http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=it%27s+a+small+world+song&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=8F6C3FCC96CF05420E998F6C3FCC96CF05420E99
I woke up this morning to an email from a friend of Michael’s in Korea, telling me that a friend of his was at the same conference as I was, and that I should greet him. It turns out that he was at the conference to win an award for the library that he runs, in rural Kenya. He had been teaching English in Korea, and when he went home to Kenya, he didn’t get a teaching job so he got a job in a library instead. His library is in the same region as Ndwara but has a distinct advantage in that it has electricity.
The conference continues: the place we are staying is very like a dormitory, with food to match. The food is good but we’ve had the same thing every day since I got here. It is cheap though: $78 USD a day including three meals. It’s quite remote, and set in the middle of a large campus, next to the equally large University of Ghana campus so there is no way to escape without taking a taxi. We are pretty much busy from breakfast to bedtime though, so there isn’t really time to escape anyway.
In Ghana, it is common to get fabric made for special groups or associations. Each university has its own fabric, the Ghana Library Association has its own fabric, and schools have their own fabric. AfLIA (The African Library and Information Association), the hosts of this conference, had fabric printed and were selling it as a fund raiser. They also brought tailors to the conference centre to make up the fabric. I ordered a skirt, and the guy promised it would be here today (Tuesday) since I’m leaving on Wednesday. It’s bedtime Tuesday and still no skirt.