Our new house (probably)
May 11, 2010
I believe we have managed to negotiate a lease for a house in Accra. The real estate market here is INSANE. Monthly rents are at the same level or higher than in DC and are paid one or two years IN ADVANCE!
For that money you get a stripped house with no appliances or hot water heaters or air conditioners. You further may not have working plumbing or electricity. You need to also get a generator because the power is quite unreliable and finally you need a giant water tank because city water service goes out for weeks at a time. Furthermore, leases are very favorable to the landlord. Standard terms are that the tenant is responsible for making repairs to the property.
It is really quite amazing. Of course, this real estate boom may be related somewhat to the relatively recent discovery of oil offshore.
Anyway, we have found a place that we can make nice. It has one very, very awesome feature. It has is on a 1.5 acre plot within a 10 foot wall. There is a tropical garden and some very old trees that are perhaps 5 stories tall.
And there are frogs.
Aidi wan n'Eezel: the loyal azawakh 
May 12, 2010 at 9:14 am
Hi Brian, House looks beautiful. I hope you all will be really happy there. How are the girls and Christy doing? Obviously from David Moore’s blog the dogs are doing fine!
Hope to hear from you all soon.
Deb
May 12, 2010 at 10:08 am
Hi Deb!
The girls are doing well and really enjoy their new school. Not too much sadness over their friends in DC, yet. Christie loves her job as well, which is great. We are currently living in a temporary apartment which is OK but there is not much place for anyone to play, except there is a swimming pool. Fortunately the girls get a ton of exercise at school which is a huge place.
The dogs are doing well. Except that we had a moment of drama about 10 days after we arrived.
Someone at the
AlgerianAngolan Ambassador’s residence decided that it was a good idea to exercise his three German Shepherd security dogs out on the street off lead. By bad fortune this happened at a time when I was walking my two dogs on-lead. The three German Shepherds were not under control and attacked us. Zel got away with two small puncture wounds. I had scratches on my arms and back but no bite wounds. Tawzalt got the worst of it with some puncture wounds on her neck and back and a large laceration on her leg.After I got them home, I had to find a qualified vet in Accra to stitch Tawzalt back together. At the time, we didn’t have a vehicle and I had only just gotten a phone.
In that photo of Tawzalt lying on top of Zel, you can just make out a white spot on her back which was a puncture wound and her right rear leg is kinda purple which is from the Gentian Violet + Oxytetracycline antibiotic spray (from Holland) I had to apply twice daily to her wound.
It worked out OK, though, and Tawzalt is doing great now, though she tore the stitches out once so it took a while to heal. As a result of this I now have a relationship with the president of the Ghana Veterinary Association who took care of Tawzalt.
The price for veterinary care is much lower here than in DC. House call for the original urgent care, two rounds of stitches, full course of antibiotics (penicillin by injection), antibiotic spray and removal of sutures which came to a total of maybe 6 or 7 office visits cost a grand total of GH¢60 (Ghana Cedis) or US$42. I actually only had to pay for the first visit. The fee covered the entire course of treatment.
PS
Gentian Violet is extraordinarily messy. You get purple stains on everything.
PPS
Oxyclean will get Gentian Violet stains out of your bed sheets.