Night #3: Rainy night in Accra or "Yikes, the hospital roof is leaking!"

Saturday night saw a great big thunderstorm, and let me tell you, we can use all the rain we can get. We're still experiencing a slight problem with the water levels in our hydro dam, so a little bit rain means fewer "lights off" scenarios.

Except, that the roof leaks. About midnight, right after I'd done Alex's sugar test, I could hear rain outside the window, which is normal, but could also hear it outside the door to the room, which is not normal. Because her level was too high, I had to go tell the nurse who'd have to come and give her a fast acting insulin. I open the door into the hallway, and step into a puddle of water about two inches deep, and about 10 feet in diameter. I'm so glad I had flip-flops, and not my fuzzy bunny slippers on.

This, apparently, is par for the course, as the maintenance man tells me the next morning. "We complain and complain, but no one cares... there's no money to fix it." I can't imagine this ever happening in the states. What a mess. All of the next day, there were half a dozen buckets spread along the corridor to catch the water that must have pooled on the roof.

Alexandra is excited today, because her brothers are coming to see her for the first time. They come in quietly, toting bags of milk and apples for Alex (and Diet Coke and Snickers bars for me), and lunch from a fast food restaurant at the Accra Mall... Barcelo's chicken sandwich is to die for, it is sooo juicy! Alex gets a grilled chicken drumstick and fries (chip, we call it here), and wonders where her candy, juice box and toy are? This is gonna be a hard habit to break.

Mike brings some of his toys for him and Alex to play with, and Sean brings his apron. Yes, you read that right. One of Sean's classes is sewing, and he has brought me his apron to help hem. Final exams are the following week. He's asking for help from the wrong person, let me tell you. I failed home ec in high school. Mrs. Tierney just hated me. It takes me about 90 minutes to finish the hemming (I have got to get needles with bigger eyes... it took me 5 minutes just to thread each one!). Finally, finished, it looks fairly neat and the stitches are about as crappy as Sean's, so the teacher will never know an adult helped. Ha!

While I'm playing Susie Homemaker, Sean is messing around on my laptop; he some how gets wifi (how come I couldn't?) and is quick to jump on Runescape (do all kids obsess about this game?). Then, within minutes, there's a fight for the login rights to the game.

Poor Sly had to leave, and is running the diabetes-related errands again. Today he's on a hunt for the insulin pen and cartridges. Parking is horrible in this city, so he grabs a taxi and heads for Accra Central. No luck at the doctor recommended chemist shop. No luck at three other pharmacies he tried either. But Sly got a winner of a taxi driver who tells him he knows one that might have it, so off they go to Labone. Sure enough, the place has got the pen and the cartridges. As it turns out, this shop is 2 minutes from Sly's mother's house... if Sly hadn't been trying to avoid going past the family house, he might have been there earlier, but that's neither here nor there.

By the time he gets back to the hospital, it's starting to get late, and they all need to head back home. Sly cannot drive at night, and night falls very very quickly in the tropics. Alex gets a little depressed watching them leave her behind; I know she wishes she could go home, too, but the numbers are still way too high.

When they get home, Sly calls to tell me they arrived safe and sound, and were just getting ready to eat dinner. Then he tells me that Sean ironed a hole into his apron, right on the part I just finished stitching. He was so upset, he went and hid in the bathroom for 20 minutes (at 13, he's too big to cry in front of his dad, you know how it is). Another home economics failure... must be in the genes.

Pretty soon, Alex and I are back into our regular nighttime routine of watching the Wizard of Oz, and eating sugar-free oatmeal cookies and drinking a glass of milk before bed, and then it's off to la-la land. For one of us, at least.

Once Alex falls asleep, I decide to go down to the shower and get myself ready for bed. I hear water running (unless it's my imagination, now, since I've been hearing drip drip drip all day long), and push open the door to the "amenity ward" shower, and there's a soapy naked man in there! Oops! I can only see the back of him, but I can tell it's the maintenance man. I open the door and he's apologizing. "Don't worry," I tell him, "it's more your shower than mine. Sorry." The poor guy, I probably embarrassed the hell out of him. Didn't bother me, though. Hey, if you've seen one naked black butt, you've seem 'em all.