Melrose Place, Accra

Six months in, I'm happy to report, the decision to live in the oh-so-very-un-African Orchid Gardens (aka Melrose Place, Accra) has proven to be a good one. It's true that behind the gated walls of this 36-family enclave we are sheltered from the vast majority of the daily realities of life in Ghana. However, living inside this bubble actually makes venturing outside of it much easier. Knowing that we will return to running water (hot and cold), electricity (even if it goes off and on with a fair amount of frequency), appliances that generally work (we even have a combination washer/dryer that serves double duty as a floor washer every time we launder towels or bed linens), and for Ghana, a reasonable internet connection, makes anything that happens outside of here simply an "adventure". It's kind of like hanging out with other people's kids before you have any of your own...when the going gets too rough, you can always retreat back to your own space, sans enfants!

Anyway, the picture below, left, is taken from the playground...note the sand and the rubber tire border. The cream wall with black iron gates surrounds the swimming pool area. The veranda will be a bar at some point. (One of the residents works for the spirits division of Guiness, so they will be supplying the beverages, and will be in charge of hiring the barman and running the operation!! whoopie...add a little G&T to the Thursday afternoon playgroup with God's Willing and we'll be set!!) The next structure you see is actually our house! Or townhouse, I guess. It's actually a two family dwelling.

There are 18 such buildings scattered around the grounds. We live in the new section--which opened February 2007. The old section, which is behind the person taking the photograph, opened in August 2006. The veranda is where I teach my vinyasa yoga class on Tuesday nights. We've got the French coach (Claude) of the Black Stars (the national soccer team) living here--when his wife, Eva is in town from Paris, she comes to yoga!! Liz, the Danish consul lives here, too. But that's it for "local celebs"!

The usual suspects are:
Fuen and Miguel from Madrid/London with their 2-year-old Carmen and 5-month-old Miguel.
Lorena and Giacomo from Milan with their 8-month-old Frederico.
Amanda and ??? from South Africa with their 3-month-old boy and 5-year-old Electra (who comes knocking at my door looking for me, and questioning my nanny, Stella about my whereabouts if I'm not in!)
Johanna and ??? also from South Africa with their 5-year-old girl Rulene and 7-year-old boy, Ruen.
Lina and Annas from Denmark with their 5-month old boy and 3-year-old Anna Mia
Stefanie and Andreas also from Denmark with 1-year-old Storm and 3-year-old Thorbjoern (Tobian)
Come September, we will be re-joined by Inga and Alejandro from Peru with their 10-month old little boy.

The point of all that was just to show that while it's not exactly African -- there is one Ghanaian who lives across from me... She's a total riot! If she weren't so busy being a lawyer and being very involved in the Rotary Club, I'd definitely be spending more time with her! And a lady from Cameroon who lives on the other side of our townhouse -- but she's very stand-off-ish...must be the French!! Hee hee! Anyway, while it's not the typical Ghana experience, neither is it exactly "American" either. In fact there is only one other American couple in Orchid Gardens and they are much older, and we rarely see them because she's back in the States a lot and he's traveling for work. It's a terrific place for Chloe -- there's always someone to play with. It's a great place for me -- even if I'm feeling stuck at home, I can go outside and find any number of people who I know, and actually enjoy being with, too. I really do feel lucky because this definitely isn't the same kind of situation as the "mommies in the park" in manhattan.