Anyway…

The dentist she got on a referral from the US Embassy is a Lebanese fellow, first name of Jihad.

Now I have to send a wire transfer to the bank of Dr. Jihad in Lebanon.

Should I be worried?

NSA, if you are listening. It’s just a broken tooth!

The house is somewhat stripped. The hot water heaters and air conditioners have mostly been stolen. The toilets are beyond all hope of cleaning. One of the door frames has been eaten by termites. There is a leak in the roof over the kitchen and the kitchen cabinets are infested with a thick white mold that will never come out. Two of the three copper wires that connect the house to the electric grid have been stolen. Etc, etc.

By force of will, we arranged for the electricity to be re-connected this afternoon. We have a carpenter building a whole new kitchen, a large book shelf and built-in wardrobes in the closets.

Making life interesting, the monsoon rains have started. On any given day, there might be torrential downpours. After the rain stops there are frogs and birds everywhere feasting on the bugs that come out. There are also giant snails which leave their daytime hiding places.

It reads:

Free Puppies

100% Pure-bred Village Dogs

• Friendly with children
• Superior guard dogs
• Good hunting dogs (grass cutters, palm rats)

Grass cutters are Greater Cane Rats which grow to be about two feet long and up to about 20 pounds.

I think the poster is only being slightly facetious about the puppies being pure-bred. In Accra, it is difficult to get a pure village-type dog. A lot of the dogs here are noticeably mixed with European breeds like German Shepherd, Rottweiler, Doberman Pinscher, Labradors, Beagles and Terriers.

The unadulterated local dogs are more like a giant Basenji or Azawakh-Basenji cross. I would expect that in the Hausa region in the north of Ghana as you enter the Sahel and approach Burkina Faso border, the local dogs are likely indistinguishable from Azawakh.

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.

These dogs are going to love it in the tropics.

Azelouan was curious.

Tawzalt was horrified.

If you haven’t heard of Robert Sapolsky and have any interest in Evolutionay Biology, Human Origins, Animal Behavior, life in the African bush or the effect of stress on people and animals run out and get a copy of A Primate’s Memoir: A Neuroscientist’s Unconventional Life Among the Baboons.

Actually, you should read the book and then do the radio show because the interview with Robert Sapolsky gives away the wrenching ending to A Primate’s Memoir. Anyone who has read this book – you must listen to this show. There is an incredibly uplifting revelation about how things have worked out for Sapolsky’s baboon troupe.

The 3rd segment is about the Balyaev fox breeding experiments where Dr. Balyaev bred tame foxes in 10 generations and how that changed the animals.

Direct link to download the RadioLab MP3 podcast.