Four walls and a roof

Tomorrow morning at the break of dawn (literally), Collin and I will head out with Chloe Bear in tow to Denver where we will catch a flight out to Philadelphia. We are on our way to stay with PJ for three weeks in Stone Harbor, NJ!

Both PJ and I have crazy busy summers planned, with me trying to finish my dissertation and him working at the Wetlands Institute. We will be living in cramped quarters for three weeks with The Baby Cat and Chloe Bear, which should be interesting and it will be good preparation for the first couple of stressful months after we arrive in Ghana. Collin will turn the big 12-years-old whilst we are in New Jersey, so we will have to think of something fun to do that day. He is really excited to see more turtles and he wants to go to New York City. I also think it will be loads of fun to see what PJ does all day at the Institute. I will have to spend much of my time writing a lot unfortunately.


Most importantly, this is a good opportunity for us to research more of the logistics, especially finding a home, regarding our upcoming move to Ghana. For example, will we be able to find a place that accommodates all of our goats and sheep? Will they be kept inside or outside? Should we opt for a thatched roof and four walls, or a tin roof and three walls (a bit more air movement, but tin roofs can be a bit on the hot side)?

Actually, and on a more serious note, we have found a good web site where we have been able to find rental houses in Accra. When we were considering a move to South Carolina, PJ and I went on a house hunt and found that we have the same interests in housing, which was really great. I think PJ has a much better knack for looking at houses than I do, however, and I am certainly glad for that. What I like most about houses in Africa is that generally they do not have carpets. I detest carpets. They get dusty and hide dirt and are breeding grounds for all things allergy! Instead, most houses have tiled floors, which are easy to keep clean and cool to walk across on hot days.

After we arrive in Ghana, we will have three weeks of paid temporary housing and meals. That should be enough time for us to find a rental house in the city. We have received some advice on where to look from the previous post-doc. We have several factors to keep in mind while we are looking:

• We want a place close to IWMI.
• We want a place that is also close to Collin's school, which we understand to be close to IWMI.
• We don't want to put in much money above the $600 per month housing allowance.

It may seem that Ghana, as a Third World Country is cheap. In many regards this is true, but not so much if you are an expatriate living there. For example, running water and electricity are considered luxuries in many Third World Countries, and they can be quite expensive due to lacking infrastructure. Another significant factor is that in major cities, such as Accra, there are many large NGO's such as the UN, USAID, GTZ, AUSAID, and on and on ... working. Their top people make big money (well over 6 figure salaries). Postdoctoral scientists, junior research scientists, run of the mill development workers, and locals, however, do not. From an economic standpoint, this means that housing and living expenses in expat communities are often inflated beyond what is reasonable. For example, as you will see on the link above, many houses cost more than $2,000.00 per month to rent. We, on the other hand, only have $600 per month for our housing allowance.

OK, now, do not fret or sound the alarm wondering what are PJ and TJ going to do?!

Factors to consider:

• As recent grad students, we relish poverty (OK, maybe we don't relish it, but we have no clue that it could be any different for us just yet).
• PJ and TJ aren't "Ugly Americans" (e.g., we aren't looking to experience another country from inside a community that mimics our own back home).
• Middle class Ghanaians - which is who we will live among in our neighborhood - are pretty much like middle class people at home: they have jobs (teachers, doctors, shop keepers, bankers, business people), families, cars, too many TVs and satellite dishes, mobile phones, PDAs, go away on weekends to the beach, attend churches, have family picnics, etc.

As I mentioned above, we received some advice from the post-doc that I am replacing. She and her significant other moved to Accra from France in 2005 for her two-year IWMI post-doc. They lived in a couple of different neighborhoods and were able to give us feedback about where to live on our budget. They felt the most important factor was living as close as possible to IWMI. Their initial home was a bit too far away and the traffic in the city coupled with high fuel costs (in the US we are generally blessed with cheap fuel compared to the rest of the world) were problematic after a while. They eventually found a house close to IWMI. We will begin our hunt in the neighborhoods they suggested. They were able to find a place for $600.00 per month for three (they had a baby while they were living there). They liked where they lived and felt security was a non-issue. Even when they went away on weekends, they left their home unattended, which is something I would never do in Kenya!

Here are a few examples of houses in the $500 - $600 range that would suit us well we think; though, none of these places are likely to still be available when we arrive. They do give us an idea of what is available and what factors we will be considering.

$500 Range
This house is in a good location with respect to distance to services and work. It also has a large water storage tank. Remember, we may not always have access to running piped water every day, so extra water storage is critical. Also, we may only have water tank storage rather than piped water in some instances. In Kenya, even with piped water, the water generally only was available in my apartment during certain hours each day ... not around the clock, and there were several times where the water would simply stop running from the tap for a few days.

Now, this place has a special selling point for PJ ... INTERNETS! I think from the pics it is a nice little place and the neighborhood looks kinda cute.

I am especially fond of the pink color of this beauty. It will go well with PJ's and Collin's "My Little Pony" collections. Boys and their toys ... sheesh!



$600 Range
Furnished or unfurnished, that is the question. This home can be rented as furnished for $900 per month. But, given that we will have a furniture allowance ($6,000), we could consider such a place unfurnished and buy our own stuff.

$700 Range
This house is a bit pricey and we would unlikely be able to afford such a place at the start. We don't want to pour all of our money into our housing because we would prefer to have a nicer car and be able to get out and about in the country rather than spend all our money on rent. Priorities!

Speaking of cars ... that is another challenging topic that we will begin deliberating soon! Upcoming topics for our moving preparations will include: Collin's schooling, buying a car, moving pets, and what do we really need to take (besides soap).

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