2013 How about that

A truly wicked mouse trap. (probably good for removing
small fingers too.)

My roommate died yesterday.  When I first met him three weeks ago I thought he might be lizard.  He skittered out of a cardboard box that I use to keep my suitcases so fast I couldn’t really know.  Lizards I don’t mind because they eat insects, but mice are another story. But I would hear him at night and I could see clearly this was the mouse. I don’t know why this mouse stayed, because I don't keep food in my room.  I asked Esther, my neighbor, about mouse traps and she suggested poison bait.  I’m not fond of poison because often the first sign that it worked is the smell. (If I were poisoned I would definitely hide under my bed because I would be impossible to find.  My revenge would be sweet.)  New Years Eve I went to every hardware stall in taxi market and finally found one.  It's probably the cruelest mousetrap that I’ve ever seen-all sheet metal with jagged edges where the trap springs closed.

"Please scratch a little close to me ears, and I'll tell you what
I eat for dinner, honey"
The hotel keeps these crocs in their pond,
but they charge an extra 3 G to take your picture beside
one.  I didn't pay because this is not me.

New Years Eve I set that trap with a small bit of porridge on the spring.  In the morning the porridge was gone, and the trap was still set.  I reserved a crust of my egg sandwich and adjusted the trap so that it barely held in place.  My roommate actually climbed on my desk to watch me assemble this work of darkness, seeming to ask for a sample of the crust in advance.  It was almost like he wanted to make a deal and become a partner.   But fearful that he might want to include his extended family (extended families tend to be huge here in Ghana), I carefully slid the trap behind a box where my neighbor’s two year old would not discover it. I scattered a few crumbs around it and rode my bicycle to Bogware. When I returned the crumbs were gone and so was the mouse–for good.  

One of seven suspensions about 30 or 40 meters above the ground
with one quick exit after the 3rd bridge for any bothered by the
height.  You don't see much wildlife from here because of all us
noisy patrons.  Park rangers offer ground tours where you actually
 have a chance of seeing some wildlife.

Such is life during the term break.  I did travel for the first time since I started teaching in the Ashanti district, by riding to Cape Coast in the Central district  on the day after Christmas where I petted a crocodile and took the canopy walk in Kakum Park. 2013 seems to have arrived as has the Harmattan. The sky is cloudless and the haze from a 1000 smoking taxis, 1000 trash fire accumulates and stings the eyes.  The nights are cold enough to require a cover and a jacket if you happen to go out in it.  I’m looking at the start of Term 2 with that kind of nervous excitement and a hundred ideas how I might improve things and a hope that at least some of them work.