should get a good German fridge (he's German): well-built and reliable. I was not sure I could budget for more than an inferior (at least in his view) Korean or Chinese fridge. But he drove me down to the Bosch store, where I quickly veered away from the Ghana Cedi 3000 (about $2000) fridges, to a more modest one in the corner, under the stairs (the Charlie-Brown-Christmas-tree fridge).

Even this was not as cheap as the east Asian options, but Ralf and I tag-teemed the negotiating and did very well. At one point the sales clerk showed us the wholesale price from their books to assure us he could not go below that price. After twenty minutes and failing to reach my target price, we left the store. Only, as is so typical, to be called back with a counter offer, below the wholesale price.

The impossible low price was based on Ralf pointing out earlier we were from the university and there would be more purchases from us and our colleagues (on our recommendation) if things went well today. Negotiating is quite foreign to me, but I feel we did well. I went up 1 Cedi from my hoped for price and the store came down 250 Cedi.

Once I got it home and wrapped a blanket around its base, it perked right up. Actually, it is an excellent fridge, if somewhat unassuming.

Of course, now it will sit unplugged in my office until our return in August.