Happy Birthday Sid! I played "Queen of the Night" in honor of you today.
CORRECTION FROM YESTERDAY: I usually run everything I learn here through Jonah, but I did not do that with the World Vision water pump fiasco. I would like to correct myself for their sake and say that I misunderstood what I was told. Though I still don’t think the office here is exactly a pillar if all that is good and holy, the World Vision people here are not the dirt bags I accused them of. I asked Jonah about it this morning as I was still irritated about it. This is what is really going on: World Vision drills the bore holes and the community is responsible for their upkeep, as stated in a proposal made by the community of Saboba before drilling even started. World Vision technically as their hands clean even though I personally think if a town is in a water crisis, they should do something.
Now for the main event...
I have been trying to think of the day I first met her, but I hardly remember my life without her. I do credit my discovery of Celine Dion to my friend Maryanne when we were just young starlets. She was my crazy friend, still my crazy friend, and we would crank Celine, sing at the top of our lungs and dance shamelessly down the hallway outside of her room. We idolized her. So beautiful and so very talented. We sewed together in 4-H and had to “model” our clothing at the Park County Fair every summer. The set up was the same every year- the same old monotone lady reading painfully boring scripts about the material used and really lame personal information about each girl. The music, better suited for an elevator specifically for old ladies on their way to church, was the same every year. The Craig girls and their blue-ribbon wool outfits that won every single year, and the stage was the same crusty old rectangle with drab curtains behind it.
Yes, we were young, but we both knew we were so above this (which is why I made a bathrobe that didn’t fit and a “jumper” with cats on it… please). This whole atmosphere really put a damper on our true talent for the stage and the current set up couldn’t possibly handle the amount of sass and va-voom we were both so capable of. We were going to launch a full-blown revolution. It was time for a runway, some lights and CELINE.
Since then, not a whole lot has changed. I am a little taller, and I do not own or will ever own again clothing with cats on it. Ugh. I still dream of the stage and Celine continues to speak to me. When know I have to clean, like really clean, I bust out Celine. As soon as I hear her voice, the broom is not a broom. OH no no no. It’s a mic stand. The appliances I’m dusting, they are the many adoring fans I reaching out for me to dust their hands with citrus Pledge.
And don’t even get me started on her Christmas music! Though Maryanne did not travel to college with me, I found another friend who shares my love of Celine and Christmas, Miss Elly B. Celine during the Christmas season is nearly more than either one can stand. It’s just too good. We played “These Are The Special Times” album on the way to practice, on the way back from practice, when we got up in the morning and every time it snowed. Glee’s Lea Michelle is a close second, but no one sings “O Holy Night” like this Celine. No one.
The woman moves me.
It was cooler last night, which means I slept until 7 this morning (yesss!), and was delighted to find that the sweat I was starting to glisten with had attracted all the dirt particles that inevitably appear on my bed. It’s super attractive.
I went to the lab is usual this morning to find Jacob there by himself. Nelson had left for Tamale to pick up some supplies, and he was so relieved to see me. I can’t remember how much I have told you about Jacob, but he is just wonderful. He helps me a lot with my Konkomba at work. I have this little moleskin book from my dear friend Shad I have him write things down for me. He loves to sing and is trying to teach me some songs. He is so sweet and laughs all the time. The harder he laughs of the more excited he gets, the higher is voice is. It is just hysterical.
Today we were swamped as we were down one, but we still managed to have one heck of a good time. I thought I heard him singing “Umbrella” by Rhianna. He looks up at me, sings a few more lines, and asks if I know that song. Yeah I know that song! Beyond amused, I asked him if knew anymore American songs, which he didn’t of the top of his head. So we jammed out to our own version of Umbrella for a while, but I was missing every other word laughing because he sings SO HIGH.
He stops and looks at me, with a test tube that has been used at least 3 times to hold blood in his hand, and says in all seriousness, “You know who I absolutely love? Celine Dion.”
He put his free had on his heart for added sincerity.
Get out.
I started shouting my excitement.
“Yes. I love her. I have every song, and I love the song about how there were nights when the wind was so cold.”
I was dying at this point. I could not believe the conversation I was having in a nasty lab in Saboba, Ghana with a high-pitched man who has barely traveled outside the Northern Region about Celine Dion!! Instantly I thought of my wild, red-headed friend Hannah who does the most convincing rendition of “It’s All Coming Back” of which I do backup vocals for. She is the kind of good that had we known each other when we were young, the revolution of the Park Country Fair “fashion” show would have been executed perfectly and pulled off without a hitch. I am laughing just thinking about her belting this out the way she does.
From that point on, we sang pretty much every song Celine has ever made. It was beautiful. There will be video footage and I am sending it to her with a note telling her that her greatness has reached the far corners of the earth. I would also thank her for inspiring me to be a better woman and giving me songs in my heart. I think we would be really great friends, and I think she will like this video so much, she would probably invite me over for dinner. Jacob would be invited of course.
There is really nothing more I have to tell you that can top that, but I will give the less important details of my day briefly anyway.
After dinner, Jonah came over to help me learn body parts so I can be more personal at the hospital. We usually have no problem communicating, but we were having trouble understanding each other tonight. I was being the methodical American and he was not getting it. I learn language through verb conjugations, and they don’t think like that here, so I am teaching him how to teach me… it was wild. We got it though, so now I can ask the old man with the skin graft how his foot is!
It was a good day, great day because of Celine, and we will have another one tomorrow. We are going to operate on a woman who had a baby a few days ago and most likely still has part of the placenta inside of her. This is will be interesting.
I am reading a book written by a nurse in the 1950’s about her time here in Saboba and I will leave you with a quote I found, much to my amusement, that I completely identify with.
“The first year you are in Africa and a fly falls into your glass of drinking water at a meal, you ask for a new glass of water. The second year you take a spoon and dip the fly out. The third year you grab that fly, squeeze him and say, ‘Spit that out!’ The fourth year you just say, ‘Protein is protein’ and keep drinking.”
If it was COLD water, I might be accused of third year status.
Perseverance produces character and character produces HOPE.
Romans 5:1-5
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