MY DAY AS MARK'S GIRLFRIEND

by Casey

Day 3 of the build is over. I now fully understand why Habitat advises you to bring "bags for dirty clothes.". Honestly, I am not sure that dirty even begins to cover it. In fact, a number of our team have said that they will simply be leaving their build clothes in Ghana.

An eventful day nonetheless! I will say up front that the day turned out to be great, because the beginning looked a bit precarious. Yesterday, I contracted a bit of the proverbial Delhi Belly (I guess I have been overenthusiastic when it comes to the delicious Ghanaian food) so I was feeling pretty cruddy and incredibly tired this
morning. I finally caved at breakfast and popped one of the Cipro tabs
that every traveler keeps, and headed off to the site. I don't know how that stuff works, but it is worth its weight in gold. By lunch, I was hungry enough for some plantains and rice and felt progressively better as the day went on. In fact, Steven just called me out for skipping up the stairs at the end of the day while everyone else looked to be dragging.

Today, they switched some people up and I got to work with Steven and
his posse on their all-male (well, up until now that is!) work crew. Steven is right, their local volunteers are amazing. Mark and Vincent are like Penn and Teller. Mark never stops talking the whole day through and Vincent says about 5 words, smiling and shaking his head at Mark's antics.

Within the first ten minutes of my arrival, Mark had shot out the
first of many questions to the sole lady on the crew:

What is your name?
(Casey)

Are you married?
(No)

How old are you?
(YOU guess, Mark!)

Are you 33?
(Yes! Holy shit, how did you know that?)

What do you do as a job in America?
(I am a lawyer)

Do you put lots of criminals in jail?
(No, that's not the kind of law I do)

Silence. Because really, what do lawyers do other than put people in
jail???? The man's got a point.

So after a couple of lessons from Mark, I was slinging mortar like a pro, all the while answering more questions...

Casey, what happened to your head?
(I had an operation, because I had a cancer there)

From why do you get a cancer on your head? (Because my skin is so light, I spend too much time in the sun and my skin is not strong enough)

Oh. It's Obruni Disease.
(Pretty much, Mark)

"Obruni" is the local word for "white person.". Again, Mark's got a point. I got skin cancer because I am so, so white. I am going to start using that response "oh, I suffer from Obruni Disease" when people ask me about the scar, it will sound so much more fun.

After lunch, Mark decided that I was his girlfriend for the day. Please, everyone, don't tell Mark's wife if you ever meet her, I am no man-stealer and I bet she could kick my ass! But for the remainder of the day, when Mark wanted to find me, he would call, "where is my girrrrrlfriend? Come here, girlfriend!".

We agreed at the end of the day that it was not meant to be, mostly because of the following:

Casey, when will you get married?
(When I find the perfect husband)

What does he need to be?
(Rich, and .... no, just rich)

But if you work, and he work, who will take care of your children?
(Maybe he can not work and he takes care of the children)

Oh, no, Casey, that cannot be.
(Maybe my sister or my mother?)

Much better. How many children do you want?
(I think one)

No! This is too few!
(Well, Mark, how many do YOU want?)

I want two. No more.

He already has a son, who is 17 months old and named Julius, so he is
halfway there. He now wants a daughter, which makes some sense in a matrilineal culture like Ghana.

So that's a day in the life of being Mark's girlfriend. I did not agree to take him with me when I go back to the US, but I did agree that we should take a picture together before I go. You know, because that's what girlfriends do.

(Oh, and we also met the chief of the village, drank some cheap ceremonial gin, and went through the weekly market ... but honestly, none of it held a candle to my day as Mark's girlfriend)